"Let me kill her!"
Worn and tattered, Adrian rose to his feet. His remaining blue eye glistened with a burning rage. With his left hand, he reached behind him, pulling out an expensive-looking dagger. With his right hand, he reached out towards Poppy.
A green glow gathered at his fingertips. A chantless spell. The ground rumbled and groaned as it split. Thick roots shot out from beneath, each bearing sharp thorns oozing a dark liquid—a poison. One touch can render the body paralyzed until treatment is given.
Poppy readied herself, but with no mana left in her body, her options were limited. To add to that, the high she felt from the healing prayer was fading. Her head spun, and her balance was unsteady. She had not expected to survive this long, so bearing the consequences of mana deficiency was not something she expected to endure.
A root shot towards her. Its speed was that of an arrow. She braced for impact, falling in the process. Just as the root came close to tearing through her neck, something came and stopped it. A purple and black lace umbrella floated in front of her with a golden shimmer around it.
"Urk!?"
A male groan came out, followed by a heavy thud to the ground. The umbrella shimmered brightly before fading out as if it were a ghost. Adrian, who had used his magic against Poppy, was on the ground with a foot to his head. Velantra pushed her heel down with a sadistic look on her face. Her crimson-colored eyes glowed like those of a predator who had caught its prey.
"I suggest you relax, boy wonder. The lonesome prince who carries the burden of nothing." She spoke in a haughty tone as she continued to crush the pitiful prince underfoot. "We have much to discuss."
"Don't act you know anything about me, you pampered, silver-spoon-fed demon. You would never understand true suffering if you had the heart to protect that lowlife criminal." Despite his position, Adrian still kept his arrogant personality as if he were in control. "If you continue this treason, I will take it as a declaration of war between elves and demons."
Poppy wanted to laugh at his pointless display of defiance, but she herself was in no position to move. Her legs had given entirely out, and her breathing became ragged. It was hard for her to keep focused on the satisfying pathetic display from the haughty noble.
Her savior was a demon. A noble one at that. She had saved her twice. But why? What does this noble have to gain by saving her?
Velantra's crimson eyes drifted towards Poppy's questioning gaze. She then rolled her eyes with disinterest as she puffed out her superior chest. Poppy returned the look with a scowl. This is why she hated nobles.
"Go ahead." Velantra looked down at the creature beneath her feet and spoke with the smugness of a child. "Declare war. Drive the final nail into the elven coffin. Bet all of your people would vote for a vengeance thirsty knife ear like you."
He made an unpleasant sound as he stopped struggling. Then he responded with, "Release me, I concede. In my current state, I am not much of an equal against you."
"As if you were ever an equal to me." She removed her foot and leaped back. The bottom of her dress expanded as she flew through the air. She landed near Poppy, her ample bosom bouncing a little. "Get up, little prince. I want to see the despair on your pathetic face when I tell you the situation at hand."
Adrian picked himself off the ground and glared at Velantra, then at Poppy, then back to Velantra. He took a deep breath and dragged himself towards the ruined fountain like a whipped puppy. His armor, what was left, clanked as he took a seat. He reached into his pockets, pulled out a small, shining mana crystal, and placed it in his mouth.
"Even with all the money you have, you only buy the cheapest of mana stones. How barbaric."
Adrian cocked his head in annoyance and spoke in a strangely calm tone. "You must be the childish, sharp-tongued demon, Velantra. Your reputation truly matches the genuine article."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Velantra glared coldly towards Adrian. "Do you want another beating—"
"Do you enjoy running?" His words stopped her words from leaving her lips. "Do you enjoy pushing everyone aside, thinking that you and only you could be enough to keep you happy?"
Velantra turned away, her face crunched up as if she wanted to say something in response, but couldn't due to some kind of reasoning. She and Poppy then locked eyes, and her expression flattened. She reached in between her breasts and pulled out a red crystal. With graceful steps, she made her way towards Poppy and lowered herself. She gently grabbed Poppy's face with her free hand and brought the crystal towards her lips.
