An Archer's Promise

Chapter 25: Vault

Beta read by Shigiya, Fluffy Slayer and DOOMRAIDER.

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--Feoh-

Everything was at his fingertips.

He could feel it, sense it, taste it and see the light at the end of the tunnel after so many years of planning.

From the first day he joined the army of Thorne and served as a regular soldier as nothing but a young kid who could barely lift a sword, fighting an endless war that was waged by two beings who could not understand the wishes of the very people they each claimed to protect.

Yet what he found was nothing but death and destruction in every battle.

The friends he made in his squad were now corpses, crushed up and devoured by the disgusting monsters of the Dark Queen. Even then, he fought desperately to survive, using every trick in the book to kill his enemies without dying from their overwhelming strength or to escape when he was overwhelmed. Be it matching a werewolf’s speed or enduring an ogre’s strikes, as well as patiently dealing with those annoying imps.

His body was littered with cuts and scars, the blood coating his armor in crimson while he fought in a primal rage with the little strength he had left to butcher his enemies. Non-stop hours of fighting, the pain keeping him awake as he gritted through life and death, butchering and decapitating goblins. Severed body parts with exposed veins and muscles were a common sight on the battlefield.

Maybe it was out of delirium or the creeping insanity that came from a long battle, but dying at a young age before adulthood while also having already killed dozens of demons did not seem bad.

No, stubbornness continued to fuel his desire to survive.

In the end, he also counted pure luck as one of the reasons why he still remained alive till this day. His brush against death was so numerous that he began wondering if all of this wasn't just a dream his brain was having while rotting inside a dead corpse.

Yet that thought died as soon as he stood alone in the middle of the field, covered in blood and guts as he looked on emotionlessly at the half-eaten corpse of his friends and even the cum covered bodies of some of the Knights that had their insides crushed and were left to die a slow death after being mentally broken from the brutal rapes from the monsters.

A part of him died that day and in that void allowed a more sinister entity to take over.

Acceptance.

Seeing the world with a new pair of eyes, one that understood the unfairness and adapting towards survival and revenge.

The memories he had of them sharing drinks, laughing, and supporting each other now turned to dust with their demise. In his heart, he always tried to find an answer, a reason why they were fighting this pointless war in the first place.

He grew in rank, forged a blade by combining the broken swords he picked up from the battlefield, those which used to belong to the people he used to call brothers.

Climbing the ranks from a foot soldier to squad leader and then to even a general of his own company all while repeating the same cycle of slaughter and mayhem with the increasing onslaught of the demonic army, losing those he grew close to again and again. Every battle would just end up as a loss disguised as a victory, where the only prize he could see was the common folk’s faith towards their Goddess growing day by day.

What about them?

What about his men and the thousands of soldiers fighting on the front lines, dying just to protect these people and their fake knights!