# Chapter 2: When Darkness Falls (Continued)
The clash of steel rang through the night as Elias pushed back against his attacker, his blade gleaming in the moonlight. Another figure emerged from the shadows – Reflis, her eyes glowing with an unnatural light.
"You're better than expected, human," Mats growled, leaping back to create distance. "Reflis, shall we show him what true power looks like?"
Inside the house, Margaret finished enchanting the teleportation stone, her hands moving with practiced precision as she wove the complex spell. She glanced at the sleeping Ronin, then carefully placed the chain around his neck. "Please work," she whispered, kissing his forehead.
Through the window, she saw Elias engaging the two demons. Her heart clenched – these weren't ordinary opponents. She recognized their aura: A+ ranked demons.
"Hold on, my love," she murmured, grabbing her short sword. As she rushed outside, she began channeling her most powerful enhancement spell.
Reflis's hands moved in a complex pattern. "Hustling Blade," she intoned, and suddenly the air was filled with invisible cutting edges.
Margaret's enhanced hearing picked up the subtle whistle of the invisible blades. "Elias, duck!" she shouted, already moving to intercept with her own blade. The clash of steel on invisible steel sent sparks flying through the night air.
"Margaret!" Elias called out, his voice mixing concern with relief. "Together then?"
"Always," she replied, channeling more power into her enhancement spell. Golden light surrounded Elias, his movements becoming faster, more powerful.
"How touching," Mats sneered, raising his sword. "But it won't save you."
The battle intensified, steel meeting steel in a deadly dance. Elias and Margaret moved in perfect sync, years of fighting together evident in their coordinated attacks. For a moment, it seemed they might prevail.
Then, everything changed.
A presence descended upon them, heavy and suffocating. Blood-red wings spread across the night sky, and a figure landed between the combatants. Rafael, demon commander of the Astinkein forces, had arrived.
"My lord Rafael," Reflis breathed, dropping to one knee.
Margaret felt her heart stop. She knew this power level – it was beyond anything they could handle. "Elias," she whispered, "we need to—"
But Rafael moved faster than thought. His blade flashed once, twice. Elias's hands, still gripping his sword, fell to the ground.
"Run," Elias managed to gasp out, blood spraying from his wounds. "Take Ronin and run!"
Margaret turned to flee, but Rafael's sword found her back, cutting deep. As she fell, she could see their house, could see Ronin standing in the doorway, his eyes wide with horror.
"No," she tried to scream, but no sound came out. "Please, no..."
Rafael approached Ronin slowly, his blade dripping with the blood of the boy's parents. "You should have stayed inside, child," he said, his voice almost gentle. "Like all the other cowards hiding tonight."
The sword plunged forward, and Margaret's world went dark to the sound of her son's gasp of pain.
But fate had other plans that night.
Two more figures appeared in the courtyard, accompanied by the person in the black cloak from the market. The cloaked figure spoke, their voice carrying authority that made even Rafael drop to his knee.
"Rafael."
"Lord Zorde," Rafael responded, bowing deeply.
The mysterious person from the market was none other than Zorde himself, the Demon Lord and mastermind behind the attack on Vasmos. He approached Ronin's fallen form, his movements deliberate.
"What happened here?" Zorde asked, though his tone suggested he already knew.
Rafael explained about the fight, about the parents' resistance. But when Zorde asked why he had attacked the child, Rafael remained silent.
Zorde knelt beside Ronin, pulling back his hood to reveal noble features marked with ancient symbols of power. "I owe this child," he said softly, drawing a knife across his own palm. "And a demon lord always pays his debts."
Dark blood dripped onto Ronin's wound, glowing with an otherworldly light. "Nordus," Zorde called, and one of his accompanying demons stepped forward. "Take the boy somewhere safe, outside the town."
"But my lord," Rafael began, "why save one human child?"
Zorde stood, his cloak billowing in a wind that seemed to affect only him. "Sometimes, Rafael, the smallest acts of kindness create the greatest changes in destiny." He looked at the sweet bread vendor's stall, still visible in the distance. "And sometimes, a piece of sweet bread can change the course of history."
As Nordus carried Ronin away, none of them noticed a shadow moving across the rooftops – Rose, member of the Shadow Knights, had witnessed everything. And she had her own plans for the dying child in Nordus's arms.
The night was far from over, and Ronin's story was just beginning.
[To be continued in Chapter 3: The Price of Survival]