Chapter 9: Animal Kingdom

Once again, things were peaceful in Welindar. Lupin had successfully won over the city, leaving the Pack high and dry, and Noah spent the next several months putting his experience to good use and helping Lupin improve the quality of life for the people and develop new sources of economic wealth. There were numerous untapped resources, and he was implementing measures to harvest them without destructive industrialization or cruel working conditions.

He developed special fertilizer to help crops grow abundantly and nourish the soil, used magic to locate deposits of ore and valuable minerals, improved living conditions and health and safety standards, and even gave his sexual wellness lecture. The profits of these endeavors went into funding social programs, infrastructure projects, and other common goods.

Unbound by greed, Noah put the needs and well-being of the many above the desires of the few. With everything he fixed and improved, he left behind knowledge and warnings about how assets were to be appropriately and responsibly utilized for future generations so that what fixed problems in the present wouldn’t be allowed to cause problems in the future.

He had lived in numerous societies that evolved past wealth inequality, blind consumerism, and environmental defilement, as well as countless worlds that had fallen prey to these evils. Though he could not force people to make the right choices or change their thought processes, he could, at the very least, give them the means to improve themselves. With every project he worked on, Shannon and Valia were there by his side, helping wherever they could.

Much of the winter was spent outside Welindar, fighting the Profane and searching for the main base. Though Carthace’s prison was gone, new fiends were still being produced, and it was an ongoing fight to cull their numbers. Both tasks required armies, but to operate large numbers of troops left them restricted to the territories claimed by Uther. Going out further would trigger retaliation from unconquered beastman tribes and states. Lupin had halted expansion to fight the Profane, and there weren’t enough men to fight a war on two fronts. Doing so would just drive up Pack recruitment and produce even more fiends. That said, there was plenty of action to keep them occupied.

On one frosty day in early spring, Noah, Valia, Shannon, and a small army of soldiers and knights were attacking a Profane hideout, where they had tracked down one of the specimens from Noah’s lab. Dradam, the ghoul encased in bone armor, was fighting for his life in the ruins of the old dwarven fortress. Noah and Valia had cornered him in what was once a mead hall while knights and soldiers were battling fiends outside.

A blizzard was raging, having initially concealed their approach, but now making battle difficult. Blood steamed as it met the air, and the snow-laden wind smothered all shouts of combat. Shannon was perched atop a crumbled rampart, raining arrows. Fortunately, these fiends were still vulnerable to Noah’s poison, but many newer ones weren’t.

Noah and Valia attacked Dradam from opposite sides inside the great hall, rending bone and hacking through flesh. Sunlight streamed through holes in the walls and ceiling, and though the winter storm dimmed the luminance, it was still enough to char the ghoul’s white exoskeleton. His great power came at a significant cost, and between the sunlight and the two warriors chipping away at his defenses, he was running out of space and options. Whenever Dradam tried to retreat, Noah would hurl a throwing knife, burying the blade in the ghoul’s healing wounds. Upon impact, the explosive material in the handle, created with alchemy, would detonate, gouging open Dradam’s armor.

Snarling in fury from one such blast, Dradam charged, swinging his one good arm. Valia blocked the hit on Noah’s behalf, fending Dradam off with her magical strength while he zoomed around and attacked the monster’s damaged side. Targeting the wounded shoulder, Noah bypassed the armor and drove his sword down into Dradam’s ribcage, piercing his heart and lungs. Noah twisted the blade and yanked it to the side like pulling a lever, using his sword to rip the ghoul open from the inside.

Vomiting blood and badly wounded, Dradam tried to knock him away with a swing of his arm, but Noah dodged the attack and retreated just before Valia kicked Dradam in the back with enough force to send him crashing through a brick wall and into the storm outside. Exposed to the sun, the ghoul howled in pain and rolled around in the snow as if wrapped in flames. Still, he could not extinguish the smoldering ruin creeping along his body as his armor turned to ash.

“It’s a real shame about my lab,” said Noah, approaching the writhing ghoul. “Without it, I have no reason to keep you alive.” A swing of his blade separated the head from the neck, and the painful convulsing stopped.

