"His highness' name is not 'Redhead'! It's Rhyal Tenli! A noble name!" A brave nobleman stood up in protest.
Whack! Gerrod smacked him over the head. The noble groaned rubbing his head with teary eyes.
"His name is what I, his master, choose to call him." Gerrod glanced through the crowd, "Any objections? None? Good."
He left for the cellar. Hurial should be waking up soon.
"What happened on your side?" Blackhair asked Weirdiris.
"We ended up encountering no one. Master took them out..." Weirdiris sighed.
"You too huh." Shakyleg smiled, "We didn't find anyone either. There were marks on the walls though. Something akin to a hurricane!"
Gerrod sighed internally, 'I had a hunch since back then, but, someone really is interfering in this war-, No, not yet. Keep hope. Interrogate Hurial first.'
'Wait a minute...' Gerrod's eyes suddenly widened. He took off for the cellar catching Hurial as he was making for the stairs out the side, 'I forgot he's a goddamned noble! He woke up earlier because of that!'
"H-hhhheeeee!!!" Hurial screeched fearfully as he ran for his life.
Gerrod took off gaining ground quickly. By the time he caught up to Hurial they were both in the forest facing each other.
Hurial couldn't run anymore. And Gerrod wouldn't let him escape anymore.
"Hurial." Gerrod's aura enveloped the area.
Hurials own aura defended him. He was caught by surprise in his arrogance before but it wouldn't happen again.
"Stay away from me- Monster!" Hurial pointed at Gerrod with a quaking finger, backing away slowly as he did so.
"Monster?" Gerrod slowly walked forward his aura dancing around him, "Would you like to see a real monster?"
"Hhhheee!!" Hurial pulled his finger back going as flat as possible against the tree behind him.
Gerrod's shining teeth showed through his smile, the light of the moon dancing on only one side of his face.
He stood not a ten centimeters away from Hurial. He leaned forward.
"Tell me, how does it feel to see your children suffer by your hand?" He curled his fingers and his aura caressed Hurials blubbery cheeks.
"I- I-" Hurial's eyes swiveled everywhere but no matter where he looked he couldn't seem to escape Gerrod's gaze.
"Oh? Do you need ...a little refresher?" Gerrod's aura clamped around Hurials throat.
Gerrod's nose twitched and he frowned. Hurial had soiled himself.
"Please don't..." Hurial fell to his knees, "...I'll tell you everything."
Gerrod took a few steps back and expressionlessly snapped his fingers. His aura vanished and he appeared several meters away, right in front of the cellar doors.
Hurials eyes shook, 'I was under his control this whole time...?'
He looked around and found that he was standing on the lawn of the mansion just outside the cellar doors.
He touched the ground but couldn't trust anything was real. Well, not everything. What he did know was very very real was the young man standing in front of him.
The moon crested just over the mansion illuminating his figure. His butler outfit looked like the devils own robes. Teeth of glittering silver. Hair sleek as the fur of a wolf. Eyes as vicious as a war god.
He didn't move and simply hung his head, "I am Hurial Lekronica. I was sent here by Daray on a mission to secure the loyalty of the nobility through any means necessary."
"Including the kidnapping and murder of children?" Redhead appeared from the cellar out of breath. Partially from rage at Hurial. Partially from awe at Gerrod. Mostly from running so hard.
Hurial hesitated but under the pressure of Gerrod's gaze he couldn't stop himself and nodded, "By any means necessary."
Redhead ground his teeth.
"What about this war? Did you all force it too?" Blackhair frowned deeply clutching his fists.
Hurial nodded again, "We were to secure Tenli's loyalty and then send them to war with Shokan."
"Why?" Shakylegs shook in rage surprising everyone who saw him, "Why would you do this? How could you send thousands to their death on the field? Thousands more to starve? How could you...!"
Weirdiris put a comforting hand on his shoulder before glaring at Hurial, "So? What was the end goal? Daray takes over Tenli and Shokan?"
Hurial lowered his head, "We have contacts-!"
BOOM! Hurials head exploded without warning. A wave of blazing aura scorched the ground closing onto the mansion setting it ablaze in an instant.
Gerrod vanished.
Their faces paled. Redhead spun around.
"Help the people inside!" Redhead shouted.
Weirdiris and Shakylegs shot off into the building.
Blackhair stared at the exploded skull in front of him and trembled, vomiting.
Redhead walked over and held his long black hair back, "You're surprisingly innocent aren't you?"
"Shut...up...!" Blackhair vomited again as he caught sight of the head again.
Just as Weirdiris and Shakylegs were going into the mansion Rayl burst out of one of the windows covered in a sheet.
"The glass is broken! Jump through now!" He turned back full of glass shards and started grabbing children out of the main room.
Weirdiris and Shakylegs exchanged a look and rushed over.
