Chapter 30
Malicious Plot
“What are they talking about?”
“Something about monsters. You can use magic, why don’t you just enhance your hearing?”
“I…. don’t’ know how to do that.” Max looks away from me embarrassed.
“You created a huge barrier earlier, how do you not know how to enhance your hearing?”
“Well…. While still looking away from me, Max started to scratch his hair. I seriously hate when he does that. I don’t think I ever had a full conservation with him that didn’t end up with him turning his head from me.
“Well… my parents are really over protective of me. They never wanted me to get hurt, so they made sure I never learn how to fight and only taught me how to defend myself.” Max let’s out a strain laugh.
“That’s one strict family.” Although I can’t really say anything. I remember James knock me unconscious just to stop me from becoming an adventurer.
“Yea….” While scratching his hair, the nervous smile on his face became a frown. “If my dad finds out what I did today… well I have no idea what he’ll do, I just know he’s going to be piss.”
“Well I know for a fact James would be piss if he knew what I done.” Especially since I did everything he told me not to do. I got capture by orcs, nearly got blown up multiple times, offer myself as a prize to an orc, and I met Alexander, the one man he never wanted me to meet. And I did all of this in a single day. I think I might actually be the definition of a rebellious teenager.
“Heh heh.” Max started to laugh for some reason. “I guess we’re both in the same….”
“Shh.” I place my finger next to his face to shush him up. Ignoring the confuse look on his face, I focus all my attention on the four men that surrounded Cain.
(Cain P.O.V)
“What do you mean they’re evolving?” The hero looked me dead in my eyes patiently waiting for me to answer him.”
“I mean exactly what I said. They’re evolving. They’re getting faster, stronger, and worse yet smarter.”
“And you said that these monsters gave you the bombs, why would they do that?”
“You actually believe me?” I look up at the hero, there wasn’t even a bit of doubt on his face. If I was him I would never believe someone if they told me that monsters gave them weapons to use.
“Of course I believe you, why would you lie to me?”
“How foolish, you trust me even though I killed a lot of your people?” I had no idea why I was antagonizing him. And this situation I should be trying my best to get on his good side, but for some reason looking at the innocent face of his really piss me off.
"Hmmm.” The hero takes a look at his surroundings. “It’s true what you did was wrong, but I still think you’re a good person. When your men attack me, you try to stop them so they wouldn’t get killed. And right now you’re cooperating with us just after I promise I would protect your men. That tells me you really care about your tribe, I bet your willing to do anything to save them aren’t you?”
“….. You promise to protect my tribe if I tell you the truth?”
“I promise.” I can see why he’s the hero now. Even though I never met him before, I can somehow tell he’s a trustworthy person.
“You ask me why they gave me the bombs, it simple really they wanted me to use it on this town. Well I should be saying they wanted me to use it on humans, the town itself isn’t special.”
“Why did they want you to attack us?”
“I don’t know, but they do seem to be harboring some sort grudge against humans, I saw it myself, their hatred towards humans when they came to visit me.
.
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(Three years earlier)
“Cain what are you looking at?” Staring blankly at the sky, I look down to see one of my young brothers was staring at me.
“Nothing, I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“…..” I nearly told him what was on my mind, but for some reason I hesitated. I look at the kid who was still waiting for me to answer.
This must be his first hunt since he didn’t have that much on him. He only had on a loincloth and his weapon was a simple club. I felt a smile grow on my face when I looked at the kid simple attire. It reminded me of my first hunt when I was a kid.
“I was just thinking that maybe we can be more than this.”
“What do you mean by that?” Seeing the young one look up at me with his eyes full of curiosity made me place my hand on him like he was my son.
“Tell me young one, do you ever dream of living in a fancier place than this, or maybe eating some fancy food?”
“….No.” The young one quietly answers me.
Hmmm, I guess he’s too young to have ambition.
“Cain are you getting lost in your head again?” One of my brothers wraps his arm around my head. “You think too much Cain, Why don’t you relax, we got plenty of women and food to satisfy us.”
“Yea…but.”
