Chapter 6

"What the heck happened here?" the middle-aged man said as we came across a forest clearing full of shriveled dead bodies. All wearing nice pieces of armor ranging from leather to rusty iron. Their weapons littered on the ground, quivers and bows alike dismantled and broken, probably from stampeding.

They all flipped them over hoping to see if any of them were still alive, but they weren't, I've made sure of that. "This must be the work of some demonic force..." The old man said "I'd seen it happen before once in my life, life siphoned out of the body, leaving the body completely shriveled and empty..." he then continued "This must be the work of a dark heart, I'm sure of it..." the two teenage adventurers perked up "A dark heart? but I thought those were extinct ever since the first demon war!" They said, the elder chuckled "Well, those were just rumors, unless proof of it appears before us, we can't be certain that there really is a Dark heart roaming around the human kingdoms..." He adjusted his glasses "But whatever has caused this, it certainly cannot be ignored..."

I moved a bit closer and said "What are Dark hearts?" "My boy, have you been raised without knowing what they are?" The old man said in surprise "Everyone knows the tale of the Dark hearts, and those who, managed to live old enough, can tell some of the finer details" He pulled back his cloak a bit to reveal sharp ears, then pulled it back "You're an elf?!" the teenagers said "Now then, Darell, mind letting the children hear my story?" the middle-aged man, who didn't looked surprised, nodded "Very well, let us begin..."

"Long ago, when the kingdoms were first established, and the first war between demons and humans were waged across the entire continent, there were certain demons that once made people fear these kind of wars as of today. These demons were called the Dark hearts, these demons are so powerful that even Castille empire's army, adventurers and the like cannot simply handle. Yet what truly made them so intersting, is that no one knows the origin of their raw power, even the demons themselves have absolutely no idea. There are many stories that have been told that they were merely an evolution, since this was the common case for most non-humans I'd say, some say that they were not of our world, but that rumor couldn't have been true, If that were true, then they'd most likely be more dangerous than surface devils and demons combined. But the most believed is that they were one of the fallen, angels that have succumb to the lustful appearance of sin and evil, and reluctantly and literally fell from grace. But what made them different from any other demon was that the Dark hearts never truly die, and when their physical forms get destroyed, their heart usually remains..."

The teenage girl raised her hand "But wasn't there a rumor as well that the Castille family had one on their hands before?" "And weren't there more than one?" the boy butted in, the old man rubbed his temples "True. There was more than one Dark heart, there were seven..." He rubbed adjusted his glasses "Each heart was unique, they each had their own way of bringing death and destruction to the lands of Castille..." He paused for a brief moment "Although, their names were heavily derived from the Church of the western empire, and because of their influence here in Avalon, they still have the same meaning and, the same kind of demon..." He paused "To put it simply, they represented a sin, much like that of the cardinal sins of the church. And the names they were given were..." "Wrath, Greed, Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth..." I interrupted his story "Ah. I see you have shown us more of how far your mind expands, young one..." He smiled "Well, interstingly enough, the true trademark of each heart was because they each held a weapon unique to it's owner, and no doubt these weapons could disguise themselves easily amongst even the finest of elven swords..." He said "The most powerful of them, Wrath and Gluttony, wielded double-edged swords, And they could level armies and cities with ease. Greed, Envy and Lust, those hearts usually held something light, like a whip or a shortsword, but Greed's spell-casting focus of choice always changed, so It wasn't really clear what it's signature weapon should've been. And lastly, Sloth and Pride, Heart of Pride always had a heavy weapon, like a Great axe or sword. While as Sloth was more mysterious, as I've never seen, nor heard stories of that heart's criminal deeds, which would make sense..." He looked down, then back at the teenagers and me "Well, one less heart to deal with at least..." A lot of questions were turning in my head, and I sputtered out "Did these sins, or in the church's case, Hearts have powers?" "Powers? Of course they did, but if you are perhaps talking about the magical capabilities of the hearts, then Wrath is out of those options..." I tilted my head to one side and asked "Why?" He chuckled "Well, Wrath had strength unparalleled, even a singular flick of his fingers, with enough intent, could cause an entire city to disappear right off the map. Gluttony however, had the ability to consume and inherit his prey's abilities. But not permanently..." He took of his glasses to check if it had dust, then I fired another question "How do you attain these hearts?"

His expression was not what I had expected, rather than responding with a "Don't ask how to get these things!" expression, I got:

He rubbed his glasses on his robes "You ask a lot of questions boy, dangerous ones at that as well. But please..." He said as he placed his glasses back on "I'm definitely not the right person to ask these kind of things, maybe if we reach Delacour city, maybe the wizards there can give you some answers..." he said as he placed his glasses back on. And thus ended our conversation.

A few hours later, we saw the silhouette of the city from this distance, and something extremely big charging our way "Blood-horned bull!" the merchant screamed. But then the bull trampled downwards into the dirty tracks, because it was stopped by a small block of pavement that suddenly appeared beneath it's front hooves. It's horns impaling the road before the horse that carried the wagon, which ran off because of said bull. "We're incredibly sorry about that..." said a calm voice from behind the bull, several people came from behind it, all wearing the same outfit, which I suspect could be a uniform. Not just because there where soldiers that followed after these little children. But because it had an unrecognizable insignia, they placed a large collar around it's beefy neck, but I'm sure it was a restrainer, something they used in monster taming as I've been educated about back from several summoner-type players in my games.

"I am completely sorry about this, Travelers. As the second princess of Delacour city, I truly apologize for almost bringing you all to harm..."