Harbinger: The Four Knights

The Devil

 “I can’t believe that the repairs of the dormitory would take a few months to finish.” Marcus mutters as he eats with Amon and Abel in the shop that they always go to. “Well, we can’t blame them. The headmaster said it himself that there is someone sabotaging the repairs.” Amon said while eating his favorite food.

              “Well, its not really a big problem. The other students are improving quite steadily because of instructor Percival’s methods and probably because of the training that we have done inside the training room everyday.” Abel supported as Amon passes on the chips that he just ordered. “Thanks- Amon how much are you going to eat again today?’’ Marcus pauses first before hinting Amon to stop overeating.

              “I can’t stop it big brother, these chips are their special for today! I can’t just let this chance it slip  away!” Seeing how determined Amon in  eating as much as food as he wants, Marcus tried eating the chips and find it delicious. [Damn, this chips are really good. There goes our oath not to eat so much.]

              After eating a large amount of food, Abel is throwing up again in the same alley that he always does his business as Marcus pat his back as usual. “I don’t think I will be eating out again-bruh!” Abel continues to vomit while Amon grabs a few bites more. “Ah! Do you stash away the extra food that you eat?” Marcus stares at Amon with bewilderment as he gnaws on the food faster than he can chew.

              The three then arrived at the residence after a few more stops because Marcus has to throw up some of the excess food that he has in his stomach. Upon arriving, they saw the other students lining up in a proper manner and saw that the headmaster is in front of them who seems to be delighted in seeing their faces. “Good evening headmaster, what is with the sudden visit?” Marcus ask as he wipes his lips with a cloth.

              “I paid a visit because the person that sabotaged the repairs of the dormitory is found at the nearby village wreaking havoc and the scouts that we have sent have not come back yet. So I plan to give some of you the first mission. And that is to eliminate that threat.” The headmaster said as the three earnestly listens to the supporting details that the headmaster stated afterwards.

              Most of the special class finds the mission that is handed over to them a completely dangerous one, only some are showing signs of accepting the mission which greatly bothered the headmaster. [Are they not confident in their talents? Well, I can’t blame them. The scouts have not returned so it’s going to be a perilous mission and it will only more dangerous if the ones who signs up are not confident in their talents.] the headmaster thinks as Abel and Amon raises their hands willfully.

              “We’ll take on that mission? It’s been a while since I get to fight to the death so I guess I’m in.” Amon’s remarks threw everyone else off with the nonsense he is speaking of. “Are you out of your mind? The scouts have not returned and you plan to go to hell with them?” Nana asked with a completely worried expression as the princess also states her worry but Amon brushes their worries off. “Huh? Aren’t people with power has to stand up for people who doesn’t have? My father taught me that having power  greater than those of others requires responsibility.”

              Everyone around him looks at him in awe as the headmaster is flabbergasted about what he had said. [What the heck did his father taught him when he was little? Is he a knight or something?] the headmaster then brushes of the idea from his head as Nolan also signed up for the mission.

              “You as well?” some of the students stated their worries since Nolan has the tendency to show off in front of the princess in every opportunity he gets. “Don’t get me wrong. I am doing this in the name of the nobilities. If nobles are not willing to take on a dangerous mission like this then there is no meaning in our titles as nobles.” Nolan said with a noble tone as Abel and Amon sees him in a new light.

              “Wow! I can’t believe that you are a true noble in heart!” Amon said as he grabs Nolan by the neck and unconsciously choke the poor guy who immediately yanked his head out of Amon’s grasp. “You barbarian! I almost died!” he protests as he rubs his neck but Abel and Amon did not let him rest and hang their arms on his neck in delight.

              [Tch! I can’t believe this guys are like this to someone who aimed for their necks a few months ago.] Nolan thinks in his heart. With some of his followers signed up to the mission with him. The mission is set tomorrow, everyone then prepared for the mission.

