A beastly growl echoed through the forest, the demon fell by its knees covering its emptied out eye sockets, shouting and shrieking with pain, its demonic power seemed to have been broken, another spear emanated in top of Vallier, this time there were five of them, the demon moved its head in front of the two as if it was 'looking' at them although this time with hollowed eye sockets. With a flick of his hand the spears plunged into the flesh of the demon, with its final horrific screech, light came from every direction of its body and blew up to pieces.
Bits of fabric, weapons, and cut body parts spread everywhere along with the purplish black goo. The repulsive smell of rotting flesh surrounded the area, Vallier made another light shield to protect the two of them from the debris and the poison, and his faerie dragon finally peeked outside of his armor. "I almost forgot that your dragon hid there" Rululan remarked, "She doesnt like demons and once she senses one she'll hide inside my armor and turn into a brooch" Vallier replied as he gently took the dragon out of his armor and placed it on his right arm. "So that's why she hid even without us seeing the black fog beforehand", Vallier nodded to what Rululan just said, after some time the debris and poison finally stopped raining and what the forest plains showed to them was a gruesome sight.
Chopped and rotting bodies of adventurers and beasts alike sprawled on the floor, poison and goo mixed together making such a stomach churning scent, as Rululan's eyes stared at the sight his knees couldn't help but tremble and shake till he lost balance and knelt down. "That demon... how could it do such a hideous thing" Rululan wept, Vallier was silent, as he knelt by one knee and placed his hand on Rululan's shoulder "Their souls has recieved retribution, they will now rest in peace" he comforted him. On the air, the forces that wanted to help them earlier was finally able to land, however with precaution and protection from the smell and poison that was still lingering around.
General Rudlert nodded to the two and started to order the men to vanquish the poison and bury the dead along with taking evidence of the demon's existence. The men moved swiftly, Mymyrr helped with gathering evidences, Rululan was finally back at his feet, "Ready to depart?" Vallier asked as he lifted his dragon and threw it gently in the air, a flashing light temporarily blinded them and his faerie dragon was now back to its original big form. Rululan smiled weakly and nodded, Mymyrr came up to them after they mounted the dragon. "Rululan!", "Mymyrr!" Both boys smiled at each other, "I knew you could do it!" Mymyrr spoke, "I never would've come up with a brilliant plan if you didn't mark that tree before" Rululan smiled, Mymyrr's eyes beamed with happiness after hearing that he was able to be a big help to the two.
"Now may not be a good time to celerate kids" General Rudlert advised them as he flew towards Mymyrr, "The empire has yet to see this and make a plan about it" he added, both nodded and Mymyrr mounted General Rudlert's Griffin. After cleaning up the whole group started to take off back to the capital city of Elfied, bringing both good and bad news. Rululan who was now sitting on the back finally had time to relax on the flight and was even quick enough to doze off, "Rululan" Vallier's voice woke him up, "Hmn?" he asked while opening his eyes slowly, "Your talent in tracking... no, in analyzing is noteworthy" Vallier commended him, his tone gentle yet stern. Rululan didn't know how to respond with the sudden praise from a higher-up and he just bowed in return. "After the meeting on the Elfied hall, I will return to Vanguard" Rululan was now more awake after hearing his words "You're not staying?" he asked, Vallier didn't reply and his faerie dragon seemed to coo on his question, after realizing that he made his question seem quite wierd and disrespectful, Rululan's face flushed red and he quickly thought of a way to redeem those words. "I will not" Vallier replied, Rululan sighed in relief after his reply, their flight continued on and throughout the whole journey they were both silent, except for the ones behind them.
"Make it stop please I beg of you! put me down!" Mymyrr shouted voice already in the verge of breaking and eyes tearing up. "Just a little bit more Mymyrr, well be landing in no time" General Rudlert laughed, Mymyrr didn't hear any of his words and was shaking the whole ride whimpering at how high they are "I want my dad!!!" he shouted once more and this time his voice finally cracked, clammors of laughter echoed at the sky as they listened to Mymyrr's cries of agony once more. As they were gently flying across the sky, Rululan dozed off once more, and without anyone to wake him up, he finally drifted off to his dreams.
..
...
....
"Jian!"
.
.
.
"Jian!"
"Jian... how... how could you?!"
"...devil"
"...a fool..."
"Retribution!"
"JIAN!"
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.
.
..
...
