There was the skull of a truly enormous tiger. It was the size of a skyscraper from my old world at the least. Two giant sabre-like teeth emerged from the upper jaw, one in pristine condition the other partially broken. The rest of the giant tiger's skeleton had sunken into the mountain and only a few ribs and spikes could still be seen. There were also four large empty eye sockets on the skull instead of the normal two and in its mouth, on a large hill that looked more like a spike growing out of the ground on slightly closer inspection stood a large fort.
The fort managed to look large even within this enormous tigers mouth. It crawled up the hill and at its highest point, it went all the way up to the middle of the sabre teeth the tiger had. From this distance, it seemed to be made up of many stacked towers and buildings so that it looked somewhat like a tower made up out of towers. Trees went up the flatter part of the hill or whatever it was while the rest was surrounded by a wall from which even more towers emerged. The stone seemed cold, like a pale grey-blue while the roofs were coloured black. From some of the towers, I could see banners that were mostly red with a slight golden shimmer but I couldn't make out the design on them.
The skull itself was surrounded by mountains on both sides, one of which had a waterfall falling down from it, into what I couldn't see since there were far too many trees around the foot of the mountain. It looked very mystical and... awesome, honestly, this is what I imagined when I read fantasy novels. A giant skull surrounded by a mountain chain with a castle inside its mouth. To the left of our path were even more mountains while there was a vast open plain to our right, hills, a few trees and ponds here and there and in the distance I could even see a small village.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Rudolpho asked.
I nodded.
"The biggest fort in the area, it's pretty difficult to sustain it since the area around here isn't very fertile so we have to import from nearby villages. Luckily there's Elba village which grows more wheat than all the others combined. They make a good sum of money while we get all the wheat we need," Rudolpho said quite proudly.
"Who killed that thing?" I asked, still staring at the massive skull.
"Oh, that is confidential information," Rudolpho said.
'So it was a demon lord... Ira, you got any answers?' I asked.
'Nope, fucker was still alive by the time I died,' Ira responded.
'Interesting... interesting, reminds me how much time has passed since your death and how many things must have changed,' I mumbled in my own mind.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
'You'd be surprised how similarly shitty things still are...' Ira responded.
I held back a chuckle.
It didn't take long until we finally reached the fort. From this close, it looked even more massive. The entire thing was easily close to a kilometre in height. Crossbow-like contraption the size of houses and other siege type weapons had been placed on the wall, in between the towers and the gate was completely black and had this purplish shine to it in the places where the sun hit it with its rays.
"Made of pure obsidian, the hinges are made of platinum and the walls made out of gal stone, some of the hardest materials there are.
"Does this fort really need that much defence?" I asked.
"Well, it is home to the heretic hunters so they need to be safe from people seeking revenge," Rudolpho said.
When I heard the word heretic my entire body tensed up.
"And what do these... heretic hunters do?" I asked. "Besides hunting heretics of course," I quickly added, still tense from hearing and saying that word.
"They usually act as a backup force when they aren't out on a hunt, which isn't often," Rudolpho said.
"And what exactly counts as a... heretic?" I asked, my skin tingling from disgust.
"Well, simply someone that worships the devils and follows their teachings and such. Mostly demon lords and those that serve them," Rudolpho explained. "To be quite honest the church doesn't really care about whether or not you actually worship the seven or any of the other deities, it's just that we follow their ideals, the ideal of a peaceful and just world. So don't worry if you don't worship any deity, it doesn't really matter, although it might be required of you if you want to achieve certain ranks, although that depends on the grand pope, to be honest. But the current one is a quiet young high elf that isn't really big on worship himself so you don't have to worry," Rudolpho said.
"Oh, a world of peace and justice... that sounds wonderful," I said, gritting my teeth and trying not to make a face.
I knew exactly how this peaceful and just world of theirs looked, and it looked like a bunch of knights slaughtering the innocent.
"Yes, I think it is truly beautiful," Rudolpho said as he stared at the fort.
Now I could also see the design on the banners. It was a golden throne with seven stars around it on a red background.
The carriage now came to a stop and Rudolpho opened the door for me and I stepped outside, dressed in my now cleaned hard leather attire. Rudolpho stepped out behind me and told the driver to get his armour and such inside. A lot of people emerged from the carriages behind us, some prisoners, among them Ilaria, who was now in chains, and some looked like farmers and mercenaries. Ilaria eyes me angrily and I looked back deadpan as she was led past me with the other prisoners.
"You'll regret this! You just got lucky! Dion will kill you!" she yelled.
The train of prisoners stopped as she forcibly refused to walk. I leaned in closer and whispered something in her ear.
"This is all for the greater good," I whispered with a smile on my face.
She looked at me, a mix of shock and confusion on her face as she was pushed forwards, towards the currently opening obsidian gate.
"So, you ready to go in?" Rudolpho asked me, a hand on my shoulder.
I nodded and grit my teeth as I tried to ignore the disgusting feeling that was emitted by the countless humans all around me. We stepped through the gate and were welcomed by probably a thousand or so people.