Viktor

by Francesco Leo

  When the cloud vanished, only one was still alive. He looked at the lifeless bodies of his companions frightened and in shock, then he stopped. He felt a twinge in his chest and looked down. Viktor’s sword had hit him square in the chest and, once extracted, the man died, reaching his companions.

  The chosen one turned around in search of Amir.

  The girl was throwing ice darts from her hands, hitting the enemies who were trying to push her against one of the columns of sand.

  One of them was about to hit her with a pair of daggers, but Viktor came running and threw him to the ground.

  Stunned by the charge, Remenant’s henchman barely realized when the young man claimed his life.

  “Thanks,” said Amir.

  “Don’t thank me. Not yet,” said the chosen one pointing behind her.

  Remenant approached them with other followers in tow, repulsed by the way the two had managed to get the better of them. He advanced on the battlefield and the people with him were at least twice as many as the ones that Amir and Viktor had already defeated.

  The chosen one realized only at that moment that he had a little wound under his cheekbone.

  With the hem of his sleeve he wiped away the blood, then took a deep breath.

  The columns of sand, meanwhile, had begun to dissolve.

  “What happened?” asked the boy, noting a large shadow on the battlefield.

  “Above you,” she answered.

  Viktor looked up.

  All the sand collected had created a flat surface, a table to defend against the heat of the sun.

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “The sand is ready. Keep watching.”

  Remenant drew a long curved sabre towards the two and immediately the contingent of henchmen ran to the attack.

  A few steps away from the target, spikes of earth fell like meteors on the enemies: only then did Viktor understand what all the sand accumulated above them was destined for.

  As the enemies began to abandon their positions, Amir and Viktor prepared for the attack.

  By evoking in one hand the power of water and in the other the power of thunder, Amir generated a strong ray.

  The blow eliminated about twenty followers, but it died out shortly afterwards.

  The girl was starting to show signs of weariness.

  While she was fighting, she continued to launch attacks from above towards her enemies and, no matter how skilled a sorceress she was, the use and control of the mana required significant energy.

  Viktor was facing another squad of furious enemies with his sword and magic and instead of duelling, they seemed they were waving their weapons like flags. He took advantage of their anger and incapacity and quickly attacked them.

  He penetrated among the enemies until he felt cold steel brushing his side. An opponent had managed to hit him from behind.

  He felt the pain and turned around, cutting off the assailant’s head, then returned to the initial position to face two other members of the Daedalus.

  He blocked a blow with the blade of his sword and kicked the man far away: he turned to the second one and tried to hit him several times. Even though the man was at a level a bit superior to the others, he managed to make him fall, leaning over rapidly and slashing out at him ferociously in his leg. As soon as he fell to the ground, he stabbed him with Siride: then, realizing that the man he had fended off a little earlier was coming towards him, he picked up the sword of the man he had just killed using the two swords to parry his attack and hit him with Siride in his other hand.

  He let out a sigh of relief, then looked at the wound in his side.

  “Nothing serious,” he said standing up and throwing the sword of the enemy he had killed on the ground.

  Amir got rid of the umpteenth man and turned towards the chosen one. “Viktor, watch out!” she shouted.

  The boy turned and saw Remenant’s sabre fall from the top towards him. He dodged aside and crossed Siride with the deserter’s sword.

  “Zarvon will be the last thing you’ll see before Valhalla,” Remenant said, steaming with anger, with his gaze on his sabre.

  “You had fantasy with the name of your blade. Congratulations, I wouldn’t have expected it from a mind so consumed by madness!”

  At that reply, Remenant launched two quick lashes that Viktor narrowly escaped.

  The chosen one attacked striking out many times but the elf intercepted them and his blows were easily parried; then the traitor swerved his blade, breaking through the young man’s defence and delivered his blow.

  Zarvon penetrated into the boy’s shoulder and excruciating pangs seized his entire arm.

  Remenant put more strength on his sabre and pointed it upwards while Viktor felt his body lifting off the ground.

  The noise of the crashes of sandy blows that rained down from the sky was the only thing that Viktor heard besides his screams of pain that echoed inside.

  Remenant brought the arm that held Zarvon back and found himself looking contemptuously at Viktor’s face.

  The boy saw darkness reigning in his eyes but, despite the growing feeling of anger and despair towards who had once been an Elder elf of enormous wisdom, he could not react.

  “What’s the matter, now? You no longer want to play the dragon and the knight?” he provoked.

  Viktor stifled a cry as Remenant twirled Zarvon inside the wound. Hoping to stop the torture, he picked up the remaining forces and grabbed it until he dropped his sword. At that point he drew Zarvon from his shoulder; the chosen one fell to the ground on the hilt of Siride.

  A wave of sand burst violently against Remenant, pushing him past Viktor’s body and he crashed into a dune.

  The dimensions of the sand roof were shrinking more and more.

  The sorceress went to the boy’s side.

  “Lènita,” she murmured, brushing against the wound. “I’m not good at white magic, but this should stop the blood and heal the wound.”

  “Don’t worry ... it’s much better already,” Viktor reassured in a weak voice, immediately sensing the improvement.

