32 Against a Knight

Glancing over their direction after landing from above, I immediately saw two people about twenty steps away.

Dad!

That woman!

That overly familiar white robe and fitting clothes, that same beauty!

Nevermind her face, but I'm not so dense to not realize that she's the Void Demoness everyone's talking about!

"Dad!"

I felt a lot of energy as I rush towards him, and created a barrier as I stayed vigilant towards the woman in front of him.

I could also hear Aunt already running along behind me, and there was that familiar sound of her footsteps lightly treading on the snow. After approaching near them, I somehow felt some kind of force that prevented me from going near them.

"No wonder you look familiar, so it's your kid after all!" I heard the Void Demon exclaim, and saw her eyes making contact with Dad's.

"Arc, why are you here? Where's Pisa?"

"Pisa sis is... She went towards Kandria... the day you left."

I could feel a sort of pain prickle my heart once Aunt finished what she was saying, and I could see Dad's expression change. The Void Demoness also glanced towards him, and also noticed four glowing marks on his belly. There were three below, then there was a red one above those three. It almost looked like...

"It's the mark of our race, the mark of Salire. Why does he have that?" Kirllia finally reached us and suddenly muttered to herself. With the current silence within this strange hurricane, I could hear her soft voice.

"So it's the bitch, huh. You escaped."

I glanced at Kirllia as the woman mentioned those words.

"I didn't have the time to tell you this, Kaff. I'm one of the Emperor's many wives."

"What does that have to do with what we're here for? How could we lift the curse?"

The woman's eyes narrowed before widening along with a chuckle before asking towards Dad.

"Curse? You told them about the 'curse' I gave you?"

"I never thought they'd chase me, nor even had the thought that they'd reach this place." Dad paused for a bit and he was about to say something, but the woman cut him off.

"The so-called curse your dad is this."

She lifted her upper fitting garment and I could see the four same glowing marks on Dad's body, and they also had the same positions.

"Wait, do you mean---"

"Yes, it's not a curse. It's actually a blessing, but if we fail right now, then you're right to call it a curse." Before Kirllia finished her sentence, she also cut her off. Do you want to interrupt others so much?

"Can you explain instead?" I said, while looking at the woman's eyes.

Her eyes were fully red and her gaze sharp. If it weren't for her good looks, it might have been as scary as when Grandma is mad, but not totally the same of course.

She closed her eyes before looking at Dad, then once again glared at me before she started to talk.

"The mark of the Vates---no. All of the god's marks, they're actually curses."

I had the urge to interrupt her and immediately ask more questions, but I tried my best not to.

"These marks are given to us for us to have all sorts of magical powers, but once you reach a certain level, the rate of increasing power drastically drops. Why is this? I've searched far and wide within the half of my lifespan, and I finally found the reason.

These marks give us power, but it also serves as a limit. The excess power we have before we actually make a breakthrough goes to its owner. In short, the Vates' power is given by Hamion, but they don't know that they are actually giving their own power to Hamion."

"WHAT!?" Kirllia and Aunt Arc exclaimed in unison, but I have no source power so I can't really relate. But seeing as I have a mark...

From their reactions, the Demoness closed her eyes before continuing, and I stopped my train of thought for the moment to focus and listen instead.

"It isn't really believeable, but look at how there are only a few gods existing in our world? Why are they the only ones? Where is Valon and why does he not bestow people his own mark? Why is Salire... The Void Emperor, so insistent on marking every birthed demon that he'll kill anyone that doesn't have a mark? I never considered it after only a long, long time.

But this time, Meltor and I, possess both four god's marks on our bodies. If we were any stronger and luckier, housing another one more mark will make it possible for us to reach God-level and remove the accursed marks these conceited gods gave us. Sadly, we could only acquire Hamion's, Felix', the unknown Merchant Union's god, and finally the Void Emperor's. There are more gods out there but we could only get lucky, and each mark makes our body filled with clashing energies, trying to fight within our bodies.

In short, we have a countdown in our lives as the different powers try to reject each other.

I'm not sure why Meltor was able to house the same three god's marks on his body, but seeing as he also discovered the same thoughts I had, we traded our marks. I have him the Void Emperor's, and I accepted the one from the secret Merchants Union's god. With this, we finally complete the minimum required to breach the threshold to reach the God-level."

After the Void Demoness finished her speech, there was a long moment of silence.

I also wasn't able to say anything. I thought didn't have a source spirit like me? Like Mom? So he was really injured, but the ransacked reason was probably a cover. Does Mom know all about these? And is Dad only just a Master-level Sword User?

I have a lot of questions, but now that we've come to know the truth, I felt stupid coming here.

We should've just went towards Mom's direction instead of coming here at this desolate cold mountain.

Now that I'm reminded of it...

"Dad, how long will this take?"

Dad's reaction was unusual, as he raised his eyebrows for the first time before having that calm expression again.

"You sure are my son. You took all that in after a few moments. This will probably take a few hours or so."

"Do you know what Grandma said when I finally met you? She said she wants for me to have a sister---"

The three women spit to the side at the same time before I could even finish my sentence.

"---to pass her legacy to."

Dad's eyes widened and he broke into a laughter I've always seen whenever she was with Mom.

"You're also getting a bit like Pisa, I see."

After that, the colors of light that surrounded them started to change, and surged faster.

"We're almost done here. I also promise to kill that Salire to stop this war against demons, too. Of course once I make my breakthrough." I could hear the Demoness say that before both of them rose upwards the air.

Seeing the familiar casual shirt Dad always wore, I got to finally drop on my butt on the ground, and rest for a bit before I felt light headed.