“See? You’re getting lost in your head again. If you keep this up we won’t get home till dark.” My brother lets go my head and walks ahead of me. “C’mon, let’s go.” Both the young one and I slowly follow after him.
In a way he’s right. Compare to other orc were pretty fortunate. So I should be happy with what we got. I should, but for some reason this life is unsatisfying. None of the women we capture interested me anymore, the food we eat also doesn’t appeal to me, and the cave we live in feels cramp. I don’t know, maybe it’s my old age kicking in, but I just want something more.
I took a look at both my brothers as we continue to walk.
Well even though I want more, as long as l have my family, I guess I’m happy.
“Huh?” My brother that was ahead of me stops walking.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hey wasn’t there supposed to be someone on guard here?”
“Yea.” I take a look around and notice that no was here. “There’s supposed to be a few people here, where the heck are they?
“….” My brother runs off heading directly for our cave. I quickly grab the young one hand and race after him.
Charging straight through bushes, branches, and anything else that got in my way I finally made it back to the cave only to see a bunch of my family lying on the ground. My brother that ran ahead of me was crouching near one of the bodies.
“Are… are they dead?” The young one ask.
“No, they just been knock unconscious.” After examining the bodies, my brother looks up at me. “You think a group of monsters did this?
“If it was monsters, then there would be no survivors. The only culprit that’s coming to my head is humans, but I doubt a group humans defeated all these orcs.”
“So if it wasn’t monsters or humans then who else could’ve done this, elves?!”
“!!!!” A female scream reverberate from within the cave.
“Let’s go check it out!”
“Right, stay here young one.” Without looking behind me, I rush after my brother who ran head first into the dark cave. We had crystals all set up around the cave so we able to easily navigate through it. Whoever attack us must’ve destroy ever last one of them so they could mask their presence.
As I continue to run in the pitch darkness I finally caught up to my brother. Standing completely still, he was face was filled with fear. I turn my attention to what terrified him. It took me a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. After seeing what he saw, it made me wish it never did adjust.
Dark liquid covered the ground, it didn’t take me long figure out what that liquid was. Seeing the mutilated corpses of the female prisoners we capture immediately told me that the liquid was blood. And standing in the middle of the blood and corpses was a single man.
At least I think its man. Even though my eyes have adjusted to the darkness, for some reason I couldn’t see the person body at all. The only thing that was visible was a white mask that had a huge smile covering it.
“Welcome back” The mask man greeted me. Seeing a mask person standing near a pile bodies, I expected him to have sinister voice. But instead he had normal everyday male voice.
“Who are you?” Normally if someone sneaks into my home and attack my family, I would’ve quickly dealt with him and then maybe ask who he was later. But I felt if I attack him, it wouldn’t end well for me.
“I’m your guarding angel~” The Mask man tilt his head, but since I couldn’t see his body at all it looked like his mask was levitating. “I’ve been watching you for a while Cain. And I decided that I will help you accomplish your dream.”
“You expect me to believe that someone who broke into my home and hurt my family has come to help me?”
“Of course not, but I would like to point out that I haven’t killed any of your family member, but your captives on the other hand….. I would like to also point out that I didn’t killed them either.” Suddenly multiple sets of glowing yellow light appear around me. It didn’t take me long to realize that they were eyes. Seeing these creatures increase my fear of the mask in front of me, not because they surrounded me and they could kill me at any moment, but because even though they’re far away from me I can see the shape of their body, but the mask man that’s directly in front me I still couldn’t see his body at all. It’s as if his body is the darkness itself.
“I told these guys not to kill anyone, but they tend to get crazy when they see humans and well you see what happens when they get crazy.”
“Are you threatening me?”
No of course not, I already told you I came here to help you.” A black circular object roll out the darkness and headed straight for my feet.
“You’re tired of this lifestyle right? I think I know a way to spice things up for you. Conquer human cities doesn’t that sound exciting?!”
“Sounds impossible.”
“If you think it’s impossible than it will be impossible, but you know what I think? I think you’re a capable man. Every orc here trust you and you’re very ambition, and those two traits my friend is what every conquer possess.”
I look at my brother was still standing completely still. Upon closer inspection I realize that he his body was completely frozen, not only was eyes not moving, but his breathing also stop.
