“We have everyone gathered up like you asked.”, Yasaka advised, as she joined me at the lead wagon, “Have you found out anything about the traitor or traitors?”
“No, there are only sales receipts in the merchant's chests. We came at a good time, these people would have been smuggled out of the forest tomorrow.”, I remarked, putting the papers back, “Whoever helped these slavers knew the when, where, and how to pull this off without a hitch. I doubt we are dealing with multiple traitors, this efficiency suggests we have a single traitor in the forest.”
Stowing the chests in my storage, we walked over to join everyone where they had gathered. Noticing Ghislaine chatting with two women, one of whom appeared to be her mother, I waved them over and asked who they were.
“Are they your relatives by chance?”, I inquired, giving the two women a friendly nod.
“Cole, this is my mother Paix, and my sister-in-law Beaute.”, Ghislaine replied, motioning to them respectively, “This is Cole Bolt, a close friend of mine and the person responsible for helping find you so quickly.”
“Just a close friend, huh?”, Paix remarked, giving me a once over with her eyes, “Well Cole, please take care of my dear daughter. She can be a bit dense at times, but she is an excellent woman who will stand beside you through thick and thin. Please do hurry and give me grandchildren, these old bones will not stay among the living forever.”
Looking at her mother, Ghislaine let out a sigh and shook her head in response. Deciding that it was not worth arguing with her mother over, she inquired if I had learned anything from the documents.
“Unfortunately, there was nothing about the traitor in the documents the slave merchants had. I assume everyone here does not know either?”, I inquired.
“No, aside from each other, we have not seen any other Beastmen around camp.”, Paix said, crossing her arms, “It hurts to know that one of our own sold us to these humans without any hesitation. We are a tight-knit group of people who help each other out in times of need. To know that one of us could be this heartless is truly terrifying.”
“Well if no one here knows, I will just ask one of the merchants.”, I chuckled, as I began searching for one among the dead.
“I thought all of them were killed?”, Beaute commented, “Did some of them escape?”
“I possess magic that can resurrect the dead for questioning.”, I informed her, “Ghislaine, can you please give them the details?”
Remembering what I did last time, Ghislaine explained to her people that I possessed Otherworldly Magics that did not work like the magic they knew. Focusing on my search, I found a merchant’s head almost completely sunk into the muddy ground. Picking it up and cleaning it off with some water, I used the spell Speak with Dead to reanimate the head for a brief QA session. Watching the head come back to life, the Devils gasped in shock as they had never witnessed such magic before.
“Oh wow, that is so cool!!”, Serafall shouted, “Can you make him do impressions in that state?”
“No.”, the head replied.
“Serafall, this spell only lets me ask the host’s spirit five questions and you just used one up. Please let me do the talking here.”, I chuckled, realizing I should have explained the rules first before using the spell.
“Oh okay…can you teach me the spell later then?”, she inquired, wanting to test it out for herself.
“I do not know it.”, the head answered, as Misla and Lilith began to snicker.
“Damn it Serafall.”, I laughed, “Let me finish first, then ask me questions.”
“Right, I am sorry!”, she realized, covering her mouth, “I will be-”
“He said shut up!”, Leviathan spat, slamming her fist down on her head, “Do you know how to be quiet?!”
“I do.”, the head remarked, answering her question
Looking back at the two women, everyone began laughing at them unable to maintain a serious expression any longer. Realizing that she had also asked a question, Leviathan hid her face in shame as Serafall began berating her and calling her an idiot. Letting out an exasperated sigh, I looked back at the head and asked the question I needed an answer to.
“The information you used to capture all these people, who gave it to you?”, I questioned.
“The Elder Trahir.”, the head said aloud.
“What did they gain from selling their people out?”, I asked.
“He sold them out to cover a mountain of debt he had accrued in the Black Market. In exchange for the prisoners we took, we would forgive the debt he had taken on to buy drugs from us.”, the head answered, as its spirit faded away.
Tossing the head back into a pile of corpses, I looked back at the others and gave them the okay to speak.
“Sorry Cole…”, Leviathan apologized, “I have let this idiot influence me too much. If I ruined the spell…I apologize.”
