Forging A Demon Empire

Chapter 17

The further we got in, the less we slept. Mother nature seemed alive and angry with the creatures that came at us. The first time I saw them, we had lost two men on guard duty. They were so silent we didn’t even know they were stalking us in the dark. Huge spiders with many black beady eyes stared at us hanging from trees. With flames, with blade, we killed them. They turned on their backs, dead. The damage, however, was too late, and no amount of sorrows or bloodshed could bring back the deceased. Only in the belief of Mangrela their souls may be blessed and guide them to a better afterlife.

For us the living our suffering only continued. Marauder bands of goblins roamed at day. Some even kept wolves in their company. The cackling mad laugher was enough to drive a man mad even when these creatures were slayed it still seemed to radiate from them. Each day was a battle with rudimentary banners as a reminder. A struggle that seemed to have no end. Even the small bugs pestered our very bodies for blood and warmth. Men carried boils on their feet, armour became worn, and food had become filled with maggots. We were lost. The guild master. The level of uncertainty radiating from him made me wonder if he had even stumbled upon the place at all. Kiran, my name in another life constantly, was spoken in my head as if to drive me mad. Why did it have to come from her lips?

Water was the only safety, and living off the land became both paramount and dangerous. We had even considered putting the guild master to use but there was a far higher chance that he in the end would turn against us. So he remained tied despite the many times his life came to an abrupt end by bow by fang by blade.

Monsters. I was sick of them all. I wanted to end them all. That much hadn’t changed. It had hardened in me and the eight men that remained with me. We seethed with burning vengeance and brought down that iron judgement upon the swine. I had to sate this thirst for something that was far more important to our cause, knowledge. In the last skirmish we had, we took two goblins as prisoners. One was cladded far more unique than the other, even by their standards. Through their bestial tongue, their limited speech and their actions under pain. From one of the goblin’s words had fallen and stuck upon our mind, ‘Prince Sharx’.

 From him we learnt about the enemy and what was going on. Five goblin war bosses were fighting with each other to become the chief of the clans. The battle seemed like it had raged for years. The goblins, through limited understanding, were incapable of understanding the concept of time.

Caremila seemed delighted to know this information. Her face had lighted up with some perverse glee as she pleaded with me to go to the chief of their clan. When I refused, she said she would go on her own and take the goblins with her. I had wondered at the time if she had gone mad. If she had lost it all in this situation but I couldn’t let her leave alone. How would I explain it to Reno? Still, to walk into the heart of the goblin territory was a trap all of its own, and goblins could never truly be trusted. Yet despite my reservation and those of my men, we followed Caremila’s path. Turning from the road and into the forest we travelled, I heard the guild master nerves being broken. It made sense for him, a man with some reason. The forest seemed to swallow us as light barely penetrated.

My head shifted to Caremila. Was this all a mistake? They trained many bows on us. They were goblins on wolves and others with blunt weapons. These numbers and terrain were not in our favour.

We had walked right into the doors of death itself.