章 12: Hope in the Darkness

The gloomy darkness of the night covered the heavens and the earth. With jet-black painted everywhere, there was one source of light above all. It was the pale silver moon, illuminating with its brilliant moonlight. It brightened the dark world below it, giving some order and calm to the darkness. But as one would expect, darkness itself wasn't the night.

The breeze of wind passed through the heavens and the lands below. They carried the fluffy clouds throughout the night sky, covering some of the thousands of starry twinkling stars. Below the sky, the breeze rustled the leaves plastered on the branches and the grass erected from the ground. It was quite a beautiful night, though it was horrifying for some.

Within the forest covered by the gloomy darkness, the crimson flames were burning barbarically as their black ashes covered the heavens above it. One would wonder what happened in such a forest. Well, the answer was simple. In this forest, a small village stood. And at this very moment, it was being raided by bandits.

Death and suffering plagued the village, with chaos and madness covering it. The villagers within it were screaming while some cried for help. The men fought with their farm tools against the bandits who carried bloodied swords. The women protected the children though they failed to do so, as they screamed from the intrusion of the bandits.

The small village was crumbling into its ashen state. Defiled corpses would follow it by dawn though some would wonder if such corpses were both the villagers and the bandits. After all, hope within the darkness was about to radiantly illuminate. And in time, hope would help someone with a deal.

"Oi, oi, be careful with the young women and children. They are our future goods. Make sure we bring most of the money from them." A bandit uttered with a smirk plastered on his face. He held a bloodied sword under his hand as he looked at the destruction brought by his crew.

"Such beauty..." He quietly said under his breath while gazing at the crimson flames of destruction. The bandit was a buff man with a bald head. He had a scar on his face and was wearing ragged armor. It seems that he was a former soldier who resorted to banditry.

"Boss, what do we do with the wives?" A random bandit questioned with curiosity. He looked rather skinny and had a rusty dagger as his weapon. Upon hearing the skinny bandit's words, the buff bandit man known as Boss smiled. He answered with a teasing tone.

"You can do anything with them. I doubt that there would be people who would buy them. But if you find some beauties among them, there is no need to touch them. After all, with their beauty, I'm sure that the bastards wouldn't mind a single compromise."

A creepy smile emerged from the skinny man's face as he ran towards one of the houses. Screams followed as the chuckle of the thin man sounded along with it. The Boss simply shook his head and chuckled as he turned his gaze towards the young man below him.

"You were the only one who charged and attacked me. Your bravery is outstanding, unlike those who cower behind their flimsy weapons." The Boss said with a calm voice as the young man below him slowly looked at him with a gaze of anger and hatred.

"Oi, oi, I like that expression of yours. With enough training, you will become a good subordinate. But, unfortunately, we met in this very situation. I have no need for a grunt who comes for my head. Your death will be the best thing in this small village."

The Boss pointed his bloodied sword towards the back of the young man. The Boss Bandit was stepping on the young one's body, resulting in the young man being stuck on the ground. With a simple swipe, the guy below the Boss would die without that much of a hassle.

"You bastard!!! I will kill you!!!" The young man shouted with all his power as he tried to get up but unfortunately failed. The Boss chuckled as the young man below him was simply a barking down without any teeth. After a while, the young man got tired as thoughts began to emerge within his mind.

"Sis, you must run no matter what!!! Leave me behind!!!" The young man shouted as the Boss furrowed his eyebrows. 'Sis?' The Boss thought to himself as a grin emerged from his face. "You have a sister, eh? Now, that makes things a lot more interesting."

"What would happen if I devour her in front of you? Her cries for your help as my men would have their way on her afterward. Wouldn't that be an interesting scene?" The Boss wanted to see the young man's reaction, but unfortunately, the only thing he got was a chuckle.

"You!?" The Boss got a little bit pissed off as the young man began muttering in an unknown language. He mumbled like a crazy man as the Boss wondered if the young man's mind got broken. "What are you trying to do? Are you already broken? That would be extremely boring."

After a while, no response emerged as the Boss squinted his eyes and noticed something strange. "He stopped breathing... He died, but how?" He questioned as he wondered what the young man had done to die like that. He once again shook his head and ordered five of his men.

"Find the girl for me. You must find her no matter what."

His words sounded with an arrogant and cold tone. The five bandits before him nodded simultaneously and began looking for the signs of the young man's sister. It didn't take a while for one of them to see a trace. It was leading to the dark forest, where the bandits stopped for a single moment to look at each other.

They nodded at each other as they started to chase the girl. They brought their weapons and torches to carry out their jobs during the night.

Meanwhile, the young man's sister ran through the dark, gloomy forest alone. The pale moonlight of the radiant moon shone above her and gave her the light to traverse the dark forest. The lush evergreen bushes and faunas rustled as she passed through them swiftly.

