Chapter XXIII: The War 1

The rumbly whipping sound of the air was like a creaking floor that gave an intense feeling of darkness in the night.

Khalid was there, standing on the scene with his companions while facing the countless verendus standing in the distance. Their looks were normal, but not until some of them started to show their real faces. Tearing off their flesh and transforming into the most horrifying nightmare that a normal person could ever imagine. 

Looking at it, Khalid could tell that the war was about to start. He even tried to question himself: Why is he protecting the kingdom he never owned? Is it because he wanted to save his kingdom, or because the real Khalid said so? Even he can't tell, but if there's a reason for why he's doing it, it's perhaps to stop the calamity he doesn't know will get worse.

'Today is the day we have to put an end to this mess! '

With that being said, he tightly grips the bayonet while staring at the woman in front of him with malice in her eyes. 

Liena was there, standing in the middle, and serving as their leader.

She was wearing the pointy skull of a monster with a long, sharp horn covering his head while holding a long staff stick in her hands. 

When the verendus made the others tremble on their feet, Khalid was an exception, for he was just there calmly standing and not alarmed at the situation. Instead of worrying about the outcome of the war, something was occupying his mind.

'What decision have you made, Garion, that you won't even bother telling?!'

Khalid's mind is filled with Garion; he knows that whatever decision he makes has nothing to do with him, for he is just a mere companion, but there is a feeling of somewhat fear crawling in his veins.

The thought that he was still feeling any kind of emotion makes him fume in anger, and the feeling just worsens whenever he thinks about their conversation because Khalid would never figure out what secret was behind those decisions, and if he ever knew about it, he would wish that he never knew a thing.

[Flash back]

"Have you made up your mind?"

Khalid asked while standing at the window with his two arms crossed at each other.

Garion seemed to have already healed with the wounds and injuries on his body, but Khalid knew that the wound left on his heart would never heal, and if it did, it would just leave a big scar on his heart that would haunt him forever.

"I apologized for what happened."

His response makes Khalid's expression turn bleak, and his gaze has also gotten serious, making him sweat like a candle while sitting on his bed, covered in layers upon layers of bandages.

"Is that an answer to my question?"

Khalid's voice was calm, which made Garion feel more alarmed. 

He tried not to make eye contact with him, but a feeling that Khalid had covered the entire room with his aura made him swallow his saliva.

"T-that…I decide to protect my daughter." 

Garion then looked straight into his eyes, and that's when he felt an urge that there was something behind it, but before Khalid could even interrogate Garion, he had already let out the answer on his own.

"Please take care of my daughter." 

He added, which made Khalid shout in disapproval as if he were thinking of being apart from Lily.

"What?! Didn't you just say that you would protect her on your own?!" 

He didn't even blink and just looked at Garion like a hawk that was about to hunt its prey. 

"Garion, is there something I'm not supposed to know?" 

Khalid had let out some words, but Garion was just there, looking so dreary, while Khalid walked towards him, looking irritated. 

"Ha! Don't tell me you're plotting something."

"No, it's not like that, Milord!" 

Garion suddenly yelled back out of nowhere, which took Khalid aback and made him listen to every single word that came out of his mouth.

"What is bound to happen will happen anyway; whenever I try to pretend that it is all nothing, it will hunt me again, so tell me..."

He sighed.

"Tell me, Milord, if you are bound to die the next day, would it be better to die later than sooner? "

Khalid didn't answer; he was left speechless by his words that the only thing that Khalid knew was that Garion became a different person he never knew; there was no hope in the tone of his voice; and the lively person who made Khalid feel alive is nowhere to be found; it's as if he were staring at the rose that's slowly withering.

"You don't have to worry, milord; this time I would not make a foolish decision."

He never looked him in the eye like a coyote, seeing it as a threat, and his behavior wasn't an exception.

Considering his action, Khalid decided to leave him alone and let him take a rest, believing that he would come back to his senses once he was fully rested, but...that was just his thought.

"Then I'll get going."

He was about to leave, but then he stopped when Garion spoke.

"I just hope that we can win the war." 

Khalid decided to look back, feeling so irritated, but Garion's expression didn't even change, which made his blood boil even more.

"DAMN IT!"

He cursed as he left the scene, stomping his feet on the ground like a troll in rage.

His headache even worsens after remembering his conversation with the real Khalid inside the white room.

"Be careful, Hyun; they are not just cursed souls!"

Khalid was sitting on the floor, while Lee Hyun was comfortably lying on it like a corpse.

"Then why did you leave this work to me then?"

His eyes widen as he looks at Lee Hyun, then he smiles before he responds.

"This world will surely survive in your hands." 

While wearing a smile on his face, he stated that leaving Lee Hyun couldn't do a thing but pull back his hair. He somewhat feels annoyed with Khalid in some way.

"Ha, I do what I can do!"

When Khalid opened his eyes, he was back at the scene where he had to face Liena to save the world that the real Khalid del Urchtdorf had failed to save in the past, and thinking that he would have to take responsibility for it annoyed him so much that he started to doubt himself.

'I'm not sure if I could save this world, though.' 

