What Lies Underneath

Altaria was very important for Leo. Not only was it a place he could call a safe haven but also a very big factor that proved out to be very helpful in the past. Now more than ever he needed answers about the things happening around here and the outcome of the killing of a god. Still, it was hard to wrap around his head that Carleen and Lucy would fall victim to a rebellion of all things. Soon enough however he should find out what lies beneath the resistance and the man called Volt.

"Listen, I am neither interested in liberating this town nor in aiding its inhabitants."

"Be that as it may, you won't be able to avoid a bit of support. I don't think the rebels will be so kind as to reply to your questions."

"They will if a blade lies at their necks. If there really are persons by the name of Loketh around here, I'll find out by any means necessary."

I don't think the city is completely manned, there has to be a way in without attracting too much attention. What do you think Volt?"

But Leo was just talking to the wind. Volt was heading straight for the main gate of the city with not a care in the world. Ahead, a group of the residents awaited him with weapons in hand.

"What do you want in this place? There is no entry for strangers, let alone without a permit."

"Some peasants who want to play soldiers huh? Well, my name is Volt and I'm looking for information. That takes care of my acquaintance. Now, how exactly do you get this permit?"

The soldiers whispered among themselves as they snapped at each other.

"What's the matter? Don't tell me such a thing hasn't been invented yet?"

His companion walked up behind him and interfered in the discussion.

"Tell me, what do you have to do here to be allowed in? We can give you money if you just let us pass. Otherwise, we might try another method."

"We don't need money, we want freedom!"

At this, they reluctantly drew their weapons and charged at the two men.

" The negotiations have failed, then."

Leo realized that their hands began to tremble as they swung their weapons. Their facial expressions showed that it was the first time they had to fight. All at once, their eyes snapped wide open as blood poured from their bodies. Volt wasted no time and took out all 10 men by himself.

"What are you looking at? Guess you're not as eager to put it all on the line after all."

"Shut up and keep walking. I don't care how much blood sticks to my body."

"Tsk, cheap excuses. Wake up and do your job!"

The two really couldn't stand each other. One was impulsive, the other thoughtful. both with different goals. An operation doomed to failure and yet these two opposites attracted each other on this occasion. As he saw more innocent prisoners on the streets and the people guarding them, Leo became more determined.

"Stop, please stop, we didn't do anything to them."

"Pointless babbling, a lie only waiting to be met.

"Please spare us AAARGH."

"Savage creatures disguised as humans, at least have the decency to try to fight back!"

None of the victims were willing to give the two any information. Volt slaughtered one by one. Leo too soon became a victim of his rage and gave in until they both came to a stop.

"This is getting boring. You can' t get anything done here. What does one have to do to break their spirit? Clearly killing them isn't enough for them. Or is it?"

Volt posed the same question to each enemy, but none had a satisfactory answer. Finally, one of them put down his weapons and surrendered. At last they managed to find an enemy who could give them further information.

"P-please don't kill me! I-I beg you!"

"That all depends on whether you have any use. "Loketh", ever heard of that?"

"I-it sounds familiar."

"So, any information about it? No? Then you're useless, too.

"W-wait! If anyone knows anything about it, it's Roland. He's lived in the city for a very long time, no doubt he knows something about it."

"Let me guess: This Roland also happens to be your leader am I right? Tsk, in the end, I'm actually giving this guy a hand."

"Say, surely you know a way to confront your leader and cut all this bullshit."

"You want to kill Roland?! Don't you know how many he set free? The way he saved us?"

" Did your brain rot away? All you can see are cages and shackles. I wouldn't really call that being liberated. Quit talking this nonsense and do what I said: Show us the way to that Roland without us having to kill a mass of you morons again. I'm tired of deaf ears!"

"Haha, finally you show your conviction."

Leo's look was enough to change this soldier's mind. With a sword at his back, he led the way and showed the two a secret path right into the heart of the city.

" Up ahead are his guards and his throne. I have done as you asked."

"Indeed, at least one of you spoke no lie. I am impressed."

