ESKARINA

Our unit had been training once more after Nova's suspension was..."canceled".

The training became far more vigorous than before. While our bodies may have burned before through Nova's training, now, he taught us nothing but combat. He'd set all of us on him at once, holding nothing back. Since we all knew he was what he was now,we fought as hard as we could,however we remained no match for him.

I realised then that even when we sparred before,Nova was holding back,not releasing his full strength. Now he fought, with all his might, which would leave us sore, broken, and squirming helplessly on the earth beneath him.

He brandished Nightmare without the need of hiding it. Our training course was well-hidden from the rest of the army, which meant Nova could easily show his weapon to us.

As well as his true nature.

Nova's neck swung round in an unnatural way whenever we tried to strike it. It would almost break,snapping to the side to avoid the blow as he countered.

He was inhuman. It dawned on me then that Nova was extremely powerful,yet I had a feeling he had yet to release his full strength, or at least show it to us.

Amaani was rather aggressive. Where all of us knew it were a simple sparring session,the little elf always went for the killing blow,never able to land it. She set Nova on his defensive numerous times only to be forced onto her ass by a well placed counter kick to her ribs. As soon as she'd hit the floor,she'd spring back up again, pressing Nova once more.

Time after time,attempt after attempt, Amaani's efforts would be thwarted by Nova,who would send her flying into the air or force her to the ground.

Still,she pressed on. Amaani continued until she was on the floor,her breath heavy. Sweat ran from her forehead,whilst Nova stood, not sweating at all, or breathing quickly.

He was calm,where Amaani appeared angry, clenching her daggers tightly in her fists.

"You're angry."

"Shut up!" She yelled. She charged Nova,daggers ready to strike. The two danced in a flurry of strikes,with Nova staying on the defensive for a few moments. In a blur of movement Nova flipped Amaani over his hip,her body slamming against the floor. Her arm twisted slightly and the elf let out a yell.

"Your anger can kill you in battle Amaani."

"Fuck you!" She screamt,kicking and screaming as she tried to escape Nova's grip.

"Commander!"

An imperial grunt appeared,sporting the armour of the empire.

Nova let go of Amaani's arm. She sprung to her feet, and Elena stepped between the two.

"Don't try it Amaani."

I don't know whether it was just me, or if the others sensed it as well, but the Commander and The General seemed to be closer than they were before. Nova hadn't changed much,he was still seemingly emotionless, had his lazy demeanor, but Elena...her face would flush a bright red whenever she was close to him. He was seemingly oblivious to it, but something told me that there was something that happened between the two.

"Report."

"Sir. You have a request. There's been reports of caravans being attacked by bandits along the road to the city. Our dispatches have been massacred by these bandits, so we've passed this task to you."

Nova sighed, scratching his head. "We'll get onto it as soon as we can."

Elena stood,with Amaani pushing her face closer to hers,invading her personal space.

"Move."

"You need to calm down Amaani."

Crisingr's hand found itself onto Amaani's shoulder. "Calm down girl. Let's just leave them alone."

"You better listen to your friend. Maybe you need some elven advice."

"Clearly, fucking humans are assholes...then again not all of us are human are we?!"

Nova glared back at Amaani, who was subtly hiding the fact that she was shivering. Not out of fear,but pure anger.

We all made our way toward the woodland outside the imperial city not long after, and I watched whilst Amaani walked beside me.

"You okay love?" I asked.

Amaani kicked at a small stone in the path,sending it skipping across the earth before it landed in the bush with a crash. "Shut up..."

"I'm just trying to help."

Before I could react, Amaani stood behind me,holding a one of her daggers to my throat.

I froze in my tracks as she yelled out.

"Anyone take one more step and I'll slit her fucking throat."

All eye's were focused on Amaani now. Several thuds came, with the sound of bowstrings being drawn.

Elves surrounded us, each brandishing bows,aimed at each of us.

They each wore hoods, the drawn back arrowheads glistened in the sunlight.

"Amaani,what are you doing?" I asked.

She pressed the blade to my throat, letting me feel the cold steel against my neck.

"Shut up."

One of the bandits took off their hood,revealing another elf, rather beautiful. She had black hair with charcoal eye's and her body was slender. As expected of an elf.

She bore a striking resemblance to Crisingr.

"Alisha? What are you doing here?" Crisingr asked.

"Your daughter?" Nova asked.

Crisingr and Nova exchanged looks for a few seconds before their focused shifted back to the current situation.

All but Nova raised their hands in surrender.

Alisha's aim was directed toward Nova,who didn't seem intimidated in the slightest.

"Father,why are you with them?"

"Alisha...they've been holding me captive."

"You wear they're armour."

"He's been assisting us in several missions as well." Nova said.

Alisha drew her string back tighter. Gods above could only tell how fast that arrow would fly through the air when she loosed it.

