Stray Elf: Lost in the System

This is a bonus chapter.

In the rise of the Demonkind’s rule and expansion, remnants of human armies hid amongst the scourged lands as bandits and lawlessness swept the countrysides. For whatever was not turned into a flesh field or a city, the demons would destroy or murder. Those were the lucky ones, I supposed. Principalities became filthy slums, and their dukes and “royalty” followed directly: derelict and desperate. Flocks of screeching birds scavenged battlefields for flesh, like we did for arrows and weapons. For every one gorestabber, ten bandits were around the corner. I chuckled. That saying spread across demonfolk like wildfire.

Those gorestabbers were the result of mutated fauna eating the Pit’s flesh, a vulture transformed into a twisted and featherless, flabby creature that had a long bladed beak. It was not known if they used magic to fly, because no one wanted to get near them anyways. Their beaks made for good war hatchets though if one was brave enough to catch one.

As gross as the birds were to begin with, they left the living alone and held up to their names by stabbing their beaks directly into the Pit’s flesh and ripping the meat out violently like a cord of an old lawnmower. The result was a lengthy red, thorny strand of a root that was pregnant with pink juices which it slurped up. I was fine as long as those things stayed away from living flesh, mainly my own skin. Other predators were worse off, I supposed, but were easier to face since they wanted to kill us.

I shook my head out of my daydreams about those creatures. I threw away caring for nature a long time ago. Elves of this world probably did not care at all for the birds and trees, at least this level five elf did not. I knew all of us stood no chance against nature. An earthquake could easily sweep us away back to the Pits or a fire tornado could burst from wild magic and consume our cities in an instant, and that was not even a blip in the world’s lifespan. There simply was no reason to worry any longer about tomorrow, or next year, or even the next decade. Even if I were to survive for thousands of years, I could die at any moment and nature would feed me to those fleshy gorestabbers. For now, those bandit’s corpses we spent the good half of the month clearing could serve as meals for them instead of me.

As such, I was tasked with ridding the shabby Kreshan countryside of anyone that looked like a bandit while on the march. The country of Kresha was a dump of beast men, consisting of the jungles and huge valleys just north beyond the Stomach of the World, formally known as the Spine. I dreaded the day I would have to return there from all the stories I heard about that place. For them to send my army through must have been some kind of logistical mistake, I first thought. Who’d send an elite army known for causing fear amongst enemy ranks to such a remote location? A couple of Gate Demons could destroy whatever was here. Those big guys were owned by Demon Lords, but were difficult to kill on their own. I’d liken them to a tank from my old world, but they were much more dimwitted. Still, I did not complain. Kresha was a nice vacation from the main action down south. The men were left happy killing whoever they please and I did not have to worry about losing any personnel from infighting or dangerous Crowned enemies, along with reaping souls for free while they did all the work.

Now, we were ordered to feed more to the birds, I thought grimly as we came along view of the last shantytown before our destination. It squashed itself firmly between us and our true target: A shining temple resting down a hill far ahead. This small village seemed like extra work. So long as no one bothered us, I told the men we’d just pass through to “conserve strength.” There was barely anyone in our way. The smart ones hid in their homes when our boots trampled their streets. I was leading my group through, scanning for any signs of an ambush and alerts from my Skill. As we advanced, I noticed someone emerging from one of the market stalls. A hand released a rock.

I halted the army and watched the fist-sized rock leisurely careen through the air. Maybe it would wack me in the head and I could make a show out of it. Yokgu caught it before it hit my armor instead. I looked at him blankly and he shrugged.

“It was an instinct,” he muttered. I chuckled, but hid my amused face before he noticed it.

I heard slurping and a pair of empty vials clattered on the barren streets in front of us. Drugs, eh? Potions were sought after amongst some parts of humanity here, in order to keep up with larger demons or ogres. That means whoever drank them was planning on making an entrance. Instead of someone fearsome, however, a man in rags equipped with a shoddy sword stepped out before us. Several soldiers moved to apprehend the poor bastard, but I stopped them with a singular motion of my hand. This was an opportunity to seem evil and cool, one that I did not want to pass up. The man belched, before spitting at me. He was in dire conditions, with a sprain in his left leg and many bloody bandages covering his dominant, right arm. Maybe a level one bandit versus a level five elf was not as cool as it seemed. I reconsidered getting the soldiers to gut him like a dog so we can move through.

