Chapter Twenty-Eight: Altruism

Once thoroughly frightened Doikkal became much more compliant to listening. I hadn’t felt comfortable about revealing myself to him, but it did the trick. In an attempt to dissuade him from spreading my secret, I clarified that I could watch his every move through the shadows and that I would always be watching.

Of course, that’s not true. I will have to sleep sometime. But he doesn’t know that. I chuckled as finished off my Basilisk’s Blood. What I had done was summon a few snakes and mice deathsworn to trail him. And to telepathically alert me if Doikkal got talkative.

When he got talkative, I reminded myself. The problem with untrustworthy people is that you can always expect them to break your trust. I hadn’t made him take an oath either. It didn’t matter if he eventually told people who I was.

Just as long as he didn’t do it until after we had finished our business.

“That went better than I had hoped,” Grenthar said after the bigger demon had left.

“As long as everything goes to plan then we shouldn’t be in the city longer than a week.” I nodded. The Leaderboard counter was still an ever-present reminder that we were on a deadline.

“You did your job well enough. The king has been bleeding the people dry for over a hundred years now. Long enough that the younger demons only remember his tyranny and not long enough for the older ones to forget the peace of J’rain. Very few profit in war.”

I contemplated his words for a while as we sat in relative silence. Only the soft drunken snores of a passed-out Shialk kept us from true quietude. Grenthar leaned back and stared at me, an inquisitive expression on his face.

“What’s on your mind?”

“So you’re the dark lord. The master of monsters. But..”

“I don’t exactly seem evil,” I suggested, and he nodded. “What about the fact that I eat people?” This caused him to shrug.

“You’re in the veiled lands. The only ones who would really look down on that are the humans and elves, and dwarves. A lot of other races consume flesh. My point still stands. What makes you the dark lord? Milzeyan is out seeking war, and ruining the lives of his people. Why are you the one who’s labeled as the enemy of civilization and he isn’t?”

I had to admit that from his perspective he had a point, and I rubbed the back of my neck in thought. Memories of my life played before me as another bout of flashbacks danced across my mind until it settled on one.

***

“She was reading your letter out loud on the bus. Everyone was laughing.” My friend Michael told me after the third class of the day. We shared history class and he rode on the same bus as my crush. I felt pain at his words, and anger. I wanted to hurt her.

I had thought she was nice and obviously cute. It was how warm and friendly she seemed that had gained my interest though. After a while I wrote a poem for her, not even asking her out, but just what I thought of her as a person. Trying to show her appreciation for being nice to me when so many others treated me like an outcast.

She had taken my trust, ran it over with a lawn mower, and then set it on fire. I was upset. But I had power. I had words. If she didn’t like me giving her a nice message then I would give her a bad one.

I wrote a hate letter, filled with vitriol and spite. Releasing all my anger at her for betraying my trust. I gave it to her with a smile. If she can be fake then so can I. She took it gladly with bright eyes and a deceptively friendly smile. By the end of the next class, she was in absolute tears, and I was jubilant.

***

I didn’t know how to feel about that memory. Later, she and I made amends. I wouldn’t say we became friends, but we had cleared the air and at least liked each other. The whole ordeal had been a bunch of misunderstandings that coalesced into that point.

But the memory stood and helped me straighten out some thoughts. I looked at Grenthar prepared to answer.

“On my world, we have two heroes. You could call them legendary adventurers. One’s name is Superman. The other is Batman.”

“Bat is in the flying rodent? I thought you said you didn’t have demi-humans in your world?”

“We don’t. He is a man who just dresses up like a bat. Because he is scared of them, and he is angry about his parents dying.”

“Sounds like he needed to see the priests and talk about his problems,” Grenthar said and made me laugh.

“Probably,” I nodded. “But we are getting off track. These two heroes are the most popular and famous out of all of the other heroes we have. Superman is someone who is basically a god. It’s hard to describe his race in a way you would understand, but he is faster than the speed of sound, can fly, see through walls, could probably lift up this entire city, impervious to most damage, the works. Consider all of his attributes at least 2,000. Except maybe intelligence and Wisdom. Those could be…. 10ish?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“A person like that could probably stop our problems in a heartbeat.” Grenthar mused.

“Yes. Batman is someone ordinary. A level 0 human. All of his attributes are at 10, except his intelligence. through effort alone, he raised it to 20.”

“Someone that smart is still dressing like a rodent?”

“Just set aside his mental trauma. You have one extraordinary person capable of doing anything in the world, and one powerless person that tries anyway. Which do you think is the most popular to people?”

“The rat-man. Most of us feel powerless in life at some point. Seeing someone without power stand tall can be inspirational.”

“I think I like the god,” Shialk said with a hiccup, waking up from his nap, and stretching. “The way Leo describes him it sounds like he could literally be a monster, yet he chooses to not be.“

“Welcome to the conversation, and I agree,” I responded. With Shialk’s head out of the way, I leaned back and put my feet on the table.

“So what does this have to do with Milzeyan? As interesting as this is, I don’t see the point.” Grenthar groaned, but Shialk laughed.

“I only caught half of it, but I think the point Leo is trying to make is that it comes down to capacity.”

“What do you mean? Wait, I am not drunk enough for this conversation.” Grenthar knocked on the door and a moment later two more glasses of basilisk blood were brought to the room.