A few fiends remained, and he and Valia worked together to finish them off and end the battle. Next, they scoured the base for information. Unfortunately, the Pack and Profane had become more focused on covering their tracks and destroying anything that could be of use, including their magical tech, meaning Noah couldn’t rebuild his lab. He still had all of his curse research data and notes written down, including his counter spell and how to make the anti-fiend poison, so the destruction of the lab wasn’t a complete setback, but without the tech for computing, his progress had ground to a halt. At this point, solving his curse without the lab was like trying to perform quantum physics with an abacus.

After searching the base, they made the long journey back to Welindar. However, when they arrived, they found Lupin despondent, sitting on the throne with bleak eyes, inconsolable. Beside him was Nell, worried and heartbroken for him.

“Your Highness, what’s wrong?” Noah asked as he, Valia, and Shannon approached.

It took a moment for Lupin to answer, and his voice was as dry as sand when he spoke. “I just received a letter from Colbrand. My father is dead. He was assassinated.”

Noah was stoic, but Valia gasped beside him. “The king has been slain? What happened? Who did it?”

“It was the Profane. A fiend killed her way into the palace and ... ripped my father’s heart out of his chest.” Lupin slowly got to his feet but was unsteady, having lost his strength to grief. “I have to hurry and return home. General Delta is keeping everything together until I can assume the throne, but it won’t be long until the nobles make their move, if they haven’t already.”

“It’s too late and too dangerous to embark now. For all you know, this could be a trap by the Profane to lure you out of the city and kill you,” said Noah.

“I agree, Your Highness,” said Nell. “Please, at least wait until morning.”

“The document is official. I’d recognize Berholm’s handwriting anywhere. Lord Noah, while I’m gone, I have a dire request. I’m leaving you in charge of Welindar.”

Noah wanted to refuse and question Lupin’s reasoning, but he already knew how the prince would answer. He and Valia were the only gold-rank knights in the city and knew the terrain and the people. Even if Lupin could pull a high-ranking official from the front line, they lacked the experience and rapport. Lupin had earned the respect of the people, and if he installed some iron-fisted general as regent in his absence, everything would fall apart. As for selecting a non-military figure, such as one of his beastman delegates, no one was loyal to Uther, beloved by the public, and had the backbone to oppose the Pack and Profane.

On the other hand, Noah had ample political, military, and leadership experience, and his many social and economic programs earned him the people’s respect. The last thing Noah wanted was to be shackled to Welindar and heaped with responsibility while Valon waited to be found. Looking at Valia, it was clear she shared his concerns, but neither of them could simply refuse, not while the Profane was still a threat to Uther and Sylphtoria.

“Very well. As a temporary measure, I will take command of Welindar in your absence. Still, I insist that you wait until morning to depart. Now is not the time for you to be traveling.”

“Very well. I suppose I need time to plan and think things through. There are many preparations to be made.”

That night, after dinner, Noah stepped out onto the terrace with his pipe, but Lupin arrived before he could light it. “Ah, there you are. I was just about to send someone to find you.”

“Your Highness, care to imbibe?”

“No, thank you. When dealing with grief, liquor is the proper medicine.”

“My condolences for your loss. I’ve only met the king during my knighting ceremony, but I can tell you inherited his spirit.”

“Thank you. I suppose you’ve lost plenty of fathers before.”

“Plenty good, plenty bad. I’ve indeed stood over a lot of caskets.”

Lupin turned and looked out across the city. “As the head of the family, all the weight now falls on my shoulders. My mother died in childbirth, delivering Seraph, and now with my father gone ... I’ve never felt more alone. I’ll never again be able to ask him for help or advice, never again be able to rely on him or look up to him. When I return home ... he won’t be there. He’ll never be there again. I’m not ready to say goodbye.”

“You never are, and you should never want to be. An aching heart is a living heart, and you can’t feel pain without first feeling love. Be glad that you have good memories of your father, be glad that you got to enjoy the time you had with him. You didn’t miss out on anything. You may not be able to make new memories, but the old ones, you’ll carry with you forever, and when the time comes, you’ll have a child of your own and those memories will make you a better father. Besides, you are anything but alone. Help, advice, whatever you need, is always within reach.”

