Lyle's eyes slowly opened as he regained consciousness, his vision was blurry and the only thing he could hear was an irritating buzzing sound in his ears. His body felt stiff, he started by trying to move his hands first, it took him some effort but he soon began to regain mobility.
Once his vision was cleared, Lyle noticed he was on grass and in front of him there was a forest, he tried sitting up where he was but he did too quickly and got dizzy. He grabbed his head as he tried to recompose himself, trying to remember the last thing to happen before fainting.
It took a few seconds for the dizziness to disappear almost completely, allowing Lyle to think more clearly. He remembered that he was just walking by the streets of Downwood and suddenly felt something being pressed against the back of his neck, then nothing.
The blonde let one of his hands onto the grass below him, he wondered how he had made it there in the first place, and why he was here. Lyle took a deep breath, and in that moment, he felt a smell that left him frozen in place, the smell of smoke.
Lyle's eyes opened wide at the smell, his pupils dilating as much as humanly possible, he began shaking in place, he knew he had to turn back, from where the smell was coming from, but he didn't want to, knowing perfectly what he was gonna see once he turned back. Even then, very well he knew that the only way to confirm it was to see it with his very own eyes.
His breathing got heavy as he slowly started to turn around his head. He stopped halfway through, before what he knew was there entered his line of sight. Lyle took a deep breath before turning his head enough to finally witness it with his eyes and turning his look of worry into a look of horror.
Downwood, burning.
Right in front of him, Lyle noticed Ascalon, sitting there, staring at the burning town. From where he was he was unable to see the look on his eyes, but he didn't believe it was necessary to see his face to know how he was feeling right now.
Lyle barely managed to get on his feet, his entire body shaking as he continued to look at the horrific scenario before him. His face contorted into distraught more and more as he stepped towards the burning town. A few steps later, Lyle snapped and tried to run back to the town but was held in place by Ascalon.
"LET ME GO! WE HAVE TO GO BACK!" Lyle uselessly struggled to get off his friend's grip.
"There is nothing to go back to" Ascalon said with a firm voice.
"NO! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT!" Lyle continued to attempt to get off Ascalon's arms but he couldn't move him a single millimeter. "We have to go… there must be someone… we…"
Lyle broke down and began crying as Ascalon finally let him go, letting Lyle fall onto his knees and downed his head as tears dropped down his cheeks while Ascalon limited himself to just pat his back in a futile attempt to comfort his grieving friend.
For a long while, neither of them dared to say anything. Lyle remained in tears while Ascalon made no sound at all, the pain and grief was crystal clear in the former's face while the latter let out no emotion whatsoever.
Not feeling any better but more calm, Lyle started to think more clearly again.
"W-What happened?" Lyle asked with a raspy voice, his eyes all reddened, lifting his head, his cheeks completely wet.
Ascalon didn't answer immediately, he took a moment to formulate his words. "It all happened way too quickly, but the short answer is: demons" He revealed with a serious tone.
Lyle's face was filled with surprise and disbelief at his friend's statement. "W-What? Demons?"
"Yes, demons. An army of them appeared and massacred the village, I went to your house to make sure you were fine but… it was already burning"
"W-What?!" Lyle's face got filled with horror at the realization. "M-My family… What happened to them? You think… Do you think they could be…?" He sounded desperate.
"Lyle…" Ascalon took a long pause before continuing with his sentence. "I'm going to be honest with you. I doubt anyone but us survived"
Lyle seemed like he was going to have a seizure, he couldn't even breath properly anymore. "B-but… that's… that's impossible… it… it can't be… You… you have to be wrong- You have…" His voice broke completely.
Ascalon remained silent.
As tears began to flow down Lyle's face once again, he led his hands to both sides of his head, trying to not lose his sanity on the spot. "There is just no way… then… why… why are we alive? Out of everyone… why am I alive?"
"The only thing I can assume is that they thought you were dead. I managed to hide during the attack, it's a miracle I was not found, but then I had to come out so I wouldn't die suffocated by the smoke, I found you lying in the ground, completely unconscious and dragged you here" Ascalon seemed a bit nervous as he recalled the events that took place earlier.
"WHY?! WHY ONLY ME?!" Lyle was hyperventilated.
"Maybe you are lucky"
"Lucky…? This is anything but luck! Everyone I knew… everyone I loved… mom… dad… Wanda… Lizzie… you're telling me they're dead and you think I'm lucky?!" Lyle looked at Ascalon, enraged.
"S-Sorry… I just… *sigh* You know I'm horrible at this…" Ascalon downed his head.
"It's ok… it's not your fault…" Lyle still sounded angry, he then turned to look at the village again. "Whatever the reason for me to be alive is… I'm pretty sure someone just wanted to see me suffer…"
"I-" Ascalon seemed to want to say something but he shut up. Lyle didn't bother pressuring him to say what he had in mind.
There they sat, next to each other, watching what once was their home, now being reduced to nothing but ashes, and there was nothing they could do about it. At least, that is what Lyle thought of the situation. None of this made any sense.
"Why… why us?" Lyle said, devoid of emotion.
"Beats me. Who knows how demons think?" Ascalon answered.
Lyle unsheathed his sword and looked at his reflection on the ironwork, he held the sword tight even when his hands shaked. He stared at the edge of the blade as a lot of thoughts went through his mind. His brain was a mess of thoughts and ideas.
