There is Beauty in Darkness

Chapter 40: Murder Wakes It Up

At what point in your life do you find yourself, is there any real meaning to what I'm doing? Am I in the right fighting for people? Do these people need to be saved? Is any joy that can be gained from travelling from town to town, and having adventures as a hunter? Well, these are some of the many questions, Trevor and Sypha have yet to find answers to. The events of Lindenfeld have left lasting scars on their souls, especially the once upbeat and spirited Speaker Magician. She was so full of life and cheer to be travelling alongside Trevor, a man she had grown to love, and experience one exciting adventure after another. But that changed when the people she had promised to protect were the very ones to cause the biggest massacre she had ever seen. Although Miri's people had managed to save a handful of survivors, it didn't change the fact that all of this could've been prevented. It had also left a vile, bitter taste in the couple's mouth that their "employer", the Judge had been nothing more than a sick, twisted child murderer.

As they drive out in their wagon, a new darkness has settled on them. A haunted Sypha rests against Trevor and holds onto his arm. Her mind was in a small state of torment. She had seen and faced horrible things in her lifetime, but never had she ever experienced something so inhumanly evil. "This could not have gone more wrong. What happened?" She asks. How...? How could've things gone so wrong?

Trevor sullenly replies, "We've spent a couple of months living your life. Adventures and victories. And now, we're living my life." This whole time, up until now, they have been living in "Sypha's world", where monster hunting is a thrilling adventure, filled with a righteous sense of victory. Now - for the moment at least - they are living in Trevor's and his family's world: a world where they fight the monsters because they have no other choice, but should know better than to expect any kind of moral clarity, let alone any sense of vindication, where the people they defend are just as vicious and cruel as the monsters they are being saved from. It was then Trevor and Sypha decide to stop being adventurers and focus more heavily on demon-slaying. That's what they decided together as they went down an uncertain path over six weeks. Six weeks of them fighting against demons and living Trevor's way.

It was anyone's guess as to where this will lead them. But even so. Even when you're at the bottom of a dark cavern where you think that there is no way to escape, hope will never abandon you. Trevor and Sypha didn't know it at the time, but their one chance at hope was currently stowed-away in their little carriage. A pair of twins with incredible strength and the power to wield lightning itself, Duke and Selina hide away amongst their supplies. They were members of Miri's clan but were permitted by their Leader to accompany the travelling hunters out of concerns that, what had happened in Lindenfeld, had planted seeds of darkness in their hearts. Out of duty, respect, and love, the twins made it their mission to save them from despair. Though the world is cruel and unfair, kindness and love remain alive. Duke and Selina could only hope they weren't too late while they stayed by their side during their first six weeks of travelling.

Trevor let out a yell as he fell from the sky and broke through the weak tree branches. He manoeuvred his body and used his chained whip to grab hold of a much stronger branch, swinging himself across a forest of dead trees as he was being chased by a hoard of skeleton soldiers. Trevor flipped himself onto another tree and faced the hoard with his sword and whip in hand. The skeletal soldiers let out haunting snarls and hollow screams as they charged at the brown-haired man.

Trevor cracked his whip, easily dispatching the soldiers one by one. Even when fighting at close range, he was able to handle himself against them. He ran along the long branch to gain both distance and room as the soldiers were attempting to gain the upper hand by approaching all at once. He destroyed another with his whip and wrapped it around the branch to swing himself across. He avoided the archer and leapt through the air to destroy two more skeletons before jumping along the tree branches with the remaining hoard giving chase.