Outside the village, standing in the middle of the clearing, Astaroth was coming back to. G?ap had stayed true to his word, and given back control to him, without fuss or resistance.
Looking around himself, Astaroth's stomach almost emptied instantly. Blood.
Blood everywhere.
Looking down at his hands, the vibrant red colour going from the tip of his fingers, up halfway on his forearm, made him pale.
"What the fuck happened?"
Astaroth wasn't weak-stomached, by any measure. But this was a lot.
On the ground before him, the still twitching body of the demon leader, his HP zeroed out, eyes flipped to the back of his head, face still stuck in a rictus of horror and pain.
Calling it a body was stretching it, though. Whatever was left of flesh and bone, held together by thread width, his body looking like a Gatling gun had shot at it with small cannon balls.
Looking at the size of the holes, and the size of his hands, it was easy to surmise what had transpired.
It was surprising, though, that the demon wasn't completely disintegrated.
'I thought you had said erase him, G?ap. He's still in one piece… well… one very aired-out piece. Didn't you need to wipe him out?'
The demon prince, who was only a few seconds away from going back into the ring, only chuckled.
'It worked, did it not? Results are the only thing that matters.'
Before Astaroth could pull anything out of him, he felt the melding going undone and sighed heavily.
'Demons. I swear they are trying to hide everything from everyone all the time. What good is it to hide stuff from me? Aren't we in it together?'
Shaking his head in disappointment, Astaroth started walking toward the village. He had to be careful where he stepped, though, as puddles of blood were everywhere, and they made the ground extra slippery.
Reaching the entrance to the cave, he looked inside. The desolate state of the village hurt him a bit, but he knew there was nothing left for them here anymore.
He walked toward the pit that was caused by what he now imagined was the demon infiltrator, who was passing himself as a court mage, blasting his way out.
'Seeing from up close how strong his magic was, I'm surprised he didn't put a hole through the mountain itself.'
He looked up, trying to find another point of impact on the ceiling, but couldn't find one. Either the demon had controlled his power, or the shield artifact was still working when he shot his magic, and it absorbed the brunt of it.
He looked back down, inside the pit, and saw Silent Light laying on his back, chest going up and down rhythmically.
"You okay down there?"
Silent Light raised his hand, making a thumb's up, and let it back down.
This made Astaroth chuckle.
He jumped down, going to sit next to Silent Light, and leaned back on his arms, looking through the opening above their heads.
Silence permeated the place for a few moments until Silent Light asked a question.
"Where are we? This looks like it used to be a village, but I don't see anyone here. Or any bodies, either."
Melancholy flashed on Astaroth's face as he thought about his time training in this very cave, that used to be covered by meters and meters of stone.
"This is my starting village. This is where I landed when I started playing New Eden. Back then, I still considered New Eden a game. Things have changed since then."
Silent Light raised himself on his elbows, looking at Astaroth with puzzled eyes.
"What's changed? I always get the feeling that you and Khalor are hiding things from the rest of us. It's almost like when my parents tried hiding from me that they were selling the house."
Chuckling, Astaroth let himself drop to his back, looking toward the ceiling almost a hundred meters higher.
"The situation isn't that much different, in a way. But this isn't something that I can just discuss with you. When the time comes, I'm sure Khalor will talk about it. For now, just take this game with more seriousness than you would any other game."
Silent Light hated having things hidden from him. His curiosity, just as much as any teenager's, made him want to dig down into the matter and find out.
But the solemn look on Astaroth's visage reminded him of one of someone who was thinking about their future. This seemed too serious to be game related.
But he respected Astaroth enough to not pry any further. He instead dropped back to his back, looking toward the ceiling too.
"We can rest here for a few minutes, but we still have work to do. Message the five newbies and ask them how they're doing."
"Already have. When the fight seemed over, it was the first thing I did."
"And?"
"Their okay. A bit pissed we left them alone against that many monsters, but they're also glad they got so much Exp. Their leader also said something about an NPC saving their asses and looking absolutely badass."
"That must have been Kloud. I knew he'd go help them if it was too much for them to handle. I gotta say, though, I'm slightly disappointed."
Silent turned his head toward Astaroth.
"Why so?"
"I was expecting them to not need him, Given that I left Genie with them. I guess four hundred corrupted monsters were too much for four people."
Frowning, Silent Light wasn't sure he wanted to ask what he would have done. But he did, anyway.
"Would you have been okay?"
"I was."
"Huh?"
Silent Light wasn't sure Astaroth understood his question. Either that, or he didn't understand the answer.
"What do you mean, you were?"
"I was okay against four hundred corrupted monsters. That wasn't the biggest horde so far. I'd say it was a close second, but not the largest."
Silent Light gulped.
"You really are a monster…"
"Haha. I guess you could say that. And yet, I'm not nearly as strong as I need to be. For everyone's sake."
This answer also left Silent Light wondering what he meant. But before he could ask anything, Astaroth jumped to his feet.
"Alright. We've rested enough. There are at least two more portals to close. Let's get to work."
Sighing heavily, Silent rose to his feet. This day was going to be a long and tiring one.
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