章 14: Consequences
Lighting strikes the circle of the palace grounds and Das appears in it. The guards continue their routines and exercises without bothering to look in his direction, all too used to it.
However, as he begins to walk towards the main gates he is stopped by one of the two guards near him.
"High General Edel demands your presence in the dungeons"
Das nods and turns around. He walks on the stone path that goes around the enormous palace, a long walk for sure, but in its own way relaxing for him.
The sound of heavy boots marching, the shouting of the men and women, swords clashing as they train, the blacksmith nearby hitting the hot iron or making sure the blades and spear points are as sharp as possible.
The noise had always been relaxing to him.
The walk felt shorter than it actually was, finally reaching the barracks of the guards. A large fortress-like structure that laid directly beneath the tall tower where he slept, while worn, on top of the barracks there was a catapult, ready to destroy the tower if it was ever needed.
Das walks inside the stone fortress, the insides of it look as one would expect. Fairly simple and mostly focused on function rather than comfort. Several guards are sitting with each other on the tables or within their rooms, cooling their bodies with ale but the entire place seems eerily quiet.
The few looks he gets from some guards so full of hatred or they just advert the gaze.
He goes through one of the many corridors and reaches the stone stairs that lead to the underground tunnels of the palace and the whole city itself. There are a pair of guards that step aside and open the iron gate for him.
Das then walks through and summons a small ball of light to help him go through the dark and tight paths of the tunnels. Every few meters a new path or door is leading to countless other rooms.
But in time he reaches his destination. A large wooden door leads to the dungeons beneath the palace, this being the only way in and out. Opening the door he is concerned when he sees rows of heavily armored guards in front of every cell.
As he walks through the hallway he takes glances at the other cells but sees they are empty, something that confuses him, considering the number of rebels, criminals, and other wrongdoers the guards tend to bring there every week.
"Das" Drachen speaks to him telepathically.
"What is it?" He answers, feeling increasingly nervous.
"Back in the village, when we first arrived I smelled the overwhelming odor of death, we know why that was" She spoke, her tone as concerned as Das's " I can smell the same essence at the end of this hallway"
"It's a dungeon, I don't think it is that surprising you can smell a lot of death in here"
"No, you don't understand. I thought I was sensing and smelling death, but now I realize I was sensing the unnatural state of the undead"
Das rubbed his chin, analyzing her words carefully.
"Why do you tell me this?" He asked, staring at the ever-closer iron gate that laid at the end of the hallway, already getting the idea of where this was this going.
"I can sense the same weird, unfamiliar essence coming from someone or something at the other side of the door"
Das holds his staff tightly.
"Whatever it is, if it is a threat, I will be ready" He tells her, his words managing to calm him more than they calmed her.
"Just be prepared for anything" Drachen cautioned him.
The situation was now more concerning than ever, once he stood in front of the door his eyes turned white and the orb of his staff began to glow lightly, he wasn't taking any chances.
He opens the creaking iron door and is face to face with the corpse of the knight with a hole in his chest hanging from what appears to be a vertical wooden torture bed.
His eyes return to normal as he sees General Edel sitting on a chair, his arms folded and looking at the monster.
The knight has both arms and legs cut off, they rest on a table nearby. There is fresh blood on the ground and walls, the corpse has metal chains piercing through his amputated arms and legs that keep him in place.
"G-General Edel, what happened here?" Das asks stepping in, the guards close the door behind him.
"You said it was dead" Edel said without turning to see Das, his voice loud and harsher than usual.
Das nervously looks at the still moving corpse and then back at Edel, thinking of what words to use while Drachen turned to see him, she wasn't aware that he had brought the corpse with him.
"Does he look DEATH to you?" Edel stands up from the chair slowly "I knew you were far too idiotic to be trusted so I left a couple of guards in here to watch over it"
The realization hit Das like a battering ram, so hard he took a step back. His eyes went over the entire room, the amount of blood was petrifying. Images of what the knight had done to the bandits came rushing to his mind as his face slowly twisted and contorted in a foul mixture of pain and horror.
"I-I didn't-"
"He butchered the guards, Das" Edel finally turned his body around and faced him, his eyes penetrated Das with killing intent, so powerful was his desire that Drachen prepared to react if he were to try something "He smashed their skulls and torn their bodies like you would a loaf of bread" He steps forward, towards Das.
"He had no way to know! this had never been seen before!" Drachen shouts, flying in front of Das.
"This doesn't concern you, move aside insect or I WILL go through you" Edel threatened her without ever looking away from Das.
"If you try to-"
"He is right!" Das yells over her words, his voice clearly panicked "I shouldn't have...I was irresponsible and people died because of it"
She turns around and sees that while Das looks afraid, he looks at her as if begging her.
