The Forsaken Hero

”Y-you can sense me?” I stared at Luke, folding my arms self-consciously. I meticulously hid my aura, both to keep the demons from lusting after my soul and to hide from anyone looking for me. How could he just sense me?

”Well, your aura is a little unique,” Luke said with a shrug, rubbing his horn. Oddly enough, there was a slight reddish hue to his face. ”It took me a while to get it down, but there’s this sense of calmness around you, a quiet hush tinged with anticipation, like a storm brewing on the horizon. It’s beautiful.”

”B-beautiful?” I stammered, averting my gaze before he could see the heat rising in my cheeks. Just how long had he spent practicing to be able to sense something like that?

Jessica’s cough startled me from my thoughts. ”We’re still here, you know.”

I shrank back against Fable, my blush deepening, but Luke merely flashed Jessica an easy-going smile. ”I was simply answering a question. Now, what did you learn from this bastard?”

He nudged the listless Father with his foot, causing the man to twitch.

”At least have the shame to act embarrassed. Jessica sighed, rolling her eyes. ”He cracked like the rotten egg he is. Apparently, the church has adopted the Circle’s mission of perfecting the Heart Crest. This city was just one of many experiments running across the world.”

R’lissea’s pointed ears drooped. ”Gods, I had hoped we were wrong.”

”I hope it’s not every city,” Luke said, rubbing his horn. ”It would waste a lot of time if we had to slaughter every single city.”

”Slaughter? But why would you do that?” I asked.

His intense gaze settled on me, making me shift uncomfortably. ”If the civilian population can be manipulated into fighting alongside the army, that increases the number of people I have to kill manifold. Civilians’ combat power is negligible, but hunting them all down will waste too much time. It’s much easier when they just get out of our way.”

”Is that what you’re worried about?” I blurted, my tail starting to lash. I could feel the other’s gaze but pushed through the discomfort and glared at the apostle. ”What about the innocent people? What about those who were enslaved, just like we were? You can’t just kill them!”

His eyes narrowed. ”I will if I have to.”

I took a tentative step back and looked away, unable to handle the intensity of his gaze.

”Everything I do,” he continued, ”aims to exact vengeance on the gods. I can’t waste any time or resources freeing every single person caught in the church’s clutches. I will do anything to make the gods suffer, and if the price of that is a few more deaths, I will not hesitate to kill them myself.”

My tail pressed flat against the ground, my fingers twisting in my skirt. ”B-but Luke...”

”I’m sorry, Xiviyah. The circumstances so far have allowed me to be merciful, but I won’t lead you on and pretend it will always be so.”

This wasn’t how I wanted this to go. I looked at R’lissea, wide-eyed and frantic, and found her with her lips pursed, gazing at Luke. She turned and met my gaze, her eyes calm and unwavering. Filled with determination.

I took a few breaths, struggling to emulate her composure, and forcing my hands to relax their grip on my skirt. ”Luke...what if I went with you?”

His tail twitched, but his face remained smooth. ”Go? Go where?”

”With you,” I said. The weight of his gaze caused me to shrink back. Taking a deep breath, I said, ”You said you wouldn’t force us to fight with you, but...we want to.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. I swallowed hard, pushing through my anxiety.

”I don’t want to fight, but I can’t watch anyone else get hurt like Elise and Sari.” I paused, biting my lip nervously, searching for any hint of warmth in his eyes. ”Would you...would you help me free them if I fought beside you?”

For the longest time, he was silent. I shifted my weight, tail curling up, as he finally let out a breath.

”Xiviyah.” He sighed my name, a hint of sorrow in his voice. ”My place is here, standing against the gods. But you...if I could, I would send you far away from the blood, death, and darkness of this war. Please, ask that of me instead. I would allow the Lord of Ash to take you to Heartland. Those lands are far behind us now, and no demon will threaten them again. Put this behind you. Please.”

”But I...I...” My mind raced, filled with every emotion at once. The church had never offered that to me, even when they thought me useless. I had come to this world to fight and die for them, but...how I longed to escape all that. Since the moment I left, I dreamed of returning to Heartland and living out the slow, peaceful days with those I loved.

