Chapter 3: Chapter 2: Kurstwood

Dusk has settled in as we approached the edge of Kurstwood. Groves of evergreen pines thickened along both sides of the road, amplifying the speed at which it got darker. However, the area had an unnatural silence about it. No more birds could be seen in the dying light, not even a silhouette. More notable was the pervasive silence that replaced the usual hum of cicadas and the northern treehoppers. Nor was there any sign that anybody had traveled on this road in over a week, a foreboding sign indeed.

The cool, clammy weather and poor, rocky soils bordering the Hawthorne wilderness were not conducive to growing anything but small patches of the hardiest crops, and even then, their yields were often very poor. Located on the edge of a wilderness filled with hostile demi-human tribes, only the hardiest people or those seeking to hide out from the Kingdom's enforcers would try and make a living here.

It would have been expected to see a few hunters and gatherers returning at this late hour.

After we rounded a turn in the road, the low wooden walls of Kurstwood came into view, spurring audible gasps from the knights outside the carriage.

One of the knights rushed to the side of the carriage.

“Sir Gregory, it is much worse than we feared! The town… it has been completely destroyed…”

“What?!” Gregory exclaimed, before leaping out of the carriage.

“Hal, watch after the Lady and the boy. Tront, Garen, you two stay with them. Head to the village center, there should be a garrison outpost there. That is where we will set up camp. The rest of you, with me! We need to look for more survivors to find out what happened here.”

"Sir, shouldn't we send someone back to report on this?" Tront's voice failed to conceal a quiver of fear as he eyed the damage.

"Going back to that bastard of a Duke on your own would be no different than if none of us made it back at all, only difference being you would find yourself in a lonely spot on a gallows or in the bottom of a lake. He already knew something was wrong, why do you think he sent us first?" Hal's voice hardened, as his wizened old eyes scanned all around them.

"Enough chatter, let get moving then!" Gregory commanded with a hint of exasperation.

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Lady Diane, stay inside the carriage until I tell you it is safe to come out. I will be riding up front with the coachman. If you need anything, just open the front panel and let me know.”

Hal’s serious tone and hardened look in his eyes convey the importance of his commands. Diane quietly nodded, as she looked anxiously into the ruined town ahead. After Hal exited the carriage, she glanced at the town and for a moment, she felt as if she saw an ominous dark aura in the town before it suddenly disappeared again. She shook her head vigorously and looked again, seeing only the same wreckage again. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her because of her anxiety? She couldn't see auras. Only people who have a mana heart can see auras, and she was one of those rare people who was born crippled. Incompetent, they liked to say. She had never seen nor felt magic, as much as she wished too and as hard as she tried.

Diane's failures pranced through her memories like a mosquito that just wouldn't stop buzzing in your ears, the laughter of her older siblings, and the look of disdain in her father’s eyes. She clutched her little fists tighter. Is your stupid status and my marginal inheritance so important that I don't get the right to live too? And even that's been taken from me...

Ahead of the group, the gate had clearly been smashed through. Long sections of the wall were burnt and shattered, splintered and charred logs and posts were scattered far from their respective sections.

The inside of the village was not any better. Houses lay in ruins, some still slightly smoldering. Gregory took his group of three other knights and scouted around the inside portion of the walls. As they proceeded closer to the village center, it became more and more clear that an absolute atrocity had happened here. In spite of not finding a single body, blood stained large swathes of the road and the walls of the surrounding buildings.

As they approached the village center, there were more broken barricades and a lot more blood.

A large hole pierced through the walls of the garrison outpost.

Hal muttered “This is absolutely no good. This whole place reeks of death… and whatever came through, it finished everyone off here.”

Tront and Garen shivered, drawing their quaking swords as they scanned wide-eyed all around.

“Hal, this is obviously very bad! Whatever happened... This should be enough, right? We really should leave now, please? Please?!” Tront begged again.

“Tront, we can’t leave yet. If we don’t find out what invaded and killed these people, we won’t be able to make adequate preparations. Depending on what it was, even the Duke would have to take it seriously. At the very least, we have to wait for Sir Gregory to make it back before we can leave. Keep the carriage at the ready in the center, and let’s start fixing up some of these barricades.” Hal quickly barked out orders, before getting to work himself. Tront and Garen looked at each other apprehensively, before nodding and getting to work themselves.

---

Gregory and his knights maneuvered carefully through the rubble of the village near the wall.

“Helloooo! Is anyone still here, we are knights of House Culaine, we are here to help!” Gregory shouted on occasion, his voice met with nothing but an eerie silence.

After half an hour of searching, the dark of night fully fell upon the village. Taking additional caution in the dark, Gregory stopped shouting. The more they searched, the depper their fear gnawed inside them. They shouldn’t be here much longer. Only the light of their torches kept their terror at bay. Their senses were fully primed, on edge, and any chatter fell to silence as they strained their ears on every creak or brush of the wind.

After another hour of searching, they nearly finished circling most of the city. One of the knights hurriedly approached Gregory, while still attempting to keep a quiet profile.

“Sir… I think I heard something in the Inn across the street there.” The knight whispered.

“Alright, let’s check it out." Gregory nodded, then waved his torch to get the attention of the rest of his squad.

"Everyone, on me. Swords drawn. Bowman, to the rear.”

As he approached the Inn, Gregory smelled it before he heard it, the sharp scent of fresh blood.

