The Kind of Evil

Aris carefully held Rullein's orb in her arms, checking her condition with her draconic eyes. Suddenly the doors barged open, and that was when the Night Stalkers came in to check the situation after Rullein's realm disappeared. She glanced at them and simply stared at them until all of them suddenly got crushed by a powerful force. They were squeezed and crushed like cherries until the only thing that was left behind was the skin on the floor in the pool of blood.

However, Aris didn't kill the demons inside the possessed bodies. She let those demons fly away, retreating after they found out that the Fallen Watcher and all the powerful demons that had occupied the nation were eliminated. After all, it was Rasmus' plan all along, to let the world know what had happened to the Refenus Kingdom.

Rasmus looked at the empty grand hall where it was filled with people and music. He saw the remaining ashes of the guests that he had burned to their deaths. He then heard screams and the clanking of armor and steel from outside the window. He realized that the Black Hands were still out there, preventing anyone from entering the palace.

"We are done here, right? Is there anything else that you want to do here?" Aris looked over her shoulder at Rasmus.

"There's something that we want to find..." Rasmus said as he stored his sword in the spatial ring. "It's my late mother's armor, your predecessor's armor," he revealed as he looked at Aris.

Aris slowly raised her brows, and didn't expect to find something valuable from this place. Rasmus had been hiding this information from her, and he already knew it from the records and archives that the Black Hands had recovered.

"Shall we go and take what should belong to you?" Rasmus asked as he looked out the window where the knights and mages had entered the inner wall of the palace area.

"Wait, Count Blackheart..." The Jester looked at Rasmus with a cold gaze. "You're going to let the Black Hands die out there?" He asked, his voice low and quiet.

"Die? No. We have a spirit that will protect them," Rasmus answered as he looked at the sky where Yur, in its owl form flying above the palace.

Herman and the other Black Hands were busy fighting against hundreds of Royal Knights and knights from each high-ranking nobles families. They were outnumbered and struggled to maintain their defense to prevent anyone from entering the palace. They were slowly but surely getting surrounded by enemies and knew they had no chance of winning, even retreating now wouldn't be a guarantee of safety.

However, when they heard the sound of an owl from the top of the palace, Erdinand and Joshua turned around to look at the owl. They knew it was Yur, the Great Spirit, and they were relieved when Yur looked down at them with a reassuring gaze.

Yur hooted as it spread its wings, and slowly but surely, the terrain around the wall became higher. The ground shifted and bent to Yur's will before Yur flapped its wings and sent the high ground to move like a wave in the sea. Knights and Mages were getting pushed and thrown away by the tectonic wave.

As a spirit, Yur didn't care about the lives of humans, and with that single manipulation, Yur killed many knights that were getting crushed by it. The earthquake caused so many buildings to collapse, killing so many innocent lives. Yur didn't stop there and began to fly to reduce the number of threats in the most efficient and in the cruelest way.

Yur released a hurricane and shredded even the strong walls, trying to get rid of hundreds of knights and a thousand guards. Yur didn't show any mercy as the Black Hands watched everything unfold, where a Great Spirit showed its true power or a glimpse of it.

After just a few minutes of massacre, Yur landed on top of the palace wall, looking at the damage it had caused. Half of the capital city was in ruin, screams and cries of people could be heard everywhere. Yur didn't care about them at all, tilting its owl head back and forth, satisfied with the task that was given by Aris and Rasmus.

Yur was unable to do anything before because the city was thick by demonic energy. Mana was absorbed and scarce in the capital city before Rullein managed to get rid of the core of the problem. The moment the Fallen Watcher died, Mana began to enter the capital city and filled the city with it. That was why Yur could finally join the battle and help.

Rasmus and Aris were walking along the long hallway when they felt the intense earthquake. However they didn't bother about it because they knew who could do something like that. The Jester somehow decided to stick around and follow them from behind, wanting to see what the royal family had hidden from the world.

"Tell me, Jester..." Rasmus said as he kept his head forward. "How did you know that the existence of the Black Hands? Nobody should know about their existence. I'm sure Ayla didn't reveal who she is..." He stopped walking and slowly turned around to look at the Jester.

The Jester stopped walking and stared at Rasmus's stoic expression as he tried to decipher the Jester's whole existence. He realized that he just did a slip of the tongue when he said about the Black Hands, and knew that he couldn't get out of this with lies or deception.

"My wife..." The Jester answered, his gaze mirrored Rasmus. "She was a Black Hand..." He revealed, his voice trembling when he mentioned his wife.

Rasmus didn't show any reaction at all until he hummed with understanding and continued his walk. The Jester was shocked that Rasmus didn't question anything, not even a single word of doubt. He stood still as Rasmus and Aris kept walking toward the treasury room.

"You believed me?" The Jester asked, and his question echoed throughout the quiet hallway. His eyes were focused on the shoulders of the man who had just killed innocent lives and kept his head high and walked with confidence.

"No, but you seeemd to answer with honesty, and that's enough," Rasmus answered as he turned into the corner.

The Jester decided to stop following and looked out the window at where the beautiful garden was. His gaze was distant and empty, slowly but surely realizing what had just happened today, what he had witnessed and experienced. He had achieved his goal, but cold, the loneliness, and the uncertainty lingered. The madness had become somewhat more comforting than what he had allowed it to be.

"Celline..." The Jester muttered as his hand reached the glass window, leaving a bloody handprint on it.

Rasmus looked at the double doors where the maids and servants began to run away when they saw his white hair, knowing who he was. He opened the door and saw myself inside a massive archive room. He tried to remember the blueprint for the palace, to remember the secret door that led to the vault, but then Aris tapped his shoulder and pointed at the shelf in the middle left of the room.

"There's a faint demonic energy coming from there," Aris pointed out.

Rasmus nodded with understanding and went to check the shelf thoroughly. He looked at each book on the shelf when he noticed there was one that seemed to have been pulled often from the shelf since it left marks on the shelf. When he pulled the book, a click was heard from behind the shelf. The moment he pulled the shelf, the wall behind it moved and let them pass.

They walked down into the dark stairs with no light, but that didn't affect them since they used their draconic eyes to see in the complete darkness. They found a steel door and it was locked, but it wasn't a problem for Rasmus, simply kicking the vault open. The first sight they saw was a towering glass display of a black clad full plate of armor inside with a crest of the Blackheart family on the pauldrons.

Aris walked past Rasmus and stood in front of the display, her reflection fitting perfectly with the size of the armor. She could see how it was made with the finest material and noticed the craftsmanship that excelled hers. She knew the armor was made by an Orthias, or perhaps an Aristoria which meant that it was Aristoria herself that made the armor.

Rasmus looked at the book with a dark red cover, being placed inside a display case as well. He was more attracted to the book than the full-set armor and chose to approach it.

"What are you waiting for?" Rasmus looked at Aris with his brows raised. "Take it, the armor is yours," he said as he pointed at the display case.

Aris smirked and touched the glass case and immediately it shattered into fine dust. When she touched the armor, she felt an energy that lingered inside it. Realizing why the armor wasn't used by anyone because it would crush and kill anyone that tried to wear it because of the energy. The energy resonated with Aris and slowly the armor released a light blue energy that entered her body.

"Looks like the armor has been waiting for its new owner to wear it," Rasmus said with a smirk on his face.

"Yes, it has been waiting patiently..." Aris muttered as she nodded.