Chapter 6

Weariness, and the path to dissension

The Dae'Villa, home to Liselle and her family, and one of the places least hit by the attacks. Most of Oriyus had been but devastation and chaos. The monstrosities that rose from its victim's remains continued to increase in numbers, showing no sign of relent, consuming Oryius by its sheer numbers. One by one from collapsed bodies burst out fiends not of this realm, each with a dry and pale skin wrapped so tight around its body that every detail of its insides was vaguely visible. The arms were long and bony, ending with clawed digits and a tail resembling a scorpion. The thing had a face similar to a human skull but with its facial features far exaggerated with sharp bony contours together with plain white eyeballs. Necromancers and shaman through the ages had known this demon by the name of a Bone Devil
While all hope seems lost, Liselle stood her ground as she guards the Villa's gate from the attacks. Those that once stood as sentries to her home had been devoured into the darkness and became part of the enemy forces. Resting within the villa are Liselle's parents who however, was enfeebled by age to put up any resistance and as well as a heavily wounded Chron with his unconscious mother, whom he could only assumed be due to some sort of collision.
Panting, Liselle knew that she could not hold out for long. Indeed her skills far exceeded those of the Bone devils that she took on the first few waves without breaking sweat, but the unceasing confrontation is too much even for Liselle.

Out of nowhere entered a bone devil with unique features and a red ten to it's skin. Presumably the leader of the pack, if not the entire horde, this particular bone devil had a pair of glowing cyan eyes and the sword it carried also looked more specialized with many spikes, assumed to be used for tearing flesh off compared to other Devils with pale skin, plain white eyes and carrying savaged weapons like common folk forks, shovels and swords.
The bone fiend was not as agile as Liselle, but it had much more pain endurance and strength, moreover nearing her limit plus the injuries from the previous battle, the quick witted-ness of the lass fluctuates. There had been a few times where the arrows successfully landed on its mark, but the demon responded by tearing the arrow out without expression. The rest of the projectile was fling off effortlessly by the swing of the sword.
"Whats wrong human, do you miss me that badly?" Mocked the demon with a sharp screech. Liselle ignored the harassment and carried on shuffling her steps to look for open spots. "You needa try harder than that." Mocked the bone devil again. In irritation, Liselle fired an off-aimed shot which the devil fan off effortlessly with its claws. However, taking this opportunity, the lass released a well-aimed arrow which dug it's way into an area right beneath the ribcage of her enemy. This caused some annoyance to the demon but otherwise, it pulled out the arrow as if painless as of previous times.
"Pathetic pathetic. Your mortal talons cannot hurt us. Haven you yet notice that I had been dragging your time?" The bone demon screeched again. "I got my cue so now its time to finish the job!" Finishing, the demon thrust it's sword in the ground for support as it leaned forward with its jaw wide opened. The rest of the pack behind it followed suit and within moments, a blood-red blast fired out from the devils, flattening everything in its path. Liselle barely managed to dodge it, considering its extremely wide radius of effect.
I had been dragging your time! The words echoed within Liselle. Finally realising what her scheming opponent meant, her eyes widened in shocked. "No! It can't be!"
"But yes it already is." Recovering from the blast the demon smirked. "Do you know why of all the places we landed on Oryius? Is it riches? No! Is it magic? No!" The devil started screeched uncontrollably. "We came here for he who dons the mask! Your dearest friend and you are the cause of this widespread devastation! Yeeeeeeeeeehaha!"
"It... cannot be. You are lying!" Cried a disbelieved Liselle.
She refused to believe, there was just too little connection and everything happened so hasty, so in time and in line, so... planned.
No.
It must be a lie, a diversion, but she just had to be sure.
"Where are you going little miss? We have undone issues... I needa return you all the holes you put on me." Said the bone devil with it's smirk slowly changing into a grin and it's tone from sharp to sinister. Suddenly appearing in the path of Liselle, blocking her path back into the villa, the fiend whispered out "Join me... In hell..."

