"Captain, what are you doing!" a man screamed.

"Help us!" a woman cried out.

"Arrr! Why!" another screamed

I turned around and saw my brother Darius. "You should have listened to them brother. They wouldn't be in this situation as they are." He spoke. Then he stabbed me in the gut with a short sword, and another was thrust through my back, bursting through my chest.

I awoke from the sleep Marie still laying in my arms and the dry clothes still on my back. I woke her up and got dressed. She didn't feel too good; she was nauseous and her legs were a bit numb since she didn't rest comfortably.

She opted I carried her for a bit, allowing her legs to gain feeling again. Her clothes still on the ground, tattered. We left them behind, Marie in my arms walking through the underground part of the city which seemed unexplored and abysmally dark.

Roaming the darkness, I managed to get around with very little light and keeping myself stable on the rough and rocky terrain. After what could have been a couple hours in the darkness, a feint light appeared in the distance, I looked down at Marie and she was asleep.

Carefully I approached the source of the light, and it grew brighter the closer I got to it. A small building came into view in front of the light. With precaution I knocked on the door, and no one answered. A voice from my left said, "You seem lost, friend." I looked in the direction from which the voice was projected from.

Nothing was there, I took a step back and looked over to the right. Nothing was in that direction as well. I thought I was hallucinating, but as took several steps back I bumped into hard. I looked and there was nothing as well behind me, "Show yourself!" I demanded the trickster.

"I am sure you want to fight, however that woman in your arms may need help," they said.

They were waning my patience, and yet there was nothing I could do with Marie in my arms. "Wait, do I know you stranger?" they asked me. Then a tall skinny silhouette appeared in front of me, tilting its head the side.

"That physique, I know it. Yes! It is! Ravedos is that you?"

The silhouette moved closer and didn't explain itself. They seemed rather curios looking at Marie, trying to inspect her, but was afraid to step forward. The silhouette then raised its hands and clapped, and a lit torch appeared beside it, lighting up the area. It grabbed the torch and placed near its face. It was a male, sharp edges around his face and deep contours that defined his facial features, his ears were had sharp tips, entailing he was an elf. Alive and well.

"Ah! That's much better. It is you! Welcome back, saviour of races!" he said.

My eyebrows furrowed, exaggerating my confusion. He noticed and cleared his throat, moving his body before he uttered a word.

"I am sorry for not introducing myself. I am Lendrick, the grandson of the late Lutner, the elf you may remember who helped you and your previous and the one who repaired Titan Slayer for you a year ago." Lendrick said.

"Where am I?" I asked Lendrick.

"Oh! About that, you are in Madicor, my home. No, it's not the shed behind me, it's behind the shed."

"Under the city? Have you not been discovered?"

"No, not at all. My home has always been here for centuries and has not been discovered since it is very deep underground. The humans could not go deeper than they need, not only that the rock above is tough that their conventional tools will not be able to break through it. Follow me, if you may, so that we continue this dialogue further,"

"Very well,"

Lendrick kept his word and told me that there were a few occasions were he and other elves would surface up to explore more in the city after sensing something wrong. They were confronted a few times by humans and rarely by demons, narrowly escaping back down Madicor. His father was unfortunately captured on those occasions and took on the family work.

He used what he had learnt from both his father and grandfather, using it to recreate, reforge, harden and repair weapons. Titan Slayer was his greatest project and the resources he needed for it were scarce on the surface were Madicor stood and had to venture deep into the caverns, deeper than what was necessary. The final material he needed was my blood for him to bond it to me and it was then when I summoned it was in my hands at my time of need.

Though I didn't recognise him, since I had not seen him before, his efforts to support me were not left unnoticed.

In Madicor it was lively, all the elves clothed and battering from each other and using money to pay for their needs from each other. Children roaming around playing with each other and being nuisances that even the others didn't quite mind. Even though it was peaceful, I felt uneasy in the city, eyes seemed to be watching me. Perhaps it was my power that oozed out into the surrounding, catching everyone's attention.

Silence followed behind me making me realise that they had sensed my power. Though the torch Lendrick was using was not necessary, he held it in his hand until we reached his home. He lived in a small cottage which was modern like the city outside.

"I may have caused discomfort outside with your people." I told him.

He pointed at the sofa at the end of the living room. I set Marie down on the table for her to rest comfortably.

He sighed. "They think you are a demon. I can sense it too, it was hard for me to tell, until I looked carefully."

"Hmm,"

"I remembered your physique from when I was a child. How long has been? A hundred? Two hundred years now?"

"You have grown a lot, Lendrick. I am sorry for your father and grandfather and you. All that left behind work, thrust upon you."

"Do not worry about it. Unlike me, you have to worry about this world and fighting for those humans above… There was something I was meaning to ask, about her."

