Reasons of Evil

by Dennis Jode

  It was his friend, Arthur. His eyes were closed and his expression was calm. It was as if he was at peace.

  The smoky figures extended all throughout the wasteland. The amount of soldiers looked endless. Jason remembered Arthur’s stories. He knew that if he gets touched by any one of those soldiers, he would suffer immense damage.

  “Prepare for battle. We must protect the king.” the figure that looked like Arthur started talking. The voice that came out of the figure’s closed mouth sounded like Arthur.

  As if listening to Arthur’s commands, the soldiers drew their weapons in unison and pointed it towards Jason.

  Jason summoned his weapon from thin air. The light was blinding, but the smoky figure’s expression remained still. However, the black smoke that formed them seemed to be slowly dissipating in the presence of the light.

  Looking at the light’s effects, Jason couldn’t help but be hopeful. The black smoke that looked invincible in the eyes of others was now showing weakness in front of him.

  The soldiers remained still, but all of them looked ready to move at any moment.

  Jason held his sword tightly and slowly walked towards the army.

  When he felt that the distance between him and the army was appropriate, he stopped. He looked at Arthur’s expressionless face.

  “My friend, I have come to save you.” Jason said, as if talking to Arthur.

  Arthur did not respond.

  In the blink of an eye, Jason moved in front of Arthur and swung his sword. Arthur’s figure started dissipating into the air, as if being erased by the light from Jason’s sword.

  The soldiers around Arthur started moving towards him. Their weapons were still pointed towards him.

  Jason continued swinging as more and more soldiers approached him. He had to be efficient. With the amount of soldiers that were attacking him, he could not make a single mistake.

  The soldiers had surrounded Jason, but he did not yield. He continued to cut down more and more soldiers. His sword went through them like butter. With a single swing, he would bring down multiple soldiers.

  He had no time to catch his breath. The speed at which he was cutting down the soldiers around him was incredible. When a soldier is about to attack him, he would strike at the very last second in order to prevent any damage. He could not afford to be hurt before facing the Harbinger of Death.

  The sword in his hand started glowing brighter and brighter the more soldiers he cut down. It came to the point where the soldiers would dissipate as it touched the brightest parts of the light. He didn’t have to cut them with the sword to make them disappear anymore.

  The battle went on for a long while. The soldiers at the back started melting into black smoke and attacked Jason from above, trying to fully cover him with darkness, but before they could reach him, Jason would throw his sword upwards, hitting the smoke.

  The sword would immediately disappear right after, and Jason would make a swinging motion towards the soldiers around him. The sword would appear in his hand in the middle of his swinging motion, hitting the soldiers off guard.

  This continued on and on. The amount of soldiers didn’t seem to end. The soldiers that were lost were immediately replaced by another figure. The battle looked endless.

  Jason was heavily suppressed. He had to move forward, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to reach Gallohall. Despite being able to hold his ground, he was not making any progress, and the amount of opponents he had was unfathomable.

  He looked at the sword in his hand. The light that it radiated was far brighter than it was before he started fighting. It was as if the darkness was being devoured by the light, turning them into its own strength.

  Jason placed his hope on the sword’s power. If the sword really did grow stronger every time he cuts down an enemy, he still had to hope that the sword didn’t have any limits.

  He continued fighting. His movements remained clean and precise, despite being in battle for almost half a day. He remained unharmed. The more the battle went on, the more fluid his movements became. He was learning more and more ways to deal with the opponents the more he fought.

  The distance between Jason and the surrounding soldiers slowly started to increase as the light from the sword burned his opponents from further away.

  A day has passed. The battle continued without pause, but this time, Jason had enough space to slow down his movements.

  As the opponents got further, Jason had to take wider swings. His body was still able to catch up, but his mind was fatigued. He was deep in concentration for an entire day, pushing his battle instincts to its limits. His every movement was calculated beforehand, and his mind adapted to different situations as fast as it could.

  He had to find a way to rest. The soldiers stepped back as he pointed his sword towards them, despite the long distance, but the soldiers behind him would see this as an opportunity and attack him from behind. He would then swing his sword backwards, which would then cause the soldiers who were now at his back to attack him as well.

  This cycle continued the entire time, only being disrupted by aerial attacks which were becoming more and more common.

  Jason thought of a way to find enough space to rest. As he continued swinging his sword, he was racking his brain for ideas on how to catch his breath.

  As the sun started setting, Jason finally had an idea. His sword was already bright enough to cover a small area around him. The soldiers around him kept a reasonable distance from him. Jason planted the sword on the ground and sat down.