*shhhffff*

A sound of something cutting through wind suddenly whooshed from behind, and I could only see Kirllia slowly dropping to the ground with a spear on her chest. Our eyes locked on together as she fell along with her blue hair slipping through the sides. She let out a light cough, and her body faded for a bit.

I felt my eyesight go full blue as blood rushed to my head, my hearing full of high-pitched ringing, before I felt a force blow my left flank towards the side, sending me flying. The excruciating pain it brought my head finally let me scream in pain, both from seeing my left arm's bone break and from the sight of Kirllia vanishing into thin air.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO-------"

I only saw a blur of a foot towards the right side of my face before I bounced away tumbling somewhere far.

"Colluding with the demon, huh? I didn't expect one of the strongest of our force to be with our enemy."

I can see from a distance...a man with a golden armor. He had this look of something that wizened over the years as he stared at Aunt, and Virol suddenly appeared before I tried to struggle to get up.

I can't collapse now!

I thought my body could finally handle a lot of damage throughout these years but from what seemed to be a kick even broke my arm.

"Why did you have to kick the kid that hard? He's a friend!" I heard Virol tell on to that man in golden armor as he glanced over my direction, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, is he? But why were they with a demon? Two of them at that. Enjil."

"Yes, sir."

"Rough him up."

A man that looked like a knight immediately dashed towards me, so I didn't have any choice but to pour Origin onto my eyes and head just like that last time.

***

Kaff suddenly got up and dodged Enjil's incoming heel drop with a burst of speed that only a few Sword Users could make. Following his direction, he saw that Kaff had four whirpool-looking orbs of light surging below his feet and on his back.

The three others who came with him saw this, and there was a look of surprise on their eyes.

"Why did you have to kill her? She was innocent!"

"Innocent? A demon? What makes you say that?"

Arc could only grit her teeth as she lowered her head. She was currently powerless right now as William put a large pressure on her whole body, making her almost kiss the ground.

"Seeing you with a familiar aura, I'll let you live for now." The general flickered her finger towards Arc's head, knocking her out instantly.

"As for the boy, are you sure he's no threat?"

"I told you to go easy on him! Also, since only the demons are my enemies, you can't force me to budge my way in a business between humans." After snorting, he went towards the pair that were currently slowly floating upwards inside the upwards surging light.

"The first time we met, I thought there was something special in him seeing him do calculations. What gives that we'd also meet like this, at this time, and at this place?" William glanced towards Kaff and Enjil, who are both engaged in combat.

It was more of a one-sided offense from Enjil, though.

Seeing the pair of demon and human within the becoming denser surge of light, the general floated along with Virol to observe them.

"These two are sick. They dared to implant all those god's marks on their bodies and still stay alive until this day. Especially this man, who knew a human could withstand the pain of different types of energies rejecting each other within his own body?" Virol could only say what was on his mind, as he currently channelled red and light within his forehead with open arms.

"You were a friend, actually. But seeing you side with the demons, I could only purge you along with this demon here. Seeing your body with four different kinds of god's mark is also considered as blasphemy, so I could say I'm doing a bit of justice finishing you off here." The general also started to gather white light, and channeled it in front of his two hands. After a while, he went to the other side of the pillar of light. A few circles of light appeared behind his back, and formed into swords.

Seeing the two of them above and readying their attack, as the last Grandmaster-level of the party, William also followed suit and gathered golden light on each of his palms. On his forehead, veins started to lightly appear, and his black hair also turned into golden at the same time he started to chant. He went towards the other side and from above, one could see that they formed a triangle surrounding the pillar of light.

Seeing the three of them charge their respective attacks, Kaff's face became a bit flushed, he tried to form an Origin Screw but the knight Enjil only disrupted him by flinging his hands by the blunt side of his sword, and also trying to aim his vitals.

Enjil was also getting a bit agitated, his grip on his long sword tightening, his temples forming sweat. Seeing a kid as fast as Kaff gave him a slight irritation, as if trying to catch a bug that he can't catch during its flight.

"Why are you still playing with that child? Quickly knock him out!"

Hearing the message of the general, Enjil gathered white light and channeled into his sword, before he let go of it, floating in the air. The sword then reverse, making the hilt point towards Kaff, then copies of it started to appear all around him. All of the swords looked identical but were all slightly faded as if transparent.

"Sorry kid, nothing personal. Just following orders."

The sword copies lunged themselves towards Kaff, the hilt aimed for him. Kaff dodged every sword that went towards him, until he suddenly went flying towards a thin tree, breaking it, and hitting another, partially burying him in snow.

His face swollen, two of his baby tooth from the side fell, and his eyes were slightly turning red.

Now that his peripheral vision turned wide as he was distant from the pillar of light, he saw the three men floating around in a triangle, surrounding his father and the Void Demoness.

He tried to scream once more, but his voice became hoarse, his throat seemed to be blocked by blood as a few specks of red could be seen flying out from his mouth as he reached his hand towards the pillar of light from afar.

"Da...aaaad...!"

The winds started to converge around him, alerting the knight that recently kicked him at the face.

"So stubborn."

The knight murmured to himself, before sending another flying sword that aimed for Kaff's temples, seeing that he isn't looking at his surroundings.

The hilt headed for Kaff, hitting him squarely at his right temple, making him roll over a few times before stopping.

Kaff was still conscious, and the knight instantly moved towards his back and stomped on his already broken arm with a flash of white light. Sensing acute pain, he involuntarily screamed, only to be muffled from the blood that came from his mouth once more. Only the sound of gurgling occurred, and with that the knight finally heaved a sigh and stopped moving.

"You've made me work hard for today eh?"