Eldros finished recalling his life story to Zaroth, who in turn had his eyebrows furrowed deep in thought.
"How much ti have you spent being here fighting against other slaves?" he asked.
In response, Eldros simply shook his head.
"At the beginning I was confused, scared, shocked, so a couple days or maybe even weeks passed in a blur. At so point I started to count the days one by one, but gave up when I reached one hundred."
His voice sounded distant, he clearly didn't want to go into depth about the matter.
"So for all we know you could have spent a year or several being locked as a slave," Zaroth muttered, stroking his chin.
'I doubt it,' Luna echoed in his mind. 'Look at his physique—he's got a considerable amount of muscle. Even if he's special, with the rations they gave him, he should've wasted away. I don't think he's been caged more than a year.'
Zaroth nodded, agreeing with her assessnt. 'Still, even if it was just about a year, the fact that he has so much muscle remaining speaks volus about how special he is. Could it be that the Judgent Gaze plays so kind of role here?' he mused.
A few minutes of pondering later he parted his lips.
"There's still the question of why they made you a true slave instead of killing you. From what you've said, once the higher-ups of the Purifiers discovered your powers, they would've seen you as a threat. Killing you would have ensured their secrets stayed buried. Making you a slave? That's risky… it suggests we're still missing a big piece of the puzzle."
Eldros nodded, "Believe , when I was locked up I spent a lot of ti thinking about explanations, but none ca to mind. It seems that the Purifiers have goals that even I fail to grasp."
"Hum…" Zaroth humd, getting from the chair, walking a few feet towards Eldros and stopping before him.
"You have been beaten, made into a slave for such a long ti, experienced countless pointless battles where you had to fight against people with similar fate like yours…" his eyes began to glow with their eerie green light, a clear form of amusent on his face.
"So how co you aren't hating everything they do and stand for? From the looks of it you must want to not only kill the Purifiers but the gods as well for revenge."
Eldros' blue eyes flicked briefly, shifting their gaze to the ground.
"It's hard…" After a few monts of silence he finally admitted. "When you've been taught to believe sothing all your life—to follow a purpose you believed was the right path—stopping that belief and changing your ways drastically is much harder than simply changing your mind."
Zaroth barely managed to suppress a scoff, his expression returning to neutral. He quickly dressed back in his white robes and put on his demonic mask.
"When we t we made a deal, that I would be able to change your beliefs of the world, but from the look of it there is no need, for you already don't believe in the gods."
There wasn't any form of comfort in his voice, he wasn't a person that was going to lie to his friend's face. "All you have to do is to admit that you have been wrong to believe in the gods, to realize that they can make mistakes too."
With silent steps, he approached the door and opened it, getting ready to head out.
"The gods are not the mighty beings you thought they were," with that he left the room, leaving Eldros with his own thoughts.
*****
"What to do…" Now that Zaroth had been healed from his recent battle with the council mbers, he was inspecting the city he was in charge of.
"We greet the saviour!" Everywhere he passed, he was greeted by the people working diligently to restore the city.
'They look much better now,' he realized as he observed their condition.
Their bodies were still malnourished but slowly fat and muscle were beginning to appear on their bodies.
Soon they weren't going to be so weak nobodies but proper healthy humans that could help Zaroth in taking down the empire.
'But the problem is what will happen if we are attacked again…'
He wasn't foolish enough to think that the enemy had given up, no, most likely they were going to appear once more with even more powerful people. Would Zaroth be able to beat them just with Eldros' help?
No, they were strong but not that strong.
After a long walk through the city streets, Zaroth made his decision. He would head north—destroying every town and city he encountered along the way.
It would cause panic, force the surrounding population to flee and disrupt enemy logistics.
Sure, it would bring problems—mass migration always did—but that was the point. Let the enemy scramble to contain the unrest. Let them deal with angry citizens, food shortages, and a war waiting at their doorstep.
They were still deep in warti. If the enemy slipped up trying to juggle rebellion and defense, chaos would follow—and Zaroth would be ready.
With his plan ford, he didn't waste ti. He summoned Luna, got on her back and they soared through the skies.
Unbothered by the strong wind that was playing with his hair and robes, he inspected the map.
Taking a pen, he began to draw a straight line from his current position to the north.
Every single settlent that he ca across was going to be destroyed and he wasn't planning to stop, not until he reached the borders of the Graveborn Empire.
The thought that he was about to kill thousands, maybe even millions of people, briefly crossed his mind—but he dismissed it a few monts later.
It wasn't that he didn't know he was about to beco a mass murderer.
He simply didn't care.
They were the ones who attacked first, and now they were going to pay for their mistakes—a thousand tis over.
'It works out great actually. Now that they have attacked us, they will not be able to do it again soon. Once they join forces, they will be forced to change their plans and try to stop .'
A smile crept upon his face.
"Ah, who says war is hard?" he chuckled to himself. "You just deliver chaos and devastation wherever you go."
Reviews
All reviews (0)