Chapter 21: Chapter 20: The Returning Dawn

Harvesting the demons' usable parts went smoothly. Despite their fatigue, the villagers showed an enthusiasm to hack the harbingers into pieces. Aleph admired their drive. For mortals who had everything taken from them, they were able to pick themselves up quite quickly.

To prepare them for the road ahead, he let them absorb a harbinger crystal each. They had middling talent in this, closer to Aleph's own than his disciples, but every widow, soldier, and child had taken to it like rain in a desert. He saw them obsessing over the empty crystals, some even begging him for more. But alas, Aleph dared not give them more at this time, lest they break down from overcharging.

Instead, he joined the villagers in burying the dead. It was a somber affair, torchlight barely revealing their grief. With difficulty, Aleph pushed the matter of his disciples aside for the time being and tried his best to be present for his people. Quiet sobs filled the air, as grief, exhaustion and the smoldering flames of hate vied for their attention. True to his word, Aleph wept with them, knowing all too well the feeling of powerlessness that comes after such tragedy.

He may have cursed Vaynard at the time, but he was right. A broken lot for a broken man seemed fitting.

He listened to the survivors' brief accounting of the fallens' lives and then carved them into stone. A number of gravestones sprouted outside of the village, along with the survivors offering prayers for the departed. Their fatigue carried them off to sleep eventually, leaving Aleph alone amidst the sleeping masses. He took to the forge, remaking the harbinger cleavers into something the villagers could handle. He smelted the cleavers down and mixed them with a lighter metal, hoping that the combination would allow his people to actually use them. After all, he had no idea of the dangers that lay in the darkness, and these people could use any help they could get.

"My lord?" A voice called out as he was in the middle of working. Aleph turned to see three people in the smithy's doorway. It was the village head, accompanied by the woman who he saved from the fire and the blacksmith.

"We're sorry for disturbing you, but we have come to request that you please rest for tonight. Your work will still be here when you awake."

"I'm alright, Tom. Go take Lily and James and get back to bed. Once I'm done with my preparations, we will make our way to Hios."

The trio looked at each other with troubled looks on their faces. The woman named Lily came forward and clutched at his clothing, as if to force him to rest.

"Please, my lord. You have done so much for us already. Let James take over here. It's his smithy after all, he will carry on the work for you."

Aleph sighed, looking around at these people. The mixture of compassion and blatant disregard for his words definitely reminded him of Brandon and the others. His expression softened at the memory, making him chuckle despite himself.

"...Alright, Tom. You've all convinced me. Now, go take Lily and make sure little Raphael's sleep isn't disturbed. I shall follow as soon as I tell James what to do here."

Looking satisfied, the pair exited the smithy while Aleph taught James about the sword casts he had made. He leapt at the work with gusto, his experience allowing him a steady pace that wasn't far behind Aleph's. He nodded in approval and said,

"This is good work, James. We can finish them on the road, so just focus on making as much as we need. Then, if you have some time afterwards, prepare some metal billets with the ratios I am about to tell you. I will need them for my own use once I have awoken."

"Yes, my lord. Now go and rest, please. I can handle things here."

After practically getting chased from the smithy, Aleph found himself alone at once. He walked in pitch darkness, letting his senses carry him to where the people were sleeping. With the houses either damaged or burned to the ground, they were forced to sleep in tents erected all over the village plaza. Aleph ducked into one of them at random, squeezing into place in an open spot among the survivors. He lay down and closed his eyes, his body finally getting some much needed rest.

Aleph was thankful for the quiet. It meant that nightmares had not visited the people he saved tonight. These people have been through enough.

He wondered if Vaynard had arrived at Hios yet. The villagers said it took a day's journey to arrive there, but Vaynard was confident he could make it in a fraction of the time. With sleep about to claim him, Aleph offered a hasty prayer to the overgod, hoping to quicken Vaynard's feet enough to actually make a difference in the fight.

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Rayse was living a nightmare. He lay there immobile as the severed head of the commander soaked his body with blood. with difficulty, he tried pushing himself away from the woman, managing to knock the head out of his chest in the process. It rolled back to the stranger, who stepped on it to prevent it from rolling away.

"You know who this is? Good." She picked it up once again, walking back to Rayse's side as if she was handing him something he forgot.

"This man took something from me, and I'm having trouble finding it. Could you help me?"

"W-what… I don't know anything, ma'am. I'm just a stablehand from town.." Rayse stammered, still in shock. The way the woman treated the dead was setting off all sorts of alarms in his head.

"Don't play dumb with me, boy. He may have been wounded and practically bereft of mana, but you still dueled my strongest emissary and won. No mere stablehand would have managed that."

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Rayse did a double take. He looked closely at the woman, as if searching for details he had overlooked. She was tall, a full head taller than he was if they stood side by side. Her long flowing hair melded into her clothing, almost the same shade of black as the shadows around them. She looked human from any angle, but what she said proved otherwise.

