Chapter 24: The King’s Grave
The group was already moving before anyone finished deciding to move.
Arthur, Vedas, Mithra, Melo, Athena, Athy, Gruk, Suri, and eight goblin hunters pushed into the forest at a pace that left no room for discussion. The settlement shrank behind them. The ruins ahead grew.
Athena quickly reminded everyone. "Forty-seven minutes."
"Plenty," Arthur said.
"That is definitely not enough time."
"You should have more faith in us. It’s not like you haven’t seen the impossible done before." He grinned at Athena.
"T-This is different!"
"It’s with that attitude."
"Athena," Mithra said pleasantly, still running.
"He keeps thinking we are like him–"
"Because I believe in you, of course!" Arthur said.
Athena looked at Mithra before sighing and muttering words under her breath. Mithra gave her an amusing smile while Athy nodded in agreement with whatever the muttering contained.
Arthur noticed Suri falling behind about two minutes into the run. Her breathing was bad, and her arms were shaking with the effort of keeping her spear up.
Her breathing was ragged.
Her arms trembled around the spear.
Even so, she gritted her teeth and kept running. He smiled at this before tapping Vedas, who blinked before looking back.
Vedas noticed.
Without saying anything, he slowed his pace.
Just enough for everyone to catch up. The hunters behind him closed the distance they had been losing, and the group came through the fork as a group rather than as a frontrunner with people trailing behind.
Arthur said nothing about this except that his smile grew.
A growl suddenly echoed through the forest.
Three massive wolves burst from the bushes before rushing towards Vedas and Arthur.
Neither hesitated.
Their spears flashed.
Two wolves dropped.
Mithra split the third in half.
And then Athy let out a hoot sound, making them realize there was more. The next second, another Direwolf rushed out of the bushes near the Goblin Hunters. It quickly lunged towards Gruk, whose eyes slightly widened.
"Intercept it!" Vedas shouted.
The two Goblin hunters near Gruk immediately moved. One intercepted with a spear. The spear pierced the wolf’s side, and the wolf let out a scream before it collapsed.
More rushed from the trees, but Melo’s illusions scattered them while the Goblin hunters cleaned up the rest.
Suri gripped her spear before thrusting it down. The weapon pierced the wolf’s shoulder and made it roar. Vedas immediately followed. His spear flashed, and soon both wolves were swiftly killed.
A notification appeared.
[Level Up!]
[Goblin Warrior]
[Level 15 —> Level 16]
Mithra quickly made sure everyone was alright and no one got hit. Then the group continued running towards the lair of the Great One.
...
The forest was changing around them.
The trees had become older and less consistent, growing around and through things rather than simply growing, and the things they were growing around were stone.
Ancient roads appeared in fragments underfoot, their surfaces worn smooth by centuries of weather and feet. Collapsed watchtowers rose at intervals. Wall sections with carvings along their upper edges appeared and receded as they passed.
Evidence of a civilization long forgotten.
"You’ve said that four times now," Arthur said.
"Because it keeps being true." She moved past the wall without looking away from it until the last possible moment. "The oldest records I’ve accessed don’t mention any civilization at this depth in the forest! No wonder my teacher was curious about this place, it’s–" She stopped walking.
Everyone behind her nearly ran into her.
"Athena," Mithra said.
Athena was looking at an ancient road, worn smooth but completely recognizable as a road that had been built for things to travel on. On both sides of it, crumbling stone structures rose between the trees.
Athena stared. "This..."
She looked from one building to the next. "This wasn’t a camp."
She looked at Arthur. "This was a city."
"Yes," Arthur said.
"Built by someone with the intention of it lasting."
"Yes."
Athena looked at him. "You’re not surprised."
"We were surprised earlier," Mithra said with a smile. "You’ve been describing it for twenty minutes now."
Arthur nodded, making Athena pout.
Gruk slowed down slightly and looked at the road with a complicated look.
"Gruk," Mithra said. She had noticed.
The old goblin looked at her and away. "My grandfather told me stories when I was small," he said. "About a time before the forest. When our people lived in stone." His voice was quiet. "I thought he was making things up so I would sleep."
Nobody said anything.
"He was not making things up," Gruk said.
The group kept walking, but more quietly than before.
Athena had opened her notebook and was writing rapidly while also walking, which was an impressive coordination that involved Athy occasionally steering her around obstacles.
Gruk stared into the old market space for a long time.
"My grandfather said the old ones could build anything," Gruk said. "He said they built things that touched the sky." He paused. "I told him buildings do not touch the sky."
