Chapter 2: Talk in the Dark

In the underground tunnel, where you could see the ground where you walk on by only depending on the torches on the wall providing light. There were 2 Terrian men walking along the passageway. Sometimes, they passed by the guards who wore white armor covering all of their bodies. They stood still like a statue but their eyes were following the two who walked passed. There was the only sound of the 2's footsteps and the burning torches.

One of the men walking had a very big body, wearing black thick armor, his height reached over 220 centimeters tall, his thick muscle could be seen in unarmed areas like the neck and upper arms.his hair was black with a tint of red at the tip. Like most of the Terrian, there were none of the extra or special external organs on his body, except his height that might be the highest height you ever saw in Terrian. He had a huge dual handed sword sheathed behind his back, its had more than 1 foot in width and its length might rival his height, there was some faint vicious red fog reeking from the mouth of the sheath.

General Forgun Volken, almost 50 years old, had been calm lately, normally he would feel irritable by now. He couldn't stand this silent atmosphere and this so damn clamp place, he could stretch his two arms out, touched the wall on both sides and still had enough length to push the wall out, usually, these would make him mad by now. But today was strange, more like this place was strange. Even he could hold his temper down easily now, didn't mean that he did not want this silent to continue.

"How many did you bring?"

Forgun asked the man who was walking in front of him to his right, leading him to somewhere. The man was wearing some luxurious white clothes with a necktie and all that made him looked rich like jewelry on his neck and wrist. It looked annoying for him. He once asked the man why he needed to wear those, the man would ask him back about his armor. The man wore them to save his face like Forgun wore his armor to save his own life. Forgun knew what he meant, we all had our own ways of thinking.

"That took you so fucking long enough to ask. It almost makes me mad myself. This will break the record of your stay silent like this. What wrong, friend? This is not like you. Is age getting to you like me now?"

The man, Sachet Gagan, Duke of Gagan, even though he had the same age as Forgun, he looked much older. White hair all over his head told that he had been thinking a lot in his life. Normally, he used all polite language, never talked like this in front of people other than Forgun, even his family. He had been planning to retire for some time now but all his children were very disappointing. With the title of Duke that could control one-third of the empire, he just couldn't give it out easily. He didn't want it to end up like the emperor who passed away with the questionable illness and didn't set anyone for the throne, then came the civil war. Sachet survived or more like, no one dared to deal with him now, thank his friend who was walking behind him.

"No, it is this place, Sachet" Forgun felt more strange when he answered like that. "This place makes me calm, no, it makes this thing on my back calm" Forgun stopped walking and pointed at his sword on his back with his thumb.

"The juggernaut, huh" Sachet also stopped and turn back to stare at the sword. In his eyes, it still looked ominous like always. "Maybe you are right about this place is making that thing calm. And to the question before, I got 236 and 1 purple."

Both knew that the sword was not normal, everyone knew. Some said it held the power that could destroy a city with 1 swing or could slice the mountain in half. These were proved right when they were at war with neighbor countries, 3 countries. 1 swing from Forgun's sword destroyed 1 army of 10,000 men. It made 1 country fall and 2 countries surrendered.

"That quite a lot. Is this for something that you have been working on?" Forgun knew that Sachet had been secretly doing something behind the emperor. Something that might reach to treason. He didn't mind that this may lead to rebellion, anyway, he readied to jump on the same boat. He also did not like the present emperor too. The emperor now was just a coward who hid behind everyone and ready to stab the person in the back. He longed for that bloody battlefield where he could swing his sword, the juggernaut, with no holding back. But now, the emperor just surrendered 2 damn cities without a fight. This made him followed his friend back to his homeland.

"Yes, and maybe, this place may have something-something with your sword. I will fill you in now. Do you remember the first time you used the sword power?" Sachet looked at his friend who started to smirk, remembered their old time.

"That time was the most satisfying day of my life. The enemy kept holding themselves in their capital waiting for their reinforcement. I was getting annoyed by their berate. You tried to hold me back but I just jumped out, ran to their gate and slashed at it with all my might. I did not remember anything after that until I woke up the war was over." Forgun reminiscent his own work with a smile that hard to see. Even the guard who peeked at them started to shake. "I think you were the one who brought me back."

