Stepping away, the eyepatch man couldn't help but utter, "Your blade, it's deathly pale."
Changing his stance, Doni hisses out more smoke from his mouth, readying his blade as soon as he saw an opening.
"It's destiny!" The eyepatch man spreads his arms wide open, with the flames covering his behind like a fated one. It's as if a beautiful canvas was drawn with the finest strokes.
"Exhilarating—!" Rolling his maniacal eyes, his disturbing smile causes both Doni and Treesha to feel a sudden sense of impending doom.
"I didn't realise how beautiful the addition of a hero in a damsel in distress situation was!" Licking the edge of his blade, his eyes radiate a brighter red glint.
"Let's have some fun!" Releasing a dark red aura surrounding the vicinity, absorbing the very thin air and turning it thicker, paler and heavier.
'Ahhh—', Doni's consciousness ever so fading, trying to grip reality with such a burdening state was, futile.
When was the last time he felt such oppressive aura and a dire predicament.
—-
Three years ago…
"Leave us, Doni—" Their voice coursed, their coughs rampant and bloodied.
Clutching the laying figure with deep cuts and grazes with his shaking arms, he couldn't help but tear. Feintly smiling, he said, "No way you are going to die. It—it's going to be ok—kay."
The laying body's eyes dull, their focus diminished, their muscles relaxed and their skin turning cold by the second.
"Ahh—!" Gripping his head with his palms, he knocks his head towards the bloodied dirt, in which is cushioning the dead body above.
Bleeding from his forehead, his teeth clenching with immense pressure, his face stretching, his eyes boldening. He felt something was wrong with the way this world worked.
"I will take revenge for you, Gabriel!" Setting his eyes towards a fleeting silhouette, with a lion crested red cape adorned to their porcelain steel armour.
—-
Badump!
"You—!" Fear hinted at his tone, the eyepatched walks back further, touching the burning wood.
Badump!
"Ow!" Instinctively moving forward and wiping away the flames from the back of his leather tunic.
"Your eyes!" Doni's pitch black eyes reveals white pupils. His body then releases a pitch black, looming aura, spreading further than the eyepatch man's bloodlust.
"The legendary and revered Trance! E—!" Running to his side and escaping, he screams, "Get him!"
Coming out of nowhere, seven men from different directions appear simultaneously.
But as they draw their blades closer to Doni. Each and every one of them felt their bodies moving backwards.
"How come?!" But to their demise, their heads were flying back, turning their heads to the beautiful crescent moon.
Treesha who witnessed a massacre and the chaos felt both scared and relieved. Her eyes shaking, she asks, "Big brother?"
Hidden in the midst of Forestant…
"I need to get out of here!" Eyepatched man's running turned sluggish, his breath out of sync, his eyes dozing in and out of reality.
The Forestant loomed ahead, but in a desperate moment, the eyepatched collided forehead-first into it. Falling flat on the ground, a wave of relief washed over him—he was finally out of the demon's grasp.
Turning his head instinctively, he gulped at the sight behind him. Confusion settled in as he noticed the sword, now unsheathed, hovering ominously in front of him.
Scurrying away, he collapsed in fear and exhaustion. "E—Get away!"
Doni's luminescent eyes stared blankly at the petrified figure below, like a predator sizing up its prey.
"Do you understand what you did?" His voice eerily quiet, Doni eyes and words were colder than the iron in which he holds.
The wind breeze intensifies, the time slowing down as both individuals look at each other in constrasting expressions.
'Sebastion!' Remembering the very person he vowed to kill, It had enhanced his urge to kill. The power seeping through his veins, straining his heart vigorously.
"Can you please spare me? Pretty please?" Kowtowing with intense head banging, he looks up with his eyes covered in his own blood asking once more, "Can yo—"
Swift and effortless, the blade decapitates the eyepatched man's head as if he was chopping lemon.
"You don't deserve my respect." Sheathing back his blade, he leaves with steady footsteps.
As he works his way back to his charred village, his heart nearly stopped.
"TREESHA—!" Panic gripped him, he scavenged the vicinity, lifting planks, checking the well, checking every nook and cranny that was within sights.
The traces of his little sister disappeared by the time he came back.
Falling onto his knees, he leans forward, the taste of the thick ashe mixed in with his watering tears, he cries to himself.
"Why?" A desperate whisper, a plea in which he wishes an answer for.
"I just want to be happy— Is that too much to ask for?" Smashing his head onto the ground.
"AHHHHH—!"
"WHERE ARE YOU!"
"…" Lifting his head of the ground, his face smears with the charred remnants of wood and mixed in dirt.
Looking towards the budded leaf appearing at the centre of the village, he quietly murmurs, "Gabriel…"
"I'm so tired." He slowly slumps until he reaches the ground with a sounding thud.
—-
"Ah…" His head feeling heavy, his body feeling sore, he lifts himself off from what seemed to be a bed.
Opening the wooden door, a little girl walks up with a tray of porridge.
"Treesha!" Looking at her again, he retracts, "Oh, it's not Treesha…"
"Mum!" The mother rushes towards her daughter's urgent voice. Looking towards the figure on her bed, she sighs in relief.
"I see. So you are up."
"…" He peers out of the window to his right, the unfamiliar atmosphere, the fragrant smell of hot delicious food.
Glancing back at the lady, he asks politely with subtle confusion, "Where am I?"
Smiling, she grabbed her daughter's tray of porridge and placed it on the wooden cabinet next to the bed.
"You're currently in Ertree, the city known to produce swordsman."
"…I see…"
"Thanks…"
Looking at his polite demeanour, covering her lips, she couldn't help but chuckle, "You don't have to be so formal. Make yourself home."
"…" Thinking about the goodwill this mother was showing him, he felt even more distant.
"Why even save me." As he said those words, his eyes fills up with endless sorrows.
While he was strong, he feels like a caged animal chained to the very cell others made for him.