Reece's legs moved until he could no longer feel them. The sounds of battle haunt him as they fade into the background, his regretful inner voice curses himself every step and breath. Eventually when he's far enough to not hear it, an old tree's roots were used as his hiding spot in case that monster decides to try finding him.
His breath was a struggle to get under control as his young lungs felt like they were on fire. There's fear racing around in his mind about that monster finding him if his heavy breathing was heard by something lurking in the deep woods.
'Why now? Why!?' Reece gripped his face as his legs curled up until the knees reached his chest. That's when his breath finally stabilized, everything felt light but at the same time fully wrong. 'We had 11 years until the hero! How could this happen now...'
[I'm sorry Reece, The reawakening of a demon king causes rippling disasters like the resurrection for their underlings...]
'You could have warned me!! Like anything else you neglected to say until now.' Reece held back a scream and growl slamming a hand into the mossy underbelly of the tree. He suddenly froze hearing an unsettled step on leaf litter from the direction where he ran from 'That's not...'
It had a large foot step from the amount of crunching with Reece's kobold ears could hear. That mustn't be anyone that he knew or that monster called Helma, Right? Then an emerald light appeared to cast the tree's long shadow in front of Reece. He felt it, something massive and inhuman loomed behind his hiding spot.
"Little Wolfy, Little Wolf, Lost little puppy without his pack... One by one, Burned to ash, Split to ribbons, and finally crunched to bits~" Helma sang out loud clearly standing behind that old tree which hid Reece.
All expression had faded from his face, Reece couldn't think for a moment before his mouth moved. A single sentence pushed its way up through his gut and towards this awful person he couldn't view as anything but a monster.
"I'll behead you for those words, Beast."
Those venomous words echoed through the trees around them and then an excited chuckle soon overtook its place among the canopy. Helma's full presence is felt against the back of that tree holding Reece, it creaked from her pressure on it.
"Child, I must admit your mother was fun! She however fell short due to being unhardened by true battle, you will be different... So count your blessings and as thanks from me that you're spared for now." Helma's weight lifts from the tree trunk and that light begins to fade but her words were silent hooks.
'As thanks? As thanks!? What-' Reece's mind froze as things began to click together. That monster he encountered in the forest during the day and Adelbert warning about the hue of his blood. It made him bleed that day, his blood was exposed before he even knew about the danger. A stinging pain cuts through his mind knowing this. 'I got them all killed, I got them killed for a ball.'
Reece feels his small body lose strength and the world starts to fade as everything begins catching up with him. His back hits against the hard foot of that old tree...
Reece awoke to a droplet of water falling from a branch above. His eye lids opened but they were heavy and stiffness has overtaken his back. It's cold, his whole body was freezing. He can't stop shivering as everything comes back to him.
"F-Fuck." Reece rubs his forearms as the cold but damp air numbs his exposed skin. His small frame barely holds onto warmth in this dim morning.
[Reece, I'm sorry...]
'It's fine, I just lashed out at the wrong person.' He looks towards the system message with sorrowful eyes. It was a struggle to stand up with his legs being numbed from sleeping among tree roots. 'I need to... I need to see if there's any survivors in the village.'
[Please be careful :S
We don't know if any demons remained there, even if the rain took out the heat based ones those vine one's may have shown up.]
'They attacked to root out my family, I doubt they'd care to maintain territory there but we'll see.' Reece moved out of that tree and began walking in the direction he knew paralleled the road back to his former home village. He felt a stinging pain thinking about that former part of his thoughts.
[Along as you're careful about this.]
He tried his best to block a thought from her to spare her what he truly thought about protecting his life. What use was he for the hero that got so many people dead but there's a pit in his gut that Reba would never forgive him for giving up here and now.
It'd take a few moments for him to arrive at the edge of that clearing his home village was built in. Reece looked at the field which surrounded his home for ages reduced to a barren and ash covered patch of land. He hesitated to step out from the tree's canopy into this heavy rain with a tired sigh, and walked out on the ashen mud.
The rain droplets hammer against him leaving him drenched in water. Those demons that attacked them during the escape were motionless statues with their heat utterly cooled by this weather. Reece couldn't help but feel bad for the people turned into these dead and empty husks.
[Side Quest: Funeral Rites, Release their Souls
"Each soul has been trapped within those husks, cursed flame having burnt away most of their egos. Please crack them open and free them"
Rewards: 1 coin per soul freed]
Reece's heart fell reading that bit of information, however, they deserve some mercy from this fate. He had to free them by any means and pulled out Frost Outlander from his castle. It creates frozen droplets on its silver blade while moving towards the closest husk. Its form is similar to his, a child but corrupted into a demonic puppet.
"I'm sorry." He says lifting up a rock from the side of this poor soul then lifts the knife up to their neck. A quick strike on the butt of its handle breaks off the husk's head, it falls to the muddy ground.
[1 Coin rewarded. It's for their own good, Don't let it eat at you.]
Reece stared at that single screen for a moment. The only warmth he could feel was the warm tears mixing with this cold rain on his cheeks, nothing could guard his heart for his new duty to his old neighbors. He pushes himself forward to the next husk, this blade never becoming dull throughout each and painful shattering.
'20....'
That's how many he's shattered so far, they all formed a rough path into the heart of his village as he went to a new husk. There wasn't much he could find until coming across where his father had confronted that burning knight but all that was left was a burnt section of ground and houses. He looked around for anything remaining of his father.
[It seems like there's nothing left of him, hopefully his soul is free]
'Yeah, I hope so too... Just...' Reece's legs finally gave out with him falling to his knees. His breath has become shallow and all his strength drained from this cold. The idea of fading away felt right, he just wanted to close his eyes then just disappear.
However....
He can't close them, not when Pascal gave it his all until the end or Aurel even Janine's soft smile. If he did then their faces would haunt him for giving up, those scars on his heart would never fade even into future reincarnations. He had to keep moving but where would such strength come from?
Reece called for a door to his castle however his vision wavered as reality felt like it was fluid around him. It moved in waves like a sea around him then from the depths of this phantasmal ocean came something darker than a starless sky. He saw this giant who surfaced their head for the purpose of seeing him.
The last thing he could see about this being was it cupping their hands around him. There's a gentleness about them before everything grows darker for him, warmth from something without heat nor form. It was soft like a dream but like all dreams, one must wake up.
He opens eyes once again to find himself in a familiar set up looking at the exact same ceiling, the smell of books were however poisoned by this ashy scent. A guttural regret digs itself into him knowing why. 'I really shouldn't keep waking up here...'
[You gained the attention of your family patron idol! Mistress of Shades has granted you her blessing, Good job?]
His eyes widened reading that alert from the system.
'Huh?`