"You did not slash the city gate. You cut that damn city in half! The wall crumbled down with flame started to spread into the city like dragon breath. You will like to see their castle sliding off slowly from afar." Sachet started to show a big smile. Now the guard really shaking hard and making a clanking noise right now. But both Forgun and Sachet did not care, one guard wouldn't make anything bad for them. "You don't know how hard it was to drag you back, no, the dragging part was easy but during your sleep, how much I needed to answer the emperor questions and the assassins that came both day and night. Wow, now that I think about it, I lost half of my retainers in 1 week. You know about the cursed in that sword, right?"

"Yeah, it is a story run in my family." Forgun put his hand to the sword handle, trying to pull it out.

"No! No! Don't pull it out now. We know that this place has something that affects your sword. So, until we are cleared what it is, don't pull it out except it is emergency." Sachet was sweating. He didn't want the sword or this place went BOOM in his face.

"..." Forgun slowly released his hand from the handled. He smiled at first but stopped after thinking of something."There must be something more than this cursed, right? There almost nobody who has a chance to get near it but somehow you know something more than me, please tell… Why am I so polite?" Forgun started to noticed his calm self. This was starting to be too much. He might not be himself anymore if he stayed here too long.

"Ok, your way of speech starts to scare me. first, anyone that touched the sword goes insane immediately, this we all saw it. Second, it weighs almost 3 times yours, that means over 300 Kg. Before you ask how I got the sword back with you that time. We dug the damn ground around the sword and pulled it with the wagon. Third, this is something you and everybody get wrong. The sword does not choose its owner. It must be the person who had something that is the same as the sword."

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"...ok. I don't get it. What is these somethings you are talking about?"

"It is emotion. Your emotion makes you be able to use that sword."

"..." Forgun looked strange at his friend. He started to think that maybe his friend was getting too old.

"Don't make that face. You are creeping me out. Where is Forgun the murderer, Forgun the death bringer go?" Sachet couldn't stand his friend making a face he never saw before, start screaming." Do you know your grandfather, the owner of the juggernaut before you? What is he like?"

"He is merciless. He won't forgive for a little wrong anyone did in front of him. One wrong breath and he cut your head." Forgun grimaced. That was an understatement. His grandfather was crueler than that. But something started to click in his head. "Was it how he taught me? To be cruel, to be merciless."

Forgun remembered his childhood, his dark past. His grandfather was his nightmare and would always be. When he was with his grandfather, not a single day he wouldn't get hurt. His grandfather teaching was like, destroy everything that annoyed you. He remembered the time after his grandfather died and his father told to throw him away. He got mad, take the cursed sword and cut his father. He felt more satisfied than sad or guilty at that time.

"That right, damn it. Your personality change is really killing me. But not a normal emotion, it must be something that ingrained like you. Not like somebody just getting angry and can touch the sword without losing more of his mind, they won't be able to lift it as you do"

"So, we can make a person who can use this sword by teaching him how to hate people since young, huh. Enough of that, what has it had to do with this place?"

"This place is what we called 'The Witch Last Stand'. The witch who destroyed a country that is now turned into the submerged city of Ferintor thousands of years ago."

"Isn't that just a fairytale?" Forgun started to make the questionable face by knitted one of his eyebrow. The place they were talking about was east of here, went over a mountain, sailed out to the sea half a day.

"No! It is not! And stop making that face! Please! The proof is on your back right now." Sachet pointed his finger at the sword behind Forgun back.

"...ok?"

"Your total lack of anger face hurt me. It is a weapon! When you destroyed that city I remember this fairytale. I have been researching it since then."

"Wait, are you saying that there is something like the juggernaut that can blow the city in 1 hit?"

"If the story in that fairytale can be believed then yes! There is also a story of your sword too."

"Which one?" Now Forgun was really curious.

Sachet smiled. "The red dragon that destroyed half the continent 10,000 years ago. All the civilized in the world fall apart at that time."

"That is the most unbelievable fairytale I heard before going to bed and how it connects to the sword."