“Every time I’ve gone into battle, I was aware I was risking my life, knowing I could die, but I did it anyway. Now it feels like Death is standing behind me, waiting to claim me just as he did my father. It could be tomorrow, it could be fifty years from now, but he’s patient. I look at myself and all I see is fragile, aging flesh, doomed to die. This is what mortality feels like.”

“It’s natural to feel that way. As long as our parents live, we depend on them. Even when they grow old and it is our job to take care of them, we still depend on them to be our rock, our foundation, our guide through the crazy labyrinth of life. They’re our example, what we’re supposed to learn from, whether they be an ideal to strive towards or a cautionary tale. As long as they live, we remain young and naïve, and when things go wrong, we can turn to them. Once they’re gone, and they’re no longer around to teach you and guide you, that’s when you truly become an adult, when you have to depend on yourself. It is painful, but also liberating.

All your life, you walked behind your father, walked the path he’s laid as heir to the throne of Uther, but now your time has come. Now the path is yours, and you decide which way it goes. Will you climb up the highest mountains or traverse the deep reaches of the world? You are bound by a responsibility to your people, but so too are you blessed with the power of the king, now free to make things however you want them to be. You are the decider, the authority, he who stands before all others, above all others. Death is not perched behind you, waiting for your time. Your time is far in the future, and you have a million things to do before then. Now is when you can finally do them.”

“I just wish I had one more chance to speak to him, to say all the things I want to say, to hear all the things he wanted to tell me.”

“Just as I have buried many fathers, so too have I raised countless children. I say this to you as someone who has stood where both you and he stood numerous times: your father loved you, and he was prouder of you than he could put into words. Whatever it was you wanted to say to him, trust me, he already knew.”

Lupin bowed his head, shoulders trembling. “Thank you,” he said between tearful gasps. After a few moments, Lupin calmed himself and straightened his appearance. “By the way, I have something for you.” Lupin then handed Noah two rolled documents bound by a knight ring. “These are your official pardon and your promotion to gold-rank. The ring belonged to Reynolds. He was just a silver knight, but it has the storage enchantment. Valon Zodiac was the only one who could make more rings, so until you find him, we have to reuse them.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“No, thank you. I wouldn’t have lasted this long without your help. You’ve more than earned them, and I feel confident leaving Welindar in your care.” Lupin smiled and extended his hand. “Lord Noah.”

Noah shook it. “King Lupin.”

The moment was broken by the sound of whistling in the distance. It was coming from the city gate, where soldiers were sounding the alarm of an attacking force. “What in the world?!” Lupin exclaimed. Answering his question, the gate was ripped open in a thunderous explosion, and fiends swarmed in. These were not the typical fiends seen before, the bipedal hulks with weapons and armor; these were great monsters moving on all fours, beastmen who had augmented their animal forms with the power of the Profane in the ultimate surrender of their humanity.

House-sized bears, boars with meter-long tusks, wolves that could snap up horses like rats, and all matter of mutated creatures were now running amok in the streets, slaughtering soldiers and leveling buildings. Leading them was Kaisen, now with a head like a sabretooth tiger and dark gray hair and complexion from joining the Profane. He was flanked by his elite troops, all of them radiating a destructive aura.

“People of Welindar! I gave you a chance to join the winning side and take your rightful place, but you refused and sided with the outsider like loyal slaves! You chose wrong and will be punished for your betrayal! If you will not serve me willingly, then I must teach you the meaning of fear!”

He raised his hand, wrapped in a roaring torrent of black mana, and then slashed the air. Crescent-shaped blades of dark energy, each one thirty feet long, surged from his fingers and ripped apart everything in their path. They gouged open the street, hurling dirt and stone in all directions, and tore through buildings like cardboard boxes run over by a wheat thresher. He then opened his jaws, forming a bomb of malevolent power, and sent it smashing through another row of houses before exploding and shaking the city.

“All soldiers, to arms! Repel the invaders!” Lupin shouted from the terrace.

He and Noah then rushed down to the ground floor, with Valia and Shannon joining them. Every soldier in the palace was retrieving their armor and weapons and preparing to go to war. The rest of the troops across the city were flowing towards the scene of destruction, but they needed to be led. With Noah riding Shannon and Lupin and Valia on horseback, they raced to the front gate, bringing every knight and soldier available.

