CHAPTER 7 Part 2: Now That He’s Gone

We ran through the Archean Grove, even though it is dangerous because of the monsters that inhabit the forest, we still didn’t encounter anything from and to the village. I think the monsters are trying to avoid the demons.

Every living being is controlled by their instinct, the will to survive, and if one senses danger, they will surely try to avoid it.

***

We finally made it back to the village.

My chest caved in, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the whole village almost destroyed, nothing left recognizable, and not a single person left alive.

By the time we were able to get back, everything was already over. We slowly took the path leading to Ophelia’s home. The moment we arrived, the once lovely home that I saw many times before, now you wouldn’t even think that it was a shelter. The garden was destroyed, flowers and herbs are burnt.

The tree located on the right side was split in half and a woman was violently killed as the lower portion of the tree penetrated her stomach, guts of the woman spilled all over the trunk. Silently I clutched my stomach, I leaned forward facing the ground as I felt the dinner I ate quickly traveled to my mouth. Seeing the gore in front of me, I threw up, unable to hold it back. Mary came to check up on me,

“Are you okay dear?”

“I’m fine mother…”

I prayed for the woman, feeling sorry for the things she experienced.

Ophelia did not care about her house being destroyed, what’s important right now is looking for her and our family.

“let’s search the village more.”

We moved forward towards our house this time, nothing changed on our part of the village, everything was still burning.

Finally, we arrived at our house and I’m not even surprised that nothing was left of our home, but the thing is, unlike the others that were in ruin, our house became nothing, not even debris was left. I felt worse, my stomach flipping upside down. What’s so special about our house, is that everything had been reduced to nothing. My heart ached even more as I remembered all the happy memories we made here knowing that from here on everything will change.

I cared about our home, our village, but right now, material objects are nothing compared to my brother or father’s lives, I want to see if they’re safe. I have to know if they’re safe.

We quickly left after seeing that nothing was there.

My mother suddenly muttered something.

“no…”

She run as fast as she can, I don’t even know what she saw but we followed her.

[Please let Sura and Griffin be safe.]

[Oh god, please…]

…

[No…]

[I thought… why…]

What Mary saw was Griffin, or what was left of him.

I froze in place, my hands and feet trembling. I couldn’t believe what my own eyes were seeing. It’s brutal, the scratches, wounds, and bruises on his body were nothing as I caught a glimpse of his head a meter away from his body, his spinal cord still attached, his legs busted.

I again vomited while Mary was crying all over his body.

Ophelia came to hug me, and I wailed silently in her arms, couldn’t hold back the tears I was desperately trying to push back. The man we are with, stood behind Ophelia looking at the ground and mourning the dead.

Several minutes passed

“I’m sorry… but we need to keep going”

[I know… I know that demons will be back anytime now, but how? How can I just move on with his death?]

Griffin may not be my real father but just like my real father, he loved me as well, he treasured me, he was funny, quirky, strong, reliable, understanding, and loving, he can’t explain anything properly, easily distracted and he can’t do any chores properly but… I love him. We love him. My loving father, the funny and outgoing father that supported me since coming to this world… now gone just like that.

One time, I was sad because he never trained me to fight with a sword but he trained Sura anyways, and he noticed and promised me the other day that he’ll train me too after Sura’s birthday, I was looking forward to him teaching me, but he can’t do that anymore…

Now that he’s gone.

We quickly made a grave for him before leaving. There before covering him up, I said my goodbyes, I don’t know what to say to him, I just said that I love him and respected him as my father. I wiped my teary eyes, as I was saying my goodbyes.

“I love you, dad…”

After burying Griffin, we quickly surveyed the village, we wanted a thorough search, but we can’t, there’s not enough time for that. One circle around the village was not enough, be we had to leave early because when more demons shows up, we’re dead.

We couldn’t find either Sura, Yuna, or Luke, not even their bodies, right now we are trying to be positive and assumed that they were still somehow alive. With no other choices left, we left the village. I was always looking forward to seeing the world outside the village before, however, right now, I couldn’t care less.

