A legend is born whether they succeed splendidly or fail miserably. Tales are weaves of a myriad of views and opinions and through it, history lives on. But is it really what truly happened?
Krieg could remember the day the war ended. Cheers, endless voices and happiness, all combined in a surging explosion of emotion only brought to the people by their savior. Queen Eleonora.
The Knight Queen Eleonora, a woman of bottomless conviction with a merciful hand to do right by those who were wronged, a beacon of hope forever engraved in humanity's history. Her achievements couldn't reach such proportions if not for those who walked the same path. Krieg was one of them, but despite what he had achieved, it was all lost when the people came to know he was a half demon, or demi-human.
Even Krieg himself wasn't sure what he was anymore and time and time again he would stare at his own hands and ask himself.
'What am I?'
The further he investigated, more questions started to arise, but no one could really answer them since the only one who knew about the truth was Eleonora. Still, after the war was over, he wished to know who his parents really were, why he came to western lands if he was born in the east. Life was always difficult for him, even as a high ranking officer in the Arcadian army, but the thought of giving up never crossed his mind so he wanted to know why he was abandoned. Why would their parents give up on him like that?
"Sire Krieg?"
Phoebe's voice woke him up from the dream, he blinked a few times before his vision could adjust to the early morning sunlight hitting his eyes directly from between the leaves of the tree looming over him. The elf's blurry image was just visible on the very edge of his helmet's visor, her worry wasn't apparent at first until she started to talk.
"Oh, you are awake, thank the heavens. You seemed so deep in your sleep I thought something had happened."
He tried to brush off the drowsiness by fixing the helmet on his head and blinking a few more times until his vision focused on her face, she seemed too wide awake to have had any sleep.
"Sorry Phoebe, the fatigue finally caught up to me."
His left hand was still clutching the greatsword scabbard firmly, his body couldn't easily forget the years of sleeping in the battlefield. Noticing how quiet the morning was, he stood up and leisurely hung the leather strap on his left shoulder before turning to Phoebe.
"Where is Princess Leona?"
"Oh, she's still asleep."
She glanced to the tree where the horse had been hitched, Leona lying with her head against the same tree. The steed seemed to be already awake as well and was standing quietly brushing the tail sideways as it looked to the duo.
Glancing around, the forest was strangely quiet, aside from the sound of the whistling breeze passing through the foliage, nothing else seemed to be alive in the Great Forest. The rain from the day before still showed its effect as most of the place was damp. The clearing they were in thankfully wasn't too affected by it but it was still somewhat cold.
Krieg approached the horse while trying to not make too much noise so the Princess could sleep some more, he took a thick brown blanket out of the bag tied to the side of the steed, the ones knights usually take for long voyages to stave off the cold of the night and covered Leona's slim figure with it. He sat down near her while watching the surroundings for movement, meanwhile Phoebe decided to take a better look around the vicinity by grabbing the nearest tree branch and swinging her body upwards above the ground. From treetop to treetop, she started to cover a large area around their camp, circling around and checking for anything that could catch her attention.
'It's awfully quiet.'
A gentle breeze swayed the foliage back and forth a few times, brushing it against the elf's face as she tried to gaze beyond the top of the trees, the early morning fog kept her from having a full view of the expansive forest. Upon squinting her eyes, she noticed a strange bright glow between trees not too far from where she was. She gazed at the sun partially blocked by the fog and clouds.
"Damm…"
She backtracked to the way she came hastefully with each step taking less time to propel her forward, but none of the branches she stepped on seemed to even bend from her feather footed retreat. Once she spotted the clearing, she landed violently against the tree where the horse was hitched to and a second later the sound of unsheathing steel singed the air, Krieg was wielding the blade with two hands but the moment he saw the elf his shoulders relaxed. He lowered the blade but didn't sheath it, Leona was still asleep behind him when he asked.
"What happened Phoebe?"
"A death angel not too far to the east, it was glowing so I think it's healing itself."
Krieg grunted under his breath. He hastily unhitched the horse and started to gently shake Leona's body.
"Nnnngh… whaaat…?"
While still a little drowsy, the Princess' eyes slowly opened as her body was being shaken. Krieg motioned with his head to Phoebe as she went to prepare the horse. Leona slowly blinked herself awake as she took the thick blanket off her body, she glanced at the knight staring at her before speaking in a half asleep tone.
"Krieg? Are we leaving soon?"
He nodded before taking one last quick look around the vicinity and extending his hand to her.
"Phoebe spotted a death angel healing itself not far from here, we must leave soon."
The mention of a death angel instantly woke her up as her eyes went wide. She never actually saw one personally, but the illustrations she often found on soldier's sketches were enough to send chills down her spine. Having access to full reports of fights led by the Crossford's personal order of knights, it wasn't an easy effort to stave off the death angel threat, some eventually got past the dwarven citadel and it was their job to deal with such foes. But with the continuous problem in the Arcadian capital regarding humans and demons, most of the knights were reallocated as royal guards, as it was a request from the head commander himself.
Leona knew that even if they were able to reach the dwarven city, it was just a matter of time before the loose death angel could wreak havoc again. Her eyes had a spark of determination as she looked at the knight.
