The Fall of The King

Amalain's destruction

Chapter 20

The man stood before me with utter confidence. He believed he could destroy a demon, how wrong he would find himself to be. My charge at the man had been only to test his speed and reaction, which fighting style he used and if he fought with magic. I read him like an open book, the strength and speed he had was quite incredible for his size and mass, but he wasn't fast enough to stop my charge. My sword broke his great sword in once slice, leaving him defenseless against a revered demon king. I hadn't even tried to kill the man yet and he was already defenseless, though he didn't give up as most men would, he simply stood his ground and watched me as I slowly walked to his broken sword and picked it up. With a smile I slowly turned the sword into a smaller version of itself and tossed it to him. He deftly grabbed it from the air and held it, he obviously didn't think testing the weight would be important. Only a veteran would be able to stare down the most daunting adversary and not flinch. This man wasn't new to battle and I knew that he knew nothing about all I could do. My son has this man as his right hand. He was indeed a smart boy, of that I had no doubt. Looking back at Odion I saw the pitiful man who fathered such a strong warrior. I had given him Amalain and he had lost it, Aletheia gave him the power to see the future and he failed to kill his own son. I knew he would fail at anything he tried so I came to Amalain to protect the worthless weight he was. Aletheia forbid me from killing him, but she said nothing about him dying from other means. Looking at his son I saw his hunger for battle, but he wasn't going to initiate the fight, he was smarter than that. I looked at him and moved out of his way as his father lay on the ground trying to heal his deep wounds and missing finger. In truth the man wouldn't have lived if I hadn't cast the whole castle of Amalain from time itself. Time would work differently as long as I held the spell, but I could feel my son was near, his presence lighting up the oppression I pulsed from my very being. He was close, so I summoned Arisen. Those would keep him busy while I had fun, I knew I could try to kill him now if I wanted to but that wasn't how things were meant to happen. Things would have to flow as I had seen it. So I looked to the man before me and then looked to his father. With a twinge of a smile I said, "Kill him." When he saw who I meant he looked at me with eyes ablaze with anger, but he hesitated to kill the man. It made me laugh, on the inside of course. I needed to appear the least human as I could to this man, if I stuck fear in his heart I would win this war. I slowly began to teleport as I looked to see him begin to walk towards Odion. I watched as he drew the new sword and placed it against Odion's neck. Then I smiled as his head rolled and his son stood in the spray of blood. He was indeed the son of Odion, not many men enjoy the spray of blood on their skin. Especially the blood of their own father.

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The Arisen weren't hard to kill, but it was indeed cumbersome to fight so many of the things. Artur fought with fervor I hadn't seen before, and Amicia stood safely behind us and fired her bow. As each Arisen fell I collected her bow, throwing them behind me whenever I had the change. All she had to do was pull them from the ground and fire. Many archers employed this tactic to fire faster than having to draw from a quiver, but Amicia fired fast either way. I had never seen an archer fire with so much skill. She seemed to be feeling the strength of the bow as she fired, directing each arrow to her target and never leading one astray. As the Arisen thinned out I noticed that they weren't just dying from us, it seemed they were falling apart before we even touched them. Whoever had summoned the Arisen no longer wanted them to fight. The strong sense of dread I had felt seemed to lighten as well, almost instantly. I looked towards Amalain to see a lone man walking out of the castle. We began to run until we got close enough to see it was Roan. Then the castle began to crumble, the walls falling in on themselves and the whole place seemingly to be sucked in. Soon something was forming in the center, the place wasn't being destroyed, but being absorbed by something. soon I realized what was happening. Odion was absorbing everything and growing in size, but he wasn't mortal anymore. He resembled something similar to an Arisen now. Then I heard my fathers voice in my head, "You have an impressive ally on your side, so I shall show you what kind of allies I can make." Odion stood as tall as a frost giant, his skin seemingly stone but somehow showing muscle and blood pulsing throughout it. On his face he wore a grin that seemed so cruel, yet triumphant. Then Roan spoke to him, "I thought I killed you, I guess the second time will be better. At least you'll be fighting back." We all stood ready to fight Odion, I readied my spear and took my stance. Then Odion screeched and charged for not Me or Roan, but for Amicia. She was the most vulnerable of us all, or so he must have thought. As he ran for her Amicia had readied her bow, showing no signs of fear, and then fired five shots directly for Odion's eye. They all flew true and blood poured from the arrows now filling his eye. We took this as our moment to attack, but soon realized his skin was impossible to cut. Only my spear could harm him, and it cut through the skin cleanly. His skin tried to heal but it smoked wherever it tried to heal, the stones power burning anything that attempted to heal. soon Odion was charging again, but this time he was less confident and half hearted in his attempt. He knew that my father had sentenced him to two deaths, and he knew that he had nothing else to do but die. so I finished the fight by throwing my spear through his unharmed eye. It sailed cleanly through and came out of the back of his head. Odion fell to the ground and the stones he had absorbed began to crumble from his body. We all looked to one another with nothing but content that we had found Roan and that none of us was injured. Then suddenly I felt a pulse in my head, pain coursed through my body and as I looked around I could see shock on everybody's face. I looked down to see a sword piercing my chest. My lungs burned as they filled with blood, Breathing became impossible after a few seconds. Then the sword left my body and I fell to the ground, I looked up to see it was my father. He hadn't meant for Odion to kill us, but to distract us. He showed no emotion as he watched the blood pour from my chest, then I saw through blurry eyes as Amicia screamed and began to unleash arrows towards my father. He simply moved like the wind was flowing through him and sliced the arrows from the air. Then suddenly he disappeared. The next thing I felt was Amicia's tears hitting my face as she pulled my head into her lap, I tried to speak but I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I closed my eyes and let the strength fade from my body.

