He didn’t remember last night’s dream, even so he woke up in a cold sweat, earlier than most other people did. He left his tent making sure not to wake the other recruits. He started the fire and ate a simple breakfast of what the soldiers called coffee, it was a favorite of theirs, they complained that the taste wasn’t quite right and what they were used to, Nathan had nothing to compare it to, it was simple, bitter and gave him energy, it was what he needed. Once he finished his meal he retrieved the reading device from his section of the tent. It had microfilm for a small library’s worth of books including his village’s books. Copies had successfully been sent off to his “friends”, they were acquaintances at the library, they were not making progress. Oh well, he would try and read the other books he had acquired. I push for him to read something about me, I need reminders as I forgot what I am how could I?

And so he read, he read of my exploits, the piles of corpses that were left in my wake, the cruelties and corpses I splayed across the stars, and my eventual death. Drowned in a sea of singing solemn sanguine blood. Dragons feared me, the gods feared me, the people were cattle for me to extract what I needed from them when I needed it. They weren’t able to resist after all, the strong would always take from the weak.

He saw what I was, I had to move quickly, He beat me to it.

‘I am fine with what you are, we’ve made promises, fulfill your end of the deal and I will continue to tolerate you.’

‘What promise?’

‘My search for power, there are things I need to do in this life, as you said power is needed to impose my will on the world.’

What happened? Did the events of yesterday change him that much? I play into my role.

‘What do you wish to impose on this world?’

‘I want to kill every single fucking bandit, beast, and wolenaught in this world.’

Shortsighted but that’s even better for me, but his resolve is fragile, he’s only met evil mythic beasts and unsympathetic bandits.

‘Your view of the world is still limited, you’ll grow and change with the times.’

Nathan stays silent and continues to read, he read of the gods, of beasts, histories and myths, as he was starting to switch to another book the day started. Soldiers left their tents and made their own breakfasts, the other recruits, still traumatized, were erratic in what they did. Many of them didn’t leave their tent, some left and refused to talk, others you could see something wrong in their eyes, then again, some others were just tired.

A shadow loomed over him, it was the squad leader holding a whistle, he brought it to his mouth and it let out a piercing cry, one informing the recruits to get into formation. After a minute more than half of the squad was missing, the squad leader started speaking loud enough for those inside the tents to still hear.

“What happened yesterday was not intended. I apologize, we apologize, because of this we will take responsibility for the damage that was caused. In this process we are assigning people to less intensive positions.”

The squad leader then started to list off names and locations for people to go to.

“As of now this squad is disbanded, thank you all.”

Nathan said his goodbyes to the other recruits, I watched their faces, the one who was shot in the leg his name was mentioned but he was in the medical tent. Other familiar faces were gray as they left towards their designated locations. Others needed a thorough escort as a soldier or two from their assigned group to pick them up and lead them away. The team Nathan was assigned to was assigned to investigate the bandit base, as they probably thought he seemed mentally stable enough to do as such. How funny.

It was a mess, the encampment was placed on a hill, it once had palisades, and haphazard groupings of various housing structures. It was all gone now, they were all shattered and covered in blood. Searching further we found corpses chained up women, children, they were either crushed or had their throats torn out, there were more dead bandits that were the same. The other soldiers talked

“Do you think they were slaves?”

“Some of them.”

“What should we chalk it down to?”

“Check if they were slaves, if we find a single piece we’ll hold it against them.”

“Fucking beasts making our job messy.”

Nathan looked on with empty eyes as the soldiers put on thin blue gloves made out of some sort of skin like material and started taking off whatever jewelry the corpses had and stowing it in numerous pouches. He just wandered around looking at the corpses, of those that were bandits they looked… normal. One of them looked similar to one of the caravaneer's faces he had seen in passing, some reminded him of himself. I could use this, make him think what would happen if I wasn’t here.

‘I won’t let that happen to you.’

He stayed silent, cheap seeds were planted, we’ll see what I reap. He knew what I did for him, what he couldn’t do.

One of the soldiers yelled for Nathan to come to his position

“Here’s a set of gloves, go find the locations of some more bodies and report back to us” He nodded and made his way to the unexplored buildings and started to catalog more bodies. He saw markings of claw, tooth, and the paw prints of some massive feline. He found 10 more bandits and 40 more assorted women and children outside of the main hall of the camp, a hall that somehow was still standing.

He watched as the soldiers finished up outside of the hall, counting and collecting their little pieces of metal. The soldiers circled to the side of the building as one of them placed something on the side wall. They motioned for Him to follow them until they reached behind a corner with which one of the soldiers made a motion and there was a BOOM! The wall they had attached something to had imploded leaving an entrance the soldiers quickly cleared and covered the hall and they found some cruel scene.

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There were corpses, and a few dismembered still living people, after clearing the nooks and crannies of the hall to make sure there was no one hiding immediate medical attention was given to the dismembered. There were some women, some children, some men all varying, He was told to give help, he didn’t quite know how to but he still tried. He checked which of them were still alive then He used medical gel and bandaged what he could, He gave painkillers, their limbs were ripped off with terrible force torn off at the joints and I watched on, I remembered having seen worse but… it will come back I will remember, in the time it took for me to think the other soldiers had called over trucks to put the near dead people on. He then asked one of the soldiers

“Are we going to bury the rest of them?”

“Not here, we’re going to load them into body bags and bury them somewhere else. Keep moving, we are running out of time.”

As He loaded one of the injured into the truck he saw a familiar woman, that martial artist who took on that beast, she was sitting inside leaning against the wall looking like she was sleeping, there was no way she would be sleeping, perhaps she was trying to put people off guard. It was reassuring to know that they wouldn’t just leave them there to die if that pathetic beast returned.

