The stained glass windows reverberated between the black stone walls, eventually shattering with the impressive force of the Hero's continuous swings. As impressive as they were, they were being pushed back by the Demon King.
Most of the Hero's party had fallen either to the waves of demons and the king's general throughout the battle. The final battle had been happening for a while, and the Demon King gave his remarks before unleashing a surprise attack, fatally wounding two of the Hero's party. It nearly struck a third, the Holy Priestess Istaye if it hadn't been blocked by her guard.
"Damn"
The Hero spat a curse at the Demon King, charging him with the remaining members of his party. The Priestess scrambled from behind her guard and tried to tend to the wounded.
"Forget them! Cast divine strike and open us a window for an attack!" The Hero barked an order at her. "They knew what they were getting into!"
Shuddering the Priestess followed her order and knelt to pray.
"Heavenly Goddess, now more than ever, your disciple needs you! The fate of all races will be decided in this battle, give us your holy light to banish the darkness!"
The Priestess continued her prayer; her personal guard maintained a defensive posture between her and the battle, the blade ready. He watched as another strike from the Demon King claimed another of the Hero's party, this only emboldened the rest to fight harder. His blue-green eyes scanned the fight from his helmet's visor, watching the miserable outcome, knowing that any minute would determine whether he needed to grab the priestess and run or stay behind to support her escape.
Another, cut and twisted in half. Another blasted into a crumbling wall, and the cold realization crept up his spine. He was toying with them...
The ceiling of the throne room shone in a brilliant golden light, and the priestess looked up through cascading tears.
"My Goddess give us the strength to turn the battle!"
A beam of heavenly light tore through the stone ceiling and ripped into the Demon King's chest. His smug grin fell away into a howl of excruciating pain. The Demon King let out a fierce roar, this power unleashed sending shockwaves around him. Those closest were flung away at monstrous speeds, the Hero was thrown back, losing his grip on the holy sword as it flew behind him. Spiralling in the air the holy sword flew straight for the priestess but was swiftly blocked by her guard. He swung his own shield, and with the force of his body, it ricocheted, cutting deep into the stone floor.
The priestess watched with a gasp.
"T-thank you T-Te" She started but was cut off.
"Keep focused! We can turn this around!" The guard called out.
The Demon King's eyes fell upon the priestess, with a quick dash, he stood above them both.
"I tire of the Goddess and her little toys, you filthy little!" The Demon King growled, swinging a calculated strike at the priestess.
What the Demon King hadn't expected was the guard's swift movement blocking the strike and even pushing him back with the force. The Demon King eyed the guard with contempt.
"I've slaughtered millions of your race, filthy little dogs of humankind. I have to hand it to them, though. Creating a whole race just to live as cannon fodder to my demon army is its own delicious evil."
The Demon King swung again and was pushed back; this time, surprise turned to intrigue. Instead of a strike, the Demon King tackled the guard, throwing him into the stone wall.
"The little tin man has a bravado, and..." The demon king's eyes fell upon the armored guard's body, his magical eyes scanning him. "Oh how sweet, you even have a heart! Whose mistake was that?"
The Demon King whipped around eyeing the Priestess Istaye hungrily. Standing by her side was the hero retrieving the holy sword from the ground and leveling it at him.
"Don't you have enough toys, Priestess? Getting tired of the Hero?" He mused, dashing towards them, plunging a fist into the Hero's side, sending him rolling away.
The Hero's holy sword clattered to the ground between the Demon King and the Priestess Istaye. With a single strike, he pierced a hole in her belly, and blood trickled down the demon king's sharp fingernails. Pulling them out of her stomach, the Demon King cackled loudly, licking her blood off his nails.
"Istaye!!"
From behind, the Demon King unleashed a heavy force. The guard rushed forward and plunged his shield into the back of the Demon King with unnatural speed and strength, sending the giant form tumoring forward. Recovering, the guard held the priestess in his arms. Bright golden light shone under his armor as he poured all of his healing magic into her.
"We need to leave now! If we can make it back we can get some help! You can make it!" The guard cried, preparing to carry her home out of the demon country.
The Priestess weakly laid a hand on his face, she struggled to smile.
