- The Conspiracy

After traveling down the tunnel for what seemed like hours, the group of four stopped, Kal having sensed something on the dull wind that blew through the tunnels.

"Wind."

He said, his eyes trained for the dark, passing over the dozens and dozens of tunnels that lined the walls all around the egg like chamber.

The room offered a small glint of light, thanks to a crack in the surface between two rocks. Other than that, the group of four - besides Kal - could only see the dark circles that meant more tunnels, hundreds lining the wall.

"These tunnels must lead outside somewhere."

Kal turned to Cain, his voice firm and questing, until he saw Cleric trying to count out the many tunnels that lined the walls.

"...what are you doing?"

"Counting. I can't tell how many there are. Fifteen? No, there's to many to be fifteen."

He continued counting, silently muttering out the numbers aloud, as Gwen looked at him from behind as if he was stupid.

"Twenty-two…twenty-five…thirty-four…ah, forty-five! There's forty-five -"

"There's fifty-two."

Kal interrupted Cleric's small burst of joy, passing by him, muting the true number.

Instantly Cleric's face dropped, as well as his expression when he found Gwen trying to hold back her laughter.

"Hey! Stop laughing."

He harshly whispered, pointing at her giggling face.

"Sorry…I can't…it's just too…hahaha."

Keeping his voice down, Cleric smiled, having gotten a rotten idea which he whispered into his sister's ear.

"If you don't stop laughing, I'll show Kal the journal you keep about him."

After her ears heard what Cleric had to say, Gwen's entire face went red, as she pulled down the chuckling Cleric, and gave him the most demonic look she could muster.

"Don't. You. Dare."

She spouted in his face, the color draining from his cheeks instantly.

Seeing she had an effect, she left him leaning there, frozen in fear like a statue, approaching the edge of the tunnel to get a look at the bottom.

"Long way down don't you think Kal? Kal?"

She looked around her only to find Kal kneeing by Cain's side, whispering.

"Shall I go after the goblins that escaped sir?"

Cain thought for a moment, but rather than answering, he took a step forward, and dropped down the bottom of the chamber, several meters down, landing on two feet as if it were nothing.

Soon, Kal, Gwen, and Cleric - once he overcame his momentary shock- joined him at the bottom.

The scurrying of rocks, and the shifting of shadows attacked Kal's eyes, who quickly drew his dagger from his belt, casting the spell Light, to brighten up his surroundings.

What he was, was certainly to what he expected.

Three small goblin children, one a deep gray color, huddled together against a nearby tunnel wall.

The sight of these three caused Gwen to draw her own dagger, tense and ready for the parents to come around.

"Don't bother."

Cain said, seeing her dagger glinting from the light caused by the spell Kal casted.

"They're just kids. The ones that ran were the parents, while they left them here."

"Would you like us to go after them?"

"No point. They're long gone. It will take a few days to reach them, even with both you and Kal running at top speed, these goblins won't stay together."

Giving the three goblins a sideways glance, he sighed.

"It would take days to track them all down, and such effort would be ill-used against a few small clusters of goblins. They'll serve well against the Hunters, so let them deal with them."

Gwen was silent for a moment, before gesturing with her dagger to the three goblin kids.

"What about them?"

Stopping his approach to the chamber center, Cain half turned to Gwen, a question in his eyes.

"What about them?"

"Should we kill them?"

Narrowing his eyes, Cain ignored her question and continued approaching the center of the chamber. And it was only then, as he reached the center, Gwen having taken a few steps towards the goblin kids, did Cain speak.

"I don't kill kids."

His voice was stern, and filled with order, fully aware of what Gwen was about to do, stopping her.

"But they're goblins."

Her voice, unlike Cain's, was frail and small. Clearly she was mustering up quite a bit of courage to speak back.

Again, his voice resonated in the chamber.

"Monster. Human…summons. Kids are kids, and unless they attack me, no harm will ever come to them."

