Prologue

This world always been on war since the start of civilizations. The difference between each races makes them always on war against each other even by a pointless and stupid reason.

Human race that dwell in the civilization heavy area,

Beastman race that dwell in the nature,

Fairy race that inhabit their own distortion space,

Elf race populate the dense forest around the world,

Dwarf race that inhabit the underground's world,

Demon race that occupy the mirror dimension,

and lastly the monster that spread all over the world through portals that caused by an anomaly of the world.

Even until now, they still doing war against each other even though the monster portals appear more often and more vicious than ever. It comes out of nowhere and the harm it caused is not something that everyone can ignore.

Bit by bit, monster portals caused changes on several leader of each races, they felt the harm that monster caused while they attacking other cities or nations. Deep inside them, they want to reconcile with other races and start their advance to stop the one who they believed caused all anomaly and monster portals on the world.

The demon race, who occupy the mirror dimension of the world.

The myth surrounding Demon race started at the first time the world came in touch with the mirror dimension. A big portal that connecting the world and demon's world appeared and marked the start of hostile relations between the races and the newcomer.

But not long after the demon's arrival, the first monster portal appeared and brought a wave of monsters to the world. This exact coincidence making the resident of the world believed that the demon as the culprit that brought the monster portal into the world and write it on all of the history book.

As it only written on the book, now on the world far from that era, no one can really know the exact reason why monster portals are appeared all over the world and only can blindly follow what was written on history book, just like the ancient saying,

"A History book can be a treasure of knowledge or a propaganda tools, based on who wrote it and who read it."

That's all it was in this world.

Part 1 - Child of a certain forest

It was a clear and beautiful morning on top of a certain forest located in the foot of a big mountain range, in the border of beastman – human nation. Winter just passed a week ago, but this forest already full of live after been blessed by a wealth of animal and forest forage all over the forest.

But all of those wealth being there not without any danger of monsters that lurking deep inside the forest, who took over the cold lonely forest in the long winter and build their own nest on it.

So it become a yearly tradition in the start of spring for the beastman who inhabit the small town near the forest, to send their strongest warriors in the start of spring to subjugate the monsters lurking deep inside the forest.

And those brave warriors is on the outskirt of the forest, gearing up before entering this dangerous forest.

[https://i.imgur.com/78kUnfc.png]

There are 4 beastman in that party, one with a full armor set and big sword in his belt is a bear beastman, two that checking the equipment near the tent are female feline and male lizard beastman, and the last beastman that currently scouting around the boundary of the forest is a wolf beastman.

"Adolf, you found something?"

The bear beastman approached the wolf beastman he called Adolf. Adolf used a light equipment like leather armor and cloak in contrast of the bear beastman's heavy equipment.

"There are no sign of footstep or monster's scent at all in here, sir."

"...That's weird."

"It is, sir. On last year hunt it was full of monster footsteps and animal carcasses in here."

A chill struck the bear beastman deep inside his body, piercing through his thick fur.

"There is something happened in this forest, I still don't know if it will be bad for us or not. Let's back to the tent and talk with the others."

They back to the tent and talk to their other two companions that checking the equipment, the female feline that used a light equipment similar to Adolf and the lizard beastman in a scholar's robe.

"What's wrong, sir Vaskr?"

"Adolf didn't find any sign of monster on this forest outskirt, not even one."

"...There isn't any sign at all? There is no way..."

Adolf stepped forward.

"It is, I certain of it."

The silent quickly comes surrounding them as the result of their uncertainty on the situation, but the bear beastman called Vaskr broke it quickly.

"Kona, Qulle, did you guys finished checking?"

The female feline called Kona is the first one that answered Vaskr.

"Yes, we have several spare armors and weapons for the hunt, we have about a week's worth of provisions on top of that."

"Good, let's do a quick check into the forest today, then we go back here before dark. There is nothing we can do except to search for the reason by ourselves."

"""Yes, Sir."""

The Beastman's party entered the forest, Adolf the wolf beastman on the front, Vaskr and Qulle on the middle and Kona in the rear.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"I hope there won't be divine beast in exchange of monsters in this forest."

Adolf said that with voice that can't be said as muttered, which can be heard by his teammates and make them silently nervous inside, except for Vaskr.

They walked through forest path cautiously while looking for any sign of monster, but without any result for a while.

The more they walked deep inside the forest, the more silent the forest become and their nerve become more sensitive. It still early spring but their body drenched in sweat due to their nervousness.

As a resident of this world where divine beasts are absolute existence to a mortal like them, they can't help it.

Then Adolf picked up a certain scent that suddenly surrounding them out of nowhere.

"Sir Vaskr, we are really near with the monsters right now, and there are several scents mixed on it but I still not sure what it is."

"Is that so? Let's proceed more cautiously then. Adolf, led us to them."

"Yes, but..."

Adolf hesitated, but then he continued.

"This is scent of a dead monster, and more, it's not only one monster."

They pick up their moving pace and quickly rushed into the supposedly corpse of a monster.

The Beastman party arrived at a pretty big open space inside the forest, a grass field with a several monsters old corpse in the middle of it, in which is a salamander class monsters.

"Wh-what happened here..."

They got struck in awe, wondering on what was happened with those monsters. A salamander class monster which is noted as pretty hard to kill has been terminated.

"Let's spread out and search for any clue on what happened here. I and Adolf will go check on the boundary of ths field, Kona and Qulle, you guys check here."

Vaskr quickly taking commands and his subordinates immediately collected themselves then spread put to see more of the grass field.

