Klipner, Hamilton, Zachary, Lorenzo, and Leonardo made their way through the twisting tunnel.
It seemed to go on forever as if it were a long maze. There was only ever one path to go, but there were turns every few feet- begging the question of if they were really going anywhere.
"Everyone. Please be at ease, and stay behind me. As a Captain of the guard, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of this group.", Zachary assured.
'Of course it is. What good would you be if you didn't do the one job you've been assigned?', Klipner thought.
"That is very reassuring, Captain. Thank you.", he stated, despite his contrary thoughts.
'That should be obvious. These peasants should all dedicate their entire efforts to protecting me, and the most important person in this group.', Hamilton mused.
"Indeed. We will be in your care, Captain.", he added.
'I'll have to be careful that this guy doesn't steal the kill from me.... though it should be fine. I doubt he could finish the beast off on his own.', Leonardo thought.
"I will be at your side, Captain. Rely on me if you need assistance."
"Thank you, Leonardo."
Lorenzo seemed to be lost in thought as the other members of the group had this interaction. Something seemed to be annoying him.
Hamilton looked around at those surrounding him with disgust that he didn't show on his facial expression.
'Ugh... how filthy. A greasy meathead, a scoundrel who owns a scandalous establishment, a practitioner of dark heresies.... and worst of all, a businessman.'
He could not help but hold low expectations for this group.
'It is certain that none of these men in this group can be trusted even the slightest bit. How unfortunate it is that I was stuck in this group. No.... perhaps no matter which group I was stuck with, I would have been surrounded by those lower than I. I suppose the world is filled with scum, through and through. It is my duty to ensure that there is at least one clean spot in this grime covered world.'
The group turned yet another corner.
Zachary glanced back at the people surrounding him.
'There isn't a single capable man here. If anyone takes this monster down, it has to be me of course. This young kid next to me doesn't know what it means to fight in a real battle, and he'll get killed before he even knows it if I leave anything to him. And these other guys....'
Looking at the other 3, Zachary was filled with disappointment.
'There's no way that the merchant or the butler are getting involved. They may be wearing some fancy gear, but they aren't even wielding their weapons properly. Even if I tried to teach them, it would go in one ear and out the other as soon as they got into an actual fight. And as for that heretic.....'
Zachary held great contempt for Lorenzo.
'Whatever horrid practices that guy is up to, I don't trust him one bit. Look at that creepy smile.... I don't know what he's thinking, but I'm sure I don't want to know.'
Yet another corner was turned by the group.
This time however, the hallway led into a room.
It was too dark for the group to make out what was inside the room, so they all came closer.
As they walked into the entrance, they saw in front of them what looked like 5 stalls.
Each stall had a door and inside each was a miniature room.
When the last person had come into the large room, which of course was made from the bandage like material, a gate shut closed- locking the people inside.
Zachary turned back as he heard the door shut.
"Eh? This is.... we've been locked in!"
Hamilton and Klipner turned around as they heard the gate shut behind them, and had looks of surprise and horror on their faces.
They both tried feeling the gate to see if it would actually open, only to confirm that they were locked in.
"What the-"
"No! How could this be?!"
Lorenzo didn't seem to discouraged by this. Only slightly annoyed.
Leonardo didn't seem to care at all. He only saw what was in front of him.
'If we've been locked in here, then it means the monster will have to show himself soon.... heh heh... that's when I will take my chance!'
"What are we going to do about this??", Klipner shouted.
"What else can we do?", Lorenzo responded. "We wait and see what happens."
"I suppose there is nothing that can be done....", Hamilton admitted.
"Don't let your guards down! Get into a circular formation, and prepare for any sort of surprise attack! Don't let yourself relax!", Zachary shouted. The men listened to him and went back to back, facing all directions.
Silence filled the room, and the only sound that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the men in the room.
"Should we inspect those stalls?", Leonardo asked.
"I suppose we should....", Zachary admitted.
Before the group moved to investigate however, they heard a voice speak.
"Welcome, gentlemen. I see that you are all healthy and rearing for a fight? Wonderful. However, I have something else in mind for you all today."
It was the voice of a young boy who was speaking.
"Who is that??"
"Who is speaking?? Are you working with that monster!?"
"Show yourself, coward!!!"
