8 Grace, Gained & Lost

Eternus opened his eyes to an early rising sun and the clapping of leaves. The chirping of birds was peaceful and contrary to the chaotic battle from which he woke up. He squinted his already closed eyes as the sunshine rays peeked through his eyelids and he slowly began to recall what had happened just before he fell unconscious.

Any doubts of it being another nightmare were cleared up when he opened his eyes to the blue sky painted with clouds ready to leave.

'How long have I been unconscious like this?' He wondered to himself as he felt the wet soil below, 'So it rained on me while I was unconscious… How strange it didn't wake me up?'

He rolled his eyes around and found himself surrounded by different scavenger birds and animals like Crows, Horned Jackals, and even Forest Vultures sniffing and staring at him from different angles.

His stomach growled louder than it ever did before, another evidence that he had been knocked out for several days. The sound cautioned the creatures surrounding him… but not enough.

'How I hate the sun...' He rolled his eyes from the shining sun and continued inwardly, 'Time to get up.'

He still hadn't moved a muscle and used this element of surprise to his advantage by suddenly sitting upright and grasping the Forest Vulture that perched on his chest by the throat.

"BACKAAAAW '' Screamed the vulture similar to a chicken at the slaughterhouse.

Consequently, all the other animals and birds surrounding him immediately scrammed off as their friend Vulture cawed in the boy's grasp.

"Let's go, little guy… It would be me if not you. I'm stronger than you, so I guess I live today." Eternus rhetorically spoke to the Vulture as he headed inside the lonely hut and with a prominent thud that echoed from inside, the cawing of the vulture came to a silent halt.

After finishing the meal he had just caught and roughly cooked, Eternus quietly sat at the table and pondered deeply about what he must do next.

"I can't forgive Inura for what he did… I need to find him, as well as his master… I won't lose next time." Eternus thought out loud to himself, "But the question is… What should I do right now?"

After sitting in complete silence for a moment, thinking and recalling that night; the death of Mage Vankolv, The wicked truth of Inura, and that Mysterious Beast that saved his life in the end. All those thoughts circled his mind for a while as he sat in front of the bony mess of the roasted Forest Vulture, at the table.

"Sitting around here is useless… I need to prepare and leave." He said to himself and slowly walked into the room Inura used to stay in.

He opened the door to a whole stack of armor, bearing a disgusted look on his face, and said with a gloomy tone,

"What do they say... The Victor of a battle owns the Loser's life?... Whatever."

Looking around the set of oversized body armor he could barely find anything that fitted him.

Although he was much bigger than everyone his age, Inura was still a bulky grown man and huge, compared to him.

Under the whole set, Eternus only found a leather Pauldron and a pair of knee pads of the same type and pattern that would fit his size.

"This should be enough… Anything more than this will slow down my movements." He said to himself while strapping the equipment onto his shoulder and knees. He continued grimly after furrowing his brows, "I want nothing from you but I will take all this so that I never forget you… Inura, you treacherous and cowardly Bastard!"

After grabbing what he needed in armor, Eternus looked through the sword stash. "Useless toys… This isn't what I'm looking for." Saying that, he left the room snorting in disgust about the place as well as about what he took from there and headed hesitantly to his own room.

As he walked toward the door, subconsciously his steps felt heavy and his speed dampened for some reason,

"I've seen death up close every day for the past two years… Why do I hesitate because of a dead Mage? Pathetic."

Shaking off that hindering feeling with a taunt to himself, he walked straight to his room and opened the door abruptly.

In front of him laid the curled body of the poor old Mage who could not live with his own conscience.

Eternus approached the reeking body with a straight face and stared down at it.

"I don't know whether I should forgive you or curse you even in your death… You were one of the people who unleashed that hell on me. You said you were forced into it. Maybe so, but it doesn't change the fact that you were a part of it."

"But in the end, you couldn't live with your lie and told me the truth at the cost of your very life." He sighed and continued, "I might not forgive you, but I can at least give you an honorable burial." The Boy spoke to the lifeless mage, knowing that he would hear no response from the dead.

As soon as Eternus lifted the body, he heard a thud as if something had fallen from it to the ground. It was the Map Vankolv had handed to Eternus before confessing the truth.

"I must have dropped it when I attacked Inura… Seems like Vankolv held on to it for me." The boy muttered to himself while holding the Scroll of the map, still rolled and its contents unknown, and stuck it in his belt just as it was.

