They did visit him now and then.

For a week or so, there was a lot of here-and-there about where he should be kept. Kreig knew about this only because George would occasionally rant about it at times when they visited. They didn’t want him in the very city centre for obvious reasons, but if they wanted him to handle portals, then they would need to have him someplace where he could easily have access to those. In the end, they went with the option of convenience and kept him in the facility. There, he got his own room, a bed, food, clothes…

He tried to accept it.

He washed himself, he took off his armour and wore the clothes, and he ate at times. But he refused to sleep. Sleeping only made him upset, though, at times, he did enjoy simply laying on the comfortable bed to relax and feel the softness of it. The food he received was likewise of high quality, and they seemed to make a point of caring for him. Despite the fact that he was, indeed, kept in captivity.

But he didn’t mind. It was far better than any prison he had been at in the otherworld. Combined with meeting his siblings relatively often, he had nothing to complain of.

And he only had portal duty every other day. Each time, he would dress himself in his armour and then get shipped off there by helicopter. As Sir Reiker had said, Sam was always there. Her swordsmanship was lacking, but it was nice to have company.

Usually, nothing came of these portals. The in-portal team would finish their job with minor to no losses and Kreig would return to his home.

On the rare occasions that a portal did open…

It had been a month at most. Time had passed relatively quickly as he had little to do, but now, he was quite occupied. The portal was a ‘yellow-grade’ one, which really could mean anything. The thing that made it especially dangerous was the fact that it was in a place with a rather extensive civilian population, forcing them to evacuate a large part of the city.

“That mall over there’s gonna be upset. Probably send an insurance claim or something about the lost revenue,” Sam mumbled to herself.

“Insurance claim?” Kreig parroted.

Judging by the way Sam jumped a foot in the air and whirled to face him, she hadn’t expected him to catch it. “That’s-, well, uh, yeah! Didn’t I tell you about this last time?... Uhh, well, lots of insurance people do portal-plans nowadays, going from routine money-lost stuff to more death-of-a-loved-one and all. IOCRO also has its own insurance stuff, but it’s more for Fighters like me, you know? I’ve got full dental, yanno?” At that, she flashed a great grin, showing off her impressive canines.

“I see,” Kreig said, absolutely clueless as to what a full-dental was. Who knew - considering that this was the future, there might very well be a program that allowed people to get entire new sets of teeth. All as part of their insurance plan. What a wonderful world.

“Though, like with everything, lots of people abuse all of this stuff, so-,”

Before she had time to say anything else, there was a ripple in the portal. After seeing it a dozen times at least, Kreig now recognized the exit of the in-portal party quite well.

The face of a man Kreig could remember seeing at other portals appeared, but there was something strangely waxy about it. Kreig didn’t have time to realise he was already dead before the man’s bisected torso appeared as well, carried by a massive reptilian hand.

“Drake,” Kreig breathed.

Sam’s head swivelled to him before turning back to the portals, her eyes wide and fearful.

Kreig drew his sword. To his side, the extra-portal team readied themselves as well, their faces almost as pale as the dead Fighter’s. The officers surrounding the area and keeping away bystanders all blanched. “R-, retreat!” one of the officers shouted, prompting them to run, warding away any straggling civilians as they did.

The terrible face of the drake reared out from within the portal, its nostrils flaring and its hideous fang-toothed mouth dripping with blood.

Big-Mouthed Drake, Lv.198

From its mouth, a hiss erupted. It stepped out fully, revealing its half-feathered, powerful form. As it was with drakes, it had no wings to speak of, despite the feathery shroud that shone in blue and purple. In the back of his mind, Kreig recalled how while attracting a mate, the males could inflate a sack on their throats to make their feathers shine brighter. He had seen it once himself, just before killing both the male and female. Considering that this one carried such a pouch, it was a male.

The extra-portal fighting party began to oh-so-slightly back away, clearly realising that it was beyond their abilities. Not so for Kreig.

Since this had happened a few times before, he knew exactly what to do before it could kill anyone or the Fighters could throw themselves at it.

