Spreading Fear

The next day Elena and Dred woke up early and went to the yard where they found Jotun training together with his Royal Guards. “Good morning,” Elena and Dred greeted ahead and stopped on the side of the group.

“Morning. How come you two are here?” Jotun asked.

“We came to join if you don’t mind,” Dred replied.

Jotun just shrugged his shoulders. After doing some warm up, they started training their bodies.

When the royal guards stopped and sat down to meditate, Elena and Dred followed suit and when it came to sparring, they sparred against each other. Of course, they didn’t use their abilities. He isn’t trying to fight, that’s good, Elena thought but in the next moment, Jotun walked towards Grund, the leader of the royal guards and told him he too wanted to spar.

“Does his majesty want to beat me up?” Grund asked with a startled face.

Elena hurried to use Ekilsta and insert an idea into Jotun’s mind.

Jotun made a thoughtful face and a few seconds later said, “I’ve got an idea. It would be pointless if I used magic so I won’t. I’ll fight you using only internal magic. That should tip the scale your way.”

Grund turned cheerful and started smiling as he nodded his head. “That should be alright.”

I’ll have to plant ideas in his mind to make him think of things that will be favourable to me. What is his race now?

Name: Jotun Bleeze

Race: Dark Cloud Zombie Demon

Level: 599

Threat Level: 10

It’s good that I can at least inspect him now that Dred revived him… unlike others. I won’t have to try hard to hide him from people.

Jotun turned into a cloud of black smoke and blinked all around Gurdon. Although he tried to hit Jotun with magical attacks, most of the time they missed and even when they hit, Jotun just shrugged it off as if it was nothing, surprising Gurdon every time. He didn’t understand what was going on and why his magic didn’t work.

Since when did I become strong enough to ignore his attacks? Jotun thought while taking in another punch. The battle continued on for a few minutes until Gurdon couldn’t stand his ground any longer and fell to the ground tired, his body aching all over.

“You turned soft,” Jotun remarked, looking at Gurdon with contempt.

“B-But my king-”

“Silence! Your magic barely hurt me even when it hit me and I didn’t even use external magic! What the hell is wrong with you? You’ll train with the other from now on, the whole day!” Jotun raised his voice. He’s supposed to be the second in command, the second strongest person after me… yet he lost this miserably. A shame to my Royal Guards! he fumed in his mind. Turning around, he left Gurdon and went back to the palace.

Gurdon stood up and fixed his tattered armour on his body. “Why did my magic have so little effect on him?” he mumbled as he walked to the back of the group ashamed of his loss. Elena and Dred left the training grounds a few hours later and found Jotun in his office. But before they could open the door, they heard a male voice.

“We found an ancient temple on the island where are drawings of the eight rings of calamity. The outer parts of the temple seem to be a maze while the inner parts are probably more dangerous. It could be a dungeon too. That’s all we found.”

“Mhm, you may leave now,” Jotun’s voice came.

In the next moment, Elena and Dred felt the man’s presence disappear. Uncovering themselves, they opened the door to Jotun’s office.

“Hi! We came to talk again,” Dred said as he sat down in front of Jotun.

“...You appeared in front of the door. Were you listening in on our conversation?”

“Ah, you aren’t an idiot, I’m surprised,” Elena replied.

“Tsk. What do you two want?”

“Tell us about your plan. How do you want to deal with Padinyss? I know that you have something in mind and I want to help. He would be a real bother in my life if kept alive,” Elena sighed out loud. Seeing Jotun’s suspicious look, she inserted another idea into Jotun’s mind. The idea that he could trust them to some degree.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on, we need your help even if we have some grievances,” Dred pushed on.

Contemplating about it for a bit, Jotun decided to step forward. “You’ll have to take an oath stating you want to kill Padinyss.” This way, I’m still not saying I want to kill him so they can’t blackmail me in any way.

“I swear I want to kill Padinyss,” Elena took the oath without any hesitation, followed by Dred.

Jotun nodded his head satisfied. “Good, it seems like you really want to help me.”

“Finally! I thought you’d stay quiet forever,” Elena shook her head.

“You must understand I can’t talk about it to just anyone.”

“I know, I know. So?”

“Well, first you need to understand more about the past. You seem to be quite young so I suppose you don’t know much about Reinald.”

“I might know more than you think, but I’ll hear you out,” Elena chuckled.

“Alright. In the past, Reinald was the overlord of the whole world and I too was only two hundred years old? I think. Anyway, I met Padinyss at an Inn and he was gathering powerful people who would help him kill Reinald. These legendary beings can turn into complete humans, so at that time I didn’t know he was a Dragon God. Since I fought Reinald before, I believed Padinyss’s plans were suicidal.”

“Still, I was curious about the outcome so instead of joining his group, I followed them.”

Silence spread in the room when Jotun suddenly stopped talking.