Poppy shook her head violently, trying to resist. To be saved a third time in the span of an hour was outright embarrassing. She did not want to imagine the kind of debt she was about to owe this demon once that mana stone entered her body. That, and the fact that it came from between her breasts. While some men would fight one another for such a thing, Poppy found the action revolting at best.
Velantra squeezed Poppy's protesting face until her lips parted, then slipped the mana crystal into her mouth. Just as Poppy tried to spit out the crystal, she felt the flow of mana rushing to her body. She had never felt the effects of a mana crystal this potent before in her life.
Poppy stood up, keeping the stone in her mouth. She stumbled forward, and Velantra caught her with one arm.
"You should never do that again," Velantra said with a shift in tone. She sounded like a sister at a chapel. "You overused your mana. Doing so caused permanent damage to your body."
Of course, Poppy knew that. But once again, she had never expected to survive that fight. And now, because of her miscalculation, she'd have to live with the consequences, whatever they may be.
"Next time, believe in the deity whom you worship. Even if your God Stamps are hardly there, you are loved. Never forget that."
"Ahem." Adrian forcefully cleared his throat.
"Sounds like this ungrateful lamb wants to be on my bad side." Velantra's tone shifted once again to that of an arrogant noble whom Poppy hated all so much. She guided Poppy towards the fountain and let her sit at its edge, far from Adrian.
"What is it that you wished to speak about that you needed to control that suit of armor crafted by the invaders to stop me from avenging my sister?" Adrian said impatiently.
"Misguided revenge leads to more victims." She said calmly, staring at him with a neutral expression. "This elf girl, once guided by the dark elven deity, now walks the path of redemption. She works day in and out, killing the cultists that stalk the shadows. You know how that cult runs, yet you ruined all of her work in a fit of rage."
"What do you mean?" Instead of Adrian, Poppy responded, resulting in an agreeing nod from Adrian as they both looked at Velantra intently, albeit for two different reasons.
Poppy never worked to kill the members of the sect she was once a part of. She killed them only as a means of survival. They wanted her dead; she wanted to live. That is why, when Velantra said she was walking the path of redemption, she felt it was a lie. She did it only for herself, not for anyone else.
"Your actions, to the king's viewpoint, were passable. Just a hiccup in the machine. Something that could be corrected should they deem it necessary." Then she pointed to Adrian, which prompted a head tilt. "But you, on the other hand, drew blood that the king could not ignore. This led to several 'particular' groups of elves leaving the great forest towards this village."
Velantra ended by staring at the head of the deceased cultist, which was next to Adrian. There was no pity in her eyes, just disgust. An unspoken emotion that the three of them shared, up until Adrian clicked his tongue.
"So what about it? You're gonna tell me that these cultist freaks originated from the place where Father rules over all? A man who lived long enough to bear witness to the birth of the elven race. A king who has seen and protected the elves through everything the deities had to offer."
His voice was raised, yet respectful. Adrian held no desire to start another fight; he would evidently lose. Toying with Poppy had cost him his eye; he was not willing to lose another part of himself. But the words she spoke, the demon who appeared from nowhere.
They were slander.
There was no way that his father would allow such a thing. Yet his father covered up his mother and sister's murder. The suspect was right there in front of him, wounded and tired like he was, yet the words of the demon rang in his heart. So who was to blame for his sister's death? Poppy, or someone else?
He stood up. He placed his hand over his missing eye as if in pain and continued. "Father is the king of the elves, who is reaching the end of his days. We princes are his vessels for carrying his will to the elven people once he passes. Who are you to think that he is in bed with the dark sect?"
"Stop and think about it." Velantra turned to Poppy. "Girl, what were the teachings of the sect you were a part of?"
Poppy looked at Velantra in surprise but responded almost immediately with a calm voice. The pain of those days was engraved deep into her body and her soul. She could never forget their twisted beliefs.
