No Such Thing as Good and Evil

Shade and Faylen were walking down a dirt path, him in his human form, and her hiding her rainbow wings, as had become their norm over the last few weeks. They were heading towards Clarkson; the last town Alisson had told them of that was under attack from monsters.

“What in the world are you talking about?” Faylen said, struggling to walk straight while her hands were to her belly, laughing.

Even Lilah was laughing, though she was trying, and failing, to hide it. “Of all the dumb things you have ever said, this might take the cake.”

“What’s so dumb about it, I’m right?” Shade said, arms out perplexed as to what they found so funny.

“Are you now?” Faylen said through giggles, wiping away tears. “Then please explain it to me, how is everything a word?”

“I will.” He said proudly. “And its not that everything is a word, but that’s not the point.” He then started waggling his finger like he was a professor about to make an important point in class. “Tell me Faylen, what is a word?”

“Uhm, a group of letters put together to create something that we universally understand?” She shrugged.

“Sort of.” He replied. “But I mean, at their core. When you really break them down to their skin and bones, what are they?”

“I’m not sure.” She said, finally regaining her composure.

“They’re noises.” He said. “Noises that convey meaning. Verbal words came before written words, so just because a word doesn’t exist in written form that you know of, doesn’t mean it’s not a word. If I make a noise, and you understand the meaning of that noise, then it is in fact a word.” He proclaimed proudly.

“I don’t think it works like that.” Lilah said, the bow coughing to try and hide its laughter.

“Why not?” He said, throwing up his arms in confusion. “How do new words get invented then? Do you think scientists in Normuc are up in the mountains with pick axes mining for new words.”

“No of cours….” Faylen began, but was cut off.

Shade began pretending to mine, creating a black pick axe out of his echos and swinging it in the air, while doing a terrible impression of what he thought dwarves sounded like. “Clank, clank, clank. Oi boss, I think I found a six letterer!”

He then stepped aside and pretended to be a different dwarf, having the echos in his hand transform into a black clipboard. “Oi Great find Katuck, the bosses will be happy with you. I’m sure they’ll give you many barrels of ale as a bonus.”

Faylen began to laugh hysterically again. “Katuck?”

“What?” he said, his clipboard of darkness vanishing into his hand.

“Don’t you think that impression was just a bit racist?” She giggled.

“Racism and stereotypes come from strands of truth.” He argued.

She shook her head. “That’s what racists say.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but before he did, he sensed something and his head shot to his right.

“What is it?” Faylen asked through a laugh.

He though didn’t even hear her, as he was lost in thought. That’s…. Vestelles necklace, the amulet I gave her years ago. Did she break it on accident? Maybe Alessandria has figured out it’s me going to these towns. Maybe Alisson told them, and they’re trying to flush me out. Would Vestelle betray me like that though? I was a criminal for so many years, and she never broke it. As he looked towards where the sensation of the broken necklace was coming from, he realized something. Wait, the capital is the other direction, she’s over by. He paused before speaking out loud again. “Merellien. God. Fucking. Damnit.”

In an instant he changed into his dragon form, opened his wings and launched himself into the air, racing towards where the sensation was coming from. “What in the world?” Faylen said, her laughter disappearing as she released her wings and took off after him.

“Faylen, stay behind!” He yelled back at her.

“Why? What’s going on?” She yelled back, struggling to keep up with Shade who was flying faster then she had ever seen him fly before.

“I don’t know!” He yelled back. “That why you shouldn’t come. It could be a trap, there could be many strong enemies, it could be a trap with many strong enemies. I’m going in blind, and I’m going in hot. I don’t have time to tell you who the enemies are, how they fight, or protect you.”

“I can help you!” She yelled back. “I’m not the weakling you think I am!”

“Do whatever you want then!” He snarled back. “Just don’t get in my way!”

“Did you feel that?” Arel said.

“Yea.” The cyclops replied, peering down at the broken necklace curiously. “It felt like it gave off some sort of power, but I’m not sure what?”

Arel stared at the necklace himself, before looking back down at Vestelle. “You’re going to tell me what this necklace was, or else my cyclops friend here will stick his dick in places it isn’t meant to go in. And that’ll just be the foreplay.”

The cyclops squinted his eye, staring off into the horizon. “Do you see that?” He asked.

