The slanting rays of the setting sun gave a warm orange tinge to the sky as it casts a long shadow on the ground.
The two seem to have enjoyed watching Khalid doze off inside the carriage as they passed through trees and the rocky hill outside the known empire of Ammyrs.
No voices or snoring can be heard, only the harmonic singing of the birds and the neigh of the horses that were pulling the carriage that they were riding along with the coachman.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped in the middle of the island as soon as they arrived at some unknown place outside the empire.
Erwin picks outside the window to see what has happened as the cold breeze of the wind hugs his body, while Reinhardt quickly catches Khalid in his arms as he falls onto his seat.
They felt the heavy aura as the silence ate up the whole place. Erwin slowly got his long, sharpened sword that was given by Khalid. He carefully observed the scene as he found out that the coachman was no longer there and had seemed to vanish into thin air. As he searched the area, a sudden shadow attacked him from behind, which he quickly blocked.
"Argh!"
Erwin screamed as his face contorted with rage.
It was the coachman who had just riding their carriage earlier.
He stabbed it with its long swords, but it just turned into a cloud of smoke that made Erwin's eyes widen as he rushed to run towards the carriage where he left the two inside, but before he could even take another step, the carriage blew up with Reinhardt carrying the unconscious Khalid on his arms.
"We have been tricked!"
Reinhardt blurted in anger that was written all over his face.
They both look at the man who is wearing a full black leather coat and is covering his face with a shawl as it sways by the cool wind of the afternoon sunset. You can tell by just his clothing that it was an assassin from the Ammyrs empire.
"Milord?!"
Erwin's eyes widen as his eyeballs tremble when he sees Khalid's veins slowly turning purple on his pale body.
A sudden memory flashes right before his eyes: Khalid was simply drinking a bowl of soup with the coachman. He remembers the vicious look in his eyes up until now without knowing that he's a nefarious rat from the empire, as he undoubtedly puts poison on Khalid's food.
It made Erwin's face gloom as he emitted a dark reddish aura surrounding his body.
"How careless am I?"
He mumbled.
Reinhardt wraps Khalid's body with his cape.
"He will be dying soon. It's either give him to me or I kill you both."
The assassin briefly spoke with a serious tone as he waved the bottle of antidote in his hands.
Reinhardt's arisen with both feet carrying Khalid with his right hand while the other tightly holding the big ax as range painted on his face.
"NO ONE CAN COMMAND ME."
He tightly holds Khalid's body as it starts to turn cold and much paler than before.
The assassin just smiles, provoking the two, and then forms a sign on its hand as he casts a spell. The one person they were just facing has turned into a passel of his doppelgangers in just a second.
He tried to snatch him away from Reinhardt while using the illusion he had created to steal the unconscious Khalid that he was trying to avoid.
"No one can lay any hands on our Lord as long as I am breathing!"
Reinhardt exclaimed with his sonorous, rough voice.
He continuously avoids all the attacks before he puts Khalid down on the sand to prevent the poison from flowing into his body.
"R-Reinhardt...?"
He smiled in worry after hearing the little boy call out for his name and left Khalid lying on the sand as they continued the fierce and unending battle with the assassin doppelgangers.
Loud noises can be heard from afar from swords, axes, and knives that are crashing into one another. Khalid's eyes just locked up in the sky, where a blanket of stars slowly appeared right before his eyes.
'Oh! God! My body feels light.'
He can't seem to move an inch as if his body were paralyzed, but then he just sighs as he feels a little lethargic....The poison seems to have a weird effect on his body.
The wind started to blow a strong breeze as the caelum turned caligo in murklins, covering the golden sunset in the sky. It was when Reinhardt pointed his ax from above as he charged his energy into his weapon. It became much bigger and heavier in appearance, but the weapon didn't become a burden to attack the assassin as it was hiding from his doppelgangers.
Sonorous lightning and violent thunderstorms surround his ax and body.
"EL VIENTO SLASH!!"
He shouted as he swung the ax on his thousand doppelgangers.
Compelling wind creates a massive tornado that surrounds him, and in just a blink of an eye, the doppelgangers one by one turn into smoke as it was slashed by Reinhardt's ax creating a great impact that causes his anger just for Khalid's parastin, while Erwin uses it as an advantage to make a move towards the assassin that must have hurt himself from Reinhardt as a red liquid that has an iron-like smell drip on the sand.
The fight lasted until the assassin lost all his energy and left the three of them in complete exhaustion, but not so long after that, Erwin pointed his sword.
"Sword of Justice, Lluvia..."
He mumbled as he carried the sword that emitted a blueish-dark aura as he pointed it toward the assassin, and within a second, a blue-lightened sword rained upon him where he and the rest of his doppelgangers were standing.
The assassin tried to distance himself as he fell onto the two attacks and avoided the crowd of his dying doppelgangers, holding his other arms full of scratches and wounds that seemed to be injured and bleeding.
He was just about to charge and strike back with his last energy at the two when his eyes suddenly widened his face painted in shock when he saw Khalid slowly get up in the sand where he was left by Reinhardt.
"Impossible!"
The assassin left in complete shock as the purple-ish veins in Khalid's face and body were no longer there.
