The Path of Ruin

It had been about five hours since Kael had entered the forest. It was two hours before nightfall, but he still had no intention of going back. He wanted to keep hunting.

Occasionally, however, he would venture out of the forest to check what was going on in the town. Even though it was quite far away, it wouldn't be hard for him to spot a small group on the move.

And... he didn't.

He was making his way out of the forest for the third time to check on the situation in the town when something caught his eye, causing him to pause quickly and crouch down to the ground.

'What... was that?'

He squinted, moved further ahead, and finally peered through the bushes towards the town to make sure he hadn't seen it wrong.

But... he wasn't seeing it wrong.

'Wow...'

He was... shocked by what he saw.

'I thought I might notice a small group...'

But what he was facing was not a 'small' group. On the contrary, it was a huge group marching towards the town.

He was as confused as he was surprised.

'Why are there so many of them?'

Was it really necessary to send a group of almost two hundred people to simply come to check on a town?

Kael's eyes narrowed, his expression slightly serious.

Unless... they had something important to do.

Like looking for someone or something important.

'Did they really come for me?'

He was not going to be surprised that they had come, or that they had information about the blessing. If Musthar V. Arcanoa had really made a deal with the Empire, as the king said, then he must have told them what he knew about the blessing, after all.

But... he couldn't be sure.

'I'd better watch.'

First, he would watch what the soldiers would do. It would have been better to decide what to do later.

But then...

'Huh...?'

He realized that the soldiers had suddenly paused. The problem was... they hadn't entered the town yet.

Kael narrowed his eyes, completely focused on the soldiers. They were so far away that it was hard to make out anything. But he tried anyway, his eyes slowly moved to the front of the crowd and he noticed a figure not even as big as his fingernail.

He felt the air around him suddenly grow cold. He felt goosebumps all over his body. Then a tingling sensation spread across his skin. After what felt like dozens of needles being stuck into his skin... the whole world went black.

No, it didn't go black. It just... blurred. As if he couldn't focus on anything.

And in the midst of all this blur, Kael saw a couple of things. A pair of eyes looking back at him, clear and... cold, despite everything.

They were green, they looked like they belonged to an old man. But... they were sharp, cold. They looked like they belonged to a human, but Kael could have sworn they belonged to a creature.

A very powerful creature.

A monster he should never look at, no matter what.

'Ah...'

Kael felt all his muscles losing strength. And yet it was not this, but a conscious thought that made him put himself down.

Because he understood.

'There...'

The owner of the eyes that looked at him... he was among the soldiers.

And he knew Kael was looking at him.

Just like those creatures in the palace.

'Calm down... Calm down...'

He tried to calm his heartbeat, slowed his breathing.

'I have to hide...'

He paused.

'No, I have to run away.'

He couldn't stay in this town any longer.

Because... whatever it was that had noticed him would surely be looking for him. He was as sure of that as he was of his own name.

He had hoped to stay in this town longer... but he couldn't waste time.

So he turned around, prepared to run in the opposite direction of the town, and took a few steps.

But then... he slowed his steps as quickly as he had quickened them and came to a quick stop.

His eyes twitching, he slowly focused on the figures emerging from the bushes.

"Hey, who are you?"

He heard the foremost of the figures speak. But... as soon as he saw the Imperial crest on the armor they wore, everything else lost its significance.

'They're both normal people.'

Kael wasted no time watching what the soldiers did next, listening to what they said. As he reached for the daggers at his waist, a silvery glint appeared in his eyes.

The soldiers' eyes widened. They both tried to grab their own weapons, but Kael was much faster than them, for they were normal human beings.

Kael slashed the first man's throat before he realized what was happening. At the last moment, he realized that the other man had abandoned his weapon and swung his fist at him.

Kael twisted his body slightly to dodge and catch it.

He then pulled the man's body towards him and plunged his dagger into his skull.

In mere seconds, it was all over.

Kael took a deep breath as the silvery gleam in his eyes faded to its old brown color.

Actually... not killing the soldiers might have been a better option.

Who knows, maybe it wasn't him they were after and they were here for the reasons Laen had told him.

Or he could simply say he was a mercenary hunting in the forest, which was not a lie.

But he wasn't going to risk anything.

He didn't want to leave anything about his life and his future to a choice whose outcome depended on the odds. At least not as long as he had another option.

So, the best option was to run away from the Empire and everything connected to it until he reached a certain level of power. At least he thought that was his best option.

And so, he turned his back and started running again. But this time, it was not a random route. Soldiers coming up behind him meant that this whole forest could be full of them, after all. And so... Kael made a mental note of every single detail in his field of vision.

In fact, it was only a minute or so into his movement that he noticed an abnormal bending of a branch a few meters to his right diagonal. As his daggers met his fingers, his feet turned towards the point where the branch bent.

As the Imperial soldier pulled aside the tree branches in front of him, he suddenly saw the metallic glow in front of his eyes. And then... his world suddenly went black.

"What happe-"

His friend soon reached the same end.

But unlike the previous group, this time, there was one more person in the group. And he, as the one at the very back, could see quite clearly what had happened to his two friends.

He meticulously drew the sword from his waist and swung it with all his might to his right diagonal.

When his sword met the metal blade of the dagger that had killed his two friends, he waited to crush it. After all, a dagger could not withstand the weight of a sword.

But that did not happen.

On the contrary... the sword in his hand was knocked backwards, losing the contest of strength.

The last thing that crossed the soldier's mind was how this was possible. But then he saw that his killer's eyes had a pale, silvery glint.

The person before him was... a bearer.

He never had a chance in the first place.

*******

"General Loukan has sent a message that there may be a troublesome person wandering in the forest."

A figure standing on one of the trees in the forest, his whole body covered in black, raised his eyebrows curiously.

"Not the main target, but someone else?"

The other figure, the one who had delivered the message, nodded. The man in black could only be even more surprised.

"That's... strange. He wasn't supposed to have any associates."

They had no such information. And he was the last person to doubt the scout team.

The only reason they had come to this town was to catch one man. And he had no one. It was highly unlikely that he was getting help from anybody.

The only reason there were so many people in the forest was in case this man tried to escape, nothing else.

Still, the world was full of absurd things. Something like this was... not overly unexpected.

"How troublesome is this person?"

"We've already lost nine people. They were all normal soldiers, but they disappeared quietly. Only the bodies of four of them have been found."

His brow furrowed even more at this information. But he was not panicked, he was still quite calm.

"Interesting..."

"The General wants us to take him alive if possible."

The man in black tore his eyes away from the figure delivering the message and turned them towards the forest.

His lips curled up slightly as he muttered quietly.

"Another one to hunt, huh..."

Then... a reddish glow appeared in his eyes, which were a very dark shade of black.

"Let's make this quick. We don't want to disrupt the main plan."

*(A/N: Sorry for the late update, I will try to make up for it. I was... really busy yesterday. I didn't even go home.)*