Requiem Of A Failed Hero

Silence ensued in the room after Raith’s question. Only two people in this room knew the answer to Raith’s question and one of them would dare not speak of it.

Leane squinted her eyes.

“I am not surprised that you know a lot, I thought you had died when you went to Felfhiem but somehow you are here–

“Bitch don’t divert the conversation…”

“How dare you?!! To the pontifex!!!” Pieter screamed almost pulling out his sword until Leane herself shut him up.

He retracted and bowed his head but still glared at Raith who would dare call the holiest being a bitch. It was another level of disrespect, he wants to at least have Raith’s arm before he leaves here, now he didn’t really care much about how strong Raith might be, he just wanted to smack the fuck out of him.

“I am not diverting the conversation, I am well aware that you are a threat right now and possess the power to tear down all of Alachra in fact. I am speaking and it is not my fault they are not what you want to hear.” Her eyes were rigid, sitting on her astoundingly beautiful face it came out as a pretty cute thing.

Raith chuckled and nodded, it was like these people didn’t know what has come for them.

“You have no idea what you are doing. Save your skin while you can… because I will kill you if you decide not to talk, then I will extract your soul as one of my soldiers and make you tell me everything. That is one, two I will wake all the archons and kill all of them… all of them.”

Of course, his words to everyone came out as nothing but a wild joke, even the knights behind the pontifex were giggling. Raith’s words were far too superficial.

Kill the archons? Damn, joker.

But Raith didn’t stress it, his aim of speaking was not to instill fear in anyone nor did he expect anyone to believe his words, he had no expectations whatsoever. He just said his mind, because he really was going to kill the archons.

Today was going to be a big day for him, he prepared mentally for how many times he will die, he didn’t even know how he will fight them maybe one by one or together but he knows that at the end of this fight, something will be different– that, he looked forward to.

But this demeaning atmosphere was annoying still. Perhaps those knights needed to be taken as scapegoats.

“Crimson…”

“Yes my lord”

From the depth of Raith shadows flew out a blur that passed Leane before Pieter’s eyes could catch up, and by the time his eyes caught up, his hands on the hilt of his longsword about to pull it out…

Of the eight knights that were behind Leane, seven heads rolled into the air with just this dark and red smoky sword cleaving an arc, right behind all eight. He deliberately spared one.

There always has to be a witness after all.

“What?” Pieter’s eyes widened and shook.

The seven bodies crumbled to their knees and in a minute everyone was a pool of blood.

Crimson spun his sword and stabbed it into his ground, placing both hands on its hilt.

Pieter’s face was overturned with anger, apart from the shock of that thing that suddenly attacked the knights, he was angry, blood was shed right beside where she stood and it was all Raith.

He brimmed with anger and tightened his grip around his sword, was about to move at Raith.

“Stop, Pieter.” Her soft voice reached him before he could take any action.

It reached him in such a way that his eyes widened.

‘Leane…’

Memories of his days with her when both of them were young, flooded his mind. Her voice just now was quaking, she could tell it was immersed in fear but she was still asking him to stop when he was her best shot at being protected. Why?

He stood at ease, releasing the tension and gently walking to her. He stood right beside her and faced Raith.

“I am not joking with you.”

The imposing figure standing behind them with a sword changed the atmosphere totally, the remaining knight collapsed and began to convulse.

His Armour sounding on the ground distracted the silence for a while but they were quickly back to the moment.

Raith was still demanding his answers and the Pontifex’s face looked like he was going to get them soon, she was already shaking.

“I don’t know much… but yes the heroes of the death archon before you all died between a year and five years of becoming the hero of the death archon. That has always been the fate of anyone that was chosen by the death archon.”

“You are still lying. You are still lying still… should I just kill you and ask the archons myself?”

Pieter could be seen holding his sword again as Raith was talking like that.

The Pontifex’s expression became blank, she was scared a minute ago but it was now like she had confronted that part of her.

“I will do this instead…”

Raith focused on her.

She brought out a small hourglass with golden sand in it then she turned it.

Immediately Raith jumped several meters away so did Crimson, only Pieter suddenly slammed his knees on the ground and bowed.

“I welcome the archon of light, Alachra!” He shouted.

The Pontifex’s eyes were now blank, her pupils were gone and a golden fluid was coming out of her eyes.

“You carry the abyss… how unlucky of you.”

[THE ABYSS WILL BE BORROWING YOUR BODY]

Wham!!

Raith was already in front of the archon, his hands tightly gripping its neck. Yet it did not move in any way, perhaps because it was not because this is not its real body, Pieter however was worried, he was glancing up and was restless but dared not interrupted.

Raith had become different too, his white sclera had now become black, and he was like a demon himself.

“Alachra, what a joke. You are nothing but a fugitive, how dare you betray your own kind.” The abyss sounded from Raith in many voices all at once.

“What? Fel? Your presence is just like that of Fel. Are you perhaps the one he serves?” The archon grinned.

“Listen young man…”

Despite knowing that what had occupied Raith’s body was no young man, he still said that. His speech was meant to reach Raith.

“… whatever this thing you serve is doing that makes you think you are strong. It is all for nothing. He does nothing but use and deceive and then abandoned. Just like he abandoned Fel.”

“You killed Fel!” The many voices sounded again, tightening Raith’s hand in the grip of the Pontifex’s neck.

“Fel asked for his demise… we created a world to stay away from the rest, from the deceitfulness of the angels, the rashness of the primordials, we protected it.”

Raith’s black eyes squinted, his lids were already getting hollow and becoming black.

The abyss wondered, Why? Why would Fel want to die?

Yes, Fel betrayed it, but Fel found his way back, there was no reason for it to ask for death, the abyss was in deep thought.

But before it could go further it staggered back, shaking its head like a glitch. .𝙘𝒐𝒎

“What? What are you doing?!” He shouted, he was talking to someone on the inside.

[How dare you?!]

[How dare you take my body without my permission]

Raith’s words appeared in the black holographic tab.

The abyss gritted his teeth, holding one eye that kept glitching and had already turned white, a sign that Raith was trying to collect his body back. And it was working.

“You will not be able to deceive anyone like you deceived Fel.”

“You damned boy, I have done everything for you and you dare rebel against me? Me?!!”

[Done every for me?]

[Didn’t you have an objective with me]

[Haven’t you been growing me, training me for whatever you wish to use me for without letting my say in it]

[I see, it makes sense that you occupied my body, was it all for this?]

The abyss was silent and said nothing, it wasn’t like it could tell Raith that weirdly enough he had a body that could condone its presence. Even Fel wasn’t able to host the abyss like him, a body that was capable of accepting cosmic energy, it was very rare, one out of ten billion.

And all that luck came to it because this pontifex chose Raith as the hero of the death archon putting the dust of the death archon into him but it was a remnant of the abyss soil that Fel always has with him, it was a way to stay connected and be able to enter the abyss as he pleases.

It was after Raith’s first death that the abyss noticed. Something was different about this one. It didn’t know much about the world Fel created, but the moment it found Raith’s magnificent body after that first death, it found him in an instant.

All this was the abyss reason for determining that Raith was the only one that could help it reach its goal. Even if the highest of primordial demanded it. It was not ready to let go of Raith.