The Path of Ruin

When Kael saw the flower, he felt many different things inside him.

The first was surprise. Because... he needed a few seconds to realize what was going on.

The second was horror. He knew what the flower was doing and why it was in front of him.

The third was... peace. The most uncomfortable peace he had ever felt in his life, yet... warm and alluring.

He knew the flower was playing with his mind. Once learned, it was hard to fall for the same trick completely. But... the flower had a powerful attraction. He wanted to get out of the wardrobe, to pick it up and smell it. His whole body literally ached to be near it.

Kael swallowed as he looked at the flower. For a while, he just stared at it, doing nothing, just... staring. As if he was locked in. He wanted to turn his head, but neither his muscles nor his brain were listening.

He closed his eyes momentarily to blink, like a normal person would. It was something everyone did without even realizing it, so fast that it happened in split seconds. However, when Kael opened his eyes again... he froze in place.

He was standing in front of the flower. He was bending down to pick it up.

'No!'

He stepped back, threw himself into the wardrobe, and closed its door as fast as he could. He didn't even care to make a sound. Because... he was scared. He couldn't remember ever being so scared in his life.

'You're in control, you're in control, you're in control...'

He had moved to a position where he could no longer see the flower, but... he was afraid to close his eyes. What if he blinked and found the flower in his hands? What if... he turned into a creature?

'No, I'm myself. I'm in control. I don't even see the flower...'

He swallowed. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his torn and blood-stained clothes. Then... for a while, he just waited.

Silence...

Nothingness...

Darkness...

He felt dizzy. That disgusting, disturbing peace touched him again as his eyes widened once again.

He quickly opened the wardrobe and stepped out.

The flower was still in the same place. It was inviting him, begging him to come to it. Just like... like that woman who begged him to kill her.

He remembered her transformation, how she had suffered. Then... he looked at the flower again.

It was beautiful, too beautiful.

But...

...

...

He threw up.

There wasn't much in his stomach, but he threw up anyway. He tried his best to get away from the flower, but he couldn't think straight. He kept imagining himself holding it, and then... turning into a creature.

He shook his head slightly from side to side. No matter how hard it was, no matter how much he wanted to go to it...

He turned and ran out of the room.

He was back in the palace corridors, back in danger. But he didn't care. He ran along the corridor, not even caring to make a sound. He didn't care about the bodies and the blood and the filth around him. He just ran. As far away from the flower as he could get. He resisted all his impulses, everything, and he ran.

He saw a creature. It was crouched over a corpse just a few meters in front of him. As soon as the sound of footsteps reached him, it turned its head towards him. Its crimson eyes stared into his own.

Kael's eyes widened. Terror filled him again.

But... it wasn't because of the creature in front of him. It was because of something far more beautiful, far more alluring. It was the snow-white flower behind him, floating to the ground as if nothing had happened.

Kael screamed. He took off his bag and, not thinking straight, threw it at the flower. But in his path was the creature on the corpse.

The creature tore the bag to pieces with its claws, but spilled all the medicines on itself in doing so. Kael walked past it as if nothing had happened, not even looking back. He heard the sound of the creature hitting the ground, but he didn't stop.

He saw stairs leading upwards. They were much smaller than the ones in the entrance hall, probably used by the servants and maids. But he didn't care and went up to the third floor.

It was only when he managed to step into the corridors of the upper floor that he realized what he had done. He had run like a madman, his lungs were screaming. He had also lost his medicine bag. All he had was the knife with which the poison had dried, with which he had killed that woman.

But he didn't focus on that. Instead, his eyes locked on one place, a little further down the corridor.

There... for the first time, he saw someone who could fight creatures.

It was a soldier, his hair disheveled, covered in dust. Some of his armor was missing, the rest was covered with claw marks. His fatigue was evident on his face, his breathing was rapid. He was not much different from Kael in this respect. But... he couldn't have been more different in every other way.

