God Complex - Vol. 1

XVII. Duplicity-Part VII.

Its rearing caused the wagon tipped backwards as the horse was frightened. Jun to fall off of the seat but managed to flip around enough to land on his side. He watched as the wagon caught fire.

As Jun staggered up to his feet, he saw the gagged man lying on the ground. He was about to go help him before he heard some sort of demonic sound.

Jun quickly whipped his head into the direction of the noise and saw that most of the flesh of the mare had fallen off of its snout, legs, and parts of its body.

It looked as if it was some type of undead creature as flames came out of its mouth as it roared at him.

He screamed from the depths of his soul as he fell backwards before running down the main road and towards Perenykisk.

Jun had never felt his legs carry him faster towards something in his entire life.

Adrenaline coursed through his body and to the tips of his hands and feet as he forgot about how tired he was.

He had absolutely no idea what he just encountered or what he had just witnessed but he wanted to get away from it as far as possible. And alive in the process.

As he ran with the sound of his heartbeat loud in his ears, he heard Misaki's voice.

"I would respect him more if he would've tried to kill Jiekai and try to save the people of Koami and the other villages."

Jun then seen the image of the gagged man lying on the ground flash before his eyes. He felt tears start to run down his face as he did his best to try and wipe them away.

The guilt of leaving an innocent, utterly helpless, person to die when he could've help struck Jun deep in his conscience.

Filling his already full mind.

He was just running away like he's always done. Just an outcast on the run.

Jun continued to think how he could've just used the metal ends of his bow to quickly cut the ties and gag off of the man. But no, he had to be scared of some demonic horse and save himself.

"I'm so sorry Misaki..." Jun muttered out to the heavens as he continued to run towards the walled city.

Eventually Jun ran out of breath as he stopped and desperately tried to catch his breath. A wave of nausea suddenly hit him as he managed to lean on a nearby wooden fence with his hand. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked up at the stars judging him from above.

A small, bright light quickly moved across the sky and disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Jun wanted to cry more but he had dried up all of his reserves. Just a tightened throat and guilt was all he felt.

As a shooting star in the East meant that someone had died.

Jun stayed by the wooden fence until he felt his heart stop beating in his ears and his nausea go away. He rubbed the side that he had fallen on and trudged down the main road of dirt towards his destination. The breeze soon turned into a light wind as he got closer to the city.

He saw the lights that lit up the wide bridge and the huge gates. Jun squinted his eyes and he managed to make out two guards standing in front of the gate. A rush of relief came over him as he picked up his pace.

Out of the blue Jun heard the noises of grunting that sounded like hungry pigs.

Jun then noticed various black, unmoving shapes laying on the ground a bit away from him. Smaller black shapes moved up and down on top of the larger ones, as if they were eating the larger shapes.