"Please, calm yourselves, gentlemen. Take a look at your surroundings. Currently, you are trapped in that room, and you have no choice but to do as I order. Of course, I could always allow you all to simply rot in there. I wonder who would break first? Would you all die of thirst, or would you start killing each other to drink the blood and eat the flesh of the people within that cell? Which one among you would give into the temptation? Would the others defend themselves? Would anyone kill themselves out of insanity or fear? I don't think anyone here has experienced a situation with such scarce resources, so it would be interesting to see what would happen.... but, for the sake of time, I think it would be better for you all to simply listen to me. Well? What will it be? Will you obey my orders, or should I just leave you to decide your own fates?"
"SHOW YOURSELF!!!"
"Wait. Let's listen to him. We don't have any choice."
"Alright, we'll play along. What do you want?"
"And who are you??"
"Who am I? Well, I was once an insignificant person. An orphan, who was raised without any parents, alongside many others. A stray dog, which society held no concern nor care for. But I am no longer such a person. Do you know why?"
"You're not making any sense!!"
"You're one of the orphans?? Is the spider forcing you to do this!?"
"Let us out!! We will save you from that thing, so please help us!!"
"Is the beast with you!?! If not, then let us free so we can protect you!!"
"Protect me? I doubt that the people who never even did so much as to look into our situation would care as much as the one who is currently protecting me."
"There is someone protecting you??"
"Then, somebody from one of the other groups has made it there!? Wonderful!! Just sit tight, and let us free, and we will fight our way to you!!"
"Yeah! There's nothing to worry about anymore, kid!"
The voice on the intercom replied in an annoyed tone.
"Oh, there is one who has made it here.... but he is not here to protect me. No. The one protecting me is my father, Coran."
"Your father??"
"I thought you were an orphan?"
"Coran!? Isn't that the name of the beast!?"
"The one and only."
"My goodness... is this monster intelligent enough to be capable of brainwash?! Or is he forcing you to say these things!?"
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
"The situation is worse than we thought... we should make our way there immediately. But we need to be allowed out!"
"Indeed. Please open these doors for us, and we will surely free you of his clutches!!!"
"There will be no need for that. I've already told you. I am with the other children and one other man. My father, Coran is not here. Nor is my mother, Alicia. They are both dealing with groups elsewhere. But it is my responsibility to determine what happens to you all. Are you all listening properly?? I get to decide what happens to you. Not the other way around. You all have been talking about saving me, but I am not in need of saving. No, as a matter of fact it is you all who are in need of saving. And I have the power to do that. So why don't you just listen up, and shut your mouths for once?"
"Wha-!?"
"He must be brainwashed...."
"To think that monster had such powers...."
"My goodness... what if all the other children are like this....."
"Horrible...."
The men were flabbergasted at the clarity with which Nathan spoke, however Nathan was becoming more and more annoyed at their clear misunderstanding of the situation.
"AHEM. Now then.... I am going to give you all an order, and if you refuse to listen, then I suppose that I will just leave you all locked up in that room to starve just like a certain woman did before."
"Wait! No, don't just leave!"
"We will listen!!! We will do as you instruct us!!!"
"Very good. Now, you all see the five stalls in the room, correct?"
"Yes, we see them!"
"Each person is to go into one room. However, before you do so allow me to explain what is going to happen. There are five people here, correct?"
"There are...."
"And there are five more.... underneath you."
Suddenly, the clicking of a switch could be heard, and light filled the room.
The floor was made of a glassy substance, and the light was coming from a room underneath the men.
Inside that room, there were five children. They were five of the orphans who had been kidnapped by Coran, all sitting in a circle with blank faces.
"The children!"
"They are trapped in that small room down there!! How inelegant!!"
"My goodness.... has the child speaking lost his mind to the point where he is fine with treating these children like this!?"
"I am the one speaking here. I am growing tired of your comments about me. There has been no brainwash here. Do you want to know why I am doing these things? It is to support my new father. I have been enlightened. Do you all understand what went on in that orphanage before?"
The men all squirmed with awkward faces, looking back and forth to one another.
They all knew at least vaguely what went on, but never considered to do anything about it.
"Based on your reactions, I think you all knew. Mhm. Well, let me tell you this.... the rumors you've heard.... they were all true!!! Coran saved us from that hell which we were living. Do you see the children down there??? To them, even death is better than what they had to live through!!! So we have agreed to work with Coran as his playthings, and if he kills us, then he will do so quickly and painlessly!!!!!"
Many sighs were heard from the group.
