A deep-seated memory

Vandervaar readied his sword and went to Birnbaurn and Deinn. "You should step back, Vandervaar," Birnbaurn advised.

"Screw that," he steadied his sword. "They are trying to get into my smith."

Cartern shouted. "Have you forgotten the fact that sound draws them?"

And his shout drew the monsters that fell and slept by the door. It first came as a knock and then the whole house was shaking. The door cracked, and through it, came in a hand – with black skin hanging over it, while meat and clots hung over the bones.

The smell of death came from outside and the door shattered. It was a pile of walking corpses outside, with each of them trying to crawl out of it – to get a piece of fresh meat. Falling from the slope and falling from the roof the roof had broken their bones and twisted their limbs into weird shapes, but it didn't stop their hunger.

"Stand your ground," Deinn screamed. For the moment, he didn't care about Black.

And the dead scrambled in with their tongues hanging out and maggot-ridden teeth. One of them crawled with its broken legs sliding on the floor. "One," Birnbaurn's sword met its neck.

From then on, it was killing and moving. With each kill, they had to move two steps back. Cartern and Natalia were across the room, with Black in the center of the room.

When Birnbaurn crossed Black by his side and saw him standing there, he was confused. "Move back," he shouted.

"Don't care for monsters," Deinn cut down another blight man in its gut, but the thing crawled towards them, pulling his stomach and blood.

"Don't worry," Pacificia's rats attacked the fallen monsters. "You'll see."

Three swords and one staff swung, again and again, but now their backs were near the walls. "Damn it," Deinn grunted. "There's no place to move back."

Black's hollow eyes looked at the monsters. "Give them back what was taken from them," something was talking to him. "Give them back what they deserve. Give them death. Let their binds to the world be severed."

And it happened again. His hands rose, and when one of them jumped at him, his palm met with his face. Lights of red, green, and all seven emanated from his fingers, covering the monster, and severing the poor soul that was trapped in that body.

Natalia and Pacificia had already seen it, but for the rest, it was new. "I can't believe it," Birnbaurn stood with his eyes wide. "He is changing them back."

Black's hands swiped left and right, and the monsters fell motionless as they turned back dead. But it was the same problem all over, for he had only two hands and the blight men crowd on him; like flies gathered to flames. "Support him," Birnbaurn saw the chance to win and he took him.

"I ain't helping no monster," Deinn stood back.

Pacificia, Birnbaurn, and Vandervaar fought against the blight, with Black's hands stopping the ones that got through. But even still, one of them jumped through, and its hand went to the girl. "Damn it," a sword swung down. "I don't want to help no monsters," it was Deinn.

And with that, the deed was done. "I can't live in this place," Vandervaar walked through his smithy. "What is the resistance going to do about it?"

"Find a different place," Deinn cleaned his sword and sheathed it. "It shouldn't be too hard with all the coin you got from us."

Pacificia snickered. "What did I say about the resistance? They don't care about anything, except saving their skin."

She felt a hand over her shoulder, and turned to see Birnbaurn. "I don't know what your distaste with the resistance is, but it's like every other place. It has all kinds of people, and some are unfriendly like Deinn."

"I heard that," Deinn said as he walked.

"Well, I am sorry about that," Birnbaurn smiled. "Regardless, I hope that you all will come with us to the fortress. I'll put a word about you guys to the leader, and he might help you out."

Her powers might be making her delirious, but the memory that she saw then was not something like that – it was real, it was true. She saw people scramble against those monsters, and she saw something; six eyes, three heads, and three drooling tongues. And with it, she saw men, women, and children being torn apart.

Cartern was by her side then. "Let's go with them, Pacificia," he said. "I already told you, you can't win this fight alone."

But she was alone then, when she hid in that hole, hoping that giant dog wouldn't find her. "If I take their help," she couldn't – shouldn't forget. "What will become of the people the resistance abandoned?"

Birnbaurn's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

She stepped back. "I was with you people before," her eyes narrowed. "You might be a twerp then, so you might not remember. I went on a so-called rescue mission of the resistance. But it was no rescue. When they got the supplies and the mayor from the village, they left the village to burn. The blight men came, and with them, a mutated three-headed dog. It was a slaughter."

Birnbaurn took a deep breath. "Yes, we had a history like that. But things have changed."

"The essence of an organization cannot change so fast."

"Yes, it can. It can change, depending on who leads it. Tell me the name of the leader that you know of?"

She didn't expect a question like that. "Danderion Dorthors," she answered.

"Ah yes," he replied. "Everyone remembers him. If you know him, you should also know how he gathered the people – it was with fear, and you can only go so far with fear. He is no longer the leader of the resistance, he is dead. Years ago."

"What?"

"It was a coup and the leader of the coup, is our current leader. A man kissed by fire."