“I am sorry too, Cole!!”, Serafall agreed, before punching Leviathan in the arm, “If I am an idiot, you are a bigger one Leviathan!”
“It is alright, if I did not get the information I needed, I could have just asked another merchant’s corpse the same two questions.”, I told them, as I patted the women on the head, “Anyways, who is this Trahir fellow? Is he some sort of big shot here in the Great Forest?”
“He is one of the Elders, his son Faible used to be a frail, sickly boy as a child. Over the years though, he managed to put on a lot of muscle and has grown to become one of our strongest warriors.”, Paix commented, shaking her head in shame, “I always wondered how he went from being sickly to the peak of physical prowess in only two years. Now it all makes sense!”
“We need to get back and warn everyone.”, Beaute stated, with a scowl, “Now that we know who the traitor is, it is time to deal with them.”
Wholeheartedly agreeing with her, many of the victims began suggesting they go now and beat them both to death. As that idea started to gain traction with more of them, I stepped in to remind everyone of the more pressing matter at the moment.
“I do not want to rob you of your right to retribution, but we need to get all of you home as soon as possible. While we know who the traitor is, the rest of your friends, family, and neighbors do not. Right now many of your villages are potentially hours away from starting a civil war with one another.”, I said, snapping them back to reality, “We need all of you to spread the word, and stop them before any blood is spilled. While all of you stop them from fighting, Ghislaine and I will capture Trahir and Faible to prevent them from escaping. Tomorrow we will gather the Village Chiefs and hand the two over to them for punishment.”
Agreeing to my request, the victims promised to tell everyone who would listen about what they heard here. Thanking them for their understanding, I formed several large Light Platforms for everyone and began splitting people up by village. Once everyone was organized accordingly, we began flying around and dropping everyone off at their homes.
—Ghislaine’s Village—
Arriving back in the village sometime later, the rescued villagers thanked us again for saving them before promptly returning home. Making our way toward Ghislaine’s childhood home, we began making plans to snatch Trahir and Faible tonight.
“I think a swift, frontal assault on their home is the best option here.”, Ghislaine commented.
“A pincher maneuver would be a better option in this case. Both men are probably already prepared to bolt the moment any trouble arises. Even though that area was taboo, there was still always a chance someone might have stumbled upon them by accident.”, I remarked.
“With the number of people we have here, we can pull that off.”, Yasaka said.
“Alright, we can do that then.”, Ghislaine conceded, “Once Mom and Beaute are comfortable, we can head out.”
Agreeing to her plan, we walked inside and found Gyes and Gustav entertaining new company. Freezing in place when her eyes met theirs, Ghislaine immediately placed her hand on the hilt of her blade. Watching their body language closely, the two men started slowly reaching for their weapons.
“Ghislaine, please calm down.”, Gyes pleaded, getting up from his seat, “You remember Elder Trahir and his son Faible, right? They graciously came here to offer their assistance in searching for everyone. I know you have bad blood with Elder Trahir, but you need to let it go.”
Noticing that Paul’s family and Gyes’ children were at the table, completely unaware of what was happening. I slowly moved closer to them to counter any moves the men took.
“Brother, Elder Trahir and Faible are the traitors.”, Ghislaine told him, not breaking eye contact with the men, “Please move out of my way so we can seize them.”
“No sudden movements, gentlemen.”, I warned the two traitors, “This game has run its course. It is time to cash out.”
“Dear, listen to Cole and Ghislaine!”, Beaute called out, bringing additional warriors to seize them, “Elder Trahir and Faible sold us to those bastard slavers!!”
Turning toward the Elder, Gyes lips began to tremble with anger as he clenched his jaw.
“There must be some mistake here.”, Elder Trahir said, shielding his son and slowly backing away from us, “We did no such thing, they are lying! Ghislaine must have sold our people out to be freed from her shackles!”
Understanding that they needed to move, Linia and Minotana bolted from the table while Aisha and Norn ran to Paul. Unlike his father, who was attempting to bullshit his way out of this, Faible understood that they had been caught and that he needed leverage to pull off an escape. Choosing Gyes’ daughters as his target, Faible lunged toward them hoping to grab them before they were out of reach.
