Right about when the evening Sun was about to set, people of the nameless town were fighting a battle against an untimely monster tide. Fire was reigning everywhere, ice protruded through the hard ground. At the periphery of the border that separated the southern forest and human settlement countless monsters lay dead.
One third of them were already neutralised but the remaining were marching forward. Not paying any attention to the cold-gone corpses of their fallen kin.
Sophia, backed by her husband, continued to march inside the monster tide to save her son from the worst fate possible.
She made ice pierce through the thick hide of the enemy. Her long ice-spear never wavered even if she was exhausting herself by simultaneously casting the spells left and right.
Using elemental magic according to one's will comes at a price after all. Every second a caster spent on using a spell made them subject to echoes. Echoes were wills of the elements, which were like suppressed states of consciousness that could do serious potential harm to the caster.
For mages with a core element though, strain of echoes wasn't as severe as an ambivalent person have to suffer. While prior could only encounter mild effects like mental fatigue, the latter however could very well go insane under the pressure.
That was the advantage of having a core element. Or so to say, the disadvantage of being an ambivalent.
Finally Sophia had reached the last line which led to the center of the monster tide. Because the number of monsters from here was bound to increase as well as the viciousness in their nature was also expected to be high from here and out— Sophia knew the fact that the strong ones forced the weak to stand at the front so that they could use them as meat shields.
Therefore, she was prepared to face the stronger opponents from here. She had to save her son after all.
But the visuals she never even imagined were before her very eyes in the next moment.
For a great amount of distance, there were no monsters, vicious or not. On the ground however, lay several corpses. Lifeless.
The place was covered with many puddles of dark-crimson blood. Countless of cleanly severed body parts lay motionlessly on the ground. Mucus was still pouring out of the insides of abominations. Blood seeping through the cracks of their wounds.
From the brutality of the place one could think that this was the doing of another strong monster. Only it wasn't. Because standing in the middle of the blood soaked battlefield was a boy of not more than ten to twelve years old.
From head to toe, bathed in blood.
Sophia wanted to say something, or did she? At the moment her eyes took a hold of this horrifying sight she was confused. Her mind was flooded with mixed emotions. Her thoughts were full of contradictions.
She opened her mouth to say something, before she could, however August shook the thick crimson blood off his dark blade. At the next moment he was already lunging at another abomination.
— — —
He cut off the legs of one creature, causing it to stagger and fall helplessly on the ground. Pierced the other with the sharp tip of his blade and severed another one in half by a powerful downward slash.
His moves were terrifyingly cruel but obeyed the gracefulness of a well put swordstyle at the same time. The monsters on this side of the tide were supposed to be more vicious and dangerous but the dark blade of Fallen Star never wavered, never faltered.
If anything, it remained as sharp as ever, severing the grotesque monstrosities like a blood thirsty weapon of mass destruction. The darkness its black blade embraced normally had changed the colour to blood red due to the constantly running blood on its surface.
Right at the moment, August had killed another abomination ruthlessly. Carrying a cold indifference on his face, he continued the slaughter.
"KILL, KILL, KILL"
Was the only word resounding in his mind like an echo. To him, it felt like the will of an evil element causing him to lose his humanity and turn him into something vile and degenerate.
But at this moment August did not care.
He knew if he wanted to protect the town, these monsters would have to die one way or another. He can't possibly let those gross monstrosities run freely into the streets of their small but peaceful town.
August at first thought that fighting these creatures with a sword would exhaust himself quickly but he felt surprisingly excited. Blood rushing through his veins felt nothing like it normally did, he felt a sudden rush of excitement and the will to desperately see these vile monsters dead before his eyes.
No, not quite dead. He wanted to see them as helpless creatures that would bleed themselves to death slowly.
He wanted to put them through the same pain and torment they were going to unleash upon the people of his town. He wanted to watch their limbs severed, the bodies cut in half but still …still he didn't want to take their lives so quickly but to watch them die slowly with continuous pain.
Sure, they could just be some mindless creatures obeying the will of their leader or something. But the question was, did he care? No, he did not. They were coming for his loved ones, for his people. So would it not be best to simply kill these vile inhumane creatures before they could wreak havoc inside his home?
'It would surely be'
August had cleared his mind a long time ago. What if the ones he was killing were also living creatures. This simple fact does not make the cost of their lives equal to the ones he held dear.
Even human lives can't be compared to one another. Like he did not care about the people other than his town. The world could go and die for all he cared.
He didn't want his home being trampled and its peace destroyed. Thus he was fighting for it.
