The unit of 600 lizardmen along with the antiheroes and the group of mercenaries traveled across the plains in uneventful fashion.

Aside from the fact that there was a giant ball of tormented humans who seemed to be consistently throwing up on each other from the turbulent motion of the ball and wishing that they could scream out in pain despite their vocal chords being silenced due to Ashley's pinpointed magic, it was a peaceful journey. Ashley even added some spin to the ball for extra enjoyment.

After reaching the village, the lizardmen paraded through it, with the antiheroes waving to everyone from the windows of the carriage. Many lizardmen bowed down in fear of the antiheroes as they passed, not daring to raise themselves until they were out of sight. Others ran away in fear, hiding in the corners of the town to avoid contact with the terrifying monsters who were parading through their town with a ball of defeated humans above them.

'They are too powerful.... look at those humans.... how are they holding them up like that, and there are so many of them!!! Did they easily defeat that entire army, and are now showing us that they could easily have taken our village at any moment?'

'This must be some sort of message against rebellion. We have no choice but to bow down in submission to these overwhelmingly powerful beings.'

When they reached a large plaza, where many had gathered, Rocko stood forward, and made the announcement.

"People of the lizardmen tribe!!! I have come to you with the news of the antiheroes success in defeating the human army which invaded the fishmen, who they took on as their slaves. Burn this sight into your eyes! That is what remains of those who became the enemies of the antiheroes!!! On the other hand, the fishmen who sought their aid and submitted themselves to the antiheroes live peacefully in their village now, despite the fact that they have now accepted the chains of slavery!!"

Many lizardmen stayed quiet, scared to even whisper for fear that the antiheroes would rebuke them.

Rocko continued his speech with fervor.

"The antiheroes have made a point of crushing their enemies, but they also have made a point of ensuring that the ones who submit to them are not attacked by any, and if anyone attempts to destroy those who have submitted to them, they instead will be destroyed!! This is a new era for monsters all over the world! The era of the current monster kings is over, and we are shifting into a new balance of power where the antiheroes will become the new demon lords!!! We of the lizardmen tribe have always prided ourselves on our strength, however this strength was only a facade as we never faced enemies who were truly strong!! The demons and dragons live in a place far removed from here, and in the face of their armies we would be crushed in an instant! However, now we have the opportunity to submit ourselves to these antiheroes- these beings who are overwhelmingly powerful by even the standards of demons!!!! It is in our best interest to submit ourselves to them as their slaves, and allow our village to be annexed, and incorporated into their Dictatorship as part of the nation!! This is my decision as the chief of the lizardmen. Arlo was able to recognize this before I, and it was my own folly as a leader which led to my hesitation. It was my pride which held me back from making such a decision. I will no longer allow this pride to hold us back!!! I pledge the lizardmen village to the antiheroes!!!!"

Many lizardmen were nervous at first, looking around at each other silently, however there was one lizardman who began clapping.

It was Rar.

Rar understood well what this meant.

It meant that this village too would become subject to the rule of those terrible beings.

However, he could do nothing more than clap, lest he be subject to their anger.

He had visited their village, and feared them with his entire soul.

So he clapped. He clapped out of the terror that overcame him, wondering what would happen if he did not do so.

Quietly at first, but soon his clapping became louder and faster.

Eventually, the others around him, filled with fear, started clapping as well.

Slowly but surely, the entire group of lizardmen, completely filling the plaza, was send into a complete rage of desperate celebration.

They began to stomp their feet and jump up and down, hooting and hollering.

"Antiheroes!!!! We will become your slaves!!!!"

"Your excellencies!!!! Please have mercy on our tribe!!!!"

"Please allow us to become a part of your Dictatorship!!!!!!"

Trevor opened the door to the carriage, and hung out of the carriage with one hand holding onto the roof, and the other waving to the people. He simply smiled, but soon the other three antiheroes followed his lead and did the same.

They waved to their newly dominated people, and Samantha smiled sweetly, charming the lizardmen who looked in her direction.

'She is so beautiful...'

'The antiheroes are such magnificent leaders....'

'They will lead the lizardmen village to our former glory.... no, even further beyond this!'

Cries of celebration reigned. At first, they were out of desperation and fear, but soon they turned to awe and respect for the elegant yet monstrous appearances of their new leaders.

'I can't believe it.... a nation of cities in the monster realm, under one single leader! Even the monster kings have not been able to do something like this due to their constant rivalry with one another. If one of them were to try taking over the smaller villages, it would likely lead to war among each other, so they did not do so.'

After this, while the cheering was still ongoing, Trevor decided to motion over to the four mercenaries- Lance, Melody, Pierre, and Charlotte, and they approached the carriage quickly.

"Yes, your excellencies?", Melody asked slyly.

"Come inside. I want for you all to come somewhere with us, and see something through to the end. We will be temporarily leaving the lizardmen village to take care of one last thing before returning to collect the 200 coming back to the Dictatorship with us.", Trevor ordered.

"Are you sure it's alright for us to be in the same carriage as you, your excellency?", Charlotte asked. "It might give off that you are treating us higher than others..."

