From that night on I became the apprentice to a stoic man by the name of Darwin Bales. He was the former son of a wealthy nobleman who had left the family in order to pursue a life under the guidance of his god. He was a kind and wonderful man who knew his way around swords as an experienced sword master as well as a thing or two about daggers and knives. Through him I honed my skills in sword fighting, training under his teachings during the day, and polishing those skills at night while everyone slept.
"Ah, Tristan, my boy. Every day you seem to get better and better with that sword. Maybe one day you will surpass me." Darwin chuckled one night as he walked into the training area.
"Anything to get to my goal, sir," I said, panting from the practice.
"Well, you won't get to your goal if you keep neglecting your health like this," Darwin replied, his voice filling with concern. "Tristan, why do you fight?" he followed up.
I paused myself from taking another swing at the practice dummy. It had been six months since I joined the Ocrilian Paladins guild in pursuit of the criminal that almost took everything from me. The memories of that day came flooding back to me along with the emotions I felt. I released them through my sword and onto the training dummy as I cut another one to pieces. I did not reply to Darwin.
"Tristan, you do not need to tell me. I can tell that you have come here due to a traumatic past, but revenge should not be the thing that keeps you going. What will happen to you if you exact your revenge?" He said, sounding more like a concerned father instead of a mentor.
"Traumatic is an understatement sir. If you knew what I've been through, even you would do the same." I said coldly, taking another swing at the dummy that was now barely hanging by a thread.
Darwin just nodded in understanding. Knowing he could not convince me to at least sleep, he left me to my silent training. He did not stop guiding me, knowing full well that even though my goals were different from his, it did not stop him from training me to my fullest to become an outstanding Paladin. I will always be grateful for his generosity to me.
During that time, I discovered that I had a strange ability to perceive my opponent's next move moments before they had acted upon it. My reaction time was beyond normal and this helped me rise through the ranks. Before I knew it, I had been promoted to a Paladin of Order. This allowed me to join a group of other Paladins to wander the country to bring law and order to the most rural of places. For an entire year, I roamed that nasty countryside partially looking for Luca among the criminals and thieves we were tasked to bring justice to. I would often think of what the old lady had said and tried to think of a way to bring back Rea. The pain and heartbreak from that day always seemed to chase after me as I tried to get along with my fellow Paladins.
One day we rode into a small village near the Echos/Aplos border. The village seemed deserted and oddly quiet. Some homes seemed to have been broken into while others kept the doors and shutters locked tight as if trying to keep something or someone out. One of the men got off their horse and attempted to knock on one of those doors.
It was quiet at first, but after a moment we heard the sounds of feet walking slowly on dirt floors. I could hear the ruffling of a dress as a middle-aged woman opened the door. I and my horse reared back from the order that came from the home, the man who had knocked started coughing, trying hard not to gag from the putrid smell of rotten food and fecal matter. The woman herself did not look so well as her face was the dirtiest thing I had ever seen. I had almost mistaken her for an old woman or a rat had it not been for her green eyes that darted back and forth between all of us.
"What do you men want? I have nothing left to give you." The woman barked as she tried to comb her hand through messy yellow hair.
"Ma'am, we were just passing through when we noticed the state of this village. We are from the Ocrilian Paladin Order. Could you tell us what happened here?" The man asked.
The woman spits off to the side. "It's about damn time someone came here to fix this problem. If you can, that is." The woman said.
"I don't understand ma'am, would you care to tell us more?" He pushed.
"Had it not been for the state of this place I would let you in. Hopefully, no one will hear us out here so I'll make this quick." She said as she looked around. She pointed at the man and then gestured to all of us in the group.
"If you boys stay a night in this village, y'all will be dead before sunrise. But you cannot stay in the surrounding area either. There's a demon that lives somewhere on these quiet roads. He's been stealing and killing young men and women and acting like he's the king of this place. I tell you now, leave this area as soon as you can and do not stop at any inn near here. He lives in one of them and any guest that enters never leaves. Get out of here." The woman said as pain filled her voice. Whatever had happened here took away something precious from her.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry to push for more but what has he done to this place? Do you know what he looks like? Could you please give more details?" The man said. My horse moved a tiny bit as I adjusted myself on the saddle. Could this be? I thought. Something screamed within me not to stay here but curiosity and a small thought at the back of my mind kept me from running off.
