It had already been two days since Astaroth and Violette left the forest where the village was hidden. And they had travelled through many different terrains since then.
Tunnels of darkness untold; Plains as far as the eye can see; Mountains high enough to give you neck pains looking for the top; Rivers of torrential flow; Lakes as calm as a praying monk.
Violette had been astounded at every new site, and Astaroth was frankly impressed at the level of detail the devs put into the game. If he didn’t know better, he would think this was an entirely new world.
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Even though Astaroth was confident in their battle prowess, he doubted they could get out of a swarm of level fifty monsters. It was simply suicide.
At times, they had slaughtered everything in their way, at other times, they had hidden from passing monster hordes. Camping out in the open in high-level zones also came with much danger.
But, for now, they had been doing fine. How long that would last remained a mystery, but Astaroth appreciated the peace while it could last.
It wasn’t until the middle of their third day of travels that they met something that made them hesitate to change paths. But contrary to what Astaroth thought it would have been, monsters, it was something much worse.
Ahead of them, in a valley surrounded by yellow grass plains, there was a village. And that village was currently on fire.
They could see the plume of smoke from quite a distance away, but had no way of knowing what it was emanating from until they got closer. And what came into view almost made Violette throw up.
Along the plains, dipping into the valley, there were bodies. Among the bodies, there were humans and ash elves.
Astaroth knew they were nearing the borders of the Ash Elf kingdom, but he hadn’t expected to see a human settlement for a few more days. Let alone one that seemed ravaged by war.
‘This must be a hidden settlement.’ He thought.
But that still didn’t explain why there were so many bodies strewn around. Why would the ash elves go to war against a small settlement?
His next thought made his face grow dark.
‘Did they attack the settlement simply because they were human?’
But he could guess what the answer was. Chris had told him a war was brewing, after all.
Clearing the borders of the enemy would make sense. But this was going too far.
None of the humans in the corpses looked like soldiers, let alone were they wearing anything remotely like armor. These people were all dressed like farmers and hunters.
And yet, they had been slaughtered, most having wounds on their backs and being laid down face first. This meant someone had struck them while they were fleeing.
Anger was rapidly rising in his body, and it was noticeable. Violette quickly noticed the ambient mana particles acting restlessly.
When she turned her head to Astaroth, the man had an almost palpable aura of rage seething off of him.
“Astaroth? Are you ok?” she asked, in a half-choked voice.
Seeing him like this was scaring her. She had seen Astaroth with many emotions up to now, ranging from happiness to sadness, all the way to ecstasy.
But what was dripping off from him was pure unabated rage. She remembered once that Kloud had told her to make sure he never let his emotions run rampant.
But she was wondering what she could do to calm him. He didn’t seem to even notice her anymore.
In the distance, a scream resounded. A woman, crying for help, before the scream was muffled.
Violette jumped in surprise when she heard the shout. But blood drained from her face when she heard Astaroth’s words.
“Stay here, Violette. Whatever you hear, you stay here.”
He said those words all in a monotonous voice. There was no emotion left in his words.
It was almost like a robot had spoken instead of him, and it terrified her. It was too late.
Inside Astaroth’s head, it was currently absolute silence. White was screaming at Astaroth, and Luna was whimpering loudly, but none of that reached Astaroth’s brain.
His body was moving on its own as he walked forward toward the village. Something was tugging at his arm, but he barely responded, only shaking it off.
Around him, the souls of the dead were rising from the bodies, wailing in anguish, as they clouded around Astaroth. There were so many that he looked like the center of a tornado of death and crying souls.
Astaroth’s soul was cocooned inside himself, seemingly asleep. Thoughts passed by in his head, as all his mind could see was darkness.
‘What happened? Where am I?’
By this point, he had reached the village entrance, where a dozen of ash elf soldiers were guarding, so no one would escape. They had not expected someone to come from behind.
They only noticed the intruder once one of them wailed in pain. Astaroth was holding the poor man’s arm, twisted in a weird shape, bone sticking out of it.
The man was crying in pain, unable to even defend himself, as the souls around Astaroth assaulted his mind, breaking him from the inside.
Some soldiers fled in fear at the sight, too cowardly to confront what could only be called an apparition before them. A few tried to pull out their weapons, but were cut short.
They wondered what was happening, when their eyes were suddenly seeing the sky, before their heads thumped to the ground. Their bodies soon followed suit, necks cleanly sliced through.
Astaroth’s body kept walking towards the center of town, like it was drawn by something, while Violette was trying to scream at him to stop.
Some souls wandered in her direction, but never reached her, as though they were reigned in subconsciously.
“Astaroth! Please, listen to me! Please stop!”
But no answer came. Only silence.