Part II: The Smell of Death\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abril, Sirius, and Taren rode all day until they reached the next town, or what was left of it. That place was completely destroyed. The streets were stained with blood and black liquid, the houses seemed to have been burned, and only the debris remained. A strong smell of blood and decay hit their noses when a gust of wind blew in their direction. Abril felt nauseous but held back from vomiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius and Taren dismounted their horses, and Abril did the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat could have happened here? And where is everyone?\u201d asked Taren as he looked around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius responded, \u201cThis place must have been ravaged by monsters. We need to look for survivors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They moved forward, and the more they ventured into the town, the stronger the smell became.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually, they had to cover their noses and mouths with a handkerchief. Although there was blood\u00a0<\/p>\n
everywhere, the streets were completely empty. They all wondered what had happened to the bodies, a\u00a0<\/p>\n
question that was soon answered. All the villagers were in the center of the town, in a small stone\u2013paved\u00a0<\/p>\n
square, their mangled and decomposing bodies piled up in a heap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon seeing such a horrifying sight, Abril could no longer hold back the nausea and vomited until her\u00a0<\/p>\n
stomach was completely empty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taren said, \u201cWhy have they been stacked like this?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius approached Abril, handed her a handkerchief, and asked, \u201cAre you okay?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abril wiped her mouth with the handkerchief Sirius had given her and answered with a hoarse voice from\u00a0<\/p>\n
vomiting so much, \u201cYes, I\u2019m fine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sun started to set, and Abril felt a shiver run through her whole body. Something sinister and dark was approaching with the darkness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She nervously started looking in all directions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius asked her, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong, Abril?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething is approaching, and it\u2019s not good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Silver flames appeared in Abril\u2019s hands. Taren drew his sword, and Sirius created a barrier to protect them from whatever was approaching. He asked, \u201cWhere is it coming from?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, it\u2019s like they\u2019re coming from all directions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They looked in all directions. They didn\u2019t know what was approaching, but it didn\u2019t seem to be anything\u00a0<\/p>\n
good. Their bodies tensed, on guard and ready to fight if necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the sun set and it became completely dark, Abril saw something crawling in the shadows, so she closed her eyes, trying to distinguish what was lurking. It was a large monster moving like a snake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWas that what you felt?\u201d Sirius asked while looking at the creature with disgust.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Part 1 The Smell of Death\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abril shook her head. \u201cThough it\u2019s the largest, it\u2019s not the only thing stalking us, so get ready\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Points\u00a0<\/p>\n
Small monsters revealed themselves. They were completely surrounded and lunged at them, but they\u00a0<\/p>\n
ended up crashing against Sirius\u2018 barrier. They lunged again and again, trying to break the barrier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abril told them, \u201cWe can\u2019t hide here until dawn. We have to destroy them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are too many.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have faced an army of monsters,\u201d Abril told him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, and you ended up sleeping for a long time, so don\u2019t even think about doing that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t plan on doing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abril touched the sharp blade of Taren\u2019s sword. Her silver flames ignited it, and she said to him, \u201cThose flames will make your sword more useful. They will kill any monster you touch, regardless of whether you\u00a0<\/p>\n
injure them gravely or not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you sure?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then she approached Sirius, who didn\u2019t carry any weapon, so she touched his hands, passing her flames\u00a0<\/p>\n
onto his. \u201cThe same goes for you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius stared at the silver fire burning in his hands, which didn\u2019t burn at all, and said, \u201cI guess it\u2019s time to\u00a0<\/p>\n
fight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStay close to me. If things get ugly, I\u2019ll open a path to escape. Sirius, remove the barrier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius made the barrier disappear and said, \u201cI hope I don\u2019t regret doing this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The monsters began to attack. Sirius used his magic to block their attacks and used the silver flames in his hands to kill them. Every monster he touched started burning until they turned into ashes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fight lasted all night, but not a single monster remained. Taren stared at the pile of corpses behind them and asked, \u201cWhat should we do with the dead?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius replied, \u201cIt\u2019s best to burn them since they\u2019re completely destroyed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every time Abril saw all those dead bodies, she felt nauseous. She conjured a ball of silver fire in her hand, closed her eyes for a moment, and those flames turned into normal flames. She threw it at the piled bodies. The flames spread everywhere, completely covering them, burning the flesh and skin. Sirius was very surprised by the color of those flames and said to her, \u201cThose flames are not silver.\u201d Abril sat on the ground, exhausted, tired of seeing so many horrors and death. She responded as she watched the smoke rise to the skies, \u201cI told you, my magic has changed. The silver flames destroy the darkness, purify, and cleanse everything they touch; the golden ones burn, destroy, and turn everything they touch into ashes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
< Part The Smell of Death\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius realized one thing at that moment: Abril had been the one who had saved the world, but if she wanted to, she could also be the one who destroyed it. She had become a double\u2013edged weapon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first rays of sun began to come out, and the sky started to clear up. They stayed in that village until the bodies turned into ashes, which were carried away by the wind, until they made sure that nothing else remained in that place. They went to look for their horses, but they had been destroyed by the monsters. In the end, they had to continue their journey on foot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As they walked through the forest, Taren said, \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s my imagination, but it seems to me that we are getting further away from the real capital of Laios. When we arrived, we could see the golden towers in the distance, but now we can\u2019t see anything at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not your imagination. We have moved away. To reach the real capital, we should have gone straight north. We went west instead; we are getting further and further away from our destination.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow everything makes sense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abril looked north and felt something very strange, dark, and evil coming from that direction. She said to them, \u201cWe must go to the real capital. There is something that is worrying me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sirius asked her, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a bad feeling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take us half a day to reach the next village, and we don\u2019t know if it still exists. I think it would be best if we use the bracelets, but we are too tired. Let\u2019s rest a little before we go, since we don\u2019t know what we will find when we arrive at the real capital.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right, we must be prepared for what\u2019s to come,\u201d Sirius told her as she looked at the dense forest, wondering what they would find when they arrived at the real capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He Threw Away and Sold to the Devil 249 Part II: The Smell of Death\u00a0 Abril, Sirius, and Taren rode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-his-regret-their-knees-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}