Chapter XV: Dirtying Your Hands...

Angel had a stern expression written on his face as he sat on the bed with his left hand on top of his right hand in front of his mouth.

It had been a couple of hours since he talked to the dwarf who had intruded, and since then, he couldn't stop thinking about what he had been told.

The dwarf was, from what he had revealed, someone who wanted change in the Dwarven Empire. He had told him that he was part of a movement whose goal was to replace the current Emperor with someone who wants the Demon King, and their people, gone.

Now, Angel wouldn't mind having Emperor Havel replaced, for he did think the man was unfit to rule, but the problem was that their goals weren't to replace him. No, they planned on removing everyone who believed in neutrality from leadership roles, and purging their kingdoms from demon folk. In short, it was going to be a mass-murdering.

"The soon to be new Emperor has requested your aid in this purging of demons. He has asked that you, and your party members cleanse his palace of the demons that dwell in it. Do this, and he will reward you with the finest weapons and armor."

Those were the words that echoed the most inside of his head, and were also what troubled him the most, for he wasn't sure if they could pull it off, nor was he sure if they should do this.

He may hate and want a rematch with the Black Knight, but if they were to go up against him, and his entourage of Dark Knights, then he wasn't sure who would win. As for why, it was because the mana that was radiating from them was remarkable. Theirs may not be as vast as the Black Knight's mana, but all of them had a large pool of mana.

Not to mention, he had a feeling that these Dark Knights weren't any ordinary Dark Knights, he didn't know why, but how they carried themselves were different from the ones they had faced in the past.

Nonetheless, he didn't know if they could win the fight, for he'd be far too preoccupied with the Black Knight, and wouldn't be able to help his friends out against the Dark Knights if they were to go at them. He also had a good feeling that the Nyx woman wasn't going to stand to the side and watch this all go down either.

Letting loose an exhausted sigh, Angel wondered about what they should do.

"Even if we do get involved and remove Emperor Havel, how can they be so sure everyone else will fall in line?" He thought as his face contorted to that of a small scowl. "They might be able to gain control of Kal Vorum, and some of the other dwarven cities, but do they really believe that all of this will work out without a single hitch?"

Angel didn't consider himself an optimistic person, but he did at the very least attempt to look at the bright side of things, but in this situation, he didn't see anything good. If they helped the ones who want change, then there was a chance they could fail, and the risk of the dwarves joining the Demon King's side.

If they did nothing, then there was still the chance of them entering the war on the Demon King's side, and if they helped deal with the revolters, then the Dwarven Empire would most likely stay neutral and have to deal with the revolters. In the end, he didn't see any outcome where they'd come out with more benefits than losses.

Letting out another sigh, this one being more along the lines of irritation, Angel continued to ponder about what they should and shouldn't do.

"I really don't know what we should do. I think it might be best to help stop these guys from overthrowing the current ruler, but if we do that, then our best chance of getting the Dwarven Empire to join our cause goes down the drain." He thought to himself.

Eventually, after about thirty of thinking of the situation, Jacob and the remaining ambassadors returned to the room.

As soon as he saw them, Angel called out to him as he got up off of the bed. "Jacob, we need to talk, like right now."

Confused, and startled, Jacob said, "Okay, what's up?"

"I'll tell you in a little bit, but first we need to gather everyone else." He answered in a firm tone.

"Okay." Was his reply.

Meanwhile, the ambassadors had concerned looks on their faces, and couldn't help themselves from asking him if everything was alright.

"Everything is alright. I just need to have a moment in private with my friends." He answered as he shot them a look before dragging Jacob out of the room and taking him to the girl's room.

After knocking the doorman's lights out, the two of them went down the hatch with Donovan slightly in the lead.

He had imagined that they were going to enter a cellar-like room and search for a button or switch, but upon going down the steps, they found themselves in a somewhat large room that had stone walls with four torches and a dirty stone flooring. There was a couple of barrels on their left up against the wall, and not far ahead of them were two very old looking banners.

"Not very hidden if you ask me." Donovan said aloud with a frown.

"Yeah, I agree." Camillia affirmed as she moved away to see what was in the barrels.

As she did this, Donovan walked over to one of two old banners, and began examining them. It was dark blue in color, and had quite a number of holes in it. It had an insignia on it, or at least, Donovan believed it to have one, but he couldn't exactly make out what it was.