The two forces met and stared each other down in the middle of a sea of flames. “Kaisen, the last time I saw you, you were fleeing with your tail between your legs,” Lupin scoffed. “Now you’ve become one of the Profane and given up your last shred of dignity. You’ve fallen so far.”

“Do not get all high and mighty with me, boy. You cheated me out of my rightful authority last time we met, but this time, no silly tricks are going to save you. If I can’t have Welindar, then I will reduce it to ash.”

“I’m going to finish this, once and for all, and put an end to your madness,” said Lupin.

“Your Majesty, with all due respect, you had your chance,” said Noah as he climbed off Shannon. “Now it is time for me to make him pay. I’m going to turn you into a rug, Kaisen, and you’re going to be alive the whole time I’m skinning you.”

“Ah yes, the Wandering Spirit. As much as I would love to rip you limb from limb and feast on your entrails, there is someone here who has a bone to pick.”

Then, out from behind Kaisen appeared Tysinger with a cold scowl. “Noah, you and I have unfinished business. I don’t know how you escaped me last time, but I will end you.”

“Valia, would you be a dear and please entertain our guest?”

The elf sighed. “How many times are you going to ask me to fight someone you don’t want to deal with yourself?”

“He and I are a bad matchup, but you’re better suited. Do this for me and I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Backrub?”

“As a start.”

“All right, you have a deal.” Valia got off her horse and stood beside Noah. “Tysinger, right? I’ve heard good things about you. Noah may not believe in honor or the warrior path, but I do. I want to see just how skilled a ghoul can be.”

“Valia Zodiac, I’ve wanted to fight you for quite some time. Very well then, you die first.”

“Not here, follow me.” Valia then darted off with Tysinger chasing after her.

“Shannon, go help with the evacuations. Get the people to safety. The knights and soldiers can’t focus on the fight if they’re protecting everyone.”

Shannon bowed her head. “Yes, My Lord,” she galloped off, putting her faith in Noah. Deep down, she wanted to refuse, afraid of leaving his side in the face of such fearsome enemies, but she trusted him, and more than that, she trusted his skills and strength.

“All of you, deal with the interloper,” said Kaisen to his elite fiends.

“Yes sir,” said a juggernaut with the head of a bear.

He and almost a dozen other fiends approached Noah, each one towering over him and outweighing him from a couple hundred to over a thousand pounds. They embodied various animals, overflowing with dark power and sporting swelled muscles, long claws, and sharp fangs.

“This won’t be like last time, human!” exclaimed the goat-headed man with black mana swirling around his horns. “You faced us when we were weakened by the sunlight, but now, we have the darkness on our side!”

“Then, by all means, come and get me,” Noah said, having yet to draw his sword.

Answering his challenge, a man with the physical characteristics of a gorilla charged towards him. More than ten feet tall, his limbs were like stone pillars wrapped in fur, and his long fangs were ready to tear into Noah. Yet Noah didn’t move from his spot or show concern, even while the ground shook with each heavy footfall. The fiend raised his arms, ready to crush Noah into paste, only to be ripped open across the chest as if gutted with a chainsaw. Left stunned by the wound, a horizontal slash severed his arms and head before the fiend could understand what had happened.

The other fiends stared in shock as their comrade’s lifeless body collapsed in pieces, brought to ruin by Noah’s attacks, which seemingly came so fast that even their augmented eyes couldn’t catch his movements. Even Kaisen and the prince were shocked.

“You aren’t the only ones who reach their peak in the darkness. Like you, my sword isn’t too fond of the sun.”

He held a black scimitar made from one of Carthace’s bladed legs. Lightweight, tougher than steel, and razor-sharp, they were the perfect weapon material and had been enchanted with some powerful abilities, courtesy of the line of runes crawling up the blade, inked with Carthace’s own venom.

“This blade comes from your predecessor, Kaisen, a lovely spider I had the pleasure of knowing. It’s enchanted to inflict extra damage to fiends and negate Profane resilience, so not only are the wounds far worse, they don’t heal. I prepared several blades for you filthy monsters, and now I will feed you to them.”

“Kill these humans!” Kaisen roared.

“All troops, charge!” Lupin ordered.