Taking his sword in hand, he leaned back, adjusted his aim, and hurled the sword at the drake as though it was a spear rather than a broadsword. With all the finesse of a professional pike-thrower, the sword lanced through the drake’s neck, decapitating it fully before finally lodging itself into the concrete. A dozen stunned gazes turned towards him just as the heavy head of the drake fell to the ground.

That was how it went. Just as he had done it the last time and just as he had done it the time before that, this was the order in which it went. He went and picked up his sword.

With his duties done for the day, Kreig turned towards the helicopter that had brought him there.

“Brring, brring,” something in Sam’s pocket rang. Having heard it many times before, Kreig knew that it was not a phone, but rather a communicator for the portals.

“Hello?” she said meekly, as opposed to her typical boisterous nature. “A silver-grade portal?! That’s-, y-, yes, he’s here, but…” She glanced at him, but when he returned her gaze, she turned away. “...I see. Okay. Yeah, I’m… Of course I can do it! I’m just… I’m just scared.” Assured that she was talking about something private, Kreig turned away and instead watched how the Fighters buzzed about the drake’s corpse, trying to ascertain whether or not the Fighter in its grip was dead or alive.

“We’ll be there. B-, but isn’t that place really far away? I don’t think the helicopter can-,”

“If it is speed we need,” Kreig said, “I can surely get us there in time.”

She looked at him for a few seconds, her eyes shining with a strange sort of hesitance he hadn’t expected to see in her. “You-, you can? Well, then… I-, I’ll fill you in on the way there, so let’s go!” Having seemingly made up her mind, she placed the communicator back in her pocket.

Considering that it was urgent, Kreig wasted little time putting his helmet back on his head and summoning his wings.

Wings of a Dove (X)

For some reason, Sam didn’t seem too happy to see them. But knowing that time was short, he quickly took her into his arms and cast a number of blessings on her. He certainly wouldn’t want her getting hurt, after all. Losing someone else, after everything that he had lost so far… Shaking his head, Kreig decided not to think about it too much. He was home, wasn’t he? From now on, he wouldn’t lose anyone. Not a single person, and especially not Sam.

He would make sure of it. With his protection, who could possibly hurt her?

“Th-, this is?...” Sam looked at her hands, watching the myriad of colours shimmer and move.

With no time for chit-chat, Kreig flapped his wings, bringing them higher and higher until they were far above the city. In his hands, Sam shivered. “The city is that way, so go quickl-,”

Kreig brought them up to speed within seconds. The fact that Sam was screaming was just a coincidence.

After a few seconds of pulling herself together, she spoke once more, though she was definitely having trouble doing so five thousand feet above the ground. “It-, the portal was just a red-grade one until just now, they aren’t sure why or how, b-, but,” she drew a deep breath, “it just turned silver all of a sudden, and-, and people aren’t sure why or how! S-, so, unless we get there fast, there’s sure to be a massive calamity the likes of which we’ve only seen with Famine of the East, or-,”

Kreig glanced down at her, but she wasn’t looking at him anymore. Staring down at the rapidly approaching city, she pointed at a certain spot. “-There! Right there, go there quick!”

Following her instructions, Kreig swooped towards the spot, heightening their speeds even further. So far, there was no sign of any destruction, meaning that the portal probably hadn’t opened yet. After only a few seconds, the portal came into sight. As usual, until someone entered it, it simply appeared like a magical sinkhole in the ground, enticing those nearby to enter it. All portals were mostly purple, but the rank was apparently determined by the streaks of colour in it, this one bearing a silver spiral that flowed into the centre endlessly.

They touched down and Sam quickly hopped out of his arms to meet a nearby fighter. “Th-, this is Samantha Wiedermann, reporting for duty! Are you Craig the Thunderspear?”

The man in question seemed as though he was about to answer her question, but the moment his eyes fell on Kreig, he ducked away, eyes trembling. “H-, hey, what the shit is-,” Now that Kreig took the time to look, the man curiously lacked one arm. How he lost it was quite the mystery. “Nobody told me about-,”

“Hey, hey, relax, okay? He’s… He’s not bad anymore, okay? In due time, he won’t be a problem at all, so…” She turned to face the portal. “You haven’t sent anyone in, right?”

