Ora sat with Rel and Alel as they discussed what would occur next. Surely in the next couple of hours, an entire unit would be upon them. They had just killed the son of Lord Valen.
Lord Valen lead the guards within Sei’O. In total, there were about 3,000 stationed, spread across all the larger cities in Sei’O. Some of the more problem cities required more people. In Essen-Seo’O alone…they probably had about 400 guards. The city was not a small place.
The main question was how they were to protect over 60 children and fend off against the guards.
Ora sat still and thought hard. “…There’s a prison castle that Lynx was working on cleaning just a while ago. If everyone’s within the tower, it would be easy to defend it. There’s enough space to fit several people. My Shadows could defend the tower if they were all within the same place.”
“Ora…you’ve been using that relic of yours quite a lot. Are you sure you’re okay?” Alel asked.
“Aye…I’m fine. Really.”
“Oi. You worry too much Alel. Ora’s the strongest out of all of us.”
“Yeah…but still. He seems different. Maybe it's just him growing into a leader.”
Rel nodded. “I think we both agreed on this initially. You’re the boss. Choose your tactics wisely, Ora.”
Ora nodded. “Let’s check the cells.” They walked out and looked around each floor of the castle.
Alel couldn’t help but feel on edge. Each floor they passed and each skeleton they ran across, she screamed and held onto Rel.
Rel on the other hand, tried to act as tough as possible and walk unperturbed. He later screamed like a little bitch when Ora surprisingly scared him. Alel hated up her hands to insane proportions then touched each of the bars to the cells.
Within 5 seconds they melted and Rel punched them open. They continued in much the same fashion through each floor.
All in all, the whole process took nearly 15 minutes. “And now the corpses…”
They had a total of 119 graves to dig. They might have been plague children, but they still followed the Dogma of Sei’O. Witnessing a corpse of any kind, even if it’s an enemy, you must bury them. That being said, Ora refused to bury the guards of Baerim.
“Hm…we’ll just clear out the first 3 floors. There are about 15 cells or so. If we all sleep in 3’s there should be enough space for all of us with relative ease. We’ll worry about corpses later.” Ora and Rel began to move the corpses from the first and 2nd floor and place them all on the other floors.
By the time they cleared out everything, another 20 minutes had gone by. Every time they picked up a body, it often fell apart into several different pieces. Alel simply stood and watched.
She wanted nothing to do with touching the corpses. That, and her hand was still heated. It would melt them upon touch…. or rather, that was her excuse.
“ALRIGHT LISTEN UP!” Rel shouted. His powerful roar spread through the entire slums. And everyone immediately paid attention to his commands. Aren ran up to him
“What’s going on…is everything alright?”
“Oi oi. I’m about to explain the moment you guys all get here and shut up.” Aren nodded and scowled “Very well. Keep your secrets”
All the children gathered around to listen to the trio speak. They had clearly witnessed Ora’s power and saw them take down 20 Baerim guards. They all murmured and talked wildly amongst each other as they gathered.
Rel tried various times to get everyone to shut the fuck up, but the confusion levels didn’t dim a single bit.
“Oi. EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!” He stomped onto the ground hard and the ground shook. His footprint dug in a good 4 inches into the terrain.
All their attention turned towards Rel. “What’s going to happen to us? There for sure going to send out the garrison.”
They had no idea what to do against the might of the entire regiment.
“We’re all going to die.” One of them shouted. It was a kid from Ora’s unit. Ora walked over to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Noone’s going to die. Trust me.”
Everyone else stared at Ora in awe. They all remembered what he had done with the shadows and how easily he dispatched several of the knights.
“No matter how many of them they send to us, we’ll win.” Alel stated. “I don’t think we told you what occurred during our expedition.”
She could see the faces of all of them immediately watching. “We’ll win because we have Ora.”
A lot of confused murmurs erupted from the children.
“Ora?”
“What can he do?
“He only just recently got his relic” “There’s no way he would be able to handle all of them.” “Not even Rel can.”
“We’re doomed.”
“That’s right, Ora!” Rel said. “You guys should have seen him. Within 1 second, he took out 50 Yorbian knights!” The number constantly fluctuated cause none of them truly know how many people Ora had taken out.
“To top it off, he went toe to toe with the Silver Knight, Kars and Fought the One Man Army!” several exasperated gasps erupted. The whole group remained silent.
“From the battle we witnessed”( They didn’t see shit Lmao!) “The entire world trembled. 300, no, not even 3,000 knights can stand against him.