The two armies swarmed towards each other, soldiers and knights vs. the fiends. Kaisen’s elite troops all converged on Noah, but he was ready. As he charged, the goat-headed man lowered his head, producing a massive field of dark mana in front of him, smashing through soldiers like they were being run over by a train.

Noah conjured an illusory machine gun and sprayed the charging fiend with bullets, each one disrupting his mana and chipping away at the oncoming rampart. By the time he reached Noah, his attack was withered enough for Noah to simply step to the side and bifurcate him. The fiend collapsed, ripped open like an old pillow with blood spraying. Lying there, he found himself unable to move, with his wounds refusing to heal. He was just bleeding like a simple beast.

As he lay dying, his comrade, a cobra-type fiend, attacked. She had no legs, only a long tail that could change its length. The powerful appendage writhed like a firehose and smashed everything around her with destructive force. Every time her tail stuck a knight or soldier, they were sent flying like a baseball hitting a bat, while the surrounding buildings collapsed like houses of cards.

Her tail coiled around Noah, ready to crush his bones, but before it could touch him, he severed it with two lightning-quick slashes, making her scream in agony. Blinded by pain and anger, she lunged towards Noah, her hood flaring and her jaws open, ready to sink her fangs into his neck. “Ah, a snake woman. You would have been fun to play with. Oh well.” Noah effortlessly cut her down, his blade not slicing her flesh so much as causing the tissue to disintegrate on contact.

From above, a fiend with black wings descended, aiming for Noah with his talons. At the same time, the fiend with the head of a bear charged on all fours, locking Noah in a pincer formation. Both of them were attacking with black mana swirling around their claws, capable of ripping apart steel, but unperturbed, Noah stood his ground, and when they were finally within reach, he lashed out. He avoided their attacks with graceful agility and gentle steps and dismantled them with masterful slashes, hacking through flesh, muscle, and bone. Fountains of blood sprayed from the warriors as they collapsed, the two of them trying to understand where they went wrong in their lives to end up Noah’s victims.

Kaisen and Lupin watched as Noah cut down the fiends one by one. Each was superior to a silver knight, but he reduced them to piles of bloody chunks and spilled viscera. It was more than just the blade helping him do this; it was his skill and power. Half the time, his movements appeared so fast that they couldn’t even be seen. Noah would simply wave his sword like a wand, and his foes would erupt into geysers of viscera.

Lupin had heard stories of Noah’s abilities, about the Night of a Hundred Heads during the last Red Revelry, and how Noah served up a mountain of death to the knighthood. He remembered Noah mentioning how he had bested Aithorn and several knights in combat. Now he understood how it was done. True, Noah wasn’t the most powerful warrior, but he was perhaps the deadliest.

Soon enough, the last elite fiend was reduced to bloody pieces, leaving just Noah, Lupin, and Kaisen, while their armies battled throughout the area. “All of you are useless,” Kaisen growled. “Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless!”

“You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, especially when you are soon to join them,” replied Noah.

“This is the end for you, Kaisen,” said Lupin as he stood beside Noah. “You won’t live to see the sunrise.”

“You two think you can kill me? Fine, try it!”

Wrapped in black mana, Kaisen lunged for them both. Noah stepped forward to intercept, but before he could swing his blade, Kaisen had already leaped over him and was lunging for the prince. Lupin cracked his whip at Kaisen, but he merely batted it aside and brought down his claws. Lupin jumped back to dodge, and Kaisen’s attack ripped apart the ground, tossing Lupin through the air.

Charging through the smoke, Noah slashed at Kaisen’s neck. Kaisen dodged the attack with his superior speed, but was shocked when he felt a blade slice his chest. He had followed the sword’s arc closely, but Noah’s attack somehow got through, and it was far more painful than it should have been.

Kaisen opened his jaws and fired a blast of black mana, but Noah rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding annihilation. Getting back to his feet, he tried again to cut down the fiend, but Kaisen jumped. With his foe overhead, Noah once more conjured an illusory machine gun and riddled Kaisen with bullets, each weakening the dark aura around him. He couldn’t use his invisibility and guns at the same time, but switching between them was easy enough.

