The Debauched Of Antlin 32 The Evil From The Past.

At that time, multiple endless wars were ravaging the whole of a continent still without a name.

It is said that on the battlefields still warm with the blood of the dead, the putrefied corpses of fallen warriors were getting up one after the other.

Hordes of monsters hostile to human beings appeared and claimed the forests where, to this day, some of their descendants still occupy these once peaceful territories.

In the cities, dressed in its long black cloak, death distributed the plague and took thousands of souls every day to the depths of what was then called: the Valley of the d.a.m.ned.

In the countryside, the soldiers, who did not fall under the sword of their adversaries, fled the fighting to form groups of renegades. Unable to join the cities under penalty of execution, they roamed the villages, pillaging, killing, playing with women's bodies, without anyone ever coming to worry them.

The n.o.bles, who saw their treasure emptied by these too long wars, crushed the people with taxes that the majority were unable to pay.

In order to rebuild the fiefdoms ravaged by the fighting and to console the Lords, new laws were pa.s.sed by the lawyers.

- Each family with more than one son had to hand over one of them to the authorities. These young boys of all ages were then enslaved and integrated into the various armies.

- Two days a month, anyone over the age of twelve had to partic.i.p.ate in the great civic days, under penalty of death.

- In order to encourage Lords to return to battle, the lawyers inst.i.tuted the Ius primae noctis.*

In these kingdoms where disease had taken hold, where the most humble lived in terror, the people could only pray to the G.o.ds to descend from heaven and free them from the tyranny imposed by their rulers.

In these lands ravaged by creatures sent by the devil, by corpses returned from the valley of the d.a.m.ned and renegades of the worst kind, all hoped for the appearance of heroes such as those described in the tales.

However, after months of relentless prayers and days of hoping, all understood that both G.o.ds and heroes had abandoned them.

A rumour spread from village to village, claiming that the G.o.ds they had always wors.h.i.+pped had renounced their lands.

That overwhelmed by all the work to be done and disappointed by these Humans, Elves and warring Orcs, they would have made a deal with the devil, letting ultimate evil reign over their lands, already plunged into darkness.

As if to prove them right, a young virgin woman, who was said to be a G.o.d's chosen, gave birth to an egg that came straight from the Valley of the d.a.m.ned.

Impossible to break, the egg was locked up in the crypt of a castle, which was then drowned for safety reasons.

The most powerful magus of those ancient times, Antlin, a Hermit without ties or fiefdom, obeying only himself and bowing down before no one, then made a prophecy...

…

"What is that thing?"

"It looks like a coc.o.o.n."

"Don't be ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that this aberration is covered in fire, have you ever seen a coc.o.o.n this size?"

"Of course I've seen this kind of thing before. Let me try something."

In the southern part of the Visgon Kingdom, two soldiers on their way to a watchtower, left the dirt road leading to it, when on a small hill, they saw a flaming object.

Standing in front of what looked like a huge coc.o.o.n that could easily hold a small dog, the more daring of the two soldiers, draws his sword out of its sheath.

Distrustful, he does not get too close to the object. With the point of his sword, he gently presses down on this thing, which turns out to be soft but particularly resistant.

Unable to decide on his own, he turns his eyes to his friend, who with a simple nod gives him his approval.

The soldier takes half a step forward and bends over his sword in the hope of piercing this strange object abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

As if to counterattack, the small flames covering the oval thing, climb up the blade of the sword.

Surprised by what has taken the appearance of fire snakes, the soldier withdraws his sword, then takes two steps back. He waits for a few moments and seeing the snakes turn back into small flames, he moves forward again.

Becoming suspicious and more eager than ever to discover what is inside, he raises his sword above his shoulders.

With a great gesture that contains all his power, his sharp sword falls mercilessly on the thing of indeterminate nature.

As he withdraws his sword, the soldier retreats again. Both he and his friend are astonished to find that under the fire snakes that try to devour them, the object has not suffered the slightest damage.

"I don't really want to stay here anymore. This sort of thing must be the egg of some monster and believe me, it would be dangerous to be around when the creature inside it comes out."

"Wait! Wait! Look, it moved."

The oval thing is warping. b.u.mps appear here and there. It rolls slightly on itself, begins to vibrate, then again motionless a barely visible slit at the top catches the eye of the two soldiers.

As any human being would do, curiosity overcomes mistrust and the two soldiers move forward to try to discover what secret is inside the strange object.

A long claw tears the flaming coc.o.o.n. From the mysterious object jumps a small being whose shape could resemble that of a small human.

The small, agile creature lands against the chest of the bravest soldier and in a split second, six nails more than two inches long are driven into each side of his neck.

The little being plunges his sharp teeth into the soldier's cheek and the terrified soldier starts to scream. The pain he feels only now is indescribable.

The baby-sized creature tears off part of his face. Unsatisfied, the b.l.o.o.d.y-mouthed apostle of the valley of the d.a.m.ned clutches the soldier's nose between his jaws.

The soldier tries to shoot the little being. However, the harder he tries, the deeper the nails of the creature, which are lodged in his flesh, penetrate.

"Get rid of that thing or it will kill me."

His friend is unable to maintain his rationality. Wis.h.i.+ng only to remove the threat, he swings his sword horizontally.

Before being hit by the sharp blade, the little being throws himself at his attacker.

In the air, the creature crosses the sword of the soldier who is powerless to hold his strike.

His weapon, which quickly moves towards his lifelong friend, loses momentum only after cutting the flesh and cervical vertebrae of the man with the mutilated face.

The soldier does not see his friend's head roll to the ground, for before that, two fingers have already penetrated each of his eyes.

Neither does he see the blood spurting from his friend's neck and the nails that instantly pierce his brain do not give him the chance to scream.

On the body of the second soldier lying with his back to the ground, a child, who could be four years old, eagerly consumes the flesh of his prey.

As he digests the meat and drinks the soldier's blood, his appearance changes. From the baby he was not 10 minutes ago, his appearance is now that of a 10-year-old child.

Tired, to rest, he uses the dead man's belly as a bench. The beautiful child with the long white hair and blood-red eyes looks at this place to which he hadn't paid too much attention until now.

The child with extremely white skin lifts its little nose to discover the location of more nutritious prey. When he reaches his goal, he licks his lips and then directs his large red eyes towards a distant forest that is teeming with creatures more appropriate for his growth.

*Right of n.o.bles or officials to claim the first s.e.xual intercourse of virgins after their marriage.