It was the dead of night at the bandit headquarters. Silence reigned, broken only by the crackling of torches and the whisper of the wind.
Hedric sat in his private hut, sipping his wine slowly. Sometimes he weighed the thoughts crossing his mind, at other times he recalled memories.
His most painful memory surfaced. A memory from nearly ten years ago...
Hedric had rushed home from the battlefield, drenched in sweat and blood, and headed straight for Reina's room. At the door, he saw the healer speaking with his father.
"Lord Versyn, what's my wife's condition?" he asked.
Lord Versyn averted his brown eyes. The old man bowed his head so low Hedric could easily see his half-bald scalp. His wrinkled face was filled with sorrow, and his voice, when he spoke, betrayed his advanced age.
"Lord Fredross, your wife's condition is stable for now, and I hope it remains so. However... I cannot say the same for your child. I'm truly sorry. But Madam Reina will be unable to bear children from now on."
Hedric's eyes widened, his lips and hands began to tremble. Unable to maintain his balance, he leaned against the wall for support. Hedric was devastated. He collapsed to the ground, squatting, burying his face in his hands. His eyes welled up, and he began to cry like a child.
Neither Hedric nor Reina could overcome this trauma for several months. However, for Lord Kaelric, the family patriarch and Hedric's father, his only son being childless meant the extinction of his lineage. Because of this, he decided to marry Hedric off a second time. Hedric was so afraid of his father that he couldn't even object to the decision. When Reina heard this, she looked at Hedric with eyes full of anger and disappointment.
"I really thought you loved me, Hedric, but you... you couldn't even stand up to your father for me. Is it because you're scared he might give the family headship to his son-in-law?" Her voice trembled. Her eyes filled with tears again. "What a shame. I wish I had never met you, never loved you."
"Reina... Look, I'm sorry, but my father isn't at fault... besides, he's not wrong. I'm the only son of the house."
"Not at fault? So..." After a few seconds of sobbing, she continued, "Are you really going to discard me like trash for your damned nobility?"
"Enough, Reina. My father's word is law in this house. I'm getting married, and that's final. Our family's future is more important than your whims," Hedric said.
"Get out, Hedric, just leave!" Then she started shouting at Hedric, who was looking at her in astonishment. "I told you to leave... Get out... Just go!"
Hedric closed the door and left. As he closed the door from the outside, he paused for a second, wiped the tears streaming from his eyes, and whispered, "Forgive me, Reina... I'm a coward." He then walked away.
That day, Reina did not leave her room, sending away only the servants who brought her food. The next day, a scream echoed through the mansion. Everyone rushed toward the sound—to Reina's room.
What they saw when they entered was the body of the noblewoman, dressed in white pajamas, with blue hair, hanging by a rope around her neck. In the moment a cold autumn night turned to day... Reina had committed suicide.
These memories were the ones that gnawed at Hedric the most, the ones he cried over the most. After that incident, Hedric searched for someone to blame, but found fault neither in himself nor in his father. He found blame only in the commoners and slaves who had risen up to claim their rights, who had plundered and stolen from the nobles, and who wanted to teach them a lesson.
Hedric played a direct role in the execution of over 200 peasants in Lequem, the capital of the kingdom. He led bandit groups that plundered villages under the kingdom's command. He caused the deaths of tens, hundreds, even thousands of peasants. He took as many captive and enslaved them.
Ultimately, this anger fueled another. He interpreted his closest friend sacrificing himself to save him as being abandoned. This allowed his conscience to remain clear.
Barely a month after Reina's suicide, he married a second woman, and a year later, another. In the past ten years, Hedric had one son and three daughters from his two wives, and another son from a concubine. Reina was always in Hedric's thoughts, but that was all.
"If only I could have been a little braver, if only I could have told my father that day, 'I only love Reina.' If only..." Hedric was pulled from this tormenting thought by screams coming from outside. Looking out the window, he saw smoke rising from the direction of the stable where Elias was kept.
"Damn it, what is this?"
Hedric quickly grabbed his sword and rushed out. Chaos reigned in the headquarters. Some bandits were running towards the stable with buckets in their hands, some were fleeing into the forest, and others stood in defensive positions, swords in hand. A shadowy, undefined figure was cutting down the bandits.
Bandits running with buckets to extinguish the fire were losing their heads along with their buckets. All the fleeing bandits, before they could reach the forest, collapsed to the ground, severed at the waist or throat.
Hedric excitedly looked around, trying to follow the shadow, but it was incredibly difficult. This monster seemed to teleport, barely noticeable.
A horrifying chill enveloped Hedric. It felt as if he were strapped to a table, and terrifying men were about to slice him into pieces with a saw.
Hedric looked to his left. Victor was also looking around, trying to understand what was happening. And he... he was trembling, not from cold. His eyes were terrifyingly wide as he looked around, as if he had seen the angel of death.
Hedric moved towards Victor, who was looking at him. When he was two steps away, he began to speak. "Victor, what's happening here?" he asked loudly.
Victor answered tremblingly, "We're under attack. This... this thing is a demon."
"Nonsense. Demons are on the continent of Dernught. What would a demon be doing here?" Hedric said.
Victor first looked ahead for a second, ensuring nothing was there, then turned back to Hedric. He opened his mouth and said, "Then what is that thi—" His words were suddenly cut short, and in a quarter of a second, a black line appeared on his throat. His head detached from his body, and blood spurted from the severed part of his body. Hedric witnessed this for one second, his eyes wide in disbelief, then quickly leaped back.
