They were close to their home when she heard the rhythmic clanking sound of metal approaching them.
Her heart pounded so loud she could feel it in her ears but the familiar hand within her grasps gave her strength to push on.
She looked behind with a prayer in her heart and to her horror, she felt hope shatter like glass as she saw right behind her little sister ran a knight of imperial armor.
Her hands felt sweaty and cold, her legs felt shaky after every step, her lungs were hot and her breathing became rapid as she noticed how every single step they took amounted to nothing. For despite the armor the man donned, he was still fast enough to keep up with two little girls... a sign of strength she can't hope to match.
And her in direst moments a stray thought flitters into her ear.
'-let her go.'
'-perhaps you could escape by yourself.'
'-do you want to die here?'
'-it might safer if you split up.'
"Shut up... shut up, SHUT UP!"
Strength surge within her, denying more of her own dark whispers. But in her distracted state, she tripped and fell.
"Ah!" she cried out as she ended up pulling her sister down with her.
"Faster!" she panicked, pulling Nemu to a stand.
"...y-yes.." Nemu weakly sobbed out.
But as they were about to get up, she heard the sound of drawn steel.
Her breath left her, as she shakily turned to see the knight, mere steps away from them. Enri, pushed her sister behind herself and glared angrily at the knight.
"Hmph!... Stupid girl. You made this more difficult than it should have been."
"Don't look down on me!" Enri screams as she forcefully punch the knight in his head, only for her dainty little hands to be caught by the knight and knee in her stomach.
Enri spat out in pain. Despite the urge to curl, she could not when the knight still had her hand in his grip. And as he raised her up, lifting her high enough for her toes to leave the ground and painfully dangled on one arm, he smiled beneath his helm. Dark enough enough that even Enri shook in a cold chill seeing his eyes squint in unseen joy.
"I'm not one to play in the middle of work like Des but... you are pretty... So pretty. And pretty girls... they don't really give themselves as openly as you do."
Cold gripped her heart as he threw her to the ground, landing on her sides. She rolled on her front to escape but then, her breath hitched as she felt a spike of pain from her back.
*Gaha! she gasps.
Her head fell on the grass with shaky hands. Heat trailed her back as the cold crossed her skin and the smell of iron wafter to her nose, followed by the heat and burn of an injury. One so deep that the pain was slowly rising and rising beyond what she had ever known.
She froze as she felt a blade pressed against her cheek. Slick with blood... her blood...
Enri yelped as she felt her hair tugged harshly till her searingly painful back arc as much as it could.
She saw the bright sky, as clear as she remembers. Only for the image to be stained with a scarred man's deformed face that came into view.
His face was contorted into a gleeful smile, made ugly by his yellow teeth, several of them rotten and a few missing. He has thick lips with a crooked nose and eyes... Enri shivered in fear as his black hollow eyes bore through her.
*slurp! He then sucked in her cheek, as he painfully pulled her further by gripping her jaw. She gritted her teeth as he suckles her cheek so hard it felt like he was about to tear off her skin. When he stopped he then licked her tears that spilled uncontrollably.
"So pretty... I'm gonna keep you."
"...no..." she whimpers.
He froze, she felt him freeze in place with his smile slowly vanishing. He then asks, "its because I'm ugly isn't it."
Gone was the playful voice, replaced by an older, maturer one. But the harsh, cold and feeling of sharpened stones and envy leaving his lips wasn't lost to her.
Suddenly, he grabbed her head and *smack!
He slapped her so hard she sprawl to the side. Her head felt hard and hollow, like her brain is moving so much that her eyes were hurting. But despite the blurry vision, she saw her sister there. Frozen scared as she kept her mouth shut with both of her hand with tears streaming down her face, shaking as she sat on a pool of her own making.
Again she felt his large callous hands grip her head by her skull and "Raahh!" she saw darkness.
Eliza ran as fast as she could, her heart hammering in an intense fervor that every single man she sees even so much as harm a single mother and child, she kills.
In her peripheral, she saw a man shove a sword through a man's stomach before yanking the woman by her hair and laughing while he ran his hands across her body.
Eliza gritted her teeth and with heavy stomps that cracked the ground with every step. She rushed forward, cocked her arm back and threw a punch so hard that the sound *bang! was heard across the village. Resounding like the crack of thunder.
The result is a torso of a man whos head had been turned to red paste scattered across the ground.
"To the barn quick!" Eliza whispers as she dragged the woman on her feet. But the woman just yanked her arm away and ran to the house.
