Silva spent the remainder of the night staring at the box that the figure had given to him while the clone tortured the two men till daybreak.
The clone drove them to the brink of insanity and back multiple times, healing them after every time and making sure they were at peak condition before he started again.
‘What is going on? What direction am I supposed to go? There is so much to do, so much to find out, and the map to follow.
I thought this would be a simple task of helping a goddess, but every day a new discovery comes to me, a different opponent, a different line to follow.
What do I even do? How do I even get through this all? Will I survive at all?’ Silva asked himself as he sat there. What was it that he was to do? He could tell there was a bigger game at play here, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.
“Ophelia, if you are listening, I’m about to change a lot of things. I’m about to start searching for myself. This whole ‘follow the task’ thing? It’s not working,” Silva said and got up from where he sat down. He took out his blade and slashed through the bodies of both men, killing them.
“I’m guessing we aren’t allowing the kid to kill them anymore,” the clone said.
“I’ve gotten too sidetracked, too emotional. I’ve allowed too many things to get in front of me and distract me.
I’m tired of that. In the beginning, it was all about gaining strength. It was all about reaching the peak for me.
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But along the line, I built a kingdom, gathered so many random people around me, and got close to them.
Before, after every loss, I tried to get stronger and defeat them, but now it’s like I am letting my fate be decided by those around me,” Silva said and stepped out of the building. He looked back inside. “That all ends now.”
The clone followed him out, and they started walking toward the inn. The sun had started rising, and on their way, they saw the party coming with Ranin. When they saw Silva, they stopped.
“I killed them. Your brother’s killers have been killed. You can rest easy,” Silva said. He pulled out a pouch of coins and threw it at Ranin’s feet.
“Take that. Find your way out of this town, start life somewhere else, and keep your head low. What is inside that pouch can keep you for two lifetimes,” Silva said and walked past them with the clone.
“We are leaving the town now. We have a mission,” Silva said, but suddenly, Dawn ran up to him and held his shoulder.
“You’re leaving her here? Alone? What if the same thing happens to her?” Dawn asked.
“Then that’s her fate,” Silva said and continued walking. She tried to grab him again, but the clone shocked her hand to the side.
“Silva!” Aston yelled, and Silva stopped. He turned around and stared at all of them. They looked at him with confused eyes—they all believed Silva would have taken her along.
“Did I stutter when I said we are leaving now?” Silva asked.
“What are you doing, Silva? What’s gotten into you? Even for the cold Silva we know, this one is different,” Aaron said.
“You do not know Silva. You don’t know me,” Silva said, his eyes closing into slits. They were disobeying him—these lesser races that he had shown grace. They were all disobeying him right now.
Dawn stepped up to talk again. Silva turned and looked at her. “You will listen to me, Dawn,” he said in a commanding voice, and she immediately bowed her head.
She slowly walked over and stood behind Silva, leaving Ranin.
“Silva, why would you treat Dawn like she is just your summon? Where is her right to choose?” Aaron asked.
“Right to choose? Are you all kidding me? Dawn has slain children. We all have. We have slain helpless children. We have done acts so despicable that the world would kill us for it.
Yet you decide to disobey me for one kid? Someone you met a day ago? Aaron, you owe me your life, and I will not stand here and have you disobey me because of some shit like this,” Silva said.
“This is more than just Ranin, and we all know it. You changed. Something reset you. I knew you from the beginning, how cold you were, but I slowly watched you get better and accept humans more.
You’re still not there, but you have gotten a whole lot better. But now, you somehow reset back, and I can’t start allowing you to do shit like this all of a sudden,” Aaron said.
That was when a sudden realization hit Silva. He paused and looked at Aaron.
“What did you just say? You were trying to make me softer? When did this start? When did this plan swing into motion?” Silva asked.
“You think I didn’t know? We didn’t know? You killed Michael and all because he didn’t want to be on the same page with you.
That was how much of a terrifying monster you were. That was who you were, Silva. And over the last few months, you have fought for your kingdom, helped people gain lives, saved Rose and Gabriel.
You haven’t been the old you for so long. You became better,” Aaron said.
“This is beautiful. This is so beautiful. It’s making sense to me now—why everything has been shitty, slow, and why I’ve not really been on the right track.
You shitheads have been swaying me, making me have fun, making me happy, and all that, so that I forget what I have to do,” Silva said.
“You always talk about what you have to do, but you never tell us why you have to do it. Why can’t you just stay, and everything will be normal in your own kingdom?” Aaron asked.
“BECAUSE I AM A FLIPPING DEMON KING IN ANOTHER CONTINENT! BECAUSE I KNOW THAT ALL OF YOU WILL DIE IF I DON’T DO IT! BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THIS WORLD IS ALL A LIE, AND NONE OF US KNOW THE TRUTH!” Silva yelled.