"I want to give off that impression, as I consider you four to be more valuable assets than the others here. I will never expect anything out of anyone else, but I feel that there is a high possibility that you all will contribute significantly to our future efforts.", Trevor replied.

The four nodded, and reluctantly entered the carriage.

"Whoa... it's so big....", Lance said.

"Um... I hate to ask but... just what are those ornaments you're wearing?", Pierre asked while staring at the necklaces and bracelets which the antiheroes were all wearing.

"Oh, these?", Garett responded while fiddling with one of the fingers in his hand. "They are merely the spoils of war. The remains of the enemy commander. Would you all like some as well?"

"N-no... I'm fine...", Pierre stated.

"As much as I would like one, I am not worthy of such a gift from your excellencies.", Melody responded.

The other two simply laughed quietly, somewhat disturbed.

'Well, I suppose Legion Commander Caspus was a pretty bad man.... I heard from Wexus that he was working with Brutus and there were a lot of conspiracies surrounding him...'

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

'Apparently he was working against Percius, so he probably deserved this punishment...'

'The same thing goes for those legionnaires.... if the antiheroes deemed them to be enemies, then they were probably scum who deserve whatever punishment is given to them.'

The three made the baseless assumption that the antiheroes were doing things out of some sort of good will. Melody understood better the intentions of the antiheroes.

Samantha made no effort to correct these misunderstandings.

"Let's go. Close the door so that nobody notices that we are gone. This will only take a moment."

And with that, the door was shut and the eight teleported to a field, in front of the fishmen village. The ball of humans also teleported with them, and it hovered high above Ashley.

Many fishmen were already walking around on the upper section of the city and cleaning up the damage done by the legionnaires.

However, the sector in which the group teleported was one that reeked of death.

The bodies of countless mercenaries surrounded the group. Most of them had begun rotting at this point, and flies had gathered around.

It was filthy.

The tents were burnt to ashes, and many burnt pieces of wood combined with the stench of rotten and burnt flesh to create a putrid smell.

"What is this!?"

"What happened here??"

The mercenaries, aside from Melody, seemed completely surprised at the situation. Many of the bodies were unrecognizable, either their faces were burned off or they were stabbed many times over.

Either way, it was a massacre.

Ashley then spoke up.

"Not only did Caspus order a massacre on the fishmen, but also on the mercenaries which they hired. This is what is left of them."

Lance and Charlotte were shocked at this, and Pierre was filled with a righteous anger.

"For what reason did they do such a thing!?", he shouted, furiously.

He didn't know many of these people personally, but the mercenaries at the guild were not all bad people, and they certainly didn't deserve a death like this.

"For what reason? To save money of course. The Emperor was kind enough to offer a high payment to any mercenaries who came onto this campaign, but Caspus took this as a signal to ensure that no mercenaries survived the campaign."

Trevor looked seriously at the others.

"This is what it means to take advantage of an opportunity. However, there was one miscalculation which Caspus made, and a single miscalculation can make an entire endeavor go sour, and turn into a major loss."

Ashley then stood forward, holding out her hand.

"They didn't take us into account."

She looked around, to see the souls of all the rotten corpses, floating above their respective owners.

Some of them were pitch black, and some were a light grey- almost white, whereas others were in the middle.

'So there seems to be a large mix of people here... some more evil than others.... well, that doesn't matter. I'm doing this to see an interesting show, not to save people, so reviving all of them for now should be fine.'

Ashley sent out her magical power, and used her [Soul Manipulation] to force the souls of the mercenaries back into their bodies.

Many of the mercenaries awoke, and the rotten corpses stood up with confusion and anger.

It was a massive horde of zombies, however they were not dumb zombies. They had the souls of their owners within them.

"Where am I?", one murmured. Many tried to speak, however, the throats of many had been crushed or pierced, and some rotten- therefore most of the speech was indecipherable groaning.

Ashley then floated above the group of zombies, who were stumbling about trying to gain their bearings and remember who and where they were, and she brought Lance and his group as well as the other antiheroes with her as they all flew up.

"Oi oi!!", Charlotte shouted as she tried to get her balance while flying.

"Agh!"

Lance and Pierre as well seemed to be having trouble.

Melody didn't seem to care as she crossed her arms and her body rotated in circles, as if she was in zero gravity.

Ashley then moved the ball of humans so that it sat on the ground, and she manipulated is such that the humans were spread out into a disc, laid on the ground. She applied so much pressure that they were being forced to the ground, unable to move a muscle, and unable to make a sound.

However, to the soldiers, who were still alive, it was the most terrifying thing they had ever experienced.

It was like sleep paralysis, but 1000 times worse, with fear itself seeming like it was corrupting their hearts, and pressing on them so they were about to explode.

Ashley then called out to all the zombie like creatures.

"Mercenaries.... do you remember who killed you? Do you remember how you died? I'll give you a little hint to jog your memory.... it was these soldiers who burned your encampment, and ambushed you all as you slept.... don't you feel hatred towards them? Don't you hold a grudge? Well, lucky for you, I happen to be the one in charge here.... hehehe...."

Many of the zombies were looking at Ashley, and their memories seemed to be returning to them as anger and rage flared in their eyes.

