‘’Are you awake still awake?’’ Kane asked as he entered the room he and
Janine were given by Kayla to rest for the night. She scuffled and turned around to
face him. ‘’Why are you crying?’’
‘’Because i am afraid of you! I have the feeling you could take care of me as
easy as of an enemy sometimes. You scared and humiliated me in front of everyone.
Never do that again or i will kill us both!’’ she yelled.
‘’Don’t even think about things that you are saying now. If you ever thought
about laying a hand on yourself to hurt me, i will hurt you first, understood?’’ Kane
said menacingly and then shrugged his head as if waking up from a dream.
‘’Egeryon!? Don’t you even dare speak instead of me, let stand do something.
I have warned you already!’’ Kane yelled .
‘’As you say, my lord’’ he said mockingly and disappeared again.
‘’I am sorry. It was Egeryon speaking. You know i would never hurt you, my
love’’ Kane said quickly.
‘’I know, but it seems he is getting more and more hold over you, Kane. Do not
let him!’’ she pleaded, tears running down her cheeks. ‘’I would rather die than lose
you or see something happen to you’’ Kane took her in his arms and hugged her,
kissing her on top of her head, cradling her gently.
‘’I know, Janine. I am trying as hard as i can, and i will keep fighting him for as
long as i can. Then, it is up to you if he does get loose one day, to stop him’’ She
started sobbing even more after hearing his words, and the tone in which he said
them. A sudden loud knock interrupted them and she tore away from his embrace.
‘’Who is it’’ Kane said loudly.
‘’Gabriel. Is everything alright, sir?’’ he asked. ‘’Rasiela felt something and she
told me to check up on you’’
‘’Yes, Gabriel. Everything is al right. Return to my sister and tell her Janine is
fine. So am i. Now go sleep’’
‘’All right. Good night, sir’’ Gabriel said as he strode off, his loud footsteps
echoing in the hall.
‘’You know i love you, Janine? More than anything in the world, right?’’ Kane
asked.
‘’I love you too, you damn moron. Don’t you see that?’’ she almost yelled at
him.
‘’Don’t worry, i am here. Just be there for me and i will take care of the rest,
alright?’’ Kane said gently. A gentle smile appeared on her face and she nodded,
putting her head on his chest. ‘’I love you’’ he said softly, blowing into her ear. She
looked up into his eyes, still crying, laying her head on his chest and fell asleep in his
arms.
’Did you sleep well?’’ Kane asked Janine as she opened her eyes, looking at
his.
‘’Not really. I don’t want to go. A lot of people will die today, and i don’t think i
will be able to take it’’ she responded.
‘’Don’t worry. We will stay for a day or two longer. Last night i was thinking and
i would like for us four to practice for a day, rest in the evening and then ride out the
next dawn. I have already sent word to Walfrid and everyone else who has a stake in
it’’ Kane replied. Her smile widened.
‘’One more day is more than none, my love’’ she said as she leaned in to kiss
him.
After lunch, Kane and Gabriel were standing outside of the manor, shirtless
and barefeet. There was a crowd of onlookers gathered to the sides, leaning against
the walls as not to be in the way. Rasiela and Janine weren't shirtless, but they
weren’t clothed much more than their partners. To one side Janine and Kane and on
the opposite Gabriel and Rasiela. The sparring would begin when the church bell
sounded for the eighth time.
Suddenly, Kane rushed forwards, leaping with great speed towards his
opponents, three fire balls flashing past him into the enemy. Rasiela deflected the
fireballs with a water barrier and Gabriel leaped as well towards Kane. Each of the
two men had two blades summoned, Kane’s looking more wicked, having the form of
hell itself. They clashed and slashed at each other with their blades, Kane slashing
one time from the left towards Gabriel’s head then with the other towards his neck,
from different sides. Gabriel deflected them both and stabbed for Kane’s torso which
deflected Gabriel’s blades to the left, spinning and roundhouse kicking Gabriel into
his side, sending him flying into a near wall. A storm of ice bolts flew Kane’s way and
a flame wall appeared just to Kane’s side which melted the ice bolts, only water
drops hitting Kane’s body.
As gabriel got up, a small golem came out of the ground, grabbing for his foot,
another golem jumped on the one who was attacking him. The small golem shattered
and from it grew two larger golems, pitch black in colour. The other golem morphed
into two black golem’s as well, which were a slighter dark black and more
translucent, which meant weaker in power. Gabriel ran past them, avoiding a
crushing blow narrowly from one of the two pitch black golems, slashing at its
massive fist which was cleaved off neatly by his summoned blades. As he turned
towards Kane, a mass of assassin's blades was flying his way, and it was all he could
do to narrowly deflect all of them, though a few slicing up his right arm and left cheek.