After they observing the area for a bit, there are actually more of monster's corpses on a path just across the spot where the beastman party arrived to the field. All of the monsters were killed pretty much on the same time, and that time is from the end of winter according to Qulle.

But one thing that piqued their interest is the grave that placed in the corner of the field, beside the stone hill. Qulle and Kona checked the gravestone while Vaskr and Adolf  were scouting the field area and checked the area around outside the field.

Qulle bring out his equipment and started analyzing the grave and ground around it.

"This was pretty new, I can say it just from the winter, around the same time as the time those monsters killed... 'Ian A.' is written here, maybe it's the person's name."

Qulle once again analyze the gravestone cautiously and ended up more confident than before on his earlier statement.

"Qulle, do you think that this person is the one that killed all those monsters?"

"I don't know, but this salamander class monster is a dangerous monster with a lethal poison as their weapon, but it's a slow acting poison. So yeah, this person can be the one that killed all of these monster before meet his own demise, or he is just a poor victim that didn't related to the monsters massacre at all."

"But the more important thing is..."

"Yeah, this grave. Meaning there is someone here in this forest, at least on the winter when it's made. It was skillfully made and have a proper name tag on it too."

"Yeah, I recognized this style too, it was too familiar for me."

Vaskr and Adolf came back to the gravestone after scouting the area.

"What do you guy got from that grave?"

"We found out that this grave is built on the end of winter, just around several weeks ago, around the same time as those monsters died. This mean there are someone here at least on that time."

Vaskr and Adolf nodded to each other.

"We both already thought so, there are several footsteps on that path, the one that full of monster corpse on the north."

Vaskr pointed at the path they already seen earlier from where they come.

"And that footsteps," Vaskr continued, "it's definitely only from several days ago. Let's go now, there is still chance that certain person is still in this forest."

"""Yes, sir."""

They moved with pace faster than before without lowering their defense to any surprise this forest may gave. The more they follow the footsteps, the more Adolf's nose pick up monster scent and other scent he didn't know about.

"Sir, let's stop for a bit."

Adolf suddenly asked Vaskr to stop their progress.

"What's wrong?"

"I pick up some unknown scents from front ahead mixed with monsters scent and beastman scents."

"Is that so?"

Vaskr command his party to stop in a big tree surrounded by a dense bushes, it was a spot that covered from all directions.

"Adolf, Kona, Qulle, prepare your equipment and be ready right now. I'm sure the unknown scent Adolf picks should be a human."

Chill pierced through Vaskr's three subordinates at the same time, making them shudder just from hearing that name. But was effective enough to make them acted quickly and finished re-checking their equipment.

"Do you really sure this is a human, sir Vaskr?"

"I'm pretty sure it is, Kona, I got several human's mark on this forest, and we are in border area after all. But something didn't add up at all..."

"What it is?"

A hesitation heard inside Vaskr's voice, he fell silent for a moment before continuing.

"...No, nothing, maybe it's just my mind. Did you guys finished? Let's move according to my command, and stay near me unless I told to do anything. You guys understood?"

"""Yes, sir."""

The beastman party proceed more cautiously and slow paced this time, Vaskr's subordinates become more wary and nervous after hearing that human is involved. But Vaskr is still same as always, letting no crack appear in his defense from the start of this subjugation quest.

"We are really close with them, sir. It just after those trees..."

They arrived in another open field, it's almost the same as the earlier on, full of monsters remains and blood but the body was moved to a certain corner of the field near stone field and burned by someone to a cinder.

It was an open field right in the foot of mountain, with a touch of some group certainly living on it for a little amount of time before got attacked by the horde of monsters. A campfire, fresh tree stump and log placed on several spot accordingly, and a man-made cave on the foot of the mountain.

But then their gaze only focused on a certain someone in front of the cave, a young human aged around 7 years old with a dark hair and thin, small body, using a beastman clothing and pulling a cart with a feline beastman lying on it.

Everything was connected inside Vaskr mind, but because of that Vaskr got too late to realize that Kona already jumped out from his rear and got close immediately with the small boy, kicked the boy and send that small body flying far from the cart.

"KONA, STOP YOUR ATTACK RIGHT NOW!"

Kona flinched and stopped her advance to finish off the boy, she was struggling to follow Vaskr order but she can get hold of herself and stay between the boy and the cart.

"Qulle, check on that beastman, quick!"

"Yes sir."

Qulle quickly moved unto the cart and checking the female feline beastman that lie in the cart, but nothing he can do about it because that beastman already passed away, just a moment ago.

"...She already passed away, sir."

Kona suddenly pull out her knife and move closer to the human boy.

"Did you the one that killed her, you little shit..."

"KONA, I SAID STOP!"

"BUT, SIR-"

Adolf quickly moved to hold Kona from killing the helpless boy.

"ADOLF, MOVE."

"No can do, Kona. Leader's order."

"You bastard..."

Without Adolf noticed, the boy already crawling his way through and hugged Adolf's leg.

"Mr. Wolf...Please save my mother...Please..."

A tears comes out from that garnet eyes, suffocating Adolf's heart when he knows he can't do anything about that.

"Your mother, you say..."

Kona only can stand there, speechless. Too much information comes to her brain and blocked by her anger, clogging her brain from thinking straight.

"I said stop, am I not? Let's talk later, Kona."

Vaskr moved closer to the little boy, patting Kona's shoulder as he passed her then squat down and talked to that human boy.

"I'm sorry, little one. Your mother is already..."

Vaskr hugged the weak child as he passed out from the shock, bringing the silence to surround the beastman party as the child sobbing and called out his parents in his sleep.