Death's Door

She remembered this place clearly; this was her old home, where she had lived as a child.

It was a place filled with many fond memories. Overall, it was a rather nostalgic sight to see.

Whenever she came back here within her dreams, she would try her hardest to make the dream last as long as possible.

But the light did not last.

The gra.s.s started to rot, the colors of the world quickly started to fade, becoming coal black and grey.

And then, her world crumbled underneath her feet.

Leona found herself falling towards darkness.

While falling, a small orb of light entered her view.

That was the way her blessing, the seed of power given to her by Solaris, communicated with her.

Coming near her, it whispered into her ear in a human voice.

"Beware the Knight of Death"

Then a sound of laughing and a silhouette of a man with red glowing eye appeared within her sight.

Leona"s eyes opened wide in shock as her body plummeted to the ground, her spine hitting the ground, breaking in half.

Right at the moment her spine hit the ground, Leona woke up panting in her own bed.

"AAAAH!"

Breathing heavily, she looked around.

As usual, it was the bedroom of the house she occupied while she was not in the frontlines.

"A dream? Ouch!"

The scar on her back may not be bleeding anymore, but it still hurt like crazy. Her left leg was hurting as well.

Ever since receiving those injuries by Dark Lord, she would occasionally experience chronic pain near the area of her wounds.

Sometimes, the pain would become near unbearable. Potions and medicine could make the pain somewhat tolerable, but they could not completely take it away.

With her hand upon her face, Leona was in deep thought.

Solaris was the king of G.o.ds; as such he possessed power unparalleled by any other deity.

One of his many powers was to see visions that extended even beyond fate, giving him a degree of omniscience. Of course, in Solaris"s case, everything connected to fate was as clear as eye can see, but if vision is of something not connected to fate, it is much harder to comprehend.

As the demi-G.o.d given a seed of blessing by Solaris, Leona shared the exact same powers as Solaris, but in her case, her powers were less than hundredth that of Solaris. In a sense, demi-G.o.ds possessed much weaker versions of the power their G.o.d possesses.

Though her visions were much weaker than Solaris"s, they always held hidden meanings within them.

Before her blessing was damaged, her visions were rather extensive, with their meaning being clear for her to see.

But now, she was not sure.

For a while, she was worried that she had lost her access to the power of visions, but it seems like she could still see visions within her dreams.

The vision she saw within her dream was a warning; that much was crystal clear.

Since the blessing is a seed of power that is separate from the G.o.d who bestowed it, Solaris himself was not aware of Leona"s vision.

Leona"s blessing acted as a separate ent.i.ty from Solaris, even though it originated from him, like apple seed from an apple tree.

"My blessing allows me to have prophetic visions that are beyond fate. But what could it mean? Knight of Death? I never heard of such a hero…"

Then the image of that man flashed within her mind.

"…No, he is not a hero, at the very least, not a hero of humanity."

But, what it meant was that her nemesis, the Dark Lord, was a Champion, just like her.

While she was the champion of Solaris, Dark Lord was the champion of another deity.

"I see. Lord Solaris must have wanted to warn me"

Leona was not aware that it was her blessing warning her, not Solaris himself. But since Solaris was the one who gave her the blessing, she attributed many things it did as signs from Solaris.

But still, seeing such a vision was not exactly comforting.

She was still breathing heavily.

Seeing the image of Dark Lord within her mind was far too shocking to bear.

One defeat after another.

First it was the Dark Lord, and then it was that Crow Demon Lord.

If it continued on like this, Leona knew that sooner or later, she would fall.

"Perhaps Runfar is right. I am pushing myself too far. I need to take a break once in a while."

Leona smiled as she read the latest letter she received from Runfar Sevilles, her dear friend.

The only way to regain back her strength and heal was to spend her days off recuperating.

She read many ancient scrolls about blessings, and what happens if blessing is damaged. Apparently, damage to a blessing was like cutting a growing tree, it will grow back and regenerate, but it will take time.

While the blessing could be replaced by G.o.ds, it would have to be cultivated back from the seed phase until it became more powerful.

