“Shit, it seems what Mada said is true.”

Capital.

The rebellion army is nearly wiped out. Only few survive. The leader of the rebellion, Lihar the Rebellion Seed is trying his best to put up a fight. But in front of him, 5 two words hero and 2 one word hero are standing. Even Cana’an the King takes up the fight. It is only a matter of time before they completely wiped out.

“Your resistance is futile. Even the people in your underground city should have been killed already by my 5000 army.” Cana’an says it in a confident voice.

Cana’an is a beast man type tiger. Unnecessary to say, normally he’s as strong as Lihar. But the one word title he acquired is not a child play. He’s fighting in a blue Chinese traditional clothes for man. His weapon is a pair of iron gauntlet.

“Heh, only five thousand? You should have sent more.” Lihar tries to provoke Cana’an.

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Cana’an is interested in his words.

“Today is not your lucky day because right now, my old friend is visiting. You may know him as Mada the Raider. The one that killed all of your people in the Unuan Ruin.”

Cana’an’s eyes are opened up like it’s going to pop out. “No way.”

“Yeah, and it just a matter of time before he comes here and ends this tyranny of yours.”

“KILL THEM NOW. WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A PROBLEM IF WHAT HE’S SAYING IS TRUE.”

At that moment, all the enemies are attacking. The rebellion put up a flame around them to repel the enemy. They try to buy some time. Fire is more effective to buy times than explosion but it’s not so effective as a killing machine.

~~~

“Sorry Mada, I still can’t gather enough courage to kill her.” Fiona finally makes her decision.

She falls on her knees. Crying. Hating herself for not able to avenge the death of her son. Other people are also crying as they know their family, most of the guards, has been killed. I can’t imagine their reaction if they know the rebellion has failed. Suddenly, I can see the string is back on my hand. Apparently Therion is back as my slave. I’m not so sure about making her as a bargaining chip as the God Item she has is mine now.

It’s been thirty minutes since Erfia started to heal me. I should have regained some of my stamina and power. I sit and take a look around. Near the center of the city, not much damage. But if I see further, I can see the damage is pretty intense.

“It’s okay Erfia. I have enough power for now.” I stop Erfia from using her magic anymore.

Even if an elf or any half-blood elf could take the mana from the nature without any limit, their physique is affected and it will make them exhausted.

I stand and pat Erfia on the head. If I’m not doing this, I’m not so sure she will stop the healing. I’m starting to walk toward the north tunnel.

“Hey, Mada, what are you doing? You’re not recovered yet.” Reis stands in front of me stop me.

“The fight is not over.”

“No, our fight is over. You’ve got the God Item. We’ve got what we’re coming for. There’s no need for us to continue the fight. From this point onward, it’s their fight. Not our fight anymore.” Reis tries to argue with me.

I can see her reasoning is correct. Normally, I would do just what she said. I push her aside and try to walk. But Erfia holds my left hand.

I look into her eyes.

“Please dad, stop it. You could die.” Erfia sobs.

“But I need the king to tell me the location of the other God Item. Or else I’ll be looking it blindly.” I let out a reason.

Both of them say nothing anymore. Just a silent is the answer I need.

“Did you forget that I still have another God Item in the Keeper?”

I take the Shackle of the Dead out of the Keeper and show it to them. “With this, I could make any dead being out there as my army and I could easily take over the kingdom. It’s that easy.”

“Do you think you can fool us?” Reis yells at me. “We already know the consequence of using the Shackle of the Dead. Ariana told us the night before we left. It will drain your life and change you into undead, right?”

Oh, Arianna. What have you done? Couldn’t you shut that mouth of yours? Yes, it’s right. Well, it won’t take my life. It just turns me into an undead. Normally I’ll be able to use it for 20 minutes. But in my current condition, I can’t manage it that long.

“One minute. I’ll just use it for one minute. That’s the time limits I could use before it changes me into an undead.”

If my guess is right, by only using stamina alone, I might able to use the Shackle of the Dead for a minute at most. More than that and I’ll kiss ass goodbye to this life.

“But dad,” Erfia starts to cry.

“Don’t worry,” I pat her head. I hope this can at least calm her. “I’ve got no intention of becoming undead.”

Being undead is nearly the same as being an immortal. You can’t die as you’re already dead. For human, the most painful part is to lose all of your emotion and any attachment to anything. I’ll lose the desire of removing this curse as I don’t understand the meaning of painful memories.

Finally, Erfia calms down and stops crying. Suddenly, I feel my body is being lifted and leaned into something. Reis is taking me on her back.

“What are you doing? Let me down. It’s embarrassing.”

“No complain. Reserve your stamina if you want to use the Shackle of the Dead! I’m not letting you walk and waste that stamina of yours. If you want to use it, then deal with it.”

Reis is not showing her face at all. In front of her, Erfia is also getting ready. Well, I guess I can’t say no.

“Mada,”

Suddenly a voice is calling out my name. Reis turns around so we can see the person calling us, Fiona. I can still see her teary eyes but she’s trying her best not to show it.