  He stood up and picked up his own sword.

  The cut on his face had completely healed together with the one along his side, yet his shoulder still hurt.

  “How are you?”

  “I can move it,” he said, twirling Siride.

  Meanwhile, some enemies had approached and Amir didn’t hesitate to make other sandy meteors precipitate.

  Remenant walked in the direction of the two fighters.

  “You’re too tired to face him again, you take care of the others while I keep him at bay,” Amir considered in a peremptory tone.

  Viktor agreed, determined to take care of the henchmen of the Daedalus before helping Amir fight with Remenant.

  Amir dropped more bolts towards Remenant, but the sand broke in the air before touching him, as if he was protected by a spell. The girl lifted a wall with the grains on the ground behind the assailant and long, thin thrills of earth were generated and thrown towards the elf who lifted a dome of dark energy around him for protection. Even if her attacks didn’t hit the target, Amir hoped to succeed sooner or later: she felt her wrists and ankles being blocked by long, dense black threads arising from the forces of darkness that surrounded Remenant.

  The tentacles of darkness slammed Amir’s body on the ground many times and then threw her behind Remenant, behind the sand wall. The sorceress managed to break free without getting tangled and, at that point, Remenant used his will so that the long strings of dark magic would throw her towards the sand roof.

  Viktor, who had knocked out a dozen other enemies, watched his companion’s body shake against her own magic.

  He stuck Siride in the ground and, using both hands, he overlapped them aiming at the sky and evoking the fire rune. A column of flames emanated from his hands, getting past the sorceress in the air and striking the centre of the sand roof with unimaginable power.

  The great surface
exploded into a thousand fragments of glass, and as Amir’s body fell into space, a shadow darted in the air and carried her away.

  “The Eagles! The great eagles of Jerrall!” shouted some of the remaining enemies.

  Viktor recovered Siride and put his arms over his head to protect himself from the splinters that were raining from the sky.

  Remenant dispersed his protective spell and the dark tentacles crumbled into the air. “How ... how did they know?” he wondered, looking at three large eagles gliding above them.

  Ania, Kheira, and Hul were mounting the big birds.

  The three took to the battlefield.

  Reaching a group of enemies who had aimed at the chosen one, Ania evoked the magic chains and she jumped into the fray crushing a couple of followers of the Daedalus.

  Hul, on the other hand, seemed to disintegrate his adversaries only by looking at them.

  In reality, he used illusory spells he delighted in. “Tell me what you’re afraid of and I’ll tell you if you’re right,” he said amusedly, while three other men fell to the ground in a state of hallucination.

  Viktor looked for Remenant and saw that he was returning to the hermit. “While you finish with them, I’m going to get Remenant!” he shouted to his companions.

  “Wait! We’ll go to him together! “Kheira exclaimed.

  Too late: the boy had already launched in pursuit.

  The head of the Daedalus had already reached the elf. He took him off the ground and shook him violently several times. “How did you warn them? They couldn’t know we were here ... answer me, old fool!” he shouted.

  The hermit smiled. “I’m weak to fight you, but your mind is still far from predicting my every move. They saw when you came here, and all through this,” he said, barely pointing to the clear pool of water that filled the oasis. He gave his hand to weariness, putting it in the liquid at his side. “Your mistake was to show yourself on the bank of this little crystalline mirror.”

  “Divination!” Remenant cursed.

  “Seida!” cried Viktor.

  A wave of air hit Remenant’s side, causing him to tumble into the low water of the oasis.

  The traitor made to get up and saw the chosen one reach him gripping onto his sword.

  “Druira!” exclaimed Remenant, using the oasis he was in to throw jets of fluid at Viktor.

  The boy avoided a couple, realizing that at that speed he wouldn’t have been able to defend himself.

  “Geera!” He froze some attacks as he continued approaching Remenant.

  A step away from the adversary, the deserter threw a fierce blow from the bottom upwards, which Viktor blocked with his blade horizontally.

  Viktor knew that in the long run his strength would be lacking, and Remenant’s blow would have struck him, if he had not immediately found a way to defend himself.

  “If only I had not left the pendant of Artemisia in my room ...” he scolded himself.

  “Fearless, the protected by the gods does not bend to death,

  he can look forward without giving to fate his last breath.”

  Viktor sensed Kheira behind him.

  The magic-soaked verses had brought energy back to the boy’s worn-out body, but it was not enough to contrast Remenant.

  Viktor suddenly flexed Siride’s blade and slid aside to get out of that critical situation, then stood up.

  One of the three eagles swooped on the hermit.

  “Bring the hermit to Amir with the other eagles, safe with Hul and Ania,” he commanded as the eagle obeyed her.

  She began to formulate some verses, but someone grabbed her from behind.

  “Kheira!” Viktor called, running towards the adept of the Daedalus who had captured her.

  “If you take another step, I will order my man to kill her. Too easy to solve things like this, isn’t it? Face your opponent!” said Remenant, his eyes blazing.

  Viktor stormed down on his enemy, skilfully handling Siride and unleashing all the teachings received from Devanorth and Vroel in a whirlwind of blows.

