Vamp began speaking with some others that had joined us. Their unintelligible grunts left me with a sense of loneliness. This is why I had wished that orc girl would have surrendered. If she had surrendered this journey wouldn’t have left me feeling alone and surrounded by people. Many orcs knew some of the common tongues, but only a few had the fluency to speak. Neither Vamp nor Liz had shown the ability to converse with me, and if they were able to speak to me they refused to do so.

My new comrades after speaking to Vamp began to pour steadily into the forest. Liz motioned for me to follow along with the rest of this war band. Hopefully, they were leading us to the next champion since the last one did not live up to the expectations that Tiger had set out for us. Tiger needed an army for her goals and so far we had not achieved even a tenth of what she had in mind.

A few leagues into the forest, our party came upon a small village. This village looked ramshackle except for the few animal skin tents that still stood. The village seemed to have only older orcs and small children. None seemed willing to challenge me when I arrived, so I figured there was not an orc champion or the like among their ranks. The oldest of the orcs approached me with an arched back and tired eyes. He looked like he had been dealing with a lot over the recent days.

“You represent the champion?” the orc asked me.

“Yes,” I said, giving them confirmation.

“Good, you leave soon to challenge more?”

“Yes?” I said, questioning if the orc had meant it as a question.

“Follow, you sleep here tonight.”

The elderly orc led me into one of the less worn tents. I decided that it would be a good idea to rest here since that looked to be what the others that led me to this place were doing. After all, the rest of Tiger’s army could wait for the morning. Hopefully gathering the others would be as easy as the last had been.

I awoke to the sounds of screaming and the smell of smoke in the air. As I rushed out of the tent, I saw fires coming from all directions. The walls of fire made for an unbreachable prison for all those stuck inside. The screaming had come from people whose tents had been in the path of the firewalls. Now they were burning alive in front of my eyes. Slaughtered while they only tried to sleep by an unknown force. I could only help to imagine that this is what others experienced when facing Marco. The sense of this entrapment caused all in the area to panic, making only more issues. Then I saw him. He wore a full suit of armor this time, but there was no mistaking him. The fire danced around his armor seeming to bend to his will. He was responsible for this slaughtering of the innocent!

“Alfonso!” I screamed.

“You didn’t want the easy way,” the all too familiar mockery came. “I hope these people weren’t your friends too,” the voice of Clive said.

“Darnit, Alfonso!” I cried out to him ignoring his jesting. “Why couldn’t you let this go? No matter what you think, I don’t want to kill you.”

“You should have taken that stance with Annabelle!” Alfonso yelled out.

Alfonso swung his blade down at an orc who was scrabbling out of a tent. I recognized it as the elderly man who I spoke to the night before. I looked around as I realized that more of the orcs had sword wounds. Most of them were noncombatants, the original inhabitants of this village. Alfonso and his posey had been ruthless in their slaughter of this village.

“You are no better than I am!” I cried. “The people you killed weren’t even soldiers. These people were too weak and sick to do anything!”

“So?” Clive said, “They were orcs and orcs deserve to die, and for that matter so do you.”

As he spoke, he commanded the grass at his feet to grow. As they grew they turned into thick vines that began lashing out at me and the nearby villagers.

“I have had it with you,” I said. With a wave of my hand, I turned his vines to dust. “You are nothing compared to me, Clive. Nor have you ever been anything!”

“You stupid crossdressing pervert!” Clive shouted out at me.

The same sensation took over my consciousness as had happened when I killed Annabelle. My body began to move once again on its own. I raised my hand and pointed it out towards Clive and said, “turn back to dust.”

As I commanded the last part, I stripped Clive’s very soul from his body. Turning Clive into nothing but dust and absorbing the soul into my own. I began spitting out blood as the process had been more than I currently had power over.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“Clive, no!” came the scream of Alfonso. “How could you… You monster!”

“You are the monster,” I spat.

I slowly stood back up to my full height clutching my stomach from the pain I had experienced. But, with Clive’s soul within me, I felt a resurgence of power. The ability to finally kill the person who had made my childhood a living torment revitalized me. I then commanded my golem to stand in the space between Alfonso and me. For I knew that even with additional power I would be no match for Alfonso in single combat.

“You knew what Clive did to me growing up. But you still let him into your adventuring party. Even though you said I would never have been good enough.”

The golem made the first move and swung its blood quartz sword down at Alfonso. Alfonso quickly paired the blow and stepped back into a fighting stance.

“You know nothing about me or Clive!” Alfonso said.