He turned to her, his eye glowing in the dim light.

"So don't touch them."

The threat in his gaze and voice was no question. It was a warning, a warning of her death.

Slightly shaking, Gwen silently bowed her head, and sheath her dagger, while Cleric, who was watching from the sides, could only shake his head.

'That's what you get for talking bad about his partner. Especially behind his back."

However, he soon stopped thinking this, as his sisters piecing gaze told him she knew exactly what he was thinking about.

"I thought so."

Drawing their attention back to Cain, his voice was like a knife that easily cut the tension in the room.

Kal joined him by his side, glancing over his shoulder at what he was so concerned about. But when he saw it, he was somewhat confused.

"A soul stone?"

In the center of the chamber, stood a small stone cylinder, and on top of that cylinder, was a sizable, and quite large, crystal.

A soul stone.

"It appears that way. This would explain why the goblin king was so weak."

"Weak?"

"Oh, right I didn't explain."

Cain began laying out the tale of how the goblin king and he first met, as well as his unusual amount of goblin titans as well as shamans within his horde. Not to mention his arrogance.

"The goblin king was too arrogant be an experienced king. To be a king, the goblin in question would have to be born with a certain mutation…"

He causally made a glance over to the gray skinned goblin. A glanced that, thankfully, no one caught.

"...over the course of several years, they would get smarter, wiser, and stronger. But for someone as arrogant as this particular goblin king, he didn't seem to have much experience when dealing with negotiations."

Cleric, who had been quietly listening, pitched in his own idea.

"Maybe he wasn't afraid of you. I mean if a human walked into my domain without so much as a hint of fear, or for some purpose, I wouldn't pay much attention to it at all."

Sadly, Cain shook his head.

"No, this king was different."

"How different."

"Well Cleric, here's a good question instead. If I walked into your domain killing and slaughtering several goblin titans and shamans with my bare fists, killing them off in one blow, do you think you would be wary?"

Cleric thought for a moment, knowing that this was no joke, but in fact a serious question posed by Cain.

"I would, you're right. But I'm guessing this one wasn't?

"Correct. He wasn't even at least a little on guard. Meaning that he was far too confident in his strength and power, which should not have happened with a normal king, whose had years to gauge his own power in his own hands."

Kal spoke up this time, his fingers passing over the dozen or so crystals on the soul stone in a curious fashion.

"So it had something to do with this?"

A soul stone, as the name implied, was in fact a special gem that could contain the souls of weak or powerful monsters, given how big the gem was when starting out. Also, the person who killed said person or monster, had to be the one who held the soul stone within their possession. Only then would it work.

And currently, this gem held the entire souls of hundreds, if not thousands of goblin souls. These included a few titan souls left over, as well as a knight soul, lords soul, and even the slight hints and traces of a king's soul, though it had long been destroyed.

"This is where the goblin king got his power. It also explains why he wasn't able to gauge his own power against me."

Cain had finally pieced it all together, as the details of the soul stone were the one small bit of information that had eluded him.

"He must have thought he was all powerful so long as he could continue feasting on souls."

"That explains why there were so many titan and shaman goblins in the same horde. They didn't have enough time to see the hierarchy difference between themselves."

Kal muttered, silently putting in his own observations which, thankfully, Cain overheard and agreed with.

"Yes. It also explains why there was a Warlock amongst them."

Instantly, all three heads snapped towards Cain, who simply continued looking into the deep blue glow of the soul stone.

Gwen, finding her voice first, spoke up, carrying a hint of shock within her words.

"A Warlock? Are you certain."

Cain merely nodded his head.

"But Goblins can't become Warlocks!"

"That's exactly my point Gwen. Goblins don't evolve into Warlocks. Meaning that, if it were possible, someone had to have supplied these goblins with both the soul stone, and the warlock."

Gwen was silent for a moment, as her mind currently wrapped the idea around her head.

