Paradox Breakers

1: The Contract

Johann cowered in the corner as he watched the carnage outside his house through a hole in the wall. Men in black armor wearing fierce masks marched through the streets, torching huts. It's okay. Daddy said he was a holy knight. He'll protect me. Mommy's a holy mage, so she'll help him too.

Villagers fled their homes as holy knights and mages fell back against the demon army. A child tripped on a stone and fell onto the dirt in front of her flaming hut. The roof of the hut collapsed, and fiery debris rained down on her. Johann almost screamed, but covered his mouth, his eyes watering. In front of his house, broad-shouldered Daddy charged against a soldier with an ornate black helmet. He swung a broadsword down. The soldier pointed his sword toward Daddy, and the blade grew and extended through Daddy in an instant. Daddy, eyes wide, coughed up blood.

Mommy ran up behind Daddy to heal him, but the blade extended its length further and pierced her in the chest. Johann trembled while crying. Mommy! Daddy! Daddy, enraged, grabbed the blade stabbing him and lunged forward. He swung his sword down, but the soldier leapt back, shrinking his blade. Daddy's sword cut through the soldier's mask. The demonic black mask shattered, revealing the face of a person. His thick eyebrows, deep black eyes, and bushy mustache etched itself onto Johann's memory.

"You are a fine knight," the soldier said. "If it had been anyone else here, you would've won. It was your misfortune that you fought me."

Daddy collapsed to his knees and looked back at Mommy who lay still in a pool of her own blood. "Cecilia... No, no, no! I'll kill you, you bastard!"

"This is war, and you are both soldiers, as am I. You fought honorably. Tell me your name," the mustachioed soldier said.

"I'm Sebastian Noctvell. Don't think you'll be forgiven. You and your demonic power!" Daddy gripped his sword again.

"I do not expect to be forgiven, but the fallen should know the name of their killer. I am Kabas Teurin. Rest in peace." His blade extended through Daddy's neck, and Daddy moved no more.

Johann wanted to run, but his legs were frozen. He couldn't do anything but cry. Perhaps Kabas had heard him, for he smashed open the door to the small brick house. Johann, trembling, picked up a shard of a plate. He threw it at Kabas.

The plate shrunk as it approached Kabas, until a speck of a shard reflected off his armor. "Pitiful child. You've probably never seen an ability like Planck Scaling before," Kabas said in a low voice.

With the partially broken mask, his visage was half demon and half human. It terrified Johann. "You killed Mommy and Daddy!" He lashed out violently as Kabas drew near.

Kabas's large gloved hand caught him by the neck. "Kabas Teurin. That's the name of the man who killed your parents. Remember it. Whenever you think you have nothing left, remember it and live. Live and hate me, and come to kill me. But whatever the case, live." He let go of Johann. Kabas smashed a hole in the wall behind Johann with a swing of the sword. He threw a torch onto the floor, spreading an inferno.

Johann stepped forward, but Kabas motioned him to stop. "There are soldiers on this side. If you want to live, run out the back."

Johann stood still, unsure of how to deal with the mix of fear, anger, and panic. A flaming wood bar fell in front of him, and he leaped back. His fragile balance broken, he ran out the hole in the back wall and toward the forest. He looked back once as he ran. The home that he had grown up in, where he had enjoyed soup and bread with Mommy and Daddy just weeks earlier was now merely a skeleton in a flame. Amidst the flame, Kabas began to turn back toward the fighting. He seemed to be crying.