“And?”

“Things didn’t go as I expected. Padinyss joined Reinald’s special forces and helped him find treasures, they trained together, they worked together. Then one day, I saw them leave the city together. Thanks to my race and my racial skill, I was really good at hiding my presence even at that time and followed them.”

“It turned out, Reinald wanted to leave behind his rings of calamity and possibly leave this world. The thing is that he sealed this world so we have no way to get to a higher level than five hundred and ninety-nine. He didn’t tell Padinyss and the other where he hid the rings and was about to seal the last one when Padinyss and his group backstabbed him.”

“Reinald still killed all of them except for Padinyss and Ekrok, though the latter almost died. Afterwards, Padinyss started looking for the rings and changed the whole world. In his battle against the wounded Reinald, he used his true dragon form as well and I can tell you he is truly fearsome. But I want the treasures Reinald amassed over his time of rule.”

“You two are my entry and the thing inside is my key to take care of Padinyss.”

“What is it?” Dred leaned forward.

“Heh. Reinald’s ability. He wrote down the way to use his abilities in scrolls. His shell ability, his ‘world-energy’ controlling ability, everything. If I got my hands on those skills and mastered them, I’d be able to take care of Padinyss. Not alone, but if my Royal Guards and maybe a few kings helped, I’d be able to.”

“Can I ask you something?” Elena said.

“Go on.”

“Tell me, why do you want to backstab Padinyss and kill him?”

“I could ask the same,” Jotun smiled back.

“But I asked it now.”

“Well, I want to be the next overlord and do what I want. I don’t want anyone to be above me and to be honest, this world may be sealed but it isn’t a bad thing to me. My race is quite unique and I’ll easily stay the strongest and live a carefree life if things stay as they are.”

“So do you plan to recreate the seal once you kill Padinyss?”

“Mhm. But I’ll let a few people leave if they want. You too for helping me or you can stay as important nobles or whatnot. How about it?” Jotun asked.

“I’ll see,” Elena replied and stood up to leave. “I’m going now, that’s all I wanted to hear.” She grabbed the handle of the door and pulled on it. Before closing the door behind her, she said, “I have a feeling Padinyss will want to hunt us down because of our race. You can choose to help him, though I wouldn’t recommend it. But in no way should you try to use external magic or you’ll die before you could reach your goal.” She shut the door and left him alone.

I shouldn’t try using external magic. Why? Jotun pondered. Raising his hand, he tried to form a ball of darkness in his palm but nothing happened. “Huh?”

His next try had the same result.

“What the fuck? Status!” Looking at his spells and skills he didn’t find anything strange. His racial skills were still the same, the level of his elemental magic didn’t decrease either. His eyes stopped on his race and the new word ‘zombie’.

“I’m an… undead,” he uttered, realizing what Elena meant. He wiped his forehead only to notice he wasn’t sweating and realized that this morning he was the same even after a tough and tiring training.

“What’s going on here? What happened to me?” he held his face, his hands trembling. Looking at the door where Elena stood just a moment ago, he clenched his fists and ran after her. Opening the door, he couldn’t find her anywhere and even after using Sense, he couldn’t sense her or Dred.

They left… Damn it! When did I die?! he asked himself. In the next moment, one last idea appeared in his mind.

“I wanted to kill you, but it wasn’t me. Watch your back because somebody is after your life,” knowing it was Elena, he went back to his seat and sat down. Sighing loudly, he felt tired again for the first time since he woke up in the dining room, though not physically.

---

“Are we going back to the others now?” Dred asked, running towards the outer parts of the city.

“Mhm. We should leave quickly and regroup with our friends.”

“Do you miss them?”

“Of course! Haha, I wonder how they’re doing.”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” he replied with an amused face.

“What is it?”

“You’re cute.”

“...Stop looking at me with those tender puppy eyes!” Elena pushed Dred’s face away and jumped on his back instead. Dred sped up laughing and half an hour later, they reached an empty part of the city. He transformed into his wyvern form and after hiding their presences completely, he flew off towards the Alof Kingdom.

“I’ll kill Jotun too,” Elena said in a low voice.

“I know. It’s time to step up our game,” Dred replied.

“Haah- you’re right. I said I’d kill every conspiring, betraying, spineless trash in the world. If Audrey, Jake, and Cor managed to create smaller groups who could be of use in the future, I’ll be able to amass information on a larger scale and wipe out numerous cities or even kingdoms in the future. It’s just that the five of us wasn’t of much use against the world. Our group was enough only for mass destruction, but that’s not what I decided on.”

Dred replied with silence and flew at mid-height, trying to not turn into prey for large fishes that’d jump out the ocean and food for powerful birds high in the air. When nighttime came, Elena took up Dred’s wyvern form and carried him on her back while he took a nap. They advanced much faster since she was able to use Shadowstep.