Poison shopping

Ekrok reached the capital city of Thivalon Kingdom three days later. Although he really wanted to rest, he knew he didn’t have the time and went straight to the palace. Thanks to his obviously high level, the people he asked for directions helped him without any trouble.

He circled around the palace a few times and then transformed into his draco-human form. As he landed right in front of the entrance, he said to the guards “Take me to the king of this nation this instant. If you don’t help me, I’ll destroy you and your kingdom as well!” he raised his voice, visibly in a bad mood. Even if he was at a high level, going on without any sleep for three days took its strain on him.

After inspecting him, the guard started sweating profusely. Clenching his fists on his spear, he replied, “I’ll look for him, please wait a moment.”

Ekrok nodded his head, happy to see his cooperation. The guard ran off, while the other one stayed and continued to look at Ekrok when he wasn’t looking. “What is it?”

“Ah! Pardon me!” the guard shouted fearfully and bowed his head. A few seconds later, the guard from before rushed out and said, “Please follow me.”

Ekrok was led to the throne room where he met the king. “What’s your name?” Ekrok asked, not bothering with his title as the king of a small nation like Thivalon.

Knowing his place, the king replied, “My name is Bethor. Who might you be, traveller?”

“I’m called Ekrok, the second in command of the Dragon Empire,” he said, a small smile forming on his face upon seeing sweat appearing on Bethor’s forehead.

“I know you probably don’t understand why I’m at a place like this. I don’t wish to be here either, but the seriousness of this problem doesn’t let me do otherwise,” he started explaining and after pulling out a comfortable chair from his storage ring, he sat down facing Bethor.

“I’ll ask a few questions and I expect you to reply honestly-”

The doors were swung open and Sally and Caleb came in. After stopping beside Bethor, Ekrok continued. “Have you noticed any sort of mass murders in these last few weeks or months?”

“We had a war not long ago, so many people died, obviously,” Bethor replied, raising a brow.

Clicking his tongue, Ekrok decided to reveal more, hoping for their help. “I’ll tell you what’s the problem. You lot don’t know many things about the universe. Surely, you know there are legendary beings, like the one true ruler, Padinyss.”

Bethor nodded his head.

“This world we are in is a sealed world, but I won’t go into the details pertaining this matter. In this world, Padinyss is the only legendary being. At least, that was the case for many years.”

“But things have changed.”

“There is a special case among the legendary creatures, a race that is born with a goal, which is to destroy the universe. They are called the Devourers. How or why this race is born is something we don’t know, but it’s common sense that anyone finding them should try to kill them by all means. If not, I’m afraid the whole planet and then the universe will fall, meaning billions of dead souls. I’m sure you don’t wish that to happen.”

Furrowing his brows, Bethor replied, “The news you brought are certainly grave and I’d like to help, but why are you asking me when I didn’t even know about this race?”

Smiling, Ekrok replied, “That’s why I’m here. When the Devourer is born, the planet that gave birth to that monster will die out and wither, no matter how old or young it is.”

“Oh?” Bethor started connecting the dots.

“There was a small planet near Dunk, with no Mana on it. My lord found it strange when it suddenly appeared but paid no heed to it. Things changed when this young planet simply cracked and broke apart as if it was a ball of dried mud, sucked dry of water. That’s certainly not how stars and planets are supposed to die. The thing is, that planet had a gateway leading to your kingdom.”

“I asked a few people and I heard you rebelled against your king and took his place. I don’t care about this, what I care about is the fact you was the city lord of the city that was the closest to the gateway!” Ekrok raised his voice.

“Indeed, that’s true.”

“Great. Then do you recall any strange person you met who was much more powerful than others at his or her level? Or who had strange abilities?”

“Hmm- I did meet powerful people, but what sort abilities?”

“Something that made people rot or made them weaker, something that turned them into nothing but husks or maybe made the corpses disappear without a trace. I’m not sure about the details of the Devourer’s spells, but I know it’s something similar to what I described.”

“Hmm… I’m not in knowledge of a spell like this.”

“Tsk…”

“Haven’t you met a person or maybe a group who caused trouble in the city and killed many people? Maybe just groups of people,” Ekrok tried again.

The only person I recall being truly outstanding is Elena and Dred and their friends. But they didn’t plan to destroy the world, obviously. They even helped me in the long run if anything. I don’t wish to mix them up with a person like this… Bethor pondered while shaking his head, acting as if he had no idea.

