Chapter 705: One Amongst Thousands
Who are you? Where did you–How? Who am I? Well, that’s a...I don’t know how to tell you. It’s a long story, and I only remember a handful of memories. One amongst thousands, I was a midguard following the footsteps of Nightsilver. One amongst thousands, I was his party member. But what else now? What else can I scrape out of my empty skull?
Oh, that’s right! I had a partner. She held a shield as a paladin of Athenia, her body shielded me from the horrors as I pierced through their bodies with magic and my spear. We were fighting against that horrid army. A year? A decade? Maybe a century, I don’t exactly remember how long I had been following her with an ocean of soldiers pushing us forward, waiting for their chance for us to fall and take our place in the war.
Yet not an ounce of blood had been drawn from my body, all thanks to her steadfast stride and the silver shield that she carried. Like a sword, she swung it around, throwing the enemy like a bunch of twigs. But alas, her spirit broke against a general as his bare, bony fingers punched through that silver. I leapt forward to parry his strike, but with a tug of the hand, she flung me aside.
Even now, I remember her smile as she looked at me with the blood gushing out of her chest. I tried again and again to help her, but the horrors overwhelmed me. But even through my dying gaze, I watched her stabbing the general with a knife, with only the words of a champion echoing through her lips instead of screams as they did mine.
Only in death did I realize that she’d taken her killer with her to the afterlife. Centuries past, and to this day, the faint voice of her laughs echoes through this mantle of heroes. Her voice carried the same hint of insanity as it did on the day of her death. My flesh and her have rotted away, our souls are trapped, never to escape this place. Unless...a thousand wishes we can grant and earn our freedom, not to mention our aid against a new era of monsters and demons.
However, what should’ve been a thousand and more was now just under it. How much exactly? I couldn’t tell, but ask me and I shall answer but in return you shall grant me–no, grant us our freedom, Darius El’Rouse.
And that was the end of Darius’s dream. Upon waking up on his study, he realized that he’d fallen asleep on top of the mantle of heroes. His mind had drifted to the immenseness of the cape and despite being out of it already, his mind ventured through the darkness within which the souls of every trapped hero were sealed.
"Nine hundred nighty seven..." He whispered to himself.
At first the words meant nothing but then reminded of the spirit’s promise he realized what it meant. A total of nine hundred and nighty seven souls from the war against the demon lord were trapped within that mantle. Ready to serve the hero of now, even though their duty to this world has already been fulfilled. A wish per soul, one wasted by Mercedes’s greed of gold and the other two used to realize what power the mantle holds.
A bit rattled by the experience, Darius ignored his wife’s loving kiss as she placed a cup of tea on the edge of his table. Aelin had woken up before him, and the scent of a fresh meal was traveling throughout the shop. Lost in his own world of confusion, however, Darius stared at the cape, his fingers ruffling through its fabric.