TRIAL

[Hey, reader! This chapter will be a little lengthy, so I hope you'll enjoy it! :) Tell me how it was!]

"Save me!"

"God!! Show us mercy!"

"All hail the messiah!! Don't fear when he's fighting to protect you! Show your trust in him!!" Shouted a burly-looking man, whose face was covered with tears and snot.

'You're not looking very convincing, Chief…' I looked at the man with scorn.

"Huff... hufff… When in hell is this trial going to end!?" I almost shouted at the end while saying this and looking at the useless people behind me.

It has been over 2 hours, and I've constantly been battling against the squads of an unknown army while protecting these dumbf*cks who can only beg and cry. At the start, I tried to rally them up to gain some help from them, but they are more useless than a flower in the current situation.

'I haven't heard of any trial without an end in those records. At least I won't die here; I hope I won't…' I chuckled while remembering the tablet I saw at the castle entrance.

[ Trial objective- Enter the portal before you and protect the villagers from invaders. Fight to your fullest, as death is only temporary. ]

"I'm not a fool to completely believe in that; I'll leave as soon as I feel overwhelmed." I muttered while looking at the portal at the village's centre; only I could see.

"Now, kindly tell me which one of you broke my watch? It was a limited edition one and my favourite too…" I asked while looking at the men lying on the ground.

"Mr Messiah, I think they all are dead. And last I saw, this archer's arrow grazed past you but hit that device on your hand." The Chief said, pointing towards a soldier on the left and looking at my watch with interest.

"The chief is right; it was that guy!" Confirmed another woman with no remarkable features; but was the prettiest out of all the villagers present.

'Even during all that chaos, they could see who fired that arrow. As I thought, the people here are not normal.' I thought while trying to act as normal as possible.

"Hmm… you better be sorry for breaking my watch in the afterlife." I spoke as I checked on the bodies lying around, confirming whether they were dead.

'It's so hot right now; I don't know how some of them are wearing all those layers of clothing. And why are there no children and elderly here' I mused while thinking of all the irregularities I had noticed. The goal was to protect the villagers, which was pretty doable, although fighting in the forest earlier and even now had been tiring. I don't think my stamina will last that long without these little breaks in between; if not, I would have become a corpse by now.

"Chief! I'll be heading towards your mansion to rest for a while; tell me if there are any signs of enemy soldiers. And also…" I said and pointed towards the woman who spoke earlier, "Send her there with me." I added while checking her body out, which made her look at me disgustedly.

"What's that look for?" I continued in an authoritative voice while releasing my aura of a mid-ranker which made her lower her head in fear.

"Our Messiah! Please! I beg you… we'll offer you any amount of money that you ask of us… but, please leave her with us… and please don't go towards that mansion; when the enemies reach here, it will take too long for us to inform you… Please, my lord!" The Chief begged while kneeling in front of me.

"Don't make me repeat my words!!" I roared as I pulled the woman with me towards the most significant residence in the village.

""Lucy!"" A few men and women shouted and called out to the woman I was dragging away.

"DON'T!!" The chief shouted at them and kept them away from me.

'Phew.. those eyes gave me the chills. Not a look I would expect from some villagers who only did farming.' I looked behind me and saw the angry look on their faces.

"Makes me look like a villain… maybe I am. Lol." I muttered while letting out a laugh and looked at Lucy. "You're strong mentally, or do you just value your life more than your body?" I asked Lucy.

"Although I'm not married, I had been r*ped once… so if sleeping with you could save the lives of my dear ones. I would gladly be yours. It's not like I'm pure anyway…" Lucy spoke with a smile that hid her sadness and tears.

PAUSE

I stopped and looked at her, "If you're trying to make me give up on you, it won't work. And if you're actually trying to protect your people, I'll give you my word that if you are mine, I'll protect them through this invasion with my life on the line." I spoke sincerely and gave Lucy a confident smile, and with my free hand; I caressed her face. Lucy smiled back at me, and we both went inside the mansion.

"Hmm… Where should we go and rest?" I was pondering; when suddenly,

CLANK!

"What're you doing, My dear Lucy?" I stopped the dagger a few inches from my neck with my arm guard and looked at the lady who was after my life. The sweet smile on her face turned ferocious, and I could hear her almost growling, "Now you'll know that you'll spend the night in your grave…"

"Heh, you've got some good humour, girl." I spoke and pulled back her arm, which I was still holding and threw her.

BAM!

Lucy flew into the gate and out of the residence, creating a dust cloud everywhere.

"Lucky me!" I said with mischief and activated my concept,

'Stealth!'

'As I thought, the mansion is surrounded…' I looked at the surroundings from the now-broken entrance and found many 'villagers' ready with their weapons. 'That presence…' I thought and looked at the mansion for a second; then, I concentrated and tried to sense the power levels of my current enemies.

'Five mid-rankers, eight low-rankers and ten awakened. One of those mid-rankers is also near the breakthrough, like me. It's almost like the situation in the forest; the only difference is the lack of allies and the increase in enemy numbers. Lol.'

