Venerbale's Ending

After several hours of walking in silence through the infinite desert, the fatigue became apparent. Xavier still had difficulty breathing, so they progressed slowly, although at least his cough had improved.

'I assume that the monsters also depended on magic; they have not attacked us yet,' commented Xavier.

'It is possible. There were no monsters before the age of magic,' replied Delfin. 'What are we doing now?'

'Flee,' replied Xavier. 'We are criminals in the dynasty; we will be killed in the spot for the position of Tahal in the southern kingdom; we have no chance of surviving without the salamanders, the dragons, or without magic.

'It will be a long journey,' complained Dolphin, looking into the desert.

'I have some gold hidden in the Finch Forest; it will be useful for our travel. I suppose our best choice is Orphen,' said Xavier as he looked in the distance.

'Without magic, this world will change a lot; disorder will reign,' analyzed Delfin.

'Hey, look!' warned Xavier.

Some carriages seemed to be moving in the distance.

'What is that?' asked Xavier.

'It looks like... the tower of Liev,' replied Dolphin.

They continued to walk. Delfin was right; right at the border between the desert and the dynasty, where the jungle of Morr began, instead of the tower of Liev, they found a lot of debris.

'What happened here?' Delfin asked one of the men who was searching through the rubble. By his clothes, it was obvious that he was a low-class nobleman.

'Liev's tower collapsed suddenly. Our sons and the knights are trapped under the rubble.' The man looked at them from top to bottom; they were dirty, both of them wearing tough leather clothes; it was obvious that they came from a battle. Xavier looked pale, with blue lips. Delfin had blood stains on his clothes. The man looked toward the desert.

'The battle is over; there are few survivors,' replied Delfin to the inquisitive look.

The man approached some of the other parents and relatives involved in the rescue. They sent some carriages towards the desert.

'Why have they not sent rescue for the army?' asked Xavier.

'They can't. The kingdoms have no one available, the knights have lost their enchanted armor, the magicians seem to be unable to use their magic, there is disorder everywhere, and the people are revolting. Don't go near the royal city or the citadels,' the nobleman advised them.

'Can you take us to a village?' asked Delfin.

'I'm sorry, we need the carriages and horses; we still hope to find someone alive in the rubble; we can't help you.'

Xavier and Delfin nodded and continued their march.

'If even the tower of Liev has fallen, the age of magic is really over.' Delfin smiled. 'A new era, without the lies of the past.'

The night began to fall, and the sun was hiding over the horizon. They were walking slowly. Xavier had a hard time breathing, his legs gave out and he lost consciusness.

Xavier woke up the next day, in one of Mola town villages, Delfin got him up on a cart that passed by the road an hour later after he passed out. There they learned about what happened in the citadels and the royal city. Without magic and without the knights enchanted armor, the peasants, guards, and regular soldiers rebelled against the nobles. Without their magicians and knights, they were merely ordinary men; the revolts degenerated into battles in hours, and, at nightfall, the peasants assaulted the noble mansions and committed all sorts of atrocities.

'It is said that in the royal city, things got bad so quickly that the royal palace could not control the crowd. The lower nobles attacked the high-class nobles and the royalty with the support of the ordinary people. Some high-ranking nobles decided that the queen should pay for them and handed her over to the crowd. I am getting goosebumps just thinking of what they did to her' said one of the farmers with a smile as he drank his fruit wine in celebration.

'We will get rid of the nobles once and for all,' replied another.

'I'm going back to Duero; these nobles had fortunes in their mansions; I'm going to recover everything Fillode stole from me with his taxes.'

A lot of people were talking about the subject. Xavier remained on the cart, half-seated, with his trunk bent forward and resting; that position improved his breathing.

'I have used what little gold we had to buy the cart. The guy ripped me off, but we had no choice.' Delfín told him while bringing some food and water for the journey and sitting up in the coachman seat. 'How are you doing?'

'I am still dying,' replied Xavier, whose wheezing breath could be heard from a distance.

It took them a week to get to the finch forest. Guided by Xavier, Delfin recovered the treasure without difficulty.

'Well, here ends our adventure, Xavier. Thank you for the gold. I'll make good use of it.' Delfin started laughing like a maniac.

'You son of a bitch,' said Xavier, taking out his dagger.

With a quick move, Delfin struck Xavier's hand, causing him to drop the dagger. 'Give up already!' yelled Delfin. 'You peasants are all the same; all my plans have failed because of you. I achieved what neither Van Vatnik nor Liev managed—immortality—but you ruined it all, and for what? Look at yourself; you're dying; you didn't achieve anything.'

'Clinton!' exclaimed Xavier, astonished.

'In Delfin's Flesh,' said Clinton, laughing. 'Your beloved Uruk died along with Delfin and that parasite that claimed to be a god. Your mistake was to put a warlock in contact with something alive. You wish you had felt the All Father when I began to use the life of my own heart to change bodies with Delfin; that idiot filled his body with runes and diagrams without putting any protection on.'

Clinton grabbed Xavier's leg, pulled it, and threw him off the cart. The crash against the ground made him lose what little air was left in his lungs. He tried to breathe, but Clinton's kicks made him lose consciousness.

'Filthy rat! Filthy rat! Filthy rat! Filthy rat! Filthy rat!' Clinton repeated as he kicked the corpse.

Once his anger was released, Clinton dragged the body inside the Finch Forest. He got on the cart and traveled to Orphen.

Six months later, the new nobility and royalty of the continent had stabilized their power. Magic and enchanted armor, monsters, mythical creatures like tumulos, and others were a thing of the past.

In a village in the north of Orphen, in a wooden house, a ten-year-old boy was gagged and bound while twisting in pain on the ground. His body was full of cuts in the shape of bloody diagrams and runes. Clinton held him by the neck; the boy's skin turned gray; his eyes shrank to be just two small, wrinkled balls; and his face contracted into a grimace of agony.

Clinton dropped the boy corpse on the ground and looked at his hands. A small cloud of miasma began to form over his left hand, and a flame appeared in his right hand. As he smiled, his eyes turned black.

THE END.

****Note: Thanks to everyone reading. See you in the next adventure.