Return of the Fallen Volume 9 Chapter 21
The tension was far too great and one of the soldiers could no longer handle it. His hands trembled and without notice, he accidentally let loose a swift arrow.
Grek was feigning strength and was in no condition to dodge this arrow even if he were aware of it being fired in the first place. Straight through his back and out his chest. Grek was stunned. Looking down at the tiny arrow sticking a few inches out of his chest, he gripped the end of it as if to see if it were real.
The horror of reality sunk in as fresh blood spilled from the wound. Grek looked back up at the other soldiers who also stared at him, stunned. Grek tried to take a step forward but his leg gave out beneath him.
“Chela…Alta.”
Alta continued to cry out while Chela was frozen in place.
“NOOOOOOOOO!”
Her scream snapped the soldiers out of it. They all saw Grek take this arrow and collapse and their instincts told them to kill. The soldier holding Alta shouted.
“KILL HIM! HE’S WEAKENED AND THERE’S NO GOING BACK NOW! HE MUST DIE RIGHT NOW!”
Zephris saw the Mages and other soldiers raise their weapons and were about to kill his father right before his eyes but he could do nothing to stop this. He was out of strength, out of magic, and was beyond exhausted. Even trying to scream out brought nothing but a pitiful wheeze.
(FATHER!)
“Really now, you soldiers and the constant fighting. Even now you have no tact and cause such blatant destruction. DISGUSTING!”
A calm yet dominating voice entered the village. No one knows when or how he appeared but there he was. A figure cloaked from head to toe. No one could make out his appearance but Zephris recognized the old voice right away.
(MASTER!)
Appearing like a ghost from out of nowhere, the attacks suddenly halted and everyone was guarded against this stranger.
“Who the hell are you!?”
One of the soldiers shouted at the hooded figure but this master ignored him. Instead, he leaned down next to Grek and grabbed the arrow from his chest.
“This is going to hurt.”
With a shape yanking motion, the arrow was ripped from Grek’s chest and tossed aside.
*GUH!*
Taking out a small vial and uncorking it, the hooded figure poured a sludgy foul-smelling liquid directly into Grek’s wound.
*TSSSS*
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
A hot burning sensation spread through Grek’s body as his wound was forcibly closed before the naked eye. His wounds started to heal but the process was undoubtedly painful from the looks of it.
“You, stranger what did you just do? Get away from that man or we’ll kill you as well.”
Zephris’s master stood up and looked at little Alta.
“You must be Zephris’s younger sister. Worry not child, your father will be just fine in a while. In the meantime, do me a favor and close your eyes. You will not want to see what I do next.”
Alta was still terrified and was crying nonstop. However, the moment Chela saw the man heal her husband and mention her son, she understood this was Zephris’s master.
She turned to Alta and spoke as calmly as possible to try and reassure her child.
“Alta, baby, listen to the kind mister. Shut your eyes do it for mama, ok.”
Alta listened to her mother and she quickly shut her eyes as tight as possible. The soldiers and Mages had no clue what this was about but they were done with the warnings.
“Forget it, just kill this bastard!”
The moment he said this, the soldiers unloaded dozens of arrows all at once. Not just them, several mages fired blazing fireballs, frozen daggers of ice, and much more.
Zephris’s master made no attempts to move and simply stood there.
Zephris and Chela watched this in shock. Arrow after arrow pierced him from head to toe, while fire burned him and ice froze him in different spots. His body was cut apart and cleaved into several large chunks and melted all over until he was deformed in more ways than one.
Seeing this, the soldiers finally felt relief. Now there was only one more obstacle. Once they killed Grek, they could finally leave this terrible place or so they thought. Only seconds after they brought destruction to the hooded figure, a nightmarish scene unfolded before them.
The body they had clearly destroyed, the same body they had cleaved apart and melted, burned, and froze, right before their horrified eyes, this same body began to put itself back together. Arms reconnected, and legs unfolded, flesh mended and organs repaired and regenerated as purplish-black blood reversed from spilling onto the ground and instead was sucked back inward.
