The winds were forcing through the forest; the snow was slowly melting, not from decreasing cold but from the heat of flowing blood.
There, two clocks with different hands moved in the same direction.
David glared at the Winterbeast, his grip on the hilt was tight, and sweat made it loose.
**
David's PoV
I can't think of a way to take it down. Even if we wear swords on our body, it still might kill us.
Even after many battles in my life, I've never met such a monster.
From what I have heard from the veterans and the old folks—
These monsters are beings that are corruption in both worlds:
The Realm of Light and the Realm of Night.
While we humans are in the Realm of Light, the Realm of Night is where evil lurks.
The Living or Awakened Winterbeasts are creatures who have died and lost their souls in different realms.
If the body is in one realm and the soul in another, their body shall be possessed by wandering souls who suffered the same fate.
It is still unclear how it happens, but the outcomes still feel like horror beyond words.
The dead are the ones who don't even have a soul...
What is this abomination! Why do creatures like this exist in this world!
Is this the curse of the goddess? Is that why they tore her apart?
I've fought so many lesser monster races—Orcs, Goblins, and Kobolds.
Death was a rare instance when we fought them, but tonight, we might not even have last words.
Garrett, where are you?
**
Garrett and Maria were in the middle of revelations that were about to change the shape of every reality they lived in...
All before the arrival of night.
Maria's PoV
I sat in my armchair, my heart twisting inside my chest.
I didn't want to believe Garrett.
How can I?
A mother poisoning her own child? Making her live in pain, despair, broken?
Even animals aren't this cruel. Was this all an act?
If I believe Garrett now, everything will change. How will I face Calla without letting my anger out for everything she did to Violet?
"These woods bloom when they come in contact with mana.
We call it Glimmering Blossoms. When you pour mana into wood, the color of the petals depends on the nature of the mana.
Red for fiery type, blue for calm, green for rejuvenating, pink for dense.
Then there is blessed mana—purple, yellow, orange—these special manas are unique to a bloodline," Garrett spoke.
He doesn't speak without reason, but when he does, something always changes. He doesn't say it, but he watches.
"Look at these blossoms..." He extended the toy in his hands. The blossoms were small petals with black spots on them.
My heart dropped. Those colors—same as her hair.
Those spots are the same as the dye. I felt complicit. I felt like I sharpened the blade that dug into Violet's chest.
"Garrett, Garrett, it can't be—please tell me it's not true..." I held his arms, hoping that it's all a misunderstanding. If not—
What will happen to Violet? How will she feel when she finds out that the mother she always looks forward to meeting is actually putting chains on her neck?
The way she looks at the door, leering, awaiting her... How will it break her? I can't imagine. I can't do this to her.
"That medicine—it's something that maybe has become like an addiction to her body.
We need to find a cure. We need to take her somewhere away from Calla.
Maria, I know this is hard, but I am sure...
Calla doesn't hold affection for Violet. She is using her in some way that we don't know yet," Garrett held my hand.
I kept silent in the whirlpool of thoughts. Every question that came up in my head was answered by memories—memories of Calla holding Violet on her nails.
Her pulling and pushing made Violet desperate for her love.
Maybe I knew it all along, but now I found a reason to believe...
I wiped my tears with the toy tight in my fist. "We'll move," I looked at Garrett.
He caressed my cheek and nodded. "I promise that I'll protect you, no matter what—"
Then suddenly, a loud cry echoed through the village.
"DANGER! DANGER! GO INSIDE! WOMEN AND CHILDREN HIDE YOURSELVES! MEN COME OUT! IT'S HERE! IT'S—"
I jumped in place, and Garrett held me tight.
"Hurry up! Take Violet to the cellar! Take the flash scrolls and the dagger! Don't open the hatch until I come! If anything happens, take the tunnel—I dug it, making sure that you'll be out of the village!"
"Garrett! What about you!" I held his arms tightly.
"I'll do what I can, at least..."
**
Garrett picked up his battleaxe, far bigger than what he used sparring.
He wore his armor and shoved the axe head into the fireplace, then he poured his aura into the axe.
(OH, LORD OF FLAMES, I ASK THEE FOR YOUR FLAMES.
BURN THE STEEL WITH YOUR RAGE AND TURN THOSE AGAINST YOU TO ASHES!)
The axe turned red, and the aura became fuel, creating bright, intense fire with bright pink flames.
He rested his axe on his shoulder and rushed toward the voice.
While he went out, the two guards sent by Calla especially for Maria and her family were on the roof.
"Send the letter. Don't use the bird. Use Sakeli," he whispered.
The other man pulled out a metal coiled snake, with one of its heads with red eyes out and another one with blue eyes in the coil.
The guard wrote a letter and cut his finger. He poured the drops on the red-eyed snake's mouth, and slowly the snake started slithering. The mouth slowly opened wide.
The second head was buried deep inside the coil, and then the man put the letter in the red-eyed snake's mouth.
The next moment, a few hundred miles away, in a dark chamber decorated with gold and silk curtains, Calla was sitting at a desk with papers and scrolls.
A snake crawled up to the desk and coiled in front of her. The blue-eyed mouth opened, and a letter came out.
She unfolded the letter slowly. She tapped the quill like a rattle until it broke.
She crushed the paper and sighed. She removed her glasses and leaned back in her cushioned chair.
"Why are you all like this? All of this I am doing for my daughter and her only. You dare question my love?
This is why I don't like lowborns—they don't understand how complicated the world is..." Calla closed her eyes and looked at the lamps.
"You forced my hands, Maria. Think of it as my mercy..." Calla wrote a letter and shoved it into the Sakeli's mouth.
The window of her chamber rattled with loud winds, and far away from her, on the tallest of the watchtowers, there sat a black raven.
"The fate brings them closer, fate asks her anguish.
So shall it be..."
**
Back in the village, David and the men strategically attacked the Winterbeast. They managed to put some scratches on it, but that cost the lives of more men than it bled.
David was at his wits' end. He knew something no one else in the village did.
The desperation was not just out of their weakness, but the truth about their party.
Those guards sent from the capital were just off-duty men—some suspended for crimes, some too useless to put in troops.
It felt like a setup. David clenched his teeth.
His only hope was Garrett. Alone, he could wound it mortally but couldn't kill it.
He took a step ahead—
(SLICING WIND!)
He swung his sword, and the monster dodged it. It rushed at David with its horn at the front, moving like an arrow digging deep into the snow.
Suddenly, the men flocked together and made an attack in unison.
A strong wave of flames and wind hit the monster, but it didn't dodge it this time.
It took the attack head-on. It clashed, then pushed the attack toward the men. The men stood glaring, what they were a will sighed by them.
"Sir, help us!" they cried, but it was impossible. Then in a flash, something struck the attack in the air.
When they raised their eyes, they saw a broad back with an axe burning with bright pink flames.
"Garrett!" David yelled. It wasn't out of desperation but a cry filled with hope.
"All the men, spread covering each other's backs. Stand close enough to defend but far enough to avoid getting swept away in a single attack," Garrett grumbled.
He looked at David. "I'll create an opening. You make sure to immobilize it, then I'll land the final attack." Garrett readied his axe.
The monster looked at him, and its instincts made it take a few steps back.
"Let's end this now!" Flames on David's sword burned furiously.
With hope burning bright, despair crawled in the shadows.
The two guards got a letter; their eyes filled with emotionless bloodlust. They burned the letter and then pulled out a dart.
They laced it with a liquid and then vanished in fog...
What will this fog bring?
On one side, there is death in flesh; on the other, intentions laced with affliction...