28 28. Falling Apart

The view in front was that of death and loss. Many huts were set on fire many of his tribe members were lying on the ground with lifeless eyes, some were still fighting even with life-threatening wounds and missing pieces of their bodies.

Ast started shivering seeing this scene, tears started flowing from his eyes and his legs gave out, he was on his knees, he could hear no sound and a loud ringing sound was playing on his head. He didn't know what to do at all although he had no qualms about killing or torturing he always told himself that this was necessary for the protection of people he cared for or for his goals, the same people he wished to protect were being slaughtered right in front of his eyes.

Call it hypocritical because he wasn't prepared to lose someone while he too killed or call it stupidity that instead of falling apart he should try and protect them. But in the face of a crisis reasoning and words do not matter only action does and right now Ast was truly falling apart.

He didn't even know that the people with whom he did not even interact that much meant this much to him. But the truth was all these people have accepted him and provided him with a home. A home in the world without anyone else to depend on, a home to which he always returned. Just yesterday they all were freed from the curse and were ready to move towards a new beginning but all that was lost for many.

Ast suddenly felt a stinging pain on the back of his head and a voice rang loud in his mind "Master, Master get a hold of yourself you need to control your emotions. You can still save many"

"Viktor, kill all the intruders," said Ast with a lot of killing intent in a deep voice.

Viktor exited from Ast's shadow and called his colony of bats out, giving them instructions on how and whom to hunt.

Then Ast got up from the ground and with difficulty looked at the scene in front of him. He summoned his blood devil and asked him to find and protect the children.

Ast calmed down and now there was only anger in his eyes. He shot out like a bullet and speedily travelled across the whole battlefield killing or incapacitating the intruders. He kept those who seemed like leaders alive to question them later on. Ast was swinging his daggers all around moving in and out of various places quickly, soon the intruders began to notice the anomaly and they were scared shitless.

Their intel didn't tell them that someone that powerful would be residing in the middle periphery of the forest. Their teams were divided based on power and the powerful ones were assigned to go towards the central region of the Orient forest.

The leader of their team also got wind of the situation, he was currently fighting with Edwin as Edwin was the strongest in the chrome tribe.

"Oh looks like you had someone powerful in your ranks. Too bad now I have to call for reinforcement" said the leader while grinning. He thought even if couldn't defeat Ast he would be able to stall for time at least.

But as soon as he took out his communication artefact from his storage ring Ast appeared behind him and within a second cut both of his arms keeping the communication artefact and his storage ring with himself.

Ast was keeping his 'All seeing eye' active at all times to notice his whole tribe and saw the scene of Edwin fighting. Ast saw that Edwin was missing an arm and still fighting to the best of his abilities.

The leader of the team was now dreading his decision to join this expedition, he had lost both his hand in an instant and was now at the mercy of his enemies. Ast again joined the fight after helping Edwin, he left this leader alive for interrogating him later on.

The fight was soon coming to an end with Ast and Viktor both joining the battle these intruders were like chickens waiting to be slaughtered.

Ast ordered Viktor to find out about the origin of this attack and the enemy's plans.

Then he came back to Edwin's side, asking him to gather everyone around as Ast knew that this was far from over and soon the whole forest would be in turmoil.

Everyone from the chrome tribe didn't know how to look at Ast anymore they had themselves witnessed his prowess and a feeling of awe and fear lingered in their minds. Everyone was gathered and Edwin gave them 15 minutes to regroup as they were soon going to leave the forest forever.

Edwin then came to Ast and requested or rather begged him for something.