*Meanwhile*

Like Liselle, Xiven was worn out. He did sustain fair bit of injury from the encounters in the jungle, but more so from his engagement with Hein'Kous. Surely he could keep up with fighting off some of those god-knows-what monstrosity, but seeing that there was a bulk of them, the best policy for the mask wielder was to take cover until nightfall.
He could only wish his two friends were fine, especially Liselle, whom he secretly cared a lot for. Yet even with the amount of regards Xiven placed, Liselle always tend to show more care towards Chron.
Perhaps its because on Xiven, it was always a mask, he dare not show her his true face, his true emotions, his sincere concern for her, or maybe Chron was better than him. At least he had the courage to live by his real name and face. That was something Xiven find hard to do.
Maybe one day, when he finally accomplished what he needed to do, he would be able to open up and make his feelings known. Perhaps.

Admiral Hein'Kous and Chief Eysilck both sat in the room, looking uneasy. Whether if it was due to the amount of ravage going on outside or if was due to the presence of each other, no one could tell.
It was hard to believe that these two sworn loggerheads could even sit down quietly when face to face, but when the first sight of the bone devils appeared, the one who saved Chief Eysilck from his devouring guards was none other than the ogre admiral himself.
"I need no empathy from treacherous ogres." Grunted the chief
"Watch it human, you saved my life once, I saved yours now. We're quits and I don't owe you no more."
"I wished I never had done so back then."
"I wished I was never born under my father's blood."

It was many years back, before Eysilck was chief and when Oryius was still impoverished. The village was in constant conflict with a nearby ogre tribe, namely the Oul'Trague clan under the lead of it's admiral, Turi'Kous. It was one uneventful night when the young Eysilck was out hunting. Unknowingly he entered the clan's area and was undetected.
Seeing his game the young hunter raised his bow and let off his arrow seared with deadly poison. But by an unfortunate twist of events, the arrow missed and instead, landed on the true heir of the Oul'Trague clan; A young Hein'Kous.
The young hunter was quickly seized and but minced for assassination of the lord's lineage. But seeing his heir was in terminal state, Admiral Turi'Kous not only withheld the young hunter's final judgment, he plea for the boy to save his son, and promised him the place of Chief and the village of Oriyus to enjoy prosperity and peace from the clan.

"Like all humans, you gave into temptations, wealth and power as my father had promised you!"
"I regretted my decision the moment I accepted it fool! He placed my life on the line!"
"Despite knowing that having that dealings with the ogre clan violates the orders of your king, you went ahead. You placed your people in danger, you have no right to lead them!"
"Which is why I try my best to protect them!"
"By? Offering tributes? Giving into blackmails? Spineless!"
"Your father, right after he gave what he promised, he proceeded to harass village caravans and blackmail us! He is no better himself, just like you! His son!"
"Compare me not with that unhonorably sire of mine!"
"What a mockery! You are of the same blood!"
"That is why I killed my father and usurped his throne."
"That tantamount you to his brutality!"
"I do what I see as best for my people, I do not need opinions from you Eysilck."
"Just as I do Hein', just as I do."
And then there was silence, though there was a sense of mutual respect in the air. The two would had been soul mates if not for their differences in race.

***

Liselle could not dodge at all. The devil's blade came in as quickly as she can see it. She had been cut a few times and the pain was starting to kick in. It would seem the devil rather torment her then to let her have a swift ending.
"Oh little miss, how would you like holes on you? Doesn't help with the thing humans do. Oh right breathing! Yeeeeeeeehaha!" Screeched the fiend. "Oops I forgot, you stop when you die! Yeeeeeeeeeehaha!" Liselle could not tell which was worse; Listening to this fool blabbering or losing her life. "But now, I'm sorry I can't stay for too long, I'll have to end your life quick." Said the bone devil as it pointed the sharpest edge of it's sword at the lass' throat. Her end is near.

