VanguardThe demon stared at the body for a long time, as if in a trance. For minutes, he didn’t speak at all, as if his mind was clouded by millions of thoughts. Finally, he turned to the masked puppeteer and spoke flatly.
“Yeah, let’s begin.”
There were no words to call this ceremony but dazzling, and that was an understatement! The Citadel’s knights were performing a wonderful spectacle, their mighty birds soaring high above the skies into the unknown.
Tonight, the city was filled with colors, and floating above the entire city, the Watcher gazed down at all its beauty, and smiled. She would play the role of the goddess this year, and grant all apprentice knights her blessing.
Karl and the other apprentice knights were circling the main town halls, laughing and roaring as the people cast flying flower breeds above to fill the heavens above with color.
The sky sword, the sacred comet that tore open the heavens every 1000 years, was more brilliant than ever. It shone brighter than any sun with its ruby glare that illuminated the sky, as if setting it aflame.
And standing tallest than anyone was, for this night, none other than the Goddess, the one light in his life that shone over him as she smiled. He wasn’t used to look up to her, but her radiance felt no less bright than the comet above the High Temple.
He smiled proudly, but deep down he felt worried. It was like he had already witnessed this ceremony, and for a reason even he could not explain, something felt wrong. His daughter, she had spoken to him about her recurring nightmares.
The people seemed to believe that Heavenly Sword was a sign of hope, a fire that would cleanse all shadows and bring about a new age of peace and prosperity, but she saw it differently. He didn’t know what to think, but he hoped she was wrong.
What could the gods have planned?
She walked up the stairs of the High Temple, glancing below worriedly, as if she feared something from below would grasp her. The Citadel’s guardian noticed that and frowned, wasn’t she fine just a few moments ago?
She stepped on another step, and for a second the marble seemed to redden and melt under her feet. It was like the burning scar that ran across the sky resonated with her, and once she reached the edge of the temple, she gazed up and staggered weakly.
By now, the birds, music, laughter and color displays had all stopped. The entire Celestial Citadel stared at the weakly girl in shock. The temple began to crack and melt under the scorching heat, showing red veins of molten rock running down.
And then, she lost balance for the last time and fell.
Amidst a sea of memories and personas, a single man shone, drifting aimlessly in the depths of an ocean of eternity. Suddenly, a hand reached for him, dragging him up to the surface. For the first time ever since he entered this heap of a body, he smiled.
“Will she be alright?” Karlheim said trembling, the countless eyes all across his body showing signs of tiredness. Next to him, the colossal hero stood like a solemn monument.
“… I don’t know.” He spoke, yet his words were silent. Even a rookie knight like Karl could see the grief in the watcher’s stone hard expression. Its massive fists were trembling, yet he stared at the hospice gate with unshakeable resolve.
He never believed she would’ve fallen. He had burst towards her as fast as he could, but something held her back. It was none other than Karl who managed to catch her. For that, he was grateful, nothing would ever pay the debt he felt for that man, and yet-
“The symptoms, I… we read something like that once. There is a remedy, a plant, I think…. But it can only be found in the surface.”
The hero’s face was hard and grave, he glared at the pulsating wound in the sky and shook his head.
“We leave by nightfall.”
When he opened his eyes again, he felt different. Changed. He sighed in relief and copped his hair back, so this is what it felt to have a genuine body. He felt a breeze graze his cheek, laying back against a table and gaping up at the ceiling, his head throbbing.
His limbs felt strange to him, they may as well not be there, and yet they were. He abdicated control of his body, it would seem. His groggy brain struggled to analyze his condition, it was as if…
No, this was not how it was but how it had been. His memory, his senses, his motor control, it had all gone out of control. Where he is… or when… or who… he had answers to none of these questions.
They had left the citadel since three months, and had currently set camp in a dead forest of muck and filth. Thanks to Karlheim’s prior knowledge on the surface world, the had managed to cross the hellish landscapes and treacherous seas of the Old World.
The Healing Plant was nearby, they were sure of it, but the demons that had infested these doomed lands did not give up their mad search. Even after millennia, they sought to feast on man flesh.
The farther they traveled, the more numerous and the stronger these creatures of darkness would prove to be. And in this world shrouded by a veil of darkness and impenetrable clouds of poison, surviving had become a challenge for both of them.
