Blood of the first age Chapter 18

 

Chapter 18 — The Silent Fairy

The soldiers feared the storm. They feared the bats. They feared Mordecai most of all. But whispers spread through the camps of something stranger. Something beautiful. The eastern armies spoke quietly at night now.

Around weak campfires beneath endless thunder and black rain, soldiers exchanged stories about the pale figure who followed Dragun across battlefields without speaking. Some believed he was a spirit. Others claimed he was an angel cast down from heaven. A few swore he was not human at all. Because no human being moved the way Tenji moved.

Tenji did not resemble earthly nobility. Heavenly, angelic. His skin was pale as untouched snow beneath moonlight while his long black hair flowed endlessly around him like living silk moving against unseen winds.  His robes shimmered faintly beneath darkness like starlight caught within snowfall. And his eyes his eyes carried unbearable age. Jet black eyes that turned into cold silver irises that seemed to remember civilizations long turned to dust. Yet what frightened soldiers most was not his beauty. It was his indifference..

Tenji walked through massacres without expression. Through burning cities without fear. He observed suffering with the calm silence of someone who had already witnessed the world end before.

Perhaps many times.

He rarely fought openly. Until now. Three nights after the Black Rain, the eastern war camp settled beside the ruined canyon city of Vael Turog, where jagged obsidian cliffs surrounded ancient desert temples swallowed by ash and stormwater.

The soldiers were exhausted. The war had become endless. Even victories felt hollow now. Entire companies vanished daily beneath inferno raids and supernatural weather. No one slept peacefully anymore.

General Zerafin studied battlefield reports inside a rain-soaked command tent while thunder rolled continuously overhead.

“Three more supply columns destroyed.”

A wounded scout lowered his head.

“No survivors.”

Another officer spoke grimly.

“The Baalanians are sending infiltrators through the canyon ruins.”

Zerafin cursed softly.

“Assassins?”

The scout nodded.

“Elite ones.”

At the edge of the tent

Tenji sat silently beside a lantern flame.

Listening.

Watching.

Like always.

The soldiers avoided looking directly at him for too long.

Not because they hated him.

Because something about him felt wrong in ways difficult to explain.

Too graceful.

Too calm.

Too perfect.

Even sitting motionless, Tenji seemed detached from gravity itself, his long black hair moving slightly despite the absence of wind while silver eyes reflected lantern light strangely beneath pale skin untouched by exhaustion. His pale skin reflected stormlight almost luminescent beneath the darkness surrounding him.

He looked less like a warrior and more like a celestial being accidentally trapped among dying men. Like a dream.

Zerafin finally sighed.

“They’ll target the command camp tonight.”

No one answered immediately.

Then Tenji spoke softly.

“I know.”

The entire tent fell silent. Because the Fairy almost never spoke first.

Outside the storm worsened.

Black rain hammered the canyon walls while distant lightning illuminated the ruined temples surrounding the camp.

And hidden within those ruins the assassins waited.They belonged to the Order of the Ember Veil. Mehmeth’s personal executioners. Elite killers trained since childhood within the inferno temples of Baalania: they were silent and fanatical and utterly merciless. Each assassin wore black desert robes lined with sacred fire sigils while bronze masks concealed their faces beneath the rain. Their orders were simple. Kill Dragun. Kill Zerafin. Burn the eastern command structure before dawn.

The first guards died silently. Throats slit within shadows. Bodies dragged beneath floodwater without sound. Then the assassins entered the camp.

Chaos erupted moments later. Eastern soldiers screamed as black-cloaked figures emerged through rain and smoke cutting through tents with curved inferno blades glowing red-hot in the darkness. Fires spread immediately while wounded men stumbled through muddy camp paths searching desperately for weapons.

The Ember Veil moved like ghosts. Fast. Precise. Inhumanly disciplined. One assassin burst into Zerafin’s command tent through a wall of rain. Another followed immediately behind him. Then both froze. Because Tenji stood waiting. The Fairy rose slowly from beside the lantern. Barefoot. Silent. His flowing white robes moved gently despite the violent storm outside while shadow crows gathered across the tent ceiling above him.

The assassins hesitated instinctively. Something deep inside them recognized danger. One attacked anyway.