"You need to help the Hero, it's our only chance now." She coughed blood trying her best to keep her voice calm. "You can do it."
The priestess Istaye's hands fall down reaching weakly out to the holy sword. She eyed the sword.
"Please, protect him.." She cried, now the pain was too much to hold down.
The guard felt her fall unconscious due to the pain, looking at the sword and then the Demon King began to get up for another attack. The hero, at a distance, was stumbling to his feet. Lying the priestess down, the guard grabbed the sword by the blade. He knew there was a spirit dwelling within the blade; it was likely that it would reject him. Only the human Hero was to wield the holy sword, and he wasn't even human. The moment his hand touched the blade he heard a voice in his head. A woman's voice.
"Do it! Stop him now!!"
The guard felt a surge of power, his body acting like a conduit for the energy held in the holy sword. Holding the sword by the blade end with his left hand and sending out his right arm, it separated from the palm and opened, where blinding golden holy light shone. With a powerful yell, the guard unleashed a holy beam from his hand and pierced the Demon King's heart, leaving nothing but an empty hole.
Stunned, the Demon King could only watch as the guard raced forward with a speed that he could barely follow, piercing his second heart on the other side of his ribcage with the holy sword. With widening surprise in his eyes, he coughed blood.
"How? D-did you know?" The Demon King whines, feeling his life energy dwindling.
The guard didn't answer his question. He responded in a low hushed tone.
"Just die... Please." Tears were streaming from his helmet.
The Demon King sighed with one last smug grin. "They are going to kill all of you once I'm gone, two races going extinct." The Demon King chuckles blood dripping from his lips. "It's ironic, isn't it?" Were his words before he fell backwards limply?
Leaving the holy sword plunged into the Demon king, the guard ran back to the priestess. He felt her shallow breaths, her heartbeat beginning to fade. The guard poured more of his healing magic into her, preparing her for the long trip back to the capital or the closest divine healer.
The Hero walked shakily and reclaimed the holy sword from the Demon King's chest; it felt heavy in his hands. The Demon King eyes the Hero with a weak chuckle.
"Shameful to have been outplayed by one of you dogs, Hero, no one's going to sing your songs if they find out..."
The Hero swung the holy sword and cut off the Demon King's head, the Demon King's cackling echoing long after he stopped talking. Looking around he saw all of his party had fallen, all except two. Walking up to them, still holding the holy sword and the Demon King's head, he stopped just before them.
"Kill yourself, that's an order." The Hero barked, the words hung loudly in the silence of the throne room.
The Hero watched as the guard stood holding the priestess and began to walk away. His posture stiffened.
"Aegis, you have been ordered to kill yourself." The Hero repeated coldly.
The Guard continued to walk making no move to follow.
"My Lord, the priestess is in critical condition. My duty is to her, and then after she is safe, I will follow your order." The guard responded.
"You have received an order from your highest commander, this trumps all your previous orders. You will kill yourself."The Hero explained coldly, re-ordering him now with suspicion.
The guard just kept walking, without a word focusing on pouring his healing magic to stabilize the Priestess Istaye.
From behind, the Hero raised the holy sword to slash at the guard's back. The sword immediately fell out of his hand. The sword now felt like it weighed like an anvil.
"The hell?" The Hero cursed.
Leaving the sword behind, the Hero rushed at them, plunging his fist heavily, piercing the guard's back armor and skin. The guard gaged and wheezed as the Hero's fingers gripped his heart. Instead of ripping out a beating human heart, the hero ripped out what looked to be an orb connected to wires, magic pulsing from it like a heartbeat
The guard fell to his knees, still holding his priestess dearly in his arms, the golden glow of his healing magic evaporated, and the priestess coughed blood once more. Stepping around to face them, the Hero pulled the guard's helmet off. He stared face to face with a human face, skin now paling a look of unspoken hatred in his blue-green eyes under a tangle of dark brown hair.
The hero knelt down, holding the guard's core in his hand.
"You see this? You think this makes you human? No, you like your entire race. We made you just to be tools." The Hero stood up and pocketed the guards' beating core and walked away from them. "There just isn't a place for you in my world."
Watching the Hero leave, the guard struggled to get on his feet; he couldn't. He looked down at the priestess who had been looking at him. Wordlessly he mouthed.
