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ลำดับตอนที่ #23 : Chapter 23: The Demon Warrior (บทที่ 23 นักรบปีศาจ)
Chapter twenty-three
The Demon Warrior
A demon’s wand in Satan’s
grasp.
The rain had stopped. The wind
ceased its howling. Everything fell silent, even the voice from the skies.
All that was left was
bitter cold.
Snowflakes drifted down.
The ground began to freeze into ice, and he felt his blood was doing the same.
Kalo was the first to seize the wand.
He was standing still, but Felin’s heart panicked. All he had feared after
witnessing Vivien’s plight was that someone he cared for even more would meet
the same fate. But he was wrong; it was worse…
For there was nothing left
now but dead silence, icy cold and ringing loneliness, like a land of lasting
wintertime.
The person who stood facing
him stretched his lips into a terrifying smile. A dark aura seeps out around
him and sent shivers running down Felin’s spine. Not from cold…but fear.
He had turned into someone
Felin did not know.
Judgment was engulfing the
Prince of Kanoval.
Gulping with much
difficulty, Felin glanced at the others. Arthur was gaping, rooted to the spot.
Kil and Rowen was freed, but no-one moved, even though the zone was eradicated—
—No, not eradicated...subjugated
by a greater, more powerful enchantment.
A magic that turned
everything white; a magic that turned the world into a ringing void; a magic
that filled the air with loneliness and emptiness…
The endless winter deep
inside Kalo’s heart…
He turned back to meet the
blue eyes he had known for so long, and his heart nearly stopped.
Emotionless. Cold.
Ruthless.
It was as though those
eyes could wrench out the fear hidden deep inside the human heart, chilling
fear that surged and raged like cold fire, freezing the blood inside his veins
until he can’t move. He was so scared he felt like dying, dying rather than facing
the monster in front of him. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t move. He understood
now why no-one dared move an inch.
Victory was decided; the
dwarves one-by-one lay down their axes, fell to their knees and bowed, wailing
to be spared.
As though a wave of power
had been banished from the demon, hundreds of dwarves were flung backwards and
vanished in a blinding flash of light.
Felin felt like screaming,
but his voice was stuck in his throat as his eyes gaped even wider in shock.
“The Demon Wizard of
Kanoval.”
Said the voice from the
sky at long last.
“Kanoval longed for a
Demon Warrior, and they are finally granted one.”
Kalo raised his cold blue
eyes. A chilling smile crept onto his lips.
“Easy now. You are born to
destroy Demos, and I won’t interfere. My job is simply the Wand and the girl. We
will both just do our jobs.”
Without even waiting for a
reply, the cloud-hand dived down and grabbed the wand and Princess Feliona.
When the hand snatched
Felin up, Kil leaped for him and clung on.
“You do it,” He whispered
as they were taken higher and higher. Felin’s eyes nearly bulged as he glared
back. He so wanted to shout that if he could, he would have already done
something, no need to be told even once!
“Kalo. You’re his only
weakness. Shred him!”
Kil grabbed his sword and
sliced the cloud clean into two. Felin freefell towards the earth.
“KIL, YOU...!”
Felin hollered. He was a
hundred feet up and he prepared himself to join his dead mother. Instead, he
fell into the arms of someone who caught him by instinct. However, the chiseled
features remained deadpan. Nothing but a mere glint of mild confusion flashed
by in his eyes, like he did not understand why he had done it.
The Wand dropped beside
Felin. He blushed as his heart resumed beating.
“Kalo...”
Felin whispered. The lad
was still Kalo. But when he reached out to embrace him, Kalo pushed him off,
his eyes once again vacant of emotions.
“Princess Feliona Gredevel
of Demos: your destined nemesis. Hand her over and I shall finish her myself!”
“CUT IT OUT, DAD!”
A voice bellowed.
It was Kil’s.
Dad!?
Felin repeated silently,
still unable to make sense of what was going on.
“Kil,” Said the voice
wearily. “I don’t mind you running off for the occasional fun-time, son, but work is work. Don’t mix personal
stuff with work, Kil.”
Kil pouted at his father’s
words, then shouted back.
“I told you not to accept
this kind of job! I have only two friends, and you just have to go and kill one and drive the other crazy!?"
“Friends…aren’t very
necessary for us killers, son.” The voice said, but when Kil’s face scrunched
up miserably, he caved in. “But alright, I’ll spare them if you want me to. But
I suppose I’ll have to take the wand anyway.”
