MLII C5, P4- "Avenged"

"Avenged" is the fourth Part of "Miracula Luxia II" 's fifth Chapter. It was released on 06.04.2021.
== Plot ==
Jared and his allies enter the seemingly abandoned fort to the west of them, hoping to find information that is crucial in defeating the Slithzerikai's leader, as well as a boat to reach the central island, where she currently resides.
Unbeknownst to them, the barbaric Slithzerikai have set up a trap for them, trapping them within the fort and forcing them to fight their way out. This will be a hard task, especially with so many enemies between them and the exit.
Whether they will succeed or not remains to be seen.
== Story ==
Our heroes slowly step through the open gate, carefully watching every perimeter near them for hidden enemies.
"This fort is quiet."- Tholmen mutters.
"Way too quiet."- Jared adds.
Satisfied by the results of their examination, they enter the fort.
They see no Slithzerikai. No activity. The only sounds that they can hear are the wind around them, as well as the nearby lake.
Treviass looks at Jared.
"Isn't it weird?"- He asks him.
Jared raises his eyebrow.
"What is on your mind?"
Treviass shakes his head.
"Normally, Slithzerikai don't run away, no matter if they are barbaric or not. They always stand their ground, unlike smaller humanoids like Nephilim and Goblins."- He says- "But now? This almost feels like a trap... "
Tholmen steps forward, intending to search the homes to the north. However, he soon steps on something.
When he looks down to see what is going on, it is too late. A nearby trap fires an arrow at him.
"Tholmen, look out!"- Jared yells and pushes him out of the way, narrowly avoiding the arrow himself.
As the two of them stand up, they wonder if this was just a coincidence.
"Maybe the Slithzerikai's traps are malfunctioning?"- Seiko says- "There's no other possible explanation!"
Treviass shakes his head.
"Slithzerikai traps don't work like that! Even when their creators are gone, they can still be triggered!"- He says- "And if we don't get out of this place, we will--- "
With a sinking feeling, the young Slithzerikai stops speaking and hears the clang of something behind him.
When he and the others turn around, they see that the gate is closed. Their only way out... is sealed.
Treviass sighs.
"Just as I anticipated."- He mutters- "Going into an abandoned Slithzerikai fort is always bad news!"
At this moment, they also hisses coming from the homes around them. Slithzerikai emerge, weapons drawn and surround them.
In the meantime, more warriors climb the walls of the fort and join their comrades.
One of the Slithzerikai warriors points at Treviass and laughs.
"Sss ss ss! What a pleasure to see you again, fugitive!"- He says- "Ess-Kalyn will be happy to see you again, once your friends are dead!"
Jared looks at him.
"Wait."- He says- "You are speaking of Ess-Kalyn the Manburner, aren't you?!"
The Slithzerikai laughs.
"You know too much, hero."- He answers- "Maybe you will have the chance to meet her yourself, if you survive!"
Having said that, he steps back and watches as his fellow Slithzerikai scream and charge.
"Maybe it's better if we try to find a way out instead."- Tholmen says- "There's too many of them!"
As a response to this, Jared draws his weapon and says:
"I refuse to be a coward!"
With a swift series of attacks, he manages to slay the Slithzerikai around him. He sees his mother struggle against a Slithzerikai priest and runs forward to help her out.
The Slithzerikai avoids Seiko's attacks without much trouble. Then, he pushes her back with dark energy and she falls on her knees.
"Hsss."- The priest says- "I've always wanted to exorcise a spirit like yourself."
Seeing that his mother is about to get killed, Jared loses control of his own body for a few seconds. He kicks the priest in the leg, forcing him to trip and fall on the ground.
"What the... "- The Slithzerikai says. When he sees Jared, his eyes flash.
"You!"
Jared does not hesitate to attack. He raises his foot in the air.
"If you want to kill my mother, you have to get through me first!"- He yells and stomps the Slithzerikai's face- "Die, you fiend!"
He continues to do so, as long as his rage lasts. Soon, he steps back and watches what he has done.
The Slithzerikai priest's head is cracked. His face is deformed. The creature who tried to kill his mother is dead.
"Fool."- He mutters.
Then, he turns around and watches as the rest of the Slithzerikai are slain by his allies. Jared's brutality has thrown them off-balance, allowing Tholmen and Treviass to strike back.
Soon, most of the Slithzerikai are dead.
Treviass pats Jared on the shoulder.
"What you did over here, it is the deed of a true warrior. Protecting your family is of utmost importance and it requires you to perform noble actions."- He says and adds- "Bloody, but still noble. And worthy of respect."
Tholmen nods.