"Im so sorry..."
Her hand reached up to his face, stroking it lovingly, with a shaky voice, she spoke.
"It's not your fault, you did your best." She coughed up more blood.
"Looks like I couldn't keep my promise... Maybe in the next life, we can be together..."
Her words were slowing down with her heartbeat.
"I'll... always... love you..." She said, before her hand fell from his face.
His hoarse throat gasping, his lungs were too weak to scream. All he could do was hold her until he himself faded away...
1000 Years after the end of the Demon War.
A lively castle town erupted in shouts of gleeful screams of all races. The city center was filled with fireworks and cheering. The one thousandth anniversary of the end of the Demon War. Every year, the castle nobility held a celebration to their ancestor, the first Hero, who struck down the Demon King and united all of the races under one cause. In the city center, a young girl eagerly awaits the big unveiling of the new statue of the Hero.
His bright blue eyes and golden blonde hair sparkled in the daylight. She wanted to see the statue so badly that she was tugging on her father's hand.
"Emily, calm down. I know you're excited, but it's not gonna change when it gets unveiled." Her father chuckled.
The little girl's eyes met with her father's, a huge smile on her lips.
"Do you think he's going to have it, just like in the stories?" She asked, while fidgeting excitedly.
"Oh, the holy sword? Oh, I'm quite sure they are well, it's a big part of the legend."
Her father gave her a playful smile.
"No, no! Not the sword!" She giggled. "The Hero's Shield! The big magical shield that keeps him and his friends safe!! Like in the stories!!" She informed him while jumping up and down.
Her father could only laugh loudly, Emily had been obsessed with the shield of the Hero since she first heard about the story of the Hero and the Demon War from him. The magic shield wielded by the Hero that defended him through the waves of horrible monsters to the castle of the Demon King.
"Well, I..." Her father began to reply but was cut off by the sound of fanfare.
"Dad! It's happening!!" Emily screamed with joy as the organizers of the unveiling of the statue pulled aside the curtain covering the new statue.
The newest statue commemorating the one thousand-year anniversary of the end of the demon war was a golden statue of a man with handsome features wearing a gallant suit of armor. In his right hand, he held a longsword with an elegant handguard and brightly shining jewels. In the statue's left hand was an ornate golden shield decorated with a beautiful hand-carving of an eagle, the Hero's symbol.
Emily's eyes widened, her focus on the beautiful shield. "The Aegis," She pulled hard on her father's hand.
"Dad! I'm gonna be the one to find it!! They said it was lost in the war! But I'll find it!" She told him with a confident smile.
Her father smiled, patting his daughter's head.
"I'm sure you will."
Somewhere far away... In the middle of the old demon country...
A large ancient structure stood, the sands of time slowly eroding it away brick by brick. Through the crumbling stone gates and a dilapidated hallway was the remnants of a grand throne room. Its once decadent walls are nothing more than a shadow of their former selves. The stones of what once was the roof, piled on the floor, lay still until a slight rumbling.
Loose stones fall to the sides of the pile as a figure claws their way out of the rubble. A rusted armored hand reaches out feeling the warmth of the sun. Pulling himself free, the figure yells, but nothing comes out, his lungs and throat ancient with disuse. All he could do was mumble a whisper.
"Istaye....Priestess...."
Shifting around the rocks fervently, he kneels at an unmistakable sight. The tattered dress of his Priestess, her body had long since disappeared to dust. All that was left, was barely more than a swath of her dress and her crest. In the bundle of cloth lay a golden amulet with the Goddess's symbol on it. He clutched it tightly to his chest. Unable to cry tears, he just knelt there, sniffling silently.
Once he finished, he stood reverently and turned to leave. His eye caught something among the nearby rubble, throwing the stones to the side he found an elegant silver blade. Picking it up, it seemed like it didn't suffer any of the oxidation that his armor did; it shone perfectly in the light. His body stiffened, and he nearly dropped the blade as in his head he heard a voice. A woman's voice.
"It's about time... I thought you were dead."
The figure left the ancient structure holding a blade in one hand and a gold amulet in the other. His blue-green eyes burning for answers...