“It’s a devil.” Kaisel determined.
“What?” Someone asked.
“Yes. That’s the only logical explanation of the strength that Ryworn and Typhen claim Jillesha has. When we knew him before, he was strong, but definitely not strong enough to kill someone like that. He must have made a deal with a devil to get that strength.” Kaisel explained, “Ideally, if we can destroy the container that the devil is being housed in, Jillesha will get weaker, and it will be way easier for us to defeat him.”
“That’s not the only explanation.” Hess added.
“Please, Hess. Tell us.” Kaisel gave her room.
She started, “Jillesha was never strong. Even the one you saw for the first time was a version of him that came about after more than eight years of training. Originally, he was one of the weakest people in this world. Unfit to be a warrior.”
“Are you serious?” Ginzari asked.
Hess nodded, “It isn’t necessarily some deal with some devil. He got that strong in a matter of eight years, with very little help. It has been much, much longer since then. To think that he has reached that strength is very much in the realm of possibility. The speed of the development of his strength is unnatural.”
“Well, he isn’t from this world.” Typhen reminded everyone, “So, I don’t think we can apply our kind of natural to him.”
“The same goes for me, but I definitely do not grow at a rate like that.” Ginzari said.
“You’re still much stronger than you should be, Ginzari.” Kaisel pointed out, “Your growth is faster than any of us, and that’s more proof. Maybe its that one factor that binds people from other worlds, and the thing that varies in that is how fast or strong the development is. It’s also safe to assume that Ryworn will soon be on your levels if he is given proper training.”
That seemed a bit overdramatic to me. Ginzari had just said that his rate of growth was much slower than Jillesha’s. Maybe mine was even slower than Ginzari’s. Because up until now, I hadn’t really felt much of a difference in the development of my fighting.
“The worlds we come from could also have something to do with it.” Ginzari suggested, “After all, me and Ryworn and Jillesha are all from completely different worlds. Well, I am just guessing about Ryworn and Jillesha, but most probably, that’s the case. Whatever it is, maybe that’s it. We come from different worlds, and that’s why we grow in this world much differently.”
A lot of eyes were turning to me. Did they expect me to add something to the conversation? I felt a bit out-of-place, with all of these people discussing in complete sync. Butting in in between could throw them off. But the people kept staring. Soon, even Kaisel and Ginzari joined in. They really did expect me to say things.
“I don’t know. Jillesha did seem like he was from a different world. It’s the same as me and Ginzari. The looks themselves are enough to distinguish us. In fact, Ginzari and Jillesha look more alike than me and him.”
“Jillesha looked a lot like you when he was weak.” Hess said.
It made my brain go numb. Somewhere in my head, I had had that idea for some time now. It was a part of the little project I had taken to understand Jillesha’s personality to better understand myself. The way he treated the people of this world was obvious. He was their superior. Of course, there were a lot of ways to justify that, but there was one that was familiar to me. And that was that even Jillesha knew the concept of reincarnation before he was reincarnated himself.
He had also, like me, read stories that used the idea to full effect. If he too was an avid fan of the concept, then it wouldn’t be outlandish to think that he had decided to just have fun in the context of this world. It wasn’t his world, after all, and he was aware of that. Much like I had been. Whatever he did here, did not affect the real him in the real world, as long as he didn’t die. He could be a totally different person in this place and get away with it. Morality had nothing to do with a place that could be considered a fairy tale or a game.
In fact, when I had first come to this place, I had been quick to dismiss Auria, Klaus and Tyber as walking stereotypes. Jillesha probably never met people like them, so he just got tricked and dropped into the theatre. He had no idea of the scale of what was going on, so the people who were acting did look like stereotypes to him. And he had no way of knowing otherwise.
“Well, there’s a chance he might be from my world.” I managed to declare, “There’s a lot of factors that would be way too difficult to get into right now, but I can definitely see a version of him who is from the same world as me. Now that you’ve said that, Hess, I can’t really ignore it.”