Ora stood up beside Rel. “So…put your trust in me.”
His unit immediately roared and put their fists up. “ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA!
The chants shook everything around them and shook Ora’s resolve. No matter what happens… no one here will die.
That night, they all slept within the cell tower. Since it only had one entrance to the first floor, Ora, Rel and Lin slept at the very front of the entrance. Actually, Ora, and Alel slept. Rel and Lin were had caught up on their sleep priorly, and both remained very much awake.
Lin had the entire day to sleep and had slept through most of the ordeal. Since coming from the mission, he had remained largely unconscious. Drifting in and out of sleep.
He was saddened by the loss of his leg. The constant smile he always had on his face had faded. He knew they shouldn’t have advanced. It was a doomed mission from the start. So he was entirely grateful for the sudden burst of power Ora had.
He still couldn’t believe it himself. Amongst the many books Amai had given him, he had read about the Silver Knight several times. He knew everything about the man’s background there was to know. He knew the man was 126 years old. He knew Kars had 3 brothers.
The younger brother was the Copper Knight, and the oldest brother was the Golden Knight. All 3 of them…were monsters.
He recalled the incident of Oreilia when they had sent out just Kars to destroy a 10,000 strong unit. The drunken Kars danced through each of them in one night. The youngest brother perished in combat performing a feat similar against Zion, but only after supposedly dealing a crippling blow to Zion’s abilities.
Then there was the oldest brother…the most terrifying of the trio. Nothing could be said about him except that he was truly a merciless monster. He hadn’t read many books about the man. He was only older than Kars by 10 years. But the stories about them differed greatly.
Where Kars was viewed as a heroic knight, the Golden Knight was viewed as a demon.
He still couldn’t believe that Ora had managed to hold his own against him. Ora of all people. The world was going mad. He didn’t believe Ora to be weak by any means, but this was a kid in charge of the rations division. He hadn’t known a single bit of combat in the years he knew him.
Now here they are. Lin had no doubt that they would win. He could easily quantify the traits and abilities of his enemies when facing off against the anomaly that Ora had become.
“Rel…how did that fight happen?” Rel who was half asleep instantly woke up and looked around.
“Hm? Well…” As he began to tell the story, various kids who pretended to be asleep scooted closer. They were just as interested in the details as Lin was.
“About a minute after your leg had been cut off, Alel was about to die…and things weren’t looking so well for me either.” He put his hands to his chin.
“ahhh ta ta ta ta….the rest of the scene was…well, odd.”
“Eh? Odd how, what do you mean.”
“Ora commanded everyone to stop, and no one dared move. He walked through the crowd of people, picked up Alel and placed her beside you. Then he went to get me.”
Negating the fact that he was carried like a bride. “He let me out of the paralysis, and I walked over to check up on you 2.”
“Really…um. I had this strange image appear when I woke up a couple times. It must’ve been a dream, but it was pretty funny. It looked like you were being carried by Ora. It looked straight out of a book.”
“Oi. That was most definitely a dream.” Rel glared. “Keep your romance fetishes to yourself”
“Oh..are you..red?”
“I’ll kill you.”
“Ahem.” He coughed quickly and continued his story.
“Well, shortly after, several spikes erupted from the ground and everyone perished. The three subordinates were restrained and Kars came in with a swift kick at Ora. The shockwaves were too powerful and destroyed most of the camp.”
“As I thought…his power is really strong.”
Rel nodded. “I have no idea where he encountered such a relic. But I suppose the timing couldn’t have been better.”
“Yeah…”
They dozed off and eventually fell asleep. All of them minus Lin. Lin sat still and stroked the seared missing leg of his. Perhaps at some point he could run into a magician with some unique healing capabilities.
Healing type magicians are unbelievably rare. Every now and then, there comes a magician who can heal beyond what most understand.
Zion was undoubtedly one of those magicians. Since he had energy beyond imagination, he spent decades upon decades just practicing magic without running out of Mana.
There were stories that he could even bring back the dead. It wasn’t an impossible feat. Through recorded era, stories of magicians who can heal to the point of revival have been cited.
It shouldn’t be a stretch to find a magician who could reconstruct his legs. But then again…who would help out a plague child. The amount of money such a service would cost would be too much. He sighed. Now what use was he to the group?
The sound of birds chirped and he realized just how much time had passed. No one was here for them. It seems tonight, they avoid conflict yet again.