Eliza felt her frustration rise. She should be elsewhere. She should have been looking for Enri and Nemu yet every path she took felt like it was hindered by fate.
'-run...'
'-just leave them...'
'-you've seen what these people could do...'
'-do you not think they would that to them!?'
'SHUT UP!!!'
Eliza gritted her teeth, with tears pouring down her cheeks. She could feel the lump in her throat, her cold heart and the hands grasping at something and finding nothing.
To find the kids... to save them.
Deep in her heart, she knew she needed to act and turned, only to freeze as the mother stepped out. Holding a crying bundle in her arms.
'was I about to abandon them?'
"M-my lady?" the woman asks shedding tears as much as her as she gazed down at her dead husband.
In her moment of vulnerability, Eliza embraced the woman and whispers. "hush child... you will be safe... you will be fine... I will make sure of it."
Eliza felt the woman nod, and with renewed vigor she fought off her fears and worries, clasping the young moher's hand and ran.
Momon felt his heat levels rising as more and more knights came pouring in.
Another came right at him with a sword raised and a broken warcry. He felt his toes bury themselves against the dirt, his legs flex, chest rise and shoulders square.
"Hn!" He grunts in effort as he vanished where he stood with the sound as if the air itself exploded, he appears behind the man who's head now lied between the iron grip of hand.
*spurt!
With the loud sound of blood spewing like a fountain from his headless neck, the body swayed for a moment before falling in a lifeless heap. Twitching slightly upon the ground.
A collective gasps resounded from those present. And as Momon stood to his full height, he felt like a towering giant, that bellied his frame.
The seven and a half feet muscle of a man felt like a looming fortress in their eyes.
"Wh-what are you waiting for!!" a shrill cry came from their Captain. "I-I! A noble like me cannot die here! Kill him!! Kill him now!"
"Form ranks! those on the ground! Raise shields. Riders! Make distance!" another shouted.
""""Aye! Vice Captain.""""
Amidst their rush and resurgence of courage, Momon remained standing. His eyes darting from one man to the other. His focus landing on every piece of equipment, every sword, every shield, accessories and potions. And while he cannot identify the items name and capabilities without getting closer, he could see instead the amount of mana stored within them and for every item he catalogues... the more his confidence rose.
He returns his focus on two men after seeing all there is. One is a horse mounted idiot who had obviously peed himself in fear while the other is a veteran warrior.
He has a strong jaw, mildly handsome he admits with a tuff of hair cut short yet clean. Military he believed, it was obvious with his looks alone.
His leather straps were cut short and neat, no excess nor anything that could be used to hold him. Armor tightly fitted, no clanking noise but those which were layered. Every weapon and necessity mainly the blue potion hanging by his hips, all within reaching distance. His stance is firm and strong while his eyes never left his body, not his arms, legs, shoulders or eyes... no. The man they called Vice Captain Londes, is an experienced warrior... and unfortunately for the man, he is too valuable for Momonga to be allowed to die.
"It seems you are prepared. Good." he then picked up one of the swords lying on the ground before squaring his shoulders. "I am Momon, and in the name of all that is good in this world. You have my permission to die."
'To think we would stumble upon a Hero of all people... in the last village too. Damn it all!' Londes screams in his mind.
He had thought it would soon be over. That all his atrocities would soon find purpose with just one last village to sacrifice for the betterment of Humanity. But it seems he gods were cruel indeed. Either that, or they had stepped too far in their pursuit of prosperity.
He wasn't a fool. He knew how he got to where he is. It wasn't a bloodless struggle after all. But he still had faith, that those in the ruling powers of the theocracy still value prosperity of humanity than power.
But for every corpse that piled in front of him, for every blood spilled in his path, he couldn't help but think maybe... just maybe... they had gone to far.
And how would he, a mortal man, know?
By the very symbol of humanity's strength and resilience itself, now standing before him.
"It seems you are prepared." his attention snapped. "Good." he gulped down his fears as the man held a sword in his hand. "I am Momon,-"
'Momon?... I haven't heard of him.'
"-and in the name of all that is good in this world. You have my permission to die."
His hair stood on all ends and the gloom that instantly befell them felt like death itself tore his attention straight into their hearts. And for the first time since he could remember, Londes felt fear unlike any before.
"Wai-"
Momon surged forward with such strength that the ground itself felt like it was trembling.
He reached the shield wall but none of the swords reached him nor did he slow down. Momon simply leaned side ways, dodging a blade swing before grabbing the offending arm and tanking the man up.
And with a grunt, he swings the man, smashing him against another in a shower of screams, blood, entrails and fear.