Episode 5

Karia Rodnes POV

The tears did not stop for a while.

After leaving the Silent Garden, I went to my room to calm down and process the information I had just heard. I had my doubts about whether that human would be suited to lead the Rodnes clan... but my father had already ruled it for over 1500 years. He must have seen something in that human, Ogen.

That band as well. On it, there were symbols only seen in very old ruins in Valachia. Father must know what it does and must have a reason to give that kind of item to the human... I hope.

I had worked so hard to reach a standard that I thought Father expected of me... but all along he didn't want me to be shackled by being a clan leader. That was a surprise. I suppose you can never figure out exactly what someone is thinking without asking them.

Does that mean that all the effort I put in was for naught? No. As an heir to the clan, it is my duty to improve my intellect and skills so I could easily take over whenever Father would step down. That said...

If Father doesn't have any intention to step down and let me become clan leader, where do I go now? Become that human's assistant? Maybe I should stick around him and test him out to see if he's worthy of being the Rodnes clan's leader.

I couldn't help but sigh. Both out of disappointment and relief. Disappointment pointed towards me. I can't believe that I was about to ruin our relationship just because I misunderstood and never tried to talk...

I am unfit to be a leader...

Before I could move on to my next thought... The house trembled under the pressure of a large impact. The only capable to do this something to our headquarters could only be another clan leader. Only they have that kind of power.

I quickly busted out of my room and went to my right and ran across the hallway. My first thought was to go where Father was, but he could defend himself and that human. My second immediate concerns were Idris and Keiran, my only friends.

They happened to be staying over because their parents who serve our clan summoned them. They were staying in the west wing of the castle. I rushed to the west wing and as I ran, countless more impacts followed, destroying the castle bit by bit, portions of the roof falling on the floor, letting in the orange light of our sun.

As I got closer, I could see drops of blood that turned into trails. Those trails then turned into body parts. The smell of rotting meat and blood permeated the castle and irritated my nostrils. I could see the upper bodies of people I used to know. I couldn't stop to feel bad about them though, I had to rush over to save the ones who are still living.

Countless bodies littered the floor and at some point, my feet hitting the floor would cause the blood that filled the floor to splash. Sometimes I would almost trip on people's limbs.

When I reached the west wing of the castle, I headed for the room their parents lived in because their kids' rooms were close to them. I opened the first door, where Idris' mother lay lifeless, her body propped onto the wall behind her.

On closer inspection... The wound through that got her was made by an axe... the first lieutenant's weapon. It seems the cause of death was severe blood loss. What was weird, though, was that her wound did not show any sign of healing.

Her beautiful blond hair was now stained with blood and judging by her face, she looked pretty worried before she died...

Next up was Idris' father. Unlike his wife, he seemed to have put up a good fight, seeing as there was a blood trail that started right in front of the door and led to the outside. The killing blow on his body was dealt by a halberd. The second lieutenant preferred weapon... Her father's limbs seemed to be all over the place. One of his feet was in the right corner of the room and his hand was stuck in the wall next to the door.

I checked for Keiran's parents as well, but they were both dead as well. Those findings did not give me a lot of hope that I would find them alive, but they weren't in their room. Their rooms were also immaculate. If they got attacked, it would have had to be somewhere else.

I calmed my mind and stilled my thought. I could feel myself melting into the world around me and I could see the castle from a bird's eye point. Fortunately, they were still alive... but they were fighting our invaders at the gate and by the looks of it, they were about to be overwhelmed.

I'm really afraid to think of how Idris would react if she knew that her parents were dead and killed by people in our clan. Given her temper, she would fly into a rage and get herself killed. Luckily, her boyfriend, Keiran was a lot calmer in these kinds of situations and would hold her back from doing anything stupid. It's better if I don't say anything though...

I accelerated to maximum speed and sprinted to the gate where they were fighting.

What jumped into my eyes first was that our invaders were wearing cloaks and had removed their badges that tell us what clan they are a part of. Then Idris' platinum blonde hair that was now soaked in blood. She used knuckles and martial arts so her enemies' blood was all over her clothes, face and hair.

