41- ROUND TWO

There was a lot of running this round.

“Osiris, I’m at my limit.”

Sunnie’s knees gave.

“Fibble!”

Without missing a beat Fibble threw her arm over his shoulders and together they kept moving.

The ambushes came with C Ranked beasts and a B rank boss.

No one was ready for them.

Osiris panted as he jumped 100 feet into the air, just above a few tree tops.

“They’re swapping!”

Everyone within a hundred miles booked it further towards the coast. Osiris started to fall. He spotted at least twenty low level alphas spot him.

Osiris grinned.

“Twenty to thirty incoming!”

Sunnie sobbed.

“I hate this party!”

Osiris just smirked.

“You’re free to leave whenever you want.”

Her face became ugly and her aura pounded on him like a child trying to push a car.

They’ve all gotten stronger.

His beautiful little sooks, his cowards, his runners.

“Hand me the mufflers.”

His team's faces grinned as Vep tried to pickpocket Fibble as they ran.

“Really?!”

“I found a town a few hours from here, we’ll stay there for tonight.”

The three cheered.

Osiris caught three rings as they dropped down a small waterfall. The water went to their knees. He grit his teeth and put them on.

His mana had a fit.

“I wouldn’t have to wear these if you could control yourself.”

His mana spluttered in protest.

“You’re getting too strong for those...”

He was.

Now 14, Osiris was currently working on finishing his fifth mana circle.

“..”

Osiris felt the unnatural cut off of his mana and ego being suffocated under plastic as the rings activated.

“I can’t feel anything with these things on.”

“Stop being dramatic and show us the town. Are there people? Can we have a bath?”

Osiris didn’t look at them when he took the lead.

“Sure, everyone can take a bath.”

Another happy squeal from Fibble and Sunnie. Vep watched Osiris with suspicion.

“And we can send some of the ores we found to base!”

His kids were money hungry, but so was he.

“I heard we found some C and B Grade ores this time too!”

“I still don’t believe you when you say you have no money back home.”

“I don’t.”

“But your dad is the King!”

His little sooks have started to pry into his past. They’re as subtle as a traffic light turning green.

“..”

Sunnie hit Fibble in the side and gave him a look.

“I-I mean, M-M-M-”

“I didn’t say you had to call him by his name, just don’t call him my father.”

Fibble’s face fell.

“I…”

Osiris glanced back at them.

He wasn’t hiding his past, on the contrary, anyone who asks he tells them anything they want to know. Sometimes he even goes out of his way to smear those bastards name through the ground but the kids are trying to bond with him. Not kiss his ass.

“After I did my time-” Sunnie’s brow twitched. “-I had nothing.”

Osiris pulled them through the river and doused the water with poison. His men stayed quiet up the riverbed until they broke through to a clearing. The town could be seen in the distance.

“Did the King really do that to you?”

“Do what?”

There were a lot of things he did.

“Um, prison?”

“Yes.”

Osiris allowed them all to stop on the forest line.

“My first memory is that man back handing me into a bookshelf.” Osiris laughed. “He knocked me stupid! I was a drooling mess.”

He hummed.

“Apparently me and another kid kissed or something? I don’t know, I wasn't there.”

“You mean you actually kissed a b-”

Vep slapped a hand over Fibble’s mouth.

Osiris didn’t even pause.

“He was so mad about it he threw me into solitary.”

“I remember hearing about an explosion. They thought it was an enemy attack, well that’s what the papers said…”

Sunnie laughed awkwardly.

“Uh-huh that was me!”

Osiris pointed to himself before shooting some finger guns at them. Their faces were pinched.

“So the rumor about the King locking up his faggot son were real?”

Osiris squinted at them.

He heard no malice.

“Yup. Crazy right? Over something so little.”

He turned back to the town.

“I was eight.”

Osiris began walking. The fires looked to have finally stopped, dark wisps of smoke lingered about.

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“I’m sure you’ll see how the royals treat me. It’s about time I’m due for another assassination attempt.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Osiris glanced at them.

“For what? You didn’t lock me up, right?”

“No…”

“Then don’t feel sorry.”

Fibble tugged on Vep’s shirt.