Blessing was a seed of power, not a power that is simply bestowed.

Since human beings cannot handle and adjust to ma.s.sive amount of power quickly, they are given seeds of power that grow with the user, adjusting to their body.

The more the demi-G.o.d trained and allowed the seed of power to grow, the more powerful the blessing would become.

If she were to start over from a seed, then she would have to spend at least another ten years before it becomes as strong as the old seed. Provided that Solaris will even consider giving her another seed of power.

Instead of doing that, it was far better option to let her blessing slowly regenerate. It might take some time, but Leona knew that eventually her blessing will heal and be back to full power.

But for now, she needed to rest.

Perhaps her obsession with Dark Lord was becoming rather unhealthy; lately her nemesis was the only thing she could think of.

The funeral for the deceased heroes and knights is going to be held soon, but Leona was reluctant to attend, since she blamed herself for their deaths.

Looking at her closet, seeing the plain dress Runfar lent her, Leona smiled.

"I will attend the funeral, though not as the Knight of Light…"

* * *

"Well, this is not where I expected to end up" Meros muttered.

Currently he was a prisoner in a cell inside of Merok territory.

And the reason for his imprisonment?

It was not betrayal of humanity nor was it being a member of Shadow Lords, no, the reason was far more ridiculous.

Meros was there because he forgot his wallet and couldn"t pay the tab to the bar owner after wasting himself.

After fighting against the Knight of Ice, Meros was a little shaken up, so he chose to deal with his doubts and conflicting emotions by drinking to the point he no longer cared.

It was a very effective way to bleach his mind of all that plagued him.

As unhealthy as it might be, it was his only way of dealing with his physical and emotional stress. He had been doing this for a while now.

His companion, Camilla, soon left to meet up with Dark Lord and give him back the crystal dagger.

As for Meros, he chose to take a full day off just to drink himself silly.

After he got completely wasted, the bar tender gave him the tab, but much to his confusion, Meros couldn"t find his wallet anywhere.

One thing followed after another, and Meros ended up causing quite a ruckus, fighting against the bar tender and the knights who were inside the bar.

Eventually, he was apprehended by several Holy Knights who knocked him out cold.

When Meros woke up, he was already inside the prison cell.

He realized he only had his clothing on him; apparently they took away his sword and knives.

Strangely, his teleportation ring was also missing; Meros was not sure if the people who imprisoned took it or if he lost it while he was drunk.

Apparently the prison was not exactly keen on feeding its prisoners.

For two days, Meros was held there with nothing to eat, just some drops of rain water to drink, if he was lucky.

Due to lack of food, Meros soon started to experience colorful delusions, with each being some type of gigantic floating dish.

The latest one was a flying talking sandwich that was beckoning Meros to come closer.

Meros came to name this delusion the "Holy Sandwich".

"Come to me~" the Holy Sandwich was bewitching Meros with its appetizing meat and melted cheese.

"You look so delicious! Please, let me take a bite!"

Finally, Meros lost any sense of reason and pounced on the imaginary Holy Sandwich.

With his hands holding onto it, he took a bite.

He bit something alright.

Something brittle and bony.

"I missed you too, Meros. Though, I do not believe you would find my flesh very appetizing"

Meros"s eyes finally adjusted, breaking free of his hunger-induced delusion.

Much to his horror, Meros realized that the thing he was biting was the right arm of his Master, Runfar Sevilles.

And he was not alone; behind him were Camilla and Morphus.

Looking up at Runfar and at the skeletal arm he was currently biting, Meros muttered.

"This is not another illusion, is it?"

"I am afraid not"

Runfar scratched his cheek with his left hand.

Meros quickly took his mouth off of Runfar"s skeletal arm.

Making sure to turn his back to his allies, Meros started to furiously clean his tongue with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Oooh, I can still taste his skeletal hand…Bleaugh…I feel sick…"

If he had anything in his stomach, Meros would have thrown up by now, but fortunately, he ate nothing for the last two days….