Arel was a sensor himself, he closed his eyes, and tried sensing what the cyclops was seeing. It felt like a Demi God was coming their way. He looked back down at Vestelle. “Who the fuck did you call!” He said, now in a panic. Her eyes seemed to be just as confused and worried as he was though. He snarled as he kicked her, sending her tumbling through the grass. “We need to get out of here, now!” He said, but was too late.

Vestelle came out of her tumble to find a dragon was now standing next to her. An all-black Lucifer dragon, with red horns, red eyes, and a red and black tail. “Shade?” She whispered while looking up at him. Their eyes met for a moment, but the man she once knew was mostly gone. His eyes were now cold, the eyes of a killer, and she could sense the anger and bloodlust coming off of him.

Her mind raced as she thought about the implications of him still being alive. Then she began to wonder how he got here so fast. He was obviously powerful, but it was almost seconds, maybe a minute since the necklace was broken. He must have been relatively nearby, but why?

Then, a rainbow winged fairy landed next to him. She stared at the fairy, trying to figure who she was. She had never seen this fairy before. Even with their being hundreds of Royal fairies throughout the continent, not all of them had rainbow wings, with her being an example of such. Then her eyes went wide as she connected the dots. An unknown rainbow winged fairy, and an unknown dark echos user were freeing the human towns. It wasn’t Merellien, it was them. They were on their way to Clarkson when the necklace broke, and he came flying here just like he said he would. She let out a small smile, and tried to say something louder that he could hear, but coughed up blood as she realized the kick had almost certainly broken her ribs, and maybe punctured her lungs. She wanted to laugh at how weak she was, but knew it would hurt like hell.

Shade landed next an almost completely naked woman. He looked down at her and their eyes met. He could tell it was Vestelle, even now being much older, and of course much more filled out then she was the last time they had seen each other. She seemed to try and say something, but began to cough up blood. He turned to Faylen, who had landed next to him. “You want to help, right? Get her out of those bindings and protect her, I’m going to take care of whoever did this to her.”

Upon arriving his first focus was getting to Vestelle so he hadn’t looked at who was across the grass meadow. When he looked to the other side of the meadow, he found a naked cyclops and a naked wolf were both staring back at him. He then looked at the mithril armor that was near them, and the dragon hunter logo on it. He had barely even registered that Vestelle was naked, as he was only trying to confirm it was her. He looked back to Vestelle again and took in that she was in fact, naked. Rage built inside of him; rage he hadn’t felt in decades.

He didn’t care about a lot of people in the world, as the world never cared for him, at least in his mind. Vestelle though was one of the few people he legitimately would say he cared about. Even though she was quite young when he was a knight, he could tell from the get go just how smart and clever she was. He would talk to her all the time, and enjoyed their conversations. Not only that, but she clearly wasn’t scared of him, nor did she care about him being a Lucifer dragon, even with how weak she was. And he could tell it wasn’t because of who she was, or who her parents were, she legitimately wasn’t scared of him. Even if she was just a child, she was one of the few people he could talk to and feel he was getting real answers from, not just what people thought he wanted to hear as to not make him mad.

His red eyes turned all black, and a stream of hells fire seemed to be pouring out of the sockets. His Horns, and tail turned black as well, before black electricity began to crackle around him and the ground began to shake as if an earthquake was happening. He then began to speak, but his voice was different, deeper, and it sounded as if multiple people were speaking all at once. “Dragon hunters, huh. You want to hunt dragons? Well, I’m right fucking here.” His black echos began to ooze out of his hands, and it took the form of a double ended scythe, which he held in his right hand.