              The next day, a carriage arrived in front of the residence early in the morning. Amon and the others then boarded the carriage and left for the mission while everyone else is asleep. A few hours later, they are getting near the village where the scouts were sent. Nolan ask on of his followers to stay with the carriage and protect the coacher. The others agreed and Amon gave them a barrier for additional protection and left the carriage to go to the village on foot.

              The group then saw signs of battle along the way, Amon and Abel felt a presence of something akin to their aura but there was something weird about that presence. [What the heck is this? Why am I sensing an aura from a fellow demon young master?] Abel whispered inside Amon’s head who also felt the same thing. [Were there any rogue demon from our land? That would be impossible, our elders did not say anything about this.] Amon replied as Abel nods his head in agreement.

              They reached the village and sees that it almost all the buildings and houses are demolished to the point that only the pillars of each house remains and not a soul in sight. The village is completely annihilated with corpses rotting on the ground. The other nobles felt sick just by the sight of the rotting bodies while Nolan steel his resolve and wants to be a better example to the others.

              It was then that Amon saw a crest that belongs to the headmaster, they all concluded that they scouts have died in the village and then one of the nobles pointed out that there is distortion of space in that area, the group tread cautiously as they kept their guard for any signs of attack. Abel as an expert of distorting space, he can tell that there is something on the other side but after opening the space completely, their eyes stumble on the dead bodies of the scouts. Dismembered, skinned, and some have missing body parts.

              The horror of such sight made the other nobles vomit as the stench of rotting bodies overwhelmed their noses but some of them notices something and the others did not realize it until Amon mentions it himself. “There is no one here. The culprit is not here.” They all then turned their gaze on the direction where the carriage and their member is and immediately run towards them without any hesitation.

              “Fxck! Please be there!” Nolan cried in anguish just thinking of the death of his comrade and fortunately they are safe. The noble wondered why they are so exhausted and seemed to be on the edge but none of them dared to tell him the horrors that they saw in that village but the noble is persistent and ask them to tell him but then they notice that Amon and Abel are standing close to a tree and seems to be examining something.

              Nolan sees this and immediately approach the two. “What have you found?” Abel turns to him and told him a grave news. “This was a trap. Use your mana detection here. The culprit left a tiny bit of his mana, he was here.” Percival taught them mana detection in one of their classes but none of them has yet to master it expect for some individuals. Nolan focuses and feels the tiny bit of mana that was left from the culprit and his heart stopped.

              His mana detection shows that the culprit is heading towards the academy. “What is the meaning of this? I think my detection is flawed.” He said as the other two seem to disapprove of what he said. “Don’t tell me.-!” seeing the expression on their faces, Nolan turns to the others. “Pack everything! We are going back to the academy!” he shouted and startled the others. “Are we going to ride the carriage?” one of the nobles ask as Nolan brushed the idea off instantly.

              “Fxck the carriage, we are going to fly.” He said as he cover the others with his family’s secret art: Flight. And then flew straight in the horizon towards the academy. “Hey Nolan, why did you use your family’s secret art?” one of his closes acquaintances as in confusion. “I will gladly use any means to get there in time even if it means to show everyone my family’s secret art. That is a small price to pay for the princess’ safety.” The other nobles greatly confused of what is happening turns to Abel to somehow get an explanation, he did and it is short.

              “The culprit is heading towards the academy, or it might be there right now.” The horror on the faces of the nobles who went to the village overwhelmed them and did not question any more except for the one who is left with the carriage. “This is bad! I hope we get there in time.” He then felt their movement is boosted, it turns out that Abel was the one who gave them the boost with his own wind magic.

              Meanwhile

              [How did this happen?] Marcus thinks to himself as he defends every student that he see against a person covered in blood. “Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”  the person cries the same word over and over again and then turns his gaze to Marcus and proceeds to attack him. “Dragon’s blood- vile creatures!”

              BAM! BAM! BAM! BOOM!

