Chapter 120
Deal with a Demon
Erin woke up with a sore neck and a bad headache. She tried to move around a bit, only to find her movements restrained. It was then that panic began to set in, as the events of what had happened to her before being knocked out came flooding in. The redhead began to look around frantically in the hopes of figuring out what had happened to her and her friends.
Much to her relief, Erin quickly found both Ryle and Arkay right next to her. However, they were both in a similar predicament as she was, which caused her distress. The three assassins had been tied to chairs. Testing the restraints placed on her, she could tell that this wasn’t something they would be able to break free from easily. The material used to tie them up wasn’t just some ordinary rope, but seemed to be some sort of a special wire, most likely developed for situations like this.
Having made note of her immediate situation, the redhead began to look around in order to possibly figure out where they were. Unfortunately, the place didn’t look familiar at all and seemed to just be a cave, most likely located on the outskirts of the city. This was probably the reason as to why she and her friends didn’t have their mouths covered by their captors, since there was no one around that they could call out for help.
Seeing as how they were still alive after being knocked out, Erin figured out that whoever was behind this must have wanted them alive. The question that remained was what was that reason?
Hearing the sound of her friends beginning to stir, the redhead turned her attention towards Ryle and Arkay. It seemed like they were starting to wake up as well.
“Oww… I feel like crap,” Ryle muttered groggily as she woke up. “What in the-? Where the hell are we?”
“I’m guessing a cave outside the city,” Erin said, getting the blonde’s attention. “Good to see you’re awake and alive. How are you feeling?”
“Like I said earlier, like crap. But I won’t feel anywhere near as bad as the dumbass who thought this was a good idea, once I get my hands on them,” Ryle said. “Who would want to take us prisoner anyways? What are they supposed to gain from that?”
“No idea. Although, I’m sure we’re going to find that out soon,” the redhead said. “As for who took us prisoner, I can’t say for sure, but do you remember what we were doing before you went lights out?”
“Yeah, I’m not exactly fond of thinking back on my less than proudest moment… But I do remember us fighting that warlord lady. I got angry at her, because she-” the blonde began recalling the events that led to this, when she remembered what had happened to Arkay and her eyes went wide. “Oh crap! That’s right! Where’s Arnie!? Is he okay!?”
“I’m right here, Ryle,” the cat boy said as he had woken up as well.
“Thank God! Not in that I’m glad about what we’ve gotten ourselves into, but just the fact that you’re okay,” the blonde said happily. “I mean, this is very similar to that one fun dream I once had, except Erin wasn’t there and I wasn’t tied up. And-”
“Please don’t tell us any more. We don’t need it,” Erin said in a frustrated tone as she shook her head lightly. “Anyways, we should focus on getting out of here. We don’t know if whoever captured us knows about the others, so we need to get out of here and warn them as soon as possible.”
“I’m more than aware of the rest of your band of buddies,” the voice of Rayleen suddenly cut in from behind the trio, who looked behind them to see the warlord walking up to them. “I might not know where they are right now, but rest assured that if I want to, I can find them. Won’t take me long either.”
image [https://i.ibb.co/cFBCWwb/Ch-120-Pic-1.jpg]
“I was wondering if it was you who captured us. It seems I was right,” the redhead said as she glared at Rayleen. “So what exactly do you want from us? I can promise you that we don’t have anything to tell you that you’d find useful.”
“I know that much already. Give me some credit!” the warlord said. “I’ve seen enough of those who have a problem with the Five Overlords to tell that you guys aren’t working with any of the major resistance groups out there. Not only that, but you’ve done a very bad job at hiding your tracks, if you were ever attempting to do so in the first place at all. I know more than enough about every member of your little band of friends.”
“Oh really? Well, aren’t you a big shot!” Ryle said sarcastically. “What did you find out about me? My favorite flavor of ice cream and cookies?”