He launched himself at the cyclops like a bolt of lightning, covering the distance between himself and the cyclops in milliseconds. He was spinning the scythe like a windmill in his hand so fast, it caused violent ripples of air to blow through the grassy meadow, making it look like a hurricane was passing over head. The cyclops though was quite strong himself, and had reflexes fast enough to react to Shades unbelievable speed. Right before the hurricane pretending to be a dragon got to him, the cyclops shot a bright red beam of energy from his eye at him. It crackled through the air, and the intense heat from it burnt the grass it went over to a crisp. Shade though didn't stop or even slow his rapid approach, the scythe in his hand instantly changed forms, becoming a wall of black echos in front of him. The beam hit the wall, and disappeared as if it had been sucked through a black hole. “What, that’s imposs…” The cyclops began to say, but couldn’t finish as Shade had already reformed the scythe, and flew past the cyclops, slicing its head clean off as he flew by, landing a few feet away from the Arel. The cyclops head was sent soaring in the air from the force of the slash, and Shade reached his hand out, then caught the falling head without even looking up to find it, instead his cold, dark gaze peering at Arel. He popped the head it like was a bubble, sending blood and brains all over the place. He pointed his blood and guts covered hand in the direction of the cyclops headless corpse and hells fire shot out, burning the corpse to ashes, all while maintaining eye contact with Arel. “Your turn.” He said with pure hatred in his voice.

Arel looked from Shade, to Vestelle, back to Shade. “Wait, if that’s Vestelle, then would that make you?….That fucking goat set us up.”

Shade turned the scythe into a spear, and lunged at Arel, who thew at a dart at him while trying to dodge. The dart wasn’t even close to hitting him, so Shade didn’t bother blocking it, instead watched it fly past him while he plunged his spear right through Arels heart. “I expected better aim from dragon hunters. That golden logo makes you seem important, but you’re weak.”

“My aim was bad, was it?” Arel said with a smile, while coughing and choking on his own blood. Arel then with the last bit of the strength he had, slowly lifted his trembling arm up and pointed behind Shade with a laugh. Shade turned and followed where he was pointing to see in his horror the dart had plunged into Vestelle. He looked to Faylen who was supposed to protect her, only to see Faylen face down on the ground, breathing heavily, which is exactly when he realized just how much echos he was giving off. He had done the same thing he admonished Faylen for doing at the hotel. He completely lost his composure. He had gotten lucky that Faylen removed the collar before he let all his echos out, or else when he killed the Cyclops, or Arel depending on who the collar was connected to, it would've killed Vestelle. But his luck ran dry as he mindlessly ignored an attack he easily could've deflected or blocked, his mind locked on one thing only, killing the wolf. And now his own parade of failures that would embarrass even the greenest of warriors might have gotten Vestelle killed, when he had come here to save her.

He released his echos, eyes, horns and tail returning to their normal red color. “What did you do to her?” He said in a panic turning back to Arel, left hand now around Arels throat.

Arel though, just laughed again. “Fuck you.” He said, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his head fell limp, dead.

Faylen kneeled down next to Vestelle. She untied the rope that was binding her hands and legs, as well as poured echos into the collar around her neck, breaking it. “Are you ok?” She asked, looking at the blood pouring from Vestelles mouth.

“Not really.” Vestelle whispered. “But I should be fine, I think it’s just broken ribs and a punctured lung.”

Then out of seemingly nowhere, it felt like hell had broken loose. Faylen looked up from Vestelle to Shade, who had electricity crackling around him, while his eyes, horns and tail had all changed color. The amount of echos she could feel in the air was like nothing she had felt before, it was overwhelming, and it just kept getting worse. It felt like death itself was standing in front of her, and her vision wasn’t even working properly. Everything looked red, like she was staring through bloody eyes, but she wiped and wiped them, and nothing changed. Her head began to spin as well, as the only thing she could think of was her own imminent death, picturing in her mind Shade killing her over and over. She felt like she had to submit to him, that she had to offer herself to him as it was the only way to survive. Her breathing began to get heavy as the amount of echos in the air kept getting larger, and larger. It felt like she was being crushed, buried alive under a mountain of sand. Moving felt impossible, and even breathing felt like it took everything she had. She collapsed completely, face down on the ground, focusing only on her breathing as she thought if she didn’t, she would die. She tried to ignore the terrors that were playing in her mind, but found it difficult, with them all being completely vivid and seemingly real, even though she knew they weren’t.

“Who, no, what is that thing?” Lilah asked from around Faylens shoulder. If a bow could have wide eyes, it would’ve right now.

“That is the black devil. A walking calamity.” Vestelle coughed, while still injured, she seemed unaffected from whatever this echos ability was. That was until a dart plunged right into her stomach. Some sort of black liquid poured into her, and could be visibly seen slowly moving through the veins throughout her body. Then the pressure of the echos vanished, like it was never there.