They were completely shocked, and unsure what to even say about this.
"But..... that depends not on me, but on you all."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I am here to play a little game with you all. It's a game of trust and morality. We're going to form a Democratic Republic. Do you all know what that means? It means that the people vote on a person to make the decisions as a leader. I am going to give you a choice. There are 10 people in that room, including you five and the five orphans. Five of the ten people in that room will be allowed to go free, and the other five will be killed as food for Coran and Alicia. As for who those five people are....."
Nathan seemed to be chuckling, delighted to see the horrified expressions of the men in the room- which he was watching on a camera which had been planted by Coran.
"That will be decided by your elected leader. There will be two phases. The first is the debate phase. You all will discuss among yourselves who you think is best to make the decision. When this discussion phase is over, you will proceed to the voting phase, where you all will go into your voting booths, and you will select a number on the panels inside- 1 through 5- on who you wish to be the one making the decision. Now, here is the trick though. It has to be a unanimous vote. If the vote is not unanimous, you all will be released from the voting booths, and you will have another debate phase, until you reach a conclusion."
"That's rediculous!!!!"
"Who would ever agree to those conditions!!!!"
"Absurd!!!"
"Let us out of here, this instant!!!!"
"You brainwashed freak!!!"
"SHHH!!!!! Quiet yourselves, gentlemen. Angering me will only make me want to kill all of you at once. Don't you know? The mechanism for killing you has already been pre-built in there. If you anger me, I might just happen to accidentally press the kill switch."
"Grr...."
"I...can't believe this...."
"Ugh...."
The men all looked back and forth to each other suspiciously, completely infuriated by the situation.
They were trapped by a child. One that even the non athletic men would probably be able to take down in a one on one fight, but because he was hiding behind an intercom, they could do nothing about it.
None of them wanted to agree to the rules of such a game.
'Of course, I can't trust any of these men to make this decision. I need to be the one who decides, so that I can save as many children as possible and get away with my life. Then, I can reap the rewards Mrs. Fera was speaking of for saving 4 of the children, and act as if the rest died because the spider was simply too powerful....', Klipner decided.
'It has to be me who decides who lives and dies. As the most important person here, who else would it be? Not a single one of these peasants knows a thing about being a leader.', Hamilton thought.
'It can be nobody else but me. As the only soldier here, it is crucial that I make it out so I can defeat that thing later.', Zachary mused.
'If I am not the one who decides, then I will be cut off for sure, and I will never complete my experiments....', Lorenzo determined while looking around at the others.
'I won't be able to slay the monster if I'm not the one who decides. And I am young. All these old men can die for all I care, but they have already lived good lives! I haven't even experienced anything yet! And that magic fanatic doesn't deserve to live anyways!!', Leonardo thought.
Despite the fact that none of them wanted to agree to the rules, they understood their position- that they had no way to fight back. As such, they were already considering their next move.
Complying with the rules, and making it out alive.
But there was a single issue.
Every single person here was dead bent on convincing the others that they were the one who should decide who gets to survive.
"You all have gotten quiet. Very good. That is what I wanted to hear. Now then, scumbags... why don't you go ahead. Debate to your hearts contents, and see who is the most worthy to make it out alive. I will give you five minutes for this first session. Start."
----
At the very time that the people of Porta were in the midst of raiding Coran's lair, the antiheroes had returned from the fishmen village, and were celebrating within the Dictatorship after their overwhelming victory over both sides.
What was Oraguth doing at this time?
Having been assigned to the resistance, with Troy as the leader, Oraguth had completely remolded the man.
The man who had gone rogue as a bandit claiming to lead a resistance force after being given the task of killing the person who trained him up as a soldier, and was more of a father to him than his actual father, was left tormented after his first meeting with the antiheroes.
He was a complete wreck.
However, Ashley had used her newfound ability beforehand to remove a chunk of this man's memories, and he found himself calmed down after a bit.
Oraguth was now at least able to speak with the man, and he no longer freaked out after seeing him.
'Of course, I am nothing compared to my masters.', Oraguth thought as he headed throughout the caves of the resistance to deliver a report to the official 'leader' of this resistance- which he had been given the task to manage.
'That is why this man is at least able to stop himself from freaking out whenever he sees me. But my masters, they are in a different dimension. I'm sure even now if he were to see them, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from writhing in fear. Perhaps he would spill his innards at the mere sight of their glorious forms. Only because a mortal like him cannot handle their magnificence, that is.'