The fiends had surrounded them, a legion of dark creatures unlike any other. Even on the surface, he had never fought such a large number of demons. They would slay more and more, and for every one that fell a hundred would come forth. Could this be the end?
The guardian swallowed his blood, kneeling due to his grievous wounds. Meanwhile, Karl nearly fell over, his wounds far more severe. He had grown much in this journey, but against these monsters, even he was beginning to falter.
A stream of bile and blood spiked from Karl’s mouth and he rose with difficulty, impaling ten more demons as they leapt towards him with his imaginary weaponry.
“There’s no chance, we are surrounded. These demons… they are too strong. I will only drag you down, just leave me behind. I won’t be taken by them; I will cut open my heart before they can reach me. Just go...”
A fist of lightning as heavy as a meteor crashed on a dark dragon, ripping it’s head from its neck and sending a surge of power that cleared the wave that had closed in. The poison rains were pouring wildly, but under these conditions his heavenly power was tenfold.
“Don’t be an idiot.”
He clenched his fist with bold resolve and swung his halberd behind his companion, bisecting twenty fiends with a single swipe of the mighty weapon. For a second, the waves stopped in order to reorganize their formation as more and more beasts emerged from the shadows all around them.
“Stand. If you have the time to think of a pretty death…” He clenched his hands around his weapon and took a stance. In that moment, his body cracked with electricity and space itself seemed to bend. “Then live prettily until the end.”
The half demon looked up at the legendary hero, wiped the blood off his face and smiled. With a resolved struggle, he rose from the ground and stood back to back with his friend. Damn asshole, making him look bad. But he made a promise too, and had a confession to make.
Even an onion knight like him had to look cool!
“Thanks.” He grinned, and the two charged against the wave with willpower and battle spirit that could shake the heavens.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
His memories slowly returned to him. It was slow, difficult work. Like staring at a puddle of oil and trying to separate the colors from one another.
Aaah, I see.
The silver haired man turned his head on the left, feeling a sharp pain pierce his senses. His vision was foggy, his mind still overwhelmed by the millions of different stimuli. He focused on a single point and recognized a presence.
“Oh. So you saw it as well, didn’t you? Karl, or should I call you Tohuw?”
The Tree of Life was a massive construct of intertwined roots and coiled vegetation, towering into a massive tower of vegetation, the only sign of life untainted in this ravaged world. In the center of the tree, a woman was sealed and sleeping, holding a crimson jewel that glowed in her hands. As soon as he saw that gem and the pitch black goo that surrounded the tree, the watcher frowned.
“No, it can’t be…. But how?”
Her gentle eyebrows, her smooth skin, the purple hair that he would braid every day so carefully. Why, why was she here? How could she be here!?
“WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS MEAN!!!!???”
The giant stroked his wounded eye with his hand and narrowed his other one, glaring in disgust. Such a cruel joke, nothing could describe the disgust that filled his soul.
The vanguard spoke coldly. “You should know this more than anyone. She’s come back, returned to the cradle she once belonged to.” His head turned back up, to the heavens. “We too must return to our own.”
The half demon’s eyes shot wide open and glared at the man, the betrayal now clear to him. “What!?”
“The demons, ever since we arrived they became agitated, but it wasn’t because of us. Or rather, we aren’t the source.” The man spoke coldly. “The reason they attacked us from the start… was to protect her. If I brought her back, the demons would follow. There is no way the citadel can hold off so many legions.”
Karl was incredulous, lost and, for the first time, afraid of that man. How, how could he say something like this like it was nothing!?
“You were the one who told me not to give up. She can’t stay here! If she doesn’t come back soon, she-”
“It is my duty. I cannot be selfish. There must be another way, but we cannot take her back as she is now.”
Karlheim blinked incredulously. This was madness! But this rotten system, the one built by the sages… it was to defeat those backwards ideals that he became a knight in the first place. He never allowed his demonic nature to define him, even under the ridicule of his peers, she was always kind to him.
To see the one, he had looked up to speak like this… he couldn’t help but chuckle. His anger was gone, all that he felt at this point was sadness, that and the burning of his soul that grew more and more resolved.
