“We need your help,” Sorwyce told her gravely. “It will be very dangerous. You can say no, if you want.”
Eva swallowed heavily. She gazed deeply into her father’s eyes. All she could see was love and understanding. There was no fear, no judgment, no criticism. Only love. She knew that there was only one thing she could do. There wasn’t even a choice.
“I want to help,” she nodded.
“Are you sure?” her father asked her. “Like Sorwyce said, it is going to be very dangerous. Some of us may not even…” he tried to say it, but he couldn’t.
The very thought of it hurt. No one wanted to consider a reality in which that might happen.
“I’m sure, dad,” she smiled broadly, reminding Roman of his wife.
He knew she would have done the same thing. None of them would be sitting idly, or running away when others needed help. That wasn’t the way they were.
“My girl,” her dad smiled, then kissed her on the forehead.
“So, what’s the plan?” she questioned.
“Well, we need to kill the Hellhounds first,” Sorwyce revealed. “As long as they are alive, Xol’gorog is almost untouchable. We won’t be able to get near him, even with the smelling plant. Even if we did, the moment we attacked, they’d be on us, and they are too powerful. We need to get them somewhere alone, and dispose of them.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“Hellhounds are weak to holy water. If they drink it, or bathe in it, this will weaken them enough for someone to cut their head of. But, it can be only one sword. The Masamune Katana.”
“Masamune Katana?” Eva repeated. It sounded like an anime cartoon, not something that might be responsible for changing the fate of the world.
“Yes,” Sorwyce nodded. “It’s considered the world’s sharpest sword, made in the early 14th century by a Japanese Priest, called Goro Masamune. There are only a few of them in existence left, made of martensitic crystals embedded in a pearlite matrix, with a perfectly straight temper line and finish on the edge of the blade.”
As he spoke, he got up and extracted something from underneath the makeshift bed.
“My father received it as a gift from Masamune himself.”
Sorwyce held in his hands something elongated and thin, wrapped up in a silver blanket. He placed it gently on the bed, then unrolled it, revealing a long shiny sword, whose blade sparkled in the reflection of the fire. Eva was in awe.
“This is the sword that will cut the heads off the Hellhounds.”
“Who is going to do that?” Eva asked.
“That’s why we need you,” her father replied instead of Sorwyce, this time. “Amelie is too old to run from them. So is Sorwyce. So, we need someone to lure them out, like tonight. I’m sorry to say it like this, but you are our best option. They’ve been following you all this time, so they will keep doing it.”
“But, I’ve never seen them behind me,” Eva couldn’t believe that she’d been tailed by two huge dogs and she never once noticed it.
“I’m afraid you don’t give them the credit they deserve,” Sorwyce warned her yet again. “These Hellhounds… you imagine them as dogs and that is what they are. But, they are also so much more. They are miniature Devils. They kill without mercy, at the command of their master. To understand them, and to try and defeat them, you must first fear them. Be in horrific awe of them. Then, you can accept them for what they are and gather the courage to do this.”
Eva felt a little ashamed. Sorwyce was right. She had no idea how dangerous they were. He did.
“It’ll be all right,” her father assured her. “We’ll be right by your side the whole time. You just need to get them to the run down church.”
“Where is that?” she had no idea, no one had mentioned any churches around here.
“It’s outside of school grounds, in the mountains. I’ll draw you a map. We need them there, away from Xol’gorog, because if they are too close, he can sense them being hurt. The church ground is sacred, it prevents their connection. We can kill them there safely and Xol’gorog won’t know it immediately.”
“What about the holy water?”
“There is a little well inside the church. For some reason, it never empties. No matter how many times you take water out, it’s always full.”
“They say Gabriel himself blessed that church on one of his visits to Earth,” Sorwyce explained, “but, that was a long time ago, before any of us were even alive.”
“You need to get them there,” her dad repeated.