Luke asked me to run and hide, to flee this world and all the risks it presented me. It was like a...a...hand held out to me.

I didn’t need--no, didn’t want--my hand held anymore. I had been terrified of leaving Heartland, yet if I hadn’t, Elise and Sari would still be toys in the Circle’s hands. How much more waited for me out there? What would I never get to see or become if I retreated to safety?

”Luke...I want that to...” My fingers curled into a fist. ”But I won’t hide anymore. I can’t stand idly by and watch the gods ruin this world. I want to fight with you and free this world from their darkness.”

”We both do,” R’lissea added, stepping up beside me. ”My god has made it clear he stands against the Sun God’s faction. He won’t tolerate the enslavement of worlds and wishes me to do everything in my power to stop it, even if it means siding with the demons. The lesser of two evils.”

Luke looked between us, lips forming a hard line. But there was an anxious swish to his tail, a hint of pleading in his eyes. ”You understand that I will stoop to any low and commit any atrocity to see the gods bleed? Mercy and grace are weaknesses in this war, and there is no room for weakness in the Infernal Horde.”

I shivered as his eyes bore into me, my tail curling up. Luke knew better than most the frailty of my heart and the vulnerability I presented. Was this his way of rejecting us? Was I too weak and...not enough?

Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes, threatening to spill. I couldn’t let it end this way!

”I will do what I must,” I forced through a sniffle. ”Please, let us fight. Let me save them.”

Just as I was about to break into tears, Luke’s face softened.

”Mercy may be foolish,” he said, ”But it would be even more foolish to ignore your sincerity. If you wish to fight alongside us, you may.”

”R-really?” I asked, breath hitching in my throat.

He nodded, smiling faintly. ”I won’t promise to spare everyone, but I will make a reasonable effort to allow you the chance to do as the circumstance permits. But I warn you, I will not let my authority be questioned, nor will you disregard my decisions.”

”I can live with that,” R’lissea said, meeting my gaze, a question in her eyes.”

I nodded. ”It’s enough. Thank you.”

”Good.” Luke nodded, then glanced down at the Father lying limp on the ground. ”That leaves us one last loose end to tie.”

”Don’t you want to play with him more?” Jessia asked, raising an eyebrow. ”I left him alive just for you.”

A shiver crawled down my spine as Luke hesitated, but he quickly shook his head. ”Their screams are nothing but a bother.”

He crouched down beside the man and reached out, grasping his throat. The Father’s eyes shot open as he began to struggle and scream, but Luke lifted him into the air. The apostle’s aura leaped out, restraining the priest and suppressing his sixth-level mana.

A pulse of mana leaped from Luke’s soul and traveled toward the demon horde. It connected with a fifth-level evolved demon who promptly scurried over. It was a fire demon, shaped like a scaled humanoid with craggy horns, spines across its shoulders, and a tail tipped with a pinecone-like ball of ridged scales.

I shrank against Fable as I felt its eyes latch onto me, its lustful gaze crawling over my skin, searching for my soul. Luke quelled it with a glare before wrenching the screaming Father once, stunning him.

The demon lunged forward, catching the helpless Father in its claws. The points drove into his body, tearing free chunks of flesh and blood. My stomach curdled, and I averted my eyes, biting my lip to keep from whimpering. A few seconds later, the screams turned to gurgles and then to silence.

R’lissea shuddered beside me. ”That’s horrible,” she whispered.

I didn’t want to see anybody suffer and die like that, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak up on his behalf. It was enough that Luke was allowing me to save those who were innocent. And neither of us was under any illusion that the Father could be innocent.

The demon fled the moment it finished with the corpse, finding a place far away to collapse and begin to assimilate the new power. It was the same fascinating scene as with the ice demon, but bile rose in my throat as I witnessed the bloodstained creature writhing in evolution, and I quickly turned away.

”Good riddance,” Jessia muttered.

Luke cleared his throat. ”That’s enough about that bastard. I’d like to hear a full report of what secrets you extracted once we’re on the road.”

Another wave of pulses shot from his soul, tracing to every demon under his command. A few, caught in the middle of absorbing a powerful soul, ignored the summons, but the rest rose and began to stride towards Tormod’s Breach. The horde was on the move again.