Place: Land of Gingetsu.
Time: Unknown.
In the vast terrain is the demon Asmodeus and his servant Shiro Hannya, the latter is covering a large hole in the ground, the depth of which cannot be measured, but ensures a sudden death, with leaves and branches to camouflage well what could to be the grave of the unwary.
Asmodeus: Our plan will be more of the strategic type, I cannot allow you another failure.
Shiro: Yes, my lord.
Asmodeus: We will separate these humans in two ways, on the one hand, the royal knight and the human, they will fall into this pit, and because they do not possess powers they will surely die. For my part, the mage and the dragon will fall before my incredible power. Is everything clear?
Shiro: Yes my lord ... but what will be my role in this?
Asmodeus: Reduce your power so you can take off the mask, you will be at the level of a human, but that will be the fourth for you to ask for their help, you will give them both directions and so they will have no choice but to divide.
Shiro: Understood, I will be on my way.
Asmodeus: One thing, while I'm fighting you should have already come back, so if you don't, I will use my power to forcefully bring you with me.
Shiro: If that's your decision, I will follow it.
Asmodeus: Very well, let's start the process of reducing your power.
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Log of September 8, 1945.
At sunrise, our next goal began. The trip would probably be more dangerous, knowing that there is someone who is monitoring us very closely, and even so, the others do not seem to worry as I do, of course, I am not afraid to die but that lives of innocent people are at stake... i don't care about my own life, because I'm living a live i don't deserve.
Two horses were assigned to us by orders of Queen Margaret Balliol, who also told us the route to follow to reach our destination, although she could not provide us with a map with the route drawn due to the uncertainty that it fell into other hands. The four of us split to be on the horses, Shigeru and Tokage riding one horse while Hekima and I will ride the other. My horse riding skills may not be the best but I do have some army training to ride if necessary.
Due to my low ammo count, I was provided with a dagger. I plan to find a way to make myself more ammunition in the future, if I get the necessary resources. In this place the society has a medieval look, however here the cannons have already been invented, so somewhere there must be gunpowder.
As we go, we find more villages, mainly merchants. The outskirts of the kingdom were undoubtedly appropriate for merchants to establish themselves and acquire protection from it. This journey will be totally dangerous, to be honest i don't care about my own life, i have a lot of this to repent so dying while helping the others would only be a way to clean myself from my mistakes and the lives i lost for them...
Before I continued thinking, I had a serious conversation with the others about their recent attitudes in that bar.
Giorgio: Please, if you are going to celebrate something, that is after completing the mission, if someone from the kingdom sees you completely drunk, obviously the word will spread and they will discredit us, making us not have the support of the kingdom. That's something Shigeru should be concerned about, since you had the idea and could have put your job on the line.
Shigeru: My most honest apologies, Mr. Lombardi. I was simply looking to connect before embarking on this journey.
Tokage: For my part, I don't feel so bad ... I only had a few drinks ... now, you and Hekima acted as you've became lovers...
Hekima: Hey! That was not what happened, i was simply under the influence of alcohol. Nothing I did was thought... *sigh* although I can't stop thinking that was my first kiss...
Giorgio: A pity. But that serves as a lesson for everyone.
Hekima: Can we pretend that none of this happened?
Giorgio: Good for me.
As we continue on the road, we notice something in the distance. The same woman from the previous day ran from one side to another, as if she were looking for something. The moment she saw us, she ran towards us ...
Shiro: Please help us! We are being attacked by demons!
Shigeru: Please, my lady, stay calm, tell us what happened and where.
Shiro: Two demon attacks occurred, near the lake ten meters from here and in a field one kilometer from where we are.
Shigeru: Could you tell us how many people there were!?
Shiro: No, but I'm sure there weren't that many, but you will have to rush to help as many as possible!
Shigeru: We have no choice, we have to divide!
Tokage: I choose to go with Giorgio!
Hekima: *sigh* We don't have time to decide this kind of thing, I'll go with Takamoto-san!
Once we redistributed and Shiro got on our horse, we rode in different directions at the highest possible speed, in this way we could inform ourselves that we would overcome possible obstacles.
On our side, we arrived at the place Shiro had indicated to us but in the distance nothing was seen...
In an instant, the horse threw us to the ground with force, no doubt something hit him... for better or worse it gave him time to react and throw us away... The horse fell on the ground but this turned out to be false, it was a trap camouflaged... unfortunately the horse fell to certain death... Tokage and I turned to see that Shiro was in a combat room ...
Shiro: Seriously you are fools, you couldn't smell the danger even if I was in front of you!
Shiro ran towards me trying to connect a blow but I grabbed her arm and subdued her so as not to engage in direct combat with her.
Giorgio: who do you work for!? Are you a subject of Behemoth!?
Shiro: *Trying to break free* I don't have the joy of being a subject yet but I'm a servant to one of his demons!
Giorgio: Wait...
Shiro: Yes, what you're probably thinking is that he's already churning the floor with your friends!
Shiro freed herself from my arms and kicked me in the stomach, I stepped back to reposition myself and responded with a punch so that it hit her head, but it seemed like she had resistance to pain...
At that moment I remembered that Tokage was with me and that she had a silver moon crystal so she would have to leave far before Shiro stole the crystal...
Giorgio: Tokage get out of here!
Tokage: I will not abandon you! We're friends!
Giorgio: This is not about friendship or loyalty! You literally have something she's looking for, get out of here! I'll take care of buying you time!
