Tale Of A Knight

His soaked clothing stuck to his body, the smell of adrenaline mixed in with his sweat permeated the air around him.

It was about two days since he left the city of Aina, leaving everything he knew behind in order to start his new life as an adventurer in the city of Loren.

But that was the good part. Inside that city, everyone was out to get him.

He was happy that he could move forward and start anew.

The prince he was forced to bend the knee to planned to have him sent to the front lines and die like a dog. Prince"s maid was no better, always threatening to cut him down with her gigantic ax.

Due to some lord named Venlander, he ended up on a mission where everyone but he ended up getting killed, and he ended up losing his right hand.

Then, to make the matters worse, the Aristan Household of Sword Saints took interest in him, with three of their members baring their blades at him. He was lucky to survive each one.

Finally he has had enough, so he proceeded to leave, not caring who he left behind.

While he did feel a little bad for leaving Mekros, the man who gave him shelter, and Desti, the only normal person he met inside the city, he knew he needed to find his destiny.

Of course, he promised to Sword Lord that he would return to the city within a month; for the sake of finishing his training. But aside from that, he was free from any obligations.

"Freedom. So this is what it tastes like."

Young man thought as he confidently walked forward.

His sole remaining hand was holding on to the hilt of his wooden sword. Rolgo told him that some modifications needed to be done on a special metal sword he was preparing for him, so he was forced to travel armed with only a wooden sword.

Having only one hand, he could not wield two handed weapons, and most swords were two handed. To make the matters worse, many swords are designed to be wielded by right hand, a hand he no longer had.

After the disastrous mission organized by Lord Venlander, not only did he lose his right hand, he also ended up being infected by a crystal parasite.

That parasite manifested itself as sentient crystals that could occasionally morph into a crystalline appendage.

But it only worked if the parasite absorbed enough mana from the atmosphere; otherwise, he only had a stump which he covered up with a wooden hand.

Such was the predicament of the one handed cripple who chose to lead a new life.

His name was Bakit.

That was all he was certain of at this point.

Nothing else mattered.

After walking for so long on foot, he ran out of his provisions.

He may have miscalculated how much food and water he would need for the trip.

Due to this, he was thirsty and famished.

Not long after, he started to feel dizzy.

Next thing he knew, he was tumbling down the slopes of the mountain, landing face first into the shallow lake.

What Bakit did not know, however, was that was no ordinary lake.

The entire lake consisted of pure Holy Water.

Because of this, this lake was regarded as a sacred place within this region.

Holy Water had many miraculous effects upon human beings, purifying them of corruption, washing away curses, and curing diseases.

But the main reason the Holy Water was held in such high regard is because of how much danger it posed to demon kind.

Any demon would come under great harm due to Holy Water. In worst cases it could be fatal.

Depending on the amount of Holy Water, it could melt through the demon"s flesh like an extremely potent acid, and if ingested, it was the most painful poison.

To humans, Holy Water represented salvation, purity, and prosperity, but to demons it represented death, doom, and destruction.

So then, how would Holy Water affect the child of demon and human?

As Bakit lay in the water, he ended up gulping it down his throat.

"At the very least, there is water, though it tastes funny….Wow, everything is spinning….and since when is sky green?"

He wobbled forward, his sense of reason steadily eroding away, falling into holy water again and again, and ending up drinking a little each time.

By the end of it, he was completely drunk.

"See you later, big blue gator!"

Bakit bid farewell to the hallucination of the large blue alligator.

He ended up walking towards the woods and in his delusional vision he perceived a ma.s.sive dragon heading towards him.

Had he been sober, he would have realized it was a horse carriage with an emblem of the Sacred Kingdom, heading towards the city of Aina.

"Bring it on, you beast! I will cut you to pieces!"

Bakit proceeded to use his chi to generate an enormous air slash which he proceeded to launch in the direction of the carriage….

* * *

"Princess, are you feeling all right?"

"Just a little drowsy from the trip, that is all."

For the last several days, they have been riding the carriage from the Sacred Kingdom, heading towards the Tazak Kingdom, to meet the Prince Sala, the son of the current king of the Tazak Kingdom.

While he was not the only candidate for the throne, since the other four n.o.ble households have produced kings in the past and as such held just as much of a claim to rule as Sala, the one who would be chosen as king would be the one deemed most suitable by the elders.

This was why; the Sacred Kingdom chose to negotiate with Prince Sala.

Sacred Kingdom would support Prince Sala by forging an alliance through marriage to the Sacred Kingdom"s princess. This way, not only the conflicts between Tazak Kingdom and Sacred Kingdom could be avoided, but the Sacred Kingdom would be playing an important role in deciding who would be the one to succeed the current king.

