Chapter 35 - Kannon

“Alright Percival, I think it’s best that you mingle with the kids and see how is life here. Maybe in the future we could join them. After this quest is dealt with.”

After the training, Roberion told the old couple that he need some time to speak with Percival. He could be a little naïve, but the fiznaults were nothing but courteous, knowing more about them wouldn’t hurt.

“Aknowlege Sir. Would you permit me…to, taste their curious fruits?”

“No problem, but don’t overate, although I don’t even know if that could happen. You walking around here also can help me to know if the weapon has any limits in the distance. In the old temple it didn’t see too.”

“Thank you Sir. I will try to gain any knowledge that can help in our pursuit.”, Percival did a salute as a way to say goodbye.

I’m not sure if the kids will have any useful information, but we will see.

Roberion employed the help of Shining Crown again. Following the old couple, the near he got of the location they told about, the more hectic and dangerous the situation seemed.

Various fiznaults guards could be seen going up and down in the streets. Some of them were mounted in roothorns, some of them were even bleeding or worse. Fiznaults without legs, without arms, lacerated, missing fingers, even corpses, were moved with the help of stretchers.

The undead invasion was no joke. He didn’t know how the rest of the village endured such a situation. In the previous location it seemed so peaceful, children playing, little roothorns resting. But here, it looked like a scene of horror.

Most fiznaults wore serious expressions, tending the wounded, helping in transports, tidying up the equipment. But the healthy soldiers, they were a little strange. Some of them were even laughing, energetic running to be deployed in the battle.

With his curiosity picked, Roberion thought it better to ask the old couple.

“Kid, that’s the path of the warrior. What the universe doesn’t lack is hapless fools and people without a choice to rage the flames of war. We fiznaults aren’t different, me and Fujin had our own fill before growing old. Sometimes, even if you don’t want to fight, you will be forced to.”

Raijin continued, “By the story you told us, you should know how is to be weak. We can’t be held hostage to the aid of others. We need our own strength to protect what is ours.”

“Shining Crown, we are helping you, but even that isn’t only because of the goodness in our hearts. We need you to do something for us, to do your task, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do some good too.”, Fujin said with melancholy.

Fujin continues, now pointing to a dead soldier, “You probably are thinking why we two aren’t helping in the fight against the undead. There are various reasons, but in the core of it, it’s because it isn’t our time anymore. The kids need to get stronger. If we cuddle them, if we endure the pain instead of them, when we die, the village will be ruined.”

Raijin complements, “This undead invasion helped us see that, but more than that, it was our granddaughter that showed that to us. Did you know that our daughter died of old age? Most people before the undead incursion did, too.”

“Generation after generation, growing weaker and weaker. It didn’t matter if we tempted them with greed, with curiosity, with honor. They didn’t want to improve. The peaceful life we had was too powerful. We are isolated here, no emperors, no outside forces, only our little world.”

“I think you probably saw the bigger body of water out there. Before we used, it was a training ground for the young, nowadays any fiznault would die there in a second, not having any way to protect themselves.”

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Fujin intercedes, “Not our granddaughter.”

“Yes, sweet Fujin. That was where our granddaughter showed that she wasn’t like the others, where they stopped, she wanted more. That bigger lake was the place we trained her to become what she is today. This place is only standing because of her, and you will see why, opening you eye to the meaning of power. I wish it is opening the eyes of the fiznaults too.”

“We will need it dear, the main fiznault tribe won’t accept any less.”, said Fujin thoughtfully.

Reaching the place, the sound of battle could be heard, the nightmarish roars of the beast named undead, and the war-cry of the fiznaults, sounding like a clicking wave. Two gates are seen, one always seemed to be closed, the other was opened with healthy fiznaults leaving and the wounded returning.

Out of these doors, the battle is being fought. The gate they were going through wasn’t the one opened. Nearing the closed gate, Raijin clicked loudly, the device helping with the translation.

“Open this damned gate. We are here to see our granddaughter!”

It didn’t take more than 10 seconds for the gates to be opened. A little gap started to open, the temperature tremendous Roberion felt, making him recoil.

“Oh I almost forgot, there will go Shining Crown”. Fujin cast a new spell. This spell, instead of a dome, made a transparent blue cover that looked like water. But he was sure it wasn’t water. It was the fluidity of the cover and color that seemed like water.

“Let’s go kiddo.”

The couple entered when there was a gap large enough for them, leaving heir roothorns far from the place. Seem that Shining Crown was enduring the heat but didn’t seem to like it, Roberion said his goodbye and left alone. Before he entered the gate, though, he stopped in disbelief.

A horde of undead was going after the old couple, but they didn’t move. It was then that he noticed a green fiznault if a full armored fiznault. The armor it wore was made of black wood, but this one had an undeniably superior quality.

In a second, a wave of flames engulfed the undead, like a raging sea of fire was cast to purge these unholy creatures. The smell of burned meat and coal was unbearable, that is, if Roberion cared about that, a benefit of being a Null was not caring about bad smells.

The creatures engulfed in flames took seconds before being transformed into charcoal and then turned to dust. It was like in milliseconds he was having a class in the anatomy of the undead: skin, muscle, flesh, organs, bones, everything burning to dust.

Roberion felt a tug on his chest. That’s when he noticed the guard urging him to pass the gate. It seemed they wanted to seal this unwanted heat.

Running Roberion crossed the gate, when nearing it the fire was already vanishing, the upcoming undead far in the distance.

“So this is the Shining Crow everyone is talking about. He really looks like that sad roothorn.”

“Don’t say that, little Kannon. The kid shows promise, with his help, the Shade will finally close them off”, said Raijin.

“These undead are a joke, but if we are to believe in the Shade, they are like the fleas leaving the mangy dog. The horrors she told us about, I’m not even sure if we three can kill them.”

Hearing that, Roberion grows nervous. After that show, after that powerful spell, these people can’t defeat them?

The scene from before repeated. The undead grew close again. This time, he could see in a privileged place. Kannon cast her spell without any movement, any delay. It just happened. From nothing, flames became reality, and that new reality purged the purple-skinned undead, transforming them into dust.

Looking back, he could see that the village wall had a sort of magic protection. If he focused, he could see that something almost invisible was there.

When he turned around, the flames were extinguished; the process seemed to be forced to be repeated as he saw the undead again coming from the distance. This time, though, Kannon was looking directly at him.

“Seems that it’s time to see if you two still got it, let see if this student of yours has enough to be better than these excuses that call themselves fiznaults.”

“You baldy”, Kannon said with an accusatory finger, “It’s time to show you what you have learned, surprise me and maybe I will even give you a gift, disappoint me and you will be training with my grandparents until you are fit enough to go.”

When Roberion was about to protest because of his quest, Kannon gave a sardonic smile, chilling Roberion to the core. His body stopped moving. It was like he was seeing a predator. If killer intent truly existed, that was it.

Deep in himself, he knew, do anything wrong and you are dead.

This is power.