“W-we…”

Fibble gave him a thumbs up.

“We were wondering if y-you…”

“You lot can ask me anything you want after we eat.”

“Really??”

Vep shook his head at Fibble.

“Let’s go. We have a bit of cleaning up to do.”

The sooks' faces were ashen.

Osiris stopped them at the entrance.

It was a shabby little town. Nothing special. It reminded him of old western desert towns, only the theme was a bit more green.

“It’s mating season.”

He watched the teens shake.

“Look at me.”

They did.

“It’s pretty bad in there. Entire town has been pillaged. This is the tamest of what you will see.”

The teens held their bags.

Osiris put his hands behind his head and began walking into town. He could hear their feet drag.

“I found signs of beastmen, orcs, and goblins in town. I went through it once, but we’ll have to do it again before nightfall.”

No one spoke.

“All the beasts are fucking anything that moves.”

He stepped by a particular yard he knew had a bad scene.

“Doesn’t matter their age or sex, if it’s warm they’re fucking it.”

Osiris stopped and turned to the house.

“Apparently this happens every year for six months?” Osiris sat on a pole beside a man pulled in half between two fences. Yellow stains covered their mouth, and eyes, and a bit in their hair.

“Nature is beautiful, amiright?”

They weren’t listening to him anymore, they were going into shock. Fibble was the first to drop.

There was a mother reaching for her newborn across the yard. Its body looked like roadkill. Clumps of drying white and yellow stains oozed from every surface. The mother wasn’t any better off.

“You lot always wonder how I can be so cruel to our enemies.” Osiris kicked his feet against the wooden fence, leaving scorch marks across its bark. “It’s simple, really. Because I know they’re trying to do that to me.”

Osiris jumped off his perch and moved across the road to another yard. Even their livestock was mangled.

“That’s why you always match the energy you receive.”

The Prince pulled a few poles from the ground.

“Here.”

He threw them each a stick.

“Make sure they’re all dead. We’re in dragon land now.

If any of them cry out at night the trolls or mythical beasts might come out.”

Fibble gripped the pole between his hands, blonde hair shadowing his face. He was the first to move. The teen walked up to the child.

He heard a gurgle.

It was still alive.

With tears he stabbed the child and moved on. The others soon followed.

“Work on the bodies out here. Stay alert. I’ll go through the houses.”

His men worked in silence.

Osiris mosied through the rest of the town and went through every building he could find. Even the sheds. Most of the houses had living rooms, bedrooms, baths, Osiris was sure the town was well off, they were in dragon country after all.

Osiris was thinking about stealing a really nice rug when he stumbled upon a young girl's room. A dog was going to town on her corpse.

Osiris stepped silently onto the blood stained carpet.

With breeding on their minds the beasts’ tunnel vision has become a weakness.

“Having fun?”

The whites of his eyes flash at him as he peaked over his shoulder to look at him. The smile he had as he ripped the wolf off the body was tenebrific.

The screaming of a dog crying out in fear filled the streets as Osiris dragged the noisy thing to his men. Night was approaching and dinner was coming.

Osiris stomped into their little makeshift camp, a small studio size house in the back of the town. His men were outside. Osiris pulled the beast up by its tail.

“Found this one fucking a six? Maybe seven year old kid. It was just their corpse, but-” Osiris tossed the body between them. It’s tail skin came off like a loose, wet glove. Sunnie had its jaw between her hands as it tried to scream. The beast threw up, spraying puke through its nose and clenched teeth. It started to choked. “-dinner is dinner.”

Osiris wiggled the loose skin in the air.

“I’ve always heard an animal's tail is super sensitive.” Osiris dropped the skin. “Well. I’m gonna shower, have fun meal prepping.”

The shower was okay.

Osiris found some cards in the office.

He only knew how to play goldfish, but he’s sure they can make it work.

The beast was still alive when he came out, or it acted like it was. Strung out like a butchered pig they had the dog hanging with its organs on a table as Vep was prepping the food. Its chest was still moving.

“Did we still have some of Kou’s juice?”

Kou left his team with a special blend he makes to detoxify beast meat. Demon meat was a whole other ball game, but beast meat worked for now. They had plenty of game to work with.