“So?” I asked him. “What do you want to do here?”

“Diln,” he screamed at me, as if I owed him something. “Kai Diln!”

His eyes showed no fear. I liked that in a man, though unfortunately for a human, he was ill-prepared to face me. His sword arm quaked as he drew it, shaking as he directed it at me. In demon culture, such a threat would give way to incredible violence. However, I recognized it was a simple challenge issued — a duel to the death. He laughed harshly, I guessed he saw the pity on my face.

“I wouldn’t wanna fight me neither,” he growled. “You took everything from me!”

“I don’t even know who you are,” I muttered. Another spit splat on the dirt before my boot.

“Belarsus Fields,” his voice shook with a righteous anger, one calling for vengeance. “You killed my entire family. You left me to die in that brilliant black armor and for two long years, I have trained. I have trained! Waiting for this!”

I recalled no such fields with that name, but figured this guy was off his rocker anyways. It also occurred to me that humans had different names for places demons have blazed through, so perhaps he was not mistaken and our paths actually did cross together some time ago. I took off my helmet and dropped it on the ground before the shaking drunkard. Instead of rolling away, it embedded itself into the stony streets like a comet. The simple thud made my men gasp in awe, while onlookers flinched at the noise. A Nameless only meant terrifying implications to everyone, so they hid away. It must have sobered him up, because he withdrew another potion and chugged it down. Where did he even pull that out from…?

“Do you feel afraid, Nameless?” He slurred his words. “Of death in this world? In another world? Well, I don’t! Huh! Now face me!”

I sighed. I was scared of dying, truthfully, once upon a time. Now, I was scared of pink flesh eating deformed birds.

“You couldn’t even hurt a gorestabber with that thing,” I told him coldly. “And yet you want me to feed you to them all the same?”

A simple sword gesturing to my sheath was all I received in response.

“Very well, Kai Diln,” I drew the Black Blade, noticing several soldiers trying to remove the helmet from the ground. “I am a Nameless, currently serving the Abyssal Army. I shall fetch the birds a new meal.”

“Ay,” he grinned. Several alerts appeared in my vision, informing me that he had activated many skills. What kind of cruel Goddess gave him these tricks for false hope? Power Body, Power Sword, Spirit Body, and Reinforcement? The man looked like a glowstick, perfectly easy to snap in my bare hands. Those Skills were enough to place him squarely and fairly against Yokgu, but unfortunately for him, I thought grimly as I stepped slowly towards him. I am not a mere orc.

With a final roar, he swung his empowered weapon at me in a beautiful auric blaze, but it did not matter. I seized him by palming his head easily. With my combined S rank stats, it took a lot of precision to not rip him apart. His body snapped and his sword dropped before it even moved an inch. It was satisfying hearing its clatter ring out uselessly across the silent village. The dying wail of a blade hung in the ears of all inside this place, with its master soon to follow.

“All of that talk,” I glared at him, crushing his skull slowly. Blood trickled out of his lips and ears as he became overly exerted by the amount of Skills and drugs he used. “For what?”

I did not give him the chance to speak before I crushed his head entirely in my hand. The body bloomed out red puddles on the dirty ground and I scooped up my helmet.

“MURDERER! HE WAS JUST AS YOUNG AS YOU!” an old lady screamed at me from behind one of the market stalls. I glared at her. “MURDERER! TRAITOR!”

I'm not a kid, I retorted in my mind. She was weeping, but suddenly the headless body began to twitch. Uh oh, we’re behind on schedule, I supposed. Several thousand insects burst out of the corpse’s neck that used to be Kai Diln, grossing me out. The swarm picked the old lady as its next target, burrowing into her ears, eyes and mouth as they consumed her insides. The Abyssal Army demanded this village, but the former old woman remained before me and her bony arms snapped to a salute.