From first glance, it looked like a helm with two swords crossing blades with one another behind it, but as he looked more closely, he noticed that swords were actually axes, but was still unable to make out what was in the center.

"Huh, I thought it was a helmet, but now that I look at it more, it kind of looks like a little ghost." Donovan thought as he continued at the banner with interest.

"Fane," Came Camillia's voice from behind causing him to turn around that she was looking at him. "can you come over here and take a look at this? I found something very interesting."

"Sure." He replied before walking over and looking into the barrel she opened up only to find about a dozen swords in it.

"Why do you think they have all these weapons in here?" She inquired in a voice filled with curiosity.

"I have no idea." He answered truthfully as his lips curved slightly downwards. It was obvious they were going to be transporting them or something along those lines, for there was no way they'd just keep barrels full of weapons at the front entrance of their secret hideout. It just wasn't possible in his mind.

"However, we're not going to find out if we just stand around here doing nothing." Donovan pointed out in a stern manner.

"Yeah," She affirmed before putting the barrel's lid back on. "let's continue."

After that was said, the two pressed forward, and eventually came upon a room that had a dwarven woman sitting behind a large desk. There was a stone wall behind her that had two torches on it, and directly behind her was a wooden door.

Unlike Camillia, who was wearing a veil, the dwarven woman didn't hide her face, which meant she was married. She wasn't ugly, but nor was she extremely beautiful, if anything she was pretty, if not that, then average.

As they approached woman, she greeted them with a small smile. "Good evening, I trust there is a reason for you two to come here armed, and without an appointment?"

"Yep, but this place isn't exactly hidden, so you can't blame us for stumbling upon it, right?" Camillia rebutted as they came to a stop in front of the desk.

"I disagree, we've been here for months on end, and the House of Shadows has yet to be caught, but let's not discuss matters like that." She said before waving her hand as if this was a trivial matter. "Let's discuss why you two are here, and what you need from the House of Shadows."

"We have business with your leader, and would like to speak with him immediately." Camillia stated after shooting Donovan a look. She had no intention of beating around the bush, and planned on going with the blunt approach.

"Yes, yes I know that, but what type of business?" The woman said in response with a nod of her head, and in a tired tone. "My leader is a busy man, so unless it's of importance, I'm afraid you won't be able to see him."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." Camillia declared in a slightly sad tone.

"My, that is a shame." The woman said with a shake of her head. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to resort to violence, but it seems that you two are unreasonable, and are looking to cause problems. It's unfortunate, but it can't be helped, right?"

With a snap of her fingers, several armored dwarves appeared out of thin air around them with weapons in their hands.

"You don't sound that sad for what's about to happen." Donovan pointed out after looking around the room.

"My that's a deep voice, you'd for sure be a hit with the ladies, but to answer your statement it's simple really, and that is you just get used to it." She said with a chuckle. "You all aren't the first ones to become barging into one of the House of Shadow's territory, and you most definitely won't be the last."

"I see." Was all he said in response. He was pretty sure they were underestimating him a lot, and he didn't understand why they didn't attack them immediately, but he guessed it was because they were giving Camillia and him a chance to defend themselves? He wasn't sure, but this was the best thing he could think of.

As Camillia placed her hands onto the two short sword's hilts, one of the dwarves decided to make their move and charge at the two of them with mace at the ready. While he did this, another who was armed with a crossbow that was designed to pierce armor aimed his weapon at Donovan, and fired.

His bolt had missed entirely and whizzed past the dwarven woman and into the stone wall, for Donovan had moved out of the way to stop the dwarf that was the first to cover the distance between them.

With his sword in his right hand, and his large shield still on his back, Donovan grabbed ahold of the man's mace with his left hand and made him come to a complete stop.

The dwarf was taken back by this, and his companions were now finally able to realize how much of a height difference there was between the black-armored warrior and them.

Believing he could still get his weapon back, the dwarf pulled with all of his might to free his weapon from the tall warrior's grasp, but the attempt was futile, and as he did this, he said under his breath. "L-Let go, fuck!"

"As if I'd do that just because you'd tell me to." Donovan thought with only a tiny bit of amusement before effortlessly yanking the mace out of the man's grasp and throwing it at one of the two dwarves who had moved to assist the now disarmed dwarf.

No longer concerning himself with the dwarf he disarmed, Donovan turned to the dwarf who was still running at him only to see a familiar shape move past him and at the charging man. It was Camillia, and while she was pretty quick, she was nowhere as fast as him.