He just looks at him blankly. Lost in his thought, he became unaware of his surroundings and was left confused as the two distanced themselves, the ground shook as it made a big fract, and a huge serpere appeared from behind, with its worm-like body and a sharpening acantho tooth's that was covering its whole mouth. The assassin who was left oblivious to the scenario was completely devoured within a second and seemed to have been tempted by his blood.
When it was about to go back from the ground leaving the two knights in surprise, a monstrous big bird that was the size of an airplane ate the serpere and continued to fly when it was suddenly snatched and eaten by a sea monster residing deep underwater on the island that was colossal in size of the serpere and the monstrous bird.
With his four big crab claws, he eats the monstrous bird with its mouth as he rises in the sea.
Just like in the food web, a small and weak animal was bound to be eaten by a powerful predator, but at the top of the pyramid, it would just end up as the meal of a much bigger and more powerful predator, and that was the unending curse left by nature, either if you're going to prey or to be preyed.
The waves become bigger as they rise underwater. It was an enormous sea monster named Gravis that was living underneath the ocean. With a spiky, heavy turtle's shell, a long fish-like tail, and a spiky crab claw arm. His looks were hideous and much scarier and tougher than any other monster.
"Milord!"
Erwin shouted as they tried to get Khalid away from the gravis.
Reinhardt swung his ax that cut the gravis acantho arm; it just made a loud roaring sound as it completely got Khalid left in a supine position as it fought back with his long, spiky tail like fish that they avoided rather quickly.
Khalid was calm as he blankly stared into the sky with a long, soulless expression in his eyes.
"Is it my time to rest?"
He mumbled and formed a smile on his lips.
He looked down and saw thorns covering the gravis mouth with its acidic saliva; that must be the reason why the sea was colored a toxic black.
Khalid once again has fallen into the pit of his listless desire, his hands and feet swaying in the middle of the air as the gravis widely opens its mouth and slowly puts him closer in its acantho-acidic mouth.
He was about to close his eyes when he heard a feminine voice calling out for his name, which made his eyes widen. It's not Khalid De'l Urchtdorf, but rather the name he once wanted to erase from his mind.
"Hyun... Lee Hyun..."
A sweet, familiar, rosy voice has called that seems to be caressing his face.
"Survive."
As the voice continued to ring in his mind, it made him open his eyes in surprise, but as soon as he did, no one was there except for a vad Reinhardt who was carrying the gravis crab arm with a hostile glare, clenching his jaw.
"HOW DARE A FILTHY MONSTER LIKE YOU TRY TO EAT HIS HIGHNESS?!"
Reinhardt uses its cut arm and throws it in his direction, where it cuts the other arm of the gravis and leaves Khalid floating in the air.
"Eck! Scary. Reinhardt's face is so scary!"
Khalid blurted as he tried to avoid Reinhardt in the eyes while Erwin cleverly threw and wrapped him with a long, big rope that was supposed to be used in case of some tragedy happening without knowing that it would be the day it could be used.
'Where do they even get the rope? '
Khalid thought with a weird expression on his face.
The two knights run back and forth as Erwin almost trips on the sand as they try to catch Khalid falling in their direction like a falling angel from above, but as soon as he is about to land on the ground, the two miss their timing, and instead of landing on their arms, Khalid painfully landed on the sand with his half body that was visible to see while the other was buried in the fiery sand of the island, where the loud cracks of his bones could be heard.
"Milord!"
Shouted the two as they tried to get his upper body out of the sand.
As they unbury him alive, Khalid sits down with his neck tilted 180 degrees and his arms and body covered in bruises and scratches from the chaos.
'I can't feel my bones anymore.'
He blankly stares from afar while the two shake him up in worry.
They tried to fix Khalid's head as it continued to fall, leaving the two in an enormously shocked state when they realized that Khalid's purple-ish veins on his body had disappeared. One by one, his wounds and scratches healed, and his broken bones slowly aligned with one another.
"Milord, is there something bothering you?"
Reinhardt spoke in worry while Erwin left in shock, which was left painted on his face as they feasted on the gravis, which was a combination of rebellious knight seafood that was living underneath the sea.
"It tastes can't be compared to the other!'
Erwin burst into joy as he looked at Khalid quietly chewing the gravis crab arm without any expression on his face that made him wonder.
"Milord, is the food not to your liking?"
He curiously asks, which brings him back to his senses.
"No, it tastes quite delicious."
Khalid replies as he forms a fake smile on his lips as he puts down the crab arm on the sand and licks the meat that was left on his hands.
'So bland, I can't even taste anything except for the corpses that I have eaten over the past few weeks.'
Khalid stood up as he wiped himself with a handkerchief that was handed to him by Reinhardt while looking up in a starry sky where the three moons gave off a midnight blueish light that was different from the world he once lived in.
'I wonder why...'
He added as he wiped off the saliva dripping out of his chin as he remembered the corpses he had devoured.
Khalid's attention was caught as he heard the sparkling sound of the water, which left him fascinated as it emitted a warm aura and made the place much warmer and more comforting, to the point that he was mesmerized to see how the water that was toxic black earlier has turned into a cold venetus ocean that fairly shines like the moons in the sky. It was a minute of derealization that made him feel warm inside. He wondered if everything was left like a beautiful dream as he woke up in this surreal nightmare.