White Ravens: Advent of War

Lover's Peril

Marx could feel that Rune was deathly serious based on Rune's voice and manner of speaking. He tried to retain his composure, but since he was bound and surrounded by enemies, that calmness was soon broken.

Seconds later, Marx noticed that the elvish woman from earlier was approaching him with a fierce look on her face. She conjured up a weapon out of thin air, ready to strike him at a moment's notice.

But the second she tried to attack Marx, Rune repelled her attack. "Leif, you need to calm down. As much as I want to tear this bastard myself, there are questions I want out of him. This man's name is Marx Lancaster, and a few years ago, he was reported to have died in action. The queendom of Wisteria even held a hero's funeral for him along with the other fallen knights and soldiers. But seeing that he's alive right now, I'm pretty sure this scumbag is hiding something."

This time, Rune got up close to Marx's face. He could feel the latter's unsteady breath, and he could almost smell his fear. "How are you still alive, Marx?"

Marx averted his gaze from Rune and replied, "It'd be best if you just kill me and be done with it. I'm not going to tell you anything."

Annoyed by the response, Rune hit his face with a backfist. "If you don't tell me what I want, I'll be forced to use this." Then, he summoned Skellur and showed it to Marx. "I am Bellamy Thorn's son, rightful heir of House Thorn. You've fought alongside my father, so you probably recognize this sword, yes?"

Marx's body quivered at the sight of Skellur. He was too caught off-guard earlier to have noticed that Rune was using that sword. "That's... Skellur, the spirit sundering sword!" he stammered.

Rune lightly stabbed Skellur into Marx's left shoulder. "That's right. If you get stabbed by this sword, you'll feel like your mana is being ripped apart from your body."

While he was speaking, Marx was bellowing in pain. Judging by the look on his face, Yelena and Leif could tell that he was suffering through an unimaginable amount of pain.

Rune withdrew the sword momentarily, and then he closed Marx's wound by using a simple healing spell.

"I'll ask you one more time, Marx. How the f**k are you still alive?" Rune asked.

Marx was panting so much that it looked like he was about to pass out. In a weak voice, he said, "Go... to hell!"

This time Rune lunged Skellur into Marx's right leg, causing him to wail in pain. Rune didn't remove his sword from his leg for ten full seconds. "Listen, Marx. We can do this all day. I'm going to keep draining your mana using this sword, and give it back to you. It really won't tire me out, and I can make sure you won't die. But trust me, Marx, the process of doing all of it is not going to be fun for you."

Marx gritted his teeth and grunted. He knew that Rune wasn't a man that he could deceive easily. Moreover, Rune was Bellamy Thorn's son. If he were even a fraction of the rune knight his father was, Rune probably had a staggering amount of mana in his body.

It seemed that Marx's only option was to cooperate. However, he wasn't going to let go of any information without getting anything out of the deal. "F-fine. I'll talk, just... no more of this torture!"

Rune dispelled Skellur and crouched in front of Marx. "I'm glad you're finally seeing it from my perspective! Now, talk."

"But I need to have your word first. If I answer all of your questions, I want a guarantee that you'll let me live," Marx negotiated.

Leif was overcame with anger when he heard him. "You think we're just going to let you go!?"

Rune put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Peace, Leif. Let me handle this."

Then, he turned to Marx and asked, "Do you solemnly swear to the God of Death, Shura?"

When Marx heard the name "Shura", his resolve was shaken. In Wisteria, whenever someone swears to Shura, it meant that they were willing to die for their promise. If the person in question were to break their promise, their soul would be damned for all eternity.

As a result, Marx was hesitant to swear in Shura's name. He gnashed his teeth and looked away from Rune. "I swear."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Rune clicked his tongue with displeasure. "That's not how you say it, Marx. Do it again... or else."

"By my heart and by my soul, I swear in Shura's name that I will not break my promise," Marx said solemnly.

With that, Rune began to extract all the information he could get from Marx. It turned out that Marx survived the culling of Old Valeria through the help of another rune knight. Rune asked who the rune knight was, but it seemed like Marx really didn't know the identity of the rune knight. All he knew was that that rune knight was highly capable of performing restoration magic, a higher form of healing magic.

The rune knight restored Marx's body from being a burnt corpse and into his current body. However, the magic wasn't enough to remove all the burns from Marx's body, or maybe the rune knight just didn't want to remove them; perhaps to serve as a reminder that Marx was indebted to him.

Afterwards, Rune asked him how he knew Valdano. Marx said that he and Valdano had only met four times, including now. Their first encounter was during a battle in the plains of Guardia, a walled city within the jurisdiction of Regalia. Back then, Wisteria had been vying to expand its territory, so they sent their most powerful rune knights, led by Bellamy Thorn.