  He was in the middle of a small dome of light. The soldiers started attacking him the moment he sat down. Their attacks reached ridiculously close to Jason, but before it could fully reach him, the black smoke gets eaten by the light.

  Jason examined the surrounding soldiers. He had to make sure that he was completely safe before he could start to relax.

  After an hour of endless attacking from the soldiers, the light had engulfed a much larger area than before. Jason could tell that he was finally in a safe position.

  It looked completely absurd. A man who was just fighting his opponents suddenly sat down and rested in the middle of the battle. He was completely surrounded by an endless amount of soldiers. Black smoke continued raining upon him, but they could not reach him.

  He was completely unscathed.

  The attacks continued, but Jason simply closed his eyes. He needed rest. The world continued to move as the man known as the hero simply sat down in the middle of a battlefield and fell asleep.

  CHAPTER 9

  Jason slept for a few hours. He was still completely engulfed by the light. In fact, the dome of light had increased in size. The soldiers had stopped attacking, but they were still surrounding Jason.

  Suddenly, an overwhelming feeling of dread washed over Jason, completely waking him up from the depths of his slumber.

  The clear sky suddenly became dim. Jason stood up and drew his sword. In the sky, a large magic circle suddenly appeared.

  Jason’s instincts told him that something was coming. He used his sword to deflect whatever was coming from the sky and braced for impact.

  His hunch was on point.

  A massive streak of lightning struck Jason. His body felt the pain of being electrocuted. His hands let go of his sword due to the sudden influx of pain. The air was filled with the smell of cooked flesh coming from Jason. The pain was almost unbearable, but the light from the sword seemed to have mitigated some damage.

  He was suddenly at an even greater disadvantage. He hasn’t even seen the Harbinger of Death, yet he already suffered massive injuries.

  But that wasn’t the end of Jason’s hardships. Another large magic circle appeared in the sky. His sword was still on the ground. He felt that he might not survive another hit, so he had to think fast. As the sound of thunder filled the area, he tumbled towards a random direction, hoping to dodge the streak of lightning that was about to descend.

  The lightning struck Jason�
��s sword, which was lying on the ground. The shiny reflection from the sword seemed to have attracted the bolt of lightning. Either that, or he got really lucky.

  But he didn’t have time to celebrate. He was out of the range where the light from the sword could defend him. The soldiers started attacking once again, and another magic circle was hovering above him once again.

  He summoned the sword back to his hand and swung towards the soldiers in front of him, causing a large chunk to dissipate. As the sound of thunder filled the air, Jason threw the sword towards the direction where the kingdom of Gallohall lied. The sword flew threw multiple soldiers. The light made a path that Jason immediately took. The sword was then struck by lightning and was stopped mid flight.

  The soldiers started covering the path in front of Jason, but they only served to be minor hindrances. As soon as the sword fell to the ground, he summoned it to his hand once again and cut down more chunks of soldiers.

  This continued for a while. Jason quickly made his way towards Gallohall repeating this pattern. Every time the lightning was about to strike, he would simply throw his sword and follow the path it carved for him.

  After a while, the continuous attack of lightning suddenly stopped. Jason thought that he finally had the chance to catch his breath, but the ground beneath him suddenly started rumbling. The earth started forming cracks, followed by violent shaking.

  The soldiers dispersed into smoke and swirled around Jason, who was still holding the sword that emitted light. The smoke continued moving, looking for an opportunity to attack.

  Jason held his composure. He looked for various places on the ground that looked like it had stable foundations. When he finally saw one, he established a stable foothold on the shaky ground beneath him and dashed towards the safe places. He continued moving in this way.

  As if the violent earthquake wasn’t enough, multiple large golems suddenly erupted from the ground.

  Each golem was almost five times the size of Jason, but he looked unfazed. After all, he managed to survive the attacks of an endless army unscathed, what can a few golems do?

  Jason didn’t give the golems time to fully get out of the ground. He dashed towards the nearest golem. The light from the sword was still growing brighter due to the amount of black smoke being exposed to its presence.

  The golem tried to place its large hands on the ground in order to push itself out, but before he could even attempt to, Jason already started cutting the arms.

  Unfortunately, Jason’s sword wasn’t long enough to cut through the thickness of the golem’s arms. He could only make multiple deep cuts, which made the golem’s arm crumble into small pieces.

  He did the same to the golem’s head before moving towards the next golem.

  Despite going as fast as he could, he couldn’t stop all of the golems from rising up, but he did manage to stop a large percentage. The golems started making its way towards him.

  While he was cutting down a golem, another one was behind him. The golem was about to pummel Jason to the ground, but Jason threw his sword towards the golem’s head.