"The story got bent over 10,000 years. So there is a lot of exaggeration or understated some facts. Well, we just change the dragon to the person holding the juggernaut. And we found a metal that is the same as your sword. It is my office. I can show you when we go back."

"Ok, still cannot believe it all. But whatever."

"Let's continue, or I might not be able to stand your new personality anymore"

The 2 men start walking like how they entered this tunnel. The guard who was listening to the conversation stood more firm than before. His armor looked more glitter, he had been sweating since the start of the conversation. He never saw the general acted so much calm and the Duke acted all friendly before, never thought of seeing it. Now he must make the decision between telling this to others and pray that he would still have his head in the next morning or taking it to his grave.

Forgun who was walking after Sachet thought of something and asked."If we need the hatred or anger to used the juggernaut, what is used for the user of the witch weapon?"

"Ah, I forgot to tell you." Sachet waited for a little and answered. " It is despair."

"Ohhh, so that why you bring a lot of them." Forgun started to understand why his friend risked bringing a lot of them to this underground. This might be the first and last time to make this worked before getting found out. If it worked then we would have one more ultimate weapon.

"Oh, and do you know where we are going?" This time it was Sachet who started asking.

"Don't know. We entered from the mine that was in the mountain behind your house. We have been walking for a really long time. I know the tunnel is a straight line but I don't really know."

"This tunnel connects to my city, Gagan, right below the church."

"We only have 2 churches, which one?" Forgun knew that his friend liked to ask a question to make another person answered the question he already knew.

"God of Magic. And this tunnel is not started from the mine but from the church. It is a runaway tunnel. And right below the church is where we do the ceremony. The place is in good condition like no one has touched it for a very long time when we found it."

"...Does it mean that God of Magic has something to do with the witch in the fairytale?... Wait, is it that? God of Magic and the witch is the same person? But God of Magic supposed to be a kind maiden who built places for people to live and thought magic to people." Forgun started to question his believed in all of the things he had heard. History couldn't be believed after all. A lot of lies, a lot of self-written.

"And this is something that is not in that story. 'The witch was crying while drowning the city under the sea.'." After said that Sachet stopped and looked to his front. There was a big double door with a carved pattern that looked like a magic circle. And in front of the door, laid 2 guards that had a pool of red blood around them. "What happened?" He tried to run to the guards but got stopped by the hand on his shoulder.

"Don't go near them!" Forgun gritted his teeth like he was holding something inside. "It's coming back! The hatred, no, something more starts to flow into me." He reached his other hand to grab the sword handle on his back. "Sachet! Go back! I don't know what you have been researched behind those damn door but get the FUCK OUT OF HERE NOW!!! I don't think I can hold this feeling down much longer!"

Sachet looked a little apprehensive. His friend just returned to his normal self after seeing the door. Something much had happened behind that door which he really wanted to know. But his friend started to change. The faint red mist overflowed from the sheath that holding the juggernaut, covering all of Forgun body. His eyes were turning redder.

Forgun released his hand that held his friend shoulder, moved it to hold the sword handle. With 2 hands on the handle, he pulled it out and stabbed the sword into the stone floor. He screamed "QUICK! GET YOUR ASS OUT!! NOW!!!" His eyes fixed on the double door, his breathing was heavy and outed off control.

Sachet felt scared and almost followed what he was told but he must understand something before he ran away."What is that FEELING? Tell me, my friend!" He had been pushed back against the wall by his friend intimidating air. He didn't know what it is but he felt threatened, frightened, scared.

"IT WANTS… TO… FIGHT!!!" After said that Forgun pulled the juggernaut and ran to the door, slash at it. The double door blew away. He ran inside. The room was so wide, you can push 2 stories house in there. What was in that room was a massive of corpses all around the floor, some had armor that stained with blood, some in white long clothes that now dyed red, a lot of them wore dirty clothes. There was a big magic circle in the middle, shining green. Near the magic circle had 2 people, one with green hair standing, one with purple hair kneeling.

Forgun eyes did not even look around the room, they stared straight at the green haired woman with armor and glaive who turned to look at him with annoy face, then she smiled.