              Marcus bashes the person and sent him flying to the middle of the hallway. “That person packs a punch. Its almost the same as hard as Amon’s, where did this guy came from?” Marcus mutters to himself as he felt his hands actually getting numb. [And how the hell did he know of the dragon? There are not much people who knew about it. And dragon’s blood? I only got the dragon’s mana. There is something strange about this guy.] Marcus grips his shield tightly and orders the others to get away from there. “I will buy you all some time so get away from here!”

              Immediately after hearing his order, the other students then left and at the same time, other instructors arrived at the scene and immediately aimed their attacks on the person. “Thanks for holding him back, we’ll take it from here.” One of the instructor said as Marcus falls back to where the other students are. “Spread the word, tell everyone you meet that there is a dangerous person inside the academy. Don’t let anyone leisurely walk around the academy.”

              The word spread like wildfire as other students got out of the academy while others are trying to get out and most of them were able to get out safely thanks to Marcus aiding them. Thinking that the fight dragged on a lot longer than expected, Marcus decided to check it out but to his surprise, the person was able to eliminate and deal with all the instructors that ganged up on him.  

              “KURH! KURH! KURH!” the last instructor struggled in the hands of the person and met his demise when the person struck his hand through the instructor’s body as the latter stops moving. To Marcus’ horror, the eyes of the person turns to him and they locked their gazes to each other. The unknown person then immediately move towards Marcus when all of the sudden the instructors were covered in ice and the unknown person’s feet is glued to the ground.

              “You really are reckless after all. You saw the instructors fell victim to that guy and you still decided to head in alone.” Nana said as Riri and the others successfully retrieve all the instructors in an instant. “Pest! Pest! Pest! Pest! Pest! Pest! Pest! Pest!”  the person mutters as he tries to free himself but the ice beneath him gets reinforce even more. “Go take the instructors to the doctors. We may be able to save them.” Princess Joanna said as he conjured an ice prison to incapacitate the person even more.

              The others follows her command and takes them out of the academy where the doctors are and get the other instructors treated. “Where is the instructor and the headmaster.” Nana ask and Marcus answered. “They decided to come to the village with Amber so they asked me to look after the academy for the time being but I did not expect to be like this.” The prince smiles bitterly as he grabs his weapon from his dimensional ring. “Looks like were going to detain him on our own.”

              The ice prison could no longer keep the person in check as cracks appear on the surface of the ice which alerted everybody.

              c***k! c***k! c***k!

              “Prepare to fight!” Prince Japeth yelled and the person breaks away from the ice prison and immediately lunges towards Japeth who successfully blocked his attack using his instructor’s method of blocking but the strength behind the person’s attack far exceeds Japeth and scrape a good amount of the floor partially bending Japeth’s sword. [What the hell is with this guy-!]

              BAM!

              Japeth is pushed back by the person’s attack and completely breaking his sword into oblivion. The person smirked in his short victory but Japeth takes out another sword. “Did you think that I would bring a single sword in a fight? Well, sorry to disappoint you. I have in my hands the whole armory of the royal family.” Furious of what happened, the person then attacks Japeth immediately but Marcus jumps in and intercepted his attack.

              “Oh no you don’t, you won’t be taking any more lives while I’m around.” Marcus said as he bashes the person and pin him to a wall. As Japeth tries to incapacitate him by cutting off one of it’s legs but before he can swing his sword, the person’s leg’s throws him a kick and hit his chest and luckily he wears a chest plate and frees himself from Marcus by using magic that blew Marcus away.

              “Kill! Pest! Kill! Pest! Kill! Pest! Kill! Pest! Kill! Pest! Kill! Pest! KILL! PEST!” the person then extends his arm and pulled Japeth towards him with an unknown force and clenches his fist to throw in a decimating punch but Marcus is able to cover Japeth in solid barrier, though the strength was still enough to knock Japeth down.

              BAM!

              “Brother!” Joanna yelled after seeing her brother faint after a single attack and then focuses her magic and aims it at the person.

              FWOOOSH! CHOOO!

              The massive ice spear that she conjured is easily melted by the person’s dark flames. The sight of the peculiar flames sent chills to their bodies as the person fires a barrage of the same flames towards them.