"One mind, one soul. The end only exists for those who stray from his path. Believe in his will and he shall entrust your soul to his servants, the keepers of the death."
"And what does that have to do with anything-"
"Immortality." Poppy cut off Adrian, forcing him to choke on his words.
Yes, immortality was the cult's goal. And those who came to understand their true goals were put down. His family was not a target because of a lonely girl who envied the lives of children her age, but rather because of the children's mother. She had understood her lover's mission, and that painted a target on their back.
"Immortality…" The words seemed to get the young prince thinking.
Elves were known to live a long time, yet compared to demons or angels, they died off rather quickly. So his father, a man who had seen to the creation of the elven race, felt wrong. He had lived long enough to outlast several generations of elves, yet he still breathes.
Adrian's eye widened and his mouth moved without him knowing. "I am so tired of this." He sat back down and looked to the sky. The sky seemed to acknowledge him as a gentle wind brushed through his golden hair. "The war, the barkeep hiding the invader, and now you're saying that father is behind this evil sect?" He turned towards Velantra with a defeated look in his eye. The eye of a man who is ready to end it all. "What is next? Are you gonna tell me that the invaders have this town in their crosshairs?"
There was a long, uncomfortable silence between the three of them. During that time, Poppy's ears twitched. Two pairs of footsteps were roaming around. One person was speaking too hushed for Poppy to make out the words. Something about it felt off, but she shoved her thoughts to the side and looked at Velantra.
She stood staring at Adrian. Her eyes narrowed, and a frown formed on her face. She reached out with her right hand, and a golden glow appeared at her fingertips. Then an umbrella appeared. The same purple-and-black one that saved Poppy from the roots. Velantra opened the umbrella and used it to hide her lips as she finally spoke.
"You are," she said with a soft tone. "Correct. In all that you say, I mean." She paused, not for dramatic effect, but because it was hard for her to formulate her following words. "You are a misunderstood prince. One blessed by your forgotten deity. The one who leads your path. Yet doubt feeds on your mind, corroding your heart, opening a path towards the darkness."
Poppy's ears twitched again. The two pairs of steps turned into one. There was unease building in her heart, but she dared not interrupt the scene before her.
While she was not well-versed in the politics between the races, she knew the implications of Velantra's words. With that, she knew that with information comes power. That same power could help her better understand Judas. Or, at the very least, understand how he had gotten to where he is now.
Amongst the silence, Velantra spoke. "I have an idea." She still hid her face behind the umbrella and addressed the clearly mentally tired prince, who still seemed to struggle with understanding every word spoken to him by the demon noble. "It's a gamble, one that would require you to make a choice. But it's our best shot at exposing the truth."
"Speak." He said.
Velantra gestured towards the armor. "That invader who you said was hiding in this town. Did you get his location from the Globe Bounty Board?" Adrain nodded. "Then you should know he is on our side. Despite his crimes, he is our best shot at saving this world from destruction."
"So you knew of his being here." He said. "Was it also you who placed that armor of his in my sister's grave?"
Velantra shook her head. "That was not me. I came here in search of the armor after it went missing. Someone else is pulling our strings."
Poppy remained quiet, but had a hunch feeling that she knew who did it. There was only one man who could easily orchestrate something so cruel for the sake of achieving his goal of saving the world. Her master.
Velantra lowered her umbrella with a smile as she reached out her other hand towards her ear. A small earpiece, a device invented by the dwarves at the start of the war, appeared in her ear, glowing golden. "Judas," she spoke softly yet tenderly as if she were a young girl talking to a crush.
It pained Poppy's heart to know she spoke to Judas in such a way, so much so that she had almost forgotten the footsteps closing in on them with rapid speed. Poppy reached for the daggers from beneath her skirt and lowered her stance.