*CRUNCH*

Gregory shuddered, and he swallowed hard before mustering the courage to look in the window. His face immediately paled.

“L-l-l-l-lesser demon… Grendel…” he whispered.

A tall, gangly demon was hunched over in the inn. It had long, gangly arms with sharp claws on the end, with a brown leathery skin. Its head had two small horns protruding from the top and its eyes had two rounded pupils, similar to that of a goat. The arm of woman protruded from its mouth, blood seeping out of its two rows of teeth as it chewed its meal.

Gregory motioned with his hands for the knights to back off. The demon glanced at the inn walls with one of its large eyes, where the torchlight danced for a moment before disappearing.

Gregory hurried down the road towards the town center with his knights in tow.

“Hurry, we need to meet up with Lady Diane and Hal and get out of here! We would need at least a hundred soldiers to defeat a Grendel!”

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“This is bad sir, really bad! Grendel’s are part of the Demon Lord’s forces, aren’t they? They shouldn’t be here! They should still be in Ebenheim, on the other side of the sea!”

“I don’t know why it is here, just the fact that it is here is bad enough! We need…”

Gregory was cut off mid-sentence as one of the knights behind them screeched in agony.

*badump badump badump*

Gregory swiftly looked back, and saw the long claws stabbed straight through the heart of the knight. The Grendel opened its hand slowly, almost in amusement, splitting the knight in half.

*badump badump badump*

Gregory yelled, his voice sharpened to a fever pitch “Frank, run and get Lady Diane out of here! John, with me! We have to hold it here to buy them some time!”

*badump badump badump*

Gregory readied his sword, sweat coating his palms, before he charged towards the demon.

Frank dropped his sword and torch as he sprinted towards the village center. Behind him, he heared more loud crunches and screaming. Adrenaline and fear spurred him on even faster.

*badump badump badump*

He could see the barricades up ahead, lit up from a small ring of emplaced torches. Hal and the others are looking towards him, their faces paled.

Frank tried to scream “Run” but he couldn't… and then, he no longer felt the ground under his feet, and that he was much higher up in the air. Blood gurgled out of his mouth. He looked down, greeted by a large claw shoved unceremoniously through his chest. His pendant was pierced open, his blood dripped onto the photo of his wife and son.

---

The horses neighed uncontrollably, rearing up and snapping part of their harness to the carriage. The coachman was desperately trying to calm them, while replacing the damaged pieces.

“Damnit, something is spooking the horses! At this rate, we won’t be able to move the carriage out of here!”

Lady Diane looked out the window of the Carriage at Hal, who sat next to Garen and a small fire they started in the center using pieces of debris. Tront patrolled around the barriers, as they took turns keeping watch.

“Hal, when do you think Gregory is going to make it back here? I’m getting worried…” Diane called out to her old mentor.

“Hah, he is an experience knight, he knows what he is doing. He will be back soon. How’s your new friend doing?”

“It seems like he is recovering, some more color is coming back to his skin. You said he will be fine, right?”

Hal had a pensive look on his face. Without a doubt, even with his treatment, that boy should have died. No human should have been able to survive those wounds. Even then, something more was off about it, he just hadn’t had the heart yet to tell the young lady. While he could not believe the boy was a Demon Lord, as there had never been more than one Demon Lord alive at any one time, something about what he said was strange. The more he thought about it, the more concerning it was. You could take it as a joke... but for a dying kid to actually joke like that? However, that wasn’t a problem for now. He would deal with it later.

Hal shook himself from his thoughts, and offered a delayed response courtesy of Garen's concerned stare.

“Hmm? Oh, Yes, yes indeed. He will certainly be well enough. Although I doubt a peasant like him would stick around once he comes to. Peasants are notorious for not keeping their word, as they live worlds apart from nobles like you.”

“Hal, that’s just so mean! Why would they do that? That shouldn’t matter, and he promised to be my friend… I will hold him to his promise!”

Hal shifted uncomfortably. He would have to be careful, as he felt in this case it would be safer to get rid of the boy, but at the worst he may just have to endure the young lady’s ire. He resolved himself that whatever the kid's case was, it would likely only bring more trouble.

Then… they all heard a blood curdling scream.

“Tront, Garen, at the ready! Man the barricade. Coachman, get those damn horses ready on the Carriage! Diane, stay inside!”

Hal prepared his staff in one hand, and a Talisman in the other. He started chanting and the talisman burned up in orange flame, shooting out a small force field to reinforce the barriers on the eastern road. I may be old, but I'll be damned if I let anything take me down easily! Even a weak, old mage like him would be worth at least dozen knights. And if he had the strength of a gold rank, when he was in his prime?

Hal braced himself, his mouth turned to a cold grimace.

They heard a second scream, and then a third.

“Coachman, are the horses not ready yet?!” Concern edged its way into his words.

“I am trying! I got one reharnessed, but they are going wild! It’s too much on my own!”

Before he could respond, Hal saw Frank emerge from the shadows in absolute panic, and behind him a large, tall outline. A claw pierced through Frank’s chest, and raised him up nearly 10 feet in the air, blood pouring out of his chest and mouth. A large maw laced with sharp, vicious teeth emerged from the darkness.

*CRUNCH*

His head was gone. The demon flung the body back on to the ground, shattering its lifeless limbs while eyeing the remaining knights.

Fucking Tront jinxed it... Hal glared furiously, as he scrambled to think of a way to turn things around.

Things had just gotten really, really bad.

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