“Not that much. But I did find out about your profession as a bounty hunter and your immediate family,” Rayleen said with a smirk. “You lost your parents at a young age, forcing you to live in the slums of Grand Ravine with your younger brother, Zeke. Because of he fell ill, you had to take up bounty hunting in order to provide not just food and other necessities for the two of you, but also medical supplies for him. Luckily for you, you had a talent for fighting and he eventually picked up skills that helped you in your work. The two of you then began to take care of the other orphans in the slums, building a little family for yourselves. You had a very successful career, until General Milas Lune decided to make a deal with your brother that he wasn’t planning to keep. This ended with your brother and the people in the slums dying, and you joining up with Erin in order to seek revenge for your brother.”
The eyes of Erin, Ryle and Arkay went wide in shock. The amount of information the warlord knew was far beyond what they had imagined. If she knew this much about just one of them, then how much did she know about the rest of them?
“Surprised by just that? Don’t be. There’s still plenty I’ve learned about the rest of you,” Rayleen said with a wide grin. “I know about you little kitty here being a rather famous thief in Moonstone City, who would sell his loot in the local Black Market. I also know about the different businesses your kobold friend has been setting up around the Western Continent, with most of them being no more than scams. Then there is Durge, the last member of a warrior tribe that was wiped out a couple of years ago, forcing him to become an enforcer to the Laughing Ogre. And do I even need to tell you about the history of Zeldana? Because there’s quite a lot of it.”
The three assassins were now shaking from shock. They had never imagined someone to be able to dig up this much about any of them. Just what kind of an information network did they have in order to find out all of this?
“However, there is one of you, who is a bit of a mystery,” the warlord said as she stared at Erin. “YOU are quite the mystery. I was able to find out about you up to your appearance in Rockmoore Town, where you took down the local official, Gibbot. From what my sources were able to gather, you did work at a local restaurant, but were then apparently turned over to the police by the owner. Problem is that I have no idea why anyone would assume that you would be of any interest to any authorities at all, as there is literally nothing about you before that. No criminal record, no other background, not even some person that might have known you in your childhood. It’s almost like you popped out of the ether to be a pain in the ass for the Five Overlords!”
Ryle and Arkay glanced at each other. It seemed like Rayleen and her people had come up on the same mystery that they had been pondering for some time now and were unable to find anything. If an intelligence network that was able to trace the background of pretty much everybody else in their group to such detail, then who was Erin, when even they couldn’t find out the truth?
“So would you mind and shed some light on this little mystery of mine?” Rayleen asked. “Could you tell me just who you are and what is your relationship with the Five Overlords?”
As Erin glared at the warlord, both Ryle and Arkay waited for the redhead’s answer. Even though they knew it was wrong to force another person to tell others about themselves against their wishes, they couldn’t help but hope that she would. They wanted to finally know just who the person they had been following all this time was.
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“Sorry. There isn’t much to tell and I don’t feel like talking to you,” Erin said. “Was there something else you wanted from us or did you seriously capture us just so you could appease your own curiosity?”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind to learn about your backstory, if for nothing else than to satisfy my own curiosity, but it’s not necessary,” Rayleen said with a shrug. “Besides, if that’s what I wanted, then what would be the point of me keeping your friends alive? What I want is something that requires your whole group.”
Despite being slightly disappointed, Ryle and Arkay were glad that the warlord required all of them alive. Considering what she had just said, she wasn’t the type to keep around those who weren’t useful to her. However, the question remained, what did she need from them?
“You want OUR help? Is that what you’re saying?” Erin asked. “Is it really alright for one of the warlords to work together with rebels? I’m sure if your boss found out about this, it wouldn’t end well for you.”
“And that’s why we are not going to let him know. Problem solved!” Rayleen said. “Besides, it’s not like any of you are in a position to threaten me with telling him. I can assure you that while my head would end up on the chopping block, so would all of you as well. So how about we abandon all the pointless posturing and bravado, and get down to business at hand?”
“...Fine. We’ll listen to what you have in mind,” the redhead said. “So what is it that you need our help with? Do you need us to clear some difficult rebels or something?”
“Oh, not at all! I can handle such insignificant issues by myself!” the warlord said with a chuckle. “The one I want you guys to go after is Golorath himself.”
Silence fell over, as the three assassins stared at Rayleen with dumbfounded looks on their faces, unable to process what they had just heard.