The Boy closed Vankolv's wide-open eyes with the gentle touch of his hands. He covered his wrinkled face with a white cloth and paid his respects to the Old mage.

"At least you were truthful in the end…" Eternus sighed and carried the Mage's carcass out from the broken wall and placed it outside on the dry grass and under the bright sunlight.

Sweat-like shining pearls dripped from Eternus's youthful face as he dug a deep hole and once the grave was ready, he spent another moment staring at the face-covered body of the Mage. He removed unnecessary clothing like the long black cloak and the pointy hat from the body before lowering it down as he chanted those words,

"For the first time, I've dug a grave, and one that would embrace into its eternal grasp, a man who once held the title of Grand Mage. Its tombstone will be your staff and flowers; your hat. You may rest peacefully. Your death was honorable."

After that, his gaze moved toward the old cloak he placed aside from the grave. Again after staring at it for a moment, he tore it up from the alb and fashionably swung it around his back, showing off the triple-layered Pauldron.

"I'll need something to hide my weapons and armor… So I'm borrowing this from you, Old Man." He said while looking at the grave.

Now looking like a true rogue warrior, Eternus lacked only one more thing… A warrior's most loyal companion, his Sword!

Finally having finished this matter with Vankolv's burial, Eternus hastily searches the yard for something,

"It should be here… where is it? I know I knocked it off from him here!" The boy wondered out loud as he rolled his eyes and looked around the rubble and fallen trees resulting from the battle between him and Inura.

"There it is…" Eternus exclaimed when his eyes finally landed upon a Crimson blade that reflected the shining yellow sunlight with a Blood-red Color into the boy's empty eyes.

"Every single thing I take from this place weighs like a curse on me, but I will carry it all to remind myself of the person who turned me into this monster." He took a brief pause and continued, "I will hunt you and your master down." Eternus said with his voice grave as he pulled the sword out from the ground and tightened it into his belt, naked, without a scabbard.

The Boy stood up and with a straight face, ran his eyes through the things he had picked up from the hut, now strapped on to his body. A hint of discomfort showed on his face, after which he immediately looked up toward the sky.

"I'm not afraid of you, Destiny! So do your worst! Keh.. That is… if you still have anything left!" He spoke out loud with a wavering voice and a shaking heart that soon turned rock solid as he walked into the bushes holding the Map scroll in his hand.

After walking a short distance, Eternus unrolled the scroll but to his surprise he found nothing but a blank page.

"Did the Old man joke on his dying breath or is it that my path in life is really as empty as this map?" He mockingly wondered to himself but he knew deep down that Vankolv wouldn't joke about this, especially since he died for this.

"What were you up to, Old man…?" He said as he peered deeper into the blank map and placed his finger on it just out of spite.

____

Meanwhile, In the Empire of Necron, a place where nightmares dwelled and the aura of death prospered, always cloaked by dark clouds with their epicenter being the Royal Palace, guarded by winged creatures that seemed more dead than alive, vicious in all sense of description.

Inside the throne room of the Dark Palace, Inura kneeled down in front of a spiky black throne.

"You may speak, Inura." A hissing voice, terrorizing and grim, came from a tall figure that stood beside the shady throne.

"My Graceful M-master… I- I was just about to have him, everything was ready… B-but that beast, it just came out of nowhere and knocked me out."

The once proud Inura, fallen from the grace of a warrior, stammered as he spoke to the woman sitting on the throne and continued, "P-please, with your permission, let me go now… I promise you, I won't fail you this time!"

"SILENCE!!!"

The same voice spoke out loud, "Do not exceed your limit, Human… You were only given permission to report your failure! Suggesting anything… is out of your place!"

Inura bowed down in terror of the undead creature, not knowing what to do next, anxious of his fate.

A skinny hand with pale skin and razor-sharp fingernails raised from the throne signaling the tall figure to halt.

"There is no need to be so rough on him… I watched your battle with the boy. ~It was most impressive, Inura~" A female voice, sadistic yet terrifying, spoke from the throne.

The reflecting light that peeked into the shadows could only reveal her skinny figure and long claws that would be on par with any blade. She continued in the same tone that sent shivers down the spines of everyone who heard it,

"Don't lose your patience, My General, Arch Lich… Empress Labia II of the great Necron Empire is not so impatient… My wisdom exceeds you all and I know what neither of you can fathom!" She boasted about her might hysterically and showed off a wide and sinister smile.

"The Boy… will come to me on his own and I shall have him!" The gloomy palace echoed with her laughter as she ended her sentence.