              Seeing that there is nothing that their magic can do, Marcus land in front of them and raises his shield to defend them against the attack. “Modified barrier: Maximum Defense! Atlas!” a blinding scarlet colored barrier erects around everybody inside and somehow protected everybody but before the attack was over, Marcus felt that something is about to happen and instinctively yanked his head back. “ARGH!”

CHING!

Marcus manage to keep his whole head intact but he did not save his eyes. The person’s horizontal attack cuts both of Marcus’ eyes and the bones in a straight horizontal line that resulted if Marcus losing his sense of sight. “ARGH!” he screams in pain as he continues to conjure the barrier around them to keep everyone from getting harmed. “I can’t see!” his screams while putting pressure on to his wound froze everyone in fear, none of them are capable of healing his wound instantly and the ones capable are outside waiting.

Then all of the sudden, the ceiling of the building that they are in broke down and revealed that Ra descending from the roof of the academy.

SCREEEEECH! ROAR!

Ra fell in front of Marcus baring its fang and claws at the unknown person who seems to be shock after seeing a dragon.

“Dragon! Pest! Dragon! KILL!” the person swings his sword but Ra was able to deflect it with his scales and slap him with his tail, sending the person flying from room to room through the walls.

BAM! PAK! PAK! PAK! PAK! PAK! PAK! SCREEECH! ROAR!

Ra’s aggression brought everyone back to their senses, Nana covers the injured part of Marcus’ face with eyes to keep him from losing any more blood as Ra fends off the person, they brought Marcus and his brother out of the academy but before they can, Ra gets slammed on the wall beside them and the person appeared. The dragon tried to move but it seems like the person have bested Ra in terms of strength.

The horrified students are now facing the unknown person without their shield and sword and it is then that the person turns his head towards the ceiling. The group felt a presence that is familiar to them.

BAM!

              Something fell from the ceiling and immediately struck the person, resulting to more destruction of the academy. That something is standing in front of them, it was Amon. He turns to them and saw that Marcus and Japeth are injured, even Ra is in a dangerous state. “So you are the culprit huh? How sneaky of you to lead us away in that village to feast on my friends. I will have your head.” Amon unconsciously releases his murderous aura as Abel and the other arrived.

“Abel, tend to their wounds immediately. Make sure everyone injured is treated, leave no injury unhealed.” Amon orders in a cold tone as Abel nods his head with a trembling figure.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

The instant the bracers fell on the floor, Amon vanished and is seen in front of the person pounding him with heavy punches that shook the entire academy. “Let’s leave, the young master will take are of it.” Abel said as he ask Nolan to carry the injured by flight and he immediately comply.

“Is Amon going to be alright? We should help him.” Nolan said as Abel immediately stops him. “We shouldn’t. Young master is really pissed right now and I have not seen him that angry before so we can’t go out there to help him easily. We don’t know what might happen to use if he is out of control.” Abel warns as he immediately heals the injured.

              [How the hell a creature like that exist? Who in the world did that? How come a demon is residing inside the body of a human?!] Abel shares the same anger as Amon. The feeling of one of their people wreaking havoc in the world of humans.

              “You! I don’t know what creature you are but you dare to injure the people important to me! I will crush you!” Amon cried as he punch the unknown person with such speed that the person suffered a few punctures in just a single punch.

              BAM! TSH! TSH! TSH! TSH! TSH! TSH!

              Blood scattered all around as Amon continues to pound the person to the death. Consumed by his emotion, Amon did not let the person throw in an attack and is overwhelmed by Amon’s attack and succumb to his animosity and then met his death by Amon’s arms as he continues to punch the dead man continuously but to his surprise, Percival was there to stop him.

              “Stop it Amon, you’ve done enough.” Percival said as Amon calms down. The headmaster saw the damage that was dealt to the academy but disregards it and comes to see the injured ones first. The word that the academy was attacked by an unknown assailant spread across the land as the knights visits the academy for the first time.