The boy panted, perspiration pouring down his face. His black shirt was sopping wet from the heat of battle, yet his expression was cold as ice. He looked down at the corpses that stacked up around him and the puddles of blood that were forming rivers through the library. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white, clean cloth. Tetsu wiped the crimson-red blood from the sharp blade of his sword, staring at his weapon so he wouldn’t have to gaze upon the corpses of the men he had just slain.
“T-T-This is insane!” Yuu stammered, grabbing his head as he stared at the cadavers that were scattered all around him. He was hiding underneath the wooden table, his lips quivering with fear. His hands trembled and he was shivering as if he were in frozen tundra. “Y-You just killed all of those soldiers....”
“What else was I supposed to do?” Tetsu barked, turning to face Yuu. He threw his bloody cloth onto the ground in frustration and jammed his sword back into its sheath. Sorrow was reflected in his dark eyes. “They tried to assassinate Darien! These guys are the real traitors. Something crazy is going on right now and we need to get the prince to safety. Then I’ll confront Cambyses and handle things.”
“No, I’ll go with you,” Darien said.
“It’s dangerous, Darien. You guys shouldn’t get involved.”
“Shut up,” Darien murmured, reaching to pull a dagger from his belt. He twirled the small weapon in his hand and exhaled. “We’ll do whatever we can to help. I’m not letting you go through this alone.”
“Don’t be an idiot. What are you going to do with that toothpick of yours?” Tetsu grumbled and turned to Yuu. “Hey, coward! You need to get up; we’ve got to get out of here before more guards come.”
“W-Where are we going to go?” Yuu whimpered, rocking forward and backward with his knees drawn close to his chest. He was squeezing his skull and his face was so red that it looked like his head was going to pop like a balloon. “I-I … I don’t want to die!”
Tetsu stormed over to Yuu and smacked the table over, grabbing the coward by the collar of his shirt, yanking him to his feet. “Open your eyes, already! If you stay here then you will die!” He turned, and his eyes locked onto a dead librarian wearing a long, white robe, slain in the battle. “Plenty of innocent people are getting caught up in this craziness, I’m sure. I’ll get the two of you somewhere safe. We need to check on the king first, though.” He released Yuu and began to step over the dead Tulgorians as he rushed to the exit of the library.
Darien shuddered as he hesitantly stepped over the bodies. He had never seen a dead person before and he’d never witnessed murder. The images of Tetsu slashing his sword relentlessly across a human’s flesh flashed before his eyes. He knew that he wouldn’t forget such a horrific sight. Turning, he saw that Yuu was closing his eyes as he inched his way over the corpses in a slow attempt to follow Tetsu and Darien.
“Hurry up!” Tetsu called impatiently from the hallway of the castle. “Reinforcements are going to be here soon.”
Within several minutes, the trio was sprinting through the empty, silent hallways of Aelios’s castle. Darien bit his lower lip as he ran with his two friends, his mind elsewhere. Someone had tried to assassinate him? He would surely have been dead if Tetsu had not been there to save him. What was going on? Who wanted him dead? Could it really be Cambyses, his beloved uncle?
Darien found himself stumbling into the throne room behind Tetsu and Yuu and saw that the king and queen were sitting upon their thrones. Squads of guards that had been standing around the perimeter of the room were now advancing forward, brandishing their scimitars at the sight of the falsely accused traitor, Tetsu.
“It has come to my attention, Tetsu, that you have been plotting against me. You wish to have me executed, when I bring hope, prosperity, and peace to Tulgor?” The king raised his eyebrows as he thrummed his fingers on the golden arm of his throne. The lord waved his hand to his guards, giving them the signal that they could strike freely. “Just don’t harm my son.”
Darien pulled out his dagger and held it with the blade pointing downward, gripping the small weapon in front of him. The guards halted, unsure of what to do. They definitely didn’t want to battle the prince. If they accidently killed Darien they would surely suffer the king’s wrath. However, they knew that they had to eliminate the threat, Tetsu. So the guards stood there with their weapons brandished freely, puzzled by their conflicted situation.
Tetsu shattered the confusion by impatiently rushing forward with his long sword gripped tightly in his hands. Whipping the blade in a sideways slash, the boy ripped a Tulgorian’s torso practically in half with a single blow. Blood spurted like a fountain into the air and poured onto the ground as Tetsu continued onward to the rest of his opponents. Tetsu was a perfected warrior, able to read the movements and actions of every oncoming soldier that rushed at him. He easily dispatched seven soldiers with seven fluent strikes, all of which tore the men apart with ease. However, in the chaos, one man approached Tetsu from behind, swinging his curved scimitar in a downwards swing at the boy’s blind-spot.
Yuu suddenly leapt in between Tetsu and the man, shielding his friend from harm’s way. The blade tore across the young noble’s back, and the boy screamed in agony as his clothes were soaked with his gushing blood. He collapsed forward, his face smacking hard against the ground. His eyes were closed and he lay unmoving, his face blanching.
Darien’s eyes widened as Yuu collapsed. His hands began to tingle, tightening his hold on the hilt of his dagger. How dare you…? Bloodlust usurped his mind, causing him to sprint forward and jam his sharpened dagger into the side of the assaulter’s throat. Crimson-red liquid hemorrhaged from the fatal wound but Darien kept stabbing, driving the tiny blade into the man over and over again. For some reason that Darien couldn’t describe, it felt good. All of the burning rage that he felt boiling inside of him was being released in the action of stabbing. Tears were flowing freely from his eyes as he pushed the man onto his back and continued ripping him full of holes, blood now spraying onto his expensive clothing.
Silence filled the room and Tetsu stared at Darien with shock as he mercilessly defiled the Tulgorian soldier’s corpse. After several moments, the prince lowered his bloodied dagger to his side and allowed the weapon to clank loudly to the ground. He was breathing hard and was exhausted. The prince stared at the lifeless corpse beneath him, his stomach churning and heaving, and he leaned forward, retching all over the floor beside the man he had murdered.
He had killed someone. The man’s blank gaze penetrated his soul with its powerful, unwavering stare. And the blood. Darien was covered in it; the unforgettable miasma of the corpse filled his nostrils, making him want to vomit again.
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