Requiem Of A Failed Hero

“Master is something wrong?”

Absalom’s inquiry broke him out of his chain of thoughts. .

“No, it is nothing. But I don’t think he is weak if he can dodge you. And I am impressed that you managed to increase your speed.”

Volmak said, patting Absalom’s red hair.

The young boy’s countenance suddenly fell, expressing his dissatisfaction.

“What is wrong?”

Volmak seeing this asked.

“It is hard, I can’t even go to the main palace because of my half-brothers, they think I’m too weak to be a demon. Even a lesser demon would defeat me effortlessly. I can’t visit mother’s family and my half-brothers there too because I am not a pure vampire. I have nowhere to go except here. How were you able to do it, you are accepted and respected by even archdemons like Shax?”

He asked, raising his head to the old man.

Raith stayed mute all through but paid close attention to this part.

“As a young boy, I have always loved the sword and martial arts, it was a unique art that I couldn’t take my mind off after witnessing it being used by a human from another world. Because of it I strayed away and followed this human till he taught me all he knew, I trained and trained till I was strong but when I came back to Felfhiem, I was considered a traitor and a castaway. I wasn’t welcomed, but I knew the rule, only the strong could rule, so I began to challenge the lords of different fiefdoms whether they were demons, obrinths, Tanars, yugols, my fellow akte’z, lamurs, and even other lower fiends, I challenged all of them and beat them up still the archdemons couldn’t ignore me any longer… then I beat two archdemons. But then was beaten to a pulp by your father.”

“Wow, I guess he is that strong huh? Then I too shall–

“No, Lord Absalom, you won’t challenge anyone. When I did that I was young, arrogant, and reckless. I had no one to guard me through the right path. You don’t have to be like me. There are several other ways to be acknowledged”

Volmak chastised him with a smile and looked at his door.

“Lord Absalom, take the young man along with you, get wood, and build me a new door. I hope you two get along. A delicious dinner will be waiting for you when you get back WITH MY DOOR”

“Why? Why him?!”

Absalom cried out scratching his face in despair at being paired up with a human.

He stood up anyway and Raith followed him—before he proceeded further, Volmak stopped him, placing his hand on his shoulder.

“Lord Absalom had a rough childhood so he might have a very grumpy attitude but he is a demon of goodwill, I think he will make a good friend.”

The sound of the word ‘friend’ made Raith’s ear leap but also tingled his chest-the lurking of a recent backstabbing scared the idea of making a new friend. He hadn’t made any friends before Mael and Mael turned out to not be a friend after all.

‘What if he betrays me in the end.’

Raith lowered his face, he had never known before now that he finds it difficult to heal from emotional hurt.

He looked forward to the whitish-skinned and tall figure as he walked proudly into the plain wilderness.

He looked back at Volmak and nodded.

“I’ll try”

Then he ran along and met up with Absalom afterward.

Volmak looked at the two with a smile on his face, looking so fulfilled.

…

The two had spent thirty minutes and had still not left the plains what was more annoying was that Absalom did not answer no matter how many times Raith asked how long it will take for them to reach where they can find woods. The young man just kept marching along.

Raith finally could not tolerate it anymore.

He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

“Don’t be a worthless scum! Are you deaf? I said how long will it take for us to reach the woods?”

“Uh? You cockroach, how dare you touch me?”

Absalom stared down at Raith with his nose in the air and his eyeballs sinking downwards his eyes as he spoke with an intimidating growl that made Raith reluctantly release his collar.

He adjusted his tunic and looked at Raith.

“I will spare your life because Volmak deems it so. Don’t you dare think about talking to me, you insignificant cockroach.”

He said and walked on.

‘Forgive me old man Volmak, I don’t think I want to be friends with this guy at all.’

Raith sighed and followed from behind, a little embarrassed.

After a while, they were amidst towering trees with few leaves, Raith was lost in thought and didn’t know when they even got there, his feet were beginning to hurt from the long walk of hours, yet Absalom looked fine, he restrained showing any signs of tiredness for that fact.

‘He already considers me inferior, I will not show any signs of weakness’

Raith had forgotten he was competing with a fiend who was born from a vampire and a demon father and not just any demon but one of the highest echelon.

Absalom paid no attention to Raith and did almost all the work himself, such as pushing down a tree with his arms, and cutting the trees with his fingers while Raith looked for what could be used to improvise an axe or a chainsaw.

He was utterly useless even if he wanted to help.

‘It seems that no matter what I do, I am completely useless compared to a fiend. He pushed that tall tree down on his own.’

The trees were extremely tall ranging between 20ft and 24ft, although it was a thin wood.

What astonished Raith more was the durability and accuracy of his nails as struck them into the woods and tore down a linear line. It was like a very sharp razor.

As he stood beside one tree, watching the young vampire work alone, Raith was made to instincts remember the punch he almost received a while ago.

‘Would I have died if he punched me? Just one punch…’