Return of the Fallen Volume 9 Chapter 19
Raising his staff, the Mage called out.
“DIE!”
…
…
To the Mage’s shock, he felt no power in his core. No, it was more than that. It was as if his magic had been drained from him entirely. He suddenly noticed black lines just under the surface of his skin.
“What is this!?”
Zephris calmly walked forward.
“Did you honestly believe I would just poison the water? The moment you attacked me with ice earlier today, I knew the chances of taking you out with this stream was practically zero. At the same time, I figured you would grow overconfident when you realized that everyone else had been affected by that source of water. I just needed a little bit of time for you to talk and inhale again and again.”
The Mage’s expression darkened as he looked at the nearby campfires.
“The fires!”
Zephris shook his head. Stabbing the end of the sword into one of the logs, he held it up. Once it was no longer burning in the fire, the color of the smoke changed from greyish black to a muddled brown-red.
“I used a special ingredient on these logs before tossing them into the forest nearby. I couldn’t be sure which logs you all would go for so I had to sprinkle a little here and a little there. Once the logs start to burn, they produce an interesting smoke. Out of everyone here you are the most dangerous to me. The number one person who had to die today was none other than you. The water was a no-go from the start but even you need fire to stay warm at night.”
The Mage was enraged and humiliated. Being fooled around with by a child. All the pride he thought he had was now gone and stomped on a hundred times over. Once more the Mage tried to call upon his magic but again he could feel none of his energy. He tried to absorb energy from the world around him but that too failed. He quickly realized he couldn’t rely on magic but for a Mage, that was fatal. He knew by now how fast the boy was, if the boy swing at him with a blade, there was a good chance he couldn’t avoid it.
The Mage quickly tried to turn and run but, he felt all the energy in his body was gone. Not only his magic but his stamina was gone as well. He felt extremely heavy and fatigued. Stacked on top with the exhaustion from fighting and running around the forest all day, the man could no longer move a muscle and fell down on his hands and knees.
Zephris continued to approach him slowly until he was right in front of him. Standing over top of him, he looked down at this Mage who had hunted him like it was all a game.
“Wait boy, I…I was only following my Lords will, and in the end I
*SCHINK*
Zephris gave the man no more words and brought the blade down clean through the mages skull. The mage was dead and so to were the remaining soldiers.
Zephris felt his anger starting to fade and with it, a feeling of extreme fatigue overwhelmed him causing his knees to buckle beneath him.
Sitting on his ass, his body was sweating profusely and every muscle was sore beyond belief.
At this time, the chief opened his eyes and saw all of the dead around him. Strangely he was not upset by this. Even with one of his arms gone, he still felt no sadness, not for himself or these soldiers at least.
“Zephris my boy.”
His voice was pitiful and was barely a whisper at this point but still it got Zephris’s attention.
“You bastard old fool. How could you betray us? How could you break my mother’s heart?”
The chief made no excuses.
“Your right. I have caused so much harm to your mother…to your family. I did not want this to go like this.”
Zephris slowly stood on wobbly legs as he walked over with the sword raised.
The old chief knew what was coming and felt some bitterness in his heart. At the same time though he was accepting of this. If it meant he would no longer cause Chela sadness then this would be a small price to pay but there was still one more thing he needed to say.
“I know that I can not stop you from killing me nor will I beg but you must know, I never meant for any of this. I simply wished to protect the forest. Before you kill me…Please, I must ask you something.”
Zephris was furious.
“You dare ask a favor of me. After everything that’s happened. My dad, my mom, and my sister. Dad is probably under that man’s grasp and my mom and sister are fleeing this place that used to be called home. You don’t get to ask me for anything.”
The chief nodded.
“I know and yet I still must ask anyway. Even if you hate me with every fiber of your being, I still must ask this. Before we made it to the Griffon’s territory, our group split. Not a lot but a few did head to the village and a few more toward the most likely place your mom and sister would escape. Your mother is strong-willed but she is not strong. I believe the soldiers would have caught her and little Alta by now.”
Zephris heard this and was stunned. He grabbed the chief by the collar and held him up with a single hand.
“You lie!”
“No. I’m going to die soon, there’s no reason to. I say this because I need your help. These men will have set up in the village. When they come to find out that your actions led to the death of so many, they will enact revenge.”
“They wouldn’t dare. They have to follow their Master’s wishes, my family will not be harmed.”
As soon as he said this he realized how stupid he was. These men had literally tried to kill him after everything that happened. Why would they follow their Master’s will when their master wasn’t even in the Great forest. Not only that but people tend to run on emotions in high stressed situations. Finding out most of their comrades were dead and the reason for that was because of Zephris, why wouldn’t they go ape shit crazy.
Zephris realized he needed to find his mother and sister as fast as possible.
“My boy, you know what will happen. Not just to your mom and sister but what about the villagers. The soldiers might just avoid killing your family due to their master’s wrath but my villagers hold no protection nor importance to Lord Ogastx. The soldiers will slaughter them freely in the name of revenge. You must protect the village. Surrounder yourself to them and tell them nothing that happened here. Say you outran the soldiers every step of the way and came to the village because you couldn’t find your family. As long as you surrounder quickly and leave the forest, Lord Ogastx will have what he wanted. He will keep his word to me and not allow the forest or its inhabitants to be destroyed. Please Zephris…Please help them, they are innocent of this old fool’s crimes.”
Zephris thoughts ran wild. There were many villagers who were good to him and they really were innocent but at the same time, none of those people had helped his family. They had all cowered in fear and shut themselves up in their homes. He himself was a child yet he had to fight with everything he had, yet the adults were too afraid to do anything at all. They were fine letting his family be captured and taken away. They were fine turning a blind eye as long as Grek the outsider was finally ushered away.
Thinking about all of this, Zephris released the chief and shook his head.
“Wasn’t I innocent as well? Wasn’t I part of the Great Forest, wasn’t my family? In the end, though, you still turned your back on us, all of you did and for that, I cannot forgive any of you. No one is innocent anymore. I have blood on my hands and because of you and them, they too will have their own blood to deal with. I’m done with the village, I’m done with this forest, and now…I’m done with you.”
Zephris raised the sword once more and the old man’s eyes widened in shock before the blade came down in a swift slash.
*Schink*
The chief’s head hit the ground and rolled a few times before his body fell as well. As blood poured out and soaked Zephris’s shoes, one would think his unmoving figure was cold to the core but in actuality, the boy the opposite in his heart.
(Mom, sis, please be safe.)
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