"Ein deavors Qua rect!" Yet another almighty voice echoed across the redden skies. This round, the red eye started to fade in contrast and the skies start to clear.
One by one the bone devils turn into dust, returning to somewhat the mid of the red eye, leaving behind presumingly what they took from their victims. Gore littered the ground as screeches and roars start to die down.
Liselle had no idea what just happened, but it was quite clearcut that her life was saved, now she could only wished for one thing, which was that the bone devil was playing mind games with her, if only...

Xiven witnessed the whole thing; The voice command, the dispersing of the red eye, the vanishing of the bone devils. But he was not ready to let down his guard. Creeping around from whatever remained of houses, huts and halls, the mask wielder scanned carefully for any remaining hostility. But so far, all that he saw were burning, dead bodies and gore. All was fine, until a door behind him opened and an arm pulled him in by the collar.
The human was ready to put up a fight until he saw who was in the room. Chief Eysilck and Hein'Kous, who eyed Xiven cautiously.
"Chief! I thought you were..." questioned Xiven.
"Saved by someone I rather not." Answered the chief, with his eyes turned to the admiral.
"Listen kid, I might had very well saved your life..."
"You were trying to kill me back there."
"The monstrosity you witness outside" Continued the admiral, completely ignoring Xiven. "Are called Bone devils. Normally called fore by necromancers and warlocks. We marched into town because we have detected the first act of the summon, or at least we thought we had, but apparently it was already too late. The first act involved the raining down of portal shards, our shamans call them demon seeds. They are so tiny they cannot be seen or felt but they fall in infinite numbers and upon contact it burrows deep into your soul."
"And the second command we heard while in the square, namely Annanreas Hydrag literally means red light water the seeds of gate. As you can see the red eye opens up in the sky. Anyone contacted with the demon seeds upon touching this red light will have their souls bounded to open up a portal to another realm within them." Continued Eysilck with a solemn look. "And from this portal emerges the bone devil. Demons from another realm who fight and kill tirelessly against each other until the end of the day, where they'll regenerate and carry on the deed until they're summoned."
"Human, a summon of this scale is not rare or hard to do. But for someone to use it at us and blocking my shamans from the detection from the First Act, we can be sure that greater forces are at work. I've seen what you can do. Clearly you're more than human, I want you to take back this mask, wait till night fall when the seeds within you dies and deliver this news to the barbaric deserts. We'll hold out here until the next invasion enters. Do it fast, my people cannot hold out for long." Said the admiral, with a semi-pleading and commanding tone. Without much question, Xiven agreed and left for another shelter. Even he himself do not knew why. It was as if his destiny compelled him to agree.
"Eysilck, are you sure he can make it there in time?"
"You have seen it yourself. If fate be he might be one of the ten, so long as he keeps away from the cruxi."

There was only one word to describe the expression and emotion of Liselle; Devastation. The room where Chron and their parent hid was in utter chaos. The roof was virtually gone, the floor had burnt marks on them, the walls were broken, no better than torn down walls. Chron's mother laid motionless on the floor, the back of her body opened showing the insides, as if something jumped out of it, presumingly a bone devil. Her parents were no longer recognizable. Only Chron sat at one corner, staring blankly at his mother's corpse, motionless and expressionless, apparently in deep shock. What remained of the bone devil, Liselle could not tell or could not care. It was as if it was burnt away completely. With tears at the edge of her eyes, Liselle tightened her grip on her bow as the words ran through her mind. He who dons the mask.

"Yes Lord, Act Three had been called upon and the subjects have returned."
"Very well Tyreal, I would appraise you on the efforts in due course. You may leave until further summons."
"Yes Lord, but I do not understand why the Act was to be called upon prematurely when only half the task is completed." Questioned Tyreal but his lord did not answer. Instead he stood up and left the room.
"All in due course Tyreal. All in due course."