“...I’m sorry, but mind repeating that?” Erin asked. “I think I just heard that you said you wanted us to kill Golorath.”
“What? Are you deaf or something? That’s exactly what I said!” Rayleen said as she stared at the redhead like she was crazy. “I want you to go and try to assassinate Golorath! What is so hard to understand about that!?”
“I see… I thought that’s what you said,” Erin said, thinking over the warlord’s request. “So… Mind telling us just WHY you want us to go after your own boss? It doesn’t make much sense that one of the warlords would want us to kill one of the Five Overlords.”
“Isn’t it obvious!? What other reason could there be for an underling to want to kill their boss other than what you’d expect!?” Rayleen asked. “I want to take over! Instead of that fat bastard running things, I want to be the one in charge! It’s simple as that!”
“YOU want to become one of the Five Overlords!?” Ryle asked. “Are you out of your damn mind or something!? What makes you think that you could replace one of them just like that!? I doubt the other four would just take that sitting down!”
“First of all, don’t you go underestimating my leadership abilities! I can run things around her just fine, if not better!” the warlord said angrily. “Second, the other Overlords don’t give a damn what happens around here! Each of them holds their own area and they don’t mess with each other, unless under very special circumstances! Once I take over, I doubt that the other Overlords will even care, as splitting the Western Continent among themselves would be too much of a pain in the ass! Hell, I can probably negotiate with them, so they let me become essentially the new manager of the Western Continent!”
“You do realize you’re putting quite a lot of faith in the idea that the other Overlords simply won’t care, right?” Erin asked. “Anyways, why do you want to take over so badly? Don’t you already have more than enough riches and power as a warlord?”
“Questions asked by those who sadly lack vision… Do you really think that being simply the highest ranking lackey is some sort of a great thing?” Rayleen asked with a sigh. “I might be able to affect things in the areas I control, but that still leaves most of the continent outside my reach! Those with a vision and the ability to make things better should… No, they are obligated to seize power for themselves in order to bring about the changes they envision! This is what I seek to do for the entirety of the Western Continent!”
“D-Does that mean you also hate the tyranny of the Five Overlords?” Arkay asked, wondering if they had found an unexpected ally from the warlord.
“I wouldn’t be getting my hopes up, Arnie,” Ryle said. “People like her don’t give a crap about other people suffering.”
“The blonde one gets it right!” Rayleen said with a grin. “I’m not some idealistic wannabe hero, who’s trying to “bring peace and justice” to the world. I’m not into any of that crap! I just know that if you let bad leaders stay in power, you will eventually suffer from their bad actions yourself.”
“What do you mean?” Erin asked.
“Simple. The rot from above will spread downwards,” the warlord began to explain. “It’s those at the top that make all the rules and decisions that lead the world. If you have the wrong people in charge, it will eventually destroy everything. It doesn’t take a genius to observe how things go that we are not going in a good direction. The current bosses need to be removed, so someone that can honestly lead can be in charge.”
“And you think you’re the person for the job?” Ryle asked with a raised eyebrow. “That’s some pretty high evaluation you have of yourself…”
“Hey, if you need proof, just look at my previous record, before these damn Overlords came in and took over!” Rayleen shouted angrily. “I was actually in the process of conquering the whole Western Continent, when they just came out of nowhere and ruined everything! I had already taken over half of the continent, but then those bastards come in, beat me back, make me their goddamn lackey and I’m left with just a third of what I used to have! Do you have any idea how much that pisses me off!?”
Erin and her friends looked at each other, mulling over the warlord’s rant. So far, it didn’t seem like she was all that better when compared to the Five Overlords. Despite this, the trio also knew that they weren’t exactly in a position to make any kinds of demands, so they would have to work with Rayleen, whether they liked it or not.
“Fine. We’ll work with you,” Erin said in a slightly frustrated tone that showed she wasn’t happy about it. “What is it that you need us to do exactly?”
“So you’re willing to play along? Fantastic! I knew you’d see that it would be the right choice for you to make!” Rayleen said happily. “Although… I’m afraid that I’m going to need you guys to do something for me before we get down to the actual business.”