Gabriel went into soul burn mode and summoned his own assassin’s blades, which
were emerald green, opposed to Kane’s pitch black and whirled them towards Kane,
who already had another salvo ready. The two men were standing perfectly still,
lunging small blades at each other in enormous quantities. Finally, one of Kane’s
blades broke through and stopped right at Gabriel’s neck, cutting into it by a
millimeter, just enough to draw blood. Gabriel put his hands up, disbanding his
blades and giving up in defeat. Beside them, the four golems were wreaking havoc
upon each other, none gaining the upper hand for more than a minute. Suddenly,
three familiars rushed into the fray, attacking the four golems. All three were in battle
mode, though not enlarged, more their standard dimensions.
All three of them had battle armour on and were ready to rumble. Alpha took
on the two Janine’s golems while Gamma and Beta took on one each of Rasiela’s
golems. Beta crashed head first into his golem, trying to crush his opponents head
with his massive, metal claws. The golem hit him and sent him flying towards Alpha,
who narrowly avoided Beta hitting him, in return jumpin on one of his opponents. His
large body and metal armour brought the golem down and he started violating him
with his own claws, ripping out chunks of black stone.The other closed in and brought
both his fists up to crush Alpha under his blows but Alpha sidestepped and the golem
crushed the other who was pinned down under Alpha just a moment before, debris
flying everywhere, some of the onlookers running for cover not to be hit. Gamma had
less problems with his opponent as he could fly so he flew around the big golem and
went straight up into the sky, turned and flew into the golem, spiraling around himself
creating a vacuum which shredded the golem into pieces as he connected with it.
Beta had gotten up and jumped at his golem again, knocking it down to the ground
the second time. He crushed the golems right fist, then the left within mere moments
and lastly he ripped its head off with its great claws. Alpha’s last golem was standing
to his right and Alpha crushed into him with his armoured tail, a big spike at its end,
hitting the golem straight on in its chest, crushing it into pieces.
The onlookers went wild, screaming, cheering, calling their names. Never
before had anyone seen such a spectacle of power and control. The four of them
walked over to the center, congratulating each other for a good practice round. The
three familiars returned to their smaller forms and walked over to the group, yawning
as if bored.
‘’The golem’s aren’t strong enough for you trio?’’ Kane asked.
‘’Not really’’ Alpha replied, sounding bored.
‘’How about you and me go at each other, full power. Want to take it outside of
the walls so no one gets hurt?’’ Alpha squealed in joy and nodded enthusiastically.
Kane got an irritating look from Janine but he didn’t care. They ran for a few minutes
until they had reached the outer gate and another minute to a clear patch of grass.
Most of the onlookers had followed them and were standing on top of the outer walls,
with even more people joining them by the moment. Within a few minutes the walls
were crowded to the point people were in danger of falling down. Kane smiled
inwardly to be able to show off his power in front of so many people. A new legend
would be born today, here, in front of these people.
‘’Stop thinking about stupid things, human. Come at me!’’ Alpha sneered. So
Kane did just that.
Kane summoned a five meter long blade which he held in two hands, firmly. It
looked totally different than his normal blades, mostly looking like a hunting knife. It
had a long, curved edge and a thin blade, maybe thirty centimeters in width. It looked
like a blade the warriors of Nepon wielded in battle. Alpha had soulforged as well,
towering far over Kane, by a good fifteen meters, as Alpha was about eighteen in
height. Alpha decided he would use just his soulforge so he could utilize its power to
its full extent and backtracked a good dozen meter away from his translucent, giant
copy. Kane smiled as he knew he didn’t have to hold off anything, as even if he
would destroy the soul forge, Alpha wouldn’t be harmed too badly.
Alpha pushed himself off with his back legs, propelling himself towards Kane,
coming in at an odd angle, one paw raised into the air as if to hit Kane with it. Kane
jumped backwards, avoiding Alpha’s slash with his claw and slashed down at his
body, which had a thick metal armour glued to it. The slashes just dinged off
harmlessly and Alpha roundhoused Kane with his tail, swiping him out of the air,
Kane crashing into a big rock some twenty meters away. Alpha ran towards him, not
wanting to give him any chance to recover but had underestimated Kane who jumped
up just about at the right moment, slashing at his left claw, cutting off three toes with
armour in all. Alpha shrieked and slashed at Kane again, with his other claw, which
deflected a second blow. Kane seeing he couldn’t do much except land a lucky strike
occasionally, he summoned his storm of blades, called Eclipse. The sky darkened
above Alpha, who just had time to say ‘shit’ before thousands of blades crashed into
him, cutting him up badly and crushing most of his back, neck and head armour.