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My eyes opened and I saw that I nothing but blue sky, below me I felt soft grass and warm sunlight heated my skin. I sat up and felt pain shoot through my body, falling back to the ground I realized that this must be death. Forever laying where I had died. Then I heard a voice I hadn't heard in a while. The warm voice of Raphael, my pretended father. He walked to me and looked down with pity, then he kneeled and looked into my eyes. "It isn't time for you to die my son, you have so much left to accomplish. I cannot watch as the only man who can save the land be killed. Do not fear my son, I will pay the toll for your death. You are worth more to the world alive than dead." And with that he slowly began to fade. I felt the pain in my chest dissipate and as I sat up the image I saw began to fade to black.

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Light flashed in my eyes and then cleared till I saw I was in a dark room. Candles lit the room, and I was lying on a soft bed. As I sat up I noticed my chest was bare and it held a large jagged scar from where I had been pierced by my fathers sword. Then seemingly from nowhere Amicia appeared, her eyes flaring with tears as she ran to me and fell practically jumped onto me. She hugged me fiercely and then looked into my eyes with utter happiness. "Kai... I'm so sorry I wasn't here to see you wake up, I only left for a moment to get some food and when I came back you were awake." "Amicia its fine, what in the world happened, how am I still alive??" She looked at me and for once I saw she didn't know how to answer my question. "Well first tell me where I am." I said, and this I knew was a question she could easily answer. "We are in Tisent Kai." She replied with a smile as shock spread across my face. "You guys carried me all the way to Tisent?" "Yes we did Kai, we weren't going to leave your body to rot. Half way here we noticed that your body wasn't decaying and that it still hadn't gone cold. After that we checked your wound to see that it was somehow healing. When we arrived in Tisent we found that they had been waiting for the you to arrive to free the land. They and willingly joined our force and once they saw your condition gave us a place for you to recover, and well here you are." She said this with her eyes ablaze with happiness, tears falling from her eyes. I reached up and gently wiped them from her face. She smiled and showed her perfect smile and her full lips beckoned to be kissed. I was reaching in to do so, when Artur burst into the door with a smile on his face that quickly dissipated as he saw me awake and a mere inch from Amicia's lips. He then brought his smile back and laughed as he walked up and hugged me. "The lord king slayer isn't just going to reunite the kingdoms, but he's going to die several times doing so." I laughed as it felt great to be alive and knowing that I had averted death thanks to my fake fathers sacrifice. I had no idea what toll he payed for me, but I wouldn't make him regret making his sacrifice. I stood up and looked at the two of them, "Where's Roan?" I asked. That was when worry stuck their faces. "Well once you got stabbed Roan wanted to chase your father, but we knew there was no way we could fight him in the state we were in. So he went off on his own while we carried your body to Tisent." "In other means, we have no idea where the big man ran off to. I'll bet he went back to see that woman he was with in Fellicia." Artur said with a sly smirk. I knew he was wrong though, and that troubled me. Where had Roan ran off to?

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Kai is dead. the knowledge hit me like a heavy load. The man who had pulled me into a cause greater than myself. Through his choice I had been sent to Fellicia and reunited with the one woman I would ever love. I wasn't going to stand by and wait while his father took back the land we worked so hard to free. No, I'm going to rally the troops we have gathered and take them to the Demon kings castle. This final battle will be over soon enough. Kai died to save the lands, and I refuse to sit around and cry over his dead body while his father just destroys everything he lived to make. With the Army in Elestia I could break into the kings castle and with him outnumbered I could easily kill him. Then a thought hit my mind. The king wouldn't be alone, he had the queen and his two sons. The king wasn't the only thing that I should be worried about killing, but I could kill the two sons. The queen and king were the only two I had worries about killing, however that wouldn't be a problem if I had an army there to distract them while I came behind them and pushed my sword through their backs like they had done to Kai. I wouldn't rest until they all have died. The people of Elestia will certainly follow me to the kings castle. They would be just as enraged as I was to hear about Kai's death. The king has no idea what is about to happen, but I knew he would be dead by the end of the week.