Alfonso’s armor thickened around him and from his offhand materialized a shield. The golem continued pounding on Alfonso, not letting him have an inch. Its new speed took Alfonso by surprise as it snuck between Alfonso's armor and dealt a direct hit. The blow managed to send Alfonso to the ground and blood began to drip out of him. But, Alfonso was the strongest opponent I had ever faced, after all his destiny was that of a hero.

“You never even took the chance to understand me. Do you know what that feels like? The feeling of having the first person you ever loved not reciprocate? You treated me like some piece of disposable garbage?” I said while tears ripped at my face. “Then you went and joined with the one person who made my life miserable. The same person who tried to kill me when I was helpless.”

My rage turned to the other bodies as I collected their souls as well into my body. I needed to collect as much power so that I could stand up to Alfonso here and now. If I was to ever be able to kill the first person I ever truly loved it would have to be in a moment of pure rage. I knew this so I had to keep my mindset going.

“Devin,” Alfonso almost paused at the mention of love. “You know it would never have worked between us. There is too much difference between us and the way we were raised. Not to mention that...”

“Why not?” I cried, “It wasn’t for the lack of me trying. You and everyone else have always pushed my feelings away!”

“Devin, it wouldn’t have worked 'cause I never felt the same.”

The footsteps of what sounded like hundreds of soldiers filled the air. My anger had vanished from me as Alfonso professed that he never loved me. Now he would never love me for what I had done.

“Go,” I said to Alfonso, “Don’t get in the way again. I am sick of you showing up and trying to stop this!”

“You know I can’t do that, Devin. But you can still switch sides and help us. Right, all the wrong you have done. Do right by the deaths of Clive and Annabelle. Please, if there is any part of you that still cares for me or my family. You will help us in our greatest time of need.”

With that, he turned and ran away. It took all my restraint not to let the golem kill him. Why would he use Clive’s name to persuade me? I don’t think he ever really listened to what I was saying. Could I bring myself to kill him, though? Even knowing his feelings, I always knew his feelings. I still loved him and I still wanted his approval. Besides his mother was always a source of light in my life. If not for her, I could never be the person I was today. Whether it was for good or bad I could never kill Alfonso. That would be something I would never be able to walk back from powers controlling me or not.

I sat there on a charred patch of ground as more of the monster races arrived in the scorched village. The village they had arrived at lay completely obliterated by Alfonso’s and Clive’s assault. More and more people began pouring in and forming a circle around me. I didn’t bother to count the numerous orcs and other races. But, I knew it would be enough for what Tiger had planned for me.

A few of the stronger among them looked like they were ready to stand up and challenge. However, I was currently teeming with the power of all the fallen in the village. Alfonso had unknowingly given me an unwanted gift in their souls. Not in the mood for a fight, I flexed my powers out at the challengers. The result of which turned every living thing within ten feet of me into dust. This, along with the fact the golem stood unaffected, seemed to deter them, if only for now.

Vamp and Liz step forward out of the massive army. The two men took their places beside me, then they spoke. At first, it sounded like their normal mixture of grunts. The sounds twisted into a comprehensible language in my head.

“We unite under one banner today. The banner of she who holds the chains! The daughter of Malfuchsia!”

The army let out a loud series of grunts at the rallying speech of the orc bodyguard. Not understanding how the orc’s language translated in my mind, I decided not to speak back to them in it. However, the name Malfuchsia seemed familiar in a way. But surely they could not be in relation to me. For I was not a person who held chains, but instead a person that was in chains. Then it hit me. The orcs had not been talking about me when giving that speech, but Tiger. After all, she had originally brought Marco and me into the outpost with chains. She was also not above putting us back into chains when we did not listen to her orders. This information only added to the mystery behind Tiger. Her mother must have somehow interacted with the orcs, but how?

The outpost in the distance seemed tiny in the lowlands of the prairie. I had long since repaired many of its original buildings and walls. But now, with all these soldiers, it would not do any longer. I had 3 souls when rebuilding the first round. Now I had a small village of souls within me. I knew I could do a lot more with it. I held up a hand for the army to come to a halt. Making sure I had enough room between the outpost and us to make housing for everyone.

The buildings I pulled out from the ground met that goal. They stood four-feet high out of the ground. I submerged the rest of the building within the ground itself. The building itself was a dark yellow clay. It had only one hole meant for a doorway. The door, however, would have to have its installation at a different time. The construction was lacking an ounce of creativity. I pulled many of these buildings out of the ground as I encircled the outpost. I made two of the structures fit for a hundred people. Most, though, were only large enough for one or two people.