"He comes every night and tries to break into homes that are not fortified well. He's not from here, he looks like he's from Aplos closer to the border of Mesmoewana. He came here about a year and a half ago. He kidnaps children and slowly picks off whole families. He did that to mine, took my little boy, and probably killed my daughter. He's not human I tell you." The woman said, breaking into tears.
The man who knocked leaned down and tried to console her. "No worries ma'am, we will stop this criminal and hopefully get your son back."
The woman just kept sobbing. Every now and again she would make gurgling sounds that hardly formed words. My throat clenched at the site as the pit of my stomach fell hard. The man got back on his horse and we rode off.
"Does anyone understand what that woman meant?" One of the other men asked as we got to the outskirts of the village.
"I don't know but we may have ourselves a serious criminal around here." Another said.
"Whatever he's done, I do not want to see what he did with those villagers he's taken. If it's what my imagination is saying." said the man beside me. I didn't add anything to the conversation, instead, I continued to ride in silence as the men around me carried on their conversation.
Soon, evening fell. Having spent hours riding we had gotten tired and decided to stop at the nearest inn to rest. In the distance, an old two-story building popped up along our route. Being the first inn we had seen for a while we decided to stop in. Had I not been so tired during the trip, I would have noticed the sickening atmosphere within that place.
The moment we walked in, I caught the scent of fresh blood. But it seemed so faint that I assumed that the inn had its own animals for slaughter and did so in the back of the kitchen. A young woman stood at the bar cleaning one of the larger glasses. Her skin was pale and sunken on her face, light brown hair sat limp in short locks that looked as if she had cut it herself in a crude manner. The woman's eyes were so dull I almost thought that there was nothing but dark holes in her face. She seemed to be vacant of life as she wobbled and stumbled behind the bar trying to fix us drinks. I couldn't help but notice how thin she was as if I was being served by an animated skeleton.
"Ma'am, have you heard of the recent disappearances and kidnappings that may have happened within this area?" The man who asked the older woman in the village spoke up again.
The woman said nothing but rushed to the kitchen. It seemed that she was going to grab a meal for us. Our table was silent as we heard whispering in the back followed by the sounds of flesh hitting flesh multiple times. Many of us at the table flinched at the noise. I could feel us all have a collective pity for the poor woman and disrespect for the man whom we assumed was her husband but had never been introduced to yet.
The kitchen doors pushed open as the woman rushed out with plates of meat. On her face, which seemed to stretch all the way across, was a bright red handprint. She put the plates down in front of us before running back behind the bar. She seemed to have disappeared underneath the counter in fear. It looked to us that her husband would be joining us soon. I almost expected to see a large, bellowing man flaunt his ego until a familiar voice came from behind me.
"Hello Gentlemen, I hope you all are having a wonderful evening." The voice said. I felt the cold shivers run up and down my spine. It couldn't be, how-"
And then I remembered what the woman in the village said. Everything she had described and the timing, it was too perfect. The description of his appearance down to when he fled to this village was right after his failed experiment, right after he killed Caldon and almost killed Rea too. A fire started to build up inside me, but I hesitated. I didn't want to strike, not yet. I had to wait for the right opportunity to exact my revenge.
"My apologies if my … wife has caused you any deal of trouble." The voice said as the sound of the door swinging clicked behind him. We all stood up, I turned around to find Luca grinning with delight as he quickly recognized me. I noticed the bloodstains upon his apron. Something told me that that was not animal blood.
"My my, Tristan. It's been a while hasn't it?" He said condescendingly. "I'm surprised you're still alive at this point. Would Rea's death not be the thing you killed yourself over?" He prodded me, but I forced myself not to retaliate.
"T-that, is that h-human?" One of the men pointed at Luca's apron. Luca looked down and started laughing. It was maniacal and it continued for a solid minute, making me feel sicker than I already was.
