Fun

Rowan winced as he bandaged the gaping hole in his arm as he hopped across the iron rods jutting out of the walls which held the braziers. While hundreds of fully armed soldiers ran past beneath him while screaming 'Kill the heretic scum'.

"What the hell are they talking about…" Rowan did not know these people.

The only thing he knew was that they gave off a bad feeling and they want to kill him.

Rowan paused at the end of the hall as he finished bandaging his arm wiping the blood into his shirt to avoid making a bloody trail.

These soldiers with a crest of black wings clad in gold had been hunting him all over the place and Rowan had been sneaking around to find a way out of this gigantic place. There weren't even windows to break out from, so Rowan had thought that this had to have been underground.

However, that theory was proven false minutes after he escaped.

The air was not stale, unlike the dungeons, which meant that the place had sufficient airflow. Unless they had some kind of advanced technology or something, there was no way the underground building could maintain a stable airflow with this much people and lit fires.

"You two! Stay here and guard this entrance!" A silver knight told two golden soldiers.

After the hundreds of soldiers had passed, there was only two that were left below Rowan.

'Not good…' Rowan winced. 'I'm really injured right now.'

Rowan had been stabbed by a short rapier from one of those priests when he was caught off guard by one of the soldiers shooting fire off his hands. His right foot was also a little broken from kicking exposed nutsacks and his ankles still burned with pain since he dislocated his feet to get out of the chains in the dungeon.

Rowan knew he couldn't take out two guards before they can react.

Rowan looked at the makeshift rustsack behind his back and checked his arsenal and found a few daggers, a shortsword, a bludgeon and a unlit torch.

'Throwing daggers are useless against full armor. Shortsword takes too much time in engagement. Bludgeon makes too much noise…' Rowan glanced at the torch. 'That one isn't even a weapon…'

Rowan grit his teeth as he thought of a million ways to kill these guys with what he had and found two million ways to do it.

Just that all of them needed a big stroke of fat luck to pull off silently.

'Guess I'll take my chances…' Rowan sighed.

He pulled up his makeshift scarf and unsheathed the shortsword from his rustsack and jumped off the top brazier.

Below him was a unaware soldier that was keeping an eye on everything except above.

The poor man was then stabbed by a shortsword all the way down his spine before getting crushed to the ground after taking Rowan's 9 feet fall.

"Ooph!" Rowan grunted as his butt ached but instinctively drew a dagger and threw it at the other soldier as he turned around.

"What the-?!" The soldier exclaimed as his throat was hit by a glittering dagger.

The dagger hit it's mark and the soldier fell on his back while coughing, blood poured from the tiny holes of his helmet and staining the polished marble floor with dark red blood.

"Whew…" Rowan breathed, it seemed he was lucky enough to hit the right spot on the soldier's only unarmored spot.

As Rowan slowly got up and winced at his injuries, he heard a loud banging noise of metal near him.

The second soldier was apparently still alive and was bashing his fist against his armor to make noise and call the other soldiers. Rowan saw a pit of hatred in the eyes deep inside the dark visor of the helmet and responded with a similar level of irritation.

Rowan saw the soldier stand up quicker than him and caught a glimpse of the dagger on the man's throat.

The dagger was only lodged in halfway into the chainmail and thick leather gurgoilette on the soldier's neck.

'Tenacious son of a bitch…' Rowan cursed. 'Even a regular soldier has that much armor! What the hell is this place!'

"Just die already damn it." Rowan spat hatefully.

Rowan grumbled as he rolled over to the side and dodge a spiraling flame shooting towards him.

"Goddamnit." Rowan hissed in irritation. "Does everyone on this goddamned building know how to shoot fire?!"

Rowan quickly lunged with his already bent knees and pulled up the bludgeon above him. He leapt to the air in an overhand swing of the bludgeon with his uninjured left hand while the flames haven't even vanished yet.

Despite Rowan's swift movement, the soldier pulled out the knife that had shallowly pierced his throat and attempted to block the strike from Rowan.

Unfortunately for him, Rowan had predicted this and had tossed the bludgeon up before collision and used his now free left hand to grab the soldier's helmet.

He landed softly in the ground as he pulled down the soldier and leapt back up swiftly while hammering his knee to the soldier's helmet.

The straps holding the soldier's helmet gave way and tore apart, setting the helmet free from the head.

Rowan then caught the bludgeon as it dropped mid air and twirled it in his left hand before he smashed it down hard on the soldier, causing the iron weight on the end of the weapon to crush the skull of the knight and splashing blood and grey matter in all directions.

Rowan wiped the blood off his face as he exhaled violently, coughing up and choking as he did.

Rowan internally cursed.

'Three seconds…' Rowan thought angrily. 'Three seconds to kill a regular soldier.'

He thought of such things as he walked towards the door as the thumping of boots and violent chatter of the other soldiers became louder behind him.

He didn't know who he was, who were these people, and what this place was but he felt his extreme disappointment in himself as he thought about how it took him three seconds to kill someone in a one on one situation.

Rowan grimaced at the thought.