“Ah, who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?” I squished my helmet on my head.

“Captain,” the many voices of the swarm infesting her echoed. “The Watchers have reports on the City ahead.”

“Huh?” I asked it. The body made sinuous snapping and its flesh began to turn green as it was ripped to shreds from the inside out. It no longer looked like an old woman.

“Strange magics,” the legion said. “The Assurium Glossaries have touched the City of Stellaria.”

Eh? Why did it sound like someone rolled a fantasy name generator? I wondered. Yokgu looked shocked, but gave me a clue on what to expect before the Abyssal swarm chased some other bystanders to eat. I looked at the legion with disgust.

“Assurium Glossaries,” he muttered.

“Strange magic means dangerous, right?” I guessed.

“Ay, Captain,” Lee piped up behind us, startling us both.

“Jesus Chr— I mean hells,” I muttered. “Don’t jump up on me like that.”

“Assurium Glossaries are creatures from the Sky,” Lee pointed upward. All I saw was the vast pale blue sky, with no clouds or the Spiral Moons in sight. “We will have trouble if they’re around the city still.”

“So they aren’t gorestabbers?” I asked him. The new guy looked at me in disbelief. Yokgu joined him in judging me. “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what?’” He asked incredulously. “What’s with you and those birds?”

We found ourselves marching through with smooth progress so far. The target was up ahead. I signaled to the men to surround it with their torches and fire magic. Night was falling and there was a cyan glow coming from behind the temple’s ornate pillars. I waited, but there was already fighting within its grounds. Bandits trying to get in, while the rebels and monks were trying to get out. Its walls were built in an odd pattern that we could only observe from the ridgeway above. Instead of the usual Spiral Moon pattern most holy symbols built by human architects tended to look like, the temple and its fortified walls seemed to be repeating an odd pentagram pattern. The monastery completed its pattern as the centerpiece. It seemed incomplete, however, since some of the walls did not connect and several of the thinner defenses were shattered already to pieces.

I had a bad feeling about this, but I usually did when it came to magic. I signaled them to advance to the collapsed wall. The place was already loud with fighting, so we were able to come with the Hatred Army’s fire torches much closer for free. The mages launched their attack for a diversion, while I moved in with the rest of the torch team. Yokgu shouted at the first sight of a bloody bandit.

“Burn it all down!” He hollered.

I rolled my eyes, but we moved in with our torches. This place was huge and ancient! Texts were torn to shreds and scattered everywhere, desecrated by the blood of fighting humans and now Demons. Parts of some beautiful mosaics were shattered by the magic our mages threw, but my attention was drawn towards an odd cubic chamber made of a fireproof blackstone down below in the center of the narthex. That was something important or at least related to the Glossary, I guessed. For now, there were souls to reap. My men were burning the walls and throwing monks off the ornate balconies. This place was going to blow soon, but I wanted to investigate the giant black box in the middle of the temple.

I contemplated crushing the entire thing with a Power Breaker, but changed my mind. If the Sky creature was contained in here, blowing up whatever strange magic they had stuffed in this box could have irreversible effects and lethal consequences. Instead, I slashed at it with a Power Sword, chipping a cracked hole in its surface. I was surprised it survived the slash. Who knew a box was able to resist my S ranked STR?

The screaming and fighting was dying down, with the smoke and fires quickly clogging my lungs. Still, I could not help but peer inside despite the overwhelming foreboding feeling washing over me. Something was inside of the chamber and it was watching me back. All I saw was a glimpse of a pair of golden rings rotating furiously and lots of white feathers floating over an incomplete spell sigil. A Sigil? I wondered. No one ever used spell circles or weird clichés like that when it came to magical energy. Most only used their bodies and words to shape the spells into existence. I stood on my toes and tried to get a better look at the sigil. What is this thing? The feathers flapped, and the view of many more pairs of rings and wings unfolded before me. Strange chimes began pounding into my head. Feathers and rotating rings of gold could only mean, my mind wandered for a split second when danger made me refocus. I quickly tore my eyes off of it before it lifted its wings entirely, feeling like I have just been stabbed in the heart a thousand times. Bloody hells! I almost just died, I was sure of it.

