The Dawn of the New World

A crisp slap landed across Eurig's face and it came from the person he least expected, Alfen himself.

Stupified, Eurig rubbed the side of his face in a daze. It felt like a thousand fire ants were constantly biting his skin and the pain was not something he could just wish away. It went deeper than anything else he had felt in his entire life.

And for the first time in a very long time, he felt shame. Not just from getting slapped by a man that was barely able to sit upright but for reasons he couldn't possibly understand.

His entire face turned red in a second and the room fell silent.

Alfen had tears in his eyes but his face was contorted with such anger that he wouldn't even have deemed it possible a moment ago.

"Shut…your mouth, you flith. You do not have…the right to speak about my son…nor that child."

Alfen's gaze landed across the room on Arnett. He was wearing the shoes that Alfen had resized for him but other than that his attire was worse than any slave he had ever seen.

Even a blind man could see that he was tortured on a daily basis and since Alfen had seen his sister Eva in person it wasn't difficult to connect the dots.

"You pathetic little excuse…for a man," he looked back at Eurig, his burning gaze locking with his, "Blackmailed a child by using…his sister as leverage and since it is you…you probably poisoned her too, didn't you? You have the gall to blame your atrocities on him. Just how much of a failure can you be-"

*BAM*

*KHUK*

"AARGH!"

Before Alfen could finish talking the masked demon's claw pushed him back to the ground. It was so forceful in fact that several of his ribs broke on contact.

Eurig was brought out of his daze by the commotion. He slowly stood up while rubbing his face, "Well, that was…unexpected."

His gaze turned cold as he saw Alfen still trying to fearlessly maintain eye contact with him. Turning around he saw Arnett looking down at the floor in shame which made him even angrier. He leaped forward and grabbed him by the hair, dragging him in front of Alfen.

"I know you can't bring yourself to say it just yet so don't worry, I will punish him on your behalf."

Arnett struggled to break free which only ended up hurting him more. Eurig raised him into the air like a chicken until he was on eye level with him.

"I took you out of the slums, clothed you, fed you, even allowed that mongrel sister of yours to keep breathing the same air as me, and this is how you repay me? Well, what else could I have expected of a couple of unwanted bastards, even if they share the same blood as me."

"LET GO!" Arnett screamed but that little tidbit of information that Eurig had just revealed left even the demons speechless which made him laugh out loud.

"Yeah, you heard that right. This little bag of flesh is my great-great-grandson. Born to some cheap whore in a nameless village, I was just as surprised when I first found him. Hahaha!"

Just at that moment the infant demon perching on Eurig's shoulder leaned in and whispered something into his ears.

"Hoh? Here? Where is he?"

The infant pointed right at the spot Wern was standing on and before he could move Eurig threw Arnett in the same direction using his full strength. If he hit the wall at that speed then he would surely die.

Wern, as cowardly as he was had no choice but to make a move.

His figure came into view aiming the longbow right at Eurig. A solitary blue arrow made of pure Qi shot out and actually pierced straight through Eurig's heart giving Wern enough time to catch Arnett and run back through the corridor.

Unfortunately it was already blocked by one of the demon kin, the same shapeless blob that was dissolving the remains of the city guards that had come before them.

"Let go of me! We can't leave him behind!" Arnett pushed and pulled trying to break free but to no avail, Wern's grip was too strong.

"I can't fight all of them by myself. We'll go get the others and come back-" he pulled the bowstring to launch another attack but was interrupted by Eurig.

"If you leave now I will destroy this magic circle before you can exit the building."

Wern's hand wouldn't move no matter how hard he tried. All he could think about was Brina fighting at the city gates and what would happen to her if the barrier broke.

'Brother Henrik is still there, it will be alright!' he remembered but as if reading his thoughts Eurig continued.

"He's already dead. The one that was using that strange power and culling the horde, he's dead. Right now your people only have the barrier to depend on. The moment it falls everyone will die, everyone."

"No that's not possible!"

Wern shouted in return but as he looked back he saw Eurig holding a lock of hair in his hands. They were black but giving off a vague glow accompanied by a very strong and extremely pure energy.

"!!!"

That was it. No more proof was needed. Elven hair had magical properties which was why they were usually grown out so long.. Even after cutting them off, they would glow with the same energy as the user for a long time.