“Heh. Duty, huh… I should’ve known. But I refuse. I get what you’re saying but… that won’t change anything. Aren’t you just postponing the problem? Same things will take place once again. I don’t know what you see with that one eye of yours, but I see a girl. A girl I’ve known and who knows me, one with whom I’ve shared many precious memories. And now, these demons are projecting their ambitions…their desires onto her again.
For whose sake are those desires? Those people above the heavens, the sages, even you. You’re not so different from these demons, and now you wish to justify her murder in order to fulfill your wish to live on peacefully. That’s no good, I cannot accept such a thing. If you try to balance things with gains and losses, nothing will change. Nothing will be saved."
The ancient guardian’s stone expression finally broke, and his once cold eye was now wide open in disbelief. Had he turned mad? No one could sacrifice the entire world for a girl, no matter what.
“You… you’re not trying to say that you- “
“I won’t let anyone fulfill their desires anymore. No human, no demon, no one will have to make an innocent girl carry their own burdens out of selfishness. If you want to kill her, fine, just say so. But remember this, onlooker… I am the enemy of the whole world, the onion demon, Tohuw Balagan. Can you keep up with me?” Countless weapons appeared in his hands, the entire universe twisting behind him as he created a world of weapons ready to shoot out at his target.
He picked up a spear, pointed it at the man in front of him, and charged.
“I WILL NOT YIELD HER TO YOU!!!”
---
---
It was a long fight, an unfair fight. No matter how you looked at it, the demon had no chance of beating the hero. His spear never once reached him, and if there was any word to describe the scenery, it was hell. Smoke and fire covered the annihilated landscape, devastation reminiscent of a wasteland smothered by the fires of war.
Hot magma bubbled all over, craters and grisly veins of burning earth tracing back to the center of it all, like a grim spider web.
And in the middle, a pristine man clad in pure white savored his utter victory bitterly, his foot resting atop the helmet of a decimated man, crushed beyond recognition. In contrast, the colossal hero was completely unscathed. Silver hair stood up like wild horns, and his eye glowed with fire no human could replicate.
The hero frowned.
“I’m sorry, but this is the only way. I will grant her a painless death.” He said calmly, with no trace of regret. Then, he turned to the tree and readied his weapon one last time.
“No. Please! Don’t do it, don’t do it! You, you can’t do this! Please! I beg you!”
He took calm, decisive steps, climbing the wooden stairs until she was in his range.
“No! Stop it! Stop it! You bastard… you’re not allowed to touch her. I…!”No man more honest ever took an oath;
None more true made treaty
None was more pure in love;
And yet none so betrayed all oaths, all treaties, his truest love.
She opened her eyes and smiled, thanking him
So why was he crying so much?
A single shout could be heard.
“VANGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!”The demon leapt and swung down its claws with strength and ferociousness never before seen, but it was all futile, and what happened once happened again. In the blink of an eye, his restrained arm shattered its metal seals and pierced the demon’s heart, lightning cracking around his fist.
His back was arched up as if in the middle of rising, and it was with the same regard one would give to garbage on the sidewalk, he held the demon up through its heart as it drew its last breaths. Blue dismissive eyes gazed at the demon’s two own with focus and resolve, never once breaking contact.
Those eyes, those weak dead eyes were not his own. They were his.
“I have an old story to tell you. A senior citizen and a boy with an incurable disease met at a hospital. The child was always reading books significantly above his level. The majority of his young life was spent at a hospital bed, so books were his only friends.”
Black goo dripped down like blood, the demon’s body crumbling and melting down as it dangled weakly.
“The boy had a special ability. He was extraordinarily gifted. His ability was highly regarded by his elder and so, in exchange for new books every day, the boy would share his academic knowledge. But the path to the child’s future closed after a variety of coincidences piled up. He never laid blame. He simply, quietly, accepted his fate. He did not despair. Simply because he gave up on his life, didn’t mean he gave up on his dreams. You truly were weak, but I wanted to see the world though that child’s eyes. His dream is finally coming to fruition; you aren’t needed anymore. “
“What are you…talking about…”
Vanguard closed his eyes and smiled, nodding once before opening them again, gazing at the depths of the demon’s soul. And with a craving and determination unlike ever before, he spoke.
“The universe.”
As soon as he uttered those words, lightning burst from his fist and struck the dying demon, annihilating it utterly from within. And so the demon stopped thinking, and stopped imagining.
