The road to Zenonva was quiet—quiet in a way my body wasn't used to.
No Red Tide members lurking around corners.
No drunks screaming in alleys.
No smoke or rubble or burning wood.
Just open plains.
A long dirt road.
The creak of wagon wheels.
The rhythmic clopping of horses.
Peace.
I walked beside the Black caravan, shoulder-to-shoulder with their hired escort guards. Their armor clattered as they marched, while mine was nothing but cloth, a patched coat, and my blade.
Sullivan Black poked his head out the small caravan window.
"Rain," he called, "you've been quiet this entire morning."
I shrugged. "Not much to talk about."
He chuckled. "Then allow me to talk. Why Lionhearth? Why the knight apprentice exam? You're young for such a journey."
I didn't answer immediately.
The wind brushed past us, carrying the scent of pine and distant rain.
I watched the horizon as I walked.
"…I want to get stronger," I finally said.
"Stronger than I am. Stronger than what I've been. The path of a knight… this exam… it's the first step."
Sullivan hummed thoughtfully.
"And what lies at the top of that strength?"
"I don't know yet," I admitted. "But I'm going to find out."
He studied me, then nodded. "A simple dream. But sometimes simple dreams climb the highest."
Inside, I heard Elise scoff.
Tch. Whatever.
The farther we traveled, the more I realized how different life outside Ignis truly was.
No starving beggars on the roadside.
No gangs shaking down merchants.
No alleyways filled with screams.
Just… people. Farmers. Travelers. Traders.
Life here didn't choke you.
It flowed gently, like a river.
But even as peace settled around me, a weight tugged on my chest.
Rua.
Flin.
Miss Heinal.
The Red Lantern.
I missed them.
And I swore, silently—
I'll come back stronger. Strong enough to protect what's left… and destroy anything that tries to take it again.
We spotted the other caravan when the sun dipped low behind the hills.
At first, it looked normal.
Stopped in the road, horses still hitched.
But the closer we got…
The quieter everything became.
I smelled blood.
A lot of it.
The wind shifted, and my stomach turned.
"Rain," one of the guards whispered, "do you smell…?"
"Yeah."
We approached slowly, weapons drawn. Even Elise peeked out the window, curiosity overcoming her disgust.
Then we reached it.
And the peaceful world shattered.
Blood soaked the dirt.
Blood coated the wooden carriage.
Blood splattered across the wheels.
Bodies—
Eight at least.
Two nobles in rich clothes, faces twisted in terror.
The rest were escort guards, slaughtered brutally.
Limbs bent the wrong way.
Chests torn open.
Eyes gouged out.
It looked like something had played with them.
"What in god's name…" one guard muttered, voice trembling.
Then—
A roar.
Deep, guttural, echoing through the forest.
Every hair on my arm stood up.
The remaining guards raised shields and crossbows, voices shaking.
"That wasn't a wolf," someone breathed.
"G-Goblins?"
"No, couldn't be—this level of carnage—"
"Orcs?"
"Monsters?"
"What the hell did this?!"
The roar still echoed in my ears.
And whatever made that sound—
it wasn't a goblin.
Too deep.
Too loud.
Too heavy.
A sound that did not belong to anything small.
"What… was that?" I muttered.
No one answered.
Because none of us knew.
And the corpses around us offered no clues.
Caravans didn't get wiped out like this by goblins or orcs alone.
Not this brutally.
Not this deliberately.
Something else had been here.
Something far more dangerous.
But whatever it was…
it wasn't here anymore.
Or maybe it was just watching.
Waiting.
I listened.
Listened harder.
The forest was too quiet.
Too still.
Too expectant.
Come on… where are you?
Then—a soft crunch above.
I snapped my head upward.
A tiny figure dropped from the canopy—
Green skin
Beady eyes
Jagged teeth
Rusty dagger raised—
GOBLIN.
Before it could scream or stab, my hand shot up on instinct.
I grabbed it by the throat.
Its eyes widened.
SNAP.
The body went limp.
Everyone froze.
"El—Elise!" Sullivan shouted. "Stay inside the wagon!"
He wasn't loud enough.
The guards were already panicking.
"A G-Goblin ambush!!"
"Shields up!! Surround the caravan!!!"
"CROSSBOWS—SHOOT ANYTHING THAT MOVES!"
I stepped forward.
"Focus on defending the Blacks," I said, gripping my sword.
"They're after the girl. Goblins smell females."
The guards blanched.
Elise's terrified gasp carried from inside the wagon.
I exhaled through my nose, steadying myself.
Alright… time to work.
The Battle Begins
A branch snapped beneath my boot.
The moment it did—
All hell broke loose.
Three goblins leapt at me from the bushes.