Shade dropped the limp corpse of Arel from his grasp, not bothering to burn it or take the soul. The echo spear dissipated into nothing as he ran, then slid in front of Vestelle. He looked at the rapidly blackening veins and panicked.

Faylen, coughing and still in shock from what had just happened, got to her hands and knees. “I’m sorry, I failed again.”

“It’s not your fault.” He said. “It’s mine.” He then looked over to Faylen. “Do you know holy healing?”

“No, I’m sorry.” She said, but he had already known she didn’t.

He thought about asking the bow, but figured Faylen had been extremely injured many times over the past month or so, and if she could heal, she would have. That left him with very few options. He could go to Aerith, but what if she didn’t know what kind of poison this was? Surely, she would, but could he even get there in time, and what if she wasn’t there? He couldn’t take that risk, which left only one option.

“It’s ok.” Vestelle whispered. She slowly lifted her hand up, and gently caressed his cheek. “It’s fine Shade. You said you would come, and you did. Thank you.”

“No.” Shade replied, staring right into her golden eyes. “I’m not letting you die.” He gently placed his arms under her and picked her up. He turned to face Faylen who had gotten to her feet. “I’m being dead serious right now Faylen.” He said in a soft, yet serious tone. “Do not follow me, if I don’t come back, assume I’m dead.” He then turned and flew into the air.

“What does that mean? Where are you going?” She yelled, but he didn’t answer. As per usual, she didn’t listen and took off, chasing after him.

He noticed her following him, and turned his head while continuing to fly as fast as he could. “God fucking damnit Faylen, this isn’t a joke! I’m flying right into the fucking hornets’ nest, go back!”

“Tell me where you’re going!” She replied.

“Alessandria!”

“We were going to go there anyway at some point!”

“I was going to remain mostly hidden, only revealing myself to Gaelin. I wasn’t even sure how he would react to begin with, now I’m flying right into the center of a city with a statue of my death. I have no idea what’s going to happen. This is where that Grey I told you about exists is. There's a large chance they attack us on site, at which point we would have fight back. You’d be killing innocent people with families and friends who were just following orders. I don’t think that’s something you can handle right now.”

“I’m not going away.” She replied. “I’m not weak!”

“Your face with dirt on it would suggest otherwise.” He said back, then looked forward again. “Whatever, do whatever, I don’t care. But I’m not waiting for you, we don’t have time. Make sure to blast your echos as hard as you can as you approach.”

“Won’t that let them know we’re coming?” She asked.

“That’s exactly the point.” He replied.

Gaelin walked briskly through the courtyard in the center the castle, having just been briefed by the head sensor of the knight core. He was wearing his golden plate armor as well as his green cape signifying himself as the head of all the knight commanders in Alessandria. “First they take Vestelle, now this?” he mumbled to himself. When Vestelles carriage was attacked, one of the knights at the back of the carriage clicked an S.O.S symbol on a tablet he had, before he was lasered down by the cyclops, which is how they knew Vestelle was attacked. When the investigating knights had gotten to the signal, they found the remnants of the attack, the dead knights, the carriage, the unicorns, but no Vestelle.

Now the head sensor had just advised him that a large amount of dark echos, followed by a not quite as large, but still rather large amount of light echos were on their way towards the capital. He didn’t need the sensor to tell him this though, he could feel it himself, as could everyone else. The castle, as well as the all the citizens in the capital, were in a panic. He tried to remain calm after having lost his head when he called Aerith earlier. He had hoped Aerith could help him find Shade who he would then request assistance of in getting Vestelle back. Now having calmed down, he was still struggling to figure out what Merellien was doing. Why would they attack directly after taking a hostage? Did they think Alessandria wouldn’t fight back? Not even they were that stupid. Then who or what was barreling towards the capital. “It’s just one thing after another today.” Gaelin said as he tried to put the pieces together.

Vestelle was going to Clarkson to investigate these claims that two beings, one light and one dark, were freeing towns from monsters. Well, if you can call eradicating monsters from already destroyed towns with no survivors freeing that is. The king had advised her not to go yet, worried it was a trap. Gaelin had thought the same, which appeared to be true when she was attacked. But now, one extremely strong light and one extremely strong dark entity were barreling towards the capital in the direction from Clarkson. It had to be the people from the claims, but why were they coming here all the sudden? Were they mercenaries or soldiers from Merellien informing Alessandria they had taken Vestelle as a captive? That didn’t make any sense though, they could figure that out on their own. But Vestelle being taken and the two powerful entities had to be connected, but how?