He glanced around. The slaves had fled into the forest. The only things left belonging to the soldiers were their belongings and corpses.
A shadow appeared on a fallen pole in front of Hedric. Its feet were propped against a pole leaning on the ruins of a collapsed hut, perfectly balanced. It held a bloody ice sword, and its white hair swayed in the wind. Faint purple eyes were barely visible within the dark, almost black, eyes. A terrifying black aura, seemingly alive, emanated from its body. This... was Elias.
The fear gripping Hedric intensified, as if he were being tortured within his own brain. His mind played terrifying games, making him die gruesome deaths in various ways. Despite this, Hedric managed to maintain his sanity, albeit weakly, thanks to ice magic.
Meanwhile, Elias had descended from the pole to the ground. After ensuring only the two of them remained in the burning headquarters, he turned back to Hedric.
Hedric spoke first. "Hmph, you're a fool, boy. I gave you the right to live in the royal palace, but you threw that right away. Now I have a good excuse to kill you," Hedric said in a high-pitched voice.
A playful curl appeared on Elias's lips. Then he opened his mouth and began to speak, "Who's the fool, I wonder? How do you plan to kill me, Hedric, when your body is trembling with fear?"
Hedric's eyes widened. He collapsed to the ground, looking at Elias with eyes full of fear and horror. Then he stammered, barely speaking.
"You... how... how can you... speak?" he asked.
Elias let out a laugh, continuing to laugh for a few seconds, but then his face suddenly turned serious, devoid of emotion, as he looked at the man who had stolen his happiness.
"I don't know. Perhaps your men failed to do their job. Now, Hedric Fredross, get up and fight me." He conjured an ice sword in his left hand and spun it towards Hedric. He held his own ice sword in his right.
Hedric couldn't move under the terrifying pressure weighing on him; fear consumed him. His breath hitched, his vision blurred, his bones ached, and his heart pounded rapidly. Suddenly, Elias removed the pressure from Hedric. Hedric, who had abruptly started breathing deeply, looked at Elias with a forced smile and said, "You..." He took a deep breath. "You really are a demon. I will... kill you for the good of the kingdom."
He picked up the ice sword from the ground and created another sword in his other hand.
As he lunged at Elias, an ice spike emerged from behind, aiming for Elias's back. However, Elias first spun 90 degrees in a second, then jumped, moving away from between Hedric and the ice spike. He quickened his steps and appeared behind Hedric. Just as he was about to bring a sword strike down on Hedric's head, Hedric seemed to notice it and immediately ducked. He gripped the sword in his other hand, spun 180 degrees, and swung it at Elias's abdomen as he was preparing to land safely from the air. Although Elias noticed it immediately, he only managed to avoid the attack by taking a deep gash on his thigh. It took him half a second to realize Hedric was coming at him. Ignoring the throbbing pain from the wound on his leg, he swung his ice sword upwards from below.
Swords clashed. Elias, deftly dodging the sword in Hedric's other hand by spinning on one foot, formed a wind blade and aimed it at Hedric's hand.
It was successful, and one of Hedric's hands was severed. After looking at his hand and screaming, Hedric swung his sword furiously at the boy's head.
Elias dodged, then softened the ground beneath Hedric's feet in two seconds, turning it into a pile of mud. Then he stood up and cut off Hedric's other arm.
He hardened the muddy ground. He grabbed Hedric by the collar, applied great force, and pulled him up. In this way, he severed the young master of the Fredross household's legs from his body. Hedric, bleeding from everywhere, screamed in agony, tears streaming from his eyes. His breathing became labored, and a terrifying fear began to appear in his eyes.
When Elias saw this, it didn't take him long to understand that Deteus wanted to consume Hedric immediately. Elias formed an ice sword in his hand and turned to Hedric, who was looking at him with fearful eyes.
Because of this man, he would never again see his mother, his father, or his sibling, whom he had always dreamed of and who had been snatched away from him just as he was about to finally meet them.
Not only Hedric, but also those at Ludus Cruoris, filled Elias with immense hatred for the wealthy and noble class. In his opinion, they were the demons themselves. What right did they have to call him a demon?
Elias set these thoughts aside for now. He then spoke to Hedric, who was crying, screaming in fear, yelling, and thrashing in front of him.
"How pathetic! After boasting so much about your power, how humiliating is it to stand before me like this, armless and legless?"
"You ruined the lives of so many people just because a group of rebels killed your child. If you were so consumed by revenge, what is this now? What is that fear in your eyes? If you were going to be afraid, why did you do so many wrongs?"
"Didn't you ever think you would die? Didn't you ever think about how the children I killed would look at me in the afterlife? Didn't you ever think someone might come and tear you limb from limb?"
"Hedric Fredross, you are a coward who took out your anger at your father and yourself on innocent victims, a coward who didn't even have the courage to commit suicide."
As Elias said all this, Hedric's body turned stark white, blood drained from his body, and he looked at the bloody moon above his head before Elias severed it with his final ice blade.
And his last thoughts passed through his mind:
"I guess the kid is right.
I'm sorry, Reina. I wasn't worthy of you."
Hedric's breathing stopped. Elias swung the ice blade, adorned with blood, under the moon. Revenge had been exacted.