The New Babylon

As Nathan came back, accompanied by Sio, He saw Steevie and Mourzuk walking in his direction while shouting.

“ _ Boss ! We wiped out all the survivors, only a small portion of them managed to escape … Should we hunt them down ?”

Nathan was still quite shaken by what he experienced in the forest, but he still managed to keep a poker face as he answered

“_ No need, we will continue to raid our neighbours anyway, we won’t be able to stay hidden much longer”

Just as he finished Stevie questioned him about the hobgoblin.

“_ Did you manage to kill the hobgoblin runaway ?

_ Yeah about him … he’s as dead as he could possibl-

_ Yes !! I don’t know how but when I came beside boss Nathan the hobgoblin was already headless ! But the thing is … it’s head was nowhere to be found !”

As Sio shouted excitedly many goblins surrounding Nathan looked at their boss with renewed respect and a hint of fear

Looking at them Nathan just smiled mysteriously

‘Yeah fear me little critters ! Fear me as much as you respect me ahah …Not like it is deserved glory but if this keep them even more loyal it’s all good’

“_ Anyway, where is Vorya ?

_ Here …”

As Nathan asked, he heard his friend, turning in the direction of the voice he saw a hand raised coming from a pile of straw with a big hobgoblin chilling.

As he took a better look at Vorya he thought.

‘Wow he got small wounds everywhere … mate don’t you fear infections ? Wait now that I think about his mark don’t even allow him to get a small fever, so no septicaemia him I suppose.’

“_ Lucky bastard …

_ What ?

_ Nothing …. So ? How was your fight ? Did you have fun ?

_ You know me, nothing says happiness more than a cultist dying by my hands !

_ No wonder.”

After a short burst of jealousy Nathan turned to his hobgoblin officers

“_ Pack everything of use, no even if it looks useless take it ! Where are going back as soon as possible”

As Nathan sat next to Vorya while looking at his subordinates who were hard at work, he thought

‘The pression from earlier really took a toll on my brain … The most frighting part about what the evil god did isn’t the boost he gave to the now headless Hobgob, or even the fact that I couldn’t fight back in the slightest … What truly terrifies me is the sensation of my mind losing its capacity. It felt like I was turning into … something else. Fucking brain melting experience I tell ya .’

As Nathan fought against his drowsiness, Stevie told him that they were ready to go. Without wasting a second Nathan rushed his little warband back to Alesia as fast as possible .

Just as they came back, surrounded by the cheers of the goblins who were tasked to defend the fort in their absence. Nathan walked back like a mindless zombie to his tent, when he reached his bed, he fell on it like a stone before losing consciousness.

As he was dreaming about buying a pack of cigarettes, his peaceful dream suddenly came to a halt while he was paying. As if someone used a remote to pause a movie.

As Nathan’s mind cleared, he immediately became aware that he was in a dream.

Suddenly, the cashier in front of him metamorphosed, taking the appearance of the God of Memories.

Since it wasn’t the first time his mind was suddenly invaded by the old man, Nathan just frowned before he took a cigarette out of his brand-new pack, before offering one to the god.

“_ Why thank you … So ? You must have some questions, right ?

_ Yeah, well many questions as a matter of fact, first thing first … What the happened with the evil god  thingy ?

_ You mean when he attempted to corrupt you ?

_ He what ?

_ Yeah, mental corruption, loss of metal capacity, irrational fear you should know since the blood god targeted you .

_ Well yeah, thank you for protecting me by the way”

Nathan answered as cold sweat was flowing abundantly on his face and back

“_ But why did he try to errr … corrupt me ? Why not just blow my head like you did with the other guy ?

_ Because most gods have many enemies, few of us can even walk around without triggering a bloody divine battle, and those so called ‘evil’ gods are mostly the ones who have too many enemies to even directly using their power.

Most of the time they only influence the green skins of this continent to get a continuous supply of foot soldiers for their proxy wars with the other dudes.

_ I see … maybe ? And how many goblin tribes are under their influence ?

_  On this continent ? All of them, except one or two small groups, nothing you could really call a tribe

_ All ? How can they influence every one of them ?!

_ Well they just let their corruption spread like a plague, every prayer and rites serve their purpose. They also make sure that every tribe leader is one of their chosen. No real effort involved in the end … the small goblins get easily corrupted, and the more they grow the deeper the corruption.

_ That … That’s fucked up.”

While Nathan was trying to process the information, the old god just shrugged as he exhaled a puff of smoke.

“_ Anything else ? Know that those kind of conversations between one of us and a mortal as we call them is extremely rare.”

As he heard the old man Nathan thought

‘So that’s a one-time kind of info dump ay ?’

“_ Ok so what about those dark auras some hobgoblin seems to have ?

_Well, that’s a advantage stemming from the corruption, the stronger the corruption the stronger the boost given when they embrace it … But don’t get tempted that’s a mark of slavery, nothing more.

_ Still … As your follower why don’t I have some perks too ?”

Nathan immediately felt a wave of regret as he saw the old god frowning with one of his eye twitching in irritation

“ You, ungrateful little bastard … *sigh* … Well since you don’t know I will explain to you how grateful you should be ! Let’s not even talk about the fact that I protect you from the other gods,  the perks I give you are protecting your soul and mind from most intrusion, It even cleans every corruption and external influence on the minds of those who stay near you ! “

Nathan felt shameful after hearing the old man ranting and immediately answered

“_ Yeah sorry  … errr- Cheers for the God of Memory ! The best god around !

_ … Anyway, one last question before I go ?”

Nathan stopped for a second to think before he asked something that was on his mind since a while ago

“_ Magic … Is there some magic, I could use ? Magic different from the blessing of the world ?

_ Nope, not in a long while for you at least … Most other race can use magic with enough training, but the green skins are like the demons. They are special.

Long ago there was some green skins who could use it, but they attained this capacity when they evolved in something higher than orcs. So, yeah well good luck with that !”

As the old god stopped, he simply waved before Nathan’s dream dissipated as he woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of goblins partying loudly.