His tablet began to buzz in his pocket. He took it out of the pocket in his pant armor and looked down at it. It was Aerith, she had said she would call him back to get an update on the situation, as she was worried about what her daughter would be walking into if she went to Alessandria to become a knight. He ignored the call, as her daughter was the least of his worries right now, but as he did, the puzzle took form. He thought about his first conversation with her, where she told him about Shade still being alive, and running around with a rainbow winged fairy girl. It was beyond obvious, the unknown rainbow winged fairy, and the unknown dark echos user freeing towns were Shade, and his new companion. And now they were coming here for some reason. But why? Did Shade hear about Vestelle being taken and was coming here on his own accord in order to offer help? Would he come out of hiding and reveal he was still alive to do that? Maybe, the two of them were rather close when he was a knight. In fact, they were so close, he risked dying to give her a necklace the night he committed treason. A necklace she wears all the time now. A necklace, according to Vestelle, he told her to break if she was ever in trouble. “Oh shit.” He said, and took off running.

He barreled through the door that led from the courtyard to the castle, then careened down the various hallways in the castle, immediately admonishing himself for not flying over top instead. He desperately ran, needing to get to the front gate of the castle before Shade got to the walls of the capital. He knocked over vases on stands, not hearing them shatter on the ground, he bumped into maids, and other knights who were scurrying in a panic down the halls themselves. Some tried to talk to him, but he ignored them. Finally, he made it to the front door. He barreled through it, and onto the draw bridge that went over a moat of water that surrounded the castle, then without missing a beat, opened his mouth and began to yell at the top of his lungs. “DO NOT ENGAGE! DO NOT ENGAGE! DO NOT FIRE! WEAPONS DOWN! THIS IS AN ORDER! DO NOT ENGAGE!”

A male fairy with rainbow wings wearing emerald green plate armor signifying he was a captain within the knights landed next to him. “Sir, you cannot be serious.”

“I’m dead serious, this is an order, do you understand?” Gaelin replied, snapping at the knight.

The knight flinched at the tone from Gaelin, and put his fist to his heart. “Yes, sir.” He said, with a severe lack of confidence, then flew off and began shouting the orders to all the other knights. Soon all around the castle, and then all around the capital, the voices of Knights yelling to not engage could be heard.

The King and Queen then came running out the doors of the castle to stand next to Gaelin on the draw bridge, both of them wearing what looked like Royal pajamas, even though it was the middle of the day.

“What’s happening?” The queen said in a panic. “Shouldn’t we lift the bridge up?”

Gaelin wanted to tell her how pointless the bridge was due to many creatures being able to fly, including the ones who were approaching, but decided it wasn’t the time, especially since the draw bridge and the moat were new features to the castle, all of which were the queen’s idea.

“Why do I hear people screaming not to engage? What’s the plan? What are we doing?” the king said, just as panicked.

“Nothing.” Gaelin nervously replied, not even looking at them as he stared off at the horizon, a black dot beginning to take form.

“Nothing?” the King snapped. “You’re doing nothing? They took our daughter and now we’re under attack and you’re doing nothing!”

“No, we’re not under attack.” Gaelin replied.

“What do you mean we’re not under attack! Explain yourself, now!” The king snapped.

Gaelin didn’t reply, instead he just pointed at the horizon in which the black dot was quickly getting bigger and bigger, until you could clearly make out what it was, a dragon.

The kings eyes went wide, as his panicked screaming turned into a whisper. “Is that…?”

“Yep.” Gaelin replied.

They all watched nervously as Shade flew over the walls that surrounded the capital. Screams and cries could be heard from all around, but as ordered, not a single knight fired or attacked. Within moments, shade had flown over the entire city and got to the castle where he landed on the bridge right in front of Gaelin with a sickly looking Vestelle in his arms. “She needs healing right now!” Shade said. Shade went to hand her to Gaelin, and he accepted, taking her into his arms.