Thane pulled Kayden up his feet dragging him away from the horde that began following them.
"Kayden, I need you here right now, focus" Thane shouted, but Kayden kept looking at the thing that was once Lyda, how it casually walked away, unbothered by all the lives it had taken over, killed and maimed, his rage was so apparent it made his eyes red, bloodshot with anger.
"Kayden" Thane shouted once more as he dragged his friend through the snow, the villagers began enclosing on them slowly, Kayden forced himself to look away from Lyda, he had to survive, that was the only way he could ever enact his revenge on that monster.
He looked around him and for the first time just noticed how close the villagers were to him, then all carried knives, sickles, clubs, pickaxes, anything that could be called a weapon was in their possession.
He stopped dragging his feet and began running side by side with Thane, they ran through an alley way with several of the villagers after them, to make matters worse, he had no idea how to deal with the situation, he turned to Thane for help.
"What do we do? How are we going to escape here?" He asked while they ran.
"We can escape here now problem, but what about the other nearby villages? If we leave the blood Vine, it's influence will only spread further as it becomes more stronger" he paused, "It also has the body of a Cultivator, we don't know what exactly that means but a second rank Demon now has a soul core of a Cultivator" he finished as they kept running.
The words sunk deeply into Kayden, he slowly began understanding just how dire their situation had been, once again they had been side tracked but his own foolish and willingness to help but if indeed he never helped then the disaster that awaited the villagers would have still happened regardless.
"So...?" Kayden asked, he hoped the answer Thane would give isn't what he thought it was, he wasn't sure he was ready to do what he now understood to be part of a warriors honor.
"We kill them Kayden, every single one of them" Thane said with determination, they was no doubt in his eyes, his will was unshakable, "We put them to their rest, that would have also wanted that Kayden, to put them out of their misery".
"But there could be another way, something else we can do to help them, right?" He asked as they sped past the villagers who pursued them relentlessly, not stopping but going forward with only the desire to kill the both of them.
"What other way Kayden? You saw what it did with the boy child, how it could freely control the consciousness of its captives" he stated, "Right now we have no way to undo that, only that monster is capable of such".
"We could run back to the clan and ask for help" Kayden defended himself, then Thane placed a hand on his dear friend.
"It's a lesser evil my friend, let us do what we must for we are warriors of the Thunder Clan" he said then brought himself to a halt, Kayden stopped too but just behind Thane, he saw Thane unsheathe his blade as he entered battle stance.
"Thane, No"
Kayden whispered under his breath, he desperately thought of another way to save these people, something to do, so say to them, an enchantment or a spell but unfortunately he was unskilled in those areas, he could do nothing but to kill as his friend had said.
"Stand strong Kayden, if we fall here, then we do so for Humanity" Thane said the words as the Horde of villagers hurriedly approached them.
"And if we live?"
"If we live Kayden, then you shall drink your boiled wine once more and I shall frolic with the women I find desirable" he said with a wide grin upon his face, his grey hair packed into a ponytail, a wild look in his eyes, it was the look of a man determined to see the next day, not a man grounded in honor or pride, or a Hero's compassion, Thane was a man who would survive, against all the odds thrown at him, even at the expense of the lives of others.
As the first villager came close enough with a pickaxe in hand, Thane moved his left foot forward and cut through the woman before him, from her shoulder down to her waist, without wasting a second, he drove into the villagers and begun to slaughter them.
Kayden watched the woman before him, her eyes dimmed as he lost the light, from her shoulder to her waist, cut clean, her innards were filled with vines as they spilled out her blood in little squirts, Kayden looked at her once more wondering if she could truly have been saved? He asked himself if she was truly human? Or just the puppet of a demon?
He constantly rebuked the answer he felt was right, he knew there was nothing human about them anymore, they had long lost themselves to the demon, all they were now was empty shell of their lives, never to live again, he wondered to himself if he would prefer to live a life being controlled by a demon or to be cut down honourably by a warrior, he had found his answer but he hadn't accepted it.
He looked up once again at Thane, around his friend's feet lay the head and body parts of numerous villagers, but they never stopped attacking, like they couldn't feel the pain, or like that wanted to die, they wanted to be free from this life they had been living, they wanted freedom.
Kayden drew his Odachi from its sheathe, he looked forward at the horde constantly falling to their deaths, the men fell like leaves, as did the women and children, there was no discrimination, just death.
Kayden took a step forward unsure of his decision, another and he doubted his own humanity, the third step and he understood he was about taking innocent human lives for the first time, the forth step and woman holding a knife spotted him, her left arm dangling from her shoulder, barely attached by the Vines, she screamed as she saw him and lunged herself towards Kayden.
Kayden took his fifth step and sliced her head off clean, her blood spilled over his clothes, smearing his face and hair, he saw her head roll and he knew, there was no turning back.