Tales of the Old World Demon Lord

Chapter 44 – Stepping towards the light

[Eternum Calendar 1972]

Contrary to its lush, vibrant serenity, the inner depths of the forest was smeared with the stench of blood. Immediately upon entering such a dreaded domain, the First Prince and his Praetorian Knight, was assailed by a wave of nausea. Fighting the urge to hold tightly onto their noses, and subsequently handicapping themselves in doing so, they soldiered through with reluctant determination.

“It doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to rescue any of them, much less all of them.”

Nicholai commented, noting the thick smell of death all around them. Unlike Leon, his face was straight and almost seemed to be unhindered by the horrendous smell. It wasn’t particularly that he was undisturbed by it but simply more disciplined enough to not show such obvious signs of discomfort.

“Well, we’ll have to at least try to rescue anyone we can then we can get out of here as soon as possible. We might also have to think about relocating the village afterwards, we can’t have them living in such close proximity to this abhorrent place. In any case our first priority should be to find any survivors.”

“Honestly, I think they’re all dead and we should just give up and leave now. However knowing milord, you wouldn’t be satisfied until we confirm every tetanus infested corpse of these peasant villagers. Really, it’s rather annoying that you’re always increasing my workload by voluntarily putting yourself in such danger.”

Nicholai shook his head in disapprove as he spoke freely, even going as far as to hurl insults at his own master. Yet this was their relationship; before being master and servant, these two were close childhood friends that shared most of their childhood together.

Speaking freely and comfortably was just another way that they showed their trust at each other. Leon trusted that Nicholai would always act in his best interests and in exchange allowed him free reign in how he went about accomplishing this- even if it was at the cost of constant arrogance and bad mouthing.

But at the end of the day Leon knew that Nicholai was never serious with these insults and Nicholai knew where the line was and to not overstep his welcome. Their relationship was one that was born through mutual understanding, close friendship and trust.

“You really have a nasty little mouth, you know that?”

Leon stated, letting out a resigned sigh as he knew that even flat out telling him to stop would stop Nicholai.

Having already gotten accustomed to the foul stench of dread around them, Leon’s body relinquished a lot of the initial tension he had built upon first entering. Enough that he could freely exchange banter as he casually strolled through enemy infested territories.

“Well I do take pride in my arrogance; it’s already a splendid art-form at this level.”

“Haa~ you, hmm? What’s wrong?”

Nicholai wordlessly extended a hand before Leon, a silent gesture to stop moving. Following his gaze Leon immediately understood why they had to stop.

“That’s…!”

The deceased bodies of the villager’s hunting party that had been ambushed by crystalline zombies. They lay strewn across the forest’s leafy terrain as a wine colored ooze leaked out from their bodies, feeding the soil with horrific nutrition.

“Well, I assumed as much… still, from the looks of it, they haven’t died for too long. Be very cautious milord, the enemy are definitely around here somewhere.”

Scanning around his surroundings carefully Nicholai started to slowly approach the corpses. He placed his hand to the hilt of his sword, ready to cut down any enemy that appeared and the corpses before them were also no exception to his blade.

In an attempt to test out a theory he had, Nicholai struck down unhesitatingly through the back of the corpse with the pointed end of his blade. Exhibiting an almost immediate reaction, the corpse rose up in berserker rage, letting out a blood curdling scream that silenced the entirety of the forest.

“RRAAaaGghHHH!!”

Just as the woman before, parasitic golden crystals shot out from the wounded area. It encompassed through and around, turning him into a lumbering mineral field of death. Not giving Nicholai even a moment to spare it lunged towards him head first, ready to bite away a chunk of anything it could sink its teeth into.

However Nicholai was still a trained knight, without losing even a single second to hesitation, he dodged to the side as he retracted his sword and swiftly decapitated the reanimated corpse. It was something that he had observed beforehand from his fight with the woman, but without its head the main body of these disgusting crystalline zombies becomes immobile- though the head remains alive.

One by one the other corpses followed suit as they began reanimating themselves, augmenting their wounds with golden crystals. ‘Is there really no way to flat out kill them? What kind of sick form of immortality is this?’ Nicholai thought, grimacing for the first time towards their disgusting tenacity for life.

Using the same tactics as before, he successfully decapitated all of them. Their bodies and heads rolled to the floor, immobilized permanently.

“I suppose, these creatures would be rather hard for ordinary peasants to deal with, even if they were from a hunting party.”

Nicholai commented as he pushed up his glasses in botheration.

“Tch, just what are these crystals? Some kind of magic? A curse? An unknown form of parasite? Just what…!”

Leon clenched his fists as he gazed down at the still barely moving head of the decapitated corpses. The fact that the only way to deal with these monsters was to desecrate the body of the dead was sickening to him.

“Milord, I really do think it’s best if we leave the forests right now.”

“Leave now? There may still be some survivors; we can’t just leave now.”