"Stop!" Rurulan shouted, voice trembling, Mymyrr who was sitting next to his bed abruptly stopped munching on his food and stared at Rurulan in shock. "Mymyrr?" Rululan's eyes wandered around, a dream... another of those dreams, he clenched his fists and stared intently into space, "Hey!" Mymyrr's voice brought him back to reality, "Hm?" he replied, Mymyrr's face was now fuming with anger, "Don't just 'hm' me! I was taking care of you ever since we landed in the capital and all you did was yell 'STOP!' in my face while I was eating and stare at me like I harrassed you or something!" Mymyrr was almost bawling his whole lungs out from scolding him, Rululan couldn't help but wheeze and snicker at his friends sudden outburst, "Oh now your laughing?!" Mymyrr was more infuriated, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was another dream" Rululan spoke while holding himself from laughter.
After composing himself once again, and finishing his meal, Mymyrr led Rululan back to the main hall of the Palace, after arriving at the capital Rululan was worn out from the battle and was deep in sleep so the higher ups decided to give him a well deserved rest. The others however, General Rudlert and Templar Vallier, needed to report back to the hall as fast as possible in order to examine and plan out ways of proetection and attacks in future events. After the meeting, General Rudlert went to Mymyrr's father to have a talk about what happened as well as to warn the border control to heighten their defenses. Meanwhile, Templar Vallier bid farewell and flew back to the Vanguard Empire as he also needed to warn his men and their people.
Mymyrr told everything that Rululan missed while he was asleep and Rululan couldn't help but feel sorry for not being able to say goodbye and thank you to Templar Vallier, "He did visit you before he left" Mymyrr added, "Did he?" Rululan asked, Mymyrr nodded and then pointed to his chest, "He gave you 'that' as a gift, he said, and he then flew away without a word" Mymyrr explained, Rululan's hand went to examine the spot Mymyrr pointed and he felt a cold metallic object around his upper right chest, he took it off to look at it and realized it was a brooch. It was yellow and shaped like a cloud with wings on both end and a halo on the top, it almost resembles the heavenly realm.
The two finally arrived at the entrance of the hall, and before they entered, they were greeted by the Prince, "Prince Alfior" Mymyrr greeted with a bow, Rululan followed, Prince Alfior smiled and bowed back, "Finally awake aren't we?" he asked as he glanced at Rululan, Rululan smiled in response, another man came up to them, it was General Rudlert, before talking to the boys he bowed to the Prince, "Have you finished sending the word?" Prince Alfior asked "Yes your highness" General Rudlert replied. The two higher ups bowed to each other and motioned the two boys to enter the hall, the doors opened and revealed that most of the Elfieds other than them are already seated at their chairs. They stood up and bowed at the presence of the Prince, but Mynyrr couldn't help but feel utterly proud after seeing them bow and he held his chin up, "what are you doing?" Rululan asked, "I feel proud, is that wrong?" he retorted, "haha its not but keep your chin down, you look like a penguin" Rululan joked as they sat on their chairs, Mymyrr was visibly pouting throughout the meeting after hearing Rululan's joke.
They talked about the demon back at the silent forest and the amount of adventurers it killed, as well as its origin and how Rululan managed to know its weak spot. Their topic further continued on to the types of defenses they can use in order to protect the Elfieds from any more danger, as well as asking and warning other Empires about the rise of the demons. The king had already ordered messengers to depart tomorrow in order to relay the message in the other two empires while the Vanguard Empire had already been informed through Templar Vallier. After hours of discussion, the meeting was finally adjourned.
Michtus Capital, Vanguard Empire
"Great priest, Templar Vallier has returned" a knight bowed as he spoke, an old man wearing a priest hat and long moonlit robes motioned him to go and fulfill his other duties, he then stood up and walked towards the entrance to greet Templar Vallier's return. "Vallier! the heavens had protected you throughtout your travels, how was the journey my child?" He spoke in a gentle tone, Vallier knelt down with his head bowing, "There is great evil resonating within the world, i believe they had awakened" Vallier's words sent shivers down the High Priest's spine. Without a word he motioned everyone to have a meeting.
Before they could even move out from their position, a wounded and a half dead knight came runnung towards them, "What happened?" Vallier asked as he propped the dying knight to his dragons back and motioned it to head the the healing ward, "d-demons..." the wounded knight whimpered, Vallier and the High Priest were shocked with what the knight just said, "Templar Vallier.. High Priest Miivus, demons are attacking us in all directions!" the knight frantically spoke as he trembled in great fear, "Vallier" the priest spoke, Vallier knelt and readied to unsheathe his sword but the High Priest stopped him "Go my child" he spoke "but!" Vallier's eyes couldn't belief it, "we were blind from the ambush, this fight is inevitable, go search help my best student, may the heavens guide you" as he spoke these words Vallier's dragon swooped down and took him furyher away for the Empire.