"I'm so sorry… everyone…"
Maya whispered as the light atop the tower faded. The horses of their party galloped through the nightly wind once more and once she got herself accustomed to the sound of hooves striking the ground, she heard nothing but silence. Roland and Melvin took the lead while Charles followed behind them, slightly trembling as he gritted his teeth with her and the others staring into the shadow of the gates sitting beneath the moonlight.
"Why didn't you drink the goddamn potion?" Charles whispered without breaking his gaze at his side.
She looked down. "No… I don't need it. If a battle does arrive, all I need is to blow my horn at least two more times. I can't risk you guys as well for my own comfort."
"Comfort my ass…" Charles clicked his tongue.
"What is your problem with me anyway?!"
"Hah! I'm sure of it," Melvin shouted. "He's grumpy because you made him piss his pants!"
"What? What do you mean?"
Melvin scoffed. "The light that you gave must've given him quite a sight!"
"But…" Maya tilted her head. "But isn't that the po-"
"Not if you're a greenhorn a-"
"Okay… okay geez...." Charles interrupted both of them. "I'll admit. I was afraid. I didn't even know what one looked like before I've seen one with my own eyes so it gave me quite a scare. But even so, just so you know. My pants are still dry and still as fresh as the smell of lavender after bathing in the sun."
"What an oddly specific way of saying that you didn't piss yourself scared," Roland said with a smile and all of them shared a chuckle except for Charles. "But keep it down, we can't afford to fight here. Try to be as silent as possible and save your energy for later."
"But… do you think that that's possible?" Charles asked with his voice sounding a bit tight.
Roland fell silent and looked ahead. "Yes, but this is one of those times that I'm wishing with all of my heart that I'm wrong, otherwise, Neil and the others would have died due to sheer bad luck."
Charles tightened his reigns as the time went on.
They then continued to cross the distance between the outpost and the vanguard without even dropping the sense of vigilance in their eyes. They would just grab a bite of the cooked potatoes sitting in their bags no matter how tasteless it became and they didn't even mind the cold even though it ran their throats dry and chapped their lips.
"Hey… hey… hey…" Melvin finally broke the silence with a grim laugh coupled with a bitter smile.
Soon, they saw the shadow of the tall vanguard broken before them. The sun was just about to rise, parting the clouds before it as it slowly gave light to the blacked canyon with the obliterated remains of the third and the second wall sitting in the middle of its gorge. It was a sight that made their hearts break and jaws tremble but it wasn't enough to take their eyes off of what happened to the first wall.
The horses moved on with their breaths now deeper compared to before as the party instinctively covered their mouths and noses as soon as they caught sight of the encampment now riddled with dried blood as it sat behind the shadow of the shattered first wall.
"Note to self, knock Roland out if he ever thinks about dangerous things…" Melvin muttered as he dropped himself off of his horse.
"That's a terrible joke…" Roland let out a brittle laugh as the other two followed their lead in silence. "What a terrible joke…"
They treaded through the encampment that was now devoid of life up until they passed through were the first and the strongest wall was supposed to be and there, in the distance, they saw a silhouette of a man sitting on top of wreckage with a book in hand.
"You…" Roland stepped forward together with Melvin who hasn't dropped his smile. "Are you a survivor? What happened here?"
"Tell me, " he replied as soon as he closed his book. The five noctems hiding behind the trees then roared as she stood up to face them. "Say, what would you do if the kingdom then you fought for, you served for more than your life decided to take you out and cut off your head without you knowing why?"
"What? Tell us what happened dammit!" Charles shouted back.
"Exactly… that's the same question that I had in my head. Pretty weird isn't it?" The man stepped forward as he cupped his chin, finally revealing the ashen armor over his body that had a few black spots as if it been set in flames. "I guess this is anger I'm feeling…"
"Please…." Roland begged. "Tell us what happened to the others…"
The man raised his one finger to silence them and with his voice that sounded stern yet pleasant, he followed, "patience… is the only thing I ask of you for now… because lately, it's as if my heart has been stirred and I've been feeling this queer since… ah… but to your question… most of them were served for dinner while some were taken for an early breakfast. You see..."
"What is this guy… saying?"
"I don't think he's a good guy Roland..." Melvin said as he stepped up with a popped vein in his forehead. "Give me the go signal and I'll bash his face in with a rock."
"Nothing is left. Of course, some of them must've run so I sent out a few of my shades to scour the nearby lands. I could actually feel them resting right now like those few behind those trees but somehow… one… group… didn' quite…" The knight stopped for a second. He shook his head and when he turned to see Roland's face, he smiled. "I see…"
"You… you monster…" Maya mumbled as she stepped back to draw her sword. "Stay away from us!"
"You know…" He moved forward with his grin getting wider. "When I was sent out to do this job, being able to wield this power, to gain such control over the darkness of the collective heart itself, I thought that I would be up for a challenge."
Melvin stepped forward as the other three stepped back. Following Roland's lead, the other two took their stance with their hearts beating to brace themselves for about what's to come.
"So I stayed behind in the guise of the night after annihilating a base or two… or was it three… I don't know. Anyway… I prepared. I prepared because of this… this peace of three metal walls that you guys have built up after our legacy and what did I get?" The knight laughed. "I didn't expect that these people would be so weak… I thought that this would be enough… I thought that after receiving this power, I thought that I'd ran to a person strong enough to get what I want so early but why is it, why are they so weak?"
Charles tightened his grip at the hilt of his blade. "You-"
"And you know what's even weirder… the last guy… who called himself the commander… his last regret was to not being able to read this book's last three chapters! Like what the hell is that? We used to fight for honor and glory, we all died regretting that we won't be able to do more and now, we got this?!"
"Melvin, grab whatever you can… I don't see any weapons but stay on guard," Roland whispered to Melvin as soon as he saw the man quickening his stride.
"And do you know what he said before he blew himself up to save his men? He muttered the words… 'you looked a little hotter' as if it was something so sweet. What the hell even is that?!" He stomped his feet and soon, a black blade was conjured in his hand. "It feels really queer… and weird."
"Not gonna lie, that's pretty gay." Melvin let out a chuckle.
"What? What did that half-naked man say?"
"Dude, he told you that that was gay…" Roland replied as he tried his best to keep himself from smiling.
"Gay?" he replied.
"If I may retract my words, sir, for I am sure that it is unnerving, I am sure that it is akin to the feeling when you say these kinds of words to a fellow man like, I will take out my thick long sword to slap it all over your face before I shoot my magic all over your ass-"
The knight smiled before he swung his arm like a whip and at the next second, Melvin found himself falling to the ground with a black sword sticking out of his chest as Roland and the others moved away in panic.
"That… that stroked a chord in my chest and I feel… I don't feel Iike associating myself with that word." The knight straightened his back with a smile twisted with rage. "Ah yes… this must be bloodlust I'm feeling… so then, I don't think I would want to remember your names either but let me ask you this… would you claim yourselves to be stronger than these people?
"Oh no... " Roland replied with a laugh. "We're certainly weaker than them…"
"I see…" The three other noctems hiding in the sun then turned into shadows and melded themselves into him. He then conjured another black blade in his hand and with a grim tone, he followed, "It would be a terrible idea to fight under the sun but I guess this should be enough to easily crush four more bugs."