Chapter 156: The Age of False Champions

Sparks of light began to scatter all about and Evin could feel a cavity appearing in the middle of his chest. He screamed in pain and thrashed about even more violently with his tiny hands, but his efforts were doomed to fail. Amidst the pain and confusion, he eventually lost consciousness.

The edges of a blinding blue core appeared from inside Evin's body and the woman stopped digging further looking at it with envy and want.

Evin's consciousness came back to his body at this time. For whatever reason, he didn't feel pain, but he was still pretty out of it, his mind lazily remembering the time when Layla began to rip apart his body. At that time, he also didn't bleed normally, but instead found himself in a similar state to today: with bits and pieces of his body missing, and Evin himself feeling very, very tired.

Evin's eyes saw the woman who was on top of him. He wondered what she would do next. 

'And how long was Twelve going to watch me suffer? Is she actually watching me?'

'If you're out there watching... Please help... Don't think I can get out of this situation by myself...'

Stray thoughts filled his head. But eventually, it led to the big question.

'Am I really going to die like this? After an unfortunate accident that involved someone who was much too powerful compared to me… Without even understanding what exactly happened and why it happened as well. Maybe I should've been more careful, like Rith told me to...'

He wanted to chuckle, but only some dry breath was exhaled out of his mouth.

'I feel that my life was always a joke on the hands of these absurdly powerful entities. Whoever the god was back on Earth… The Cosmics, the Kingdom, the Tribes, literally everyone who could read minds, I had no choice but to dance at the palms. And even worse, I had to do it willingly and happily. Because there's no other choice for a weakling like me other than to hide under the strong's shadows and hope they don't get bored of me…'

'Even now, my only chance at survival lays inside Twelve's palms'

'Aren't there moments in stories, where a character is lying on his deathbed, but after an exciting, heartbreaking, and utterly bullshit resolution of an inner conflict, they suddenly muster the strength and courage to overcome whatever problem they currently face... '

'Shit... How do I even manage to overcome this problem with my whole body paralyzed? The most I can offer is a self-deprecating joke...' he smiled weakly.

Evin wasn't allowed to think further as the woman seemed to snap out of her daze and began to resolutely dig at her own body. She dug at her heart without care and fear, with sparks of light flying about everywhere in the room. Eventually, she ripped a dark-blue orb out of her chest. 

Carrying the orb very carefully in her hands, the woman shoved it inside Evin's body, towards the boy's own bright-blue core, merging them together.

Weirdly, anticipation filled Evin's muddles mind, but the sheer amount of information that filled his head knocked him out once more.

…

...

...

Evin stood on one of the many watchtowers of Khemon City, gazing at the horizon, her raven single braid fluttering in the wind behind her. With anxiety, she anticipated the inevitable appearance of the army of horror and despair. The noise of a crowd buzzed from beneath her, a squad of guards were trying their hardest to herd the mass of people with their rusty spears, shouting threats and insults all the same. 

Farmers, merchants, servants, random peddlers and even some more well-off citizens... everyone in the radius of three days around Khemon had decided to come and hole up inside the city, thinking its tall stone walls might protect them from the approaching enemy. At first, they had orderly lined up at the city's gates, but due to the news from this morning, that stated that the army was in a day's reach from Khemon, they had begun to panic and lose the order that was maintained throughout these days.

'They expect a siege… Pity,' Evin thought in her head as he watched as one of the guards pick a farmer who seemed to carry a large amount of wheat in his cart.

"You with the cart, you're allowed inside. Hurry!"

The farmer happily obliged and ordered his children to push the cart inside.

"Shit on your mother! Why these bastards can go in, but not us? My family paid tribute to the Khemon council for generations! My empty house is inside the damn streets if the North quarter, you know that?! I was just out for a bit and came back and suddenly I find my own city refusing to let me in!" one of the men, a rather well-off merchant from the looks of it, shouted and tried to kick at the farmer who was trying to pull his cart inside. 

The farmer dodged aside, and Evin was able to see a slight sneer forming on his face, as a guard snatched the merchant's arms and then gave him a heavy blow to his face. He then followed it by a sharp stab by the butt-end of his spear after the man fell down stumbling.

"Council's orders!" the guard spat out emotionlessly, and glared at the others threateningly. The crowd glared back at the guard disdainfully, but did not dare act out of line, considering the guards' weapons.

A bit of swift violence could save a lot of trouble in the right times. Though one did have to be careful not to overdo it, as the crowd might feel a bit too threatened and explode anyway. 

But it was still a bit unlucky for the one who was made to be an example. 

"Shit on your council…" The punched man got up, wiped his bloody nose, and went towards a woman and a boy at the edge of the crowd. The woman began to argue and urge the man, but received only a slap to her face, as the man declared that they were going to leave towards the next city.

Evin was quite jealous that this family was able to leave behind this doomed city. Perhaps they would hear stories of what will happen to this city and decide to flee even further. She wasn't optimistic that they would be able to run away in the end, she still wondered how far they could get.

The crowd of people then resumed its bustling activities. These people expected a siege, but Evin knew that there wouldn't really be much of a siege to speak of. 

The approaching army would gather at one of the gates and then raze the city down to ashes with their weird magic, just like all the other great cities that happened to be in their way. Evin didn't know where they were headed in the end, but she was convinced that they wouldn't stop here. 

Evin could shout this out to the crowd below, but she knew that none of them would believe her. All the people here still didn't believe that the approaching army consisted of the reanimated corpses and remains of the armies that faced their current master in the past, the Overlord of the Undying. If any of them knew differently, they would be hurrying towards some other place, any place that was far, far away from the army of undead. Sadly, all these people below thought that it was some kind of made up story by the enemies to trick them into surrendering. 

It was understandable, since there really weren't any concrete evidence about this supposed army of undead.

But Evin knew exactly how real this army of undying were. She personally saw the army obliterate the thousand champions of Akkadi, the Hero of Sun, and then turn the dead enemies into one of their own, strengthening itself even further.

And the Hero Akkadi himself wasn't some weakling either. At the time, he was considered the strongest of the Fourteen Heroes and his army was considered the most elite and discipled of the World. But, Akkadi was killed in a glorious battle between him and another three turned Heroes of Nosk Empire that fell at the hand of the 'Overlord of the Undying'. Akkadi shone brightly like the sun, overpowering the others at first, but he was like the bright day: imposing and dominant at first, but his powers couldn't help but wither out when night came. On the other hand, the undying Heroes knew no exhaustion, nor enervation. After a continuous fight of five days and nights, the undead Empty Knight's Void Sword found its target at last.

That fight was so unbelievable, that Evin could not help but feel her own insignificance as an Arch-Hex. During her long life that lasted almost a century, she never imagined that Divine Essence users could become so powerful. Just like these people flocking to Khemon city, she thought of the Fourteen Heroes as exaggerated figures to keep the people scared and in control.

But thinking of the aftershocks of the four heroes' attacks, all of which were strong enough to kill her countless times over if she was actually there, Evin was forced to change her mind.

And the scariest part was, that fight didn't even feature the master of those three undead heroes. Evin didn't know how fast the fight would've ended if 'she' decided to participate in it...

Thinking of the mastermind behind this wave of undead mages, the most powerful Hex that ever existed, Evin couldn't help but shudder involuntarily. The greatest conflict of the Age of False Champions awakened a monster that should not have been disturbed.

"The ever-triumphant Princess of Denial," Evin murmured out loud.