Unlike before, Nicholai’s face was serious. This was a recommendation as a proper member of the Praetorian Knights as opposed to his usual jest as a friend.

“The forests are too quiet and the fact that I can’t even feel the enemy’s presence is rather worrisome. It could be that there are no enemies and this is just my imagination but considering the situation I’d say that it’s more than likely that there are more of those crystalline zombies still lurking about.”

“… Just a bit more, I want to at least search their camp. I know I’m being stubborn and am needlessly putting myself in danger, but I want to at least make sure.”

Nicholai stared for a few seconds until he eventually gave in.

“Understood, but I can only allow you to do so until we find their camps, after that we must return.”

“Of course.”

…

It was at the hour mark that the lushness of the forest disappeared on them, replaced by the creeping sensation of a disconcerting silence. Leon and Nicholai continued their march forward, their hands married constantly to the hilt of their swords as they scanned the forest with ardent vigilance.

“Milord, we’re almost at the camps.”

Nicholai informed as he pointed to the rushed footsteps marked upon the forest’s murky floor.

“Mmm. Let’s make haste then.”

In order to leave the oppressive forest even just slightly faster they started to rush towards the camping grounds that the hunters had set up. They had already guessed in their hearts, but the camping grounds were completely trashed with signs of there being a massive struggle. The grounds were carved, still fresh blood was painted across the floors and trees and to make matters worse the corpses had all conveniently disappeared.

“Milord…”

“Yeah, I got it. We’re leaving.”

Nicholai nodded in agreement before taking one last glance back at the ruined campsite. Pity was not an emotion that he had given out to many people but for these peasants that he had a minute pleasure of interacting with, he felt it only fair to give them a moment’s thought.

This situation had escalated much further than he had originally anticipated. As more corpses disappeared, the likelihood that there really was a hidden army of those crystalline zombies could no longer be ignored. They were nigh unkillable and even gave some trouble to Nicholai who was a member of the elite Praetorian Knights. If such a literally monstrous army was unleashed then it would no doubt spell certain doom for the West Tetrarchy.

This was the one thing he couldn’t allow to happen. He lived there after all. Just as he was coming up with various contingency plans for how to deal with this kind of situation, something had distracted him.

“Kyaa! S- someone! Please help me!”

Screams of desperate please echoed through the forests. The voice was real, vibrant and full of life, with this there was no chance it belonged to any kind of monster or animal; this was a person- a small child to be more specific. Unfortunately since the contents of this screams were a distress call, it was also very likely that actual monsters were in the vicinity.

Leon and Nicholai turned to each other with a quick glanced before nodding to each other wordlessly. Agree with the other’s opinion that this was indeed happening they rushed towards the scene of the crime.

“A survivor!”

Leon cried out as he could finally see the victim. A small girl perhaps no older than eight years of age clung high atop of a tree, crying and fearing for her own life. Two crystalline zombies tried reach her, clawing and attacking the tree in order to make her trip from the shock. With each attack the girl lost more and more balance and it was only a matter of time until she would eventually give in from fatigue and fall into death’s embrace.

“Nicholai! I’ll leave the one on the left to you, I’ll take the one on the right!”

Without even waiting for his reply Leon leapt into the fray, grasping tightly onto his sword he liberated its head from its shoulders. He took a glance to his left to see if Nicholai needed help but all he saw was the writhing of a crystal infested corpse.

“Hey, it’s safe to come down now.”

Leon called out to her, sheathing his blade and spreading his arms to catch her. Trusting strangers was not particularly a bright idea but compared to reanimated corpses of her fellow villagers, these two men were better. It took a while for her to calm down and finally understand that it was over but after getting over her initial shock she managed to draw out the courage to come down.

Leaping into the open arms of the First Prince, she felt the tension and anxiety instantly dissipate from her body. Her large, rounded brown eyes became watery from the tears. Just remembering the image of her mutated villagers scared her, shuddering throughout her body she clung on tightly to the first prince’s clothes.

She even thought that at any moment she could possibly turn into one of those monsters. Stroking through her teddy bear colored hair gently, the first prince alleviated her worries, comforting and holding her until she could cry no more.

“There, there, it’s all over now.”

“Milord, I suggest that we leave as soon as we can.”

Nicholai suggested, vigilantly scanning around for enemies though yet still unable to pick up on whether there really were any. For a person who based his entire skill and art to information manipulation and pre-planning, to be blinded to this degree was not only a disgrace to his honor but an irritating weakness. His usual lifeless demeanor evaporated from his face, only to be replaced by a frown filled with unending ire.

“Agreed, we should-”

But before the First Prince could agree to anything a harrowing laugh came from the shadow of the forest.

“Kekekekeke~ Aww, leaving so soon already? But the fun’s just about to start and I really wouldn’t want you to miss any of it, kekekeke~!”

