Chapter XII: And So It Begins (3)

Previously

Willow tilted his head. The guard shook his head. “Rowan. The second-in-command.”

“Willow. I would say it’s nice to meet you but,” Willow smiled wryly. 

Rowan chuckled. “You’ve got balls to be making jokes in this situation, girl.”

A twitch formed on Willow’s head. “I’m a boy. But that’s not really important right now. Can you tell me exactly what happened when I was out cold?” He needed to cross-check between the game’s event description with what was currently happening.

Rowan appeared shocked by Willow’s gender reveal but learned to move past it. “Fucking demon invasion is what happened. I -no, We were somewhat expecting an attack of some sort after the council meeting on irregular monster activity in the area but nothing that would involve fucking demons.”

“How did they bypass the town’s security so suddenly? I believe an army of this scale should be in vision even if they were a mile away,” Willow asked. 

“I don’t know how the bloody demons did it. I’m a townsguard, not a fucking scholar,” Rowan said aggressively before he saw the look of surprise on Willow’s face. “I-I’m sorry. This all just happened so suddenly.”

“It’s okay. I understand,” Willow tried to comfort the man. 

“One minute I was holding my daughter’s hands and the next - I - I,” Rowan sunk his aging face into the comfort of his palms. “She was right there. Right beside me.”

“Rowan? Rowan!” Willow whisper-yelled, gaining the broken guard’s attention. “I need you to stay with me. Nothing good will come out of grieving right now. I need you to tell me if you remember seeing anyone beside me when I was still on the floor.”

“N-no. You were alone, as the area had already long been evacuated since the demons attacked,” Rowan explained, his hands beginning to shiver. 

“Evacuated? Where would they - ah, Have they been evacuated to the Safe-House?” Willow asked. 

Rowan nodded. “It was under the immediate orders of the priest. And the commander. Most of them should have already long since arrived. I was one of the few that stayed to search for survivors.”

Willow bit his nails. That meant that under the assumption that they did arrive safely, his parents would also most likely be there - his mother probably already throwing a huge fuss at how he had been left behind. He didn’t like that fact but at least, this made carrying his next step of his plan a lot easier - leaving town through the west gate.

But in the scenario that they hadn’t yet arrived which was far more likely, Willow would have to head north while somehow evading the countless demons in the sky.

How would he even help them if he was there? Willow clenched his right hand, feeling his emblem twitch at the presence of so much evil.

He had made two mistakes in his plan. Minor ones, but the consequences were undeniable. The first mistake he’d made was underestimating the time the Demons would take to invade the town. He may not have been given an exact time in the game as well, but he’d grow lax, thinking he’d have enough time to at least get on his carriage by now.

The second was honestly something he still didn’t understand. Be it in the game nor in reality had there ever been any records of someone fainting at their Awakening and he clearly remembered Willow not being the first to break such a record. How did none of the debris or demons even hit him anyway?

For now, he needed to make the choice. Was he going to head north so as to ensure that his family was safe - or - was he going to head west under the assumption that they were alright?

Willow made his choice but he couldn’t implement it yet. He turned to look at the guard beside him. There wasn’t any way that he could just dump the dude here, could he? He scrapped the idea since Rufus did save him, after all.

“So, what now?” Willow asked.

“Huh?” Rufus said. “Oh. Escape. Honestly, I was supposed to find survivors and hopefully, guide them towards the Safe-House. . .”

A screech resounded throughout the sky. Willow sighed. “Well, that’s not happening. Any hope of the commander coming back? Any backup? Magic, perhaps?”

“No,” Rufus said. “If we had something like that, we would have used it a long time ago.” 

“So, that’s a no-go too,” Willow said. He really didn’t want to leave the guard behind but if it meant that he’d have to hole himself here any longer, it wouldn’t be a choice anymore.

“We’re going to die here, aren’t we?” Rufus asked, suddenly losing his will to live.  

Willow frowned. “Don’t say that. I - I might have a plan.”

“Really? You?” Rufus looked skeptical, but some hope seemed to have been rekindled. 

“Yeah. It’s a long shot but it’s all we’ve got right now,” Willow said. 

“No, it’s fine even if there’s only a slim chance as long as it gets us out of here,” Rufus said. “Anything you need my help with, young man?”

Willow was happy that his savior seemed to have returned back to how he was when he saved him. “It’s simple. Nothing. We do nothing but wait. If my calculations are correct, something big should happen soon, attracting the demons’ attention. We’ll take the chance to run north and reunite with the others.”

He saw the look of uncertainty on Rufus. “I told you it’d be a long shot.” Rufus grumbled but nodded his assent. He didn’t have much of a choice. The skies were still filled with demons and something told him that this wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

In all fairness, the plan didn’t sound as wishful as it did since something big was about to happen -- only that Willow had planned to use said chance to head west and escape, alone. Now he had been forced to move north to where his parents were. It did solve the problem of checking up on his parents in exchange for his plan to escape through the west gate. 

All that he could do as of now was hope that Elm had already learnt of her purpose by now. 

Wait. Willow’s heart never raced so much as he covered his mouth when he heard the growling of demons fly so close to him - hovering right above his head. Luckily, the amount of debris and rubble did well to hide his scent as a little broken roof covered him from their vision.

Wait. Rufus started to breathe hard - hyperventilating - beside him. Willow knew that the man was probably thinking of his deceased daughter. He couldn’t help but empathize with the man even though he’d never known the burden of having children. 

Wait. Willow was beginning to feel dizzy, the smell of blood and ash was starting to grow heavier by the second. It only told him of the amount of carnage the town was under, force-feeding him a spoonful of the fact that this wasn’t a game anymore. His stomach coiled again as he did his best to ignore the screams of terror that filled his ears.

As they waited, Willow could see signs of Rufus descending into hysteria, mumbling sacrificial thoughts about wanting to join his daughter in heaven. His back was drenched with cold sweat as his legs collected dirt. His body itched. Ached with pain. But he simply waited. He honestly didn’t think he could hold out anymore. Thoughts of thirst and hunger filled his head.

There was a saying; Good things came to those who wait. It seemed to be true as Willow’s patience paid off. 

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