The woman held onto my arm while I pulled the mask out of my bag. Once I’d put it on, she backed up and composed herself. “I haven’t been around people in a while I guess.” Now that she had calmed down again, I was able to ask her my questions.
“Where is Samael?” I began. She looked confused for a second before answering.
“I’m not completely sure. When I was abandoned here, they were turning south, but beyond that I’m not sure.” She responded.
“Why were you abandoned?” I asked. The question seemed to make uncomfortable because she began playing with a strand of hair and looking sheepishly at the ground.
“I’m not as strong as a lot of the people in the flock my body couldn’t keep up; So, Samael told me to stay here and be a lookout for someone named Nathan. If I saw him, I was supposed to follow the mind link to report it.” She had said a lot of things that I didn’t understand.
“Ok more questions. What is the flock? How do you follow the mind link? And did he tell you why you were looking for this Nathan guy?” She took a deep breath to calm down. All of my questions at once must have overwhelmed her. But eventually she was able to look at me in the mask and begin answering again.
“The flock is what Samael calls the army of people he’s been gathering. The mind link is just what we call our ability to find Samael when we need to. When you’re close to the flock you can feel all of the other minds around you because they’re connected to him. But when you’re not the only one you can feel is Samael. You can always feel Samael.” She shivered and had to stop because she’d started crying again. I really tried to have patience, but it was wearing thin.
“As for Nathan I’m not sure, I was told that a spot in the inner circle was waiting for him.” She finally continued. “I hope that this Nathan guy never gets spotted. The inner circle is not somewhere you want to be.” This was the information that I needed so I pressed her.
“Why is that? What’s wrong with the inner circle?” Her face clouded and she looked like she wanted to spit.
“The inner circle is made up of the most powerful members of the flock. But they’re also Samael’s favorite ‘playthings.’” She put air quotes around the last words.
“And what does he do with his playthings?” I asked grinding my teeth. She didn’t look like she wanted to answer at first, but I reached forward and grabbed her hands in mine. “Please.” She let out a long sigh before speaking.
“He poisons them, repeatedly for hours on end. Vicious poisons that cause painful boils, and flesh to fall off. Things that blind them then he takes to letting them walk around and having others beat them or cut them. When you’re in the flock, it’s like you want to do these things. You want them because Samael does. But his mind control doesn’t work during the torture. Trauma releases them and lets them know themselves again. When he’s finished with them or they’re close to death he orders Autumn or another healer to fix them. The healers never get touched though. If he runs out of healers, he won’t be able to have his fun and keep his power. He needs people for power you know.”
It was as if now that she’d started talking about the more horrible parts a tap had been turned on and she continued to spew all the information she knew. With every word I got angrier until I realized that I was biting my lip so hard a trickle of blood ran down my chin and fell to the ground. When she was finished, she looked at me like she was trying to figure something out but then changed her mind.
“Are you going to save them? Like you saved me?” I gave a curt nod. “Then will you come back for me when you’re done?” She asked me, which made me realize I hadn’t even thought of it. I was just going to fly away and never think about her again. I nodded my head again then reached into my bag pulling out some food and water that I’d packed.
“Do you have a weapon?” I asked her and she nodded pulling out a pen knife. Looking at her in shock I asked her where her system weapon was. She told me that weapons were confiscated unless they were going out on a mission.
“Samael let me have this when he left me here.” I reached into my bag once more and pulled out the extra sword I’d bought as a backup. Handing it to her she looked at me with wide eyes. “I don’t know how to use it Mr…?” She tried to lead me into telling her my name, but I didn’t want to just yet in case she was still connected to Samael in some way that I couldn’t see.
“Mr. Green.” I told her to call me, and she did. Before leaving I began to teach her a few basic strikes and blocks. Turns out she was a nature mage before Samael had picked her up, but without her staff she couldn’t use any of her spells. There was nothing else I could do for her so when I finished teaching her the basics, I told her it was time for me to go. She asked me to promise to come back for her again, and I did so. As I rose into the sky the girl waived to me and yelled out. “Bye Mr. Green! I’m counting on you! We’re all counting on you!” Nodding my head, I gave a short wave back to her, then took off toward the south. Toward my friends, and to where I would rip Samael’s core from his body before killing him. From what I’d read it was the most brutal unimaginable pain you could inflict on someone, as your core connects deeply with your soul.