He thought, but to make things worse, Liena even tried persuading Khalid to join her instead, which made him feel offended as if she were treating him as a gullible person.

"Why are you saving a world that is already bound for ruin?!"

The look in her eyes was so serious and deep that it was as if she intended to mock Khalid in front of his companions, for them to be carried away by their fear and loss at the battle.

'I wonder why?'

He thought and glanced back to see his companions with an intense feeling of hatred painted on their faces; instead of trembling from fear, their hands were rather itchy to chop off their heads.

"A hybrid demon, you're not even considered a human being anymore, so why are you still trying to protect these mere people?" 

Liena has questioned. 

The thought that she was trying to get Khalid on his side makes his companion anxious about the situation.

The shedding of blood in the war didn't even start yet, but seeing how the passel of verendus behind her dripped their saliva on the ground and the vicious looks in their eyes would make someone feel unease, and it would make things worse if they ever lost their lord by their side, but to be surprised, Khalid's response to Liena seems to dissatisfy her.

"Then how about you? Are you happy that you ruined someone's life?" 

He didn't even blink and stated it right in front of her face.

'I hate to say it, but Garion seems to be out of his mind lately, and it's starting to get on my nerves! '

He even thought while piercing Liena with a grave look in his eyes.

Khalid even answered all her questions, believing that Liena would stop blabbering anymore and start the fierce battle, but it seemed like she held the opening card in her hands and would start to strike whenever she wanted.

"I'm still having some choices about whether I will kill you or not because you have a demon inside your body, but seeing that a monster cared about its prey, no wonder a weak demon has possessed the likes of you!"

Liena's look has gotten sharp and intimidating, but Khalid is never thrilled about the words that are coming out of her perfectly shaped lip because he believes that everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie.

"If you reconsider my offer, then you won't be dying in my hands."

*Tssk!*

Her words made Khalid sneer as he tilted his head in disbelief.

Many hellions have already tried to kill and hunt him in the very beginning, but no one succeeds, and they just all end up as Khalid's free meal.

"Die? Do you know how badly I wish to die?"

The way his voice tone turned calmer, Liena couldn't help but feel the heavy pressure on her surroundings; even his eyes were as empty as a parched well, which made her feel the loss of breath.

"Y-you.!"

"And even if I kill myself a thousand times, I'll just wake up in this nightmare... but while I breathe, I still hope... that I could die, so... I would gladly embrace my death in your hands." 

Khalid took off the eye patch, giving her a chance to look at his fiery vermillion eye that was covered in black sclera like a dull, clear sky.

Just by the looks of it, the verendus flinched on their spot; even Liena could feel the terror in his cursed eye.

"The-then you leave me no choice." 

She even stutters, but she is so persistent as not to be humiliated by Khalid that she chooses her pride rather than being frightened in sight, and without any thought, she immediately raises her staff, and the verendus swiftly attack them like a predator that had been famished for ages.

Some of them were nothing but ordinary; they even had sharp, long fingernails and tongues, but the other was far too hideous to be just called a nightmare; it even left his knights frozen in their positions as if their feet were glued to the ground. 

Who would even have enough courage to face the verendus with two long arms that were so skinny like chopsticks and multiple sharp-looking fingers like knives? The other was even headless, but it devoured its prey using its stomach, which has a big petrifying mouth that is full of sharp teeth, and its backbones are even bent like metal in a furnace, which gives them chills on their spines while Khalid watches them as they quaver in the enemy's sight.

When Khalid saw one of his knights was about to be eaten by the verendus with uncountable eyes, he immediately ran in their direction to land an attack on it and slash it to pieces, but before he could even raise his bayonet, he was unpredictably stabbed by a verendus with the head of a leech and elastic long acantho arms that were covered in thorns and vines.

"This is it! This would be the end of the human race!" 

Liena shouted in joy after seeing Khalid being free food by the verendus that were having a feast with his body.

'Is it too early to celebrate? ' 

He thought while his body regenerated within a second, crushing the verendus who had made a feast on his body like a meatball.

Meanwhile, in the room of murklins, two men could be seen playing chess. When the moonlight hits the window, it gives a spotlight to the man who was playfully watching his opponent's hands tremble as he made a move with his pawns. He was even drenched in sweat and couldn't look properly in the eyes, which made him feel more power and authority.

"Checkmate." 

A man with hair that shone like gold stated as he knocked down the player's king on his chess board.

Knowing that he had lost at the chess battle, he hurriedly ran so fast that he even stumbled on the ground, but before he could even escape the room, the man with the bewitching appearance of an angel raised his hands, and with his two fingers pointing at him, his soul was taken away from him in a blink of an eye that turned his body into a parched land.

"I could say that there is only one winner in every battle, and even if it draws a match, it will never end until one of the opponents dies." 

With that being said, he formed a smirk on his lips as he placed the king on the chess board, cornering the other king with his pawns.

"Urgh....*Crack!*....Gragh....."

When black smoke came out of his body and entered the cold, wrinkled corpse of the man that was lying on the ground, it surprisingly came back to life, but his body had turned into a hideous monster that let out the deafening roaring sound of a petrifying demon that had arisen from hell.