The knight knelt before the throne, his armor caked with mud and blood and a deep gash ran across his forehead, still weeping crimson his hands were trembled as he spoke
"Your Majesty... the boy... he's not human ! ," he said with wide-eyed with unease engraved across his face
King Auren leaned forward, his knuckles white against the armrests of his golden throne the royal chamber had fallen deathly silent; even the guards' breathing seemed to have ceased
"Explain," he commanded, his voice a low rumble like distant thunder.
"The child moves like shadow and strikes like lightning. He..." the knight swallowed hard, "he slaughtered our commander by...by toring his head off with bare hands
The chamber as already silent but now there eyes were widened with shock why not rudra had did such thing toring a head off with bare hands this along sounded unbelievable but by a kid it sounded more unbelievable
And those eyes, sire it were red as the blood he spilled." The knight's voice cracked. "We lost over a hundred men to a single child he must be... he must carry the blood of demons "
The queen, seated beside the king, let out a strangled sob. The severed head of their daughter flashed in her mind.
"A demon child?" King Auren whispered, then rose abruptly. His cape billowed behind him as he descended the steps. "Whether demon or devil, he has taken something that i wouldn't even let be scratched "
He turned to his war minister. "How many knights remain in the capital?"
" Atlist five thousand, Your Majesty."
"....send them all ! " The king's voice was ice cold but his eyes were bearly helding there tears off "Bring me this demon's head ! " he said with a mix of crying and rage in his voice
The minister hesitated. "All of them, sire? That would leave the capital "
"DID I STUTTER?" The king's roar echoed through the hall. "FIVE THOUSAND MEN FOR ONE CHILD'S HEAD! IT MIGHT SOUND OVERBOARD BUT HE KILLED MY CHILD!"
"As you wish, sire!"
"And..." the king looked back at the war minister, "also tell all Seven Stones to prepare to leave "
Suddenly the hall became a place of whispers even in the presence of the king
"SIRE! SEVEN STONES?"
The king nodded his head and walked away with the Queen
As the king left the chamber, the whispers grew louder. The war minister looked stunned, his face became pale a young man came close distance to him
"What's the matter, Master? You don't look good ! Does something bothering you "
"Seven Stones?" The war minister's face showed an expression of fear as he turned to the young man beside him "It's not a surprise you're in the dark about them..if you had known about them you would be asking questions like this one "
"What do you mean by that, Master?" The young man looked curious.
The war minister turned to look at the other ministers and with a loud voice commanded, "Silence yourselves!" With just one word, the noise died down in the chamber.
Then he turned to the young man beside him. "'Seven Stones' they are the purest form of knights carved by legend itself, and that's not all to them. They also possess the 'flame of gold '"
"Ah?"
---
I stood among the corpses, blood trickling down my blade in lazy rivulets. My breathing was controlled, measured, despite the burning in my muscles. The knights I'd killed lay scattered around me like broken dolls, their armor no more useful than paper against my tai energy. I felt nothing—not even a bit of pride, not remorse only the singular goal to survive.
Jaipa was dragging bodies to the well, his white robes now stained crimson. The princess's head still lay beside the well, her golden hair matted with dirt and blood.
"How many more?" I asked, wiping sweat from my brow.
Jaipa looked up, his four eyes blinking in sequence. "At least three thousand more to fill the well. All the humans you have killed, most of the blood has soaked in. But Rudra..." He hesitated. "Something's coming."
I felt it too—a tremor in the earth, not the approach of a few dozen knights, or even a hundred. This was different.
I climbed onto a small boulder to get a better view. The horizon darkened, not with clouds, but with men. Armor glinted in the red light of this world—ranks upon ranks of knights, stretching across the field like a steel tide.
"How many?" Jaipa asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Counting was too much; just looking at them, I guessed at least five thousand.
Jaipa stared at me, then threw his head back and laughed, a sound tinged with hysteria. "You're a maniac, you know that? Absolutely insane."
I shrugged, looking at those knights in front of me. Those knights were a key to my survival or to my death. "Perhaps."
The approaching army stretched from one end of the horizon to the other, a moving wall of steel and flesh. Leading them was a tall figure on a massive black warhorse. On first look, he appeared inhuman.
"Shall we flee?" Jaipa asked, already knowing my answer.
"No." I adjusted my grip on my sword. "We have only one way out... that is to fight."
Jaipa's expression hardened. "Then I fight with you."
I raised an eyebrow. "You?"
"Don't look so surprised," he growled. "I'm not just your servant."
The ground trembled beneath the approach of five thousand men. They moved in perfectly balanced formation, shields interlocked, spears forward. Behind them rode archers and mages, ready to rain death from a distance.
I flexed my fingers, feeling the tai energy course through me like liquid fire. My three beads hovered around me, buzzing. The small horns on my forehead throbbed, and I welcomed the pain it kept me focused.
"DEMON CHILD!" The commander's voice boomed across the field. "YOUR HEAD WILL DECORATE MY MAJESTY'S THRONE!"
I smiled, not out of joy or amusement, but because of his words. Every knight that fell would bring me one step closer to filling the well, one step closer to survival.
"Stay close to the well," I instructed Jaipa. I couldn't trust him with my back yet; killing humans was too much for him even now.