“Is there nothing you can tell us about why?” Sylvia asked. She had been silent until just now.
“I could, but I’m not sure that all of you would understand the terms that I would use. To expand on those terms and explain them fully would waste a lot of time. I could, if you want me to, but I still want you all to believe me when I say that I do have quite a bit of proof to support myself.”
“More than that, why are we focusing on this right now? It isn’t related to the main subject, is it?” Typhen asked.
“It is, Typhen.” Kaisel came in, “If both Ryworn and Jillesha are from the same world, and our theory of the worlds themselves affecting the rate of growth in strength is correct, then Ryworn will probably grow to be as strong as Jillesha. We can use that fact to our advantage. Also, just the fact that they are from the same world gives us an opportunity to mentally challenge him.”
“That is assuming that it isn’t actually a devil, though.” Hess said, “I know I said that it probably isn’t, but I also don’t want you to reject your own theory. I wouldn’t put it past that man to use underhanded tricks like those to get stronger as soon as he could. Once you get a taste of something like that, it’s hard to stop and wait for training.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Of course.” Kaisel smiled, “There’s that too, I guess. So, for now we should keep the two of these as our running theories to justify his inhuman strength.”
“If it’s a devil, we destroy its housing container. If its simple growth, then we have no option other than to brute force it.” Ginzari said, “Which makes the fact that I really hope that it’s a devil, sound pretty weird. If he has gotten strong enough to kill people that easily without any supernatural help, then there’s a high chance that none of us will return from this alive.”
“Whatever it is, I’ll kill him.” Hess said.
“Yeah, I haven’t forgotten. You shall get the final blow, so be prepared to swing well.” Ginzari said.
Why was it that she had such a hatred for Jillesha? Ever since the name had been taken in front of her in that forest, her attitude had changed. Never before had I seen her so bloodthirsty. The scarier part was still that she looked the same as always, and maintained the same outward demeanor. It was only in talking to her and hearing her words that one could that she just wasn’t the same person as a few days ago.
“Now that we’re done with the basic discussion of the main plan, we need to move on to detailed versions of it. There are three that I deem necessary. The first one that’s made with the assumption that a devil is helping him. The second one with the assumption that this is his actual, natural strength. And the third is a more general one that we will use anyways. It tries to assume that both of them are right and wrong at the same time, and sends smaller divisions everywhere to gather more information.” Ginzari explained.
“Alright!” A bunch of mercenaries spoke up in loud voices, cheering for the next phase of the meeting.
Then, it went on for a while, with a lot of talking using terms that I did not completely understand. I tried my best to understand all of the plans to completion. Especially the ones which involved me in any way. As long as I could do my individual part and make sure that it went smoothly, then that was more than enough for the others to handle the tougher situations and fight to the end.
During this part, a lot of burden also fell on me, because Typhen had already forgotten most of the place, while I completely remembered the layout of that cave even now. I drew it out for them, and that was what all of the plans were based around. We just knew the one route we had taken yesterday, and that was what Ginzari was betting to rely on. The room where we had seen Jillesha yesterday was where most of the scenarios played out. I had thought that that might have been nothing but the meeting room, but a lot of people were convinced that we had found the ‘throne room’. Whatever it was, though, it was decided as the heart of the final battle for now.
One by one, further points related to the mission were covered by Ginzari, Hess and Kaisel. Hess’ aggressiveness kept growing as further topics were discussed, and by the time the meeting ended, she was completely ready to kill Jillesha even in that moment. Ginzari dismissed the meeting after some time, but asked Hess to stay back for a quick talk. Everyone else left the area. Typhen immediately headed to his tent to rest.
Kaisel and Sylvia started to go to his tent together. Unable to stop myself from talking to them after so long, and hopefully sharing the story of the magic I had used against Jillesha, I followed them.