'Just… who am I?' Rowan thought to himself.

A screaming soldier behind him broke his train of thought.

Rowan instinctively rolled to the side as he felt searing heat pass by beside him.

Rowan grabbed the brazier beside him and knocked it down to the expensive looking carpet at the center of the hall.

The carpet caught fire and started to produce a thick, black plume of smoke that blocked sight of Rowan.

Rowan started grabbing the expensive ornamental pots placed at the bottom of every column and threw it towards the braziers on the walls, knocking them down and making more fires.

Soon enough, the room was filled with dark smoke and Rowan was separated away from the rest of the soldiers by a veil of black and a sea of raging flame.

As Rowan calmly walked away, he heard the soldiers scream in fury as they had once again lost track of him.

'Scream all you want idiots…' Rowan rolled his eyes.

He continued to walk in peace for a while in the silent halls of the building.

'Stupid maze-like structure...' Rowan cursed as he got lost once again.

One of the reasons the soldiers could not capture him was because they had no idea where he was going. Rowan could have been detected south and next thing they knew he was east. His movements were too erratic that the knights leading the soldiers completely gave up trying to figure out predicting where he would go next.

'As long as I'm lost, nobody can ambush me.' Rowan sighed.

How can anyone figure out where he was going when he himself did not know where he was going?

Rowan walked down a corner for the upteenth time and paused to catch his breath, only to suddenly notice a narrow hall that was dimly lit by braziers.

The hall was 20 feet long, 6 feet wide and was 12 feet tall.

'Such a lopsided hall...' Rowan's interest was piqued. This was by far the only different hall compared to all others.

He walked down the slightly curved hall and marveled the simplicity.

There was only some cheap carpet, a few desks, no polished marble or chiseled columns. It had a very humble vibe to it.

It didn't take long for Rowan to notice the big slab of steel was built into the wall.

'Interesting…' Rowan squinted. 'All I have seen so far were wrought iron. This is the only steel thing in the entire place.'

Rowan knew the value of steel from what he had seen so far.

The only steel things in this place was the rapiers of the bald idiots in robes and the longswords of the knights.

'Is steel that much of a valuable metal?' Rowan tried to remember but failed.

Rowan tried pushing the door but miserably failed.

He tried knocking around it and found that there were no hollow areas on or around the door.

'Interesting…' Rowan narrowed his eyes. 'The walls on this one must be at least thrice thicker and the door is a few inches thick of pure steel…'

Rowan believed that there was definitely something that was important behind the door and he needed to find out.

'Anything they try to hide is something I can use to escape this place.' Was Rowan's thought.

Rowan was still thinking of some things when he heard approaching voices behind him.

"Sir Inquisitor! We should not have left the archbishop with only two guards!" A female voice exclaimed.

"We must bring priority to the Archbishop's mission and make sure that the message gets transferred." A male voice replied.

Rowan's ears perked up in the mention of 'Archbishop'.

Rowan nimbly climbed up the wall and hung on the ledge on one arm, instantly disappearing from sight as he vanished into the darker corners of he ceiling.

'Is this a Church?' Rowan wondered. 'Archbishop was a common rank in the clergy of religions… I think…'

Rowan tried to remember but yet again failed. He only had faint traces of information pop out in his head every so often when there was something important that he witnessed or heard.

Rowan stopped his thoughts as he saw three armored figures walk down the hall below him.

It was a silver Knight followed by two of the regular soldiers similar to the dozens Rowan had killed.

Now that Rowan thought about it, he had not seen any of the robed baldies anymore that he started killing everyone.

"Sir… is this the place?" A female voice rang out from one of the soldiers behind the Knight.

'They have female soldiers?!' Rowan narrowed his eyes. 'Females are not allowed to become soldiers since the male soldiers often frolicked with them too often to the point that the army would exhaust themselves every night…'

Rowan shuddered at the thought of one woman surrounded by hundreds of hot blooded men eager to vent their urges.

Rowan shook his head as he dismissed the thought. There must have been some sort of rules in place to protect women in the army… or so he hoped.

"Stay here. Only I shall enter the room." The knight turned around to face the two soldiers behind him. "Each one of you guard the opposite ends of the hall."

"Yes, Sir!" The two saluted. "For the glory of the Sun God!"

The two then walked their separate ways to the ends of the hall.

Once the two faced away from the Knight, the Knight placed his hand on the Steel door.

The door glowed softly before sliding backwards as it flushed into the wall with a really loud screeching sound.

Rowan immediately took the chance and hopped down, softly crouching as he landed to make minimal noise. The door opening had drowned away the sound of Rowan's landing as he tailed closely to the Knight.

The door had finally swung open and the Knight went inside with Rowan hiding in his shadow.

Rowan smiled as he found himself in the room alone with the Knight. It was too cramped in here to effectively use a longsword and that swirly fire thing. Rowan grinned from ear to ear as the Knight even took off his helmet and fiddled with a few devices.

'Patience…' Rowan breathed deeply.

Only then did he realize his raised dagger aimed behind the Knight's neck.

