As the crows spewed their senseless cawing, the sky was as black as the night; the Harmony knight who had spoken before started walking towards Vigil. His sword was ready to slice Vigil's head clean off, while his torch was poised to burn his feathers away.
The rest of the knights observed.
In an older statement by a well-known philosopher, he asked: "If a string were to fall from the sky, would you pull it?"
The knight who stepped forward was the first to pull the string.
The con of pulling the flimsy string is that you do not know what happens next.
The pro is exactly the same.
You do not know what happens next.
And so, every step the knight took served as another pull upon the string that was Vigil.
Now it was time to see what happens.
One hundred and fifty crows descended upon the Harmony. Per one soldier, two crows were assigned to steal something shiny. And in that entire forest, the only shiny things were the Harmony's torches.
And so, they fell from the heavens with the utmost speed.
Once the crows reached the torches, their claws sank lightly into the handles. The soldiers tried to shake the crows off, but they were relentless. The other flying creatures, seeing their brothers and sisters struggling, decided to help.
From two crows per torch, it rapidly turned into three, four, five... until twenty crows were fighting for the same torch as the knights.
With a great struggle, the torches were pulled free from the Harmony.
Seventy-five crows had torches in their beaks, and they ascended back to their family.
The blackened sky suddenly started illuminating with the harsh light of the Harmony. And with the forest being lit up, so were the crows. The fire spread across their bodies. Some were burned badly because of their brothers' and sisters' carelessness. Some had their feathers scorched, while others were fine.
Yet with the light gone from the Harmony's grasp, blackness fell upon their eyes.
While the flame carriers spread chaos amongst their family, a quarter of them flew back towards the carriage to get something special.
Once the forest turned black, Vigil pulled his two knives.
The Harmony could still somewhat see the silhouettes of the three. Yet one thing stood out in particular: Vigil's green eyes. They burned brighter than the fire in the sky.
And with Vigil's eyes, they could pinpoint his exact location.
That is... if he didn't close his eyes.
But if he did, his silhouette would still be present in the knights' gaze.
Yes, it would, but Vigil didn't care.
"One," spoke Vigil softly as he exhaled.
One of Vigil's knives flew from his hand with a splashing sound. It pierced the first knight's neck right between the helmet and their chest piece. That knight was the first to step up.
The knight fell with a metal thud against the soil. And with a running start, Vigil pulled his knife back from the corpse.
As he inspected the knife, he spoke to himself, "I will make it short this time... I did it again, spoke even though I agreed to this in my mind."
With a short whistle and his eyes already closed, he hurried the crows to move faster.
"Two... no, five."
When the rest of the knights heard the loud metal thud, they immediately got into position.
Vigil threw the knife which he had recovered into the air. As it started to fall back, one crow picked it up in its beak. After it did, nine more crows accompanied it.
As the nine harmless crows reached a knight, they began to peck at their helmet. The knight slashed his sword downwards, which unfortunately hit the knife-carrying crow, killing it on the spot.
But before the corpse of the knife-carrying crow could hit the ground, a brother of his grabbed the knife from its beak and into his own. While the other nine distracted the knight, the new knife-wielding crow plunged the knife into the soldier's eye visor.
The soldier screamed from the pain, yet it wasn't a fatal blow. That is, if the other crows didn't push their bodies against the knife-wielding crow.
But they did just that; with each push, the knife was plunged deeper into the soldier's head until it pierced his brain.
With the fall of the second soldier, the rest of the Harmony began to march.
As Elyon observed the crows and their cooperation, he thought about what would happen if he multiplied their numbers by two or three times.
Yes, he would feel like shit, but they would gain somethi-
"Do it, Elyon." Vigil looked back at Elyon; he still had his eyes closed, but Elyon knew he had his gaze on him.
Elyon stared at him for a moment, then he looked at the sky. His irises turned to display the number.
"Five."
A devastating pain shot into Elyon's mind; his nose and eyes began to bleed from the sheer number of crows he was trying to multiply.
A stroke, one just like in the Colosseum, was beginning to creep up into his head. Yet amidst the approaching Harmony, a sharp slap was heard.
"STAY CONSCIOUS, DAMMIT!"
Eve slapped him.
This pulled Elyon back just enough so he wouldn't faint, but he was still far from well.
Once the multiplication was finished, the number of crows couldn't even be counted. The children of the sky were momentarily confused by having so many other family members, yet they embraced them with open arms.
Three soldiers reached Vigil before the rest could; Vigil remained static.
He didn't move a muscle.
Three pillars of black mass fell from the sky, which engulfed those three soldiers. In mere moments, their armor and bones fell onto the ground. Gone was the flesh they called their own.
"Six."
In the back, another soldier perished from the knife wielded by the crow. By now, the group was reduced to only five.
Once the main group of the Harmony reached Vigil, he wasn't even trying to attack them. He was just thinking.
When the Harmony's blade almost bit into Vigil's skin, he dashed back. As he did, he asked with his back towards Elyon,
"Elyon, have you ever seen hell on Earth?"
As Elyon was wiping the blood from his face, he briefly looked at Vigil.
"Huh?"
And in that exact moment, the crows that left came back.
If you were to ask a sauté chef what's the most important ingredient in the kitchen, he would probably answer, cooking oil.
Barrels full of the carriage's oil suddenly fell from the sky, since the crows had stolen them.
Vigil could use fancy knife work to take down most of the Harmony, but what's the point?
As he dashed back a few more times to not let the knights catch up, the barrels landed on the Harmony. Two knights died from having the barrels land on top of their heads. The others stopped momentarily because they didn't know why their armor was covered in oil.
As they looked back up again, the crows that had multiplied were dousing their feathers in the torch's fire as they fell.
Only three soldiers realized what was about to happen, and they ran as far as they could.
The rest watched as the sky was lit.
And that sky fell on top of them.
Once the first flaming crow reached the oil, it caught fire.
The rest followed, and with the sheer mass of the crows that landed on top of every Harmony knight, they were caught between the ground, the crows, and the fire.
They were burning alive; some were crushed completely before they could experience the blaze. Yet the ones that remained alive screamed as loudly as they could, until they didn't.
Vigil managed to do something that no one could—well, Vigil and Elyon. They wiped out almost half of the Harmony.
Two out of the three remaining Harmony soldiers were shaking in their boots, and so they turned to run, to abandon their sacred vows of following the Church to their death.
Yet in an instant, their bodies were cut in half.
Since the third Harmony knight was the general who was with Priest Jonas.
And he couldn't leave this blasphemy unpunished.
His name was Saint Roch.