"Judas, can you hear my lovely voice?" She called out as she did, Adrian rose to his feet and reached for the dagger he kept behind him. Velantra looked towards the ground and kicked the metal bow she had taken from him into the air. With a swift motion, she kicked it mid-air towards Adrian, who caught it. He returned his dagger to its sheath and readied an arrow of light in his bow.
Poppy scanned the area until the sounds were quiet. The three grouped together, each armed with their weapon of choice: a dagger, a bow, and an umbrella. The air grew still as if the forgotten deity above killed the wind for Poppy's hearing.
Then there was a flash of light. Before there was any sound, Poppy shouted, "Four o'clock!" She turned to move, but was too slow.
"Great wall of fire!" Velantra spoke in rapid succession as a wall of flames appeared. Something slammed into the wall with enough force to shake Poppy's insides. A roaring echo followed as the wall of fire was penetrated. Velantra blocked whatever tore through with her umbrella.
A pair of footsteps, swift, shot from behind. A figure still cloaked in the night's darkness, thrust a spear towards the group. Poppy felt something grab her arm and pull her back. Adrian, the man who once tried to kill her for the sake of his sister, clashed against the spear with his bow.
Sparks flew, and a voice followed as the figure leaped back. "Well, ain't this something." The figure pulled out a small red stick and tossed it to the ground. It lit the area just enough to see the face of their attacker. A man whose face looked like that of a man who had seen a thousand battles. Dark hair cut short, complementing the strange uniform that she had once seen Judas wear on his first day at the motel. He held a long metal spear, the tip stained with blood.
So, that would have to mean that their opponent, a man who gave them a wicked smile, was an invader, just like Judas.
"I was told by a source that only the elven nobility who were a target of interest would be here." He turned his gaze towards Velantra and licked his lips. "Not a sexy-looking demon priestess of a soon-to-be-dead deity. Heh, sucks that I can't enslave you, but I'll make sure to make good use of your corpse."
"Such barbaric words befitting of a monster such as your kind." Velantra said, "Most importantly, why do you speak our language?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" The man smiled as he readied his spear. "I'll tell you once you're undressed."
He dashed forward just as another sound filled Poppy's ears.
"Six o'clock!" Velantra dashed towards the direction Poppy gave and shielded the group with her magic and umbrella. Adrian intercepted the man's attacks and pushed him off. He readied some arrows and shot them towards the spearman.
"Focus on support." He said while shooting. "This man is far too skilled for you and those tiny daggers. Plus, that demon shielding us cannot hear as well as we, well, you in particular, and those ranged attacks are powerful."
The spearman dodged each arrow and circled around with his spear outstretched. He leaped forward, clashing once again with Adrian's bow.
"Hey now!" The two were locked in place. "The prey is not supposed to fight back. Though you seem like a lot more fun than that brute of a beastman priest."
The man pushed Adrian back and slashed at him. Poppy threw a dagger towards the man, using her magic to guide it. The dagger grazed his cheek, and he leaped back with a pained expression. As he landed, he held his side while glaring at the three of them.
"Tch," he said faintly. "Damn painkillers wore off."
"Judas!" Velantra shouted. "You'd better make it here unless you want to be dead before you achieve what you want." Velantra planted her umbrella into the ground and began chanting. "Inferno Cannon, blast my foes towards the sky!"
A ball of fire, the size of a boulder, appeared in front of her and shot towards the forest. An enormous explosion turned the sleeping forest into a fire inferno. The same ball of fire then flew into the air and exploded, illuminating the night sky.
The spearman laughed as Adrian shot another volley of arrows towards him. He knocked them down with his spear. "Judas? So you are the ones hiding that traitorous scum!"
The man's eyes narrowed, and he shot forward like a beast, shrouded in rage. "Holy chains of light, ensnare my foe and tether him to the ground!" A white light appeared around Adrian, and chains of light shot out, binding each of his limbs, dragging him into the ground.
