But no matter how loud her voice was, that person did not come, her heart sinking further.

Adriel was still being dragged while the other students were trying to escape from the other fiends. Noah seemed to have been able to keep the fiends away for a while with his weak yet fierce flames, but it did not take long before he was knocked out.

“The children!”, Aiden said, squeezing Elian’s arm while kneeling in pain. “We need to stop the fiends from taking them away.”, he then coughed out a few mouthfuls of blood.

“I will not leave your side!”

“Elian!”, Aiden begged.

Yet, Elian did not listen a word. He kept his sword firm against the fiends surrounding them, unwilling to leave Aiden’s side to save the others. He wished he could save the children, too. His heart was not made of stone after all. But, he could not sacrifice his friend.

Thus, turning his eyes away from the others, he rooted himself and the sword to the floor and raised a shield. Although not very strong, it was good enough to keep the fiends at bay while waiting for reinforcements.

“Useless!”, Aira mumbled. “How can I be so useless?”, she asked herself, clenching her teeth.

When she almost lost hope, her arm felt like it was pulled down by a hanging object. To her disgust, it was the arca’s severed arm, which did not let go of her even after detached from its body, but soon turned into dust. The one who almost took Adriel away encountered the same fate.

“These things are not even that powerful. How come you cannot handle them?”, a boy asked, glancing at Elian and Aiden, then sent the fiends surrounding them to the underworld. He yawned, then continued to slay fiend after fiend, leaving them dismembered all over the floor before they turned to nothingness, his eyes glowing red with menace. “This is for disturbing my sleep, ugly trash.”

He did not look older than twelve, but by the way he was swinging his short twin scimitars and cutting mercilessly through his targets, you would have thought he was an expert who fought thousand battles trapped inside a child’s body.

Aira rushed to check on Adriel who was still lying unconscious on the floor.

“Please wake up!”, she said, anxious, placing her finger under his nose to check whether he was breathing or not. She released a long breath in relief once she was certain her brother did not leave the world of the living.

After defeating almost all arcas on the deck, the boy set his eyes on their leader who was already watching him as if unbothered by the fact that he turned all his minions to dust.

“What is your name, child?”, he asked.

“I guess even trash needs to know the name of the one who will kill him.”, the boy said. “My name is Ehli. Remember it while in the underworld.”

“I like your confidence. But this is as far as you get.”, the leader said

Although bigger, the Arca could not land a hit on the small and swift boy who was coming from all directions, his scimitars thirsting for blood. But, Ehli could not deal enough damage to bring the creature down either.

On the other side of the deck, Aiden recovered some of his mana, still shielded by Elian’s sword.

“There are still fiends coming through the broken shield.”, Aiden said. “The boy cannot defend against them all.”

A few other arcas rained down. Luckily, Aiden managed to raise another shield to push them away while containing everyone else inside. However, the shield did not reach Aira and his brother in time.

“If you cannot grab them, just kill them!”, the leader shouted.

Aira froze as she saw one hand trying to reach her. She closed her eyes, thinking her end has come again.

Yet, nothing happened. No hand touched her. Instead, she felt cold. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the back of a tall man while the floor was partially covered in ice.

His hair as white as snow shone brightly under the sun and Aira thought for a moment it was going to melt from the scorching rays.

There were no arcas left alive, all of them defeated by his ice blades.

Author notes:

QUIZ:

Who do you think the white-haired man is?

A. A wingless angel.

B. The cook.

C. A vengeful ghost.