Very quickly, Zephris’s master began to put himself back together. Arms, legs, wings, horns. Zephris had never seen his master’s true appearance as he was always hidden beneath a cloak but now he was. His master was not fully human, the rest of what he was or was not, Zephris couldn’t determine but it was obvious, his master was incredible.
The moment Zeohris’s master put himself together, the soldiers and Mages all freaked out.
“MONSTER!”
Zephris’s master nodded.
“As always, you humans can’t comprehend and make assumptions but…your not wrong.”
With a fiendish smile, Zephris’s master took a step forward, his body blurring with after images as he moved at super speed. Before the soldier holding onto Alta could do anything, the so-called monster appeared before him. Opening his mouth, he then bit down on the soldier’s head and tore it off in a single bite.
With a large gulp, the head was crushed and swallowed down into his stomach with ease.
Alta was covered in blood but she kept her eyes shut as tightly as possible. She covered her ears when she felt she was free and blocked out the surroundings as she cried. The monster turned to the man pinning Chela to the ground and the man instantly sprung up and tried to run away but the monster was not having that. With a flick of his finger, a drop of purplish-black blood shot forward and landed directly in the fleeing man’s eye.
The moment this single drop of blood hit the man’s eye, it began to squirm and move around as if it were alive and in an instant, it found its way to the man’s brain. The man screamed in agony and blood started to pour from his eyes, mouth, ears, and nose. It was like his brain was being devoured from the inside out. The man could not take it and began slamming his head into a nearby tree until his skull cracked and he was dead.
Chela was horrified but she had no time for this and rushed over to her daughter. Wrapping her arms around her tightly, she also tried to cover her ears even more. She too shut her eyes as tightly as possible. She did not wish to see such sights.
While Chela and Alta kept their eyes shut, Zephris was different. He could not look away, not even for a moment. Was it mad curiosity or was he simply frozen in terror, even he wasn’t sure himself but one thing for sure, his eyelids would not close at this time.
The Mages all understood what would happen if they didn’t act so they quickly fired everything they had all at once but the monster simply folded its wings around its body and blocked everything as if it were a bother more than a threat. These Mages weren’t that adept and after only a few rounds of firing all they could, they were completely exhausted of magic.
“This is why magic and simple strength is inferior to alchemy. Strength is gone when stamina runs dry and magic is no more when you are out of energy to fuel your spells.”
The monster took a stpe forward and appeared right in front of one of the Mages. The Mage had no more energy so she tried to bash the monster with her staff but the monster caught it and threw it at one of the other Mages with pure strength. The staff rammed into the man’s skull and both the staff and the man’s skull exploded on impact. The monster then grabbed the woman in front of him and bit into her neck.
The last thing the woman saw was the monster’s crimson eyes before all of the blood in her entire body was drained by the monster. Her body shriveled up like a used husk and he tossed her aside once he was through.
After taking in all of that blood, he then turned to the rest of his enemies and spit the freshly ingested blood outward, except this blood was no longer human. It had transformed almost instantly into that same purplish-black color. The blood came falling down like rain and covered everyone. The Monster controlled the blood so it did not go into Chela Alta or Grek but everyone else was doomed.
The blood drilled into their bodies through any open orifice and went directly for the brain. Just like the first soldier, these people seemed to go absolutely insane and started to claw at their heads and bash them into the ground or nearby rocks and trees. In the end, these people killed themselves by slamming their skulls as hard as possible into anything to try and relieve themselves of the agony.
Once dead, their wish was granted as they suffered on more.
The monster sighed after all was said and done. Leaning down he scooped up Grek and carried him in one arm. Walking over to Chela he then picked her and Alta up in the other and headed toward their house. Just before he took another step he shouted behind him.
“Zephris, what are you waiting for, hurry up and come down from there. We have things that we must discuss.”
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