But I’d made up my mind, no one should have the power to do what he’s been doing to others, and I would stop him from ever doing it again. On my way south I found a few more people under Samael’s influence, and I freed them and interviewed each one of them. I had to change directions a few times, when I found out that there’d been a change to the flock. Teams were sent out to spawn kill dungeons, and each time I found one of the teams camping outside a dungeon I would free them too.
By now Samael had to know that I was coming for him. Just a few people being disconnected from him was one thing. He might think that the monsters in the wild had killed them, but losing entire dungeon teams was far too conspicuous. I could have just left them alone, and snuck past them, but I couldn’t do that. There was no way I’d leave another person under his control any longer than I absolutely had to.
The dungeon teams would be a few days behind me, but every one of them said that they would help however they could. It would be a great relief to me if I could have anyone helping me. Everyone that I met told me the same story. They’d been surviving in the wilderness, or they’d been in the camp when Samael and his flock came through. The next thing any of them knew was they had joined the procession. Every time I heard it my anger became more palpable, and I felt that if I could reach and touch that feeling it would be a weapon that all of my enemies would fear.
The last dungeon group I came upon finally told me about work camp close by. People in the work camp were being forced to cut and shape stone for a palace Samael was having built in the new mountain range that had sprung up out of nowhere. It didn’t take long to find, but when I got there, I found at least 300 people. All of them wore Samael’s crown, which is what I’d taken to calling it. I’d have to start my plan of stealing people early. If I swooped in and just started fighting the whole work camp reinforcements would definitely be sent quickly.
I wanted nothing more than to rush toward the city being built in the mountains. It just wasn’t possible though. When I asked the dungeon teams about it the most recent number for the flock was a little over 150,000 people and growing. With that many people he’d catch up to me in a matter of weeks as far as levels go. My stats would still out pace him by leaps and bounds I was hopeful, but at the same time I didn’t know if he had any stat boosting titles of his own.
So, I began my assault on the work camp. “The more people I have to help me smuggle people out the better.” I had to give up on getting Santiago out first. His being in the inner circle and always close to Samael ruined that part of the plan. The assault started at night; I crept in close to one of the guards keeping my aura as close to me as I could so that he wouldn’t sense it. Samael’s Crown reached out to me anyway, but before the guard could lay eyes on me, I’d knocked him out.
Quickly I snuffed out this man’s aura and dragged him away. I would keep doing this until I had enough people to overwhelm the rest of the camp. All night I worked, knocking people out and freeing them far enough away from the work camp that they wouldn’t be influenced by Samael’s Crown any longer. Most of them had an emotional response to being freed but I let the other people help them get through that. By morning I had freed sixty people.
They weren’t exceptionally strong, but I told them the plan anyway. I would cover them in my aura to protect them from being taken over again. My aura strength being enough to do that at least. We would grab as many people as we could and haul them away. If they had a weapon, they would be left to me. We’d strike hard and fast then get out of there.
The dungeon teams would be here within a few days, and I could accomplish a lot in that time. One great thing happened because of Samael’s Crown, and that was that everyone who had been in the flock had learned about cultivation through him. They didn’t know the basics yet, but I could teach them that. We attacked at night grabbing everyone we could, and they’d be free that night. During the day I taught each of them the very basics of cultivation, that I’d learned so long ago.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Many of the people unlocked their sight quickly and filled their base element cores. I didn’t know if that was because they were exceptionally talented or if I was just becoming a better teacher, but either way I was happy that they would have some kind of auric defense here soon. By the end of three days the entire work camp was free, and we began using it as our base.
I had stronger people take weaker people into the wilderness to hunt and level up, that way we would have food and the weak people had a chance to get stronger. Having a few scouting types was handy, and I made good use of them finding water in the area. Two days after we’d taken the camp a group of 50 came out to check what had happened to all the workers. We freed those people as well.