I continued fighting with Shiro but controlling my strength so as not to assassinate her, in this way I could extract information from our enemies... but Tokage was not leaving...
Giorgio: What are you waiting for!? You have to go, I don't know how much time I can give you so you better take advantage of it!
Tokage: Not at all, I came with you and I'm going with you! Also I have more power, if someone should be fighting it should be me!
Tokage created several rocks that she threw against Shiro, she backed away and covered herself but the damage that strong impacts did to her was notorious, so I decided to take out my weapon and shoot her to see what effect it had, this caused her to be exhausted but she looked at me with a different air as if it were a different person, indeed her eyes had a blue color...
Shiro: You have to help me! That demon implanted a curse on me! Excuse me if I attack you but I don't have-
Her eyes turned deep crimson red and he moved back into combat position...
Shiro: This is the end of your line!
Shiro pushed me and we both fell into the hole, I expected to quickly fall and hit the ground but Tokage held my right hand before I fell... Likewise I held Shiro... she may be our enemy but it's not her fault, there must be a way to free her from that supposed curse...
Tokage: Ugh! The weigh of both of you is too much for me...
Before we could be out of the hole, Shiro grabbed the dagger I had and stabbed me in the back, right near my limbs but in doing so I released her and she fell into the hole, disappearing into the darkness of the hole...
Tokage brought me up and I covered my wound with my left hand, my glove was stained red...
Giorgio: We must hurry, Hekima and Shigeru must be in great danger!
I started running but Tokage seemed not to...
Tokage: I will go, you should go to a close village and get that wound healed...
Giorgio: No, right now there are two lives at stake! I can't let them die by my fault! I can't let them die because of my mistake!
Tokage: And what about your life idiot!? All this time you have only said that you are looking to die to redeem yourself but that is stupid if you throw yourself instead of them!
Giorgio: I am a simple soldier I'm not important but they are relevant to the mission. Whether or not I die would affect less than the fact that they both die!
Tokage: Don't do this to me!
Tokage hugged my waist and looked at me with her eyes covered with tears...
Tokage: I already saw my family dying! I don't want to lose you or anyone else! I didn't break before because i didn't saw their corpses after the whole attack, but if you die here the image of your corpse and the guilt in my heart won't disappear!
Giorgio: Then follow me! If you don't want them and me to die just follow me!
She released me, nodded, and when I started running she kept pace with me. I can understand how she feels in fact, i even made the mistake that one friend of mine did, but right now we had little time...
As we accelerated the pace, I felt my strength was decreasing... I felt tired, my blood loss had generated enough waste of energy that at this point I did not know if I would arrive in time... But just once i held the desire to live and reach them before being too late.
I saw them in the distance, Hekima looked tired while Shigeru attacked with all his energy to try to ram the great demon that was stalking them. Tokage created a stone fist and shoved the demon, I fired five bullets at vital points and the demon fell to the ground, although it didn't take long for him to get up in anger...
Asmodeus: Damn brat! She couldn't deal with these two, she didn't even divide them as I ordered!
Hekima: * Breathing heavily * Good to see you... I didn't have much strength left...
I teamed up with Shigeru to hit the demon and before he got up, Tokage returned him to the ground with a stone fist. The demon then grasped his staff and generated a glare that temporarily blinded us, and when we opened our eyes, it was gone.
We spent the last few minutes bandaging ourselves with the aid kit that the queen left us on Takamoto's horse, although my comrades' wounds were less serious, mine had to be healed with magic and even that, I still felt tired ... Tokage leaned back next to me with a still worried face.
Giorgio: Sorry, I think I didn't think about how you felt when I ordered you to leave without me how selfish of me... in fact, I had a similar experience...
Tokage: Are you serious?
Giorgio: Yes... as you know, I entered the war when I was young, so many of my friends had also been forced to enter the battlefield... One of them, named Dante, died because of me, about what i could or couldn't do... That day the platoon was supposed to cover a perimeter against a French attack, but it was a complete massacre... a common level bomb was detonated near our headquarters and as a consequence, we were buried under rubble... my friend was fatally wounded And he ordered me to leave before the French platoon found me, but I said no... he had treated me like the brother I never had, he had given me a reason to smile even in times of war and I couldn't leave him. .. he insisted to the degree that I had no choice but to run away like a coward ... I heard how they arrived... how... they killed him in cold blood ... More Italian soldiers arrived and drove the French back but when I looked for him among the rubble, Dante had died because of me... if only I had stand by his side... if I carried him, he wouldn't have ended like this... The Weight of that day make me feel like my own life wasn't worth of his and that i couldn't smile ever again...
Tokage: And what did you do next?
Giorgio: I swore that I wouldn't smile again until the day of my death ... but, from what I see, I ended up doing the same as Dante...
Tokage: You don't have to feel bad about that ... I wouldn't have left you no matter how much you insisted.
Hekima: The same goes for us. It's a shame what happened to your friend, but if he meant a reason to live, then lift your head up and live! Don't expect a heroic death that is supposedly necessary to enmend your mistakes! If thanks to Dante you are still alive then live that life that he could not and stand against everything in your way!
It probably sounds stupid, but it's true ... I despised the life that was offered to me and I despised myself to the point of wanting to imitate Dante to redeem myself ... but it would only be a waste ... if I thought about living the life that thanks to Dante now he had, then he would have to continue this march, and seek redemption by freeing the kingdom of Gingetsu from these demons!
My eyes closed due to the high fatigue I had but I was sure that when I woke up, I would take advantage of my life and I would be ready to continue this journey!
End of the log.
To be continued...