"Oh my, I must give you a free drink sir! You guessed it faster than any of my other guests ever could! You know, usually, they wouldn't know until they ate it or not at all. And the ones who didn't figure it out, I usually had to kill while they were drunk. It's no fun killing them when they stumble around on their drunk asses. The fear doesn't register as quickly like when they're sober." Luca said full of enthusiasm.
"And now Tristan is here! I can finally finish what I couldn't do almost two years ago. It's a shame that Rea had to go through that. Such a lovely thing that I could use for my own pleasure. I mean that's why I didn't call her down, I was going to celebrate by making her squirm underneath me." Luca continued. Hearing what he was planning to do with Rea made me almost vomit. How could he think to do that to her? They were so close since we met but was she really nothing but a piece of warm meat to him? I gritted my teeth trying to control myself.
"Oh well, at least I rid the world of that other idiot. Whatever his name was." Luca said, seeming to not pay attention to the group of armed men who had just drawn their swords out.
I clenched my sword to the point where I thought it might break. This crazed psychopath before me, was this how he always had been? To think I let this lunatic into my homemade me regret taking him in all those years ago. He just kept laughing as my group readied themselves for an attack. I too did the same.
"Caldon," I whispered.
"Hm? What was that Tristan? I couldn't hear you." Luca chided me. I raised my sword and readied myself to lunge at this demon in human flesh before me.
"Caldon. His name was Caldon asshole and you'll pay for what you did to him and Rea!" I shouted as I lunged towards Luca, ready to take the first strike.
Luca grinned ear to ear without fear as the tip of the blade reached the edge of his nose. Before my blade could pierce his skull, it stopped mid-air. With that, every muscle and ligament within my body froze. Time seemed to almost stop around me as I watched my men freeze in motion. The realization and shock could not spread across their face but I could see it from their eyes. Whatever Luca was doing seemed to give him the upper hand and I was to surely die that very night.
"My, my, it's a shame that I have to waste such a good Sola. But I'll look on the bright side, you are here Tristan. The one person I've known for all my life is here. We need to really catch up. But first, let me just tend to the guests...properly." Luca's face turned into a distorted and demonic grin as he pulled out a larger bloody butcher's knife from behind his back.
Slowly and very calmly he walked up to each man in my group. Taking the knife, Luca cut a long deep gash into each one of their throats. Blood did not spill from their wounds, but I could see the life drain from their eyes as time marched on at an incredibly slow pace. Once he had finished killing everyone but me, he wiped the blood off the knife, held it in the air, and laughed.
"Oh boy! This has probably been the most fun I've ever had. Just like pigs in a pen, you boys give the best expressions. It's a shame I can't feel them." He kicked one of the bodies in the gut. As soon as his foot touched the dead man, the body flew over the bar and into the mirror behind it. Luca kept laughing.
"You know, your meat is gonna be a bit tough. 'Strong' Paladin's like you are a bit chewy due to the muscle but that's fine. I'll be stocked on meat until the next herd of piggies comes in. Though it is truly a shame that you boys were not able to eat the meal I worked so hard to prepare for you. I need some way to get rid of the evidence but it's always good to restock the freezer before winter." He said, licking his lips before turning to me.
"Now, our little chat." He said, placing the tip of the blade to my jugular. How strange it was to feel the prick as it entered the first layer of skin. If I was able to shiver, I would. I now knew exactly how those men felt as this crazed lunatic of a man took their lives in one long stroke.
"Want to know something, Tristan? Caldon is not completely dead." Luca gestured to his chest as his eyes grew wide and bloodshot. "He's right here, Tristan. You've been in the same room with him the entire time." He pulled away, laughing harder than he had been before.
"This whole thing, Tristan, this whole thing is all him. You can't blame me for his abilities, I'm only borrowing them for my own plans. It's so amazing, I didn't know that fucking idiot had so much power to him. I'm so glad I killed him." Luca paused to catch his breath," Oh how I've been able to finish experiments days faster than what I originally thought possible. I've been able to collect my specimens at a record pace! My latest one, look at her! I created her. Though useless she maybe, I was able to transfer another woman's whole Sola into her body!" He gestured to the woman who, frozen in time like the rest of us, seemed to be peeking over the bar.
