Now that the corruption was over, the town was brimming with life once more.
Percedal, proud as ever, didn’t even wait before telling anyone who could hear all about his heroic deeds.
An enthusiastic crowd quickly began to form around him in the town square, listening with awe to his exaggerated retelling of the battle against the Great Whisperer.
Amalia, on the other hand, could barely contain her laughter as she heard him speak.
“Suddenly, right before a demonic tree was about to crush lady Evangelyne, I, Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, leapt into the fray and, with a mightly slash, chopped that fell beast into shreads!”
“Why don’t you tell them all about how you got your ass handed to you and that little kid had to save you, Dally?” as always, Rubilax interrupted at the worst possible moment.
“Isn’t a knight supposed to always tell the truth?”
The knight’s answer came by smacking the blade against the ground, making the crowd erupt in laughter at such a spectacle.
But Percedal didn’t care.
He kept smiling and continued telling his great battle.
Now that the villagers were distracted, Alibert ushered Yugo inside the tavern without making a noise.
There, they could talk in private.
Once inside, the tavern keeper closed the door, pulled over two stools, and calmly sat down.
Yugo did the same, and he couldn’t help but wonder why his father looked so serious and concerned.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Alibert finally cleared his throat and began to speak.
“I knew this day would come, my boy…
and even so, I raised you as my own ever since I first had you in my arms.
But now…” He paused.
“Everything’s going to change.
We need to get out of here before it’s too late.”
Yugo stared at him, unable to process what he’d just heard.
“Get out?
What do you mean by that?”
“Your powers have awakened.
And that means danger will soon follow.
You’re… no longer safe here.” Alibert began to tremble almost in fear.
“He warned me…
that night…
the night I found you.”
“You’re scaring me, Dad.
Just tell me what’s going on!” All this tension was too much for the young man, who began to raise his voice.
“What’s that danger?
Who am I, really?”
Alibert took a deep breath and gave him a warm but sorrowful look.
“You are my son, Yugo.
And you always will be.
But the time has come for you to know the truth.
Listen carefully.”
The boy nodded in silence, his heart beating like a drum.
“That night, twelve years ago, I saw a star fall from the sky.
As it descended into the ground, I felt…
that I had to follow it.
And so I did.”
Alibert’s voice dropped lower, becoming almost a whisper.
“When I arrived to the place the star had fallen, I saw a smoldering crater.
And inside, there was a man…
unlike anyone I’d ever seen.
His skin was completely black and his hair was white as snow.
He was wounded, exhausted…
but in his arms he held a baby wrapped in blue cloth.”
The innkeeper almost smiled with nostalgia as he recalled that moment.
“When I approached, he showed me something…
something I can never forget.
He touched my forehead and suddenly I had visions: a world in ruins, dragons flying across the skies, an iron monster with blood-red eyes…
and, in the middle of everything, you.
You were a spark of hope in the middle of chaos.”
Yugo sat perfectly still, fully captivated at that tale.
“That man wasn’t from this world, Yugo.
His name was Grougaloragran.
He entrusted me with a mission.
To protect you.
To raise you as if you were my own.
He warned me that a day would come when you’d awaken your powers, and that when it happened, dark forces would come for you.”
Alibert looked away for a moment.
“He told me I should take you someday to the Isle of Oma.
That there, you’d find the truth…
and your real family.
I didn’t understand what that old man was trying to say, and I didn’t want to get involved in something I couldn’t fully understand.
Back then, I was fed up with my life as a bounty hunter.
I’d lost my way…
and you showed me a new path for my life.
You taught me that my destiny wasn’t chasing criminals or searching for gold.
My destiny was you.
Being a father.
And since that day, that destiny has filled my life with light and joy.”
Yugo listened in silence, without interrupting.
When his father finished, Yugo ended up with more questions than answers.
Who was this stranger who fell from the sky?
What exactly is the Isle of Oma?
What is the true nature of my powers?
He’d always hoped that, sooner or later, his father would tell him the truth.
The whole truth.
“Is that everything?” he asked.
“That’s everything,” Alibert replied.
“I know this explanation isn’t enough, my boy.
I know.
I swear by the gods that I have no more answers to give you.