"We can all agree to that."- He says, seeing the sadness in Jared's eyes- "We all get through pain and suffering in our lives. The important thing is how we handle the mistakes that come with them, to show the world that we can and that we will."
The last Slithzerikai readies his weapon.
"Just because you've slain those useless peons doesn't mean that you're out of trouble just yet!"- He yells and raises his hand- "The Manburner herself blessed me with a portion of her power, in exchange for my total loyalty. You shall be burned to death, all of you!"
Jared shakes his head and sighs.
"I have already heard words like those before."- He mutters- "Fools like you, I fought many of them. They thought that they were almighty, undefeatable beings of great power. In the end, it was all otherwise."
He points Demonslayer at the Slithzerikai.
"If you really are as powerful as you claim to be, prove it right here and right now!"- He yells- "Show me that you can fight back, that you can win against me! I want to fight a strong, respectable warrior who knows what he is fighting for, not a self-deceiving, blabbering weakling!"
The Slithzerikai gasps.
"You dare to mock me like that?!"- He yells- "I'll show you!"
He tries to hurl a fireball at him, but Jared avoids it just in time.
Just as he tries to cast another spell, our hero points the palm of his hand at him and yells:
"Mana Break!"
A bolt of energy flies out of his hand, striking the Slithzerikai. At the same time, it also weakens him.
Seeing that his opponent is trying to force him into submission, the creature grabs a shield from his back and blocks a bolt of fire that Jared hurls at him.
"So, you're a magic user as well?"- He says- "It doesn't matter. I will still defeat you!"
He draws a shortsword and wildly swings it towards Jared.
At the last moment, Jared manages to wrap himself in a magical bubble that protects him from the Slithzerikai's incoming blows.
"You can't hide forever!"- The creature says as it infuses its blade with the power of fire and swings at the protective bubble.
Jared's allies try to stop him from attacking, but Jared stops them.
"Let me handle this."- He mutters.
Just as the bubble breaks, our hero has regained enough strength to perform one last, deadly blow. He jumps in the air, preparing to strike.
"We'll see about that."- The Slithzerikai says and hides behind its shield, thinking that it will save him.
Seiko, Treviass and Tholmen step back. They realize that Jared is about to do something very dangerous and that it is best to stay away.
Meanwhile, Jared has gained enough speed and height to strike with the strength of a small meteor. He jumps back down, readies his weapon and...
*CRASH*
The result of this devastating, aerial attack is earth-shattering. It breaks the Slithzerikai's shield into many pieces and immediately sends him flying into a wall.
Jared does not waste any time to recover. Just as his enemy stands up, he charges and delivers a series of deadly attacks, mortally wounding him in the process.
However, the creature does not give up. He stands up and grabs an exhausted Jared by the neck.
"Ess-Kalyn's warriors cannot die."- He whispers- "You're just wasting your time."
Just as he prepares to stab Jared in the chest, Tholmen and Seiko try to intervene. They try to pull him off of our hero, but to no avail.
"It's no use."- Seiko says- "He's too strong!"
Treviass sees that his friend is in trouble and rushes forward to help him out. He rips the Slithzerikai away from Jared and slams him into a wall.
"I'm tired of your kind! I'm tired of you killing everyone that I love! I'm tired of you taking all that we fought for away from us! I'm tired of how you think that you're always better than all of us!"- He screams- "I hate you! I HATE YOU!"
He picks up his spear and swings it at the Slithzerikai, wounding it further.
The creature tries to fight back, but is easily overpowered by the young warrior. He punches his face three times, pushes him to the ground and stares at him angrily.
"All of you... will... burn."- The Slithzerikai gasps- "She will make sure... of--- "
Treviass is tired of this nonsense. He pulls out a dagger and mercilessly stabs him in the temple, killing him.
"He's dead."- He mutters- "At last."
He falls to his knees and breaks down in tears.
Moments later, his sadness turns into uncontrollable rage and he continues to stab the creature in the head, then in the chest and the left arm, unleashing his anger upon this lifeless corpse.
"Treviass, stop!"- Jared says and carefully pulls him away- "He is dead! There is no need to add insult to this injury!"
Treviass shakes his head and wipes a tear from his right eye.
"I... I'm sorry."- He mutters- "My anger... it made me lose control. I can't hold back, not anymore."
Jared raises his eyebrow.
"Did something happen to you?"- He asks him- "Did the Slithzerikai hurt you?"
Treviass shakes his head.
"Not me, specifically."- He mutters- "But they hurt someone important to me. My mother."
Everyone gasps.
"Your... mother?"
Treviass nods and looks at the Slithzerikai's corpse.
"After I returned into the village of Gnass, some of the remaining barbarians watched us from afar. Wanted revenge for what we did to their kind."- He continues- "And then, they came. They attacked our village and killed a few of our people. One of those people... was my mother."