  At the end of the charges, Viktor attempted a lunge towards the middle of the unarmoured chest, but Remenant dodged him, nudging the boy in the face and he fell to the ground.

  The elf approached the body immersed in the water. “Sfaci,” he said.

  At the point where Zarvon had pierced the boy’s shoulder, the wound began to bleed and the pain began to tear him apart.

  “What will the Star do with a chosen one with a bashed shoulder?” Remenant said, watching the boy gasp.

  At that moment, Ania’s chains abruptly struck the elf, disarming him and knocking him onto the sand.

  Kheira saw the man who was holding his hostage back off in terror and flee far away.

  “Flama,” Hul summoned, throwing a spear of fire at the fugitive.

  This sparkled in the distance and vanished when the enemy’s body fell to the ground.

  “Your thugs fight like bakers,” Hul said. “Quite a few to make things difficult for people like us, right?” Ania boasted.

  “You’re just fools ... you cannot hope that all this ends up to your advantage. You won the battle, but not the war.” Remenant’s body became ethereal, fading into dark grey colours. “Today, you can postpone the inevitable fate you are destined for. Today, I have shown that your champion isn’t up to your futile hopes.”

  With those words, Zarvon and Remenant vanished in a vortex of shadows and darkness.

  “Help the hermit and Amir, let’s go back to the eagles. We have to take care of them before going back to the Den.”

  Viktor heard those last words before giving in.

  ******

  “How long ... how long have I slept?” Viktor asked as he recognized the ceiling of the hermit’s room.

  “Two days. Don’t worry, anyway: I woke up only a few hours ago and the hermit is still resting. He is the one who suffered the most and his wounds were deep. Now he’s out of danger.”

  Viktor still felt dizzy and took a while to make her understand that he comprehended. “And where are the others? Kheira, Ania and Hul ...”

  “They had to go back to the Den. The Daedalus will move again and the Star will have to be ready: the next time we might need the help of the whole Organization.”

  “But you? Why didn’t you go with them? Your assignment was only to accompany me here.”

  “I know. However, I agreed that staying a while longer would be the best choice, given the precarious conditions in which the hermit is still in and you too.”

  “I see. Thank you...”

  He tried to get up from the bed to go downstairs.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I need to get some air.”

  Amir let him go without adding anything, thoughtful.

  Viktor thought of everything that had happened observing the expanse of sand shining in the magenta light of the sun.

  He turned to the side and saw the oasis where Remenant had disappeared, then he approached and saw an intense glint in the sand. He picked up what turned out to be a fragment of the traitor’s armour. He remembered the strong blow he had given him right there.

  The metal fragment shone like a pearl touched by the light in its greatest splendour.

  Amir came up behind him.

  “Why white, a symbol of light?”

  “They didn’t choose it, meaning it as the colour of light. For the Daedalus of Death, white represents the absence of colour, a void without emotions. What they believe are the necessary requirements to become one of them, what is needed to achieve their purpose. “

  “I dare not imagine myself deprived of the ability to feel emotions,” Viktor admitted.

  “But you didn’t hesitate to kill any of those men,” Amir replied.

  “My hands are stained with their blood because they had to do it, not because I was unable to feel pity for those people. Sometimes we are forced to set aside our feelings for a greater good.”

  Amir hesitated. “I
just wanted to see how you would answer. The Star needs you to be determined and secure. “

  “Remenant has shown that I’m still inadequate. How can I kill a god if I cannot hurt an elf?”

  “The elf in front of you was not an ordinary fool. When the hermit is ready, you will finally complete your training ... until then, we will have to save time putting together a functional strategy.”

  “A functional strategy ... what could it be? We have seen how many servants of the Daedalus there are and certainly there weren’t all of them. Humankind will soon be at the feet of Zergh and, upon his return, he will find everything as he wanted from the beginning. People will be enslaved to him.”

  “He will not find all the people on their knees and at his commands, Viktor. You’re right, there is so much evil and it’s spreading more and more, but there’s still someone fighting for a cause.”

  “I hope there are enough of them.”

  “There are. Those who are with us, like those who were and who died for our task but not in vain. Each of those people helped to give us strength, trust, hope. For this reason, we are wearing red tunics. To remember the spilled blood.”

  Viktor fell silent and watched the sky. “When we come back to face him, he will not hesitate to take his right arm with him,” he said, turning to the sorceress. “Would you really be able to fight and kill your brother?”

  Amir bit the inside of her lower lip with a broken look. “If I have to, I will.”

  “It will be necessary. Are you really willing to do all this? It will be difficult to defeat the Daedalus before the coming of Zergh. I’m telling you this because yes, I accepted my destiny, but I’m not like you. I couldn’t kill someone who was once part of my life, part of me. However as much as I despise or hate, I would never have the courage to do it ... I know myself and I know it. The doubts about the choice of the Star have never completely dissolved, it was your encouragement to make me go on and not my dedication. That’s why I’m afraid I might waver. “

  “Viktor, during the battle with the Daedalus, you demonstrated that you have grown both in skills and mentally. You stood up to an elf who was once an Elder and your skills are remarkable. This is proof that you are the right person. Being scared is human. You cannot regret being yourself.”