"We can't leave it like this" Ascalon declared, causing Lyle to snap out of his thoughts.
"What do you mean?"
Ascalon stood up. "I mean, we cannot let this go unpunished"
"You wanna get revenge? What would that achieve? It's not going to bring anyone back, besides… How can we know who did this?" Lyle downed his head.
"You may be right on that…" Ascalon said. He seemed surprised by Lyle's statement. "It won't bring anyone back, but it will prevent more people to suffer the same fate"
"I… I guess you're right" Lyle lifted his head.
"Moreover, I may have an idea of who's behind all of this"
Lyle seemed really surprised by the statement. "You do?"
"Of course, we are talking about demons here, so there is only one option. The Esteller Empire"
"The Esteller Empire? I think I've heard of it…"
"You should, they've been in activity for well over a decade. An entire empire constituted by an army of demons straight out of hell itself! Led by an almighty demon emperor who rules them all, or at least, that's what the stories say"
"Demons from hell… and yet I can't understand… why us?"
"It's a simple question with a simple answer. They are demons, Lyle. Do you think they need an excuse to kill?" Ascalon looked at Lyle with a cold stare.
Lyle clenched his teeth and fists in frustration. "Dammit…"
"Lyle, I know this can't be easy for you, neither is it for me. But you can't stand still and just let go. No, not something like this"
"And what? You want us to go and… destroy an empire by ourselves? I don't even have proper control over my magic!"
"That may be true, but I'm pretty sure that if we put enough effort, we may be able to stand our ground against them. Besides, we don't need to kill all of them, just one. Their emperor, Esteller"
"Ascalon, you're crazy, we-"
"Maybe!" Ascalon interrupted Lyle's words. "But hear me out, I highly doubt that the demons can properly manage themselves, they are savage creatures, so if we chop off the head, the body will fall with it"
"I… well… I suppose that… that does make some sense?" Lyle was confused, everything seemed to go very fast. "But even then, do you think we can do it? That man… Esteller, for him to rule over an empire of demons, he must be insanely powerful…"
"Then we will have to become insanely powerful" Ascalon declared. He then grabbed Lyle by the shoulders and looked at him directly into the eyes. "Listen, I know that the idea must really scare you, but I have faith in you. I can see it in your eyes, somewhere deep down your soul, there is an almighty warrior waiting to be awakened, you just need the confidence to call him out!"
Even though he was still doubtful, Ascalon's words resonated within Lyle, who looked at his friend and then back at the burning village.
"Let's do this Lyle, for you family, for your friends, for all those who have fallen victim to those demons and those who will continue to become victims if they are not stopped!"
The determination of Ascalon's words slipped into Lyle, his soul and eyes now filled with a new resolution. Together, they were going to become stronger and together they would rise up against the Esteller Empire to depart the justice they so much deserve.
"Alright Ascalon, I'm with you on this, let's take down this empire, the two of us, together!" Lyle said, even though his tone was determined his words were shaky.
"I'm very glad to hear that" Ascalon smiled.
"However, I can't just hide the fact that it worries me to face them… in all this time… no one else has stood up to them"
"You speak facts, but you know what else is a fact? For what I've heard, they haven't expanded their territory that much in the over 10 years they've been on the human realm"
"Wait, are you serious?" Lyle was astonished.
"I am. The only thing is that either they really like toying with humans, or they are just not as strong as everyone thinks they are. People think that they haven't gone all out because no one has dared to provoke them, I'm not sure what could be the reason of that, but whatever it is, no one has really had the bravery to face them off and check their true strength as an army"
Lyle was surprised, not only by how much sense his friend's words were, he had never seen him act like this, however, he was also a bit incredulous regardless of what Ascalon truly knew about the demons.
"Where did you even get all this information from?"
Ascalon shivered. "Well, I've heard from travelers that have stopped by the town. I always thought that it would be beneficial to know as much as possible of the world outside Downwood"
"I see…" Lyle stood up.
"That's information I should probably have shared with you before, but I wanted to have conversation topics for when we went out on adventures"
Lyle kept quiet.
"Anyways, that is not relevant now. To become stronger, we will also need to be able to get equipment. I suggest we head towards the capital of Lisbea" Ascalon declared in a serious tone.
"The capital? How far is that?" Lyle asked.
Ascalon took a moment to look around until he pointed at the forest behind them. "If I'm not wrong, it should take us about a week or two on foot. I have a bottle of water with me so we should be able to manage for at least a few days with it and if we feel hungry I bet we can just hunt something"
"Um, alright" Lyle felt a bit overwhelmed by how well prepared Ascalon seemed and how cold-headed he was about this whole situation.
Nevertheless, the blonde knew very well his friend had a point. They just couldn't remain out in the wild in their current condition. Ascalon quickly began to make his way towards the forest, he seemed very eager.
Lyle looked at his friend walking towards the woods, before doing anything else, he turned back to look at his village one last time. The place where he had grown up, where all of his memories came from, where everyone he once knew and loved used to live, how now it was being reduced to nothing but ashes. He frowned, his expression becoming a mix of sadness and anger.
The blonde turned away from the burning village and started to follow his friend's path, covering his ears with his hands and focusing his sight on the forest in front of him.