Volt took his weapon and rammed it into their guide's chest. He sank motionless to the ground to meet his fate.

"The useless had a use in the end."

As they got closer they listened to the rebel leader speaking to his people:

"Hear my call, we have succeeded in gaining our liberty. No longer are we bound to these people, no longer do we have to live among them, no longer do we have to share the knowledge of being a part of them. Finally, after a long yearning, we were given this one opportunity and we seized it."

Then the crowd cheered, proud of what they had achieved.

" However, despite our triumph we look closely at the suffering and agony that has prevailed. As we gain our freedom, so do we give others the chance to participate in it. All you have to do is renounce this woman and her followers, renounce your allegiance to them and separate yourselves from them. As they are no longer the rulers of the city, they should not be the ones who rule your lives. Acknowledge the truth and break free from your past. Be part of the now, part of the people that will stand together. We shall give you this chance, but not for long. If you still refuse, there is no more place for you, neither here nor in any other place. I have been gracious to you long enough and the time has come to adopt harsher measures. Hopefully you will come to understand that I am indeed in the right before you all truly meet your deaths. Well, as I see it, you still want to be put to the test. So be it, maybe some of your minds will change today.

As Roland continued to be cheered by the crowd, he walked past the bound prisoners. Finally, he stopped at Carleen and Lucy.

" I guess now you realize what it meant to be a part of this city. Trapped by the decisions of its leader and the rules she made. As there was no freedom for us, there will be none for you. The residents deserve their chance, but you, you will be locked up until the light in your eyes is gone. Eventually you will have to see how the loyalty to you will cost your people their lives."

"You have gone insane, you are nothing but tyrants. What were you bound to, what was done to you? Everybody knows that this city was a chance for a new beginning and for freedom. All people were welcome, we listened to all requests and sought your voices. Therefore, why do you treat us as if we were all dictators?"

"Shut your mouth! Someone like you will never understand us! You acted as if you were protectors but in truth it was just a farce to gain popularity. In the end, it was more the people than the army that has served this city!"

Roland punched Carleen in the face, with his followers doing the same to their former fellow citizens. Afterwards, he snatched one of the prisoners and had him brought to him. They spat at him believing themselves to be better than him. Roland drew a dagger and held it to the prisoner's throat.

" I truly hope that today will change some views too, that today more lives will be saved by us through this sacrifice."

Their leader used this method as a threat of what would happen if they resisted further. Thus, he forced them to surrender to his purpose.

"To our new uprising, such is the will of our rebellion.

As he was about to rejoice again, Volt approached them. Again he didn't care for stealth or positioning.

"I must interrupt your fun for a moment to ask an important question: the name Loketh surely means something to you, doesn't it? Tell me, where are they staying and what did they look like exactly? I'm in a hurry here, so please provide me with some quick answers."

The crowd moved aside upon seeing the blood on his sword.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?"

"Doesn't my armor tell you enough about how I got here? Regarding my name...I shall not reveal it to you until you have answered my question. Rest assured, I have no intention of demanding more blood as long as you find the right words. Now, did the name Loketh play any role in this town?"

Roland was cautious. He saw that the man was not joking with him. He was a grave danger to his position.

"The House of Loketh has been gone from here for some time. After we liberated the city no one has seen them again. They are not among this crowd either, look around for yourself if you want."

"Oh that's not necessary. I'd notice right away if they are here. That said, this answer is rather disappointing. Not sure what's worse, people who lie or people who think I'm stupid enough to believe their lies. There is no way they would just disappear without leaving any trace of their mark.

Roland was clearly annoyed and unsettled.

"I see, so there is a secret in your ranks. So what exactly did they do here? Who did they put their trust in? Or are they closer than I thought?"

These questions made Roland lose his patience. He lost his temper and doomed himself.

"Tsk, this is none of an outsider's business! Listen all of you, he wants to destroy our peace. We must eliminate him before he can cause any more damage!"

" Seems it always comes down to the same thing huh?"

Before Volt had a chance to respond, Leo zoomed past behind him at breakneck speed and launched an attack on the rebels.