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“I know it may seem like taking a town is impossible, but trust me when I said you’re fully capable of conquering one. Gather your men, use your strength, and most importantly use these bombs I gave you and any town that you set your sights on will fall to you.”
I look down at the circular object in front of me. It was definitely huge, if the explosion is as big as the bomb then it might actually be possible to take a town over without fighting, although the town might be destroy along with its citizens if I’m not careful.
“Why are you helping me?”
“That’s a very good question.” The mask man looks at the dead bodies that surrounded him. “Well obviously I’m not doing this out of the kindness of my heart as you can see with these bodies around me, I’m kind of lacking in that department.” The mask lets out a small laugh.
“I’m helping you because it’ll help me. You remember when I said that these monster lose control when they see a human? Well it will greatly make them happy if you kill as many human as you can when take over a town. Of course being an orc that you are, I’m pretty sure you plan on taking a few captive alive and doing…well doing what orcs obviously would do to a helpless captive, but I’m pretty sure these guys will be happy as long as you completely humiliated them.”
At first I thought the man standing in front of me was a monster, but it’s impossible for a monster to have this much intelligence, so then my next conclusion was that he was human that somehow tame a few monsters, but now I’m starting to doubt that too.
“Fine, I’ll accept your proposal, but before I do I got one last question for you, who are you?”
“….” The mask man quietly stares at me. A cold shiver went down my spine the moment it stop talking, but I think anyone would react the same if they saw what appear to be a floating mask staring at them.
“Hmmm, well I did break into your home and killed all your prisoners, so I guess the polite thing to do would be to at least tell you who I am.” The mask floated closer to me, I took few steps back to increase our distance.
“You see Cain, I. Am. The Demon King.”
“…..” At this point I really wanted to run away as far as possible, but I couldn’t just abandon my family. If he really is the Demon King than I doubt he has any attention of letting us live. Even if it may seem impossible I need to find a way to defeat him.
“Hahaha!” The mask started to shake violently in the air while laughing. “You should see the look on your face, I can’t believe you actually believe me!”
“Huh?” I confusingly look at the mask man.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m just a simple man that got caught, in a malicious plot.”
Does that mean he’s not the leader of these monsters? And he said he got caught in the middle of all this, yet the way he’s acting tell me he’s having the time of his life. No doubt about it, this man is definitely insane.
“Well then I’ll be taking my leave now, I hope I was able to answer all your questions.” The mask that was floating in the darkness slowly started to fade away. “I have high hopes for Cain, and don’t forget to kill as many human as you can.” The mask let’s out another laugh before completely vanishing.
As soon as he disappear, all the crystals that brighten the cave immediately turn back on, dispelling the darkness that devour the cave.
“Cain you alright?” My brother that was standing alongside me the entire time looked at me with a worried expression.
I guess he really was frozen, does that mean I was the only one who saw that man? No, it must’ve been a dream, there’s no way any of that was possible.
“What happen to our captive?!” My brother shouted. Remembering all the disfigured corpse in my dream, I slowly turn my head to see what my brother was looking at, only to be surprise that nothing was there.
“Gone?” I let out a sigh of relief. Good, it really was dream. Although for some reason I was a little sad, I guess my life changing event isn’t going to happen. I let out another sigh thinking about the disappointment of my dream.
“Why do you look so relax? Our women have escape!” My brother violently shake me.
“Calm down.” I swipe his hand away from me. “We’ll just track them down before they can get anywhere.” As we was about to leave the cave, my body froze up the moment my eyes fell onto something. Standing in the corner of the cave was piles of black circular object.
“Huh, what the heck are those?” My brother walks over to the object to investigate them.
“….” I stood frozen looking at all the bombs that was in front of me. “It wasn’t a dream.” I whisper to myself. Look back at the area where the women were all slaughter, there wasn’t even a bit blood on the ground. Somehow, the masked man got rid of the bodies and the blood.
“Hey are these bombs?” My brother started to roll one of the bombs around.
“Hey, be careful with that.” I quickly grab the bomb away from him. After taking it away from him, I felt myself blankly staring at it.