"Go ahead. Do whatever you want to these pathetic soldiers. I won't stop you. Fulfill your grudges to your hearts desires."

At this statement, the horde of around 500 mercenary zombies charged at the field of legionnaires, who were spread across the ground helplessly.

The zombies grabbed weapons lying around from when they were killed, and even if they couldn't find one of their own nearby, they would grab the weapons in the hands of the legionnaires, and began to vigorously stab them.

It was a slaughter worse than even when Caspus had ordered the mercenaries to be killed.

As the legionnaires were unable to move even a single muscle, the mercenaries went from person to person, killing them. Sometimes they would stab them in non-vital areas, and watch laughing while the person suffered before finishing them off.

The eight in the sky merely watched this scene happen, and nobody said a word.

Some of the zombies seemed to be crying out of frustration, as they stabbed over and over the same person.

'Perhaps they found the one who killed them.', Ashley thought.

After the field was soaked with the blood of the legionnaires, and all of them were killed, Ashley smiled, and waved her hand.

"Now your revenge has been fulfilled. There is nothing more tying you to this world."

Ashley took her hand and made a clenching motion as if she was grasping something and ripping it out.

And with that, the souls were ripped out of the bodies of the zombies, forced into the inventory of Ashley, as if they were all being sucked into a black hole.

The corpses dropped to the ground, lifeless once more, as if they were puppets with their strings cut.

"There is no reason to keep them around.... however, as for the fresh corpses...."

Ashley waved her hand once more, and the souls of the legionnaires returned to their bodies. Many of them were in a great pain, with fatal wounds covering their bodies.

Samantha held out a hand to heal only the fatal wounds so that the soldiers would no longer die again, however she left the nonfatal ones.

"Did you all think you could just go around slaughtering others without worrying that one day you might be mercilessly killed? Unfortunately, even that is too generous for people like you."

Ashley then once more collected the legionnaires into a ball of humans, condensed to the point of extreme pain and pressure.

However, no screams were heard.

"Ah, that felt good.... I feel like I've done my good deed for the day. Maybe it is actually kinda nice to help others once in a while.", Ashley said with a crackling voice.

"Perhaps that is so.... heh heh....", Garett responded, clearly satisfied with the result.

"Now then.... what a mess this will be for the fishmen to clean up.... it looks like they've got their work cut out for them.... anyways, let's go.", Trevor said, and they teleported back into the carriage, with the mass of bodies hovering above the carriage once more.

The four mercenaries were not disturbed, but rather simply nodded after seeing this grotesque and horrible scene.

Every single one of them believed that Caspus and his Legion got exactly what they deserved.

Melody, however, thought slightly differently.

'It doesn't matter what they did, whether it was wrong or right..... the sin of these legionnaires here was not harming others, or slaughtering innocents.... heh heh.... their sin was going against their excellencies. They refused to accept the plague, and so they struggled and fought against it. In the end, this struggle was what led to overstraining themselves, causing death. It's like when one gets a fever to kill off a virus, only for the heat to end up slowly killing off themselves. Yet the virus.... the virus will live on.'

Trevor turned to the group, and after pressing up his glasses, smiled kindly.

"It's time to return home."

----

Morin felt the fear of death ever since he had been taken up into that torrent of people.

He did not take part in the attack on the fishmen village, but he received a message in his head at the same moment that his body became weightless, and he was sucked up into the air, presumably by those monsters who led the reinforcements.

[Even if you washed your hands of this sin, you still did nothing to stop others from doing this.]

He knew this well, and accepted it.... but who was it that reminded him of this? Was it one of those monsters, speaking to him? Or was it someone else?

However, after being crushed, pierced, and dragged around in that ball of people, where he couldn't even breathe properly, he finally met death at the hands of one of the mercenaries which Caspus had ordered the execution of.

Morin was not a part of the unit who killed off the mercenaries, but he was aware of what happened.

And he did nothing to stop it.

That makes twice now, that Morin knew that was happening, and yet simply stood back and grit his teeth while doing nothing.

'I.... should have done more to stop the evil in front of me.... even if it meant my death, I now am suffering from this punishment because of my own stagnancy, and my inability to move forward and make the right decision....'

'This is merely my own punishment.... men, I have failed as a Captain.'

He thought this before a spear, held by one of the horrible zombie like creatures was pierced into his head.

'Perhaps death is my only salvation....'

However, soon after he could have sworn that he died, he was now alive again, and in a great amount of pain.

He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. It was as if something was preventing him from making a sound.

'Is this.... is this hell? Have I gone to hell, and am now going to be subject to eternal torment?'

This was the only thing that Morin could think, as his injured body was once more thrusted into the middle to the ball of 10,000 soldiers, and compressed together.

'This... this must be hell.... this is my own punishment for not making the right decision.... agh!!!!! It hurts!!! I want to leave!!! I'm scared!!!! Somebody, help!!!'

However, Morin's cries were not heard.

He could see the agony of all the other legionnaires around him, as they too seemed to be suffering greatly.

'Why.... why didn't I stand up for what was right!?!? Why did I give into authority!!! I should have done more!!!!'