"Oh, there he goes. Good luck with him. Keep one of them alive at least, somebody's bound to be able to help me out.

Leo gave free rein to his rage. He realized that it was not the first victim Roland offered to the crowd. He had been repeating the same process for days, using the death of an innocent man as a threat to join his cause. Their pleading vanished in Leos head when he looked into the cages. There was only one goal for him: to put an end to it all as soon as possible, with no exceptions.

"What are you doing?! What have we done to you?!

The words out of the crowd fueled his resolve and confirmed his view of them.

"These words ought to have gone through your ears many times before. You simply continue to watch the people next to you being executed in the streets previously. Not only do you just stand around but cheer their deaths in the name of this stupid, senseless rebellion. You locked up those who valued your trust the most. Do you enjoy following this oblivion?"

Anyone who made a move on Leo himself immediately paid with his life.

"You don't know anything about us! We are not the ones who are blinded, the prisoners themselves are the problem."

Leo was already aware of this reply, but hearing it out loud once again made him turn even colder.

"Save your breath. The words of the dead are of no consequence. Let's see if you realize what you've done."

Without wasting a moment, he resumed his mission. Several dropped their weapons and tried to flee the city until their fates came to an end as well. Volt functioned as a disposer of any soldiers who failed to stand up to their conviction.

"First rebelling and then fleeing from the rebellion...double infidelity results in certain death."

One by one, he intercepted and sliced them with his sword until there was barely one left. While wiping the blood from his blade, he saw Leo holding Roland by the neck.

"So, was it really worth it? They didn't start to kill, you started the death orders. Have there ever been executions in Altaria? Any public taunts or hate speech ever happened? Come on, tell me you fuck!"

"Urgh, is this your justice right here? Having them all slaughtered? Are you satisfied now that they're all dead? Hehehe, do not think it is the end. Altaria was just the beginning, very soon there will be uprisings everywhere, all powers will be called into question wherever you go. There is nothing you can do to prevent it, righteous craving idiot! There will be nothing that- URGH!"

With a firm grip, he strangled his opponent and brought their rebellion to a halt. All cages were destroyed and the prisoners taken care of. At once Leo headed to Carleen to inquire about this incident.

"How did something like this happen? I can't imagine you guys losing to them."

"Let me ask you a question: Could you fight without doubts and problems against your own citizens you have known and protected for years? Never in my life would I have expected such a resistance let alone its members. It all felt like a twisted world, as if someone was messing with us. Yet when I looked at their faces I knew it wasn't like that: they did all this of their own free will, nobody had any control over them."

"Are you sure about that? That Roland had the crowd quite under his control. I doubt he's capable of something like that with words alone."

"Well, he was, after all, the leader of the market, the commissary of all business, and by far the most popular of all citizens. He spent years caring for others, volunteering to help them without asking and providing his own shelter to strangers... and in the end, he unexpectedly betrayed the city. Looking at the amount of people who joined him...were we really that bad of leaders?"

"I think that the tipping point was the tidings of magic extinction. It was kind of like a warranty of being able to live a normal, safe life even outside the city. The certainty of being free provides a certain power, an example to show that you can manage on your own. I don't know everything that happened in the city but something must have triggered this cruel agitation, violent takeovers don't happen without big reasons like oppression or secession."

"That doesn't make sense, in all my time here I've never witnessed anything like that. Such a scandal would have come to the attention of all of us, it couldn't have just passed me by."

"No one can have eyes all around, Carleen. I too doubt that such riots ever happened in Altaria, but what has happened happened. If his words didn't make sense in your eyes, then I guess we'll never know what drove them to this. While I can understand not wanting to fight your own citizens, I do have to challenge Lucy's and your position. In the end, your non-intervention resulted in the worst possible outcome. Sacrifices should have been made, but in doing so, others would have been saved from becoming ones themselves. I am not the judge of you, in the end you have to face it yourselves."