“It has been a while.” Kaisel handed me a cup of tea, similar to the one he usually drank. I wasn’t a huge fan of tea, but now that he had given it to me so kindly, I couldn’t reject it. Sip by sip, I managed to get through it. By the time it was over, it had almost grown on me.
“As for before, I hope you can forgive me. There were strict instructions from Hess to not talk to you.” He explained before glancing at Sylvia, “Of course, that did not extend to her, so I think you two will need to talk that out on your own.”
“We already have.” Sylvia quickly replied.
Had we? Well, since she had said it, I guess we had. As long as she wouldn’t ignore me every time that we happened to come across each other, I was fine with pretending and playing along.
“Yeah, and that doesn’t really matter now, does it?” I asked, “It was my mistake, and I rightfully paid for it. Right now, I just want to help out to the best of my abilities.”
“Try not to get too involved, Ryworn.” Kaisel smiled, “Tensions are high around the camp because of Hess. Add Typhen to that, and it creates a strong, but negative atmosphere. It isn’t important for Jillesha to die during our attack. It’s important for us to make sure that we do not lose more people. Hess wouldn’t understand that, so I need you two to, at least. Calm down during the fights. Think rationally, not emotionally.”
“But Hess is the one who needs to hear that.” Sylvia sighed, “She’s going to get herself into trouble if she goes after him so single-mindedly. What is up with that anyways?”
“I had the same question, actually.” I decided to add my vote too, “What happened between the two of them, for her to be so motivated about killing him?”
“Ah,” Kaisel closed his eyes, “Tough question, isn’t it? Not because the answer is difficult, but because the choice to tell it or not, is. She would be very angry if she found out that I had been spreading that story around.”
“So, you were there too? When whatever it was happened.” Sylvia asked.
“Yeah.” Kaisel confirmed, “Most of the members right now weren’t with us back then. We had a completely different band. That was when we met the two of them for the first time. And then, whatever it was…happened. I think its smarter for us to not breach the topic, honestly. For all three of our sakes.”
“I can take her anger, but only when it’s directed towards one of us. Because I know she won’t destroy herself in the process.” Sylvia’s voice cracked with sadness, “If something happens, I’ll handle it. Tell us. Please. I don’t want to see her so blinded by rage. Not after everything that has happened recently.”
“That came out of nowhere.” Kaisel took her empty cup of tea and placed it outside the tent, on the ground. Then, he came back inside and sat back on his chair, “You know I think the same, but the unfortunate part is that her rage is justified. The only ones who need to make sure not to get carried away, are you two, and everyone else in the camp. If Hess does not give in to that anger, then she’ll probably suffer even more. Don’t worry about her, Syl.”
That was the first time I had seen Kaisel call her that. Despite others using that nickname occasionally, he had always used her full name, at least whenever I had seen these two.
“Ugh. Even if she would feel better later, how does it matter if she gets so blinded by her want to kill him that she hurts herself much more in the process?” Sylvia almost shouted.
I had wanted to come here to talk to them about normal things, for a bit of a cooldown. I hadn’t expected to see this. To a certain extent, it felt like an uncalled-for intrusion on my side. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Go ahead, Kaisel.” A voice suddenly spoke from behind me. I got startled and looked back.
Hess was standing in front of the tent’s entrance with her hands crossed.
She smiled, looking at Sylvia, “I’m not going to die, so stop being so anxious. You’ll jeopardize the mission if you’re just thinking about me the entire time. If telling you the story is going to help you take your mind off of it, then go ahead.”
“Hess, I-” Sylvia tried to stand up, but Hess gestured for her not to.
She stepped back, “I need to finish up on some work. Once you’re done listening and are thinking straight, start preparing. We plan on leaving close to tomorrow evening.”
“Evening?” I asked, “But by the time we get there…”
“The time will be just right.” Hess said before closing the flaps of the tent and disappearing from the view.
“That’s rare.” Kaisel kept looking at the entrance for a while, “But since she’s okay with it, I guess I’ll tell you.”