Dawn- An age of Darkness

Zeline thrust his cleaver at me and I blocked it with mine but my sword snapped in two. My desperate struggle was snuffed in an instant. With one hand grabbed my throat and lifted me up. I couldn't breathe; my throat felt like imploding. I don't know why but fate really wants me to suffer, huh? But Lord Fate, I too have an answer for you.

Both of my hands were free. At first, I tried to free myself but I was unable to do so. I was almost out of breath. My body wasn't listening to me but I kept at it with sheer willpower alone. My sword was lying on the ground in pieces; so, there was only one option left. I brought out the knife and shot it through his neck: he saw it coming but he was too overconfident to dodge. I grinned as the last of my consciousness started to fade.

He looked at my eyes in shock and then slammed me into the ground, breaking most of the bones of my left side, as I fell on my left shoulder. My heart stopped for a moment and made sure whether I was still alive or not: unfortunately, I was. And yet somehow I was still conscious.

The damage was done. Zilane's throat was liquefying and his body looked that of a dried fish. Within moments he started crumbling down. Man, talk about an overpowered knife. If I'd known this damn thing was this powerful I'd have used it long ago.

"That knife, huh? Looks like you really might be able to pull it off after all," he ejaculated. "To think I'd be defeated with such a relic." He snickered. For a guy on a deathbed, he didn't seem all that troubled.

He was out of breath and dying and yet, nonchalant. Meanwhile, the woman beside him didn't even look at her partner. She was standing there looking calm and quiet, as though the world was her garden and we were nothing but bugs.

Zeline came to me as he kept on crumbling. I got the impression that he'd finish me off before perishing himself. But…

He patted my head. "For centuries I've wandered in this world in search of an adversary worthy of my life. Yet it just had to be you, Daarc." He smiled. "I guess it really was fate. Don't let this world corrupt you." He didn't stutter. Not even once. "I hope you can stop him."

I couldn't speak. I didn't know what to say. I was speechless. Something about his voice… Something about that voice was nostalgic.

"Give my regard to his highness, Daarc." His last smile was very humane and overflowed with regret. What? Why are you looking at me like that?

"Hey, why me-"

Zeline's body liquefied and his whole body crumbled. Only his cleaver remained. What just happened?

"You really do deserve more credit than I give you," the female demon said. Her grin was everlasting.

"Prepare to die," Gorgan said as he got up and charged.

"Hmm… I think I'll pass. I failed to kill the prince and the princess. And this idiot ended up dead as well. I guess he really was the weakest among us." She sighed, widened her grin, and glared. "Any more time wasted here, is actually pointless and embarrassing. As you can see, unlike him, I'm not driven by battle lust. And I don't plan on dying anyway. So I'll take my leave: I've already had enough fun for today." She gave Gorgan a seductive smile. "Besides, I for once don't want to come near that knife or that stuff he has in his bag." She slowly dissipated with a burst of fading laughter.

Gorgan missed her by a hair. The floral scent disappeared along with her.

I-I I still didn't know what was going on. Why would a demon pretend to know me and act like that toward me? Wasn't he trying to kill me? But if he was, why wasn't I dead? Who was that? My head went funny. I couldn't think straight. Frankly, I couldn't think at all.

"Daarc! ... Daarc!"

My senses returned when the elf-boy shook me. For the time being, I decided to put off these feelings.

Now that both of them are gone, what will happen to the city? I looked around but almost nothing had changed. The mermaids were going on about their days, ravaging homes, killing people, and eating them alive. Why did we waste so much of our time here then? Everything felt meaningless.

My teeth, grinded against each other, my burning intensified. With a pained grin I tightened my resolve. I drank the last sip from the elixir. It really was my life line.

But something changed. It started pouring out of nowhere. I looked up. I was not prepared to see what I saw next. Oh no! "Guy's we gotta run!"

I picked up Lianne, Gorgan took the princess while a soldier picked up the nun, and then we ran. We ran for our lives. The tidal wave above the city- the water that was glaring at us from the top- was now falling, ever so slowly. We ran, ran and ran. It sped up and within moments engulfed the whole area. At first the west area drowned but soon the water dispersed into the whole city. Luckily we were a little further into the city but still the water submerged me to my neck and then settled down around my knees. I was drenched. It was hard moving around but we had no choice. Damn it! My heart throbbed just by thinking how many people might have drowned by misfortune.

"Listen up. The masterminds are gone. Only these weaklings are left. We can do this. FOR THE CITY AND HER PEOPLE!" Gorgan screamed.

It wasn't a great speech but I couldn't think of anything better than what he said: the soldiers were disheartened and so that was the best thing to do. If he couldn't stir them up then we wouldn't be able to even put up a fight.

Lianne was still unconscious and so was the nun. "Gorgan, what can we do about these two?" The nun had passed out from overuse of her mana but Lianne's condition was serious. She had a sip from the elixir and yet, she showed no signs of recovery.

Gorgan was by the princess's side. "Would you trust me and my men? I can vouch for their safety that way. Besides, I have to look after her highness as well."

I didn't have time to think about it. "Alright. You have my trust." But before anything, I bandaged Lianne's wounds with some extra cloth. That was the least I could do.

I trusted Gorgan and his men, and started killing every single mermaid I could find. My wounds weren't healed but the elixir worked like a pain killer. I felt nothing, nothing at all. I didn't know how I moved but I did. Basically at this point I might have looked like an undead, give or take some rot.

Gorgan was protecting all three of them and I protecting him.

I didn't care if they were large, abominations or even child-like. All I cared was they were killers- every single one of them: the undead. But, killing them was not easy. Although they were undead and weak to my knife, they were fast and strong. For a moment I could hardly believe they lived underwater. But then again water still covered my knees, so it wasn't all that much of an implausible scenario.

Most of the mermaids were busy eating the people than hunting. This gave us the proper advantage of killing them while they ate, at the cost of hundreds. How could this happen! Do the gods really have no mercy? Nowadays I was a full believer but I detested the gods with all my might. Where were they when all these people suffered?

Then there was the problem that the undead weren't actually dying. Apart from me and Gorgan, the others were merely scattering the mermaids' bodies. My knife worked just like Gorgan's spear: maybe this knife really was an overpowered weapon. It was enough to kill the mermaids. But at what cost?

I, elf boy and the rest of the soldiers were trying our best to keep things under control till sunrise, but it still wasn't even close, and we could barely suppress them. It was also quite hard while three of the ladies were unconscious. Even the princess had no consciousness. So protecting the three ladies required some active heads. Gorgan was protecting them while fighting mermaids, and I was beside him, helping him kill these things. This can't go on.

"This is getting nowhere!" Gorgan said.

"Damn it! We are outnumbered."

At that time, we heard bombarding sounds from the top of the wall. So many catapults! Is- is that a cannon?

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