“None for you, lightweight,” he said to a pouting Shialk as he passed me the other. “Continue.”

Smiling appreciatively, I took a sip and sighed in contentment. The drink really did grow on you.

“Shialk is right. It comes down to capacity. Not only with how much you can do, but why you do it. The most interesting stories of Superman tend to be when he fails and falters. The greatest strengths have the greatest weaknesses. ad ultimately the most evil person in the room is also the most altruistic.”

“How does being good make someone evil?” Grenthar’s eyes were starting to get glassy from the drink. I was also feeling the effects, and starting to get tired. It had been a long day, but I could tell that this had been on all of their minds. Hell, it had been on my mind too.

“Milzeyan takes joy in power. That is his ultimate goal. He causes the suffering of others and might even take joy in it, but only because of how powerful it makes him feel.” I said, with a wave of my hand. Shadows danced along my fingers as I formed a marionette.

The shadow puppet danced on the table as I pulled the strings. A moment later I slammed my hand down and the shadows erupted before dispersing.

“Well, what about you then? Are you trying to tell me you are more of a villain because you don’t take joy in power?” Grenthar smiled then thinking he had just won some sort of counterargument, but Shialk looked at me with understanding eyes.

He knew, of course, he would. He had been a slave. He had seen it plenty, and he understood the depths of my fear better than most.

“He isn’t scared of the joy he takes in power, Gren. He has power. More, you felt what I did. He can give power. Honestly, if he wanted to, really wanted to, he could probably tear apart this whole city.”

“Then what is he scared of? I am sorry, yeah, you have wild powers, and you might do creepy things. But all I have seen from you is kindness. You care about me and my friends, and you do what you can to protect others. I don’t see him tearing down a city filled with innocent people.”

“What happens if he has no reason to protect?” Shialk shot back. “What if all he wants is the blood to rain? What if his only goal was to cause destruction? Not for a reason, but out of joy. Milzeyan has no thought about how he spends the lives of his people, but he also knows he needs people if he wants power.”

“You are saying Leo doesn’t realize that?”

“No Gren, what Shialk is saying is that the worst thing about me isn’t that I desire power. It’s that I am not even in that position. The only thing holding me back so far has been my lack of desire. I am someone who can find joy in the suffering of others, simply because they are in pain. Sure, those people might deserve it objectively speaking. But where is that line drawn? Where do I cross the line?”

“When do you go to war with the world?” Shialk asked quietly, and I nodded. The system wanted me to take over, and in some ways, it was beginning to feel like a matter of time.

“Are you saying some places wouldn’t be better with a change of leadership?” Grenthar questioned, and Shialk shook his head.

“It comes down to the cost. What is the price Leo will have to pay to go down that path? Milzeyan is tempered by his lack of power. What would happen if Leo unleashed a horde of monsters on a city?” Shialk said, and for the first time, Grenthar seemed to understand the predicament. Just how steep the toll would be if I went to war.

“Thank the gods for altruism then!” He cheered and took a long pull from his mug.

“I will drink to that! Or I would if you had gotten me a drink.” Shialk complained, causing us to laugh.

“Here, take a sip. Just a sip! Damn, it really has been a long few months.” Grenthar said, passing his mug to the imp.

“That it… has. Wait, did you say a few months? What do you mean? We’ve only been together for a few weeks.”

“True but our problems started a few months ago. I mean sure, we had been in a group for years, and while things hadn’t always been easy, especially with the fact that we had to avoid the capital, but our lives weren’t this…. chaotic, until recently. It was a couple of months ago when Nessa betrayed us. I would say about four to six weeks or so before we met you. If I had to guess. Why do you look like you are about to shit your pants?”

“You said Nessa was a healer, right? Was she a member of a church or anything?” My mind was racing with possibilities and none of them were good.

I looked at the leaderboard again. Milzeyan and Degrashar were the top two, and the holy alliance had moved to the fifteenth position behind various other adventuring parties. Who knew how deep they all were in the dungeons, but there was no way the might of the churches should be falling that far behind?

“Yeah, um, Oyechrima, the forest goddess. Also known as The Grove Queen. Most sylvains worship her, even if they are only half-bloods. Seriously, why do you look scared?”

“Gods, I hope I am wrong. I could be wrong, but I think we are all in a lot of trouble. If your timeline is right then she betrayed you right when I came to this world.”

“I mean, that’s a coincidence, sure, but how could she have known -”

“Grenthar! It’s the system. Do you really want to trust that it’s only a coincidence? Besides, there was a prophecy!”

“Prophecy?” Shialk’s voice rose in alarm at that. Before I could answer I felt the buzz of my grimoire reaching out to me. Pulling it out of my inventory and opening it up my mind was connected to Veipos in seconds.

“Veipos! What’s the problem? Tell me now!”

“Lord- You know there’s a problem? Nevermind that. We have an army marching on our borders. They cut far south, passing between Zeliztan and Ystherial. They were slowed because of resistance, but they are moving without a doubt in our direction.”

“How long?” I shouted mentally at my general.

“What?”

“How long until they arrive? I need best guesses.”

“Two weeks. Could be longer, but no less than that.” Veipos answered, cutting to the chase.

“Veipos, prepare the generals. I’ll be coming home.”

With that, I cut my connection to my general and looked at my friends.

“It looks like we might soon find out just how monstrous I can be,” I said gravely.