The Seed

It is noon and Liam sensed that it was actually time to go back to his domain.

He had his chained sickles around his neck and a huge sack filled with the helmets of his fallen comrades.

While on his way back, he focused on how to deliver the sad news to the women of that land that either their husbands, father, brother, son or betrothed have all fallen.

Although Liam survived, it was still a huge burden to be the only one spared while having your loved ones die beside you.

Almost getting to the entrance, what dominated his mind is the angel of death's message about how the rider planted a seed of revenge.

It seemed really strange, to Liam who have been living amongst the duel between life and death before meeting the village, death, to him, is an unavoidable phenomenal.

He understood that their own greed led to their death and that seems to be the price to pay for it, although that is in the case of his fallen brothers but to him, he has to carry the burden of knowing that he could have persisted or somehow, delay the operation, thereby, making him and his brothers live longer.

If there was a seed sown by the rider, that would be the motivation for him to grow stronger and eventually be capable enough to protect his loved ones from any victimisation.

Finally, before him is the village's entrance. His heart, which was beating rapidly at first, sank.

He suddenly felt that something is not right.

At first, the fear of delivering the news had his heart beating rapidly but now, the lack of noise and feeling of life have his heart down to the most frightening level.

He quickly barges in and before him is the sight of noone. He dropped his sack and sprinted down to the fields.

On his arrival, he noticed nothing. Then, his second guess is to check on the huts, which he did but can't still find no one.

This time around, not only did the heart sank but it is beating heavily, enough for someone to fall to their death.

Liam was now sweating profusely, cold sweats to be exact and having his senses blurred as he was on his limit.

His whole body weakened at the sight of no one as he drags himself around the whole village till he got to the village's centre.

Right there did the young man, whose last time he fell on his knees was during the acceptance ceremony the village conducted for him over a year and half ago.

With great despair, he had to use his own eyes to see the women, elderly and children, all lined up, impaled by wooden sticks like it was a collection or something.

The blood that flowed out from either their cuts or decapitation have already dried up.

With tears pouring down from the young male's eyes, he slowly drags himself to the dead bodies in order to have a feel of their flesh as he gives himself into the delusion of seeing things out of the war's counter effect.

As slowly as he could, he manages to get to the body of one of the children and felt his left foot and right there, his delusions could not save him anymore from reality.

Yes, the whole village is dead and were all killed mercilessly.

All of a sudden, some kind of adrenaline creeped inside of him as he stood with immediate effect and searched among the dead bodies in search of no one other than his beloved betrothed.

Once again, the young warrior fell on his knees at the sight of his betrothed's lifeless body and cried his heart out in anger.

"Oh messenger of death! Is this thy seed!!" he calls out in tears while holding his betrothed's left foot like a child who pleads his innocence in front of his furious mother over a wrongly accused sin.

His tears went on for minutes till he fell asleep.

............…

"May I ask? Did his seed grow?" the chained figure appeared before Liam once again and asked.

"May… I… know… why?" Liam asked while holding back his tears and cries.

"He needed something to convince you to go nuts all for the sake of revenge on him."

"Then… why did he have to go that far to involve innocent lives."

"He needed an insurance that you will really work hard to kill him. In summary, he wanted to use the concept of guilt tripping to create an eligible reason for your revenge."

"Why don't he just discuss about that with me then!?" at this time, Liam's emotions are slowly taking over him.

"You would lack the motivation to go through extreme heights for the sake of revenge."

"Then, he should have just killed me!! What gives him the confidence to think that I won't be suicidal!?" Liam lashes out as he punches into the ground to vent his anger.

"At least, you now have a reason to live on. Again, killing you will just be to his own disadvantage.

But if I am to answer your question, it would just be your battling spirit.

The exchange between the two of you gave the feeling that you do have the warrior spirit and to be honest, I myself felt that.

You are not just an ordinary parader but one born with an artefact's ego within, this simple fact alone is evident that you are indeed one born with the spirit.

So now, tell me Liam, what will you do?" as the figure asked, there was a long silence as Liam's tears kept on flowing.

"If he wants me to make my death his only life purpose, so be it!

So, whoever you are, the chain scars on my arms, I know it must be connected to you but whatever it is, if it will make me stronger, I would like you to activate it.

I will use you, so, you will use me as well." Liam readied his heart and declared.

"Beautiful choice, Liam." The figure responded with a smirk and suddenly, Liam's surroundings went dark to the point that nothing can be seen.

After some few seconds, the whole area lit up in a bright white light the engulfed the whole area to the point that it could cause instant blindness.

Liam suddenly wakes up from his slumber and it appears that his arms were a bit hot and a slight look at it confirmed that it was glowing in the colour, red and it came from the chain-like scars all over his arms.

He grits his teeth and decides to no longer pay no mind to it anymore as he sits up and have his eyes on his dead betrothed.

Silence was the only voice that was loud at the moment while the other was the gentle breeze that was blowing at the moment, yes, it is noon already.

He stands up, then went on a search for something amongst the huts in the territory and finally came out with a shovel.

He takes a walk to the territory's centre ground and began his digging, one for each and every dead child and woman.

This went on with no rest, even in midnight and three whole days passed by before he could say that the eight feet holes for each one was done.

He makes a trip back to where the dead bodies were positioned and obviously, they all have already began their rotting process.

Liam paid no mind as he continues with his schedule and made sure that each grave have been occupied.

Then, another task of covering up the graves, which took two more days to complete.

Of course, he did not forget about saying the grace on each and every grave and placing the helmets of his brothers alongside the family arranged graves.

This time around, there were no tears left as he poured it all out on his betrothed's grave.

It is now evening, Liam heads into the territory's river and have his bath.

During this moment, he noticed something that was way beyond the word, "strange".

As he dips himself into the now cold river, his arms which were glowing with the red colour, heated up the whole river all in an instant, suddenly providing a hot bath.

Liam took the chance to observe his strange condition.

His arms was all covered up with tattoos of chains that were glowing in the red colour.

It was shocking to see his scars convert into tattoos, although he has no idea what a tattoo is, so instead, to him, it felt like a drawing that can't be wiped off or cleaned.

Again, the water's temperature was wildly increasing but instead, to him, it felt like the water was at its best temperature.

Although he was enjoying, he was mindful of the water evaporating and then made an effort to calm himself and get the water back to it's chilled temperature and at that moment, the red glow on his arms slowly transitioned into a light blue glow.

One lesson learnt, he could control the flow in his arms willingly except for getting it turned off.

He went on with his bath and as he was done, he helped himself with the boiled fish that were flowing all over the water body for dinner and did have himself a good night's sleep.