Oraguth made his way through the gridded alleyways of the resistance, waving to the people there.
They did not hate Oraguth anymore as they previously had.
Before, they listened to him out of fear of his masters, but right now things were a bit different.
After giving Oraguth the reins, the raids on the caravans of Senator Brutus had been brutally efficient, even though Oraguth did not take part in a single one of them. If he had, they would have been over too quickly, and his existence might be revealed, so right now he was working undercover while Troy remained the official leader of the resistance.
Oraguth simply used the tactics and mindset taught to him by his masters, and everything else fell into place.
They were able to catch the caravans by surprise at the right moments. For example, when the caravans were going across a bridge in a mountainous region, they would jump out, throwing the guards off the cliffs and be able to easily take the unit.
Of course, this too was one of the tactics taught to Oraguth by his masters, which he forced the people of the resistance to use.
They were completely opposed to killing at first, but after they saw how effective it proved to be, they decided that since it was for the sake of justice, that it could be forgiven.
'They are the dogs of that evil Senator anyways!'
'No need to spare them any mercy!!'
'Especially if they get in the way of justice! I'm sure these are the same people who are stealing funds from the poor!'
Oraguth had complete control right now over every member of the resistance, and they all had a newfound respect for him as a leader.
To be frank, the fact that they were so obsessed with doing what was right.... or perhaps rather at justifying their actions, which were clearly wrong, irritated Oraguth, but he learned one thing from his master- to use people's traits in order to control them. And so, he played along with their little game of 'justice', acting like they were doing the right thing, and convincing them that their enemies were indeed 'evil'.
Even Troy and Wexus were starting to come around, though Troy was more of a puppet than anything.
Oraguth made his way to the quarters of Troy, and opened the door without knocking.
Troy looked over from his desk.
"Ah, Sir Oraguth. I see that you've arrived safely. Has my work proven to be acceptable by your standards?"
Oraguth smiled and responded calmly.
"There have been no issues on your end. Please just continue to act as a figurehead, and I will let you know when I have a task for you to perform. For now, I have a report regarding the successful raiding of three caravans in the past two days. Things have been going smoothly, and our efforts are beginning to gain publicity. However, we must ensure that this publicity is positive, not negative. I've formed a plan to promote our efforts in various towns, but we need the media on our side. And what better media is there than our own?"
Oraguth plopped down a stack of articles.
On the article, the face of Brutus was printed as if he was a wanted criminal, and below was an entire list describing all his corrupt actions which the members of the resistance had collectively accounted for.
"News always tends to be biased, and so using some other group to produce our articles would only provide us with issues. When we produce our own news, we can bias it for our own purposes. Even if these things written here are mere rumors, they are sure to stir up commotion among those who have witnessed similar injustices. Since we are a criminal group as of right now, there is no legal issue such as being accused of slander or libel. We merely need to ensure that we are not caught promoting these posters, and that we continue to gain the support of the people. If we can do this quietly, the day will come where we can openly declare our factions existence. I'm sure the Senator is surprised that his little plot to hire mercenaries to root out your little group here has failed, and he is likely growing restless now that we are acting more boldly. Prepare for a war- both a physical one, and one with the media as its center. And know that plans are subject to change, depending on the orders of their excellencies."
Troy nodded sternly.
"I will continue to do as you order, Sir Oraguth."
"For now, simply spread these posters around the nearby towns. The rest should work itself out and we should be able to hire some new recruits by the end of the day if we're lucky. I've performed a background check on a number of people, so here is a list of some that I want you all to get into contact with as well.", Oraguth said as he handed another stack of papers to Troy.
"Understood."
Oraguth then headed off to continue his management of the people of the resistance.
It was difficult at first to gain relationships with the people as a monster, but since he didn't try to consume them, and merely shouted the praises of his masters, they eventually came around.
Yes, they were terrified of his masters.
Yes, they held hatred towards Oraguth for being a monster.
But somewhere along the lines, through working together towards a similar goal, they recognized him as a person.
Once they made this distinction, they treated him as one of their own.
This was not the goal of Oraguth. It simply happened.
"I suppose these humans aren't all that bad.... although, I am sure the preparation which my masters put them through played a great part in their good response to me. Now then.... I think I should go and take inventory of our resources. After all, I cannot call myself a leader if I don't even have information on my own situation."