I’m sure that on the Isle of Oma you’ll find what you’re looking for.”
“Then what are we waiting for?!” Yugo burst out.
“Let’s pack our things and go!
I’ve always wanted to see the world.
This is the perfect chance!”
Alibert couldn’t help but smile as Yugo’s energy was washed over him like a gust of fresh air.
The boy had taken it far better than he’d ever imagined.
If he’d known his son would react this way, maybe he would’ve told him everything much sooner.
But…
leave on an adventure now?
When he was still so young?
The world out there was a dangerous place.
He’d lived it firsthand.
Yugo was special, yes, but he was still barely more than a child.
Even with good company, there were threats out there that could even defeat an experienced adventurer like him.
But, no matter what happened, he knew he had to be by Yugo’s side.
Evangelyne burst through the town gate as fast as she could, her breath fast and straining.
She ran to the point of collapse, burning every drop of energy with the hope of arriving in time.
Her steps pounded the ground as she raced through the streets of Emelka, guided by the echoes of a distant celebration.
The joyful shouts and laughter in the central square made her ears hurt.
How could people be cheering so much right as the apocalypse was about to arrive.
Without thinking, she plunged straight toward the heart of the village, tearing through the crowds and screaming to the top of her lungs.
“A monster is coming!
A monster!
You all need to run, now!”
The square fell dead silent.
Her warning instantly killed the celebration and, in its place, dozens of eyes locked onto her waiting for answers.
Amalia was the first to react.
She ran to her friend, gripped her arm tightly and channeled a warm current of life energy through her body.
In seconds, Evangelyne caught her breath and regained some of her strength.
“What’s going on, Eva?” Amalia asked, her voice trembling in fear.
“What do you mean?”
But before the Cra could answer, a great shadow fell across the village.
Silence fell upon the entire town as hundreds of eyes looked up into the sky, unable to understand what they were seeing.
And then, they heard it.
Tick…
Tock…
Tick…
Tock.
A chilling sound echoed throughout the town.
Tick…
Tock…
Tick…
Tock…
“It’s too late,” Eva said in a hollow voice.
“The monster is here.”
Above the town of Emelka loomed a flying fortress of iron and gears.
At its summit, a clock tower watched the entire village as if it were a single, unblinking eye.
Its hands moved with every passing second, almost like a countdown to something terrible.
Amalia felt the magical energy around her twist and buckle as if the very fabric of the world were yielding to an overwhelming will.
A shiver raced down her spine as she recalled the words of the Great Whisperer.
“He came with a horde of metal monsters that devoured life in their wake, leaving this forest empty and dead,” it hadtold her.
She clasped her hands together and squeezed her eyes shut.
Oh, great god Sadida, thou who nurtures every seed and guards every sprout…
grant me your strength.
Don’t let this monster wither what we just healed.
Suddenly, the great clock’s hands struck twelve and a dissonant chime echoed throughout the town.
Now only the gods could save them.
Percedal didn’t take his eyes off that iron fortress.
He gripped his sword tight and brandished it with resolve.
“Are you ready for battle, Rubilax,” he declared with a defiant grin.
“Let’s smash that thing into scrap metal!”
“Dally, I think you’re going to need my powers if you want even the slimmest chance to survive this.
If you don’t…
well, the world will have one less idiot walking it.”
And then, the chimes stopped.
A hatch opened at the top of the clock tower and a black cloud began to emerge.
It wasn’t smoke.
It was insects.
Thousands, maybe millions, of metallic creatures swarmed out, buzzing as they descended upon the town.
The sky turned black, and in seconds, encircled Emelka and sealed off every exit.
The villagers screamed and ran, but there was no escape.
Their master would soon come.
A humanoid figure began to descend from the sky, shrouded by a cloud of its faithful metallic insects.
When he touched the ground, everyone could see it was a tall, thin man wearing a metal mask.
His entire body was wrapped in bandages and metal plates, and a pair of ice-blue eyes burned intensely behind the mask which analyzed every living soul in the village.
“Good afternoon, people of Emelka,” he said in a sharp, mechanical voice.
“My name is Nox.
I will be brief.
My time is precious and I do not wish to waste it here.
I’m looking for a boy.