In the corridor were the bodies of three creatures, and two of them standing in front of him. This man... had fought five creatures on his own and had managed to kill three of them! But he didn't seem to be able to kill the other two, yet.

Just then, the creatures saw Kael, their crimson eyes shifting towards him, if only for a moment. The man realized this, but did not turn around. Instead, he shouted, gripped his sword tightly in his hand, and charged at the creatures.

The creatures' eyes shifted to him again. But... there was something different about the man this time. A white-colored aura appeared momentarily around his body. It was not very visible, the color was pale, but... it was there.

'This man... is one of the Blessed!'

The man swung his sword at the chest of one of the creatures, slicing it in two before it knew what was happening. The other creature swung its claw at him, grabbed him by the shoulder, almost tearing his arm off. But the man did not allow it. He stepped back in one swift movement, spun around, and swung his sword at the creature's throat. The creature's head separated from its neck and flew to the other side of the corridor, and its body simply collapsed.

It all happened so suddenly that Kael could not understand what was happening. But... only one thing was running through his mind.

'Were these creatures... so weak? Or is this man too strong?'

He did not know the answer to the question. But... with the man's next move, all his thoughts were simply gone.

The man did not stop after killing the last creature. He quickly turned around and swung his sword mercilessly at Kael. The bloody sword that had sliced through two of the creatures a second ago was now in front of his very eyes.

Kael felt the whole world freeze. He hadn't even had time to think, he was just going to lose his life like that.

But... he didn't.

Time had indeed frozen, and the sword was right where it had been in front of his eyes.

At first, he was surprised. But then he saw the hot blood dripping from the sword and his eyes widened.

No, time had not stopped... the man had stopped!

Kael finally took his eyes off the sword and turned them towards the man's well-built body. Then... he found a pair of dark eyes staring at him in surprise.

The man was kind of handsome. He must have been in his thirties, because although he looked old, he had no wrinkles.

"Ah, a kid?"

The man drew his sword back. Kael let out all the breath he was holding at the same time and fell on his buttocks. The man sighed slightly as he looked at the young boy in front of him.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were a creature too."

His eyes drifted for a moment to his neck, to where the mark of slavery was. His eyebrows rose slightly.

"You were a slave?"

Then he looked at his clothes. Although torn and covered in blood, it wasn't hard to guess what he had looked like before.

"You don't seem to be from the palace, did you come from outside?"

"Y- yes..."

The man looked back for a moment, checked the corridor. But there was nothing. Then he turned in front of him and there was nothing on the other side either. When he was sure that no one was there, that they were safe even for a moment, he held out his hand to Kael.

Kael was surprised to see the hand extended to him. Were most of the knights he met in this palace good people... or was it just him?

Kael took the man's hand and stood up with his support. Then the man started asking questions again.

"Were you hiding somewhere, where did you come from?"

Kael waited for a while before answering. But then he realized he was thinking too much.

"Yes, I was hiding. Then... I saw one of the white flowers and I ran away."

The man looked at him blankly.

"White flowers?"

'Oh, he doesn't know?'

"Yes, they cause people to turn into creatures. They appear when one is asleep or about to fall asleep, they have an ability to prevent thinking straight. And if anyone touches one..."

He looked at the creatures on the ground. He quickly caught the man's attention.

"The flower withers, and whoever touches it turns into a creature."

The man's eyes narrowed quickly, his focus shifting from Kael.

"That's... good information. Do you know anything else about the situation?"

Kael opened his mouth, about to tell the man that what had happened here was because of the man who had entered the palace this morning, but... then he paused. He had done nothing himself. On the contrary, the eyes of the man in front of him were no longer on him. He was looking behind him.

Kael slowly turned around. But then... he literally froze where he was, speechless.

There was a creature on his side of the corridor. But... it wasn't a normal creature. It was one of those furry creatures he had seen in the garden. It was staring at the duo with its emotionless face, huge claws, and crimson eyes.

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