“Can I ask you to save my husband? He’s the only thing I had right now.”

“I can’t promise. But I’ll do my best.”

“Yes, please.”

Reis turns and now we’re ready to go. Reis activates the Earth Slide, and now we’re sliding through the tunnel. Even if this tunnel is like a labyrinth, with Erfia’s spell and navigation, we easily get outside of the tunnel. It took us not too long.

When we arrive at the surface, everything has been razed down. Neither the rebellion nor government army could get out of this unscathed.

“Let’s go to the palace. It’s the second highest place in the east of Gate of the World.”

As she hears my words, we slide through the city. Nothing left. Nearly every building is razed. It seemed the rebellion took the building as their protection and the government couldn’t care less with the building so they simply razed it. I hate to say it but the weak has no place in the beast man territory. That’s their law. The people are like an expendable pawn in the eyes of the government.

It seems something is happening near the palace as it’s crumbling into nothing. We’re still too far to see anything. I still hold the Shackle of the Dead in my right hand. I’ll use it as I see the titled heroes. But, something is definitely amiss. Even if I saw a lot of dead bodies, did the government army really this weak? Or did the remaining army are still in Avareel? I can’t really understand it.

“Reis, could you stop at one dead man for a moment? I’d like to see what’s happening here.”

“All right.”

Reis stops us at some nearest body. A beast man type rhino. I take a look at the body. The body is not heavily injured or damaged. There’s no visible fatal wound on the body. Then, I take a look at their mouth. The mouth is letting out a huge amount of blood. That’s weird. Normally a dead man is not letting out a blood anymore. But it’s still coming out like he’s still alive. I take a look at another body which is not too far. All of them are letting out a huge amount of blood. It seems like a poison. But it could be something else.

“We have to hurry and end this fight. C’mon Reis. Let’s go!”

Reis and Erfia slide through the city. The amount of bodies is too much. It’s like the road itself is made of dead bodies.

Finally, we catch the glimpse of the heroes. Lihar is still fighting with 3 other beast man. Eight people on the government side. Cana’an is with them with another one word hero. Zur and Xis. The others are not one word hero, so I don’t know them.

“I’ll be using the Shackle of the Dead.”

“Remember, only one minute.” Reis reminds me.

I just smile and nod.

“Erfia, hold on tight on Reis! Make sure the undead don’t bring you along.”

Erfia does as I told her.

I put the Shackle of the Dead in my right eye. The vision in my right eye is changed into a dark vision. It shows a purple smoke in a place of a dead body and this place is full of it. It’s like I’m in the middle of a purple fog. The purple fog is something that’s called as dark soul. It’s coming out from a dead body that didn’t get any proper burial and any pray. That’s the thing that makes the undead. The dark soul is like a soul that will enter and makes the body move.

“Rise, dead ones, and serve me.” The Shackle of the Dead need no incantation to use it like any other God Item but I say it anyway. At least, it gives me a little joy.

At that moment, the purple fog is entering all the dead bodies. The dead bodies start to move and rise. They stand up without any thinking nor feeling. I can feel at least 20 to 30 thousand dead bodies are reacting to the Shackle of the Dead. They are just a doll that’s being moved by me. I spend no more time and make them attack all the heroes in our sight. The rebels also surprised and make a defending formation.

“Thirty seconds.” Reis mark the time.

The undead army catches them by surprise and easily defeats them. I have no business with the two word heroes so the undead army killed them. But, the main trouble is the one word heroes. If they’re not exhausted enough, the undead army are just like a toy waiting to be destroyed. But, apparently they’re exhausted. They put some fight at first but when they’re swarmed, they can’t do anything. I order the undead army to make them unable to move, so the undead simply bite or break their hand and leg. The same thing is also happening to Cana’an. Even if he’s the best heroes on this place, every living being has their limit. In no time, the undead army finally manage to make him unable to move too.

“Times up.”

I take off the Shackle of the Dead quickly and put it inside the Keeper. The moment I put it off, all the undead stop moving and became a simple dead bodies once again. The king and the others one word hero is being buried in the middle of dead bodies.

“Are you alright? Your body heat dropped so bad. I nearly thought that you’ve turned into an undead.”

Reis must have felt it when my body heat dropped. To change into an undead, I need to die first and the most significant change is the body heat. I didn’t feel it when I’m using it but right now I can feel my body heat is returning to normal.

“Yeah, I’m good. Now we need to get to the Lihar and make sure he doesn’t kill the king. I need them to tell me the whereabouts of the other God Item beast man possess.”

By today, the rebellion has won the battle of the capital and claims the throne and the government. The king, Cana’an, and the other one word heroes is imprisoned with their ability to move is taken away.