[If I was stronger… I could’ve at least helped them… I’m useless…]

“I think we should head south-east towards the town of IronHolm, that place should be safe for now”

The man with us suggests that our best place to head to is IronHolm, a town far east from the kingdom of LouwenDale. I don’t know anything about IronHolm, other than it is a town of Dwarves. I imagine that they lived in stone houses and worked with refining minerals and creating weapons. But I don’t think we can get there in one night. He suggested that we can look for volunteers there to help us search for our family, He also said that he could form a rescue team consisting of possible survivors and distant relatives of the citizens of Gadvell.

“it’s going to take us at least 7 months by foot, we should go buy some horses, but before that, let’s wait and rest in my house for tonight, maybe Sura and Yuna are with Luke, and maybe he would try to look for me or Olivia.”

The man invited us to rest before we set for IronHolm.

For a while now, I’ve been keeping my distance from the man’s familiars, they didn’t mind me as much as before, but I’m still afraid of them.

***

A cabin in the woods, compact and plain, placed above a thick tree branch, a ladder leading up the door. As we were about to enter the cabin, a Demi-human came out to greet the man, but to her surprise, he had guests with him. The Demi-human invited us to come inside, and discuss the series of events that happened not too long ago.

First of all, Ophelia introduced both the couple, Hayden Blaire was the name of the man, the lover of Ophelia’s sister, Olivia, and a former teammate of Ophelia, Luke, and Griffin. Olivia Crest was the Demi-human who came out from the cabin, she said that Olivia was also part of Ashadow.

Hayden revealed his face before talking to us, he is a human, who had a light skin tone, a scar on the right side of his forehead, he had a dark grey colored, high faded hair, a well-built body similar to Griffin and Luke.

Being sisters with Ophelia, Olivia is also a Demi-human, with a dog-like appearance, dog ears and tail are visible when looking at her, just like Ophelia, Olivia’s ears and tail looked like a Golden Retriever’s, her hair is long and straight, reaching the middle of her back, having a light brown color, she has a soft and slender body, have black sinister eyes, comparing to Hayden, she had no scars. She wears a black Callum coat, similar to one of those games about assassins, under the coat, she dons a slim tactical leather armor, the sides of her hip had two not-so-normal-looking daggers.

The wolves stayed at the corner of the room, on top of their little homemade dog beds, somehow, I feel like they were staring at me this whole time, Hayden was also glancing at me during our conversations, all I could do was to look down on the wooden floor. The whole night I kept quiet.

After hours of discussion, we went to bed.

I couldn’t sleep at all.

“couldn’t get any sleep?”

Olivia noticed that I was awake and talked to me.

“I… miss my father and brother”

“don’t worry, I don’t think Sura and Yuna died, I know Griffin and Luke, they’re strong and I can feel that you, Sura, and Yuna are strong as well.”

“…”

“Can I talk to you outside? I have something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Okay…”

She invited me outside, I don’t know the reason, but I don’t want to get to her bad side, she may look cuddly but her eyes... were different from Ophelia’s.

“Aishita… I don’t know if you noticed that Hayden and his wolves kept looking at you.”

“I did…”

“I see, anyway… It’s because you have potential. Shadow attribute magic is present inside you and the moment I saw you, I already knew that you have the potential to become strong. To prevent your mind from being corrupted by the shadow attribute mana and to prevent you to become a Shadow User, I suggest you shift to Rogue Class, the reason for this is because Rogue Class adventurers do not only use mana, but a combination of mana and Ki, reducing the effects of your shadow attribute mana.

Aishita, I can teach you. It won’t be easy to shift from Mage Class to Rogue Class, but you can do it, I know. I’m currently a Shadow Assassin and Hayden is a Shadow hunter, both of us are A rank rogue adventurers. So, do you want to get stronger?”

“I want… I want to be stronger… I want to be able to protect the people I love. I’m in your care… Sensei.” I bowed as low as I can.

“Good…” she smiled softly “we’ll start when we get to a safer location, go back inside and rest for now”

“Thank you”

***

Morning came and we immediately started heading out towards IronHolm.