"Helloo!! Mr Messiah!! Where are you?! Not that arrogant now, huh?! Even I want to spend the night with you!" I heard the chief's voice, who was the strongest awakened and, most probably, the enemies' leader.

""HAHAHA!!"" Everyone started laughing, hearing their leader's words.

I went past him to clear off the weaker guys and headed towards the place where I sensed two of the mid-rankers, and one of them was not so surprising; Lucy.

"You should have waited to let us secure the perimeter, Lucy!" I heard the guy shout at Lucy for her lack of self-control.

"Don't you teach me, Jack! You can't imagine how filthy I felt after letting him touch me. If not everyone needed a few minutes to prepare, I would have tried to kill him the moment he looked at me with those lecherous eyes!" Lucy shouted back and tried to wash off the areas where I touched her.

'Ouch! Never in my life has anyone said something like this to me. Was she that disgusted? And look at those scars, no wonder they had such heavy clothing for this weather! Anyway, I should get to work. The dust is starting to settle down.'

As I brandished my sword and strapped the shield to my hand, I started walking towards Lucy; to take her down first.

'Dumb b*tch, she's busy 'purifying' herself on a battlefield, where a single mistake can lead to death. Let's see who'll be in the grave tonight!' I thought with a chuckle and almost leaped from my spot, but I suddenly heard a loud horn-like sound.

WOOOOOO!!!

I tried to sense the source of the noise but my face instantly paled…

'Shit!! The army is here! And this time, they brought at least a few dozen mid-rankers, and even a high-ranker is amongst them! I stand no chance against them… now the important thing to consider is; how I should proceed.' I contemplated as I gave up on taking Lucy's life, as that would garner much attention. I then silently ran towards the mansion; to see how things would progress.

"You Shield Demon!! Come out right now!! You've slayed many of our brethren; now it's your time to perish!" I heard the army commander shout, who is also the high-ranker. "You've even taken the villagers as hosta-…" the commander stopped mid-sentence as he saw more than 20 'villagers', each carrying good-grade weapons; that most suited their rank.

"What the f*ck is this situation, Deputy commander?" the leader asked his deputy, as this was completely different from what he was told.

The deputy commander looked at the scouts' squad leader with an expression that he would kill him if he couldn't explain the situation to the platoon commander.

"R-Respected leader, as per t-the reports… our previous squads were all massacred by a Shield-wielding mid-ranker, and even three m-mid-rankers of the previous team weren't able to exterminate him!" The scout leader tried to explain to the commander in a shaky voice. "Also, he had the villagers who are part of our territory; as hostages! My men saw them cowering, crying and begging to be saved behind that madman!" The scout quickly recounted after seeing the impatient look on his commander's face. But, then he looked at the 'villagers' who were almost lined up and had weapons in their hands.

"But, the situation seems to be a little different here?" the commander questioned him, and cold sweat formed on his forehead.

"S—Sir… it seems these people are all the enemies, and the villagers have already been killed off!" the scout tried to shift the commander's attention towards the main problem and quickly came to the best conclusion he could. "And, sir, they seem to be prepared to run away any time now." He further cautioned him.

"Yes, commander. We can discuss his punishment later after this matter is resolved. Kindly order the soldiers in the vicinity of this village to close off all the escape routes… and please guide us about how to proceed further." the deputy gently advised the commander, as if used to his leader's temper. He then pointed towards the scout to go back to his position.

The scout leader had colour return to his face as he heard the deputy take his side, but he again lost all that colour when he heard about the punishment. 'At least it's better than death', the scout had such an expression while letting out a hollow laugh.

As I watched all this happen, my lips twitched when I heard something about the villagers being already killed.

'Then is this trial doomed to be failed? No, wait… that shouldn't be possible. Think of everything that's happened since you crossed through that portal and started the trial, Steve.' I thought and went inside the mansion; to get some peace, not that I was hiding from the platoon outside.

"I came to this village, saw those 'villagers' scavenging the valuables… they were pretty surprised when they saw me and scattered away… when I told them that I'm here to protect the village, they sure had some weird expression… then they just watched me fight, not helping even a little and there were a few of them always around me; as to keep an eye on me… Urghh, fine. I'm stupid! But I don't believe that it's my fault! I thought they were surprised to see me, and anyone would be alerted in that situation…" I continued almost wordlessly, with self-doubt apparent on my face.

"Does anyone believe me?" I asked and looked around, hoping that someone would tell me how intelligent I was.

Silence…

'Wait… that presence again..' I looked at the dust-covered carpet and moved towards it, ignoring my previous dilemma.

WHOSH!

Removing the carpet, I saw that the stone in the middle had some circles drawn on it.

"These are not drawn; multiple cylinders are in that stone block." I concluded as I touched the engravings.

I focused my essence on my fingertips, dug them into the stone block and pulled it out with sheer strength.

"HYAA!... Haah.. That was harder than I thought." I was surprised by how much strength I used to pick up a stone block.

As I contemplated, I looked at what was below that block, and a smile crept up.

"Hehe… found it!"

[What did he find out? Read the next chapter to know! And yes, power stones, comments, blahh blahh... whatever the things you guys should do, but never do. Feel a change of heart? then just do it! -_-]