Unfortunately, Bellamy died at that battle after he and his squadron of rune knights were caught in a trap. The walled city, along with many of its residents, died at an avalanche caused by explosives. It turned out that Regalia had deliberately left the city badly defended, and sacrificed many of its citizens in order to trap the rune knights. Once Bellamy and his men had entered the city, a retinue of soldiers blew up the frosted mountains of Guardia. Everything happened so fast that almost nobody escaped the avalanche.

Marx was very fortunate to have been sent out to scout the vicinity of Guardia along with a few soldiers. When he saw the aftermath of the avalanche, he sent his men back to Loveria to inform Queen Rosetta of what happened. Marx had resolved himself that he was going to avenge Bellamy's death.

Back when he was still a rookie, he had always admired Bellamy's strength, so he strived to be like him in every aspect. He even specialized in fire elemental magic just like Bellamy. When he found out that for his first battle, he would be working alongside Bellamy, he was ecstatic. He told himself that he was going to give everything he had in this battle, so that Bellamy could recognize his deeds.

But when he saw Bellamy's corpse buried underneath a mountain of snow, dead bodies, and blood, all sanity left him. He promised himself that he was going to deal a devastating blow against Regalia even at the cost of his own life.

Thus, he traveled to Old Valeria and stayed there for a few days, accumulating his energy. Once he had gathered enough strength, he used his very life force as a conduit to summon the God of Flames, Ifrit. Along with his mana, every fiber of his being was burned into a crisp as he watched the city be thrown into chaos.

There, he met Valdano once again. The man fearlessly fought against Marx despite the risk of being in the eye of the firestorm summoned by Ifrit. During that battle, Marx lost his left eye, and Valdano escaped by the skin of his teeth.

However, it didn't stop Marx from draining his entire life force. Left with no other choice, Valdano ran away. He knew that he couldn't save the city of Valeria at this point. His only option was to leave before it was all too late.

As Marx reveled in the destruction he caused, his vision became blurry, but he still allowed Ifrit to drain his life force. When there was no more left of Marx's life force, Ifrit disappeared into thin air, leaving the old city of Valeria a burning ruins.

The last thing Marx witnessed when he was slowly losing consciousness was a long-haired knight approaching him. A few hours later, he regained consciousness. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the same knight he saw a few hours ago, but the knight's face was covered by a golden mask.

He tried to ask for the knight's name, but the knight did not answer his question. Instead, the knight said to Marx, "You have been reborn. Rejoice, for the master hath chosen you. Your first task is to sow the seeds of conflict. Do so, and you will one day be worthy enough to meet our master, Yaldabaoth."

At the time, Marx really wasn't sure what he was going to do with his life. He suffered through survivor's remorse a day after he regained consciousness, and even felt guilty after killing so many innocent people. He tried to seek help from a nearby village, but seeing as all he had on his back was badly burnt cloak, and his skin was riddled with scars, nobody wanted to help him.

Some were even cruel enough to beat him up. He wanted to use magic to defend himself, but shortly, he realized that he was no longer capable of casting spells. It seemed that his ability to cast magic was the cost of being reborn.

After suffering at the hands of cruel Regalian villagers, he was thrown into jail. There, the other prisoners took turns to r**e him. He pleaded help from the warden, but the warden just laughed at his expense.

All Marx could do was scream and cry for help. And as he slowly lost consciousness, he remembered the rune knight who saved him, and the name of his alleged master: Yaldabaoth.

When he whispered Yaldabaoth's name into the air, Marx gained an unprecedented amount of strength. With his newfound strength, he bashed the heads of the other prisoners against the wall, and caved-in their skulls. Then, he broke out of the cell and killed the warden as well. He took the warden's black attire for himself, and began to s*******r all of the villagers, including the children and the elderly.

From then on, Marx began to plunder villages, gaining outlaws for companions. It took almost three years, but he had finally gathered enough men to rival an entire army and even gained a base of operations: Shadow Valley.

He became known as the Shadow Boss, and his band of outlaws sowed chaos wherever they went. Marx and Valdano met again when Valdano tried to exterminate Marx and his men. However, Valdano failed in that task, for there was nothing he and his mercenaries could do against Marx's outlaws in Shadow Valley.

"Now, I've told you everything I know, so you must live up to your promise as well, Rune Thorn. Let me go," Marx remarked.

"I intend to keep my promise, but I never said I'm going to let you go. All I said was that I'll let you live," Rune responded.

"You f*****g asshole! I'm going to kill you!" Marx exclaimed.

Tired of his antics, Leif pressed a dagger to his throat. "Try it."

"He's all yours, Leif. You can m**m him, torture him, I don't care. Just don't kill him," Rune remarked while walking away along with Yelena.

"You shouldn't trust Valdano so much, you fool! He knows more than he lets on!" Marx shouted.

Once they were out of earshot, Yelena said to Rune, "Do you really think that man was telling the truth?"

"I don't know. But he didn't look like he was lying," he responded. "Yelena, I need you to look for Zeke. There's something that the three of us should talk about."

Yelena nodded in response and then she quickly strode into the forest, disappearing beneath the trees.