"Leave us for a moment, please" He says looking at the ground.
Drachen wishes to protest, first in anger, and then turns to Edel, about to plead. Yet this never comes, she knows nothing she says will change the outcome of this discussion.
So her body becomes as transparent as water and she flies upwards, disappearing on the roof.
Once she is gone, Edel takes out his gauntlets that also have the face of a lion on them, he takes some time doing so. The leather straps are loud and echo when they snap free. When both hands are no longer encased in the protective steel he places the gauntlets on the chair and walks up to Das.
"Look at me" He orders.
Das is hesitant but knows better than wait for him to repeat so he obeys and as soon as he does his face is hit by Edel at full force. So powerful is the hit that he can feel his teeth break.
Edel is merciless in his attacks, hitting him on the face enough times that Das falls unconscious but then is forced awake by the furious General that crushes his torso with his kicks.
After no more than fifteen, long seconds, Das lays on the floor bleeding and coughing, and even if it hurts and he struggles to do it, he manages to kneel in front of Edel and tries to speak without success.
The general grabs him by the collar of his stained tunic and lifts him so they are eye to eye.
"Heal yourself and next time you risk someone's life, it better just be yours" He says before pushing him to the side, opening the door, and exiting the room closing the door behind him with a loud bang.
As soon as he does so, Drachen reappears from where she vanished and flies down to where Das lays to immediately begin healing him.
They remain silent for a long time, throughout the whole process of Das being healed. His teeth regrow from broken ones or fully from empty spaces left behind, his bones crack back in place and the quickly growing swelling begins to vanish as the blood from his eyes goes back to where it belongs.
What Drachen can't heal is the strong smell of iron and the wetness of his clothes.
Once he is back to normal he stands up, looking at the ground while Drachen floats nearby, her ears down as well as her eyes.
"I deserved this" He says, making Drachen stiffen with shock and anger.
"NO ONE deserves to be treated like that! And you are just a boy!"
"I'm a man Drachen! I'm an adult so the deaths of those guards fall on ME" He shouts with conviction, taking her by surprise "I shouldn't have supposed this corpse wouldn't be different from the others...what was I THINKING?!" He presses the bridge of his nose and shuts his eyes hard, gritting his teeth.
Das walks past her and stands closer to the knight, his body black, scorched by the mana fire he had used on him during their fight. So it still burned within him, making the cracks, open mouth, and eyes of the monster glow as if inside of him he had a campfire. Something that in its own way wasn't wrong.
"I can heal from wounds in a few seconds but they can't. I can fight against creatures like this on my own, they will just die"
"But I can't bring them back from the dead"
"But I can't bring them back from the dead"
Drachen for a moment hears two voices and once again, she sees not the young Das, but instead, she sees the back of his father, who once said those exact words.
"So it's okay, a little pain is meaningless. I MUST do better, I can't be this dumb in the future or people will die" He then walks up to one of the tables in the room, tools often used in torture lay on one of them, he picks up a saw and walks back to where he stood, in front of the monster "I have to learn what I'm dealing with and how to best fight against it"
Drachen, while worried, thinks is better to say nothing. She knows anything she said, no matter how true, wouldn't get anywhere inside Das at the moment.
Das tries to saw through the corpse's shoulder but the blade breaks. So he throws it away and leaving his staff floating nearby and sticks out the index finger of his right hand.
A small flame manifests and Das focuses great strength on it, the flame becomes a mixture of orange and blue like a propane torch. He tries to cut through the flesh a second time and after a few seconds, it begins to cut through.
He smirks but this soon fades away as the smell of the flesh invades his nostrils once again. Bringing back the disgusting memory of the village and the smell of the burned bodies, together with their faces and specifically, that one girl on the stake, looking up.
He gags and almost vomits but manages to keep it in. He then pushes through his body's reaction and focuses on the task at hand.
While he is at it, the General walks through the palace grounds, he reaches the gates and the guards open them for him, he is about to enter the palace when the cries of a woman stop him.
He doesn't need to turn around to know that not far from him the wife, mother, or lover of one of the guards must be confirming that the mangled body in front of her belongs to the one she loves.
It's a sound he will never get used to. No matter how many thousands of times he hears it.
クリエイターの想い 
PenguinSam64
PenguinSam64 I'm experimenting with new ways to write my chapters. My objective is to be able to make at least three chapters of 2000 words every day. So I can publish two and keep one in reserve.
This will be a fairly long novel with multiple volumes so we are here for the long run! Support me any way you want if you want to motivate me! Although just looking every day more and more people reading my story powers me!
Have a great day!
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