“Faible, you idiot!!”, Trahir howled, instantly grabbing his blade and ripping it from its sheath, “Why could you not let me handle this!?”
Leaping in front of her brother, Ghislaine pushed him away and met Trahir’s attack head-on. While she blocked the father, I intercepted Faible and blasted him in the face with a million volts of lightning. Destroying the back portion of the home with the resulting shockwave, Faible screamed in agony as he skipped across the muddy ground.
“Damn you human scum!!”, Faible roared, quickly regaining his footing as his wounds began to heal, “I will kill you for that!”
“If you are screaming like a baby from that love tap, you are still the same weak, pathetic child you always have been.”, I mocked him.
“Bastard!!”, Faible bellowed, digging his claws into the mud and launching himself at me.
Believing that he was moving faster than I could perceive him, Faible aimed for my neck wanting to tear my throat out. Closing the gap between us in a fraction of a second, he swung his claws at me and watched in horror as they passed through without making contact.
“What!?”, he spat, in disbelief, “How is that possible!?”
“I do not need to explain that to you. A neanderthal like you would not understand it anyways.”, I remarked, placing both hands on his chest, “Now, goodbye.”
Before he could utter another word, he along with the next few miles of forest vanished in a brilliant flash of light. Blasting him again, this time with a billion volts of lightning, I smiled as I looked at the devastation my attack left behind.
After a few moments, everyone’s eyes readjusted themselves allowing them to see what I had done. Realizing that his son had been vaporized by me, Trahir forgot about Ghislaine and let out a blood-curdling screech. Dropping his sword and falling to his knees, he shakily reached toward where his son had been moments ago.
“NO!!”, he cried, “Not my boy, why did you kill my boy!? He had a bright future ahead of him as my successor!!”
“You can join him in the afterlife.”, Ghislaine said, decapitating the man with a single swing of her blade.
Collapsing to the floor, Trahir’s contorted face stared at all of us full of hatred and pain.
“We have everyone gathered up like you asked.”, Yasaka advised, as she joined me at the lead wagon, “Have you found out anything about the traitor or traitors?”
“No, there are only sales receipts in the merchant's chests. We came at a good time, these people would have been smuggled out of the forest tomorrow.”, I remarked, putting the papers back, “Whoever helped these slavers knew the when, where, and how to pull this off without a hitch. I doubt we are dealing with multiple traitors, this efficiency suggests we have a single traitor in the forest.”
Stowing the chests in my storage, we walked over to join everyone where they had gathered. Noticing Ghislaine chatting with two women, one of whom appeared to be her mother, I waved them over and asked who they were.
“Are they your relatives by chance?”, I inquired, giving the two women a friendly nod.
“Cole, this is my mother Paix, and my sister-in-law Beaute.”, Ghislaine replied, motioning to them respectively, “This is Cole Bolt, a close friend of mine and the person responsible for helping find you so quickly.”
“Just a close friend, huh?”, Paix remarked, giving me a once over with her eyes, “Well Cole, please take care of my dear daughter. She can be a bit dense at times, but she is an excellent woman who will stand beside you through thick and thin. Please do hurry and give me grandchildren, these old bones will not stay among the living forever.”
Looking at her mother, Ghislaine let out a sigh and shook her head in response. Deciding that it was not worth arguing with her mother over, she inquired if I had learned anything from the documents.
“Unfortunately, there was nothing about the traitor in the documents the slave merchants had. I assume everyone here does not know either?”, I inquired.
“No, aside from each other, we have not seen any other Beastmen around camp.”, Paix said, crossing her arms, “It hurts to know that one of our own sold us to these humans without any hesitation. We are a tight-knit group of people who help each other out in times of need. To know that one of us could be this heartless is truly terrifying.”
“Well if no one here knows, I will just ask one of the merchants.”, I chuckled, as I began searching for one among the dead.
“I thought all of them were killed?”, Beaute commented, “Did some of them escape?”
“I possess magic that can resurrect the dead for questioning.”, I informed her, “Ghislaine, can you please give them the details?”