“…yeah.”

“Good. Pick your favorite pieces. I’ll take the scraps today.”

“You eat everything though?”

“If you don’t want the muscles-”

“N-no, we’ll each pick a piece.”

Last time Osiris left them everything that tasted like shit.

“Good.” Osiris sat beside the fire. He stuck his feet into it. “I bought some cards, let’s play.”

“How did you buy them? We haven’t been to a t-town… a town with people in it. Alive people.”

“You don’t know how I live.”

Sunnie’s brow twitched.

She was like the sister he never had.

“He stole them from the office.”

Osiris squinted at Vep.

“Stop telling us you buy things when you steal them.”

“Yeah! And stop telling us you steal something when you bought it!”

“Fibble, he never buys things.”

“That’s because I don’t have money.”

“Right!”

Fibble pointed an accusatory finger his way.

“You promised to answer our questions!”

Osiris took his feet out of the fire.

“I did.”

A distraction.

The kids asked and Osiris answered. From isolation to how the other royals were, to how it was growing up in the center of the city. Osiris learned Fibble was abandoned by his mom, Sunnie her dad, and Vep by both. They were all in the streets before the war.

“S-so you really didn’t have a personal maid?”

Fibble had the easiest questions to answers. He was always blunt, but his questions always had one answer.

“Nope.”

“Was it really scary in the black tower?”

Sunnie asked the personal questions. The ones that brought back memories he’d rather forget.

“It was just me in an empty cell for six months. There were no windows and the only light was.. For the first six months I didn't even know why I was even in there, so it was hell. But scary?”

Osiris paused.

GETMEOUTGETMEOUTLETMEGOPLEASEHELPME-

“Sometimes.”

“Are you really planning to destroy the Kingdom?”

And Vep asked the important questions. The ones about the future.

“Yes.”

“But why? You could just kill all the other royals.”

Osiris pulled a knee up and leaned on it. The night was finally here. Dinner was being cooked.

“I could.” Osiris looked into the flames. “I could also win this war and go back a hero.”

“You could! You’d get all the money you could ever want, AND any girl you could ever want.”

“Osiris, fallen prince, returned hero!”

Osiris waved a hand with sprawled fingers through the air.

“But where’s the fun in that.”

Osiris held his face.

“After everything those people have done, and will continue to do, it’s only fair I take away the very reason they exist.”

Osiris dropped his hand.

“It might not be today, tomorrow, or even right after the war, but it will happen.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

Osiris looked at Vep.

“What?” He stirred the pot. “I was hoping you wouldn’t do it right after the war, even if Lux will be weakened, none of us can take on that beast. Not even you.”

Osiris snickered.

“Caught onto that, did you?”

Vep glanced at him before adding in some spices to their boiling meat. No one knew how to cook, and fucking Haldir was taking his sweet time heading back to the field. He heard a rumor he had another baby on the way.

“You care a lot about your powers.”

“I do.”

“The Lux Kingdom is the only fight I’ve seen you hesitate on.”

Fibble bit his nails. The two’s conversation was a bit…

“Hesitate, huh.”

He didn’t think of it that way, but it must look like that when he’s done nothing but charge head first into a fight.

“I want to make them suffer.” Vep watched his signature smile spread. “I want them to think I’ve changed. That they have a chance of killing me or taming me.”

Osiris looked to the sky.

“I want their city to trust me. Their people. Then, when I’m strong enough to take on two or three nations, I’m going to ruin them. I’m going to watch them as they watch me crush generations worth of cultivation and watch it plummet down the drain and fall right through their fingers like glass shards of sand.”

Osiris sighed.

“It’s a long term plan. In the works. Unfortunately this revenge is slow, but it will be sweet. So sweet-”

“There he goes again.”

“Yeah Vep, we were just getting to the good stuff.”

“…”

_______

The day was bright, not a cloud in sight.

“Burn it.”

Fibble dropped the torch at Sunnie’s command.

Osiris walked out to see the town roaring with flames.

“A Viking’s funeral.”

“What’s a Viking?”

Osiris went to the front and faced his men.

“Are you ready kids?!”