***

Two nights after the fall of capital. In the prison where Cana’an is being imprisoned. Cana’an has both of his hands being nailed in the wall and both of his legs crushed. Even after going through all of it, Cana’an is still awake. Accumulating his anger and hatred toward the rebellion force.

“Ugh.”

A voice is heard from the alley. From the sound of it, it seems like someone knock the guards down.

“Cana’an, is that you?” a woman voice is heard through the door with a little hole and bar in it.

“Therion, are you alive?” Cana’an looks happy when he hears Therion voice.

Therion opens the door and shows a figure of a cat girl. Her short black hair and her black fur are nearly invisible in the night. Therion walks toward Cana’an and tries to pull the nail in Cana’an hands.

“I thought Mada the Raider has already killed you.” Cana’an looks glad.

“I’m sorry, I can’t defeat him. Thank god the 5000 army you sent created a diversion for me to run.” Therion manage to pull one nail in Cana’an’s right hand.

Therion catches Cana’an as he half falls. Then, Therion pull the other nail and catch him completely.

“It’s okay, as long as you’re alive and the God Item is not taken by the enemy.”

“Now we need to get away as far as possible.”

Therion takes Cana’an on her back. They slip pass the guards. Therion takes Evangeline form, and they manage to get out of the city. Therion returns to her cat body and runs free in the forest outside the city border. They’re heading north through the dark of the night.

“Now what? We’re going to wage another war?” Therion asks Cana’an.

“Yes, but we will need the help of Cirion. His God Item, the Voice of Obedience, will be needed the most when we take over the capital.” Cana’an answers Therion’s question.

“Then, we’ll have to meet him right? Is he going to be back once he hears the news of the Capital has fallen?” Therion asks another question.

“No, he won’t. I’ve used the Voice of Obedience to make him take the God Item to the Demon’s Realm and never come back unless I come to him personally.”

“Good, then we can meet him at once.”

“It’s not that easy. We still need to find him because not even I know where he live.” Cana’an clicks his tongue. “Say, you’re being pretty talkative right now. It’s unlike you at all.”

“Really?” Therion lets out a tempting voice.

“Yeah, are you sure you’re okay?”

Therion stops in the middle of the forest. At that moment, Therion throws Cana’an off her back and turns toward him.

“Therion, what are you doing?” Cana’an is full of questions right now. He doesn’t know what’s happening.

At that moment, a light is covering Therion body. After a short moment, the light disappear and shows a man figure. The man uses a cream outdoor trousers with a long sleeve clothes and some unzipped jacked.

***

“Mada, what the. What have you done to Therion?” Cana’an yells at me with all of his might.

“Don’t worry, I haven’t killed her yet. I can take her form because she’s the previous user of this ring. You know, the Perfect Role Play has one weakness for its owner. It will store the form of its previous owner. So, if someone is using this ring after I used it, they can transform themselves into me.” I explained some details to him.

“What, what do you want? Are you not satisfied by the capital and the Perfect Role Play?”

“Well, I’m not. Because you know, my true objective is to reclaim all the God Items. I couldn’t care less with the capital.”

“Reclaim? What are you talking about? It’s belong to each race to begin with.” Cana’an speaks slowly.

“Cana’an, you are the son of Carian, the previous beast man King and you don’t even know about this? Poor you.” I lower my body to face him directly. “Or maybe, this will make you get some clue?”

I concentrate and let the light consume me. Even if the light consumes me, I can still see the outside world like nothing happens to me. The light is fading and I show him my previous form. A man in a blue suit. I can feel my hair is being rather long again and my cheek is bigger than before. It’s been some time since I feel this form.

Cana’an drops his jaw. “No way, dad made sure the record about that person should not exist anymore. He’s not exist. How can you know that form?”

“You know, even if the world record has been gone completely, unfortunately, this ring still holds a record of its first user. Or should I say, its creator.”

“Creator, what, what are you talking about?”

I show him a wide grin. I always love to explain this. “You think the twelve legendary items, the God Items, was created by each race to defend against another God Items? No, it’s not. All the God Items was created by me, Kries the Creator. Even the Angels that seemed show no interest were sending their spies. You know, that was the first time all the higher ups in each race were trying to achieve one goal. To take the God Items from me.”

“No, no way.” Cana’an tries to deny it.

“Yes, it’s true. So, I’ll reclaim all of it and fulfill my real objective with it.”

“And that is?”

I smile. “Sorry, but that’s a secret.”

I pull my hands backward and then thrust his chest with it. I take his heart out of his body and feel his heart is still beating in my hand. But, it’s slowly becoming weaker and weaker. Cana’an tries to reach his heart in my hand. I squish the heart into nothing. As the heart is destroyed the body fell without any life left. When I kill him with my own hand, the Perfect Role Play will absorb and retain his form in it including habit, secret, and all of his memory. Even if I could get the info about the other God Item by simply kill him, I like to do it the old way. Make him spill the bean and I can enjoy his surprised face.

Now, I need to get back to the capital to take care of another thing.