“N-, no! But-,”

Sam nodded gravely. “Then, there’s only one thing we can do to avoid future casualties.” She bored her eyes into Kreig’s. “We need to enter this portal.”

She couldn’t believe she was actually saying it. Until now, everything had been fine and dandy, but now, they would actually enter a portal. That meant a lot of things, things she hadn’t wanted to consider.

Because Kreig was, well… He was alright. He was horrible and he was murderous and he was everything in-between, but he wasn’t evil. Right now, he was just trying to do his best to help his ‘family’, and for that, Sam felt terrible. What she would have to put him through…

She shook her head and tried to appear brave again. Kreig simply watched her, his face hidden by a helmet that appeared more like a death’s head than anything. It hid his emotions, not that there was much to hide. “C-, can you do that, Kreig? I’ll come with you, so…”

He nodded. “Of course.”

And that was all the answer he gave. It was all the answer she needed, too. She felt closely how a sorrowful smile crept up her lips. “Okay, then… Let’s go.”

Protected by his bazillion blessings, she did not fear jumping into the portal with him.

And in a flash of silver, they suddenly found themselves in a magically-lit cave. The interior of a portal. The wormhole between the two worlds. She had been there a few times, and she had certainly studied it in her classes, but it certainly didn’t help to suppress the feeling of dread that she always got from being in there. As though the whole world was about to collapse on her. Like she wasn’t in reality anymore, but something beside it.

For a few seconds, she just stood there, taking deep breaths. Likewise, Kreig made no movement. “Then, le-,” She couldn’t finish her sentence before Kreig raised a finger to his lips. Her mouth snapped shut. He pointed forward, asking her to listen. She did.

Further into the cave, she heard the sound of something crunching, and of people screaming. The running of countless footsteps echoed alongside the slither of something big and heavy.

A heavy rock settled in her gut. Something here was wrong.

Time seemed to slow down as she spotted movement further down in the cave. But it wasn’t a monster, or a beast, or even an animal. A myriad of humanoid figures approached. Once they stepped into the light, she was able to recognize them for what they were: soldiers.

All dressed in simple leather armour at best, all soaked with mud and blood and sweat, only a few carrying weapons of any kind, all wearing expressions of people running from death. Few seemed to be older than teenagers.

Even though they were running at her and Kreig like bats out of hell, she couldn’t muster any fear of them. With the look they wore on their faces, they appeared more like frightened rabbits than actual enemies. So it was that when Kreig stepped forward and stabbed his sword into one of them, Sam couldn’t convince herself that he was doing the right thing. “W-, wait,” she said, but it had already begun. The soldiers, all faced with death on both sides, attempted to survive by clawing at him, or simply pushing him aside. A few smarter ones turned their backs on him to run towards the lesser death.

Kreig struck them all down equally. Some were clearly no more than children, others already half-dead.

His sword found them all and killed them.

“Please, stop!” Sam called out, but the slaughter had begun. Limbs flew through the air, heads hit the ground wearing expressions of despair, and not a single person screamed. It seemed that, in their terror, they had simply forgotten to. Or maybe they knew that screaming wouldn’t help them now.

Bodies fell to the floor, writhing despite their death. Uncaring, Kreig simply stepped over them. In her mind, any notion that Kreig might not deserve everything that was coming to him was soundly extinguished.

“No, please!” she finally cried, finally being able to muster strength, finally moving to do something - anything.

Almost all were dead or dying, but there was one he had yet to kill, a small boy in too-big armour uselessly clutching a shortsword. Moving with tears in her eyes, Sam ran to stand between him and Kreig. “STOP!”

Sword raised, he froze mid-swing. His chest was heaving, up and down, up and down. Through the slit in his helmet, she saw his white eyes trembling. They were so distant and faraway. As though only his body was here, and his mind was elsewhere entirely. Did he even recognize her?

She couldn’t answer that question.