Mythical Guardians

♤30. Mirror of the Past♤

  Jason's spear hovered before Cedric's bleeding chest, or rather, the Devil Prince's. Cedric still looked vaguely human, but his cheeks were ridged, and there was something inhuman in his eyes, something older, more powerful, and demonic. Despite that, he looked at the spear with a bitter resignation, his chest hitching with uneven breaths.

  "Go on," Cedric snarled weakly," Kill me. Finish what you had started thirteen years ago."

  Jason glanced at the bleeding wound at Cedric's chest. He was pretty sure he didn't injure him, but seeing the Devil Prince before him now, he remembered a tiny bit from his dreams. Just a split second before his throat had been slashed open, he felt his own spear jabbed forward wildly, connecting with something, presumably the devil's sternum.

  He hated the creature before him with every part of his waking soul. He had killed him when he was Azir, the powerful, confident leader of the Westwing squadron, and now he had the chance to take revenge, by driving his spear into the creature's chest.

  "You're not a killer, Jason!" Gordon shouted, an arrow nocked on his bow for some unknown reason, his eyes behind his glasses wide with fear," You said it yourself!"

  His entire body shuddered, a mist seemed to clear from his eyes.

  "Kill me, O' Mighty angel," Cedric sneered in defiance, a trickle of blood rolling down the right corner of his lips," Like the way you killed your own soldiers."

  The spearhead wavered.

  "What did you say?" Jason whispered, completely stunned.

  "Azir would never have hesitated," Cedric drawled, before training his coppery eyes on him," Unlike you."

  "Cut the crap and tell me,"Jason growled, the spearhead swiveling until it was pointing at Cedric's throat.

  Cedric glanced nonchalantly at the tip of the spear, before his eyes flicked back up to look at Jason," Oh, you really want to know about your past, eh? I am warning you, it ain't pretty."

  "Just tell me!"

  Cedric snickered, then his face resumed to its serious state," Do you know, that it was you and your squadron that started the Third Angel Demon War directly, not Herno?"

  He almost dropped the spear.

  Cedric continued," You led your squadron and a troop of wind spirits to Hell, oh, I remembered that much clearly. You challenged our might, and you were so arrogant that you even dared challenge my father.

  "In such small numbers, it was undoubtedly a suicide mission. We have been preparing for war all along, yes, but make no mistake, it was you who led your squadron to our homeland and triggered it."
 
  Jason couldn't believe his ears, utterly shaken. But there was nothing but brutal sincerity in Cedric's ancient eyes, not even a trace of a lie. The Third Angel Demon had always been portrayed as a bloody, devastating war, and now it was him that triggered it? What kind of power did he have to do such a terrible thing?

  "This isn't true," the spearhead trembled more violently in his hands," You...you're lying."

  "Am I?" Cedric chuckled," True, the culprit may had been Herno, your general, but make no mistake, you were the one who chose to follow her orders."

  His stomach where Cedric's foot had connected with ached. His breaths were as uneven as Cedric's were as he staggered backwards, his legs shaky, not quite believing that he could had done something so vile and terrible.

  "Then why am I here?" Jason glared at Cedric, still not moving the spear away from his throat, which seemed to be only thing that could keep him under his control," What did you do?"