A sinister, high pitched voice interrupted them; a bone chilling greetings from the hands of death itself. Even as they clearly heard the cold voice, neither Leon nor Nicholai could actually feel any sort of presence behind them.

“Kekekek~ Fools, you’ve played right into my trap!”

Continued the sanity draining laughter.

“Tch, why don’t you stop hiding like the coward you are and show yourself?”

Nicholai tested, pointing his sword to the direction he thought the voice originated from. Yet the only response that resounded back was a chilling silence.

Nicholai scoffed at this.

“Hmph, not that I was actually expecting anything from gutless peasants… but you continue to disappoint me either way.”

Once more only silence responded.

“That’s what I thought. Let us leave milord, I do not wish to waste any more of my time entertaining this fool who cannot leave even the comfort of his own shadow.”

“Wait… you bastard, you’ve done it now.”

Out of the shadows stepped, not one but almost an entire platoon of men all dressed from head to toe in a grand white, military escape overcoat. Almost ghastly in their appearance, it wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch to suggest that perhaps they were more undead than even those crystalline zombies. Each of them wore plain white mask that obscured their identities, but more interestingly those masks had no clear eye slits to see out from. It literally was just a blank white surface- impractical design for any sort of combat.

Even as they stepped onto the light their presence was still somehow concealed perfectly, 'could it be an illusion?' Nicholai thought to himself as he scanned them.

Standing in front of all these glastly looking, masked men was one that didn't wear a mask and was thus most likely to be their leader. A blue haired Elf with hawk-like features, spotting an incredibly sharp gaze, he smiled hauntingly as he stared back at Nicholai. Strapped neatly to his left waist were two small, black daggers that gave off a chilling aura.

“Oh~? You’ve finally found the courage to come out of your hiding? Your father must be really proud of such accomplishments.”

Despite the opponent's rather formidable form and numbers, Nicholai continued to mock them. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he couldn't feel any sort of presence from them that he was starting underestimates them, or that he was prepared for even this kind of unforeseeable crisis.

“Tsk, you seriously don’t know who you’re dealing with, do you?”

The leader elf of the enemy clenched his fists and grimaced with displeasure.

“No, can’t say that I’ve ever seen or heard of you lowly peasants before. I’m not particularly that interested in learning either.”

“Very well then, I shall enlighten you.”

“I just said that I didn’t want to hear it.”

“We are the Heaven State’s [Order of Light]! And I am its Field Director, Nazarym Zard!”

Nicholai took a deep breath then sighed.

"Yeah no, I really don't care."

…

Before a large white door, Nemesis stood in quiet contemplation. Taking a deep breath she glanced back to the deserted place that was once her home. The place that was once brimming with life and research was now no more than a haunted house with only the unsettling sound of ventilation blades whirling at constant intervals.

She turned back to the large white door. Beyond this door was not only the exit to the underground base, but also to a world that was drastically different than the one she knew. Between the familiar desolation and an uncertain new world, she briefly wondered which would be worse to stay in indefinitely, but she decided to go.

At the very least Testament’s last request needed to be accomplished. Placing her hand on the door she tried to push, it didn’t come to her as a surprise that it didn’t even budge. Not even with using the strength given to her by the [Mark VI Gigandoll Power frame(Experiment)]; nature was an ominous force that could overcome even technological accomplishments given the right amount of time.

“[Should've known that wouldn't work… then how about this?]”

Well, it may have been at one point but technological mastery had also reached a point where not even nature could reach. Using her psychokinetic powers she forcefully pushed the door open, creaking loudly and painfully through the steel floors.

Beyond the door was a large open room, about the size of a football field. The whole room and the floor beneath it was one gigantic elevator that would take them directly to the surface. Of course there were other ways into the facility but this was the main one.

Nemesis gazed up to a dark void. She glanced around the room but it was simply far too big and time consuming to search for the activation button.

“[Guess… I’ll just fly.]”

She spoke to herself as a small blue tint surrounded her.

It took her around ten minutes of straight line flight to reach to the top of the void. Once she arrived all of the exits except one were sealed away by rubble and aged steel. She could have easily pried away the rubble to use the other exits but there was a chance of damaging the facility in doing so, thus she decided to use the one exit that was still open.

At the end of the path was a small cave and just beyond was light- non-artificial light.

She stopped and took a deep breath. She could hear it, the chirping of birds, the whishing of winds and the scent of fresh air. Her heart raced as she clenched her fists, she took a step forward only to stop right after that, she tried to turn away but she couldn’t even do that.

She mocked herself for being so indecisive and hesitant; she was supposed to be some elite, super soldier yet she was horribly afraid of the outside world. A world where the USSC doesn’t exist, a world where there was no one she could call an ally.

Yet she still had to go.

In order not to dishonor everything that they’ve fought for, she needed to step into this unfamiliar world as the USSC’s last emissary.

To show whoever was out there that they existed.