How long had it been now, since the fight had begun?

Steinar’s body hurt all over, his insides burning as if it were sulfuric acid instead of blood being pumped through his veins. His muscles begged, screamed for oxygen; a mad cacophony of desperation erupting inside of his head. A plea for mercy, one that he could not answer, for he had no time to rest— nor to even properly breath. There were far too many enemies before him; far too many targets for him to slay. Alone he stood against a horde of demons, an action nothing short of suicide. But he could not retreat. He couldn’t even dare take a step back. Behind him stood something important, something precious… Something he had to protect.

He didn’t mean for things to turn out this way… How was he supposed to know there would be demons in the swamp? How fucking ridiculous of a story… Would he even have believed it, had someone told him? ‘Hey, so, you know that swamp just a few days away from one of Arum’s major cities? Yeah, that one. There’s a horde of demons hiding in there— hundreds of them. A horde strong enough to pose a threat to the kingdom.’ A ludicrous tale, anyone would agree. Even more so when the rumors going around are taken into consideration. Shouldn’t there be an outbreak of undead swarming the place?

The Sunless Swamp is supposed to be a hunting place for intermediate level adventurers, some even go as far as to calling it an ‘open field dungeon’. Supposedly, one would only find beast-type monsters and undead there. The damn place has been fully mapped, for gods’ sake! They sell them at Alcara’s general stores! How could someone summon a whole horde of demons without the kingdom’s authorities noticing!? Unless…

‘Yes… It makes sense.’ The world is rotten. Fully and truly rotten. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that someone in a position of power was covering things up. ‘Ah… How disgusting...’ The obelisk he had destroyed couldn’t have been used to summon all of those demons… No, such a large scale summoning would have required more demonic relics, as well as… More, many, many more sacrifices.

Holding his sword with one hand, Steinar parried the pair of massive blades that came towards him. His free hand grabbed the tail of a demon that was trying to make his way past him, towards the twins. Using the momentum generated by the blow he had just parried, Steinar spun his body around; his sword cleaving through the demon that he had just grabbed a hold of. Stomping the ground, he rushed forward at incredible speed— cutting through another two demons; the one he had parried before, and another that was preparing to attack him. Luckily, the creatures were not intelligent enough to display even the barest minimum of combat tactics. Fighting mostly with their instincts, they always aimed to kill with a single blow— making their attacks rather predictable.

By now, Steinar could no longer tell the difference between his heart and his brain; they were both furiously thumping all the same. ‘No matter… This shouldn’t be enough to kill me.’ Yes… He wouldn’t die. Not like this… Definitely not to something like this… He had endured far worse throughout his life. Inhuman cruelty that would break even the strongest of men, the bravest of heroes… He wouldn’t fall here. He couldn’t allow himself to fall here.

Another pair of blades came for him. This time, he jumped and used one of them as a foothold to launch himself into the air. Infusing his blade with aura, he descended upon his attacker— splitting the foul creature in half. Through his mouth, he took a deep gulp of air; his lungs almost bursting from the sudden intake. His eyes were all bloodshot, stinging as if they had been filled with sand. His vision was growing hazy… It was only natural, for it had been some time since he last had the opportunity to blink.

Individually, these kinds of demons wouldn’t have posed much of a threat to him. High leveled they might be, but nothing a grand-master swordsman— such as himself— wouldn’t be able to handle. Though when they come in those huge numbers… No, the problem was not with their numbers. If he were free to move through the battlefield as he wished, circling them, striking from the sides and stepping back as needed… He was certain that he would have been able to take down even a thousand of those pathetic demons. And yet, right now, after having killed only a hundred and eighty two of them, he was already about to collapse.