"Kill …I must kill them all"
Going along with the voice in his head, August continued his onslaught.
— — —
Somewhat faraway from the carnage August was bestowing upon the monster tide, his mother fell to her knees deeply shocked by the cruel sight before her eyes.
While it was true that they had to protect the town from being swarmed by these grotesque creatures because it was her responsibility. But to watch her own son being consumed by this much murderous wrath?
The moment she met her son's gaze just a while ago kept repeating in her mind. Her ever so innocent baby boy covered in blood wasn't even her main concern. It was his always calm dark abyss like eyes hiding a hint of ruby red in them, which were today giving away the impression of a bloodthirsty beast. Like there was no difference between her innocent baby boy and these vile creatures.
As if this wasn't enough Sophia was now watching him slaughter numbers of those creatures. Felt like he was moving away from her, his mother —as he continued to move forward inside the monster tide.
Behind her, Valerius was finally able to catch up, killing all the creatures in his path.
"Sophia!" he said in a hurried tone, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder, "what happened? Did you find him?" raising his arm to send a wave of fire outward causing a monster coming toward them burn alive in agony, "This was not the plan. We have to follow the original plan otherwise we won't be able to counter this tide. Let's save our son quickly there's no…"
As his gaze fell upon the carnage, his words came to a halt abruptly.
"W—what?" Valerius asked in confused expression, "what's happening? you did all this?"
Sophia wiped a tear off her face and raised her finger pointing at her son, "He did"
Valerius seemed unsure about how he should react to this situation. It was a good thing that many of the monsters were already dead but to think his son had done all that.
That, August had killed these monsters. His son has taken lives that too a large number. He could understand what his wife might be feeling right now. Anger? Joy? Disappointment?
No
it was …fear.
Valerius had fought many battles and so were fought by his wife as well. Of course he had fought numerous of them with her at his side but none of them were able to bend Sophia to her knees.
His wife was a genius mage, a fighter more than a scholar but today as she watched her son take this many of the lives Valerius was sure she would be thinking about how bad that would be for their son.
Children weren't supposed to be killers, even though it was a world of cruelty. Has it all been for nothing? Have they not escaped the cruel fate of violence yet?
Yes they had also taken lives in childhood but if the history were to repeat itself and make their son suffer the same fate as his parents then Valerius thought his efforts to be isolated from the whole world in order to build a paradise for his child and people might all be in vain.
Valerius got a hold of himself and helped Sophia stand. Consoling her with his hand on her shoulder, he said, "Calm …calm down dear" lowering his head he whispered in her ear, "Now's not the time. We've got people to protect."
Sophia, as she realized the truth in the words of her husband, got up quickly as she remembered the responsibility they both had on their shoulders.
"Good" Valerius said, facing her with a smile, as he was about to say something again, got interrupted by a loud noise that sounded like a roar coming from the deep forest.
They all looked in the direction of the noise, their eyes wide open.
As the roar grew louder, many of the smaller creatures of the tide ran towards the direction of the roar as if submitting to the strange call. Some of the bigger ones also seemed affected by the strange noise up to an extent but in the end they managed to resist that.
— — —
The tide of monsters was about coming to an end. Most of the frenzied monsters were neutralised by Lord Victor and the mages supporting him. Damian was also very much of help on the battlefield. May, with the terrifyingly powerful ability of hers was also among the saviours of the town.
While most of the monsters were killed by Lord Valerius and Lady Sophia, there was also another warrior who contributed greatly to the battle that day. A child who had killed a number of vile creatures purely with his sword skills.
Which wasn't a small feat by a longshot.
But the danger seemed to haven't ended yet. Far in the depths of wooden forest, tall canopies of the thick trees rustled as they shuddered and fell on the ground. It seemed as though a huge entity was making its way towards the battlefield already.
Just from the scene of destruction of the forest before, it was clear the incoming threat was by no means a monster that should be taken lightly.
The mages on the frontlines braced themselves. August's continued attack came to a halt, his eyes still gleaming with pure killing intent. The thirst of blood in him did anything but slow down.
And with that after a few moments a giant monster taller than even the building of town square, was already before their sight.
The giant arachnid looked exactly as the other ones but it felt more huge, more terrifying and more dangerous.
One of the monsters was hanging from its maw as it obviously had eaten a few of its own kind to get this huge and strong. As the bloodshot eyes of the arachnid shone with vile murderous intent, it opened its giant maw causing the half eaten mangled body of one of its monsters to fall down and let out a loud deafening roar.
— — — — —