None of the other demons could hold a candle to the late Leo Regulus.
Within a few seconds, I had frozen the entire vicinity. The gargoyles, wyverns and gryphons that were charging at me were all entombed in ice, all one hundred or so of them. Maybe there were a couple hundred of them. Perhaps there were more. I didn't know. I didn't count. There were so many readings and outlined figures crowding my lenses that I lost track.
All that mattered to me was that I caught every single one of them in my spell. Those that were wise enough to flee were mowed down by a hail of icicles or found themselves soaring straight into a blizzard. None escaped. I made sure of it by scanning the vicinity with my enchanted glasses and tracking every single one of them. Whatever I could detect, I eliminated in cold, methodical fashion.
Once I ensured that all of them were frozen, I snapped my fingers. All the frozen demons shattered into millions of frosty fragments, spilling the crystalline shards onto the ground and slowly melting under the sun.
For a few minutes, I stood there, studying the carnage I had just wrought. Even without thinking, I was meticulously scanning my surroundings to ensure that I didn't allow even a single enemy to escape. Surrounded by nothing but the shattered, frozen remains of my vanquished foes, I remained where I was, the harsh reality slowly sinking in.
"…survivors."
That was right, I should search for survivors. Perhaps several of the villagers managed to escape and hide from the demons. It was possible that my parents were still alive. If there were wounded, they would need my help.
I told myself that, even though I knew the reality. If there was any sign of life, my enchanted glasses would have detected them. Thermal signatures, faint traces of mana, motion, anything…
But my glasses displayed nothing. The whole village was cold and devoid of any life signs. There was no movement on the motion detector, and nothing showed up on infrared. Nonetheless, I stubbornly pawed through the rubble and moved from house to house. It took me several hours, but I confirmed what I already knew deep down.
There were no survivors.
Of course, the first house I checked was my own, and my parents were no longer in there. With a heavy heart, I proceeded to investigate the other houses, visiting them one by one until I completed the sweep for the village.
There were corpses here and there, which I pulled into the open, but no survivors.
I checked on the bodies that the demons had taken, probably to devour or for some twisted, demented ritual. I didn't know what their purpose was. It occurred to me then that I should have perhaps spared one of them for interrogation.
Too late. I didn't regret what I did, though, despite knowing how counterproductive it was. They massacred my village. I wouldn't be satisfied until every single one of them was dead.
"No…"
I wasn't surprised to see my parents among them. Falling to my knees, I sank into despair, staring at their lifeless bodies. They had been stacked with the others, the corpses gathered in a giant heap.
Tears streamed down my eyes and I knelt there quietly, deep in shock. The whole thing felt like a dream. It felt so surreal. Maybe it wasn't real.
But no matter how long I knelt, long after the sun set and late into the night, I didn't wake up. The pain beneath my knees told me that this wasn't a nightmare. It was reality.
Clenching my hands into fists, I wept silently until my tear ducts dried up. My eyes were probably swollen and I could feel the moisture streaking down my cheeks, but I was too absorbed in grief to feel any shame or embarrassment.
"This can't be real…"
It couldn't. The whole reason why I left on that stupid journey and put up with the company of those arrogant and selfish imbeciles was to protect my family…and the village from the demons. I joined the Hero party in order to prevent tragedies such as this from happening. Specifically my family was the sole reason why I took up arms and fought the demons.
Now that they were gone, I had lost all motivation to fight. No. that was incorrect. I wanted revenge. I wanted to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again.
For that reason, I had to pick up the proverbial sword and stand back up again. I couldn't falter here or this scene of deaths would happen all over the kingdom.
Moreover, the mastermind, the Demonic Emperor, had to be punished for launching the invasion in the first place. I was going to participate in slaying him and ensure that he would never be a threat to us humans again.
I closed my eyes briefly, realizing something.
Rather than blame others, I should be blaming myself. if I hadn't gotten all gung-ho and followed Herman and the others…if I had stayed behind in my village and continued working here, taking the occasional quests from the adventurer guild but never straying too far from my home, then this would never have happened. I had proven that I had the strength to protect my village all by myself. If I had been around when Leo Regulus and his demons attacked, I would have defeated them before they could kill anyone here.