"Krieg, can't we do anything about it? It's supposedly weak right? Maybe we could ambush it with Phoebe's skill with the bow."
He would always be taken aback by that glimmer in her eyes, it was a hopeful gaze and it was thanks to her that he began to think about the bigger picture whenever she mentioned her plans. 'Think outside the box.' was her way of doing things, that was probably one of the things she had learned from her mother. Leona was clever and bold, but everyone makes mistakes and Krieg wasn't going to allow her to be put in danger, even if it was for the greater good.
"With all due respect, I don't think it's wise for us to search for it. It may be weakened to the point of having to heal itself but in small numbers like we are, there would be casualties and I can't possibly risk putting you in such danger."
She lowered her head while closing her right hand in a tight fist, she knew it was reckless, but after she saw what had happened with others, she couldn't let it stand like that.
"Then, at least let us head to Akrapocalis as fast as we can. That way we can at least let them know there is a monster loose in this area."
He nodded in agreement. She packed the thick blanket in a tight roll and handed it to him, as she didn't know quite well where it came from. He stuffed it inside the horse's saddle bag and Phoebe who finished preparing the steed helped her get up.
"Thank you Phoebe."
The elf bowed slightly before heading ahead of them to scout for danger. While Leona didn't like to leave such dangerous affairs to her, she was the only one who could do that without risking exposing herself, unlike the heavily armored knight beside her.
Krieg was staring at the road in front of them for a few seconds before turning to face the princess.
"Princess."
"Yes?"
Leona replied nonetheless, she was still accustomed to him calling her Princess after all. He lifted the face protection in order to see her eye to eye and in a serious tone, he said.
"No matter what happens to us, you must reach the dwarven fortress."
"What are you saying Krieg? We'll get there together."
The knight closed his left hand in a tight fist in anger. Anxiety was building up inside him since he never fought a death angel before, not knowing what his possible opponent could do made him fear for the worse, but Leona was doing the right thing, that was no time to panic, if anything he had to stay focused in reaching the citadel.
"Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
Leona smiled before turning to the road and taking a slow, deep breath. She took the reins and the horse started to trot through the muddied path, Krieg made sure to not fall behind by jogging beside them while still holding the scabbard strap against his left shoulder. The rain from the previous night had stopped completely by the time they set off to Akrapocalis, though its effect were blatantly clear on the dirt road as it worsened it considerably, even in a brisk pace, the horse's hooves would slip ever so slightly, throwing off Leona's balance. She struggled to keep her back straight as they traversed the mud, shaking her body one side to the other. It was uncomfortable, but seeing Krieg jog through the same terrain made her determined to go through it safely.
He always put a lot of effort in seeing to her safety and that made her glad, but also worried her as he would often put her well-being above his own. Seeing him tread through the mud when there was enough grass on the sides of the road only to be by her side made her feel guilty.
"Krieg, careful to not slip."
"I'm okay, this is nothing."
They made some progress even on the soaked road and soon, from the top of her steed, Leona saw the eerie glowing light of the supposed wounded death angel, showing off in the distance atop of the trees. A chill went down her spine, after all, it was a monster that could easily tear a man to shreds, even knights with their heavy armor were at its mercy. The only way to deal with them was ranged fire and even so, it would take a lot of effort to bring it down.
'Everything will be fine… everything will be fine, it's healing itself, it won't bother searching around.'
She constantly repeated in her mind to ease herself. Even though she didn't show Krieg, her fear of ever encountering one of those beasts was much more than she could handle, no amount of planning could prepare her to face such monstrosities herself.
"We are still far from the citadel but I believe we'll reach it today at this pace."
Krieg made an observation after estimating the distance of the stone walls in the horizon. It only takes a few days of traveling on foot and less so on horseback. The darkened sky blocked most of the sunlight from the forest, leaving a dark and eerie environment to the otherwise lively forest, sounds of water droplets falling from the damp leaves on the ground were the only thing Leona could hear beside the brisk steps in the mud.
Tension rose the closer they got to the dull white light illuminating the forest to the south of them. But then, something caught the Princess' eyes.
"Krieg… why did the light suddenly vanish?"
"Huh?"
He looked towards where the light was and there was nothing illuminating the area, only a violent sound of vegetation being torn apart as something was tearing through whatever was between them and those two. The moment the knight heard those sounds, he swung his scabbard in front of him only managing to partially block the hulking white monster that charged in Leona's direction.
Her eyes went wide as it was merely meters away from her. A muscular humanoid creature of pale white skin, its head was filled with vertical eyelids that opened and closed discontinuously, the mouth was a horrible crevice that extended from its face down to the abdomen with many sharp teeth lined up in a way that it could shred anything unfortunate enough to be caught between its vertical jaws.
Krieg didn't even have time to unsheath the blade and was instead struggling to keep the creature's folded arms from breaking his hold, but the ground underneath the knight's foot was starting to give in from the monstrous strength the creature possessed.
The horse lifted both front legs as it was frightened by the relentless beast beside it. Leona had to hold tight to the reins to not be thrown back into the mud. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the divine monster until Krieg shouted at her.
"LEONA RUN!"