The White Haired Demon Slayer (Part-12)

I know it is wrong. Saving the innocent, doing my job as an adventurer, and my duty, it is not a burden. It shouldn't be felt as one either.

But I really wanted to kill.

"Lilia!!!" A woman cried out as she came running to the little girl and grabbed her up in her arms.

"Mom! Can't... breathe..." Lilia croaked, struggling to breathe as she pushed her overjoyed mother away.

I looked around the room, as expected there were no men.

A 16-year-old girl came crying to me, grabbing my sleeve and shaking me. "My sister! Where is she? The goblins hit her with a bladed whip and took her away with them, so, please... did you find them?"

An older woman asking for her teenage daughter and another young girl asking for her elder sister, also approached me with the same.

Those must have been the three left barely alive for us to find using Elaina's magic. As bait to lure us to the Grand Orc. We could do nothing to help them, but only watch as they suffered to death.

"We did find them. They didn't make it."

As the girl let go of my sleeve sobbing to herself, more village women started approaching me, asking for their sons, brothers, and husbands. They had witnessed the fate of their loved ones, yet the disbelief in their eyes brought them to me, hoping for a different answer.

Out of all the chatter, one word, barely a whisper, stood out to me the most... bringing back a feeling of loss I couldn't forgive myself for.

"Gyuwen...? Momo...? What happened to them?" The voice of a pained mother softly asked from the back.

I walked to her, I had no words to say. But looking into her eyes, I didn't have to. She knew, she knew exactly what happened, she knew exactly what her children felt in their final moments. She could feel it.

As I wordlessly walked to her, guilt filling my heart, she understood the pained expression on my face and fell to her knees. I knelt in front of her, her face tired and emotionless as she looked at me. Her eyes were dry, yet I knew, her heart was weeping.

I finally spoke."Gyuwen did his best to protect his sister. And Momo... her last words were to tell her brother that she is alright. We buried them on the outskirts of the village."

Her face still emotionless, she held my hand, slowly touching my fingers and palm. The hands that held her daughter for the last time. "Thank you."

Just then the sound of a large war horn blared through the Monster Spawn, reverberating through walls. I knew exactly what it was, it is time. They are coming.

I stood up and I said to the villagers. "Stay inside, no matter what happens."

As I started to walk towards the door, I heard a voice say. "Why is this happening to us?"

I stopped and turned toward the voice. "You failed when your fear for the monsters grew greater than your trust in the Adventurers. Now watch, I'll protect you."

With that, I continued walking. Holding the handle of the door, I paused once again and without looking back, I asked. "Gyuwen and Momo, what were their last names?"

"Emyre." Said the voice of their mother behind me.

Gyuwen Emyre

and Momo Emyre.

And with that, I walked out of the door.

I could hear the heavy thumping. I could hear the weapons clinking and the disgruntled groaning. I could hear the metal of armor grinding against each other. They were close, they were big, and they were many.

I slashed the stone pillars on each side of the door to block access through it. That's the best I could do to deter any attempt to enter the room.

That, and the fact that I'll kill each and every one of them who even tries.

A lot had gone into getting to this moment. The night, had been too long. So much I witnessed, so much I felt, so much I couldn't do.

All the images and the feelings raced through my mind. Everything was coming back to me.

.

.

.

"...how many actual combat missions have you been in?"

"Please save our children..."

"My son and daughter, they went into the forest."

"...save them. Please Lord Everhart, I beg you."

"I made a promise to save her children. Gyuwen and Momo..."

...A sight that made me fall to my knees. A child with his head, arms and legs, torn apart from his torso and all of it pinned to a tree, blood from the mutilated corpse dripping down to the base...

"Elaina... Find them please."

"...I want them to feel the slaughter."

...dragged by the goblins. Her lifeless naked body scraping across the forest floor, leaving bloodied marks in its wake.

I screamed, I raged, I charged.

"...still alive."

I'm so happy... we somehow saved her.

...Momo.

I rescued her, but she saved me.

Something's wrong... smoke... village is burning... pile of corpses...

"Gyu...wen... He tried to protect me... tell him... sister is fine."

"I just realised... we never even got their last names."

"...they killed him so brutally. Her only wish as she held on to her life... was to tell him not to worry about her."

"The women and children... They have been taken away."

HOW DARE THEY?!!

"Where...?"

...even if what lies in front of us was a Monster Spawn itself.

"I'm sorry Liam, I'm so sorry..."

...cut all over their body, piled up in a large pool of their own blood. Just lying there, waiting to die.

"Liam, I'll give it to you straight–

.

.

.

You are weak."

I am. I have failed too much. No more. My shackles are off. My mind is at ease, my heart is enraged. I feel it, I feel the violent torrent of mana waiting to wreak havoc. My arm is itching, my sword hand is tingling. My heart is racing. My eyes are burning.

I can hold it back no more.

I grip my sword as I look into the eyes staring at me from across the room. Double my size and armored to the feet with a giant axe double-sided with blades as big as my torso. The first goblin, with a hundred behind him, perhaps even a thousand.

They know the kind of fight this is going to be.

I pull my shield off and tighten it on my left arm, and with my right arm I draw Lightbreak, filling it with the purest light magic from within me, its glow brighter than it has ever been.

I look back at the massive force standing across me and I bring my sword up to the fore, pointing right at them.

They will regret the day they took their first breath.

"Come on."