They quickly finished the job, and made their way back, all the while the medics tried to keep the bandits? And slaves? Alive He stood on the side watching, what He could’ve done has already been done, He could pray but were they worth praying for? He just sat there and leaned against the wall like that martial artist.

Time passed, the caravan packed up and kept moving, but at a slower pace as they wanted to be careful of that stalking mythic beast that always might be following them. Many of the people torn apart in the all Nathan assisted them with woke up and were interrogated, for a few of them He sat in, listening.

“She purred next to you and made you feel like she looked out for you and then…”

“You saw her other side, I knew a girl like that once, she was too much.”

“I guess you could say Rella was too much, can you give me a light?”

“Can do.”

He was confused on why exactly the bandits were being treated so well, well, it wasn’t his place to worry, either they’d be executed or they wouldn’t be. He leaves the truck the interrogation was happening in and he overhead one of the soldiers say.

“From what we’re hearing the moment we get hands on her someone’s going to turn her into a pelt.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that comment. They moved in a more defensible formation than previously, they had guesses as to how cat-like mythic beasts acted. That beast would want revenge and would slowly pick off and pry open the caravan if she got a chance. She wouldn’t. She would get parts but she couldn’t stop the whole thing for long. Dead soldiers laid on the road ahead of them they were familiar faces to Nate, their chests were caved in and throats torn out. Besides that they had no other signs of injury, they were meant as a message, a message He heard.

The group he was assigned to didn’t do much, when they went out they had a martial artist with them, they went out during the day. He jittered and kept checking the canopy and the forest, the other soldiers in his group did a better job of hiding what was on their minds. They completed their mission; they were scouting ahead while the rest of the caravan stopped to refuel and rest a little. There was a crossroads, He saw and read a sign the city Nabrolor, they were heading to was on it, the sign looked new it had two distances on it.

…

Nabrolor 42 CO, 67 KM

…

Both old and new measurements, interesting. They made it there by the time night fell, the trucks rolled onto the field outside the city walls and they set up both camp and a defensive position, the mythic beast would return. They notified the city’s authorities about an incoming incident and many of them ventured into the city.

The moments blurred into each other, the soldiers took Him drinking, they drank and sang songs He wasn’t familiar enough with to sing smoothly but they didn’t care, they spiraled deeper and deeper, they followed the one designated to push them around and stay sober.

Someone slipped a ring on him and whispered something in his ear, He had to keep the ring a secret from the other soldiers and to serve the members of house Jodius. He knew whatever this person was, they were enemies with the soldiers, OCE, and Him, but He couldn’t resist the ring or the orders, his mind folded against him. There was a pause, then He took off the ring and pocketed it. The orders stayed.

We needed to get rid of this thing, we needed to tell the soldiers about it, He tried to open His mouth and say something but it wouldn’t open. Don’t cause suspicion, His mind worked against him. If he opened his mouth the soldiers would know something was wrong.

Eventually their leader of their little expedition realized that the soldiers were drunk enough and started to corral them back to base. They passed through a crowd and He saw a group of dungeon divers, they moved in odd manners, some too tall, some hunched, He knew from his interactions with Lily that they all had something wrong with them. Something was wrong with their very nature. They were probably here to dive without paying taxes, who was there to tax them? Lily was…

I see his thought process spiraling back into the past, his mind glazed over the suffering he had experienced and he wanted to be safe again. He wanted to feel safe again. This can’t stand, I need him to get stronger, if he is coddled he will grow weak. The incident with the devil was good for him, he’d be scared and he would get stronger because of it.

‘Do you not remember?’

‘I remember feeling safe and warm.’

‘You were burned by her, it would be surprising if you weren’t warm.’

He knew I was right but he still dreamed of past days. I need to entice him.

‘You’ll grow so strong that she will beg you to return.’

…

…

‘I’ll consider it.’

He still thought about her, he still thought about his father, he still thought about his family. Two of the soldiers take his shoulders, they probably thought he drank too much for his tolerance. The soldiers looked so much like his father to him, they looked sturdy, confident, they had mass and soul. He still desired a savior, I would need to turn him into his own savior, starting off with getting rid of this damned ring.

Will I ever be anything? Nathan has only been traumatized and hasn’t practiced his martial arts with any intensity. We’ll see what there is tomorrow, the trauma might drive him forward in a mad advance, one I would support. I hope his father and his family stay out of my way with him, if his family does come back I will need to prime him to view them as not the same. They’ll probably change with their escape and what they will have to go through to try to be free again. They return to their camp, Nathan goes to bed, he dreams of a burning sky and something from beyond.

He woke up early the next morning. He left his tent and sampled the crisp morning air and he trained. He did his martial dance and dreamed the four flinched frame and sang the song he did. It was a song of failure and vowing to never fail again, he moved and dreamed at one point of a woman who cheated on her husband, another at a knight considering whether to kill themselves, another about a man who gave up far too early, he could have…. but, it fades His hands were in the forms of the kata of that art. He continues practicing while reviewing what he witnessed. He smiles, he vows to meet more people, to try and rebuild something. These soldiers were good people but he didn’t feel at home with them. Where else was there for him to go? I would need to be careful in how I handled this, and it could probably wait. We would see if his newfound discipline lasts or not. After he finished his training he took a walk and covered the ring in mud, once a ball of mud was made he threw it into the woods. With this absolutely no soldier would find out about it. Could he now save others by giving away the same idea? Saying something out of nowhere is suspicious and would give him away, but then again if rings were found on the people who went into the city he would be labeled suspicious too.