Obsidian's Reign ¹

∷ Chapter 39 ∷

IT WAS ABSOLUTE chaos outside the castle—guttural shouts, cries of pain, sounds of clashing weapons and engaged fisticuffs—everywhere she looked, for as far as she could, there was nothing but mayhem and confusion.

The plan was supposed to be simple: sneak out of Farrador in the dead of night without arising suspicions. But the straightforwardness of the scheme met its chink in the armour when they were interrupted even before anything had come to pass.

It was a little after supper when the king's guards barged unannounced into Clara's chambers, startling her which subsequently shifted to alarm when they attempted to drag her to a place unknown. Her demands for an explanation fell on deaf ears as they continued in their pursuit of her extraction, halted only by the Elite's interference; having been alerted to the situation by the intentional ruckus she was causing.

One glance at the guards was all it took for them to piece two and two together, coming to the immediate conclusion that they had inevitably been found out by the king. Thus began their immediate evacuation from the premises, with Jae dragging her along behind him as they fled from the tumultuous scene once Zephyr and Rylan interceded with violent retaliation.

Outside the castle's premises was not any better, with a majority of the king's guard blocking the direct paths leading to the bridge. Making use of teleportation at such a crucial time was not a risk neither was willing to take; especially when they were alarmingly outnumbered and the teleportation would only alert the others of their whereabouts. It was easier to sneak about undetected as they were, although the process was gut-wrenchingly slow.

Clara looked past the wall and over at the stretch of land before them.

"How far are we from the portal?" she asked.

"The Middle Level is just beyond the clearing. There's a bridge off to the side of that. The portal should be somewhere near the connecting bridge," Jae said.

Clara crouched next to him after peering around the side of the wall. The distance from their current location to the bridge was much too far for them to get to without alerting the king's soldiers. She sifted through various possibilities in her mind but could not bring herself to concentrate. For reasons unknown, she felt immensely uneasy and found herself constantly looking back towards the castle, its silhouette daunting against the looming darkness.

"What is it?" Jae asked.

"I'm worried about Zeph and Rylan."

"They'll be fine," Jae curtly assured her.

"But—"

"They're part of the Elite. They know what to do when things go wrong."

Clara was just about to respond when screams coming from just beyond the wall reached her ears. Startled, she peered over the side to see the soldiers in a flurry as they rushed towards the cause of the commotion.

"Now's our chance," Jae said, taking their distraction as an opportune moment to cover what distance they could.

He was leading them out into the clearing, keeping as low to the ground as possible and evading the attention of the handful of panicked soldiers running towards the burst of flame that had conveniently taken hold of their attention.

As Clara was pulled along by an overly cautious Jae, she turned towards the mob of demons just as a break in the crowd appeared. Her eyes widened in mild disbelief when her gaze landed on the apparent cause of all the ruckus. There, standing with their backs to each other and surrounded by hoards of the king's soldiers, were Rylan and Zephyr; both of whom had eyes misted over with the colour of rage and adrenaline.

"Jae," she called over the din of the fight, attempting to direct his attention to what she was seeing.

Jae hardly turned in the direction of his subordinates, but spared Clara a glance as he said, "I told you they'll be fine."

Clara was about to express her relief when she felt a strong grip tightening itself around her ankle. She looked at the source of the growing pain, alarm immediately taking over when she noticed the demon whose body had been mutilated in half. He had a horrible snarl on his face as he latched onto her feet, refusing to let go despite the apparent pain he was in.

His face was covered in copious amounts of blood and so were his hands. His eyes were lacklustre as he fumbled with his weapon in an attempt to pull it free of its scabbard. The demon's innards were spewed across the floor from where his legs were detached from his gutted waist.

Clara tried desperately to kick him off, but the more she struggled, the tighter his grip, to the point of near dislocation. Jae, angered by the sudden interruption when they were so close to the portal, found in the demon's appearance a perfect way to release the frustration coursing through his veins.

Marching up from behind Clara, he haphazardly stomped on the demon's head with the heel of his boot, the skull cracking with a sickening crunch. The demon made a gurgled attempt at a groan just as Jae reached over and pulled the blade from its scabbard. He brought the weapon down mere inches from Clara's feet as he butchered the demon's wrist and kicked away the hand that had its grip on her ankle.

With his foot still lodged in the demon's crushed skull, and the fresh blood dripping from the tip of the blade, he moved to behead the now writhing demon. Jae's ruthless assault ended with the weapon piercing the demon's chest, akin to one laying claim over the land they had conquered.

He turned to Clara with a fierce look on his face, though the hues of red in his eyes were beginning to disappear with each passing second.

"Are you okay?" he asked, aware of the stunned expression on her face and the way she seemed to be frozen where she stood.

Clara stared at the blank eyes of the now immobile demon, his body rigid and starting to lose its natural sheen; turning an almost sickly shade of grey. She felt the sudden urge to puke, though she willed herself to keep it under control. She exhaled, turning away to shift her gaze elsewhere, no longer able to stare at the brutality that had occurred moments before.

Jae's arm found its way around her shoulder as he guided her away from the dead body and towards the bridge once more. He mumbled a word of apology, assuming her sudden silence had something to do with the violence she'd been made to witness at such proximity.

She glanced at him—the spatters of blood on his face an odd contrast to the concerned expression he wore as he returned her gaze.

Instead of answering his earlier question, she found herself saying instead, "You have blood on your face."

"So do you," he responded, causing her to blink in surprise.

She lifted her arm, touching her face gingerly with the tips of her fingers, pulling them back to see the sticky substance coating her skin. She winced despite herself, unable to hide the disgust she was feeling.

"That makes two of us, I guess," she mumbled as they continued on their way.

After a brief halt in their conversation, Jae asked, "Is the weapon still with you?"

He paused to look over his shoulder at her, whereupon she nodded and patted her jacket over the inner pocket where she'd secured it for concealment and easy retrieval should the need arise at a moment's notice.

"Good," he said.

And when he finally stepped out of her view, Clara realised that they'd arrived at the connecting bridge, the portal just within sight. She was relieved at the prospect, yet she could not seem to stop the worry from crowding her thoughts as she looked towards the clearing once more, unable to get the image of Zephyr and Rylan, outnumbered by the king's soldiers, out of her mind.