"I only recently gained my mage heart, my Lady. I have bested your champion only through my squad's cooperation. A-as for your other question, I know not of what you seek. My place in the army is a lowly one, mostly obtained through necessity. We were severely unprepared to handle your siege…"

The enemy commander is here? But why? Rayse gulped, keenly aware of the danger he was in. He tried to speak like Aleph, hoping the respectful manner would let her spare him, but the biggest problem was his lack of information. He continued to speak, keenly aware that he wasn't really saying anything of value. 

The shadow woman listened though, through some reason that Rayse could not discern, but eventually, she held her hand up to interrupt him, a gesture to which he quickly complied.

"That's quite enough, dear. Surprising as it is for me, it has become clear that you are a mere foot soldier." She walked closer and sat beside him, touching his arm with what Rayse could have mistaken for compassion, if not for the darkness that clung to her hand. He tried to shy away, but tendrils of the darkness kept him in place. The woman sighed, uttering a sound so pitiful that it made Rayse sad despite himself.

"I am grateful for your cooperation, but alas, your words provide no value for me at the present."

The darkness covered his entire body now, slowly smothering him. He gasped for air, thrashing as best he could. But alas, the woman held firm, enclosing him in an ever growing tomb of darkness.

"Rejoice, my dear, for your utility does not preclude your ability to receive the gift of the abyss. Say hello to Father for me. Tell him this world will follow shortly." Her words were almost soothing, almost kind. Rayse slowly stopped struggling, giving himself into the darkness. All he could think of was how he had made this woman sad, and that made him accept his fate.

He closed his eyes, awaiting his death, when suddenly a pitch white light emerged from beyond his eyelids. A terrible shrieking followed, coming from beside him. Rayse gasped, air finally filling his lungs as the darkness receded from him. He squinted, opening his eyes slightly to see who, or what had saved him. 

The plains were lit up once again. Rayse didn't need to look up to know that Illuminate had been restored. He sat up and looked around, searching for the source of that horrible screaming.

The woman was nowhere to be found. In her place was a demon writhing in the light. It looked like an unfinished doll, as if its maker had stopped at creating the body, and did not bother to paint on a face. Regardless, it screeched as well as anyone with a mouth could. Fully creeped out, Rayse started to edge away from the creature, not trusting his legs enough to run as of yet.

The creature reacted to the movement after a while. Its 'face' spun unnaturally towards him, spinning on its neck joints like a bottlecap. The featureless face looks no less menacing than any demon. It charged at him on all fours, segmented arms and legs flailing out of sync from each other. Still, it sprinted with unnatural speed, catching up to him in seconds.

Rayse crossed his arms, bracing for impact, when a light emerged from in front of him. A black flame struck the demon puppet, once again making it writhe in pain. Rayse hastily moved back, putting as much distance from the enemy as he could. His legs were starting to hold up, but he dared not take his eyes off of the creature. He was considering making a run for it when a person stood in front of him and the creature.

"Your armor tells me you're one of Aleph's kids. Are you alright?" A voice said kindly.

"Y-you know master?" Rayse answered, relieved that finally reinforcements had arrived. The man turned briefly to face him, offering him a smile.

"Know him? I practically saved him! He's in a town about a day's journey from here. Well, a day for regular folk, that is. For my esteemed self, a couple of hours was sufficient." 

The stranger continued to boast, the burning demon all but forgotten. It charged at the man, shrieking terribly all the while. He turned and slashed at it, but it was nimble. It moved unnaturally to his side and stuck its leg out. It hit the man in the midsection, causing him to double back. The demon attacked fiercely, connecting with a flurry of blows despite the flames that still clung to it. All of them connected, sending the man to the ground in a crumpled heap. Some of the black flame even scorched his clothing as it slowly started to spread. The demon pounced once again, not giving the stranger any chance to rest. A foot caught it in mid air, sending it flying into the distance. The stranger sprang up from the ground, patting himself down like nothing happened.

"Ohh, this is good stuff! I'm glad I let Aleph convince me into wearing it." He said as he drew his sword. The flames all over him vanished in an instant, sucked up by the stranger's equally strange weapon. Despite rolling on the ground, the man had no marks of visible damage on him, making Rayse doubt what he was seeing once again. He walked cheerfully towards Rayse, not looking one bit like he had fought off a nightmarish creature moments before.

"Looks like he's had enough. Wanna go into town? Carrack and the others should be finishing up, I think." He offered his hand to him. Rayse stayed on the floor, this time for an entirely different reason.

"Sir, I am grateful for your help, I really am, but I'm afraid Mr. Carrack has…" Rayse pointed at a spot a fair distance away, where Carrack's head had rolled to.

The stranger ran to the spot in the blink of an eye before coming back, 

"You wanted this? What's with you and your master and looting the dead, anyway? Oh well, I suppose this is technically yours. Want me to fetch the rest of him?"

Rayse looked at the head, once again thrown for a loop. The stranger held it out for him, but he still could not believe it. The stranger gave him the head, setting it in front of him while he went back to fetch the corpse. Yes, the head he retrieved was Vilam's.

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