Arthur looked at the massive wall visible ahead of them, the one that did not end in either direction.
"I think," Arthur said, "you should have believed him."
Gruk looked at the wall too. "... Is it okay?"
"Of course, this just proves how awesome you Goblins were." Arthur then chuckled. "But I always knew that."
Gruk trembled before looking away; the other Goblins stood up straighter, and Vedas walked a bit faster.
Athena caught up to Mithra and walked beside her. "He doesn’t know he did that," she said quietly.
"He never does," Mithra said.
"It’s very effective," Athena said.
"Yes."
Arthur spotted something, and then he pointed ahead. "That’s a city wall."
Athena stopped writing. She lowered her notebook. "That’s not possible. The scale of it would require—"
"Look at it," Arthur said.
Athena looked at it.
"The scale of it," Mithra said gently, "is right in front of us."
Athena looked at the wall, then at her notebook, and at the wall again.
"This was a city," she said. Her voice had changed. Not louder. Just different. The voice of someone who had discovered a fact so large it needed a moment.
This had once been something much greater.
A few minutes later, one of the Goblin hunters finally spoke.
"Chief."
Vedas looked over.
The hunter was a broad-shouldered goblin who had been one of the first to take a wall position during the raid and had held it without being told twice. "When this is over," the hunter said, "I want to be in your squad."
The goblin beside him nodded immediately. "So do I."
A third raised a hand. "I want to help protect the settlement... I know I can do it if I follow you, Chief!"
Suri raised her hand. "I want to join too."
And the others also joined in. Vedas looked at all of them before a faint smile appeared, and he opened his mouth.
But then Arthur stepped forward. "Then prove it," he said.
Everyone turned.
"What do you mean?"
"Show you guys will be helpful in the upcoming fight, and he will."
The hunter who had spoken first blinked. "Really?"
"Of course."
Their eyes lit up.
Arthur continued. "In fact, your Chief has been paying attention to all of you."
The Goblins immediately straightened.
Hope appeared on their faces.
Then Arthur added—
"But..." He scratched his cheek. "You’re still a little unreliable and forcing your Chief to worry."
Everyone froze.
Arthur pointed at Vedas. "It becomes such a huge problem that he sometimes gets distracted."
The hunters went pale. Suri went pale. Even Gruk, who had been listening from the back, frowned before looking down at the ground. Vedas was making a gesture that indicated he had not been worrying and would like the record to reflect this.
But this only made them feel even worse, thinking he was trying to cover for them.
"I was going to reject all of you," Arthur said.
The Goblins gasped.
"But your Chief argued for you." Arthur pointed at Vedas. "He told me to trust his people. That they would prove themselves."
Every goblin turned to look at Vedas.
"So," Arthur said, "when you fight today, you’re not just fighting for the settlement. You’re fighting for the trust your Chief put in you." He paused. "I hope you don’t waste it."
One second of silence.
Then every goblin started talking at once.
"Chief!"
"Chief, we won’t let you down!"
"We’ll fight better than he expects!"
"I’ll take down twice what anyone else takes down!"
"Chief!"
Vedas quickly waved his hands, and Arthur simply whistled as he continued forward.
A notification appeared.
[Requirement Progress Completed!]
[Vedas has gained two more Goblin subordinates]
[Current Loyalty: 10/10]
Arthur’s eyes widened. "We did it. You have made all the goblins here support you fully!"
Vedas looked over. "...Really?"
Arthur laughed. "Yes, they all believe in you now. And it was all through your hard work."
"W-Well, you did give me some advice."
"And you did the work."
Vedas smiled before he headed over to the Goblins.
Mithra came over and poked his cheek. "You said those words on purpose?"
"I did," Arthur said.
"To help make them more loyal?"
"A little," Arthur said. "But mostly to give them more motivation to get stronger and trust in Vedas."
"You basically told them they were incompetent."
"And now they want to prove they’re not."
"But that was all a lie."
"Yes."
"That’s slightly devious."
Arthur looked at her with a smile. "Was it wrong?"
Mithra looked at the group again. At Suri and the other goblins standing straighter than they had since the clearing.
"No," she said. "It wasn’t. I didn’t expect that."
"My partner needed help, of course–"
"Just admit you love to spoil him," Athena muttered from the side.
Mithra laughed while Arthur’s smile grew. "They were already capable."
Mithra nodded. "I suppose they just needed someone to believe in them."
"Yep." He grinned.
...
The group eventually reaches the edge of the ancient ruins.