Elves were known for their archery...Alisha appeared to be extremely adept at it.

Far better of an archer than I was.

"You lie."

"I don't. Your father's been fighting with humans." Nova said, seemingly unwavered by the dire situation he was in.

"You're no human! You're a monster disguised as a human!" Amaani screamt in my ear. "You butchered all those people in front of my family! They're traumatized and its all your fucking fault you monster!"

Nova's eye's vanished behind his bangs.

"You are releasing my father. Right now."

"So that's it Amaani? You're just going to fuck is over like this?" Tyrese asked.

"The fuck do you care monkey boy?"

"Clearly I cared more than I should have."

Amaani stayed silent for a few moments. She pressed the blade closer to my neck,and I could feel the cold steel slightly pressing into my skin.

"My father leaves with us. The elven girl comes too." Alisha demanded.

"They aren't going anywhere. They're my troops, and it's my responsibility to see them home safely."

"Safety? How am I safe when you're not even fucking human?!"

"You're just going to throw away everything Amaani? All the times we had? The friendships we built?" I asked.

"You shut the fuck up. You knew about him and you never told any of us."

Sweat slowly ran down my forehead as Amaani's words echoed in my ear.

"Oh yes I know. About that day you two fell into that cave, Nova kills the revenant. I always wondered how he was also able to keep up with that Revenant in the woods so easily while we all barely kept up. He was just that physically fit? Horseshit. I'm not stupid. I never wanted to believe it,but that night confirmed my suspicions and that's all I needed. Solid proof of you being a fucking monster so I could have you killed."

"Father, walk over to us."

"Crisingr...take one step and I'll kill you."

Silence pursued. Crisingr never moved a muscle and not a soul in those woods said a word. Birds chirped all around us, the sounds of nature drowned out my own panicked breath.

Crisingr took a single step toward his daughter and in a flash of blinding movement, there was a sharp blade at his neck.

Elena held her shortsword firmly at the hilt, holding her blade to his throat.

"You heard your commander's orders. You don't move."

"And you don't threaten my father."

Alisha loosed her arrow. It moved at such speeds that my eye's couldn't keep up with its trajectory. In the blink of an eye it was buried deep into Elena's chest. The arrow head had dug itself through her armour, and it protruded slightly outside her back,dripping with warm blood.

Elena remained silent. She never uttered a word.

She dropped to the floor a few seconds later,her body simply went limp and crashed against the earth.

Nova ran to her side,lifting her up in his arms.

"Elena?" He called.

Her eye's were open, but no breath came. Her chest wasn't moving,she wasn't breathing, and a steady stream of blood ran from her mouth.

"Hey...Elena...look at me..."

Crisingr and Amaani both appeared at Alisha's side.

Nova cupped her face in his hands,tearing the arrow head out of her chest. His fingers morphed into razor sharp claws and he tore off her chest armour.

There was a gaping wound in Elena's right breast, and a steady stream of crimson ran from the wound left by the arrowhead.

Nova placed pressure on her wound, uttering something beneath his breath.

His eye's became bloodshot,blood filled his eyelids before they began falling down his cheeks.

"Don't...don't leave me...please you're the only friend I have...the only one I trust."

The elves seemed remorseless as they each put their hoods on and turned to leave. All but one.

A young boy,maybe Nova's age, took off his hood and nooked an arrow. The other elves stopped,turning round as their eye's fell onto their comrade.

"Emmanuel what the fuck are you doing?" One of the elves asked.

He aimed the arrow at Nova,pulling back on his bowstring before he let go. The arrow flew even faster than Alisha's did but instead of striking his target,it was stopped at the last possible second. Nova held the arrow firmly in his hand,the sharp head inches away from his skull. He growled as his eye's fell onto Emmanuel.

Nova's body became deathly pale, his face became skeletal, and one eye shifted from a beautiful hazel to pitch black,blacking out even the white of his left eye.

He reached for Elena's shortsword, gripping the hilt tightly. Nova's right hand bled. Blood dripped from his palm as his skin parted. Nightmare burst from his palm,the deadly blade appearing far more menacing than I remembered. The blade was soon engulfed in pitch black flames which danced and flicked around Nightmare,just as it had in the cave.

Nova held both blades in each hand now. Elena's shortsword in his left, and Nightmare in his right.

His eye's were dead set on the elf who had shot him. The elf, Emmanuel, had a cocky grin stretched on his face.

"So you really are a monster? A revenant no less. Undead...wonder how someone like you died."

Nova's neck wasn't disfigured as it usually was. While the purple ring around his neck was now far darker and visible,his neck remained where it was,not hanging awkwardly to the side.

Drool ran from Nova's mouth, bubbling and collecting as his teeth were replaced with rows of razors. Blood continued to run from his eye's,down his cheeks before collecting and falling from beneath his chin.

