Chapter 109: Chapter 109

Langrion could not believe it! His wife almost died. If he was just a second late, she would have perished! She surely wouldn’t have survived!

A heart beat ago, he swopped as fast as he could towards the open fire burning at the castle’s courtyard. He had seen it countless of times before, looking like a candle far-away in his own tower. He heard the pleas of the cursed ones like him, begging, screaming for help, but his uncle never did give his mercy at any of those times.

As such, Langrion feared those flames for a long time. He felt like they were the cause of his torment. He should have died with those people accused of being cursed a long time ago. He should have been the first to burn, but because he was a prince, he survived. He lived until his present age of twenty one years old...

That’s right. Today is his twenty first birthday, and today, he just turned curseless.

The mask on his face fell as he snatched Shia away from the burning flames that would kill her, and from thereon, he vowed to always protect her. He vowed to always be beside her.

But first, there was one god he needed to utterly crush so that he could conveniently fulfil his promise.

“Sirion!” Langrion’s rage has no bounds. He was still clutching his young wife in his arms, but he did not care. He would kill him for attempting to cut through even the tiniest folds of her dress.

“Look here, if it isn’t the prince and that puny god. How bold of you!”

The maniacal look in Langrion’s brother’s face was still there, which meant that the God of Darkness was still in full control. Langrion carefully set Shia into a safe side on the edge of the courtyard. He snapped the chains in her hands and feet using the unknown god’s power that were surging in his veins. Afterwards, he handed him her dagger, which he had packed when he left.

“Run as far away from here as possible. It’ll get bloody.”

Shia was still trembling, but she wounded her arms in his neck and sobbed. “No. I’m not going anywhere without you...”

“You have to. You could die here, or I could die here... I don’t want you to see it.”

“No,” she cried even harder. “You and I are partners – husband and wife, to be exact - remember? Just try to die, and I’ll really strangle you!”

Langrion chuckled. He had missed the soft feel of her body against his arms. He had missed this... He will surely miss this if he dies today.

A thick and dark concentration of power was about to hit them from where they stood. Langrion did not budge. It collided with an invisible force field that the god inside him had set around them.

Shia did not remove her arms from him. She was deathly afraid that once she did, he would vanish away from her sight, and she’ll never get to see him again.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered in between sobs. “I’m sorry I stabbed you...” It bugged her that the final memory of Langrion and her together involved her stabbing him in the time passages. If she had really died on that flame, she would have truly regretted that one act.

“Don’t worry... It’s not your fault,” he said. A dense collection of dark fog surrounded them. Sirion continued to rain balls and balls of dark matters towards them, but the two were unmoved.

“Let’s face him together,” Shia whispered. This time, she was unwilling to cower in front of Sirion anymore, and she won’t be separated from Langrion, not even just for a second.

More and more balls of dark masses descended upon them, but they remained safe in their small bubble of force field, still hugging each other. Finally, Langrion nodded.

“Alright... Today won’t be the day we die.”

That’s right. It’ll be Sirion’s time to perish!

“Finally paying attention to me, now, brother? Why did you have to come?”

Thick masses of dark orbs were shot from Sirion’s hands, targeting the two of them. They were still protected by the force field, but it was making things hard to see.

“Let’s attack... We can’t stand like this forever,” Shia said, trying to peer into the haze and sand created by Sirion’s attack.

Shia made a small orb of light in her hands. They were only the size of a chestnut.

“I’ll cover the sides. You attack him in the front.”

Langrion nodded and unsheathing his sword, he used his ears and other senses to pick up where Sirion was hiding.

As soon as they had decided on their plan, Shia started to weave smaller balls of light in her hands. She made as many of them as possible, and she made them come out of the ground beneath them. In an instant, the whole yard was populated by tiny balls of light, finally revealing Sirion’s whereabouts.

“Dearest, as always, you are going far beyond my expectation,” Sirion screamed as the lights began to attack him, exploding violently as it collided with his body. Indeed, Freya’s power had grown much. Who knew she could make weapons out of those rays of light now? He screamed in a mixture of pain and delight.

Not losing a second, Langrion attacked Sirion head on with his sword. Surprisingly, the God of Darkness was swift. He was able to unsheath his own sword from his hip that originally belonged to Danterion.

Sirion countered Langrion’s overhead attack with a skilful swish of the sword, and he successfully evaded getting a fatal cut in his shoulders.

“Brother,” Langrion called, “Brother, wake up! How long will you let him use you?!”

Sirion laughed. “Which brother are you calling for? He’s no more, you see... Now, I’m the only one that remained!”

Langrion tried to thrust his sword into his brother’s heart, but the knights that had only surrounded them at the beginning started to attack after gaining back a clearer vision of the yard.

The knights started to hurl themselves at Shia as well, but the lights she made protected her. It exploded when they collided with them or when they slashed at them.

She got a closer look at one of the knights who tried to attack her with a sword. His eyes were too black and lifeless.

“Let this people go,” Shia growled at Sirion.

“Why would I? They are only serving their one, true king!”

Overhead, a dark mass of clouds suddenly covered the sky. When Shia and Langrion looked closely, the dark mass were not exactly clouds but birds, and in the midst of them was Gaf, one of the boys who travelled with them on their way to the port of Jazamel.

The birds were slowly closing in on them, plunging themselves in the already chaotic jumble of knights and Sirion’s dark orbs. It felt like the two of them were up for a losing battle...

******************

Gavil could feel the tug of his chest tighten. Thanks to their infinite life bond as husband and wife, he could clearly feel Khailis’ presence in Gaulane.

Right now, that presence was somewhere below, but where?

He flew on top of a mountainous and seemingly newly excavated region of the earth. His heart thumped wildly. Could it be that his Khailis was somewhere beneath that toppled mass of land?

Beside him, he felt Langrion’s familiar flying close by. “I could smell Lady Khailis,” he whimpered.

Gavil hated this familiar and the way that he could smell his wife. Khailis is his alone! This familiar had no right to imprint her scent in his memory like that, but then again, he could not blame him. Khailis was always a shining ball of beautiful light, and everyone gets easily attracted to her bright and happy personality.

“Let’s take a closer look below,” he growled at him, swooping down.

The closer they got to the ground, the more horrifying the sight had become.

Before them, several groups of skeletons were digging their way by hand into the earth.

“Aaaah,” Marmie screamed loud enough for the next village to hear.

The skeletons paid no attention to them, however. They continued to dig through the soil, but their efforts looked futile. Their hands were porous, and they had no instruments. What on the earth were they doing, Gavil wondered. Why were they digging away?

Marmie began to create an earthquake. She raised her hand, and a part of the earth had moved. She wanted to attack the bones and bury them deep where she can no longer see them.

“Did you see that,” Gavil growled to Langrion’s familiar. He howled in agreement.

It was only for a quick second, but Gavil swore he saw something shiny and translucent underneath the earth.

“Wait,” he said, using his voice in the Human Tongue for the little girl Marmie to hear.

Marmie stopped in the middle, the earth she had commanded to float hanging above the scary piles of moving bones.

“Something is underneath. Let’s help those bones dig!”

Marmie was utterly scared of the skulls, but he was more scared now when she realized that the big, black, flying cat can speak in her language despite his appearance...

But he should really be able to speak, right? She did saw him as a human before he became like this giant, flying cat.

“Umm, okay,” Marmie agreed. She does not have a sharp eyesight or a keen sense of smell like this divine being, so she will trust his judgement. She began moving copious amounts of the earth as swiftly as she could into one side, creating a mountain beside it in the process while the final battle at the courtyard began.