Protecting others was hard… Making sure that no demons would pass through him was extremely difficult. It was a first for him, having to fight while ensuring the safety of another. For some reason, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing the twins. He needed them, sure. He needed their powers to mature and develop, in order to enact vengeance upon the witches of the Ashwall clan. But that wasn’t it… There was something else… Was it love, perhaps? What a truly complicated emotion… A part of him just wanted to turn back and tear them apart with his bare hands. ‘They are witches, after all. All witches must die.’ But at the same time… It felt like they were precious, like he had known them for centuries, millennia even. Having them by his side was pleasant, comforting… It felt just right. And there was more… There was this indescribable feeling… As if they being together was something fated, as if it were meant to be that way.

“…?” While dodging yet another pair of massive blades, Steinar’s eyes caught sight of a curious figure among the remaining demons. It looked like… A wolf? Though it had about the same size of a cow. The animal was all mangled up, wounds all over its jet-black fur. Ethereal dark tendrils sprouted from within its wounds, like the roots of an ancient tree.

Planting his feet firmly into the ground, Steinar focused a huge amount of aura into his sword. It glowed in shades of dark-blue and black, sending sparks through the air. He then unleashed a powerful crescent strike, decimating everything in an arc before him— eleven demons and a bunch of trees. Yet, the wolf creature still remained. Unabated, as if the blow had gone through without even touching it. Was it perhaps a stronger kind of demon? Why was it different from the others? But above all else, why did it feel like he had seen it before?

‘Are you here to call me a liar again?’ He wondered, as he rushed towards the next group of demons. Assuming a back-left guard, he executed a clean upwards strike; releasing a booming shock-wave that cleaved through the nearest demon— and three more that stood directly behind it. Eight other demons approached. Five running towards him, three aiming for the twins. There was enough time for a quick breath; a bit less than half a second, barely sufficient for him to not immediately pass out due to a severe lack of oxygen.

There were so many enemies that he couldn’t even take the time to breath… He was used to fighting against numerous opponents, for he had participated in many a war before. It was, however, his first time having to face more than a hundred enemies on his own. To him, this kind of experience was—

Truly enjoyable.

He stepped forward, sparks of aura flying all around as his sword danced through the air with flawless precision. It cut through the demons unopposed, as he expertly dodged his way through their blows. In the time-span of just another two seconds, the eight demons had all been dealt with. ‘That makes it two hundred and five.’ Three more demons remained… Three more demons and he would finally be able to breathe, but—

‘Shit...’ He grimaced, as his vision went completely dark. He was fully capable of fighting without being able to see, thanks to his enhanced senses, however… For a while now, he had been unable to smell anything, and only white noise reached his ears. ‘I guess I was having to much fun and ended up overdoing it… Humans need oxygen, after all...’

##

“What now?” The familiar voice inquired. For some reason, even though he could no longer see, hear nor smell anything, the figure of that damned wolf-looking creature was still present within the darkness of his mind.

‘Shut up.’ Steinar answered it, though the exchange only took place inside of his mind— In less than a fraction of a second. ‘I don’t have time to bother with you right now. Go away.’

“You have to breathe.” The voice persisted. “If not, you’re going to die.”

‘You don’t think I know that?’ He almost scoffed at the voice, for trying to lecture him on something so blatantly obvious. ‘I can’t breathe. If those demons are all as fast as the first one, the time of a proper breath would be more than enough for them to reach the twins.’

“And what of it?” The voice questioned him. “They are witches, are they not? Letting them die here would be for the best. All witches must die. They must pay for their betrayal.”

‘Seriously…’ Steinar would have let out an annoyed sigh, if he could. ‘You do realize that my mother and sister are witches as well, right?’

“Yes.” The voice concurred. “And they too must die.”

‘Not going to happen.’ Steinar opposed it. ‘And I’m not gonna kill the twins either— nor let them die. Once we get back from the swamp, those two are gonna be my wives.’

“I see… Even after all this time… You still…” The voice muttered, his tone almost a faded whisper. “Well, no matter… What are you going to do, then? Three demons are about to break past you.”

‘The girls haven’t moved since the start of the fight…’ Steinar mused. ‘If they are still at the same place, I should be able to cut through the demons before they are able to reach them.’

“Do you think it will work?” The voice probed him further. “If they moved even a single centimeter forward, you could end up killing them.”