(Any town that you set your eyes on will fall to you.) Remembering what the mask man said, an uncontrollable smile grew on my face.
“Gathered all the men, were going to test these out.”
“What about the women that escape?” My brother ask me.
“Forget them, we got a bigger prize waiting for us….”
.
.
In the end, I didn’t really accomplish anything. All I did was get my family killed while trying to accomplish my stupid ambition. I’m….a terrible leader.
I look at my remaining family around me to see that they were all looking at me, like they were expecting me to give an order that would somehow turn this situation around.
Even in this shitty situation they’re still looking up to me. Well as pathetic as I am, it still my job as a leader to get them out of here alive.
I look at the four men that surrounded me. Every one of them had a shock look on their face, except for one of the hooded men. Even though I couldn’t see his face, his body language told me he wasn’t surprise by my story as if he heard it a million times before.
“I see, I understand now.” The hooded man spoke. “Kill them.” Two man that was near him head over to my family.
“Wait, we had a deal!”
“I never made a deal with you.” The hooded man calmly said.
“Stop!” The hero jumps in front of the two men stopping them from attacking my family. “Alexander, please let them go, I made a promise that I let them go if he cooperated with us.”
“How naïve, you really plan on letting go a bunch of killers. If they leave they’ll just do the same thing again.”
“No they won’t, look at them!” The hero points towards my family. “They’re scared out of their minds, they learn their lesson, I’m sure they’ll never attack another town again.”
“Maybe your right, maybe they will never attack a town again, but that doesn’t matter. They still committed a sin, and they must be punish for it. You should know this Joseph, your job is to punish evil."
“But….but.”
“They did nothing wrong!!!” With the remainder of my strength I desperately pick myself up off the ground. “They were all following my order! Nothing was of their own volition, all their sins are on me!!”
“….Well said.” The hooded man takes off his hood revealing a man with slightly long blonde hair that reach his shoulder and cold blue eyes. “It’s a leader’s duty to be held responsible for all his men sin.” Fine, I won’t killed them. The blonde hair walks back over to me.
“But you’ll have to take their punishment in there stead.”
“Deal.” I said without hesitation.
The blonde man reach into his cloak and pulls out a thin sword. Ignoring his blade, I look back at my family. Each and everyone one of them had a sad look on their face. I have no idea why they’re sad, it because of me they got thrown into this situation.
Suddenly I felt something cold pierce me. I looked down to see that the blonde stab me with his blade. Strangely when he pull his blade out I didn’t see any blood leak from my body, but I did feel my body getting colder by the second. I look down again to see that ice was slowly shallowing my body starting from my feet.
Ah, so this is how I die. I always thought I would die in a terrible way, like getting my body rip to piece by a monster, not that I’m complaining, this isn’t bad I don’t feel any pain, actually I don’t feel anything at all.
As the ice was about to reach my head, I look up at a building to see a little girl with red eyes was staring down at me.
Right, I never did learn your name did I? I let out a small laugh full of regret. Miss, you really were interesting…..
(Anna P.O.V)
“….” I continue to stare at the ice statue that once was Cain. I was surprise to see him sacrifice himself. Hearing a bunch of weird noise near me, I turn to see Max had tears falling down his face.
“What are you crying about?”
“I don’t know, but just watching him sacrifice himself to save his family made me tear up for some reason.
“Did you really forget how many times he try to kill us?”
“I know, I know, but still it just sad.” Max wipe his face with his arm.
Ignoring him, I look back at the statue that started to crack apart the moment Alexander sheathe his sword.
How unfortunate even though I enhance my hearing it was still hard for me to hear what they said, all I know is monsters are acting weird, but I think anyone with a brain can come up with that conclusion.
I watch Alexander as he walks away with the hero and his group.
Oh well, I could care less what the monsters are doing. The real threat to me is right in front of me. A man who has power he probably shouldn’t have. And of course the hero and that accursed blade of his. If I ever want to truly conquer this world, than one of the first thing I need to do is deal with them.
A/N: Ignoring the monsters that’s threatening the planet, Anna instead focus on the humans that swears to protect it. An all-out war between multiple parties that each has their own sinister agenda is about to begin.