The room was completely still. Jamie and Sandra didn’t know how to react to what they had just seen. Their expectations had been completely shattered, leaving their thoughts scattered and struggling to make sense of everything.
The frog-like Genki slowly raised his right hand as if he wanted to wave at them.
"Hallo."
His voice was rough, like that of a fifty-year-old man.
"Whaaaaat, it can talk?"
Sandra scread loudly, staring in disbelief as if her eyes were about to fall out of their sockets.
"Yes, I can, and please, if possible, do refrain from referring to as an ’it’. That word rather denies of my intelligence."
The wolf-frog-like Genki pleaded with them. When you listened carefully to his voice, there was a heaviness of intelligence behind it—the kind of presence you usually heard in the voices of presidents or motivational speakers.
"Where is Kasa?"
"You an the grown man who was hiding like a kid demon? He’s just taking a bath."
"You’re cooking him?"
"Good heavens, no. I’m not that sort of Genki. I only eat flies or birds. I wouldn’t eat demons or humans, nor elves for that matter. Your kind is rather disgusting, I must say—no offence intended."
"That ans the kids are still alive?"
"Yes, they are simply out shopping for so supplies and should be back shortly. I daresay there has been a misunderstanding. Please do take a seat and allow to clear a few things up."
He pleaded once more. The calm authority in his voice made it surprisingly difficult for anyone to refuse.
Sandra slowly sat down on one of the beds, but Jamie remained standing. One look at his face made it clear that he didn’t trust the Genki’s friendly behavior at all. And honestly, who could bla him?
Genkis were known as mindless beasts that hunted demons for food, creatures believed to have been created by the bad goddess herself. Discovering that one of them sohow cared about demons sounded far too good to be true.
"Hey, Chief, have my friends arrived yet?"
Kasa suddenly stepped out from one of the doors, drying himself with a towel, behaving as if he wasn’t inside a Genki’s apartnt at all.
All eyes turned toward him as he appeared before the three who looked like they had just begun a serious conversation.
The mont their gazes crossed, he could feel that they were judging him heavily.
"What’s wrong?"
he asked, sounding confused, as if he didn’t see anything strange about the situation.
He walked to the side, grabbed a low chair, and sat down among the three of them. Jamie, however, remained standing.
"My na is Gerald. Most Genkis simply refer to as the Chief. I am the leader of the Genkis. I am well aware that our kind has been introduced to your world as brutal and murderous, and for that I do apologise. But our kind was not always like this."
"I thought you were created by the Goddess to kill demons."
"Not at all. Our kind has lived on our planet for centuries. About two years ago the goddess ca to our world and attempted to enslave us. I refused many tis, but according to our traditions, if anyone cos seeking to control our kind, they must fight our champion to determine who will rule. On our side we chose Zuba, a warrior who had spent his entire life in the mountains training for war. On his forehead he bore the ’Arkhorn’, an ability that controls all Genki armies, guiding how they think and how they move. We were extrely confident in his ability, but that confidence vanished the mont we saw the goddess’s champion. He looked human, quite ordinary... she called him Alexander."
Jamie, Sandra, and Kasa looked at each other in recognition. Sohow the Genki’s story had intertwined with their own even more than they expected.
"When the fight began, it took him less than twenty seconds to defeat him. But the goddess instructed him not to kill him. Instead she cast a spell on Zuba and ordered him to program every single one of our armies to kill demons on sight, removing their emotions and even the mories they had created throughout their lives. Luckily, when she was teleporting the armies to Earth, I joined them."
"And no one saw you?"
Jamie asked, suspicion clearly visible in his eyes. If the goddess and Alexander were involved in the operation, it was hard to believe soone could slip through unnoticed.
The goddess maybe.
But Alexander?
Jamie rembered him too well for that.
If the Chief was lying, this was the exact mont his explanation would begin to fall apart.
"I’m not entirely certain, but..."
The Chief slowly lowered his face toward the ground.
"Alexander saw among the others. He looked at as though he wished to kill , but he didn’t. I suppose he did not consider any threat to their plan."
No, that was not it.
The dude is still a softy.
Glad to find out that you haven’t completely changed, Alex.
Jamie thought to himself, a faint smile accidentally forming on his lips before he quickly wiped it away.
"So when I arrived on Earth, I wanted to save as many demons as possible. At first I tried communicating with families to run, but so attacked while others refused to listen. In the end, I would watch them getting butchered by my own kind. The sa cycle continued for months until I simply couldn’t bear it anymore. So when I ca here to England, I thought I had to take matters into my own hands and perhaps—just perhaps—save the children."
"I was surprised as well. He really is a good Genki. He actually let use his bathroom to clean off the thick saliva he poured on my clothes."
Kasa added, showing that he was vouching for him.
The Genki suddenly dropped to his knees as Jamie stood in front of him. Then he lowered his entire body, bowing the way people usually do when they pray.
"I beg your forgiveness for my kind—or even for myself—for the trouble we’ve caused you demons."
The Chief pleaded with Jamie, his face still lowered while waiting for the reply that Jamie was going to give him.
Sandra and Kasa’s eyes turned somber as they looked toward Jamie, their expressions almost pleading alongside the Genki.
Jamie remained silent for at least thirty seconds, carefully analyzing everything he had just heard and comparing it with the facts he already knew. But the longer he thought about it, the more everything seed to align.
"You can stand up. I have forgiven you, but I don’t know if the demons your kind caused trauma to will forgive you. But it wasn’t your fault, so maybe—just maybe—they will forgive you. Just release the children back to their demon parents. We will take it from there."
Sweat slowly rolled down the Chief of the Genkis’ face. Every word Jamie spoke felt like a needle pressing against wounds that had never truly healed.
"Now tell where I can find your champion."
The Chief slowly raised his head in curiosity, his eyes widening in surprise.
"The goddess infused him with her powers. He is far more powerful than you might imagine."
"Let worry about his capabilities. Just tell where he is."
Jamie had completely shut down the Chief’s doubts, and the Chief was experienced enough to realise that Jamie would not stop until he faced the champion.
"Very well then. He is on Mount Everest. I shall take you there."
Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.
The goddess had chosen it deliberately so the mind-control magic could spread across the world without interruption.
Reviews
All reviews (0)