The spearman kicked Adrian's face with enough force to knock him out as he jumped into the air, aiming his spear towards Poppy. The tip of his spear thrust forward, impaling nothing but air. While the spearman was chanting, Velantra grabbed Poppy and cast a clone of her where she once stood. However, that attack only bought them a second as the spearman quickly recovered and slashed at the two. Velantra blocked, but the force of his swing was enough to knock the umbrella from her hands.
Poppy felt something tug hard at her arm and, a moment later, she found herself airborne. Velantra had thrown her back towards the trees. Had she intended for her to run? Poppy shook her head; she would not dare to let this demon force her to owe forth debt in one night.
She threw a dagger towards the spearman as he attempted to attack Velantra. He slashed the dagger down, only to be slammed into by a suit of armor. "Heh…well then." The man said as he fought the armor.
Like Adrian, the man was convinced that the suit of armor belonged to someone else, but this time there was no magic involved. As the suit exchanged blows with the man, Velantra took a few steps back and dashed towards Adrian, freeing him from his bindings.
With a solid hit to the head, the armor's helmet flew off, revealing nothing inside. "Remote controlled?" The spearman turned towards Velantra, who was helping Adrian up. "I must say, you've got talent. Shame you weren't born a human."
Poppy heard a faint rustling of leaves followed by another flash of light. "Nine o'clock!"
It was a pointless callout. It was clear that Velantra and Adrian had been checkmated. They stood between two deaths: one at his hand, the other from the strange sniper that had been blasting them.
However, unlike any possibility that Poppy could think of, Velantra smiled as if there was a third option. She held Adrian up and glared at the spearman, who laughed and charged at her.
Something roared through the trees at the speed of a cannon, slamming into the suit of armor that ran to protect Velantra. The object slammed hard, rippling the wind, and shattering a right shoulder plate off the armor. As it did, the spearman closed in and slashed at Velantra.
Poppy closed her eyes, expecting a wet end to the battle, but what came was the echoing clash of steel. She opened her eyes to see a familiar face. A face she had run from earlier that day. A face she fell in love with. A face stained with blood that was not his own. Judas.
He was holding a strange weapon. A metal double-bladed polearm that seemed like an impractical weapon of choice. Yet Judas used it as naturally as he breathed. He pushed off the spearman and held his side with a pained expression. Like the spearman, Judas seemed to be injured.
"Lucan." The man said to Judas.
"Al," Judas responded.
"You should be dead."
"And you are gonna die."
Judas readied himself. His eyes, once like those of a dead man, now clouded as if nothing but hatred guided his will. This was not the man she knew, but at the same time, did Poppy ever truly understand who Judas was?
"Heh, heh," Al laughed. "This is gonna be fun."
"Poppy." Velantra's voice danced in the wind. Poppy looked towards her as she spoke once more. "I know you have good ears, so listen well. Adrian is knocked out. Go into the forest and dispatch that sniper."
Poppy nodded and reached for another dagger. She was running low. Two were remaining, so she had to make them count. She strove deeper into the forest. The sniper had been shooting clockwise, meaning that predicting their next spot would be easy.
All that remained was whether she could do it. Her body felt unnaturally heavy, as if her legs were not as responsive as they had been before. But if she used her wind guidance magic, she could counteract that effect.
She ran. Following a trail of disturbed foliage that fought off the burning embers of the forest, she found something. A suit of armor lay prone on the ground with an enormous weapon Poppy had never seen before. The armor noticed her and stood up, drawing a bow from its back.
"Shit! I was found."
No voice ever left the armor, but Poppy could hear it speak in a hushed tone from within its suit. It spoke in a language Poppy had never heard of before.
"Sorry, Al, but support is gonna have to wait."
It spoke again. A female, somewhat angry, knocked an arrow into her bow and aimed at Poppy.
"I hope you burn in hell, invader."
The armor shot an arrow. It was slower than Adrian's, but where it landed, thunder rang out, blasting a hole into the tree.
Poppy readied herself for a fight, hopefully one that would let her see tomorrow.