The Fog of Wrath

After a few hours, Mortis awoke and gave his two wives a kiss before quietly leaving the room and slowly getting ready for battle. In the hallway, the servants lined up to see their count off. Mortis looked at his servants and said, "I will leave now. Continue to look after my women with dedication and already prepare a feast for tonight, for I will return victorious." The servants nodded in unison and watched as their count mounted Nightshade and disappeared before their eyes in seconds.

Standing on the stairs, Jasmine watched joyfully as the servants eagerly went about their work, as if it were a given that Mortis would come home tonight. As they did so, they were excitedly chatting about what their lord's expression would be like when he saw his wives as well as knights standing on the battlefield. Jasmine felt a little out of place and went to her room where she had fabric and sewing kit to tailor.

Nightshade rode the paths of death and reached the battlefield in a few moments. With a high leap, he jumped out of a crack and stood in the middle of the battlefield. But when Mortis saw that there were tents and soldiers on both sides, he was initially confused. However, when he saw the flags of his county and among them thousands of soldiers, as well as Leonie in a black robe with a silver tiara decorated with black diamonds, Marina in a blue robe with a silver tiara set with blue sapphires, and Lumina in a green robe with a silver tiara set with green stones, Mortis knew roughly what was going on, especially when he spotted his two friends with the four barons behind them.

Mortis was pleasantly surprised. Especially when he emerged, there was a cheer and his camp grew loud. The drums beat in time and his side was ready for battle. The silence on the battlefield disappeared and shocked the others when it suddenly became so loud. But when they looked in the middle and saw a huge dog with black fur, they became nervous, especially when a man got off it, a huge scythe in his hand. It seemed as if he owned the battlefield. So they too tried to raise spirits to boost the morale of the soldiers.

Attention, you dogs from Gera! I, Count Mortis, will come to you in a moment and tear your souls out of your bodies, as I did once before. But this time no one will be spared! Merlin finished the spell when he received a signal and was sent to the back by Mortis. Nightshade was also sent away, and Mortis set off alone across the field toward the enemy army. Juergen watched in shock and asked, "Has the boy completely lost his mind now? What is he doing?" But Leonie raised her hand to nip the conversation in the bud and whispered softly, "If he needs our help, we'll charge. But for now, we'll wait patiently and just watch." The four barons only nodded and looked ahead excitedly.

As Mortis got closer to the other camp, he saw a boy of about 10 sitting on a horse. Next to him was a woman in a black dress. Behind the boy were eight adults in different armor and robes, wearing sinister smiles. It seemed that the boy was just a puppet of these eight or the mother, which made Mortis angry. He thought about how to resolve this conflict without killing the boy or wiping out the entire opposing army. Suddenly he stopped and spoke when he was within earshot, "Boy, stop this nonsense. Turn around, take your soldiers and go home. A battle is not for a child, especially when you are in the wrong. Let go of your heroic stories. A child should not see such things and should not be responsible for hundreds, even thousands, losing their lives. Go and live a decent life."

Although the boy was scared and had tears in his eyes, his knights in the back laughed and his mother raised her voice. "That's not proper, Count. Have you no pride to ask your opponent to leave the battlefield? How cowardly can you be?"

"Me? Cowardly?" roared Mortis. "You fools! I gave you, and especially your child, a chance to live. But it seems you have learned nothing from it. Now watch your child die before your eyes!"

Mortis created a huge amount of icy mist that immediately covered half the battlefield and lowered the temperature. The fog hovered flat above the ground, growing denser as it responded to Mortis' wrath. Slowly it rose higher and grew wilder. Mortis lowered his scythe so that the blade dragged across the ground, and slowly marched toward the enemies. But before the others could react, Mortis disappeared into the mist. All that could be heard was a terrible scratching sound that suggested something bad was about to happen. But the scariest thing was not the sound, but that the fog formed a skull in the middle and was rushing towards the soldiers at high speed. It looked like the skull was going to swallow the little baron and his mother.

The screaming was momentarily great when they realized that it was indeed only fog. But it still wasn't that simple, because the cold severely hypothermized the knights and everything trapped in the mist. But not only that, the fog touched not only their skin but also their souls and made them think terrible thoughts, made them feel as if they already had one foot in the grave.

When Mortis was very close and two red eyes could be seen approaching the young baron, the boy's mother yelled, "He's here! Save my boy, do something fast!" At this, the eight adults, previously confident of victory, rushed to the red dots, drew their weapons and were about to charge at Mortis. However, when they arrived at the red dots, the fog cleared and revealed a small circle in which Mortis could not be seen. This made the mother as well as the eight very nervous. They looked around nervously, but to no avail. Suddenly, an aisle opened up where Mortis was standing a little further away, taunting his opponents with a sinister grin.

"You'll wipe that grin off your face!" roared a tall, muscular fellow. He spurred his horse, swinging his sword, but Mortis calmly stood still and watched the warrior approach. When the warrior was almost within reach, Mortis held up his hand and calmly said, "Stop!" The horse immediately tried to stop, which surprised the warrior and caused him to be catapulted forward. Mortis took the opportunity to knock the warrior out with a beautiful right haymaker in mid-air. "There were only seven left," he said, petting the horse before whispering in its ear to run to the other side to join his soldiers. The horse obeyed immediately and trotted away.

The other seven didn't know what was going on, but they preferred to dismount from their horses and leave them behind as they came exuberantly toward Mortis. Mortis wondered why they had such egos and had his system check them out. The results surprised Mortis: all of them were over level 70, and three of them had systems, which indicated that they must be reincarnates.

Mortis knew there were some reborns, but why were three of them in this family at once, and with systems to boot? Did reincarnates, beget reincarnates? Or was it a coincidence? He asked himself. But the most important thing is that I have to study them and examine their souls to see if there are any more clues. But first I should defeat them.

When he remembered the three reincarnated who could be precisely determined by the system, he decided to save them for last.

When Mortis stood before the seven, he rammed his scythe into the ground and said, "Come here! I don't need weapons for the likes of you. I'm going to show you where you really stand and I'm going to knock that stupid grin off your faces."