The man saw her coming and with rage in his voice, he yelled as the two were about to collide. "Out of the way, cunt!"

With that declaration, he swung the two-handed sword at her and hit nothing but the air, for she evaded his attack.

As he followed up the attack, Donovan averted his attention elsewhere and saw that the dwarf he had disarmed had moved to go retrieve the weapon he had thrown, and also saw out of the corner of his eye the archer finish loading his crossbow.

Deciding not to come to him, Donovan had a black ball of fire form in his hand chucked it at the dwarven archer, who had fired his crossbow again as he did this.

The bolt had been disintegrated, and the man was set ablaze, but the screams he released didn't last long, for the flames quickly reduced him to nothing.

The dwarven woman who had witnessed this couldn't hide the shock and horror written on her face. She had figured they were going to be somewhat of a challenge, especially Donovan, but she had faith in her friends and believed they could take them.

"I-I need to get out of here and tell Lohar." She thought to herself as Donovan easily slew the dwarf who had retrieved his mace. "He needs to know that we're being-"

"Where do you think you're going?" Donovan questioned in a calm manner, which had caused her to come to a complete stop and turn around to see that he was only about three feet away from her.

Despite this calmness in his voice, he was actually a little disturbed by what he had just done. He may have had played some fantasy games before, and also may have told himself that he'd do whatever it takes to save his friends and the Demon King, but that didn't mean he could ignore the things he had just done.

He had burned a man to death, he had cut down another, and he had caved in another's face with a mace by simply throwing it at him all in less than a minute. All of this made him feel a little powerful, but it also terrified him a little, for he realized that he can easily take someone's life if he's not careful.

"I can now understand where my dad was coming from when he talked about veterans killing themselves after they leave the military, what they see and do can never be undone, nor can it ever be forgotten." He thought to himself as the woman fumbled her words.

He remembered one time in the car not that long ago when they went to the grocery store his father talking about how a lot of his military friends ended their lives, but he couldn't quite understand why.

Sure, he had understood it was because of seeing/doing some fucked up shit, but he couldn't comprehend it fully. Now though, he felt like he could understand the reason completely, and that's because of the things he had done here today.

As she continued to stutter and stammer, Camillia finished off the swordsman by lodging her blades into his neck, which had practically killed him instantaneously.

Feeling she was going to continue fumbling her words, Donovan said in a relaxing voice. "Calm yourself, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Y-You're lying." She croaked with tears coming out of her eyes as Camillia approached them while cleaning her blades. "You, you're going to, going to kill me, I, I know you are."

"I give you my word, I will not." Donovan affirmed, a tinge of guilt plaguing his heart. He knew he wasn't exactly in the wrong here, for the guys he had just killed had taken countless of lives, but a part of him still couldn't help from pitying the woman before him.

Her sobbing didn't come to a complete stop, but she did quiet down just a bit.

"Thank you, now I suggest you walk away from all of this." Donovan declared in a firm tone. "If you don't wanna die, then you should do that, otherwise I can't be held responsible for what happens next."

Camillia was taken back by this, and was unable to stop herself from saying, "Fane."

Donovan instantly looked at her upon hearing these words, but nothing else came out of her, which was something that piqued his interest, for it sounded like she had something important she wanted to say.

Nonetheless, the woman was surprised by the offer he had given her, and said, "Okay, but, but why? I, I tried to have you killed."

"Because I don't need any unnecessary blood on my hands." He answered almost immediately. "If I can avoid killing someone, then I'll take it, so go."

Not needing to be told again, the woman cautiously moved past them. Once she was past them, she started to run a bit before looking over her shoulder to see if he was actually allowing her to leave unscathed.

To her surprise, Donovan didn't even bother watching her run away.

After she was gone, Camillia questioned him. "You know she's apart of the organization that wants to overthrow my father, right?"

"Yeah, I do." He affirmed.

"Then why did you let her go? Especially after she sicked her guards on us?" Camillia asked, a trace of irritation in her voice.

"She was unarmed, and I saw no need to kill her." Came his response in a serious tone. "Plus I highly doubt she will want to continue this line of business. After all, we did just kill her friends."

Camillia was quiet at this, but that didn't mean she was okay with his actions. However, she saw no reason to continue this conversation, for she doubted he was going to change his mind, and she had no intention of tracking the woman down.

After feeling like his point had been made, Donovan pressed forward with Camillia right behind him.