~~~

“Ah, finally, you’re back.” Reis welcomes me with a disturbed face. “What are you planning by taking this cat girl as a slave?”

I look into the bed where Therion is unconscious. Yeah, normal people will just see her as a useless after I cut her left arm and left leg. But, I might need her in the future. Erfia is just looking at her in the side of the bed. It seems she’s kinda curious about her. I don’t know what makes her curious thought. A little kid has a different way of thinking.

“Anyway, we’re leaving tonight. We can’t stay any longer.”

Suddenly our door is being knocked by someone. I took a little knife for a precaution.

“Mada, it’s me.” Fiona raises her voice for me to let her open the door. “I’m alone.”

I’m not yet convinced about she’s being alone, so I keep the knife ready. I open the door and look outside for any possible other person.

“Come.”

Fiona comes as I told her, and I close the door and lock it.

“Mada, what is this all about? Why are you acting like that?” Reis asks me with some pissed tone.

“No, he’s acting like that is the right reaction.” Fiona defends me.

Once Fiona sees Therion, I can see her whole body is shaking. I grab her before she lose her power and fall.

“It’s okay. Stay calm.”

Fiona takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself. After some time, the shaking is stopped, and she’s starting to talk.

“All of you need to leave this place tonight.”

Reis is surprised as she hears the same thing from Fiona and me. “Wait. At least one of you explain why we’re leaving tonight?”

“The people of the rebellion think that they need God Item in order to defend against the human attack. So, they’re planning to take all the God Item held by Mada and they said they will remove Mada’s one word fugitive title and change it into one word hero if he cooperates.”

“Wait, what? What do you mean? Where’s all that peace talk gone?” Reis becomes seriously pissed.

I’m adding more explanation, “To talk about peace, both countries need to be standing on equal ground. Right now the human has two God Items at their disposal and can be used anytime while the beast man has none.”

“How about the one word heroes that could kill 100 thousand people in a day? Where are they?” Erfia suddenly butt in our conversation.

“Cana’an is one of two one word heroes that could do it.” Fiona answers Erfia’s question.

“You might think that he’s weak because I could defeat him easily with the Shackle of the Dead. But, I managed to defeat him under a minute was simply because he was getting old, getting cocky, and he was exhausted at that time. He was also not ready for an army of undead, so we got the surprise element.”