"We'll help!"
Rayl nodded and pointed to the rest of the crew inside, "You have to get them out first! They have heavy packs, they'll take more time to get out-"
"No need to worry." Shakylegs said as he raised a clenched fist.
The crew inside who were rightfully panicking immediately upon seeing the command calmed down and began charging out of the window without a second thought.
Many of them were badly scraped by the glass but there was no other choice. Either that or they can try and brave the hallways which had already collapsed from the strength of the fire.
Redhead and Blackhair soon arrived to help as well.
Within a minute everyone got out of the burning mansion and ran to the treeline.
BOOM! The mansion completely collapsed and everything inside was melted destroying any evidence of the Daray soldiers who were once within.
Redhead looked to where Hurial was and sure enough his corpse had vanished into dust.
'Be okay.' He thought hopefully.
Elsewhere in the deep woods, Gerrod had caught up to a lanky man with a deceptively powerful build.
The two faced off.
Their game of eyes told Gerrod exactly what he needed to know, 'This is the man. The one who lead the raids that forced the nobles to give up their children. He is the perpetrator of the burn marks on Count Locost's estate.'
He thought before but, Hurial wasn't strong enough to with only twenty-five men to take the children of nobles.
As he stared at this man before him he felt the powerful heat emanating off every fiber of his being.
"Gerrod T. Dradir, Right Hand of the Shokan Queen. A stray with strong ability. Won't you join us?" His voice was unnaturally changed through the mask making it uncomfortable to hear.
"Us?" Gerrod smiled coldly, "Who is 'Us'."
The man's mask covered his mouth but Gerrod could tell he was smiling back, "Daray's External Affairs department."
Gerrod's eyes flashed, "Why would I join you?"
The man's eyes flashed like a fisherman with a pull, "We, Daray, highly value talented individuals. Here in this war-ridden peninsula, we are also the ones most likely to unite the kingdoms. Rather than waste your talent in this small dirt poor hole, join us, I can assure you status and position."
Gerrod's smile widened slightly, "So, Shokan is the weakest on this peninsula?"
The man slowly nodded, "Three kingdoms lay claim to this peninsula. Daray. Maali. Sadid."
'So, he doesn't even see this place as a kingdom.' Gerrod's smile got bigger, 'What a delicious challenge.'
One thing that has to be understood about Gerrod T. Dradir is this.
He is one who climbed his way from the bottom to the top. He fought for everything he has. He's won and lost.
Challenges do not scare him.
They excite him.
"Well, that all sounds great but." Gerrod raised a nightmarish hand, "There are five kingdoms on this peninsula. And Shokan will be the one who stands at the top."
The mans eyes went wide. Understandably so. In the peninsula, there are three large kingdoms. Shokan is like a slightly larger speck to these kingdoms.
Saying that Shokan would stand above all the others is as preposterous as saying that an ant would triumph over an elephant.
Completely impossible.
Yet as the man looked into Gerrod's eyes he felt fear. And he did not like it.
"I see. Then, Shokan will have to fall." The man raised a burning hand, "As a courtesy, I will tell you my name before I kill you."
Gerrod's smile vanished. Darkness spread out around him trying to envelop the man but his blazing aura blocked out all advances.
"I am Nol Ninety-Nine." A glob of blazing aura shot from his hand.
Gerrod's eyebrow twitched. A defensive array appeared in front of him and deflected the fireball.
Flames went everywhere. A flash.
Shadows danced all around the clearing. Only dust remained where Gerrod once stood.
"Such a talent killed so early. What a tragedy." Nol shook his head sadly, "He would have made a fine agent- CUH!"
Blood and flesh fell to the ground like water from a cliff. A pitch-black wolf with fur as sleek as silver appeared behind him.
Between his jaws lay the dead Nol.
It's bone fang necklace rose and shone brightly. A glob of extremely powerful burning aura left Nol's body and seared the wolf's fur. But the fang necklace began rotating and a formation appeared around the glob of aura, containing it.
The formation began getting smaller and smaller forcing Nol's aura to condense further and further until it was like a small, burning hot pebble.
The formation opened just slightly and the wolf was hit with heat akin to magma forcing his eyes closed.
The fang necklace shone once more and the ball of burning hot aura shot into the fang turning into a near unnoticeable dot on the fang.
"ARGH!!!!" The wolf transformed into a handsome young man.
This was precisely Gerrod. He writhed in pain as his body burned on the inside. Every vein felt like hot magma was coursing through it. His chest felt like it would burn open.
At the same time he felt his own tenacious aura fighting it off and slowly dominating it with help of the home-field advantage but every time he would get a little respite the fang necklace would glow again and another burst of magma would make its rounds through his veins.
He couldn't even scream.
'The moon is so ...damned bright ...'