Lucas leapt from roof to roof, using the shadows cast by the chimneys to shield himself from the harsh sunlight. His steps were nimble enough that even the neatly stacked roof tiles did not shift beneath him. Not even slightly.
Aurelion had told him where the Velmoryn he was supposed to save was being held. That information had seemed sufficient at the time. Now, surrounded by a large city filled with tall stone houses and enclosed by a massive wall lined with guard towers, Lucas found navigating the area far more difficult than expected.
He had been circling the district, searching for the open square where the scaffold had been built, prepared for the velmoryn’s execution.
He was quickly getting restless. His gaze moved from rooftop to rooftop as he searched for a slightly elevated position that would offer a better view without being too visible to the guards on the towers.
“Lucas, head toward the building with a fire burning in the cauldron on its roof,” I whispered directly into his mind. Left on his own, he would have taken too long.
I considered asking Aurelion to help instead, but dismissed the thought. He could not turn invisible, and I was not even sure he was capable of communicating telepathically with my believers.
Lucas startled when he heard my voice. The reaction was strong enough that he nearly slipped off the roof, coming dangerously close to falling into a cart below that was being hauled through the street, loaded with the filth the townspeople had discarded. I might have been tempted to call the humans of this world undeveloped, but my own followers relieved themselves in the forest beside the tribe, which made these city dwellers seem comparatively clean.
“Thank you, Lord,” Lucas whispered, tracing the oak tree symbol on his chest in a quick motion before blurring toward the building I had indicated.
I had not mentioned it outright, unsure whether Lucas would recognize the significance, but the building he was heading toward was a temple. This was the second time I had encountered a place connected to another god.
The first one I had destroyed myself and created my own statue in its place. This time, my only hope was that Lucas and Aurelion would be able to leave without drawing the attention of the god worshipped there.
Because even through Window, I could feel the divine power surrounding the temple. It was far stronger than my own. My temple barely contained any divinity by comparison.
Lucas landed on the roof of the building opposite the temple and crouched low.
Between the two structures stretched a wide, stone-paved square. At its center stood a large well, complete with a small roof and a simple mechanism for lowering and raising a rope that was connected to a bucket.
Several meters away from the well, a raised platform had been constructed. Unlike the surrounding stonework, it was made entirely of clean wood. The crude shapes and simple construction made it clear that the platform was temporary, built for a single, specific purpose.
And it was about to serve that purpose.
The guards who had been blocking all three entrances to the square stepped aside, opening a path for the citizens to enter.
Hundreds of people, if not thousands, flooded into the square within minutes. The space directly in front of the scaffold filled first, drawing people in until they were packed tightly together, bodies pressed close as they competed for the best view.
Moments earlier, the square had been quiet enough that birds had wandered across the stone paving. Now it was filled with noise, with shouting, murmurs, and occasional chants rising above the crowd.
While waiting for the velmoryn he had been sent to rescue, Lucas observed the humans below. His face remained expressionless, but through the connection we shared, I could sense his feelings clearly.
He despised them.
There was no clear reason for it. None of the humans present had ever harmed a velmoryn, at least not to my knowledge. Yet Lucas regarded them as nothing more than lowly, repulsive creatures.
I searched for an explanation, thinking it might help me understand velmoryns better, but found none. His reaction did not come from logic or experience. It was closer to his nature, similar to how some people dislike sour flavors while others crave sweetness.
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Lucas remained still, like a predator waiting for its moment. He did not move as the noise of the crowd grew louder and louder. Only when it reached its peak did he finally see the man he had been sent to save.
Guards dragged the velmoryn amidst the cheering crowd, one on each side, their arms hooked under his armpits. He was unconscious, his bare feet scraping against the stone as he was pulled forward.
The guards cursed as they walked, their voices filled with anger and disgust.
Grime and filth covered the velmoryn’s body, and open, ulcerated wounds covered his skin. The stench alone would have been enough to make the guards recoil.
Not that I sympathized with the humans. At least not when they were about to execute one of the few velmoryns still alive.
But what Lucas felt went far beyond that.