I sent a small party back to get the lookouts that I’d had to leave behind, but aside from that the camp had grown. We still weren’t ready to take on the city though, and I doubted we would be for a while. One night as I was standing watch over the town, I found myself thinking about my friends again. I wondered if they were being tortured right now, and my heart felt heavy. Continuing my watch that night I felt more alone, and more guilty than ever before.
If I’d just come back sooner, maybe I could have saved some of them. Maybe I’d have been able to save even one of them. I thought back to the day that all of this started. “Must have been at least a month and a half by now.” Almost two months of being under that creep’s thumb waiting for me to rescue them.
Every day was a struggle not to just charge through the city killing everyone in sight just to get to them. But those people were victims too. My friends would never forgive me for that, and I wasn’t sure if I could forgive myself for that. I left my musings when the sun came up, it was time to start the plans for the day.
We started with a round of meditation basics, then I would work with the melee fighters and warriors using what I’d learned in the past month as a basis. As the days passed Samael continued to send bigger and bigger war parties to crush us. With each party our numbers grew and his shrank. We’d grown to an army of a thousand strong. I continued training people and sending them to dungeons. Some of them didn’t come back and I wore that guilt like a cloak around my shoulders.
But people would always reassure me that they knew the cost of losing this war was enough motivation to risk the dungeons for strength. Even so I made sure to always place high level people in parties with the low leveled people. It was safer that way, and as people leveled up less people died. I was happy with our progress in that.
As soon as enough living spaces were built the system recognized us as a population center and granted us a system store. There weren’t enough weapons for everybody so the ones that could pitched in and we armed everyone that we could. The settlement was growing day by day, and everyone looked to me for guidance and leadership. I felt like a fraud though. “Damien should be leading these people, not me. He cares about humanity as a whole. I only want my friends back.” I would think that every time someone called me sir or followed an order that I gave.
So far none of the people I’d rescued were people from the Seattle camp, so I kept introducing myself as Mr. Green. I wanted to trust these people, but there was always the chance that someone could have a twist in their brain and want to help Samael. There was no doubt that he knew that I was here, but I looked a lot different, and I wore different armor now. There was a chance that he didn’t know that it was me, and I wanted to keep it that way. It might be the only thing that keeps Samael from just killing my friends.
Two weeks after I’d taken over the work camp, I decided that it was time to scout out this city in the mountains. I left the new settlement in the hands of Brighton, a talented water mage who used to be a city planner before the system. Then I started my trek into the mountains. Deciding that it was too risky to fly for fear of being spotted too early, I walked instead. There was a surprising amount of high-level dungeons nearby, but I didn’t bother with them for now.
Instead, I continued walking forward, doing my best to follow the directions I’d gotten to the city. Every now and then I would hear footsteps and have to hide myself from the scouting parties and dungeon parties. Once they were close enough, I’d overwhelm the small parties with my aura and free them from Samael. They were grateful, but I didn’t have all the time in the world to spend hearing their thanks. Instead, I’d get some information, making sure that I was still traveling in the right direction, and then point them toward my camp.
There were also wild monsters in the area to contend with; Rock and Crystal golems mostly, but there were also giant cats and bears. I did my best to leave them be and they did the same for me, most of the time. On occasion a bear would get it in its head that it could take me or something. I would smack them right on the snout and knock them out, because I didn’t want to hurt the bears too badly. “Bears are cute.” I thought.
Finally, as I crested the peak of the second mountain, I found myself staring down at a large valley. There were thousands of people here and by the way the ground was covered in a giant storm of Samael’s Crowns I knew that I’d found the right place. It wasn’t much of a city yet, but it had 10-foot walls surrounding it that must have been built by an earth mage. I also saw several mud or clay houses along with a rock foundation of a mansion on the far hill. In the center of town stood a statue of Samael holding a ring out to a kneeling man as he kissed it. “Fuckin creepy.”
I couldn’t stay in one place for too long because if I did tendrils of Samael’s aura would begin stretching out toward me. Instead, I jumped from place to place looking for weaknesses and for Samael. If he poked his head up, then I might just be able to shoot him and be done with all of this. I knew that was risky though. Even if he did come out in the open, he’d be travelling with the inner circle, and he might order one of my friends to stand in the way of my attack.