“The other one word heroes are not in the capital.” Fiona adds some more explanation, “But this country just had a coup d’état, so I doubt he will help us.”

I stand and walk toward Reis. “So that’s how it is. We’re leaving now.”

“But, you have just save those people from being massacred. Is that really how they repay you?”

I can see Reis is definitely seriously pissed. I’m not blaming her for being that way. Normal people will be pissed too. But, that’s how society, or should I say a country, works. They don’t give a shit about their heroes or anybody that saved them in the past. They are more interested in gaining power for the future. Even if the people care, the government would not. It will never change, and the people are too afraid to act by their own.

“Don’t fret it. We’re titled fugitives, right? We have no right to expect something nice in return.” I try to cheer her up a little.

“But, but, you’ve–”

I pat Reis’s head and interrupt her words.

“It’s okay. I have no trouble. But could you please not embarrass yourself in front of Erfia?”

Reis takes a glance to Erfia that’s looking into us with a curious eyes. Reis finally stops her rant and takes a deep breath to clear her head.

I let out a smile as she’s got her head clear. “Good, now you take Therion and I’ll take Erfia. We’re leaving.”

Reis and Erfia nod their head. I take Erfia on my back and Reis takes Therion with her.

“Come with me, I’ve prepared the vehicle.”

Fiona is leading us going through the capital. We’re walking through the night and finally we reach some razed house. As we come, Lihar is already waiting for us with a mana carriage. This carriage is moved with a mana as the fuel.

“Reis, it’s already Erfia’s sleep time. It means, you drive.” I talk to Reis.

“But dad,”

“No but, it’s your sleep time.” I talk to Erfia which is in my back.

Erfia is kind of pissed as she swells her cheeks. I put Erfia inside and Reis goes to the driver seat after she puts Therion inside.

“We’ve just met and now you’re leaving. Fate is such a cruel thing, eh.” Lihar talks to me which is still outside of the carriage.

“Well, indeed it is. So, how many people that will pursue us?” I ask Lihar with a sharp look into his eyes.

“What, what’s the meaning of this?” Fiona is surprised and asks Lihar about it.

“Actually, in order not to let them lost their faith in us, I told them we’re luring Mada into a trap. So, some people should have been ready to pursue them.” Lihar answer while he looks away from Fiona. “Please don’t be too hard on them, they’re just a soldier with an order.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill them.” I said it to him with an easy tone.

“Thanks,”

I stick my hand so he could shake it. But suddenly he grabs me and hugs me.

“I’m sorry I can’t do more than this.” Lihar is sobbing a little.

“It’s okay. You’ve done your job, and I got what I came for.” I let go of Lihar hug and show him the Perfect Role Play in my right ring finger.

“Hey, Mada, where are we heading?” Reis asks me from the driver seat.

I let out a smile to Lihar and Fiona, then I jump into the top of the carriage.

“North, we need to get to the High Port. Our next destination is Demon’s Realm.”

“All right then.” Reis starts to imbue her mana into the driver bracelet. “Don’t let yourself fall, all right?”

“Well, then, Lihar, Fiona, we’re going.” I wave my hand to Lihar and Fiona which also wave their hand to us.

We’re leaving Lihar and Fiona with a high speed. We need to travel 60 kilometers while trying to escape the army that will try to stop us. In this mana carriage, it might take us at least 2 hours to get out of the city.

While Reis is driving this carriage, I try to repel all the attacker. It seems Lihar fore sawed this pursuit and prioritized the cleaning of the road. It makes us easier to run away. I’m still using my favorite Pointing Tip of Desperation with a low explosive spear to shoot any building and put a hindrance on the enemies. When they get close, I simply tackle them with Shield of Nothingness. We’re doing this for the next two hours.

I thought that I’ll have to explode the gate with a lot of explosive spears, but the gate is opened and it’s showing no signs of closing. As we pass the gate, I can see the gate has been damaged in the hinge. It looks like a small damage caused by some weapon. I take a look into the building around the gate and see the remnants of the guard when the underground city is attacked. I smile and show them a thumb up. Finally, the pursuit has stopped and we’re leaving Ul Thadur.