Young, blond, wearing a strange blue hat.
Does this ring any bells?” New chapters come out on g.com first.
Just by looking at him, even an idiot like Percedal could tell that man was evil to the bone.
The knight raised his sword and shouted full of determination.
“If you’ve come for Yugo, you’ll have to go through me!
I am the great Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, knight of the Shushu order!”
Eva pressed a hand to her forehead in frustration.
Don’t do that, you fool…
Why do you always have to open your mouth at the worst possible time?
“Thank you so much for your cooperation,” Nox replied with a slight bow as he studied the knight.
“Now I know I’ve arrived at the right place at the right time.
A knight, is it?
I must say, your power level is quite different from what I expected.
C’mon, show me what you can do.”
That mocking tone filled Percedal with fury.
He wasn’t about to let that scrawny metal man make fun of him.
“You’ve made a big mistake misunderestimating me, villain.
Let’s give it everything we got, Rubilax!”
“This is going to end badly, but I don’t have much choice but to help you,” Rubilax grumbled with resignation.
“At least the show will be entertaining.”
Percedal charged at the masked figure at full speed, his cursed sword igniting wiht the demon’s power.
But Nox simply laughed and snapped his fingers, vanished an instant before the blow landed and reappearing behind the knight.
Percedal spun immediately to counterattack, but he was too far to slow.
He was facing an enemy whose power far exceeded his.
In an instant, Nox extended a blade that resembled a clock hand and prepared to strike.
He had his enemy exactly where he wanted.
Eva received a fleeting vision of the coming danger.
Without thinking, she fired an enchanted arrow right at the wizard’s arm, hoping to save Percedal before it was too late.
But the shot, no matter how fast, began to slow as it approached Nox…
until it completely froze in mid-air.
Eva could only let out a horrified whisper.
“What the…?”
Percedal tried to take advantage of Eva’s distraction to attack, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Suddenly, an energy beam surged from the tip of Nox’s blade and pierced through his body like a spear, making him crash to the ground with a sickening thud.
Eva froze, her heart racing in fear.
Oh, great goddess Cra, I need your help now more than ever.
Only you can save us.
Without wasting time, she drew her bow again and fired more enchanted arrows as she activated her visions.
But this time, something terrible happened.
Something she’d never felt before.
She no longer saw a single thread of the future…
but thousands.
All intertwined and impossible to follow.
Her enemy had become a tangle of possibilities.
“Lesson number one,” Nox said in a mocking tone as he advanced toward her.
“Don’t try to use future sight against a time mage.
I know exactly what you’re trying.
And it’s not going to work.”
The sensory overload made her head spin and her eyesight blur.
Everything faded into to Nox’s piercing blue eyes, which watched her with cold cruelty.
She didn’t even feel a beam of magic pierce her, knocking her to to the ground,
In a matter of seconds, two of the strongest heroes on the team had been defeated.
Amalia, still paralyzed, could only watch in fear.
The fight was over before she could even decide what to do.
Eva had fallen.
Percedal had fallen.
And now, the evil wizard was walking toward the tavern.
She couldn’t move.
She couldn’t think.
Terror gripped her as she saw the monster calmly walk past her.
There was no one left to stop him.
The first sign was the sudden silence in the town square.
Alibert knew very well that the people of Emelka wouldn’t cut their celebrations unless something terrible had happened.
Cold sweat ran down his spine.
They’re here, he thought with a shudder.
The dark forces are here…
it’s too late.
Yugo, who moments ago was full of joy and energy, quickly picked up on the change in his father’s face.
“Is something wrong, Dad?”.
He nervously asked “Answer me!”
“Something’s not right, Yugo,” Alibert replied.
“I can feel it.
Hide while you still can.”
He grabbed his old spear and moved to the tavern window, ready to face whatever came.
But, when he saw what was happening in the town square, this blood turned to ice.
This wasn’t a nightmare.
It was far real.
And it was worse than anything he could have imagined.
He turned around to make sure his son was safe.
But, to his shock, the place he was supposed to hide was empty.
“No…
this can’t be,” he muttered as panic consumed.
“That boy is a damned fool…”
He turned back to the square, just in time to see Yugo teleport outside.
His worst fear was about to come true.