She was wearing a beautiful red dress that paired strangely well with the crimson color of the blood. Her firey red eyes were burning with passion and resolve. She was defeating dozens of foot soldiers at a time but they kept flooding in.

Keiran didn't have a drop of blood on him, but his mental exhaustion was obvious in his missed shots and the less powerful shots I noticed him do for the small amount of time I was there. He must have killed hundreds of them… He was barely able to hold the shape of his bow when I joined them.

Which clan could afford to send so many people to their deaths?

"Idris, Keiran, I'm here!" I shouted to them as the red mist that I willed to appear around me took the form of a scythe made out of blood.

They both had happy and relieved smiles when they faced me. I took the charge and dashed into the never-ending flood of soldiers wielding all kinds of weapons, from shurikens to hammers, that came through the gate.

With one swing, I killed 25 of them, pushing their army back with the wind current created by my swing. I carefully looked over the position of the soldiers in front of me and swung my scythe into the ground. I sent blood to travel underground and when it erupted from beneath their feet, it turned into large pillars that pierced the sky, flaying the bodies of 17 soldiers into oblivion.

I gave Idris the sign to follow me and she, in turn, gave the signal to Keiran to cover us with a light shower of arrows from above. I dashed forward and willed anindent that went on the entire width of the pillar that I could grab onto, to appear. I grabbed onto that pillar and used it to gain momentum and fly into their army. I did a fully circular slash as I was traveling through the air, killing at least 50 of them.

Idris jumped ahead and smashed the ground so that it would rise, giving the horde in front of her, a height advantage. She used a technique she created herself that entailed creating a circle of blood in a meter in front of her. She could set that circle as large as she needed to fit all of the enemies in her field of vision. When she punches through that circle, her enemies get obliterated, only leaving a spray of their blood behind and splatter on the ground.

I could see however that she had used a lot of power. I didn't think she could go on much longer and I'm sure that Keiran felt the same. The rain of arrows that was obliterating the soldiers in the distance became thinner and thinner.

It all rested on me.

"Idris! Run back and regroup with Keiran. Take a break!" I shouted to her as she was killing dozens upon dozens of soldiers just a few meters in front of me.

She clicked her tongue but listened to me and retreated. The rain of arrows also ceased a few moments after. That was when I realized that I couldn't hear anything else. The enemies' screams, the sound of my boots hitting the blood beneath my feet and splashing it around... I was close to tunnel visioning. I had to end it as far as I could.

I created a blood domain that covered a 2 km area around me and prepared myself to give it my all. Due to its large size, the blood domain wouldn't enhance my abilities as much as I would want it to, but I had to work with what I had.

The blade of my scythe grew to a few meters in length and with one-half swing, I cut in half the enemies in front of me and the ones behind them, killing everyone in a 15 meter radius. Using such a large blood domain also sapped my stamina and I started to feel it.

I took a deep breath and returned to fighting.

I eyed one of the pillars I created and willed its height to decrease so I could ride it above. Something that strikes me as strange was that they just seemed to pour in endlessly with no plan. I got the feeling that this was just a distraction. Anyhow. I willed it's height to increase back to just above the clouds as it was before in preparation for my attack.

I focused power into my scythe and jumped down. I created a thin barrier that would deflect any flying objects coming my way, but some of them still scraped my shoulders, thighs and forehead. I increased the power in my scythe and gathered momentum as I fell. When my scythe hit the ground, a large wave of blood erupted from it and annihilated the soldiers I could see.

By then, my stamina was already too low to keep doing that kind of damage for long... The enemies seemed to stop then, as if they disappeared, but I had another thought.

If my father was fighting off their leader, then the rest of the troops they had must have gone to join them. Even though alone they are weak, their combined attack could hurt even my father.

I dashed toward the gate and shouted to Idris and Keiran.

"We're going to go back up Father!" I said as I kept sprinting to where he was fighting, in the north wing of the castle.

"What happened?" Idris inquired as she joined me and ran at the same pace as me.

"There were no more soldiers at the gate. I think we killed all of the ones ordered to attack the gate. The rest of them might be attempting to join their clan leader and try to kill Father!

Keiran joined us as well a few seconds later and gave me a reassuring smile and a nod.

Hold on Father, we're coming!