'Patience.' Rowan reminded again.

Rowan had not much places to hide behind so he kept a small profile behind the bulky knight.

Soon, the Knight stepped back and Rowan imitated his movements silently and fluidly, like a natural shadow in the light.

As time progressed, a crystal ball the size of a wheel that was on the table in front of the Knight lit up to reveal a brightly lit up room with a rich, elderly looking man holding a curvy staff.

[What seems to be the problem…?] The man inside the ball spoke solemnly, making all the hairs on Rowan's body stand up.

Rowan could even feel the Knight in front of him shudder at the voice.

'Such an aura…' Rowan thought. 'He must be some powerful figure…'

The Knight in front of him cleared his throat before politely speaking.

"Supreme Pontiff…" The Knight trailed off. "Archbishop Weissner had been attacked and is temporarily out of commission…"

There was a short awkward silence between two for a while.

[Is that so…] The elderly man seemed sad. [Weissner was good at reading the situation…]

[Tell me, child.] The man looked straight into the Knight with pure, golden eyes full of wisdom. [Who attacked him?]

"Please forgive me, your Holiness, this servant knows nothing." The Knight slightly bowed.

[Nonsense, child… You have done good by telling me.]

"This servant does not deserve such praise from his Holiness." The Knight continued to bow.

[How modest. You ought to give yourself more credit.] The old man laughed. [Would you mind telling me the details of the matter?]

"It would be my pleasure, Supreme Pontiff." The Knight said.

The Knight then proceeded to report every single detail that happened in the past two days, starting from the completion of the recruitment campaign of Sir Koelhar down to the successful siege of the Tower and the monster that was running amok inside the sanctum.

The elderly man patiently listened to everything for the next 30 minutes that Rowan was even surprised that the Pontiff guy had not fallen asleep.

After the report, the old man started to ask the Knight a good few questions.

[The demonic child that was caught… what was his name?]

"Rowan, sir."

[And you say that 38 Templars were killed in an attack in front of the chamber of conversion?]

"Yes, your Holiness."

[Hmmm…] The old man seemed to be deep in thought.

[Was there anything that Weissner told you?] The old man asked as he drank from a glass of sparkling champagne.

The Knight scratched his head a bit before replying.

"Something about a shadow ha returned? I'm not sur-"

The knight was cut off by the sound of glass shattering and the old man coughing up champagne on the chair.

"Yo-Your Holiness…?!"

[Why have you not told me sooner!] The old man bellowed.

[The shadow is the menace of the Church that had pushed us back by a large margin!]

[If not for that ingrate of a child, we would have taken control over the entire continent by now!]

The old man had lost his composure and was throwing a fit of rage.

[If we had not seized the Alchemists and took the inventions of the Arcanist, the Church would have been lost a long time ago!]

After a while more of grumbling, Rowan thought that everything had fallen into place.

It did not take much for Rowan to connect the dots and figure out he was the 'Demonic Child' they spoke of. What was more unbelievable was that he was certainly this 'shadow' they spoke of.

'How the hell did I challenge such a massive organization alone!' Rowan thought to himself.

"Y-Your Holiness!" The Knight regained his voice. "Do you mean 'that' shadow?! The demon of the legends that took the body of a child and killed thousands of the members of the Church?!"

[YES! 'THAT' Shadow.] The old man was still grumbling. [If he was taken to the dungeons already, it meant that he was already been wiped clean off his memories.]

[You need to kill him now that he is without his memory, if he regains it again, Dwenson Cathedral is automatically considered as lost!]

The Knight paled a few more levels at the mention of such a monster that the Church would automatically consider a cathedral lost immediately upon contact of the shadow.

[Boy, only you can do this now. Go to the Arcanaeum and destroy the memory fragment of the boy stored in there.]

"I-I WILL NOT DISSAPOINT YOU, SIR!" The Knight saluted.

[Very well, child. Now go! There is no time to waste! The shadow could be anywhere, he could be standing behind you for all we know, biding his time and sharpening his fangs.]

"Yes! Your Holiness!" The Knight stood a few inches taller. "For the glory of the Sun God!"

[For the glory of the Sun God.]

After the old man replied, the Knight fiddled with the device and the light in the glowing ball disappeared.

The Rowan simply played with the dagger in his hands as he licked his lips.

The Knight finally turned around and froze…

In his face ran a myriad of expressions.

First came the surprise of finding out he was not alone.

Next came the confusion of how was there another person.

Third came suspicion of how long Rowan had been there.

Fourth was the realization that this was the shadow demon they were talking about.

Fifth was the denial that such possibility was impossible.

Sixth did the fear really sink in as the Knight pissed his pants.

'I don't know if I'm that scary…' Rowan smiled like a devil with a knife.

'All I do know that this is quite convenient.'

Rowan's patience had bore fruit, and now he was reaping the rewards.

"Pleased to meet you, Sir Knight." Rowan menacingly walked slowly towards him.

"I feel like we are going to have a lot of fun together. Lets get along, shall we?"

Rowan laughed as the Knight screamed the whole night that night.