He falls to his knees again.
"One of the Slithzerikai was about to kill me. He was pointing his spear at me. I was close to death. But then, my mother stepped in. She said: "I won't let you hurt my son!" and took the blow instead of me. I watched helplessly as she bled out in my arms, when she told me that she loves me, that she will always be there for me. That she will always believe in me. And then, she closed her eyes. I watched my own mother die at the hands of those savages. I saw the monster who killed her, grinning at me from far away. I saw how he ran with the remaining Slithzerikai."
Seiko shakes her head. What happened to Treviass' mother is close to her own fate. Hearing about it is like looking at two sides of the same coin for her. Like a mirror that shows your own reflection.
"So... I suspect that this is the man who is responsible for this cruelty."- Jared says stoically.
Treviass stands up and kicks the Slithzerikai's corpse.
"Yes, he is! And I have been looking for him everywhere!"- He yells- "I had the chance to kill him. I had the chance to make him pay for his crime, for the crime that he committed against my family. And I did! I released months worth of rage that were held within me! I turned his body into a bloody, unrecognizable mess. I did things I didn't know that I was capable of. All because of this!"
Treviass stands up and looks down.
"Now, my mother can finally rest in peace."- He continues- "Her killer is dead. Her death has finally been avenged."
He looks at the sky.
"We will win this war in your name, mama!"- He says- "We will make them feel the pain, just like they did before!"
Jared sighs and shakes his head. He grabs the Slithzerikai's corpse and carries it near the lake. Then, he thinks better of it and looks at Treviass, as if expecting him to say something.
Treviass shakes his head.
"Do it."- He mutters- "He deserves it."
Without hesitating, Jared throws the Slithzerikai warrior's corpse into the river.
Everyone watches as it sinks into the dark depths below, never to return.
Tholmen points at something nearby.
"I searched all of the houses. No clues so far."- He says to Jared- "There's one house left. I think that you should explore it."
Jared nods and approaches the house.
When he opens the door and goes inside, he finds out that it is abandoned, just like everything else in the fort.
He opens a chest next to the former resident's table and finds a few scraps of burned paper.
"Hmm. This senseless vandalism was done recently."- He says to himself after taking a closer look- "But where is the resident... ?"
He finds a pot under the table and searches it.
Soon, he pulls out a sheet of paper. Unlike the previous one, this one is free of any kind of damage. It is simply discarded in the pot.
Maybe the owner thought that wouldn't be found by anyone? Or maybe they were just careless and forgot it in here while burning the rest of them?
Either way, Jared decides to read the writing on it. Something tells him that, whatever information is in there, it might be crucial for a future endeavor.
After a few minutes of evaluation, Jared learns something very useful. The former resident's name is Allister. He is a retired warrior, one who has fought large bands of undead in a time when the creatures were threatening the peace within the world. He mentions a loved one in the paper, a person who was killed after a small band of undead attacked her, her husband and her infant child at the docks near the city of Paris. He also mentions that he despised her husband after this horrifying event, his best friend who was unable to protect the girl.
In the rest of the writing, he mentions his name- "Lethal Kaos" and swears that he will have his revenge on him. It also seems like he has stabbed the name with a sharp object several times.
At the end, Allister says that he has found where he lives and that he is "coming for him".
The rest of the page is blank.
Jared is horrified. The person who used to live here, he has a grudge on his grandfather. The story matches the one that his father told him regarding his late grandmother.
"The woman in question died at the docks, killed by undead, left a husband and infant son behind... "- He says to himself- "No! My grandpa is in danger!"
He finds a portal next to him. Staring at it, he sees the city of Paris.
"So that is where that villain went."
Jared runs outside and approaches his allies.
"What is it, sweetie?"- His mother asks him- "You seem to be very worried about something!"
Jared nods and shows her the scrap of paper that he found.
"Mom, grandpa is in danger!"- He says- "We must go back to Paris as soon as possible!"
Seiko gasps.
"Your father told me about this Allister! He's a maddened, old man who has been pestering our family for quite a while. Now I know why- he was waiting for a moment of weakness!"- She says- "I won't allow him to hurt anyone, let alone your grandfather!"
Their new mission clearer than a crystal ball, our heroes run into the house and step into the portal that will take them back into Paris.
"Allister. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I will find you... and I will stop you."- Jared says to himself- "No matter what my grandpa has done in the past, I will protect him. I will not allow you to harm him, you hear me?!"
With those thoughts in mind, Jared steps through the other side of the portal and returns to the city of Paris alongside his allies.
"Let us find this villain and stop him. Once... and for all."- Jared says stoically and takes a step forward.