The demon's 150-year-old memory began to fade, and he returned to that very moment.
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Years ago, that demon used to be a farmer, and the demon remembers everything that happened to him. Even though his body is that of a demon, his mind and all his memories of his years-old life when he used to be a human start coming back to him. Tears do not stop falling from his severed head. King Argus begins to leave from there after killing him, but then he hears a faint voice. King Argus looks behind him. He sees that the demon is crying.
In his cold and trembling voice, he says to the King, "This should not have happened. Everything of mine was ruined in this cursed kingdom. If I hadn't come on this path that day, nothing would have happened. My son... a witch ate my son, I couldn't do anything. My wife's head was cut off, and I ended up in this state. I wish I had never come here that day."
The demon looks toward the King; the smoke from his head and body begins to increase. Deep black clouds begin to gather in the sky, and then the demon says to the King, "Everything of mine was ruined in your kingdom. No one came to help me. What your people did to me will now happen to you. Now it is your turn."
The King says, "You killed so many innocents."
The demon laughs and says, "Innocent? Your people are innocent?" Grinding his teeth in anger, he says, "Not at all. Your people are worse than demons. A lion eats someone because he has to eat, because that is the law of nature. If a deer eats grass, it's because that is the law of nature. But when we kill humans, we are called demons. But tell me this, if a human kills and eats another human, what do they call him? When they tortured and killed my little child—and they didn't stop at just killing him—they took out his heart and ate it in front of my eyes and took him away half-cut to eat later. And you call me a demon? I am dying, I couldn't take revenge for my wife and my son. Decades have passed, now those people who did this to me might not even be alive, but all this happened here, so every child here will suffer for it. I give you a curse: the people you are saving will one day die in front of your eyes and you won't be able to do anything. And it will begin with someone of your own, whom you love the most."
The King says, "The curse of people like you won't affect me because I have always protected my people and everyone is equal to me. The One Above never does anything to people like us, understand?"
The demon says laughing, "The One Above? But when did I say the One Above would come to punish you? Not the One Above, but the Mahamahim (His Eminence) himself will come to punish you. In the stories of demons, whenever someone kills a demon and if there is even a little life left in that demon and he gives a curse, then the Mahamahim himself comes to fulfill that curse. He will not spare any of you."
The King says, "Stories are never true, and who is your Mahamahim?"
The demon says to the King, "You will find out soon."
And then lightning flashes in the sky and heavy rain begins. Smoke stops rising from the demon's body and head, and it catches fire. The heavier the rain falls, the more the fire grows, as if the rain is not working to extinguish the fire but acting as oil for it. The demon burns to ashes and his ashes dissolve in the water.
The King looks all around him. His soldiers are lying dead; some are on rocks while some are hanging from trees. Their intestines are hanging from their bodies and falling to the ground. There is blood everywhere. He goes to his General, picks him up with his hands, and lays him on his horse. Then he goes to the Commander and looks at her. She is conscious, but her eyes have turned stony. King Argus holds her hand and seats her on his horse.
King Argus asks Commander Serefina, "Are you alright, Serefina?"
Serefina says to the King, "I am alright, my Lord, but I cannot see clearly."
The King says to the remaining knights, "Someone go to the castle and bring some horse carriages from there; we have to take all these bodies from here." The knights do as told.
The scene shifts, and the King is carrying General Valerius on his horse, and the Commander is sitting on her horse; she still cannot see properly. Behind them, some knights come on horses and some come sitting in horse carriages with the dead knights. Then the gates of Everguard Castle open. The King enters with his warriors and the gates are closed.
The King passes through the streets of the city. The people of the city come out of their shops and homes. Just then, a small child separates from the crowd, stands in the King's path, and bows before the King. He is very small. The King stops there.
The child asks the King, "My Lord, my father went with you, he is not seen with you, where is he? Today is my birthday, he told me that he would come to meet me on my birthday and he said he would bring a cake and a gift for me at night. Where is he?"
The King gets down from his horse and goes to the child. The King sits on his knees in front of the child. Tears begin to come from the King's eyes and he asks the child for forgiveness. The King says to the child, "My child, forgive me, I could not save your father. Your father died fighting that demon. I... I didn't know so much would happen."
Hearing these words, tears began to fall tap-tap from the child's eyes. The King gives the child the helmet of his father's armor and hugs the child. The child cries a lot for his father. The King leaves from there, holding his horse in his hands.
The King calls all those people to the church whose relatives—like father, son, husband, whoever—had died in the battle. The child who met the King on the way also comes there. The King places all the dead knights in coffins and buries them in a graveyard near the church.
After some time, it becomes night. We see the child who met the King in the market. He was still thinking about his father. He lights candles for his father. In the light of the candles, we see a picture of the child's mother lying near the child's father's helmet. And just then, King Argus comes to that child.
Chapter End