Remembering what I did last time, Ghislaine explained to her people that I possessed Otherworldly Magics that did not work like the magic they knew. Focusing on my search, I found a merchant’s head almost completely sunk into the muddy ground. Picking it up and cleaning it off with some water, I used the spell Speak with Dead to reanimate the head for a brief QA session. Watching the head come back to life, the Devils gasped in shock as they had never witnessed such magic before.
“Oh wow, that is so cool!!”, Serafall shouted, “Can you make him do impressions in that state?”
“No.”, the head replied.
“Serafall, this spell only lets me ask the host’s spirit five questions and you just used one up. Please let me do the talking here.”, I chuckled, realizing I should have explained the rules first before using the spell.
“Oh okay…can you teach me the spell later then?”, she inquired, wanting to test it out for herself.
“I do not know it.”, the head answered, as Misla and Lilith began to snicker.
“Damn it Serafall.”, I laughed, “Let me finish first, then ask me questions.”
“Right, I am sorry!”, she realized, covering her mouth, “I will be-”
“He said shut up!”, Leviathan spat, slamming her fist down on her head, “Do you know how to be quiet?!”
“I do.”, the head remarked, answering her question
Looking back at the two women, everyone began laughing at them unable to maintain a serious expression any longer. Realizing that she had also asked a question, Leviathan hid her face in shame as Serafall began berating her and calling her an idiot. Letting out an exasperated sigh, I looked back at the head and asked the question I needed an answer to.
“The information you used to capture all these people, who gave it to you?”, I questioned.
“The Elder Trahir.”, the head said aloud.
“What did they gain from selling their people out?”, I asked.
“He sold them out to cover a mountain of debt he had accrued in the Black Market. In exchange for the prisoners we took, we would forgive the debt he had taken on to buy drugs from us.”, the head answered, as its spirit faded away.
Tossing the head back into a pile of corpses, I looked back at the others and gave them the okay to speak.
“Sorry Cole…”, Leviathan apologized, “I have let this idiot influence me too much. If I ruined the spell…I apologize.”
“I am sorry too, Cole!!”, Serafall agreed, before punching Leviathan in the arm, “If I am an idiot, you are a bigger one Leviathan!”
“It is alright, if I did not get the information I needed, I could have just asked another merchant’s corpse the same two questions.”, I told them, as I patted the women on the head, “Anyways, who is this Trahir fellow? Is he some sort of big shot here in the Great Forest?”
“He is one of the Elders, his son Faible used to be a frail, sickly boy as a child. Over the years though, he managed to put on a lot of muscle and has grown to become one of our strongest warriors.”, Paix commented, shaking her head in shame, “I always wondered how he went from being sickly to the peak of physical prowess in only two years. Now it all makes sense!”
“We need to get back and warn everyone.”, Beaute stated, with a scowl, “Now that we know who the traitor is, it is time to deal with them.”
Wholeheartedly agreeing with her, many of the victims began suggesting they go now and beat them both to death. As that idea started to gain traction with more of them, I stepped in to remind everyone of the more pressing matter at the moment.
“I do not want to rob you of your right to retribution, but we need to get all of you home as soon as possible. While we know who the traitor is, the rest of your friends, family, and neighbors do not. Right now many of your villages are potentially hours away from starting a civil war with one another.”, I said, snapping them back to reality, “We need all of you to spread the word, and stop them before any blood is spilled. While all of you stop them from fighting, Ghislaine and I will capture Trahir and Faible to prevent them from escaping. Tomorrow we will gather the Village Chiefs and hand the two over to them for punishment.”
Agreeing to my request, the victims promised to tell everyone who would listen about what they heard here. Thanking them for their understanding, I formed several large Light Platforms for everyone and began splitting people up by village. Once everyone was organized accordingly, we began flying around and dropping everyone off at their homes.
—Ghislaine’s Village—
Arriving back in the village sometime later, the rescued villagers thanked us again for saving them before promptly returning home. Making our way toward Ghislaine’s childhood home, we began making plans to snatch Trahir and Faible tonight.
