They bound us captives with magical chains and took us to their nest, the nest of the orcs. While they were marching everyone in a single line, tied together at the waist and arms, they tied me by the neck and covered my mouth with a mask-like wrap because of what I had done to their friends.

So much so that they were not holding the collar around my neck with their hands; they were trying to control me from a distance with the sticks attached to the collar so that I could neither attack anyone near me nor breathe fire. Although the chains were enchanted, the orcs were still holding me in great numbers.

Almost more than ten orcs were focused only on me. Although there were guards next to everyone, I had never seen them so focused on others. We finally reached the nest, albeit with slow steps, but the view we saw was quite interesting and different. It bore no resemblance to other nests; on the contrary, it was more like a battlefield than a nest.

There was a huge castle standing in front of us, and the lava lake surrounding the castle enclosed the castle.

There was only one way to reach the castle, and that was to cross the bridge in front of us; otherwise, it seemed impossible to enter the castle from another place. The archer orcs at the top of the castle, when we reached the top of the bridge, were aiming at us, watching us for any movement.

Seeing the strangeness of the surroundings, Babu, in the middle row, lowered his head.

"This must be what they call madness..."

Shou, who was at the back of the queue in front of me, shared something he knew about orcs.

"You'd be amazed to see the ceremonies."

"I hope it's something to do with food."

Two rows behind Babu, Wedan gave an answer that no one wanted to hear: "That's right, but you're not a dinner guest - you're the food."

"Well, I don't taste good," Babu replied. "I can be quite fat and hearty, but you won't like my taste."

Lezlie joined in with what she knew, making the situation even worse: "I thought the orcs burned and skinned their enemies."

Mila added to the grim picture: "Yes, but they do it before they eat them."

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Rose, who had been silent until now, spoke up to clarify the subject: "Either way, it leads to death."

No matter how depressing the talk was, my eyes searched for a way out.

The Orcs were more numerous than any other race I had ever seen, but they were also barbaric and aggressive. It was not difficult to understand why the Fourth Epic had them in his army.

After our speeches, the massive gates of the castle swung open, and we were ushered inside. Behind the walls, we found ourselves in a vast expanse that resembled a garden, though it was more like a training ground. Hundreds of soldiers stood at attention, greeting us by striking the ground with their spears in a ceremonious manner. I couldn't fathom the circumstances we had stumbled upon, but it was evident that our situation was grim.

As we traversed the expanse, we encountered an increasing number of orcs who patrolled the castle's interior. Armed to the teeth, they appeared to be preparing for an imminent conflict. We needed to locate the rebels and apprise them of the brewing war, but the number of orcs seemed endless, making escape an improbable feat.

As we climbed the castle's staircase, the orcs snatched all of my comrades except for me and dragged them to the dungeons beneath the structure. Despite my attempts to follow them, I was prodded with a stick and depleted of my strength by the magical chains that restrained me.

As the orcs forced me to the topmost floor of the castle, I had no idea what awaited me. However, I was certain that it would not be a pleasant experience, as I was being summoned by the king orc himself.

The orcs seemed to treat me more harshly than the others, apparently, I had angered them for some reason, and as I could not speak to any of the orcs it was impossible for me to understand what had happened until I spoke to the orc king, they knew our language but they used a different language among themselves.

The stairs seemed endless and we kept walking, even though we had climbed almost a hundred steps. My mouth was getting dry. I had no problem with withstanding the heat of their environment, but their skin must have been thick because they were quite resistant to such heat.

I was trying to understand what was happening on the floors, one by one, along the stairs we passed. This information would be useful to escape from here, but the movement on the floors was quite intense and crowded.

So it didn't make much sense to get out of here without a fight.

The windows on each floor were blocked with bars, I did not know whether the bars were magical or not, so I had to consider this risk.

I counted about thirty floors, maybe more, maybe less, but I knew there were different things on each floor, some floors had weapons, and some floors had armor. It was a bit difficult to jump from such a high castle, but I couldn't stop thinking about the others.

They were probably locked in enchanted bars and it would be difficult to get past them without a key, but where could I find the key among all those orcs, my thoughts continued until I reached the king's floor.

The orc king's room was different from what I expected, with burning torches and soldiers with spears lined up in rows as if it had been prepared for me. There was a huge glass wall behind the throne and a strange smell all around.

But for some reason, the orc king was not on his throne as I expected.