"You may ask,"

"Isn't that the daughter Carol, the woman you had fought with, whom you had tried to save along with Sanctus?"

"She is. I made a promise to Carol and Sanctus to protect their children. She has been through enough with some of the demons and Sanctus' child is with a companion, I trust."

"So, she is Carol's child I never knew. If you're planning to leave, I will provide you with clothes and I have something for you. Darius had found us; however, he did not intend to harm us but gave me a blueprint for something that he wanted me to make for you. Days after Tarius came with a request to make these weapons for you,"

Lendrick showed me a blueprint of an improved version of gauntlets that he reworked after Tarius told him to. 'Gauntlets?' I asked myself. Lendrick raised his eyebrows pressed his lips, took a deep breath and sighed.

"The design was complex, and I had spent hours forging this. In the following he had said I shall speak, 'I understand that my brother does not typically use such weapons, but the mission he has undertaken will only disadvantage him. His pistols might help; however they would be insignificant.' Though I asked him, wouldn't the gauntlets make it harder for you to fight, fairly knowledgeable of your art of fighting, he answered, 'The sword was his second weapon to use against projectiles, he had succeeded. The bloodshed of an angel led to his descent to hell to reside with his father on his mother's order.'

"He didn't elaborate further and said left after. I don't understand what he meant by that, I was wondering if you knew."

"I do. Ugh. The gauntlets were my first ever weapon before that I was sent to hell. The gauntlets could not be carried down to hell for it was dangerous for many angels if it fell into the wrong hands, in those times of old. Seeing how he knows, I would need them, he may have described it meticulously. But the resources to make it aren't here, they are – "

"Oh! About those, he provided them,"

"…"

My silence broke through the chatter, and it was enough to arouse chatter outside Lendrick's home. I looked back at the curtained windows and stepped toward it. Lendrick stopped me and went outside instead.

"Everyone do not worry, he is not a demon, but he is the demon-angel!" he informed those that were outside.

The murmuring insinuated disbelief and the elven smith tried and succeeded in convincing the congregation outside the house. I couldn't step outside, if I did, I would cause disarray amongst the elves, instead I looked around the tidy home of the elf.

A few tables, chairs and shelves in the rooms linked together and on top of the shelves were framed photographs of Lendrick and his family. He was not married so he didn't have a spouse nor did he have children, though the photos were of him, his father, grandfather, and his mother. I remembered him as a young child and one of the ten photographs showed his younger self.

Another photograph showed him and his father near the forgery, his father wearing an apron to protect himself from the heat, hammering a glowing metal rod, Lendrick watching him work. I glossed over each photo but noticed one face down on top of the shelf. I picked it up and it was just an image of his mother smiling joyously with him, as an infant wrapped in a blanket, resting in her arms.

"I think you should put that one down. I don't want to look at it again," Lendrick spoke.

I placed it face down again and saw him there, standing with a frown on his face. "She long died a horrid death caused by those demons when you were away. She passed when I was very young. My father must've not told you this."

"No, he didn't,"

"You couldn't do much with your powers anyway, it was fated for her to die. Just as it was with my father and his father. I am next in line and that's why I don't have a spouse and children. The woman would always die first then the husband and the cycle begin again,"

"I don't think you should think that way Lendrick. It will not end the same with you as well."

"Let me get the gauntlets for you, another elf will give the item Darius wanted me to make and I will fetch a fresh pair of clothes for the daughter of Carol. My mothers' clothes will do,"

"What shall I do Lendrick after hearing all of that from you?"

"Say 'thank you' and take the gifts provided to you,"

"Haha, you are as stubborn as I remember,"

"And you are as caring as I remember old man."

"Okay, I am not that old,"

Lendrick laughed. That was necessary to lighten the mood. Marie awoke moments after and was offered the clothes to wear; she accepted them and the clothes she had seemed very warrior like even for his mother. Marie wore a red knee-length skirt, a blue blouse, a leather breastplate and she had a quiver on her right.

It seemed suspicious the clothing Lindrick's' mother wore. She didn't seem to be the type to fight, making me realise that she fooled everyone even her father-in-law.

The gauntlets were fastened on my hands, and they resonated well with me and vanished in the same manner as my other weapons. The elven smith named them Angel Bloodshed and bid me farewell.

Marie and I were escorted outside the Madicor by the other elves toward the route to the surface. Before we left one of the elves stepped forth with a necklace in a cloth. It has a sapphire cut expertly in the shape of a rhombus with curved edges held by bronze-silver chain. The sapphire was placed in a cut out which was inscribed by the elf jeweller, and it read, 'Death be to the enemies of He but life to the allies.'

Traversing through the route, it was cold and nothing was around us. We made it outside and it bright outside, we managed to pass through the waves of people back to our safe house and found the others working on finding other sectors that had been troublesome with collecting intel in.

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