Chapter Thirteen: The cruel end
Steel clashed against one another in the burning sky of the Valmaire village.
Aurelius Alderwood moved like a shadow.
Despite his broken armor and the blood dripping from the wounds and his half-shattered blade, he moved without any flaws, feet on the ground, eyes sharp, checking every move of the opponent.
But the imperial knights were no amateurs.
The Knights advanced in formation, five fifth Realm spreading out, and the sixth realm knight remained in front, but his hands were trembling as he tightened the grip on his daggers.
Aurelius let out a breath slowly.
He thought to himself.
"So this is how it ends: the people who used to strike at my will are going to strike me the last time."
He leapt forward; his broken blade sliced through the fog of ash, his movement not as fast as before but as precise, each step thought of before taking it, each strike filled with purpose; one knight made a mistake that Aurelius didn't want in his students; he struck his joint.
As he attacked the knight, he looked into his eyes and back onto his shield.
The knight was forced back; another surged forward, only to be blown back by a twist of wrist.
The knight was thrown into the past.
His heart said, "This is like before."
His mind said
"Focus on the mission."
He didn't want to choose in between.
It was just like the days when Aurelius stood tall in front of the students, honing their formations and their skills, when these very people followed him without the word "why."
But time likes to turn things into what they are opposite of; it turn hot into cold and now it turned proud knights into murderers of innocents.
A blade pierced through his shoulder, another struck his leg, pain flowed through his body like blood, yet he didn't fall; he didn't want to; he forced his back upright, standing like a mountain; he landed one final blow, sending a knight flying into the ruins of a burning church.
He fought, but his body didn't want to; into cold,he fought, and his mind wandered somewhere else.
turns
His thoughts started to appear in the heat of battle.
"I sensed them early and their intent but not early enough to save everyone."
He remembered Marcus's face before he knocked him unconscious; his face was confused but not entrusting, and Lion's clenched fist was trying to act stronger than he was. Aurelius used most of his strength on using his concealment technique on the two of them.
Burying their presence and body deep enough in the ground.
I could only save two.
He thought
Regret struck more pain than the strikes of steel and iron.
The Knights refused to hesitate; now they pressed harder, and they moved with discipline and coordination, traits their now enemy thought he taught them himself.
One by one, blades started to pierce through Aurelius's flesh, tearing him apart.
Aurelius staggered.
And the last hit was from the twin daggers.
The sixth realm knight finally stepped forward, his eyes refusing to let the tears go as he held them in his eyes; he stabbed Aurelius with trembling hands.
"Captain..." he murmured, too weak to say something loudly.
Aurelius smiled at him with blood dripping from his beard.
He continued.
"Remember when you picked me, an assassin, up from the slums of hell on earth and showed me heaven? You know what that heaven was? It was the place beside you. I looked up to you not as a teacher but as the father I never had...."
He took a deep breath and continued.
"Do you remember when the other instructor asked me that I needed to choose a sword instead of my daggers? I said to him I would do it when Aurelius died. I said it because I thought the day would never come. Who could kill the mighty Alderwood? I didn't think it was going to be me," he sobbed.
"....I really didn't think it was going to be me."
Aurelius smiled brightest as he fell the hardest he ever did. He looked up at the burning sky; his breath trembled; his hand loosened its grip on the sword; his body loosened its grip on life.
And then with his last breath he said a name, not of his son or his dear grandsons, but of the little assassin he trained to be a knight.
"You have become a great knight, Meller."
And then silence spoke loudest.
The Flame of Valmire continued to crackle, but the flames of battle were extinguished.
One by one the knights dropped their weapons, but Meller destroyed his daggers and threw them into the raging fire.
All of the Knights dropped to their knees, not to the enemy but to the teacher.
Helmets touched with the ash-covered ground.
Not in victory but in pain and sorrow.
"For the man who taught us," Meller whispered.
"For our captain," the others said in tears.
Hours passed; the knights left.
The fire died down, leaving only smoke and ruin.
Two figures emerged from the darkness; it looked as if the world first swallowed them and then spat them out.
The concealment technique of Aurelius was undone.
Marcus and Flion collapsed onto the ash-covered ground of their home. Marcus was fully unconscious while Flion could only see a little.
He saw a figure approaching Marcus. The figure was dark; his face was covered in his robes. He moved like a shadow, silent.
The shadow walked past Flion and stood beside Marcus.
The shadow looked at Marcus and said,
"I'm sorry, Marcus, I had to divert their attention from the Valen somehow; I had to do it... The least I can do for you now is train you and give you protection."
Flion couldn't hear what the figure was saying; his ears were not ready yet.
And then the shadow picked up Marcus and started to walk.
But far from the ruined Village in the Veridian castle Valen slept near Ellara.
Valen asked her softly
"Don't ever leave big sister I love you."
Ellara looked at him and said
"Don't worry only an devil would leave an adorable child like you alone in the world a human never can"
But Time had other plans.
End of Chapter 13
Author's Note: Hey guys, I just found out you guys get bored if you don't do 14 chapters per week, so that's what we will try to do. Also, rate this chapter in the comments and tell me, did you like this chapter? I certainly hope you did enjoy it.