Gruk suddenly stops, leading everyone to blink and then stop as well. The old Goblin looks toward Vedas and then lowers his head.
"I have to admit something... Before you arrived..." He had a bitter smile. "I had already given up."
The hunters freeze.
Suri freezes.
Gruk continues. "I was simply waiting for the end."
No one said anything.
Then he looks toward the distant ruins where the Great One was and then back at Vedas. "I know you’ve only known us for over an hour... You have no reason to risk your life for us. But I’m begging you, please put an end to all of this."
Arthur blinks. "I thought you wanted to seal it away."
"I believed it was too late," Gruk said. "I still believe the Great One may be too strong." He looked up. "But."
"But?" Mithra said gently.
Gruk looked at her. "I want to believe a miracle is possible." He seemed slightly embarrassed by the word. "I haven’t believed in anything for a long time."
Good." Arthur smiled. "I’ve always liked impossible things."
Mithra smiles. "Then we’ll make that miracle reality."
Gruk’s eyes widened.
The old Goblin immediately looked away.
Nobody comments on it.
As they climbed up the stairs, five Hobgoblin scouts emerged from a collapsed section of wall with one elite among them. They were better armed than the others, and they rushed towards them.
Arthur’s War Shout arrived before the elite did, and the hunters moved through the staggered formation with the coordination that had been building since the settlement. Suri landed a strike on the elite’s weapon arm that disrupted the swing it had been building.
The elite blocked Vedas’ first strike.
Arthur knocked it off balance.
Suri pierced its side.
Then Vedas’ spear pierced its face.
The elite collapsed.
[Level Up!]
[Goblin Warrior]
[Level 16 → Level 17]
Deeper in, the road widened into something that had once been a plaza, and on the largest intact wall of the plaza was a mural. Everything else they had encountered in the ruins showed damage except the mural.
A crowned goblin at its center, twice the height of the figures surrounding it, standing above a field of kneeling warriors that filled the stone from edge to edge. The crown was the same crown from the stone behind the settlement.
And the same one from his vision.
Arthur stopped in front of it.
His hand moved toward the surface without him deciding to move it.
And then he saw something else.
...
A throne.
A stone throne with thousands of bones and armor around it. And what sat on that throne was a golden skeleton with the same broken crown he saw on the golden goblin in his vision and the lake reflection.
Then the image changed.
A figure stood where the bones had been, human-sized, wearing silver-black armor. A black spear in one hand and gray fog drifting around their feet. Around the figure, ten shapes knelt, all smaller, all with their heads down.
The figure began to turn.
Yet for some reason...
Arthur felt like he already knew them.
...
Arthur took a step backward.
Athena was at his elbow immediately. "What happened?"
Arthur opened his mouth.
Then—
BOOM.
A Hobgoblin body crashes through the nearby wall.
Everyone turns.
A larger Hobgoblin emerges. The armor it wore was not the crude salvaged construction of the earlier Hobgoblins but something that had been maintained over time.
The Hobgoblin blocked Arthur’s first strike.
It forced Vedas back two steps.
Then Suri stabbed its leg.
Mithra cut through its guard.
Moments later, it crashed to the ground.
Vedas shivered in delight, and he clenched his fist. He could feel it: only four more until he reached the requirement for Goblin Commander.
...
The forest finally opened, and they all saw a gigantic valley. It was filled with broken houses, collapsed towers, bones scattered around, and ancient roads. A forgotten capital stretched before them.
Athena whispered. "This wasn’t a village."
Arthur nodded. "No."
She looked across the valley. "...This wasn’t a city."
Arthur smiled. "No."
Athena slowly lowered her notebook. "...This was a kingdom."
Nobody answered.
Because there was nothing left to say.
"Let’s keep going," Mithra said.
Everyone nodded and continued walking through the destroyed area. Until finally they reached the throne plaza at the valley’s center, recognizable from the mural in reverse.
Then the footsteps came.
Heavy and deliberate, each one arriving with the weight of something that had not needed to move quietly for a very long time.
A figure emerged from the darkness between two collapsed columns. Nearly three meters tall. Armor that had been old before anyone currently alive was born.
A massive axe resting on one shoulder. Eyes that caught the last light of the evening and held it as red. It moved into the plaza without looking at Arthur or Mithra or Athena or Gruk or any of the hunters.
Its eyes found Vedas.
A long silence followed.
The Ancient Hobgoblin Chief stared at Vedas. Its eyes slowly narrowed, and then it laughed. "...Another Chief."
The grip on its axe tightened.
"And this one still lives."
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