Because the Sacred Kingdom was a nation of demi-humans, it was frequently in conflict with the Tazak Kingdom, a nation that preached human supremacy.

In fact, due to this, the Princess, her close aid, escorts, and all her bodyguards cast a spell upon themselves to conceal their demi-human features. It was a simple spell that could be dispelled rather easily, but it did allow them to avoid conflicts with human supremacist groups.

Now it was just a matter of meeting Prince Sala.

By doing this, the elders would have to choose to support Sala, after all, if the Sacred Kingdom is siding with him, then choosing another candidate could be perceived as an insult, and in worst case scenario, lead to war. A possibility the elders wanted to avoid at all cost.

Prince Sala, in turn, would be more inclined to help out the Sacred Kingdom as well.

Tazak Kingdom was very in resources, thus the Sacred Kingdom will have a potentially good trading partner.

And the child that will be born of the union would be able to claim the throne to the Tazak Kingdom and with aid of the Sacred Kingdom, his claim would be secured.

It was an elaborate plot hatched by the Sacred Kingdom.

Helping the Prince to become the King in exchange for descendant of Sacred Kingdom becoming the future ruler of Tazak Kingdom.

As such, it was a clever ploy to add the Tazak Kingdom under their control, and with Prince Sala being desperate for allies, he will not dare to refuse.

The Princess"s name was Alexius "Alexia" Sacronus, the second princess of the Sacronus royal family of the Sacred Kingdom.

And her aid and right hand, the female Knight, Nasia Velcron, better known within the Sacred Kingdom as the Rain Sword, the wielder of Wrath, one of the Seven legendary swords.

Within the Tazak Kingdom, there are five powerful swords, the Five, elemental blades of immense power, each for one element: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. They were created hundreds of years ago in the elven forges and were considered masterpieces that could not be replicated, for they contained the cores extracted from dragons.

Sacred Kingdom had something similar, the Seven, each representing a sin, each a blade of immense power. But instead of dragon cores, the cores were taken from captured demons of immense power.

Unlike normal swords, each one of the Seven was sentient, strongly influencing their wielder.

Each one"s effect is akin to corruption, slowly bending the mind towards the sin each blade represented.

Some go downright insane from the sheer power of the blades.

Ever since they have been forged, each one of the Seven had been pa.s.sed down through combat, with each user taking it from the corpse of the previous user.

Each blade searches for a worthy master to wield it.

Despite their corruptive nature, each sword held enormous power, which is why only someone of strong will could manage to keep their sanity while holding on to the blade.

The will of Sword of Wrath…it was too strong.

She had to constantly keep it under control, lest let it influence her thoughts.

The sword wanted to crush, destroy, and cause immense amount of suffering to anyone it comes across. It thrived on chaos, and would make the user enjoy seeing the suffering of others.

The more the user was influenced by the sword, the more powerful the user became.

Nasia had to remark that because she never gave in to the influence of the Sword of Wrath, she could not tap in to the blade"s full potential.

But even without that, she was a powerful swordswoman, one of the few in the Sacred Kingdom that reached the level of a hero.

It was safe to say she was an equivalent to a member of Holy Swords, the group of ten heroes that protect the Tazak Kingdom.

Of course, their road was not exactly eventless.

Along the trip, they encountered several monsters, but they were all defeated at the hands of Rain Sword.

But now, her battle honed instincts were telling her to move.

Danger was coming, a big one.

"Princess!"

Nasia managed to pull the Princess towards herself just in time as a mighty slash of wind proceeded to cleave the carriage in two.

The cab driver ended up being cut in two vertically, each half of his split face displaying profound horror.

With the Princess in her arms, Nasia managed to get out of the destroyed carriage, only to see their guards charging towards a single person.

Wielding only a wooden sword in his left hand, he proceeded to release a mighty air slash that ended up turning guards into minced meat.

So much blood…it was everywhere.

Covered in the blood of his enemies from head to toe, he walked forward, licking the blood that was now flowing towards his lips.

Looking at the two of them, he smiled.

He just killed the cab driver, their escorts and guards, leaving only Nasia to protect the princess.

Raising the Sword of Wrath, Nasia bid the Princess to hide behind her.

"Oh, what we have here?"

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" Nasia asked, tersely, her blade pointing at him.

"I wonder…" he seemed to be drunk, but his skills were not normal. By how easily he cut down Princess"s guards, Nasia knew that he could not be underestimated.

"You shall go no further"

"And who is going to stop me?"

"I am!"

With their weapons ready, their fangs were bared. Her blade was the Sword of Wrath, one of the Seven, while he wielded an ordinary wooden sword. It should have been obvious who had the higher chance of victory.

But, Nasia felt as though there was far more to this man than met the eye. Underestimating him could prove fatal. Still, she proceeded to charge