Damn it! I shouldn't have left my village! I should never have joined the Hero party! This was all my fault, for thinking I would be able to protect Havan Kingdom – and by extension, my village – if I contributed to the war against the demonic legions.
The fucking kingdom didn't even care about us. When it came down to it, they abandoned Mai Village in favor of a supposedly more strategic and important town. The lives of apparently insignificant villagers didn't matter to them at all.
I understood the logic, but emotionally wise I couldn't accept such unfairness. I knew I was being selfish and unreasonable, but I was only human. I wasn't some stupid Hero with an altruistic sense of justice. I joined Herman because I wanted to protect my village.
Yet this very decision was what led to the demise of my village and the death of my parents.
"Fuck! Damn it!"
I hammered the ground, cursing myself, cursing fate, cursing the gods. I hated myself. I hated the world. I hated everything.
I didn't know how long I was kneeling there. By the time I snapped out of it, it was daytime again. Perhaps I had dozed off in the middle of grieving. Maybe several days had passed, my mind wandering around, consumed by grief and madness. I didn't know. I didn't care.
What I did know was that I couldn't just leave the bodies of the villagers out here. The bodies of my parents. And that I needed to atone for my mistake by slaying the Demonic Emperor and annihilating the demonic legions.
And so I began the long, arduous process of burial. Digging graves and burying the dead one by one, starting with my parents.
*
It took me a few days, but I buried all two hundred and twenty-eight villagers in a mound just outside the ruined village. Marking each of them with an improvised tombstone, I dug and dug, buried and buried, and then prayed.
By now, I had calmed down and the hatred had simmered. I recognized that the demons weren't necessarily evil. They were following orders too…and come to think of it, I did the exact same thing to them. I massacred them without a second thought, ruthlessly annihilating the horde without showing any mercy. I had heard of humans doing the same thing, even witnessed firsthand Herman and the rest putting demon civilians to the sword and torching entire villages of orcs or other demons.
Maybe we weren't so dissimilar, us and the demons.
"I have to find a way to end this pointless war," I muttered under my breath. "Before more people die for the stupidest reasons. For…greed."
For now, though, I knelt before the couple hundred of graves and prayed. I didn't know what I was even praying for. For the dead to rest in peace? For my own atonement and the appeasement of my guilt? For a future without war and tragic, meaningless deaths?
I didn't know how long I stayed there, through rain and shine. I was vaguely aware that many days passed. The cold, wet raindrops drenching me and the chilly wind lashing my body. The blistering gaze of a merciless sun. The gloomy darkness of night. The ominous shade of clouds.
The days continued to pass by, and I didn't move. I knew I should leave, to begin my atonement and help slay the demons, but my body refused to move. Was it because I didn't know where to start? Or that I knew the Hero party wouldn't accept me back? Was I considering the magic corps as an alternative? Was I afraid somehow, after having seen so many deaths? Or was I simply unable to leave my parents' grave?
It all came to an end when they found me.
"Klein…"
Irene stopped a few paces from me, her face frightfully pale. She stared at the mass of graves, the markers that stretched for many yards across and many yards deep. Her hand flew to her mouth and she also sank to her knees, tears streaming from her eyes.
As for me, I was no longer crying. It had been days since all my tears had dried up and I did nothing but stare blankly at the graves before me.
"Your parents are over there," I said and pointed. "Your sister too. I did my best to ensure that they were buried together."
"Father…Mother…Irina…"
Irene sobbed in disbelief, wiping at her tears. Behind her, Herman came up and placed a comforting hand around her shoulders. I vaguely registered his presence. So he came along, huh?
"Sorry." The words were thick and I was barely able to force them out of my parched throat. "I was too late. I failed to save anybody. They were all dead when I arrived."
"It wasn't your fault," Herman assured me, but his words rang hollow. At least he had the decency not to gloat and tell me that he was right. That I would never have made it back in time.