My blade flashed.
One swing.
A smooth arc.
Three heads hit the dirt.
But that was only the beginning.
More goblins—
Ten?
Fifteen?
Twenty?
I couldn't tell.
They swarmed out of the trees like insects, shrieking and snarling. Many rushed the caravan. Others fixated on me with a predatory gleam—as if they knew I was the threat.
The guards held their ground at the caravan's perimeter, but they were overwhelmed. Within seconds, two escort guards were gutted, their bodies falling limply beside the horses.
The others barely held on, killing a handful but losing formation fast.
Elise's screams rang inside the wagon.
Rain.
Focus.
I blocked three simultaneous stabs—
—but I wasn't fast enough.
A dagger plunged into my shoulder.
Another into my thigh.
A third slashed my arm.
Pain exploded down my body.
I gritted my teeth, swinging harder.
Why… am I so weak?
Another goblin lunged.
I parried sloppily, nearly losing my grip.
I can't even protect this caravan…
I can't protect the people around me…
I can't protect anything…!
Something pulsed.
Not my heart.
Deeper.
Inside my core.
My sword trembled in my hand—
a faint shimmer sparking along the blade.
Aura?
Life force?
I didn't know.
I didn't care.
Because it was something.
The tiny spark I'd felt under Zenite's gaze—
A flicker of conviction.
I roared and pushed forward, the world narrowing to a single point of focus.
Cut.
Cut.
Cut.
CUT.
Goblin after goblin fell.
Their blood sprayed across my face, arms, chest.
My wounds throbbed.
My muscles screamed.
But I didn't stop.
Couldn't stop.
Not until—
The last goblin fell.
My legs gave out for a moment.
But I forced myself up.
The caravan was still under attack.
Three guards left, barely standing.
I limped toward them, sword dragging behind me.
Then I charged.
One goblin—dead.
Two—dead.
Three—
The last one shrieked as I drove my blade through its heart.
And then…
Silence.
A silence so thick Sullivan Black could hear the blood dripping off my fingers.
The Aftermath
The caravan had stopped shaking.
No more screams.
No more goblin chatter.
Just the sound of the wind and the ragged breathing of the survivors.
Sullivan stepped out slowly.
"Stay inside, Elise," he said softly.
She didn't listen.
Her head peeked out the window.
And she saw it.
I was standing there in the middle of the dirt road.
The last goblin's throat gurgled as it collapsed at my feet, twitching.
My sword trembled in my grip.
Not with fear—
with exhaustion.
Slowly, painfully, I turned back to face the caravan.
Only then…
did the true horror settle in.
Bodies.
So many bodies.
Goblin corpses were scattered like broken puppets—
throats torn out, heads split open, bones sticking out at wrong angles.
Dozens of them.
More than I'd realized in the frenzy.
Green limbs lay twisted across the dirt road.
Black blood soaked into the earth.
Some goblin eyes were still open, staring at nothing with frozen terror.
And in the center of all of it—
me.
Blood covered my entire body.
My face.
My clothes.
My hands.
Three daggers remained buried in me—
one in my shoulder,
one in my thigh,
one in my arm.
Every breath was a struggle.
Every heartbeat felt like a drum exploding in my chest.
The remaining guards stood frozen in their positions, shields trembling in their hands.
One man had dropped his weapon entirely, staring at me like I was some kind of monster.
Not a boy.
Not a swordsman.
Not a human.
A creature.
Sullivan Black stumbled out of the caravan, his face pale.
He gagged when he saw the road—
the entire ground drenched in black and red.
Goblin corpses piled around me like offerings to a cruel god.
"Oh… gods above…" he whispered.
Even Elise—
spoiled, arrogant, disgusted Elise—
peeked out the window, expecting to see a few goblins.
Instead…
She saw a massacre.
Her eyes widened.
Her face drained of color.
Her lips parted in a silent scream.
She looked at me like I wasn't Rain.
Like I wasn't human.
Like something had crawled out of a nightmare and put on a boy's skin.
The guards staggered back from me as if I were contagious.
One murmured,
"What… what kind of kid… does this…?"
Another whispered,
"He killed… all of them… alone…"
Sullivan forced himself closer, stepping over goblin intestines that coated the wheels.
The smell of iron was suffocating.
He stopped just a few feet from me, trembling.
"Rain… how many did you… kill?"
I tried to speak.
My mouth opened—
—but blood filled my throat.
I coughed, choking.
And then my legs finally gave out.
As I fell, I saw their faces—
Sullivan horrified,
Elise shaking,
the guards whispering prayers.
And I realized something.
They weren't afraid of the goblins.
They were afraid of me.
Then..
Everything went dark.