Most blades were deflected, but the sheer amount of hits had damaged the armour
and cracks had appeared, which then in return by more hits cracked wide open and
fell off his body. His damaged paw also got hit badly a few times and Alpha was
limping. Then, as Kane had surprised Alpha, he did the same, morphing into a semi
liquid state, maybe better described as a ghost. His body formed a dense mass,
which shot at Kane, who sliced the mass with his big blade, but didn’t do any
damage, instead, getting hurt badly by Alpha, who at the last moment formed a head
at the near end of the blob that had flowed into him, biting Kane and ripping part of
his torso up, shredding his left shoulder and a part of his chest. Then ten meters
behind him as Alpha morphed back to his ethereal form, Kane turned around, put up
his mangled arm, palm facing Alpha. More blood was flowing out of his critical wound
which turned into a thick mist embracing Alpha who didn’t have the time to dodge as
he was morphing back, Kane just whispered one word, Abyss. Alpha’s soul forge
exploded into thousands of little pieces and flew in every direction for dozens of
meters. Alpha’s corporeal body crashed to the ground and he lost consciousness,
Kane following him a moment later because of blood loss. As he fell to the ground,
he saw Alpha laying on the ground, unconscious and thought how idiotic they were.
‘’Is he going to be alright? It has been two days already and he still isn’t
awake!’’ a voice seemed to be yelling inside of Kane’s head. ‘’Say something
already!’’
‘’Stop… yelling’’ Kane managed with a weak voice. A loud squeal sounded off
in his head and he flinched. ‘’Stop… yelling!’’ he managed, this time with a stronger
voice.
‘’I am sorry, please forgive me, my love’’ a female voice said, almost at a
whisper. ‘’How are you feeling?’’ the voice asked again.
‘’Everything hurts. Especially my head of the constant yelling and screaming’’
Kane replied. The voice was quiet for a long moment. Kane opened his eyes,
searching for the origin of the voice. Beside him Janine was sitting on a wooden
chair, naked. ‘’Why are… you naked?’’ he managed again.
‘’I have been sleeping beside you for the last couple of days. You were out
cold for the last few days, not giving any signs of life beside breathing. Your
temperature wouldn’t go up the first night, so i laid beside you, sharing my warmth
with you’’ she said with a low, sad voice. ‘’I thought you were gone for good when
you didn’t wake up by day three’’
‘’I am harder to kill… than that… love. How is the big guy doing?’’ Kane asked.
‘’He woke up this morning. You must have been wounded far worse than he
was. Beta and Gamma have been sleeping beside him as well, for the last couple of
days. It was rather cute to see, all three of them sleeping beside each other’’
‘’Where is he?’’ Kane asked, trying to get up, as if hoping he was somewhere
in the room as well.
‘’The three of them went out for a run after he came and checked up on you.
They will probably be back soon, as they left a few hours ago’’
‘’Did he say anything? Or did he ask anything? About our battle? Or did he
sound angry at me?’’
‘’No he didn’t. He was worried about you, even felt guilty about going too far.
He got carried away by the moment, he said. The thrill was something he has never
felt before, were his words’’ Kane chuckled at Janine’s words. A burden seemed to
fall off his shoulders and he slumped down to the bed again, falling asleep
immediately.
Sometimes later he awoke again to a wet snout prodding his forehead. When
he opened his eyes and saw Alpha licking him, he burst out in tears of joy. The sight
of his other half was something he welcomed very gladly.
‘’Hey big guy. How are you doing?’’ Kane asked, as he sat up a bit straighter,
wiping Alpha’s liquids off his face, chuckling.
‘’Good. I gotta give you that. You are a damn idiot. You almost killed me’’
Alpha said.
‘’Me? You almost bit me in half, damn mut’’ Kane replied as if angry.
‘’Bite me, weakling. As if you would die from such a minor wound’’ Alpha said
again looking away. Kane stood up and hurled himself at Alpha, hugging and kissing
him.
‘’Hey! What the hell is this? Get off of me you damn human!’’ Alpha cried. ‘’But
to be honest, i enjoyed our battle so much, it can’t be put into a feeling or a
sensation. It was something… out of this world. I felt alive, and battling for my life, i
finally could do my best and show what i have learned, how strong i have become.
How strong the both of us have become’’ Kane just nodded and smiled.
