The Murklin System: Rise of the Dark Hero

Chapter 5

A long gasp escaped Edward Elliot’s lips in the middle of eating his dinner. His fingers curled for a second before it moved, like someone else was controlling them. This only meant one thing, another murklin sharing the wrath blood was born.

His daughter, Efrelyn Elliot, rushed on his side until it subsided, and then his father said, “Another murklin of wrath is born.”

Efrelyn nodded and sighed. “Another headache?” She couldn’t help remembering their last encounter with a murklin, who ended up annihilating almost every mortal in Flexure. If this one was another headache, this meant another workload for her father.

When Edward shook his head, Efrelyn said, “Shouldn’t you be happy? As the Lord of Wrath, this will surely be excluded in your work.”

“It’s weird.” He motioned his daughter to go back to her seat and continue eating, but he couldn’t eat anymore after what happened. “And strange.”

“Weird how?” she asked while cutting the meat on her plate.

Edward stared at her daughter. “He’s a mortal.”

Efrelyn stopped from what she was doing. “It’s been a while since we had a half-blood murklin. This will surely raise chaos in Izvor.” Her eyebrows creased. “But you didn’t tell me about this.”

“That’s why I say it’s weird. If a murklin and a mortal bear a child, I will feel it, even before it gets out of his mother’s belly. But this one… he appeared out of nowhere. I don’t know where he came from.”

The dining hall was silent for a whole minute after. The maid came in and placed another plate full of raw meat before bowing and leaving. Edward rang the bell resting on the side of his table before Hewston came running beside him.

“Yes, Lord Edward?”

“Get this half-blood thing here for me as soon as possible. I want him after dinner.”

The titan bowed a little, but before he could leave, Efrelyn stopped him before wiping her mouth.

She said, “I’ll get him.”

*

Gideon and Kento stared at the young man slumped on the dirty floor, holding the three graves they made for the de-ad, like he was hoping that they would rise and come back to him. Even though his back was turned against the two katona, they could see and almost feel the pain he was feeling.

Instead of staying, Gideon turned his back from the young man and went back inside the house to investigate. Dawn was almost here. They needed to get back as soon as possible and report to their major.

Kento followed suit. “He must be feeling so devastated right now,” Kento said. “Everyone in his family is all gone now.”

Gideon didn’t reply and continued searching the entire house. He was looking for the thing that fell on the woman’s pocket a while ago, but it wasn’t there anymore. It must have been blown by the wind or was kicked somewhere during the commotion.

“The father isn’t here with them. Maybe we can look for him and tell him what happened.” Kento raised the only picture frame resting on the worn out table on the side of a bamboo cot. The three de-ad mortals were in the picture together with the young man, and another man with beard and mustache.

“And why would we do that?” Gideon scoffed. “We’re katonas, not some charity. It’s our job to protect mortals from all threats and danger, not babysit or run some errand.”

Kento placed the frame back to its original position. “I always wonder about this. Why do you hate the Vad tribe so much? I know everyone isolates them, but you hate them more than necessary.” He looked at his commander with furrowed eyebrows.

“That’s none of your business, right?”

“Maybe it is. You’re my commander. At least I need to know something about you aside from your name and where you came from, especially about the things you don’t like.”

Gideon grimaced. “And why would you want to know that?”

Kento shrugged. “Why don’t you stop answering my question with another question?”

Shaking his head, Gideon went out of the house to breathe some fresh air. His sergeant could really be so dense sometimes. Couldn’t he understand that Gideon didn’t want to talk about it? That there was no way he was telling him that? Or anyone else at that?

He hated the tribe living in Fract. He hated the place itself. And he hated talking about it. He had his fair reason, but there was no way he was telling the guy that. No way in he-ll.

After a few minutes, Kento was already rushing from the backyard. “The guy’s missing.”

They ran towards the graves, but saw no one. After searching the whole area for a while, they couldn’t find the man anymore. He just simply disappeared. And when they couldn’t find him anywhere, Gideon couldn’t stop fidgeting. 

Instead of going back to Banhar, he chose to stay and wait for nothing. He didn’t know if he was waiting for the young man to come back, or if he was waiting for something else. But after what happened a while ago with the murklin, he couldn’t stop thinking that something was amiss. 

Kento asked, “I thought you hate the Vad tribe?” But seeing this reaction from his commander made him wonder. He was too worried. Kento was expecting him to drop everything here, and went back to get some rest.

“I do, but there’s something weird about the situation.” He stared in space, like he was trying to look at something there. “The murklin didn't slip through my fingers. It disappeared in thin air. It disappeared right in front of me.”

“What? Like, teleportation? I haven’t heard of anyone who can use teleportation. Not even those immortals.”

Gideon was nodding when he said, “It’s possible, though. We never know what those things are capable of doing. We might not know everything about them yet compared to what the higher-ups are telling us.”

“Are you worried that the higher-ups are hiding something from us?” Gideon nodded. “Well, that’s a given, right? We’re just katonas, after all. Even Major Heidi must not know everything. The royal family is very secretive.”

“But that’s not the only thing I’m worried about.” 

“What?”

Gideon sighed before standing. “If that murklin really did teleport, she would surely find another mortal to prey on. If it didn’t, sh!t might happen.”

*

Finn was staring at his family’s grave for a whole hour. He didn’t move. He didn’t take his eyes off them, afraid that they would disappear in front of him. The wind was starting to get chilly, but he didn’t mind.

He was feeling frustrated, lonely, confused, but most of all, he was angry. That creature who k-lled his family fit the description that the Vad tribe was gossiping about.

The black smoke.

He could still remember the way it crawled and wrapped around Carl, and started suffocating his brother. It was the same as the one who k-lled his father two years ago. 

He thought it was a myth. He thought there was no way a d-mon was real, but seeing that exact same scenario as the rumor, he didn’t know what to believe anymore. Maybe, the d-mon was real, and he was here to collect his family.

“Why didn’t he take me?” he whispered under his breath, but then he scoffed. “Am I not welcome, even in h-ll?”

When the wind blew harder, he closed his eyes tightly before lying on the dirty ground. He didn’t care anymore. Now that everyone was gone, there was no reason for him to stay anymore. There was no reason for him to continue living.

After a while, he heard footsteps walking towards him. He said, “Just leave me here. You don’t have to take care of me anymore. You should have just let that creature get me too.”

No one answered, but Finn could still feel him around him. But when he opened his eyes to ask them to leave, he was surprised to see someone else standing not far from his lying body.

“Who—”

“You can call me Efrelyn. I’m here to fetch you.” The woman smiled brightly.

Finn sat and looked at the small woman not taller than five feet. She was wearing a black cloak, but compared to the men a while ago, hers was just a plain cloak with a hood.

“Fetch me? Are you a grim reaper? Am I de-ad too?”

She chuckled. “Silly. You ain’t de-ad yet. If you are, your name should also be there at the grave.” She pointed at his back. “But I might k-ll you if you resist.”

Instead of feeling afraid, Finn surprised even himself that he didn’t feel anything about her threat. Maybe because the woman was still smiling so brightly in front of him. Or maybe he didn’t care whether she was joking or not.

“Whatever. Do what you want. I don’t care anymore.” He went back to the ground and closed his eyes. If the woman really intended to k-ll him, he would let her. He just didn’t have the strength to talk to her anymore.

“Finn, tell me,” the woman said, “who are you?”

Finn decided to ignore her, but when he realized something, he opened his eyes and said, “How did you know my name?”