Song of death

"There's no way Ivan is among them," Ara muttered to herself in disbelief, her composure crumbling.

"You might have said the same about him." Stefam casually said, pointing towards Romnwell. "Look, at this point, everyone is a suspect, and look at him holding the same dagger these people have been using and he's stained with blood also, all these point him to be among them."

"Where's Chenai?" Mark hissed as he eyed Ivan warily.

"That bitch," Ivan slowly said with a scowl. "She's dead."

"What?!" Ivan's words caused Mark and Ara to exclaim in shock, especially at the manner in which he said it.

"But I'm n-"

"You bastard." Mark's angry shout cut Ivan short, as he ran forward hitting Ivan with a powerful punch across his face, drawing blood from his lips.

Rodbar stood by the side with a confused expression, hesitant to immediately assume Ivan was among the impostors. He knew it was Berg's spell that had brought Ivan to where they were, even though it was a random teleportation. What Rodbar didn't understand was, why?

While Rodbar was still trying to make sense of the situation, his brows suddenly furrowed, as a feeling of unease suddenly came over him.

"You killed her!" Mark roared again as he was about to land another blow on Ivan.

At that moment…

BOOOOM!

A huge explosion rocked the corridor.

The ceiling began to collapse over Mark and Ivan. Stefam quickly sent his arm forward and a flash of light quickly lept onto Mark's body and pulled him out of there just in time.

The ceiling collapsed completely on the spot where he had just been a second ago. Seeing such a scene Mark's face paled completely, cold sweat dripping off his forehead.

"Ivan!"

Ara screamed in shock as the debris fell towards Ivan as well, he was still there when the ceiling fell. She tried to move towards where he was but was stopped by Rodbar's strong arm.

"We have to leave here, the ceiling is coming down on us." Rodbar urged.

"Why couldn't you save him too? He hasn't been proven to be among them yet?" Ara asked Stefam, a slight anger in her voice.

"I can't take that chance." I've already made my inference immediately when I saw him, why bother saving him?"

"You let him die just based on chance?" Ara retorted.

"You will not speak to me in that manner, the situation might be tense but I'm still the Prince, your Prince," Stefam said casually, but there was a hint of anger in his voice.

"Ara, stop. You heard it yourself from his mouth, he said Chenai is dead." Mark tried to convince Ara.

"But, did he say he was the one that killed her?" Turning to Mark, she asked strongly.

"Come on don't be unreasonable Ara, Look at the evidence. He was holding a dagger, the same dagger these bastards have all been using, and he was bloodied all over."

"I know you've known him for a long time, what about Romnwell you've also known him for a long time as well, yet…" Mark tried hard to reason with Ara

"Alright stop all of this nonsense! There's no time for all this squabbling, the roof is coming down on us, and we have to get the hell outta here, NOW!" Rodbar urged angrily.

Ara looked at the spot where the ceiling descended with mixed emotions, she was dissatisfied with how Ivan was treated, but at this point, she couldn't do anything. She turned her gaze away reluctantly and followed suit.

Mark looked complexly at Ara, before turning towards the spot where the debris fell.

CRACK!

More parts of the ceiling began to crack, causing the four of them to make their way hastily out of the collapsing corridor.

***

The impact from Ludwig and Senton's clash blew Otto and Doggen off the VIP arena. Sprawling into the commoner ends of the arena, both men landed strongly, their fall aggravating their injuries.

The arena was now ghostly silent, with the majority of the civilians having rushed out, the ones left in the arena were either dead or too injured to run.

Grunting in pain, Otto forced himself to stand up. He looked towards the VIP stands with a mix of complex emotions. fear, respect and resentment flashing in his eyes.

"Ugh," Doggen's pained grunt rang out as he tried to get to his feet, but his injuries didn't allow him to. His wounds were very bad, aside from the poison slowly spreading in his body, the blood-red flower in his right eye grew a few centimeters more. More green leaves protruded out of his skin in new places. If he were left any longer without getting treatment he would turn into a tree completely, not before dying first.

Doggen's grunt caused Otto to switch his attention from the VIP section towards him. Seeing Doggen's figure a deep scowl formed on Otto's face.

"So you're still alive? Good, good. At the very least even in all this nonsense, I'll get to kill you." Otto snarled.

Approaching the weak figure of Doggen, Otto's wooden arm began to reform into a wooden blade.

"Had lord Senton been the one to kill you, I'd have been very dissatisfied, you know," Otto said slowly as he stepped closer to Doggen.

"At least I'll feel more satisfied with you dying by my hands."

"What did you say earlier? I don't know why you're doing this, but you won't get away with it, we'll make sure of it." Otto echoed Doggen's earlier words with a mocking tone.

"Well, even if I don't get away with it, you'd already be on your way to the afterlife." Otto raised his blade arm and slashed horizontally at Doggen's neck, his attack poised to end his life.

Then…

"Hm hm hmmm, hmm hm hmmm…"

A soft hum began to echo in the silent arena. The hum mixed with whistles to form a soothing but eerie melody. The sound traveled across the vast space of the auditorium landing in Otto's ears.

Otto froze immediately when he heard the sound, his blade stopping just an inch away from Doggen's neck. His hair stood on end, and his back became immediately drenched in sweat.

Otto could not go through with his slash, not because he didn't want to, but because a heavy suffocating presence that accompanied the sound had left Otto petrified with fear.

In Tasvill and some parts of the world, there was a legend that was widely spread.

There was a war some years back involving Tasvill and a hostile nation. After Tasvill had won the deadly affair, some of the surviving enemy soldiers gave testimonies of a scary night they had in each of their camps.

They said that at night while they camped out in the woods, they heard a strange humming sound from the woods.

The sound was a soothing blend of hums and whistles that formed a weird and eerie melody that left them in distress.

The melody left the majority of their men petrified in fear, or lost in thoughts, as if the sound came with some sort of hypnotic powers, disabling them from following commands from their commander. This situation left their camps in disarray.

Under the light of the moon, the men would be able to make out a figure shrouded in the darkness, hidden within the woods, with two glowing blue eyes that signified the presence of a creature.

Some of the men had thought it was a huge beast, but what beast sang? Stepping out of the woods into the light of the moon, they would see a huge human figure, holding two scythe weapons, one at each hand.

According to the testimonies of the men, before the night would end, screams of pain and agony would ring out in their camp as a single man would begin to wreak havoc, slaughtering the soldiers like they were just chickens and not seasoned warriors.

The man is said to always leave survivors, maybe so that they could tell his tales or maybe he just couldn't be bothered to kill them all, but one thing was for sure, he left a deep impression on the survivors.

Since that time the stories and rumors about the incidents had spread, and over time there had been modifications and additions to the stories, to the extent it was as if it was a fairytale. Some said it was a beast, while others said it was a malevolent spirit.

Parents even used the story to scare their children to sleep at night or play pranks on them. It had become a local lore in Tasvill and many parts of the world.

Despite all the variations in details of the legend, they all had one thing in common. The melody itself was called, 'The Song of death.'