He died instantly. The assassin lunged forward with inferno steel aimed directly toward Tenji’s throat and suddenly struck empty air. The soldiers watching barely understood what happened. Tenji simply was no longer standing there. Then the assassin’s body collapsed behind them. His throat opened cleanly. No visible strike. No visible movement. Only black feathers drifting slowly through lanternlight. The second assassin panicked. Sacred inferno flame exploded across the entire tent but Tenji walked effortlessly across the burning ceiling upside down. Weightless.Graceful. As though gravity itself obeyed him willingly.

The assassin stared upward horrified.

“What are you”

Shadow crows descended instantly. Hundreds of black wings consumed the man beneath shrieking darkness. His screams lasted only seconds. Outside the massacre had already begun. The Ember Veil assassins tore through the flooded camp while inferno fires spread between siege wagons and command tents beneath roaring thunder.

Then Tenji stepped into the rain. And the battlefield changed completely. The Fairy never touched the ground. Not once. He descended gracefully into the battlefield like a fallen angel clothed in white moonlight.

His robes flowed behind him like celestial silk while silver jewelry shimmered beneath black lightning and endless rain. Black crows spiraled around him in enormous swarms.

And despite the slaughter surrounding him Tenji remained impossibly beautiful. Radiant among the damned. Assassins attacked from rooftops and canyon walls simultaneously. None reached him. One leapt downward with twin burning daggers. Tenji shifted sideways in midair itself. In midair.

Then drove the assassin violently into a stone pillar without ever landing. Another unleashed inferno bolts from atop ruined temple stairs. Shadow crows consumed him instantly.

Only ashes remained.

The soldiers watched in stunned silence.

Because Tenji did not fight like a warrior.

He fought like memory. Like ancient divinity remembering violence.  Like a beautiful dancer in white robes under water Beautiful. Cold. Perfect.

An entire squad of Ember Veil assassins surrounded him near the flooded center of the camp. Tenji finally stopped moving.

Rain poured around him while black feathers drifted slowly through thunderlight.

The assassins circled carefully.

One whispered:

“He isn’t human.”

Tenji looked at them sadly.

“No.”

Then the crows attacked. Swarm of crows made of living shadows.

The storm itself seemed to descend upon the battlefield.

Hundreds upon hundreds of shadow crows erupted outward from Tenji’s robes and hair like living darkness, tearing through assassins from every direction simultaneously. Men vanished beneath shrieking black wings while inferno fire disappeared inside endless shadows.

Some assassins tried fleeing.

Tenji moved among them silently through the air while bodies fell around him into crimson floodwaters below.

Not once did his bare feet touch the ground.

He descended gracefully into the battlefield like a fallen angel clothed in white moonlight.

His robes flowed behind him like celestial silk while silver jewelry shimmered beneath black lightning and endless rain.

Black crows spiraled around him in enormous swarms.

And despite the slaughter surrounding him Tenji remained impossibly beautiful. Radiant among the damned. Assassins attacked from rooftops and canyon walls simultaneously. None reached him. One leapt downward with twin burning daggers. Tenji shifted sideways in midair itself. In midair. Then drove the assassin violently into a stone pillar without ever landing. Another unleashed inferno bolts from atop ruined temple stairs. Shadow crows consumed him instantly. Only ashes remained.

General Zerafin eventually reached the center of the ruined camp alongside surviving soldiers.

The battle had already ended.

Bodies of Ember Veil assassins covered the flooded canyon paths while black feathers drifted endlessly through rain and smoke.

And standing atop a broken stone pillar above the battlefield—

was Tenji.

Untouched.

Perfectly calm.

His silver eyes reflected lightning softly as shadow crows perched silently around him like servants awaiting command.

The soldiers stared upward wordlessly.

Not with fear.

With awe.

One wounded soldier whispered quietly:

“…an angel.”

Tenji heard him.

And for the first time in many years

pain crossed the Fairy’s face.

Because he remembered what angels truly looked like.

And what they had done to the world.

Later that night, Dragun found Tenji standing alone upon the canyon cliffs overlooking the flooded battlefield below.

“You saved them.”

Tenji remained silent for a long moment.

Then softly answered:

“No.”

Thunder rolled across the heavens.

“I only killed faster.”

Dragun studied him carefully.

“You hate war.”

Tenji looked toward the distant storm horizon.

“I hate what war reveals.”

The Vampire King’s voice lowered.

“And what does it reveal?”

The Fairy finally turned toward him.

“That eventually…”

Lightning illuminated his silver eyes.

“…everyone begins enjoying it.”