[Enginheim kingdom, Capital city, "Kalypso city-state."]
[Inside the massive castle in the middle of the city atop the highest mountain inside the walled city.]
"Sir, reports have stated that the Silvet army is doing their yearly round of provocations for our annual war. We have diplomats on the way with their possible declaration of war." A short, buff man said while reading from a royal scroll.
"Do we know how many civilians we lost this time?" The king clearly wanted to know how bad the damage had been. The war wouldn't be so bad if he didn't lose too many peasants.
"Total dead count of civilians is uncertain, but we estimate around one thousand citizens this year." Even if it sounded like a lot, compared to the previous provocations, this one was relatively mild by Silvet's standards. How strange.
"Only one thousand? They're growing weaker each year; maybe we can push forward into their territory this time! Ahaha!" Sir Brentwood said he was a fat, powerful noble who was almost as powerful as the king when it came to soldier count, so he was by all measures his equal.
"Yeah! Those Silvet pesky peasants! They keep trying to invade us, but they keep losing against us! I say it's about time we teach them a lesson! I have my men ready!" Another lord, who was also a little fat, said.
"I surely appreciate your good sense of humor, but remember that Silvet is friends with the church; we cannot invade their land without triggering a war with the church." The king had to be honest, so he calmed his council's lust for blood as much as he could, although he liked their high morale.
So, with those words in mind and the report of a meager number of citizens killed, the king "Filamingo" assumed victory would be easy. Now, all he had to do was to wait for the report of the men he had sent on a rescue mission; they probably stopped the Silvet army on their tracks, so he would have to compensate them for their excellent service.
[Sixth battalion of the Enginheim army, cavalry division. Leader: Levi.]
[Ukyro village remnants.]
"What the heck happened here, sir?" A random soldier asked after entering the city. The sight was not as pretty as expected, but something was off.
While there were a lot of dead bodies rotting in the ground, they all looked like dead peasants; no enemy soldier bodies were found, yet they could all see the empty armor sets lumped down in the streets. Not only were their armor sets lying menacingly on the ground, but also swords, artifacts, bows, and arrows.
It was a rare sight to behold, so nobody could make up what had happened. If it had been a fire monster, then that wouldn't explain the peasants not disappearing, and nobody knew of a technique that would get rid of your body but not your armor. Usually, burning spells burnt everything down, not just flesh and clothes.
Yet, the thought made it even scarier as those spells were already high-level, and as far as they knew, nobody in the entire countryside had access to high-level magic. Soon, Captain Levi climbed down his horse and walked into the town's church, where he found something that broke his soul.
Usually, the soldiers never buried anyone, but he soon made an exception when he found the dead corpses of a couple dozen children scattered around the church; they had been too late; these innocent kids died because of his incompetence, Levi thought.
"We will make time to properly bury the kids and prepare the cleansing spell. We will let their souls pass on freely; it's the least we can do now." His loyal men obeyed their captain's orders, and everyone helped with the digging of tombstones as Captain Levi chanted a spell for the corpses. He would cleanse their bodies so their souls could pass freely into the afterlife.
The Silvet army was wicked and perverse; how could they? Out of all things, shouldn't they be the religious ones? They were the ones always sticking with the church, so why would they kill innocent kids inside a church? Following orders? Nonsense, Levi thought as he cleansed the kids' bodies before his men buried them.
"May your soul rest in peace, Purification!" A blue light emanated from everybody he cleansed as a magical circle appeared on the kid's forehead, a sign they had passed on.
"Sir! Sir! One of the scouts found more dead Silvet soldiers on the outskirts of the town by the south. They say they found one of their mages still alive, but he's incapable of speech!"
The strong-looking Captain soon returned to his role as leader and let some of his most loyal men handle the rest of the burials. While he went ahead to look for his scout, he would make that mage talk.
It did not take long for him to meet with his scout, who had the mage tied to a tree, but the mage did not seem present.
"Please, tell me what you know."
"Captain Levi! I know as much as you do; I found him crawling on the floor, mumbling (demon, he's the devil.) I healed him so he wouldn't die, but now he won't even talk."
"Mph! Good, I'll make this son of bitch talk, good job, soldier." Levi gently tapped the scout's shoulder as he dismounted his horse again to question the enemy mage.
"Alright, buddy, you gonna talk, or will I have to make you talk?"
"You don't understand, he's the devil! He's a demon!" The mage spat out nonsense, but his eyes told Levi he meant his words.
"Who? Who is the devil?" Levi pressed the panicked man, who still had terror in his eyes.
"The burning kid! He's the devil! You don't understand! He's a demon!" Alright, clearly, the mage had hit his head too hard on a rock, or something; what he was saying didn't make any sense; was he saying that a small kid had made all of the mysterious soldier killings? Ridiculous!
"Alright, you're clearly lying. One finger off for being a filthy liar. Now tell me the truth." Levi mercilessly tore off the mage's right-hand index finger without much thought.
"AHHHHHGGG! I'M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH! IT WAS A BURNING KID!"
Levi soon continued torturing the mage until he broke all of his fingers off, yet the man kept the same story up. He told Levi about the burning kid once he decided to believe the mage, but what he said made even less sense, yet why would he keep lying? He was desperate and in fear, so thinking that he was somehow a lying genius was out of the question.
Yet, Levi couldn't believe the man's story. How would a single child be able to stop and kill an entire army battalion? Especially a peasant kid?! The mage's eyewitness testimony wasn't much help, nor was the mage, so Levi killed him without much thought.
"Wait, no! Don't kill ME!"
"Skadosh!" Levi used his long sword to cut the man's head off with a swift move. A clean cut, if he said so himself.
Now Levi had more questions than answers as he noticed a slight blood trail going into the forest, yet was it worth following it? Why not? He was already going to receive praise for stopping the army, although he knew it wasn't him who had done it.
He followed the blood trail until it stopped in the middle of the road, and when he didn't notice more tracks, he began his journey back to his horse until he saw something out of the corner of his eye; for a second, he saw something white passing by him so he followed it.
"Integra, please stop! Aaron is not a bad kid! Please stop! We have to go back!" Seras pleads with Integra as she chases her until she finally manages to catch her hair to stop her.
"Ouch! Let me go! I'm leaving you guys alone! I want time out!" Integra replied after getting her hair pulled.
Levi soon caught up with the nymphs and watched in awe what looked like the legendary forest nymphs of the area. The captain didn't know how the creatures would react to his presence, so he watched while maintaining a high level of stealth.
"Please, Integra, give him another chance. He's going to help us!"
"Ugh! But he! He was so nasty to me! He said he wanted to rape me!" Integra began to cry in Sera's arms as she tried to comfort her.
"He didn't say that; Aaron just didn't want you to slap him again. That's all he wouldn't do come on, let's go back home."