It was a risk that I just wasn’t willing to take right now. Sneaking around the city and still being able to gather information was a difficult task. Tendrils of aura kept attempting to reach out toward me, and I had to continuously fight them off or retreat farther. There wasn’t much information that I could get from the people in the city as the only things they ever said were how great Samael was and variations on that. I was able to gain some good intel nonetheless, occasionally, a person would break away from the work of hauling rocks and mud or standing guard at the wall.
Each of these people had cores of their own and they would all go to a specific building. It was the biggest of all of the clay buildings in the area, and I could see that there were etchings carved into the side of it. Murals of Samael looking far more dashing than I remembered the man being. There was a reason each of these people went to go to there, but I didn’t know what it could be. I had the thought that maybe he was torturing them but based off of the freed people’s testimony back at the camp, Samael was obsessed with me. That’s why he only ever tortured the people in the inner circle.
Everyone in the flock could feel his emotions as if they were their own, another measure to ensure obedience, I was sure. Every person I’d freed said that he was obsessed with a man named Nathan because he dared to be above him in the leaderboards. According to Samael it was an affront to the gods that anyone would act above the “chosen one” in any way. But that led me back to the question of why those specific people would go to that building.
I watched the city for days until I figured it out. Keeping an eye on one woman with a small red core I noticed that the crown of aura around her head had started to lose some of its power. The white specks had almost disappeared from her shackle and the blue looked pale and thin. As soon as I noticed this the woman dropped the load she’d been carrying and ran straight to the building. When she came back out her mental restraints were as strong as ever.
Wanting to confirm my theory I picked another person out that had a core. This time I watched only him for days, his small green core pulsed every now and then, and every time it did more white specks disappeared from around his head. As soon as Samael’s Crown had gotten to the point of weakness that the woman’s had he dropped whatever it was that he was doing and ran to the building. “Cultivators cores help them fight the aura.” I realized and wondered why my friends hadn’t all escaped yet if that was the case.
After all I trained each of them and they had the strongest cores, and auras of anyone aside from me that I knew. I needed answers, I needed a cultivator. My plan was to wait until one of them got close enough to the wall for me to swoop in and grab them. This plan had two issues though. The first being that if I didn’t get them far enough away fast enough then I’d be discovered. The other one was that if I got too close, I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t be overcome by the entire ocean of aura coming off of the camp.
Even so those were risks that I would have to take. On the third day, waiting for my opportunity to snag one of the cultivators out of the camp, I noticed something strange about one of them. He’d gone to the building every single day so far; so I decided that I would watch him a little more closely. Even with my perception as high as it was now it was still difficult to make out details from over a mile away. Ballad’s Bow came in handy with the scope portion though.
I was able to see right up against the man’s core, and I was surprised to see what was happening. It was the standard blue core of a water cultivator, but it already had flecks of a different kind of blue in it that I was unfamiliar with. As the day progressed, I saw the man pull the essence straight out of Samael’s Crown adding the water essence to his own core and filtering out the white flecks. Every time he did this, he walked closer to the wall but right when I decided that I would go grab him, he turned away and ran straight to the building.
Frustrated, I made the decision that I would get him the next day if he continued doing whatever it was that he was doing. The next day surely enough I watched as he filtered the aura, and crept closer to the wall. When he was just 50 meters away from the wall, I made my move. Swooping down from the spot I’d been sitting in I pulsed as quickly as I could, bombing him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and shot straight back into the air.
The weaker aura attempted to attack me, but I crushed it with a thought. Unfortunately, when the man regained consciousness a few seconds later and found himself flying several hundred feet above the ground; he did not take it well. The man who appeared to be in his mid-forties thrashed around grabbing at me and made me wobble somewhat. I almost dropped him, but I managed to make it back to the spot I’d been watching him from and turned back around to watch the city.
My stomach dropped when I saw an army of five or six thousand rushing out of the gates, headed in the direction of my new settlement. I’d been seen, and Samael was not taking me stealing one of his cultivators lightly.