"Unfortunately her original Sola was unable to take on the new body and was rejected immediately but to see that one did survive is a great accomplishment for my personal science. Ah, a miracle that people will talk about for the ages. And who knew that it would start with that little basement attempt to set it all in motion." Luca removed the blade from my throat, placed the tip on his thumb, and twisted it. For a few moments, he stood there in silence, reminiscing about the past and gloating on how great he was to have killed so many people for his sick game. I could do nothing but stare at the wall in front of me, filling with rage as Luca continued to drone on.
Partway through his rant, my body started to grow hot. It was as if the core of my being radiated with such a heat that I soon felt time start again, but only by a few milliseconds. Luca, not knowing what had just happened, moved back over to me and placed the knife in its original spot against my throat.
"Now I know I seem to be talking nonstop about everything you missed about me in the last year or so, but can you blame me? I hardly got a word in when I was living with you. And I must say, I never knew you were such an excellent listener Tristan." He leaned in closer to me, "It's a shame I haven't felt the need to kill you as quickly as I did with the others. Maybe I just need to vent." Luca said as he laughed in my face.
He moved the knife to my stomach. " It's funny though, how contradictory that is. Because the thought of you living right now, this entire time, for all these years, for the fact that I had to even meet you alive fills me with disgust." I felt the knife pierce through the armor and into my flesh. Pain tore through my body, but at that moment, the world around me dissolved in a blur as my body continued in the same action I had left off with.
Luca was barely able to react as he dodged by falling back as the blade went over his head. The madness in his eyes subsided as pure fear filled him. I stood straight up only to hunch over to cup my hand over my wound.
"H-h-h-h-how were you able to break out of that? There's no way you could have!" Luca stuttered as he tried to crawl over to the nearest corner.
I said nothing as I limped over to him. How funny it was that at the moment he lost his hold on the situation, Luca became nothing more than a wimpy child. I looked down on him, giving him the same toothy grin he had given me. I extended the blade of my sword and placed it over his heart. I could feel it beat frantically under the tip of my blade.
"You know Luca, I was planning to have this huge monologue about how much I've wanted to kill you since the day you took everything from me. But seeing how arrogant, egotistical, and just plain narcissistic like you are, I'll keep it short." I leaned on the handle of the sword, using my weight to push it into his heart slowly. I heard his whimpering turn into screaming as my sword went through his chest. As soon as the screaming subsided, I gave a long look at the body that lay beneath me. His face, much like the woman who now moved around the bar and crawled over to one of the tables to observe me, was sunken and malnourished. So much more different than when we had lived under the same roof. It seemed, to me, that the madness and whatever he had been eating for the past year or so seemed to go hand in hand. He was a man drunk on his own lust for power, the need to be better than those around him, the need to be the person who ruled over the world. I remembered Rea telling me about Luca's dream to do exactly that. In life, and even now in death, Luca was a pitiful man.
I felt no sympathy for him. Only the feeling of relief washed over me as I turned to inspect the scene before me. Blood had splattered all over the place. On tables, chairs, even the walls. The six bodies of my deceased comrades laid in different positions on the floor in the exact way they fell, having long been dead before they could even cusp the wounds on their necks. I saw the woman walk over to me. From ear to ear she gave me the biggest, happiest smile I had ever seen. The woman was filled with so much joy that I couldn't help but smile back at her. She crouched down beside me. The world around me slowly started to fade to black.
I felt a cool hand on my shoulder as the same temperature of breath whispered in my ear. The darkness crept in as I heard the woman speak for the first time.
"Thank you." She said as she got up and walked over to Luca's corpse. Not being able to hold myself up anymore, I fell to the floor in a heap. I panted as I watched the world fade away, just like that day. But instead of Rea running to me within the blinding light as my last memory, I watched the woman pick up the butcher's knife. She inspected it for a moment before stabbing herself in the stomach. She dragged the knife from one end of her abdomen to the other, all her internal organs spilling out onto the floor.