Landing nearby, Kaisen launched a barrage of claw waves, ripping apart the earth like a plow as they surged toward Noah. Noah stood his ground and parried one of the mana blades with his sword, sending it into the sky. Before Noah could close the distance, Kaisen once more went after Lupin. Lupin was swinging his whip as fast as he could to build a charge, and once Kaisen was in range, he sent one end of the chain forward, glowing with enough mana to rip through stone like it was fallen snow. Kaisen avoided the attack and reached out with his claws. A bullet from Noah struck the back of his hand, weakening his attack, but Lupin was still slashed across the chest. Fortunately, his armor had protected him.

As he staggered back, Lupin cracked his whip, causing it to wrap around Kaisen’s head while he grabbed the end. He yanked on the chain, pulling Kaisen’s head forward while he jumped up and raised his knee to strike his chin. Kaisen blocked the attack and grabbed Lupin, lifting him above his head. Before he could slam Lupin into the ground, an acid arrow struck his back and released its payload. As his flesh dissolved, he staggered and dropped Lupin, and Noah charged towards him.

Kaisen gathered his strength and jumped out of range, narrowly avoiding Noah’s blade, yet somehow receiving a deep cut on his leg. That was the second time he had received an unseen attack. He didn’t understand how Noah was doing it, only that he had to keep his distance. Arrogant though he was, watching his elite followers getting slaughtered was a learning experience he wasn’t going to waste.

Lupin scrambled to his feet and cracked his whip, directly hitting Kaisen. However, a thick layer of mana radiating from his skin protected him, leaving Lupin unable to even wound his foe. Kaisen circled the two warriors, running and jumping across buildings. As he ran, he opened his jaws and launched a barrage of mana bombs, each one exploding like a mortar round. Noah and the prince were sent running for cover as shrapnel and corrosive mana filled the air. Buildings were obliterated by the shelling, with Noah and Lupin forced to wait out the continuous explosions in the wreckage.

“Here, take these; they’ll make your attacks more effective,” said Noah, handing the prince a pair of daggers identical to his sword.

“My thanks,” replied Lupin as he went to work attaching them to the ends of his whip.

He then handed Lupin a small capsule. “This is a smelling salt. Crack it open, snort the contents, and it’ll speed up your reactions and reflexes.”

There was a lull in the volley, so Noah left his clone behind and stepped out to scan the area. He spotted Kaisen, still circling as he waited for them to reveal themselves. Noah drew his bow and launched an arrow loaded with the same explosive he added to his throwing knives. It struck Kaisen’s shoulder and detonated, nearly ripping his arm off, but his flesh began stitching back together.

In response, Kaisen was about to launch another mana bomb, but Noah pelted him with bullets, disrupting the flow of power and preventing him from forming the attack. Kaisen once more went on the move, trying to escape the continuous hail of bullets so he could respond with his own attack. Unfortunately, this was the best Noah could do at the moment. Even if he could attack while concealed, Kaisen was too fast to get close. Invisibility was useless if he couldn’t reach his target. He needed Kaisen to stop long enough to land a hit.

“Lupin, you ready?”

Lupin stepped out from behind cover with the two Carthace daggers affixed to the ends of his chain. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

Seeing Lupin, Kaisen launched a barrage of claw attacks, surging towards them like a runaway semi. Noah and Lupin were forced to split up to dodge, narrowly avoiding annihilation. Kaisen dropped into the street and rocketed towards Lupin, but Lupin cracked his whip, sending it swinging towards Kaisen.

Kaisen jumped to avoid it, unaware of the other end of the chain closing in on him. He spotted it in midair, with Lupin flashing a smirk, but by twisting his body and exuding his mana aura, Kaisen managed to dodge it. He landed on the ground and pounced, but the prince was not helpless. With both ends of the whip still under the effect of their momentum, he pulled on the middle of the chain, redirecting the force and causing both ends to snap back and strike Kaisen with full force.

Kaisen was tossed through the air by the blow, now sporting two deep gouge marks in his flesh. He narrowly stuck the landing, skidding back with his claws carving trenches in the ground, and as soon as he stopped, an illusory RPG exploded against him, extinguishing his mana. Before he could recover, Lupin cracked his whip once more, slashing Kaisen across the throat. Kaisen staggered back with blood pouring from his neck and his wounds refusing to heal. His acid burns had mended easily, but every slash of the Carthace blades was whittling him down.