"None of you...None of you are leaving this fucking forest alive!"

Nova's body contorted for a few seconds,with strange movements occuring in his body. His skin moved as if something were trying to find its way out,with several different parts of his body shifting,skin moving as something within him moved throughout his body.

Then,he let out a yell. Multiple tendrils burst from almost every part of Nova's body,firing off in all directions. I leapt to the floor,just barely avoiding the outburst of razor sharp tendrils which flew over my head.

Thankfully my team had survived, it were the elves who weren't so lucky. Several of them were struck, with the tendrils piercing their flesh, burrowing through their leather armour with ease. Emmanuel was struck in the stomach by one and sent flying back until he was pinned to a tree,whilst the only ones who were unharmed were Amaani,Crisingr, and Alisha.

Nova charged forward,dispelling the tendrils from his body. His mouth opened as he bit into one of the elves neck. His strong,inhuman jaws clamped down round the elf's neck like a vise, and it wasn't long until Nova had tore the elf's head clean off of his shoulders by his neck alone. He grabbed at the decapitated elfs hair,keeping what remained of his throat tight in between his teeth as he pulled at his hair, ripping his head apart from what remained of his neck. Nova chewed,his mouth dripping with fresh blood. His monstrous teeth became stained with red.

His eye's narrowed to Alisha, whom he focused on, carrying little for Emmanuel. He dashed forward whilst other elves stepped in his way. They drew swords in an elegant manner, as expected of elves, and fought in a rather graceful fashion,with a series of pirouettes and twirls,dancing round Nova. However,they could do little against Nova's brutal  "in your face" fighting style. As one of the elves twirled round Nova, Nova simply threw his elbow backward,bashing his elbow bone into the elf's nose. He kicked the other back,with the force of his boot sending the elf flying backward.

Nova turned a full one hundred eighty degrees, and as he did, he brought his malicious blade Nightmare with him, cleaving through the elf's flesh like a knife through warm butter. The elf's upper body detached from his lower body,falling to the side in two pieces. Nova stabbed Nightmare into his chest,raising half of his corpse into the air before flinging it in the direction of his comrade. The half-corpse of the elf bashed into his comrade, yet before he could even register what had happened,Nova plunged Elena's shortsword through the corpses neck,piercing the elf's neck as well. He then swiped at both elves necks' with Nightmare,severing both head's from their bodies as he sent blood spraying everywhere.

Alisha and the other two defectives had begun to run in the opposite direction whilst I made my way to Tyrese.

"You okay?"

"Fuck no! We need to make sure Elena is alright!"

"Forget it...she's gone."

My eye's fell back to Nova who ruthlessly pursued the others. He was moving at blinding speeds, almost a blur. The elves ran to what seemed to be a gate of some kind. A large circular pool of energy which showed a different location.

They hopped through just as Nova arrived behind them, with the portal closing. The three vanished, no longer in view.

Another opened not too far from us, and Emmanuel hopped through,clutching his wound before the gate closed.

Nova roared into the air,dropping to his knee's and slamming his fist into the earth. Tyrese and I could only watch.

When he came back,his hand was covered in blood,his knuckles a mess. Nightmare had disappeared back into his body, and he only held Elena's shortsword on his left hand. He walked to her side,then dropped to his knee's.

Nova never uttered a word to anyone at her funeral. She was buried in the Imperial palace catacombs, where several other royal family members had been laid to rest. I stood with Tyrese,who was currently the only one who remained of my old squad,along with Elena's training group and Pauline who stood alongside Sven.

I overheard Nova speaking to the Emperor,who stood just a few feet behind me.

"I'm sorry...I failed to see..."

"Don't feel guilty boy. It's not your fault for my daughters death."

Sonja sulked in the corner,huddled up in a ball as she cried.

"The three traitors?"

"Escaped..."

"Elysium's troops have murdered my daughter,the princess of the north,heir to the throne and General of my army...all for some Prisoner."

"I never should have taken him alive...this is all my fault..."

"I said don't blame yourself Nova. This is no time for guilt. The city mourns the loss of not only its general,but its princess. My daughter was a woman of the people...everyone adored her...we can only mourn."

The people of the Imperial City had gathered outside, all were holding candles,raising them to the night sky.

No rain fell. Only the stars rested above our heads that night.

"Nova...promise me this child." The Emperor asked. "I know you and my daughter were close. I loved her too. So when you find these elven degenerates, I want you to butcher them,maim them. I don't care what you do, just make it painful."

Nova was silent for a moment.

"I'm going to Elysium. I'm going to find their main city and burn that fucking tree of theirs to the ground,even if I have to slaughter every elf on the continent to get to them. I'll find them...and their Huntress God will weep when she sees her children burning in the Evergreen."