“I think a swift, frontal assault on their home is the best option here.”, Ghislaine commented.
“A pincher maneuver would be a better option in this case. Both men are probably already prepared to bolt the moment any trouble arises. Even though that area was taboo, there was still always a chance someone might have stumbled upon them by accident.”, I remarked.
“With the number of people we have here, we can pull that off.”, Yasaka said.
“Alright, we can do that then.”, Ghislaine conceded, “Once Mom and Beaute are comfortable, we can head out.”
Agreeing to her plan, we walked inside and found Gyes and Gustav entertaining new company. Freezing in place when her eyes met theirs, Ghislaine immediately placed her hand on the hilt of her blade. Watching their body language closely, the two men started slowly reaching for their weapons.
“Ghislaine, please calm down.”, Gyes pleaded, getting up from his seat, “You remember Elder Trahir and his son Faible, right? They graciously came here to offer their assistance in searching for everyone. I know you have bad blood with Elder Trahir, but you need to let it go.”
Noticing that Paul’s family and Gyes’ children were at the table, completely unaware of what was happening. I slowly moved closer to them to counter any moves the men took.
“Brother, Elder Trahir and Faible are the traitors.”, Ghislaine told him, not breaking eye contact with the men, “Please move out of my way so we can seize them.”
“No sudden movements, gentlemen.”, I warned the two traitors, “This game has run its course. It is time to cash out.”
“Dear, listen to Cole and Ghislaine!”, Beaute called out, bringing additional warriors to seize them, “Elder Trahir and Faible sold us to those bastard slavers!!”
Turning toward the Elder, Gyes lips began to tremble with anger as he clenched his jaw.
“There must be some mistake here.”, Elder Trahir said, shielding his son and slowly backing away from us, “We did no such thing, they are lying! Ghislaine must have sold our people out to be freed from her shackles!”
Understanding that they needed to move, Linia and Minotana bolted from the table while Aisha and Norn ran to Paul. Unlike his father, who was attempting to bullshit his way out of this, Faible understood that they had been caught and that he needed leverage to pull off an escape. Choosing Gyes’ daughters as his target, Faible lunged toward them hoping to grab them before they were out of reach.
“Faible, you idiot!!”, Trahir howled, instantly grabbing his blade and ripping it from its sheath, “Why could you not let me handle this!?”
Leaping in front of her brother, Ghislaine pushed him away and met Trahir’s attack head-on. While she blocked the father, I intercepted Faible and blasted him in the face with a million volts of lightning. Destroying the back portion of the home with the resulting shockwave, Faible screamed in agony as he skipped across the muddy ground.
“Damn you human scum!!”, Faible roared, quickly regaining his footing as his wounds began to heal, “I will kill you for that!”
“If you are screaming like a baby from that love tap, you are still the same weak, pathetic child you always have been.”, I mocked him.
“Bastard!!”, Faible bellowed, digging his claws into the mud and launching himself at me.
Believing that he was moving faster than I could perceive him, Faible aimed for my neck wanting to tear my throat out. Closing the gap between us in a fraction of a second, he swung his claws at me and watched in horror as they passed through without making contact.
“What!?”, he spat, in disbelief, “How is that possible!?”
“I do not need to explain that to you. A neanderthal like you would not understand it anyways.”, I remarked, placing both hands on his chest, “Now, goodbye.”
Before he could utter another word, he along with the next few miles of forest vanished in a brilliant flash of light. Blasting him again, this time with a billion volts of lightning, I smiled as I looked at the devastation my attack left behind.
After a few moments, everyone’s eyes readjusted themselves allowing them to see what I had done. Realizing that his son had been vaporized by me, Trahir forgot about Ghislaine and let out a blood-curdling screech. Dropping his sword and falling to his knees, he shakily reached toward where his son had been moments ago.
“NO!!”, he cried, “Not my boy, why did you kill my boy!? He had a bright future ahead of him as my successor!!”
“You can join him in the afterlife.”, Ghislaine said, decapitating the man with a single swing of her blade.
Collapsing to the floor, Trahir’s contorted face stared at all of us full of hatred and pain.