An alert showed that a bandit was attempting to assassinate me, but the attacker was intercepted by Yokgu.

“Ay, Captain,” he called for me. “You look like shit! Did someone get you?”

“We gotta go,” I told him. The grave tone in my voice definitely shook him, but he could not process why until he noticed the hole in the wall. Before he could look inside, I punched him away. I screamed. “D-Don’t look in there!”

Yokgu skidded into a pile of torn up bodies from my punch. Crap, I went overboard in my panic. I ran over to him and helped him up.

“S-Sorry,” I muttered. “We have to go.”

Yokgu looked at me oddly, but grunted in agreement. He was not a dumb enough orc to defy me if I punched him, I guessed. Instead, he pulled out a horn and blew it. The retreat horn for all Demons to get the hell out of here.

“What in the hells did you see in there?” Yokgu yelled at me as we joined the others in a full blown retreat. The dark temple, despite being set ablaze, became illuminated by beams of cyan lights. I heard more chimes and humming, but based off of Yokgu’s frightened look he heard it too. “And why did you make it angry!?”

“I’m sorry,” I retorted sarcastically. We vaulted over the final staircase and made our way through more of the fighting to the temple’s outer walls. “I didn’t know they were hiding a dangerous creature inside a box here!”

My ears became robbed of hearing as whatever humming burst apart. The cyan light blasted through the temples, and the rest of our troops who didn’t take the retreat horn seriously were instantly vaporized before my eyes. Was it because they saw the source of the eerie light? Screeching occured and more of my men were becoming vaporized one by one. Hells, it was not just my men. The bandits and monks were getting destroyed as well. Yokgu almost turned, but I jerked his face to look away.

O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL, O COME ALL YE WHO TRESPASS — KNEEL AND SEEK FORGIVENESS

I do not know if that was my Status Skill’s alert, but I instantly dropped to kneel. My troops that were still alive with me, did the same when they noticed I did it. A chorus of armored knees crunching on the sandy ground echoed through the valley, and seemed to make the shifting creature’s vocalizations grow quiet. The humming and chiming became louder, however, but those who did not kneel instantly became dust inside the blinding blue light that washed the night away. Yokgu was sweating bullets and I was sure my pants were completely soiled. The light lifted, but I saw the shadow of the creature floating closer and closer. I suddenly heard gears clicking together violently, like a clock that has gone haywire, and the flapping of wings behind me. Shit. Shit. Shit! The creature was directly behind me, shifting back and forth as if it was contemplating whether it should abduct me or the orc beside me. Take him, dammit! Not me!

A strange beeping noise ominously blurted out behind me as the clicking gears persisted, but suddenly the wings started to beat rapidly. Everyone remained kneeled. I just now noticed all of the fires we started were completely put out. The presence was gone, but my knees felt weak from fear for the first time in a long while. Yokgu was the first to stand up, shaking himself off.

“Gah!” He roared. “The hells was that! The hells, the hells!”

He glared at me, but the look on my face must have freaked him out so he went on a rampage in what was left of the temple to blow the nervousness off instead. I stood by for a report, but it was evident that we were lucky despite the encounter. I only lost a small portion of my army. The ominous light from that being did not reach our mages who were lined up on the ridges.

“The twenty winged, one eyed creature flew up into the heavens after its magic ran out,” said the mage’s report. Well, I shuddered as I stared at his scroll. I hoped it never comes back down here. I looked up at the starry heavens and the Spiral moons were shifting, causing a beautiful Cold Moon fall.

“Destroy the place with magic only,” I commanded them. Yokgu returned hours later and was back to his usual self, occasionally feeling his gut where I punched him and glancing at me oddly. I shook out of it and redirected my attention to the mages. “Do not enter that damn place, you hear me? Then we will do the same with the City of Stellaria.”