After the Battle of Amresh/Sworis, Jai's next mission was Bintan. He wanted to cut off the enemy's hope of pushing back. He would have probably taken Cosant, but Cosant was of no real value to him or concern. He needed to cut off the head of the snake. That was why his next target after Bintan would be Hadia. Once he was done with Bintan, he would march to take Hadia. The war would be over once he had defeated Burak.
Jai thought back to the battle he had with General Khan and General Kyle. The battle was much more difficult than he had expected. Facing those two at the same time was an arduous task. Although their abilities and fighting styles were complete opposites, they both managed to blend their abilities together perfectly—all thanks to their battle experience and skills. They were a perfect combination. If he hadn't...
Jai didn't want to admit it. After all, his pride as a God Sword would not allow him to realize he almost lost. Almost.
Flying in the skies, the god Sword was currently using Abaddon's ability to fly toward Bintan. His relationship with the demon was what you'd call a transactional partnership, but it worked very well. Of all the three people the demon was searching for, he had been able to identify two of them. One was a boy from Omi called Gor Kindel. He had not expected that one of the people the demon was looking for was related to another god Sword and was even his son.
He thought Bale had only three sons. It turned out he had two more. One was dead, and the other...
He was now a demon's target. Jai would have felt pity for the child, but he didn't—not in the slightest. If Abaddon hadn't targeted the boy, he was sure he would have, as an attempt to make Bale suffer. But, since Abaddon was searching for him, Jai was ready to let the demon keep him.
The other person was Jai's personal favorite: his nephew, Kin. How unfortunate can a person be to be the target of a demon, a God Sword, most of the Sultens of Wize, and even the other nations? His nephew had almost no allies. Wherever he had crawled into, it would have been better if he dug a deeper one and stayed there. There was nothing for him in this outside world.
Jai would make sure of that. Not even Sum would be able to keep Kin from him at the end of the day.
The last person, however, he had had no luck finding. Her name was Thia Leye, and that was it. It was as if she had suddenly dropped off the face of the earth. Not only was she the one he had the least information about, but she was the weirdest of the three. Gor was the son of Bale, and he was also a Kindel—a noble. Kin was a prince in Wize, someone of high status. But this child? This child was no one.
She wasn't a noble like Gor or a royal like Kin. She was just a common brat. But why? Why did he get a bad taste in his mouth every time he thought of the little girl who had eluded him for a while now?
Abaddon had not said anything about why he was searching for the children. He only said they all carried powerful curses. Strangely, a lot of people in the world carried powerful curses. Like the currently barely breathing General Kyle. He had faced the general in battle, and that curse of his was very powerful. To have to fight someone with constant fear probing your mind was dangerous.
Then there was Dante. Jai had had the opportunity to see the aftermath of a battle where the Alpha of the Wildes was involved. He could have sworn he had never seen that many claw marks in a place where two magical beasts fought.
Then there was Ed... That damned Dragonborn was the most troublesome among the God Swords. To describe that curse of his as less than incredibly powerful would barely do it justice. After all, Jai had faced him in battle too, and Ed was dangerous.
There were many powerful curses in the world, even held by powerful people. But for a demon to be after three children who were cursed begged the question: exactly how powerful were these curses, and what exactly would he do if he found them?
These thoughts invaded Jai's mind like a creeping assassin. Although he didn't really care about whatever Abaddon did to the children, what if he was unable to...
"We are here," Abaddon suddenly said.
The demon held Zai in his hands. The general was still trying to get her bearings from traveling at that speed. Although the demon didn't use his full speed, it was still quite a lot for the general, so she was barely holding her puke in.
"Humans, how fragile," Abaddon complained.
Below him was a city, smoke rising all around it. It seemed the fight was over for now, Jai thought.
"Let's go," Jai said.
Abaddon descended from the skies gradually and landed on the wall of Bintan, holding General Zai in a princess carry.
The men guarding the walls suddenly drew their weapons at the intruders. At first, they thought it was a beast. Then, when they saw it was carrying a human, they felt it was probably a member of the Yaya family. But then, Abaddon retracted his wings, and they could finally see who it was.
"J-J-J- Jai," one of them stammered in shock. Fear gripped everyone around. It was as if they were staring at death.
"What are you all doing?" Jai asked, having switched with Abaddon. "Kneel!"