No, my decision wasn't wrong. It couldn't be wrong. Even if I knew I wouldn't make it in time, I wouldn't have changed my decision. I would still have rushed back. As if to justify that, I spoke up again, this time in a more vehement tone.
"I avenged everybody. I slaughtered the fuckers who butchered them. I made sure that none of those shitty demons survived."
"Yeah. We saw." Herman nodded. "Miranda detected the large trace of magic cast here. And the deaths of many demons."
"You really killed all of them by yourself?" Miranda asked, her voice laced in awe. So the rest of the party had tagged along too.
I didn't look at them. I didn't want to face them. Were they here to laugh at me? No. Knowing Herman, he must have acceded to Irene's request and rushed back here after they had completed their mission at the town they were supposed to defend.
Somewhere in the distance, Irene sobbed quietly, bent over the graves of her family. Herman watched over her protectively, standing behind the kneeling priestess. For several long moments, he didn't say anything. Maybe he let us mourn for a few hours. It felt like eternity.
Then he finally spoke up.
"Klein, we need you to return to the party."
"You don't need me," I barked out, harsh laughter escaping my chapped lips. "You'll do fine without me."
"No. We…" Herman hesitated for a moment, and then he looked away. "We lost the battle at Border Town. The demonic legions now hold it. The Havan Kingdom suffered a crushing defeat there."
"That damned Witch of Winter," Bradley growled, kicking a rock and sending it flying over a couple of graves. "She's a bloody monster!"
"We were no match for her at all," Miranda admitted quietly. "Her ice spells were more powerful than even yours."
"Of course," I replied, not at all surprised. "She's one of the twelve Divine Generals."
Truthfully, I was amazed that Herman and the rest even survived their encounter with her. As it turned out, the Witch of Winter was known for being a compassionate and merciful demon, sparing the lives of her foes. Even though the human armies suffered a total defeat at the hands of her legion, she had allowed the bulk of them to escape with their lives intact.
I couldn't help but be impressed. Inwardly, I wondered what would have happened if she was the one who invaded Mai Village instead. She surely wouldn't have killed any of the villagers here.
If, if, if. There was little point in speculating such things. What mattered was that Mai Village was sacrificed for nothing. My parents and the villagers were already dead. For what? For Border Town to fall to the demons anyway.
"So even if I was there, it wouldn't have made a difference. You guys don't need me."
"Stop being stubborn!" Yvonne yelled. "Here we are, being nice and giving you a second chance, and you're rudely refusing us!"
"I don't need your second chance," I replied coldly. "As you can see, my parents are dead. My village is destroyed. I no longer have a reason to fight."
"Yes, you do," Alan said quietly. "For revenge. I can see it in you. You want to destroy the demons for doing this."
I didn't deny that, and Alan took that as a cue to continue.
"Also, you're wrong. If you were there, you would have made a difference. True, individually you might not be a match for the Witch of Winter. As you are right now, of course. But if you had been there, coordinating with the rest of the party, we might have been able to defeat hr."
He glanced at the daggers sheathed by his side.
"Never mind the others…if I had just you fighting with me back then, distracting her and keeping her spells off me, I could have snuck behind her and assassinated her. As powerful as she is, only you have the ability to temporarily nullify her spells. That would have provided me the opportunity I needed."
"Your spells are more powerful than Miranda's," Herman agreed. "In that situation, you would have been a better choice than her."
"Hey!" Miranda complained, but she didn't deny that. She folded her arms and looked away with a huff.
"Please…lend us your strength," Herman reached out with his hand.
"That's right." Irene wiped the tears from her eyes and rose to her feet. "We need to avenge deaths of our friends and families…of the folks in Mai Village. Let's pay the Demonic Emperor back for what he did to our village."
I stared at Herman's hand for a moment, not wanting to take it. However, somewhere and sometime long ago, destiny had already taken its course, and I found myself accepting Herman's hand. Taking a deep breath, I finally nodded.
"All right. Let's do this."
Deep inside my chest somewhere, a voice screamed that I would regret this decision, but there was nothing I could do to change the past and resist a destiny that was already set in stone.