"I already know that, too, dumbass. My incompetence almost caused our deaths. So, on behalf of everyone here, I offer you, or you guys, our gratitude. In the end, you saved me from my own sin. Yet... were you really sure that none of them were salvageable? Remember, they were good men and women who were helping the town."

"I'm not going to argue about their worth Carleen. Once they turned against you and chose this insanity, there was no going back. Betrayal never comes from one's enemies and there' s no tolerance for such an act."

"That's not true! Why do you think some have joined? He said it himself. They didn't want to witness the terror they saw. You know, to a certain extent, I wish more would have freed themselves."

"And would have encouraged that terror on the other side? Would have accelerated your deaths? You are not thinking straight Carleen, and I don't expect you to right now. However, you ought to be careful what you wish for. I have never sought their sympathy nor their support, that duty now rests with you once again. Once you have collected yourselves, I will have a question."

" That takes too long for me, though. Unlike him, I have no interest in this city but one house."

Carleen had no idea who was standing in front of her, but she quickly realized one thing: he was strong, very strong, maybe even stronger than she was. There was nothing more to lose if he really was not a danger to the city.

"The house of Loketh, I know. I can tell you that the two of them occupied a place here for many years. In all those years I never saw them at the marketplaces nor at festivals. In general they were rather a mystery on the streets and not exactly popular. One time I bumped into them firsthand, they struck me as strange, like they had something to hide. Still, we had no right to search them since they weren't conspicuous."

"Yeah, that really does sound like them. They never talked much to outsiders or showed their faces. Well, at least we have one person who seems to know about them. The only question now is what role they played in this uprising. Surely there's something else to be said, right?"

"They didn't play a major role in this, strangely enough they were allowed to escape without any kind of threats. At first, it looked like they were going to cooperate with Roland, but they just gave him a large sum of money to get out of it. It's been a few days since they disappeared."

"Hm. Not as helpful as I wanted but it is enough to get me to my next objective. Best of luck cleaning up the mess and good riddance to your fresh start."

"Wait, there is one more thing! They requested two of the prisoners to accompany them upon leaving."

"And did they get their wish?"

"I don't know, we were locked in the cages after that."

Volt turned away from the two and made his way out of town. As he walked past Roland's body something caught his eye. He bent down to the corpse and saw its veins and eyes turn completely black. He gritted his teeth and called out to Carleen.

" Not many people have seen them or been able to talk to them huh? Let me show you the reason they were so mysterious then."

Volt ripped a piece of wood out of the improvised throne and put it in front of Leo's chest.

" One ignition, please. You''ll see the truth about them in a moment."

Using fire magic, he lit the torch and watched as Volt threw the torch right at the corpse.

" Come on, they certainly haven't changed anything about that, have they?"

Suddenly the flames disappeared under the skin and the whole body blew up like a balloon until it exploded into a thousand pieces. The observers screamed in horror and walked away from the scene. In the next moment, more small scraps exploded until the flames died out.

"There we go. That's what they've been doing all these years, experimenting on living beings and their anatomy. Test subjects of different races became the victims of their sick minds."

"How do you-"

"-know about something like that? Because I was a part of it. It was a long time ago, but I still know what exactly happened. In fact, it should have been obvious to me that they would move to a place like this."

"What do you mean 'a part'? Have you used these heinous methods as well?"

"No, those were used on me. I was their first experiment and very first failure. I managed to escape but it looks like that didn't stop them from going on."

"And your next goal is to kill them? Who knows where they headed?"

"They can't be that far away. Hell, after all these years, I'm finally going to see them again and wipe them off this world."

Leo realized where Volt had said those words before, what one of his goals was.

"You don't mean that you-?"

"Yes. My full name is Volt Loketh. Those crazy bastards are regrettably my parents, who have abused their own son in all respects for a 'higher purpose'. And this very son will send them to the realm of the dead where they will burn for eternity.

The more Leo thought about it the more it made sense. If they had really done such experiments on him without killing him or breaking his will, then he might have had his magic resistance and the ability to use life stealing without being devoured himself because of them. And now he was closer than ever to utterly destroying his origin and past.