The moment he saw the velmoryn, his focus locked onto him. His fists clenched without conscious thought. Through our connection, I could tell he wanted to kill every human in the square.
I had already given my orders. He was to cause as little harm as possible, save the velmoryn, and reveal as little of himself as he could in the process.
A gold-ranked velmoryn with knowledge of humans was valuable to me. Even so, my priority was avoiding unnecessary hostility. These humans were not my enemies, and I had no intention of turning them into such.
Lucas waited until the Velmoryn was no longer in the mass of people where his movement would have been restricted. The moment the guards dragged him onto the platform, Lucas leapt.
His body blurred into a red streak, closing the distance to the platform in an instant despite it being dozens of steps away.
I watched more closely than before. This was the critical moment. Not only because the success of the rescue depended on whether Lucas could remove the velmoryn from the platform, but because the humans’ response would show me their capabilities. How they reacted would tell me what level of strength they possessed, and what I should expect from the Night God.
That was one of the reasons I had ordered Aurelion to save the velmoryn prisoner. I wanted to see how powerful the humans were.
Lucas landed on the edge of the platform and charged immediately at the guards who were securing the velmoryn to the pillory.
None of them noticed the shadow closing in.
Only when Lucas appeared did I fully register the difference in size between him and the humans. And Lucas was far from the largest velmoryn.
He struck the first guard with his right fist, knocking him unconscious instantly. Before the second could react, Lucas seized him by the collar, his hand almost as large as the man’s head, and hurled him into the crowd gathered at the front of the platform.
The executioner, who had been standing idle with his weight resting on his massive axe, flinched and stumbled backward, releasing the weapon.
Realizing the executioner was not a threat, Lucas ignored him and scanned his surroundings with a single glance. The crowd was frozen in shock. No one had even screamed yet. Satisfied, he grabbed the velmoryn, slung him over his shoulder, and leapt upward.
His body blurred again, a red streak arcing toward the temple’s rooftop, toward the cauldron burning hot.
Fuck. Why toward the temple…
I cursed inwardly and focused on the divinity surrounding the structure, watching closely to see if it would react.
Lucas did not linger on the temple. The moment his feet touched the roof, he leapt again. Then again.
He moved quickly, putting distance between himself and the square as he ran toward the massive city wall and beyond it, toward the point where Aurelion was waiting.
For a brief moment, I stopped watching Lucas. My attention shifted to the temple as the thick, red, smoke-like aura surrounding it stirred. The change was subtle, but I was certain it meant something.
“Aurelion, be ready to intervene and save Lucas,” I ordered immediately.
I was confident there were no angels or other divine beings nearby. Even if my perception did not extend to everything within a wide area, I was unusually sensitive when it came to divine energy. I would have noticed if something comparable to my own angel had been close.
Lucas continued moving, leaping fast enough that he appeared as a streak of red cutting through the city.
Unexpectedly, he made it out without resistance. No one intercepted him. No one followed. Even knowing that ordinary guards would have stood no chance against him, I found it strange that there was no powerful human in such a large city.
Only when Lucas leapt from the wall and landed in the wide field outside did the alarm bell finally ring behind him.
But by then, it no longer mattered. Even if there had been someone in the city capable of stopping him, they would have been too late. By the time any pursuit began, Lucas would already be with Aurelion. At that point, no one would have been able to stop him.
Looks like it was a success…
The words froze in my mind as Lucas suddenly lost his balance and fell to the side, grimacing and throwing the velmoryn from his back. He rolled across the ground before finally coming to a stop. He pushed himself up onto one knee, jaw shut tightly.
“Why?” Lucas hissed, clutching the right side of his neck.
I was puzzled. I had not been watching closely enough to see what had happened.
The Velmoryn Lucas had rescued began to rise. His body swayed as he stood, muscles twitching and spasming as though struggling to obey him.
Crimson runes crawled across his skin like dozens of snakes, spreading until they covered most of his body. A red shimmer wrapped around him, and his wounds began to close before my eyes.
“I am grateful for the help,” he said. A twisted smile spread across his face. “But you must die.”