‘I know…’ Steinar’s words trailed off. ‘But I have no other option.’

“Do what you think is right.” The voice spoke. “Fate shall be the final judge of your actions.”

‘What do you mean by that?’ Steinar asked, as the voice resounded within his mind.

“I meant nothing.” The voice replied. “For I am nothing. I do not exist. My presence here is just a lie that you made up, a mechanism to help you cope with all the hatred and resentment that are welling deep inside of you.”

‘Yeah… I know...’ Steinar confessed. Indeed, there’s no way he wouldn’t know. It was the resentment of his own ancestors, the resentment that he inherited through the cursed bloodline. Ancient history, wholly distorted by those who remained. The old tale of the wolf and the serpent… The tale of Vinterøya… The tale of his land, of his people— and of how the witches had betrayed them.

“The curse eats away at your sanity.” The voice explained, as it faded away into the distant depths of his mind. “All that remains is the hatred, the deeply rooted resentment of your forefathers. Accept it. Embrace it. Let the madness and the hatred consume you. The sooner you do, the sooner you will stop suffering.”

##

Hugging the unconscious body of her sister, Alice watched in a daze as the nightmarish scene unfolded before her. Hundreds of demons, all strong enough to kill her with a single blow, swarming from the depths of the swamp. Steinar alone stood between her and a gruesome death… And yet—

She smiled.

How could she not? With such an enjoyable scene playing before her… She could barely hold herself back. ‘Ahh… Isn’t this just perfect?’ In this terrible place… Surrounded by the corpses of fallen enemies… That beast of man cutting through those creatures as if they were nothing… It was thousands— no, millions of times better than she could have ever imagined. Her beloved novels paled in comparison.

Steinar’s onslaught ceased for less than a second, but it was enough time for three demons to get past him, heading straight for her— their blades already casting a shadow over her body.

“Ah~...♥” A soft moan escaped from her lips, as she undid her barrier. A stupid and questionable decision, but one she took without hesitation. Instinctively, she knew what would happen next.

As the demons were about to crush her frail, delicate body, Steinar pounced upon them— his sword tearing through their twisted flesh; blood and guts spurting and painting the twins crimson. The three demons had been reduced to mangled pieces of flesh in less than a second.

Steinar fell to a knee, sinking the tip of his sword into the ground. He wouldn’t be getting up for now, at least not until he caught his breath. But that wouldn’t be a problem… The demons were gone now. Reduced to butchered corpses, scattered all over the swamp.

Leaving her sister’s still unconscious body laying ‘comfortably’ on the ground, Alice got up and started walking towards Steinar, her hips swaying seductively with each new step. She started undressing, removing her clothes, piece by piece, as if intending to put up a show for him. Soon, she was left completely naked, her angelical beauty highly contrasting with the swamp’s gloomy atmosphere.

“Right here, right now...” She muttered, her golden locks flowing in the wind. “I want you to ravish me.” Her hands slowly reached towards his face, offering his cheeks a gentle, soft caress, the kind of touch only a woman in love could ever provide. “I want you to ravish me, Steinar.” Although her face showed the usual sweet and innocent smile, her gaze dripped with raw, animalistic desire; the fires of lust clearly raging inside her. “I want my first time to be here, amid all of this carnage and death.” She got close enough that their bodies were almost touching, taking advantage of the fact that Steinar was still on his knees to whisper into his ear. “Do it now,” her silky voice beckoned him. “Before you calm down… Before your rage subsides…” She bit at his earlobe, then at his neck. She had used enough strength to leave deep, reddened bite marks, but not enough to tear through his skin. “Ravish me!” She demanded, as her warm breath brushed against Steinar’s neck, sending a pleasurable shiver along his spine. “Take me forcefully, violently... Like the animal that you are!”

“Seriously…” Still catching his breath, Steinar pulled Alice even closer— into a tight embrace. “You sisters are fucking insane… Just the way I like it.”

##

End of Chapter 19: Carnage and Death.