"You mean someone used their summons and sent them here? Why would a human ally with goblins?!"

"The goblins probably didn't know. In their mind, the arrival of a souls stone was enough to keep them distracted once they figured out how it worked. The Warlock was also suing a spell to appear as a goblin, meaning it was even harder for them to find out."

"...what happened to the Warlock."

Cain shrugged, picking up the soul gem and examining it, paying no heed to his next words.

"I don't know. Though I'm certain some summoner somewhere is currently feeling what it's like to have their guts ripped out."

Gwen was silent, finding it absurd that a summons would do something like that to another summons. That was until she heard Cain's next words.

"If anyone raises a hand against me, they're going to die no matter who they are."

'Ah, right. I almost forgot what a monster he is.'

In fact, Gwen even found herself cursing the Warlock for not having recognized Cain when they fought.

But what she didn't know was that the Warlock had recognized Cain, and yet still they fought against him. Which meant that Cain was justified in his attack against the Warlock, actively defending himself.

After all, he hadn't killed the Warlock. He simply sent the sorcerer back to the Eternal Realm by killing off its body in this world.

The Warlock should have woken up back in their lands by now.

"What do we do now?"

Kal's voice broke the silence, as Cain smiled at the question, and how natural it had become for him to hear Kal shake off such revelations no matter how shocking the information was.

"Always to the important matters."

Lifting the soul stone up, he glanced at the bottom of the gem, where it still had a small layer of rock attached to the stone.

One word came to his mind after he finished examining the stone. A word he spoke aloud.

"Phantoms."

This word meant nothing to Gwen, nor to Cleric, however, it spoke levels to Kal, who had been at Cain's side longer in this world than they had.

"You means those sorry excuses for terrorists?"

Nodding his head, Cain found it quite ironic that the all and mighty Mirage, was so disgusted by someone in the same profession as his.

Well, not technically.

While the Phantoms were kingdom 'builders' as they called themselves, but in reality they were kingdom killers, Kal was different.

He wasn't part of a criminal organization. He was the organization, as his words in the Eternal Realm carried just as much weight as some of the top assassin groups, organizations, and guilds - if not the entire criminal network.

One could claim he was the network itself. Walking around in human form.

"While I don't understand as to why there all the way here in Morden, they're arrival was not unexpected. I knew they had some small branches here, considering how dense their numbers were in Lia's home kingdom - Rovsta."

Kal could sense a small hint of worry on his words, as they traveled though the air. In fact, even Gwen and Cleric heard it, as it took them by surprise.

Cain, worried about something?

What could a monster like him possibly be worried about?

"Something bothering you sir?"

Kal decided just to get it off his chest, and say it. Even though he was afraid of hurting Cain's pride, though how little the man cared for that, he knew while pride wasn't anything important in Cain's eyes, it was in his.

And for this reason, he knew it was better to ask now, and go into battle later knowing this potentially hidden bit of information, rather than going in with the enemy having a card up their sleeve.

However, as Kal expected, Cain cared little for pride and nodded his head slowly, silently, and with small gestures.

"I am worried."

"Why?"

"..."

Kal was worried he had pushed to far when Cain grew silent, until his voice sent chills down his spine.

Not for its anger towards him, nor his anger towards something else.

Even Gwen and Cleric felt the emotion in his voice, and knew this was serious, as Cain's entire focus had drifted away from them.

"Because, if there was a soul stone here, as well as a summons, then the summoner had to be close by."

"What does that mean?"

"The only human settlement near by for miles is the Outpost."

"But the Outpost is large, who knows if they will run into Lia - if that is what your worried about."

Cain shook his head, knowing that Kal had already gotten a gist of what his worry was for.

"Not that. It's the fact that I know who it is."

"...you do?"

"Yes."

With this last word, he turned and walked back down the nearest tunnel, passing by each of them, prickling their spines with fear. His eyes were full of death.

"And they're closer than you think."