  The sword planted itself in the golem’s head. The impact was strong, causing the golem to fall backwards. The black smoke around Jason saw the opportunity to attack him. Jason tried to summon the sword before the smoke could get to him, but he was a bit too late.

  The black smoke had already touched his left arm by the time he summoned his sword.

  The black smoke immediately dissipated, but his left arm looked decayed. He couldn’t even feel it anymore.

  The pain caused him to flinch. It felt as if all the blood from his left arm was suddenly drained. The pain also felt like his entire left arm was burning before losing all feeling.

  The golems started making its way towards Jason as he was trying to regain his composure. He still had an opponent to defeat. He couldn’t permit himself to die yet.

  Disregarding the pain he felt, he started moving once again. This time, he ran towards Gallohall, only cutting the golems that stood in his way. He ignored the other golems who were trying to chase him. Their size hindered their movement, making them unable to catch up to Jason.

  Jason knew that if he got cornered by the golems, he would be in trouble. He had to make his way to the walls of Gallohall as fast as he could.

  The ground was shattered, making movement by foot harder. Jason couldn’t establish a stable foothold when he attempted to run, so he decided to make large leaps instead.

  When a golem would attempt to pummel him while he was mid-air, he would throw his sword to push back the golem. He learned from his previous mistake and only threw the sword when the distance was close enough that the sword didn’t have to travel far.

  As soon as the sword hits the golem, he immediately recalls it, eradicating the black smoke that attempts to attack him. He then delivers multiple swift cuts towards the golem and continued leaping forward.

  He repeated this every time a golem attempted to block his path. He tried to go as fast as he could in order to widen the space between him and the rest of the golems behind him.

  After moving for quite a while, he could finally see the dome of darkness that enveloped Gallohall. There was still a bit of distance to travel before he could reach it, but seeing it in his own field of vision made him feel a bit hopeful.

  The golems were still chasing him, but there was already a considerable distance between them. There were three golems left in front of him, which he easily dealt with in the same manner as the others.

  Jason remained cautious. His opponent was able to use magic that was on a different scale compared to normal magicians. Despite having trouble on the way, he thought that it wasn’t as difficult as he expected it to be, but that was because of the black smoke’s interaction with his sword’s light.

  As he took down the last golem in front of him, the darkness that surrounded Gallohall oozed out an incredible amount of black smoke, which consolidated with the black smoke that surrounded him. He was encased in a sphere of pure darkness that was big enough to avoid the light radiating from the sword to eradicate it.

  Jason continued dashing towards the direction where Gallohall lied. He couldn’t see anything else but pure darkness, and so he did not know what he could encounter along the way.

  Suddenly, the surroundings started heating up. Jason had no idea what was going on, but he could feel the temperature rising at an alarming rate. He had to know what was going on in order to think of his next move.

  Since the sphere moved while avoiding the light from his sword, he decided to make the sword disappear for a moment.

  The area around him was immediately engulfed by darkness, but he could still tell that the walls of the sphere he was in was shrinking quickly. It was trying to devour him.

  He quickly resummoned the sword. The darkness that was about to devour him was within the range of the sword’s light. The darkness tried to move back, but it was too slow.

  The light had already devoured the darkness around him. The sword’s glow became even brighter than before due to the amount of condensed black smoke that was in the darkness.

  Finally free of the darkness that blinded him, he took a look around him. As soon as he saw the source of the heat, his faith in himself to overcome the situation quickly faltered.

  In front of him, a massive outbreak of fire quickly surged towards him. The fire came from Gallohall, quickly spreading to the surrounding area. Everything that it engulfed was eaten by flames.

  Jason quickly looked around, looking for something to shield him from the flames. He saw the large pieces of rocks that were scattered around, which were the golems’ bodies.

  He made his way towards the rocks as fast as he could. The fire behind him was quickly making its way towards him.

  He hid behind one of the large boulders. Thankfully, he made it in time to avoid being directly touched by the flames, but he suffered minor burns all around his body.

  The large boulder was a
ble to give enough space for Jason to not get hit by the passing flames. The flames passed by the boulder, and if Jason leaned forward for even a little bit, a part of him could quickly turn into cinders.

  Jason had to lean on the large boulder, which caused the skin on his back to suffer from burns.

  The boulder was accumulating heat from being engulfed by the flames. Jason couldn’t help but scream in agony as he struggled to push his back towards the boulder in order to avoid leaning forward. He could feel the skin on his back melting, and the pain was slowly becoming more and more unbearable.

  After a few seconds of taking the pain, the flames finally stopped moving. He was finally able to lean forward, cooling his back with the wind coming from his surroundings. The entirety of his back was colored black, as if his skin had turned to ashes.