“Huh!? What kind of crap are you trying to pull!?” Ryle asked angrily. “We already agreed to work with you! What more do you want!?”
“Proof that you guys can do this,” the warlord answered. “You see, I was kind of disappointed by your performance earlier. I want you to show me that you have at least some skill. Consider it a test of sorts.”
“And just what would this test be?” Erin asked as she glared at Rayleen.
“Oh, nothing big! I just need you guys to go and hunt down a monster! That’s all!” the warlord replied. “Specifically the great beast that rules over the sinkhole that this city is close to.”
While Ryle and Arkay were only somewhat concerned over the job that had just been given to them, Erin herself was horrified. This was because she actually knew about the monster that Rayleen was telling them to go after. It was a very big quest in the game when you got to the city, after all.
The great beast the warlord had referred to was a creature known as Reaper Maggot. While the name was a bit corny and the thought of a worm as an enemy wasn’t immediately threatening, the redhead knew better. The monster in question was very large, almost the size of a Grand Centipede, and it had many dangerous attacks. These included a poison gas it could spew on you, fangs dripping with venom and a very dangerous move where it coiled itself around you, squeezing you and immobilizing your body. Not only that, but it could burrow itself underground in order to move much faster and use surprise attacks from below. It could even drag you underground with it. To make things even worse, the monster apparently had a second for that appeared once you damaged it enough.
Back when she had just been playing a game, Erin had tried beating the Reaper Maggot once along with Devin. Despite having made thorough preparations, they had been unable to even get to the monster’s second form. The redhead shuddered to think what facing such a being through means that didn’t involve a computer screen would be like.
However, while she wanted to deny the job given to them, Erin had a feeling that wasn’t exactly an option.
“Just out of curiosity, mind answering one thing?” the redhead asked. “If we don’t accept this job, what will happen to us then?”
“That’s easy! I will first kill you three. Then I’ll use all my resources to find the rest of your group and hunt them down!” Rayleen replied without a hint of hesitation. “Although, I really hope you actually do take this job. It would make things much more simple for me.”
A drop of sweat ran down the side of Erin’s face. It was just like she had assumed. Either they took a job that she didn’t have all that much faith in or they would die right here. They weren’t exactly good options, but they had been driven into a corner.
The redhead glanced at her two friends to judge their reactions. Ryle was glaring and growling at Rayleen, not happy with being put in such a position and still somewhat defiant. Arkay looked scared as she had expected, but she could see a will to fight behind his eyes, showing just how much he had grown in their travels. In a way, Erin wanted to respond to their feelings and resist, but knew that it would be fruitless. For now, they would have to at least play along.
“...Fine. We’ll do this job of yours,” Erin said, surprising her friends. “After we are done with killing the monster, how will we contact you?”
“Great! I’m so happy to see that you are willing to work together with me! I was honestly worried that you wouldn’t accept! Getting rid of bloodstains is such a pain,” Rayleen said happily. “As for contacting me, you don’t need to worry about that. Once you’re done, I’ll be the one to find you.”
“Alright. Can you let us go now?” the redhead asked. “We can’t really do this job of yours, if we are tied like this.”
“Of course! Just a second,” the warlord replied before snapping her fingers. This summoned tiny blue fireballs that burned the wires, releasing the three assassins from their restraints. “There we go! Now, I’m not one to micromanage others, but I do hope that you get moving and try to get this done ASAP. I have other business to attend to and can’t stay around here for too long.”
“How much do we exactly have?” Ryle asked.
“Let’s see… How about five days?” Rayleen suggested. “I’ve already spent way too much time here, trying to catch your attention and finally getting in touch with you. Any longer than that and I might get into some real trouble!”
The blonde wanted to protest, but was stopped by Erin.
“Understood. We’ll get this done within five days,” the redhead said.
“I do hope you will. I’ve put so much hope in you all that being forced to kill you now would be such a disappointment,” Rayleen said with a grin that sent shivers down Erin’s spine.
With their deal now made, the three assassins began to head back to the city with news to their friends waiting for them. The three could only hope that they would take it well.