The army stopped a hundred paces away. The commander raised his hand, and a volley of arrows blackened the sky.
Spreading my wings, I channeled tai energy into them, creating a shield above us. I densened my tai energy so arrows couldn't penetrate its layers—layer upon layer, I made few layers on top of the already formed one.
The arrows clattered harmlessly against it, falling like strange metallic rain. But I couldn't maintain this defense for long; the energy drain was substantial. Still, the view was beautiful to behold.
"Now!" I shouted to Jaipa as the arrow storm ceased.
"Stay right here," I said, glancing at him as I tried to move. Before I could, he caught me by the back of my collar and lifted me into the air, then turned me to face him.
"I will join," he said with a calm voice. Looking at him now, he seemed a little bit different, but not much. Sighing at him, I let him come with me.
Five thousand against two should have been impossible odds. But logic and impossibility held no sway over me anymore. I moved, remembering the way Master Edhir moved before swift and fast movements. Within few seconds after finding my pace, I was in front of them.
My blade found gaps in armor, throats left exposed for a fraction of a second, eyes unprotected by visors. With each strike, I intended to end a life; with each sidestep I took, I avoided death by a hair's breadth.
Suddenly, one knight swung a massive axe at my head. I ducked and slashed through his knee, then drove my blade up through his chin as he fell. Another tried to impale me on a spear. I grabbed the shaft, channeled tai energy through it, and watched him convulse before collapsing.
Beside me, Jaipa was a revelation. His movements were fluid, almost beautiful in their lethality. He needed no weapon; with his bare hands, he was killing knights. His hands glowed with strange energy when he touched knights, they fell writhing on the ground. His wings, which I'd always assumed were decorative, sliced through armor like it was butter.
There was no time for banter. The commander's forces had surrounded us completely, cutting off any path of retreat. Not that I had planned to retreat, nor could we just run. Even if we could successfully retreat, we would die in this book with our souls leaving our bodies.
A mage hurled a fireball at me. I redirected it with my hand which was wrapped in my tai energy, sending it into a tight formation of knights. To my surprise, the fireball was too powerful—their screams told the tale as they burned alive.
"Rudra!" Jaipa shouted. "Behind you!"
I spun just in time to see a knight captain swinging a massive warhammer. Too close to dodge I crossed my arms and channeled tai energy as a shield, but the impact still sent me flying. I crashed into the ground, tasting warm blood in my mouth, but wasted no time.
The captain advanced toward me, his hammer raised for a killing blow. "Die, demon!"
Using my Square technique, I appeared behind him and drove my blade through the back of his knee, then up through his spine when he fell to the ground.
Blood splattered my face, warm and sticky. I wiped it away, my gaze never leaving the battlefield. Knights swarmed toward me from all directions, their faces contorted with hatred and fear.
I had killed perhaps twenty now, but thousands remained. My arms were growing heavy, my reserves of tai energy depleting. A spear grazed my side, opening a shallow cut. An arrow found its mark in my shoulder, sending lances of pain down my arm.
Five knights surrounded me, attacking in coordination. I parried two swords, ducked a spear thrust, but couldn't avoid the mace that caught me in the ribs. Something cracked inside me a bone must be broken. I tasted blood in my mouth, pain exploding through my chest, but my healing ability was working fine like a moon.
I staggered but didn't fall. Instead, I channeled the pain in my body, using it to sharpen my focus. My beads whirled around me, striking at vulnerable points—eyes, throats, the gaps between helmet and gorget. Three knights fell, then the fourth. The fifth turned to flee but collapsed as a bead punched through the back of his skull.
I spat blood and surveyed the battlefield. For every knight I killed, ten more took his place. They pressed in from all sides now, a sea of steel and hatred.
Jaipa fought twenty paces away, surrounded by a ring of fallen enemies. But even he was slowing, his movements becoming desperate.
"Fall back to the well!" I shouted to him.
We retreated, step by bloody step, cutting down any knight who came too close. My vision blurred at the edges blood loss, exhaustion, or both. The arrow in my shoulder sent spikes of agony through me with every movement.
We reached the well, standing back to back. Knights surrounded us in a tightening circle, hundreds deep. Beyond them, I could see the commander on his warhorse, watching impassively.
"Well," Jaipa panted, "this is quite the predicament you've gotten us into."
I didn't waste breath responding. My mind was racing and calculating angles, evaluating threats, searching for any advantage. The knights had us completely surrounded. No path to escape, no avenue for retreat.
A knight captain stepped forward. "Surrender, demon child ! You have no way winning the king may show mercy."
I spat blood at his feet. "Your king knows nothing of mercy, and neither do I."
I raised my sword, ignoring the screaming pain in my shoulder. Tai energy coursed through my blade, making it glow with crimson light. My three beads circled above me like tiny moons.
The captain raised his hand, ready to signal the final charge. Five thousand against two, with no hope of victory. But I had not survived this long by believing in hope.
I believed only in myself, in my blade, in the cold calculus of survival that had guided me thus far. If I was to die here, I would have too many regrets.
"I don't want to die... not now when I have too many things to do."
"Death comes for all men," I said quietly, my voice carrying in the sudden silence. "Today, it wears my face."
And with those words, I summoned a bunch of flowers from my pendant.