The wand again floated
upwards, but halted halfway. Someone had restrained it with his power. The
Demon Sorcerer raised his hand above his head and the wand turned, threatening
to succumb to his call, though he already had a wand in his other hand.
“Don’t be greedy, Kalo
Wanebli. Judgment is more than enough for you.”
Silence came as an answer.
The two poles of power struggled. Waves of energy crashed into each other,
sending tendrils of ions crackling horrifically around the Wand. At long last,
the Wand blazed brightly and exploded to pieces in mid-air. Evides’s freed
power immediately rushed into the princess’s body, sending her blood surging
and boiling.
“The Wand!”
Arthur shouted while Rowen
sighed.
Everything went out of
plan.
They hoped to fix the
Wand, but ended up with smithereens. They racked their brains trying to guess
who the culprit is, and turned out it was the famous house of assassins from
Zares. They were fighting Dark Dwarves, but ended up with the Demon Sorcerer.
“Bloody hell, this feels
so great.”
Said Felin, somewhat
improperly for girls, tightening his grip on the sword, “Night’s falling soon.
And when it falls, you’ll all get to be freaking dead. Mark my words.”
“Looks like you've rounded up all the nice folk in your Knights' Fortress, huh?”
Spited Arthur through
gritted teeth, and Rowen was at a loss for retorts. Everything had now spun out
of control.
The Sun crept back below
the horizon. The Moon shone. Now is the turn for the Princess of Darkness.
The teenage boy transformed into a young woman. His brown hair grew longer. His strong features softened as his
figure morphed into delicate curves.
The wizard met her eyes
for the first time, and uttered his first word, though his blue eyes remained
cold on his coolly serene face.
“You...?"
A ringing, desolate
silence drifted down. Then a dwarf moved, crept closer to Kalo and bowed deeply.
He was Lucifin Skeleton, mayor of Skull Valley.
“O righteous Majesty, have
mercy. Grant justice to this servant who
swears sole allegiance to you.”
Felin started at those
words. Lucifin had turned to meet her gaze with his willful eyes. Gone was the
meekness and respect; all that was left was absolute determination.
“Looking for help,
Lucifin?” She mocked. “Nice try. This moron can never do anything to me.”
Lucifin’s lips stretched
into a taunting smile. His confidence was so infuriating that Felin can’t stop
herself blurting out.
“Especially now when I
have your Lord Evides’s power inside my veins!”
Her threats were useless;
all Lucifin did was kneeling in plea to Kalo, who Felin was not in the least
sure if he could still remember her, though Kil had already proved that he was
still the same person she had known, deep down inside.
Watching Lucifin like that
irritated Felin to no end, and she hollered back at her friends.
“What’s the idiot thinking
of doing!?”
“The master of the Wand
justifies all causes in Demos.” Rowen replied briefly.
“Just? In this barbaric
hell of unjust?” Felin snapped.
“Exactly, Felin. There was
never a just verdict. That’s why the wand became cursed, devouring its
masters’ souls like it's an insatiable hunger!”
Rowen’s words swayed the
heart of she who possessed immense power of the demons.
The Wand would devour
Kalo’s soul, her friend whose eyes no longer bear her reflection the way they once
did.
Those beautiful blue eyes are
now cold, cold without the faintest gleam of recognition, of the past he had
shared with the person called…Felin Debereaux…
It hurts, even though she
was simply just forgotten. It was painful to be betrayed.
Felin
drew her sword from her shoulder, and pointed it at the wizard’s neck.
Kil felt his heart
pounding frantically. He wanted to shout out, to warn her not to do something
crazy, but he understood that there was no other way, and his voice was stuck
in his throat.
They stood staring at each
other, blue eyes gazing into the brown, the brown eyes which felt so familiar to
the Demon Wizard of Kanoval. She was smiling a smile that filled the world with
sunshine, a smile that melted and cracked the ice in his heart, as her words echoed in his ears.
“You’re in my debt, Kalo Wanebli.”
Then Felin turned
Earthsplitter on herself. Scarlet blood poured onto the virgin snow. The
diamond, covered with flesh, dropped and rolled gleaming on the whiteness. She crumbled
to the ground. Everything in her vision flashed white then fell pitch dark,
leaving everything to end by itself out of her grasp.
Kalo, you’re in my debt.
So much that I have the
sole right to take your life.
*********
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