Sighing loudly, Ekrok was about to stand up when the doors opened and a long black haired man with locks of blonde in it rushed into the throne room forcefully. He was around a hundred and seventy centimeters tall and looked like an average human. He had a ring on his finger with a black gem in it. Spotting it immediately, Ekrok stood up and looked at the man with pleasure.

“Catch him!” the guards shouted and ran towards him, but Ekrok waved his hand and a powerful gust of wind pushed them back. “Stop!”

“Hahaha, who’d have thought that I’d find the Eighth Ring of Calamity here? Who are you?”

Bowing his head, the black haired man said, “Good day, my lord. My name is Shin and I come from a planet called Dink. I’ve brought news to you.”

“Huh? Dink?!”

“Yes.”

“Oh, well. With the eighth ring, you can obviously access the other planet too. Now you got me curious, but before I ask more, what do you know?”

“My name is Shin, a former Emperor. Although I can use the ring to travel, there is a gate connection the planets in this kingdom. This man, called Bethor also knows the person you’re looking for. I’m quite sure that this devourer you spoke of is a woman called Elena. She also has a panther beside her, called Dred, and three companions. They destroyed my whole empire back on Dink and then helped Bethor to the throne, along with another king on Dink. His name is Hector if I recall correctly. Now they are united and are working together to strengthen their military forces,” Shin explained shortly, telling everything that could be used against Bethor.

“Hahaha, can you see this, Shin? I’m using your body and I’m going to create havoc again. This will probably take care of that woman so I’ll have fewer things to worry about and I’ll be able to focus on preparing everything to kill Padinyss.” The consciousness of the eighth ring laughed in his mind, while Shin looked helplessly at everything.

“Eh? Won’t you try to resist? You’re no fun… I told you to just let me devour your consciousness and you won’t have to suffer anymore.”

“NO!”

“Tsk… fine. Then watch me. Oh, by the way, this guy was there when they killed my master. He was almost killed just from the residual energy of my master’s attack, hehe. This weakling…” the darkness laughed in his mind while looking at Ekrok.

“Is this true, Bethor?” Ekrok furrowed his brows.

I’m sorry, Elena, but I worked too much to finally turn this kingdom into a glorious one. If I don’t tell the truth, we’ll be all killed. Wait… was this what she meant by her parting words? She’ll be the evil if needed… Damn it! I’ll work hard to try to save you. I don’t know if you’re this devourer or not, but I don’t think you’re such a bad person! Bethor thought before sighing loudly.

“It’s as this man said. Let me tell you the whole tale. Our king was abusing his power and so I plotted against him to make this kingdom better. It took tens of years until I finally got to the final phase and that was the time this woman called Elena appeared, along with her friends. They were all very powerful and although they killed people, they didn’t kill that many. Only a few thugs and they didn’t even hurt the citizens.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you about her. They also helped to destroy this man’s empire, but that was because he too tried to dominate the other planet and enslave women, children. Lord Ekrok surely wouldn’t want his family to be enslaved either. I believe our reasons are justified. And to ensure that I’m telling the truth…”

“I hereby declare and swear that my words before were all the truth or death shall take me!”

Ekrok continued to look at him silently for a few seconds before sighing loudly. Slumping his shoulders, he rubbed his eyes and looked at Shin, who was visibly unhappy with the sudden turn of events.

“I’ve decided. I’ll stay here for now and contact the emperor. I’ll watch over you and try to find traces of the devourer. I’ll also tell everything to Padinyss and it’ll be up to him to decide about Elena’s life. Because she happens to be a guest in the palace, at the moment…” Ekrok said.

“I’m fine with that,” Bethor replied.

Ekrok picked an empty room in the palace and told everything he learned to Padinyss through the Orb of Seers.

“Elena and Dred? The people you brought here with the ring on their fingers?” Padinyss asked after all was said.

“Yes.”

“That’s grave news. Although they have seemingly nothing to do with it, if it turned out they were really the devourers, I’d be in a pinch. I can’t kill them before opening the seal but if I let them grow, they’ll be strong enough to kill me, I fear. Try gathering more information about this matter I’ll send somebody to bring the man with the Ring of Darkness to me. I’ll fetch the Ring of Wind with Jotun’s help. Once that’s done, I’ll open the seal and kill every ring bearer afterwards, just to make sure.”

“Understood,” Ekrok replied and the connection was broken.

Huh, poor people… they were fighting to get the ring and become Padinyss’s guests, but now their fates just changed for the worse. I’ll take a nap for now, I can’t find anything if I’m too tired to think, he thought and laid down on the bed as if it was his own. Yawning loudly, he closed his eyes and shortly fell asleep.

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