‘’I have enjoyed it as well, but, i gotta ask. Did you really have to bite my
shoulder and part of my chest off? I mean, i am dead already, as in my heart isn’t
beating, but still’’
‘’I… had lost control for a moment there. I even think i aimed for your head to
be honest’’ Alpha said and chuckled somewhat manically. Kane just looked at him,
one eyebrow raised in question.
‘’Anyway, let us go see what the others are up to’’ They both stood and left the
med room in search for the others. They didn’t have to search far, as the others were
just on the other side of the door, listening in.
‘’Ahem’’ Kane coughed as he opened the door, seeing them listen in. ‘’You
guys lost anything?’’
They basically crashed into the room and lay sprawled on the floor, looking up
at Kane and Alpha.
‘’Let us go to the meeting room. We need to talk’’ Kane said as he stepped
over the three laying on the floor, Alpha following him.
A few minutes later everyone sat in the meeting room, waiting for Kane to
start.
‘’What happened in the last few days i was away?’’
‘’A lot. Do you want the short or long version’’ Janine asked.
‘’Up to you. Whatever you think is better’’ Kane replied dryly.
‘’All right. After your duel we carried you to the infirmary as soon as we could.
Beta and Gamma helped a lot there, since either of you were too heavy to carry by
us ordinary mortals. They tended to your wounds but there wasn’t really any need.
The belial you have in your hand had placed some kind of cocoon over where the
wound was which fell off during the second day, your wounds healed. You sleeping
for so long was probably due to exhaustion. We do not know exactly’’ she said as
she looked down at the table. ‘’Rasiela was sure you would wake up, but i had my
doubts. I was ready to kill Alpha for doing that to you’’ she said, embarrassed.
‘’Kill him? Why? Because we had a bout?’’ Kane asked, surprised.
‘’You call that a bout?!’’ she yelled out angrily. ‘’He almost bit you in half and
you blew him apart into atoms!’’
‘’Well, if you look at it that way...’’ Kane said and smiled sheepishly. ‘’Anyway,
what else?’’
‘’During the first day, late afternoon, a caravan of goods came here from the
other districts. There wasn’t much to it, just some basic necessities, but i guess it’s
better than nothing. They probably had heard about your accident and sent just
enough to appease you if you would survive, but withheld a lot more than they should
have. There were about seven cards of food, nine of all kinds of clothing, one cart full
of medical herbs and stuff needed in medical practice. Then there was one cart full of
nails and things needed for carpenters, some tools and stuff. About forty cow’s and
some twenty horses. I think that was about it. Kayla there has the exact number, but i
don't think the number matters much. It is a lot less than we expected. Still, it is a lot
more than we had before that. Also, we had agreed to donate the animals to the
families that most needed them and had some land to work the horses on or breed
the cows at. Clothing has been already stored at the local warehouse and sorted
between child, man and woman. Every family that is poor had the chance to grab a
few pieces they liked, or, that were left’’ she said and took one of the glasses in front
of them, poured some wine inside and drank it all down.
‘’Sorry, dry throat’’ she laughed. ‘’Anyway, every single person we helped
praised your name and swore eternal loyalty’’
‘’Speaking of loyalty’’ Gabriel interrupted. He drew all eyes on himself and
went on. ‘’Yesterday evening there was an attempt on your life. A group of bandits
had moved in under pretense of being beggars, but Brannon had seen through them
before they could have done anything to anyone. He interrogated some of them
personally, and so did i. All we could get out of them was that one of the other district
leaders sent them. We will have to get into more detail after we return’’ Gabriel
added.
‘’I will not deal with idiots. I will kill them all personally when we are back’’
Kane said, angrily. ‘’There is too much work and there are too many problems for us
to have domestic issues. We have big plans and we need all the time and attention
we can spare for that purpose. Let them know, while we are gone that there will be a
reckoning after returning. Let everyone do what they want, but after we are back, we
will be judge and jury’’ Kane finished. He stared at the table for a long time, shaking
his head in disgust. Humans were so very pitiful.
‘’Yes they are. Do you want me to help you get rid off humanity?’’ Egeryon
asked.
‘’Bring it’’ Kane replied without even realizing it. ‘’Wait, no. What the hell are
you talking about, fiend?’’
‘’Nothing special. I’ll help you get rid of humanity if you would like’’
‘’And you really think i would do that? Even ask your help? Dont make me
laugh, demon’’
‘’You will see in the end, my dear boy. You will see’’ he whispered and
disappeared. Perverted creature, always making trouble for everyone around them.
He won’t stop until he has the upper hand. Kane won’t make it so easy for him, he
would rather kill himself than lose to a demon.