That morning, they continued all activity like usual. Ora had taken the bodies and placed them all in the upper holding cells with the rest of the unit. They also gained 9 additional relics and weaponry/armor to wear. Unfortunately, the armor was much too big for any one of them.
The weapons weren't exactly optimal for use either. Rel was about the only one who could carry and utilize a knight's comfortably.
Lin sat on the far corner of the tower. His eyes were closed and heavy, but he refused to sleep. He encouraged everyone to go about their daily lives as usual, and clean up the streets. Ora went with Rel to gather food and supplies utilizing his Ethiri.
When they had come back, they distributed the rations to everyone. Ora realized that Lin was nowhere to be found.
"Eh? Where's Lin..."
"Heh, beats me. He's probably sleeping somewhere. He was up all night after all."
"Hmm..." Ora looked around everywhere, but could not find the lad.
He was acting pretty quiet the whole day. It's unlike Lin's usual self. He was always vibrant and beaming with his comforting smile.
He continued to search for the rest of the day, looking into his old unit house and asking members of his unit. Alel hadn't even seen him anywhere. They were always together. They could often be found playing chess, which Lin would always win with ease.
With his relic having granted him the ability to peer through several different viewpoints, he became fairly good at keeping track of everything at the same time. Suddenly Ora thought of one place he had yet to check.
If he's avoiding everyone...then the best place to be would...
He closed his eyes and slowly made his way to a long spiraling tower. Once he was in the tower, he kept most of his view closed except for the floor. Yet again, he'd close his eyes when he got to the stairs, scanning each floor and making sure not to look at anything distinguishable.
By the time he got to the very top floor, he saw a pair of legs. Well...a leg. Lin was still completely unaware of him. His eyes were entirely closed and it looked like he was asleep. Ora snuck up to him slowly, not looking at him before he shouted "Boo".
Typical of Lin, his eyes opened calmly. "I thought that was me." He was referring to the leg he had watched through Ora's eyes. "Who else only has 1 leg? And you're too obvious with your attempt to hide your sight from me."
Lin's downcast eyes avoided looking into Ora's. "I brought you some food." He pushed the apple to his cheek.
"eat."
Lin thanked him and set the apple aside. He didn't seem too hungry by any means. "wow...It's as if you're a variant with the ability to spread gloom."
Sensing the rise in sadness in the air, Ora attempted to lighten up the mood. "Weren't you awake since last night? You should probably be sleepy by now. Its okay to take a break every now and then"
Lin shook his head. "It's okay. I'm not tired. I'm not able to work anymore. So this is the least I can do."
"Lin, I think you've done quite a lot for us. You don't need to strain yourself so hard. You can't really walk well- it would be better for you to take it easy on your body."
Lin's mouth scrunched up at the mention of his inability to walk. "It's fine...I- I won't allow myself to become a burden to others."
"You're n-“
“Ora…please. Allow me to be useful to everyone. I don’t think I can handle a life coddled by everyone else.
“You’re strong, Ora. You’re the strongest out of everyone I know. That, and you’ve always been really talented with your mind.”
Lin stroked the empty spot where his leg used to be. “To rise from a position of nothing to importance is one thing. To fall from grace and become a burden is another...”
Yet again no one came for the rest of the day.
Lin had refused to sleep, nor relent from his work, though he did finally eat his food. The day had come to an end quickly.
Ora’s dream had quickly turned into the shadowscape that he always frequently visited. He had begun to enjoy his talks with Alucarde.
“So tell me this Ora… The old man before, you told him you planned on changing the world.”
“What is your idea of changing the world for the better?”
Ora thought for a second. “I used to think it was by making everyone accept us. Through kindness. Like Amai had taught us.”
“But…that manner requires sacrifice. I don’t want to lose any of my comrades. Not if I have the power to do it through force.”
Alucarde nodded. “Don’t misunderstand. You are powerful Ora, but not omnipotent. Every move you make, you risk losing comrades. Even someone as powerful as me can play my cards wrong.”
Alucarde smiled, baring its teeth. They too were dark but outlined by white so one could see it on the silhouette.
“My last host made the same grave mistake.”
“I’m not your last host.”
“No I suppose you certainly are not”
“On that note. You’ve already suffered your first loss.”
Ora looked confused “What are yo…”
His eyes shot open to the disaster happening before him. The children around him were clambering around, running frantically as thousands and thousands of soldiers filled the streets. They were entirely surrounded. How many casualties so far…10…20?
His heart was breaking with every number.
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