She was drenched in her cold sweat as she panted heavily after running for a while. She had no plan of stopping, especially after seeing the fates of those she once called friends. She didn't want such a fate to happen to her, though, unfortunately, she could see the brilliance of the torches behind her.

Her heart was wildly beating as she pushed herself even further beyond. Her lungs weren't handling it well as this was the first time she forced herself this hard. While running, she was mumbling some incoherent things.

"I-i'm s-orr-y, b-brother, I-reall-y am sorry..."

Asking for forgiveness from her brother, who she had left in that village. She stayed there while hiding as she wanted to save her brother. Unfortunately, her brother wanted her to escape. With her existence revealed, she had no choice but to run and follow the words of her brother.

After a while of running, she stopped and leaned on a thick tree. She heavily as she felt a pain in her chest. While leaning, she slowly laid upon the bottom trunk of the dense tree.

Her body was giving up. It didn't want to move. She was too tired as her stamina got drained from her.

"T-this... Wh-y does this- hav to happen to me?" She questioned herself while heavily breathing. She wanted to kill herself before those bastards would be able to touch her with their filthy hands. But unfortunately, she was too much of a coward to even wield a sharp stick.

She sighed as she gazed upon the dark heavens covered by the brilliant starry stars. The pale moon was brilliantly illuminating its moonlight, giving light to the darkness around her. She appreciated the beauty she had seen at this very moment. She didn't expect the night to be this beautiful.

"What a gorgeous nigh-"

Before she could continue uttering such words, she heard the rustling of the bushes behind her. She immediately covered her mouth in fear as she clenched her stiff body. She didn't want to move, thinking that a single movement would be detected by those that hunted her.

'Please don't find me... Please!' She thought to herself as what followed after was the echoing steps of the bandits. Her heart was screaming, wanting her to run away. But her body was too stiff to move. Even if she tried to run away, she would get captured while being too frozen in fear to move.

She waited and waited until silence enveloped her once again. The moment she heard the noises of the bandits, she closed her eyelids in fear. Now that the silence shrouded her again, she slowly opened her eyelids and saw five figures right before her. Her body screamed as she quickly stood up before one of the figures took out a single dagger.

She got forced to stop as she continued looking at them while breathing heavily. The bandits, on the other hand, were surprised at her beauty. They didn't expect the sister of that young bastard was a beauty. One of the bandits walked forward and uttered with a disgusting tone.

"Hohoho, such beauty. Do you mind if I taste her first?"

The fat bandit said while having a crazy smirk plastered on his face. One of the bandits shook their head in disagreement as the others followed. The fat bandit furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the bandits behind him and questioned with a slightly angered tone.

"Why are you disagreeing? It will be disrespectful to her if we don't savor her. Oh? Do you want to group together? I don't mind, though. I'll take the main hole." As expected, the fat bandit uttered such disgusting words without even a slight hint of remorse.

Hearing the words of the fat bandit, she knew that she would be leaving this world with a fate worse than death. Being defiled by the bastards that killed her friends, family, and brother. She gritted her teeth in anger before the fear overtook her heart, calming her down.

"Don't be an idiot. The Boss wants us to take her back in one good piece. So we will go back with her, and the Boss can do whatever he wants with her. Besides, we had met bastards like you every now and then. Bastards like you don't end well, especially when you touch the Boss's toy."

A bandit explained with a calm voice as the fat bandit found himself in silence. He couldn't refute and simply sighed as he didn't want to know the fate of those that dared to disobey the Boss. He had seen what the Boss does to enemies. What would he do to traitors?

"Okay, we'll bring her back."

"I was really excited about breaking her... But, oh well, there are many others." The fat bandit silently uttered as he went back first to the decimated village. The remaining bandits looked at the girl as they walked forward, intending to bring her back to that place.

"Please, no!!! Please kill me!!!" She shouted in fear as she once again got up, only for two daggers to be pointed at her. She couldn't move as precisely as she wanted to as the bandits got nearer and nearer to her. The sacrifice her brother made was lost due to her being captured.

As the bandits were before her, they were about to capture her. But before they could continue, they noticed the brilliant pale moonlight slowly losing its illumination. They furrowed their eyebrows as they turned their gaze upwards. What they saw after that was quite shocking.

A storm was forming above them. The bandits and the girl were at the eye of the storm, which was becoming intensified by the second. They didn't know why it was happening though they understood that they needed to return to the decimated village for shelter. But before they could even take a single step, a jet-black thunder struck down right beside the tree where the girl lay.

*BANG!!!*

Smoke then covered as a young girl emerged before the spot where the thunderstruck. It was a young girl with silver-white hair. She had magenta irises on her eyes, which seemed cold. She wore a uniform usually found in the military and appeared to be gorgeous and somewhat ethereal.

She looked at the bandits with a cold gaze before turning towards the girl.

"I am a Krieger known as Alastair."

"It's nice to meet you..."

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