Chapter 42

The Kingdom of Darv, somewhere in the underground castle of Greysunders.

"My lord is ready to promise Greysunders and his people great reward and control over Dicathen, if you will cooperate with us. The choice is yours." Uto, shadow servant of Ashborn, or in this case Retainer Uto of Alacrya is striking a deal with Dawsid Greysunders.

After a long time waiting for someone to contact this person from Alacrya, he decided to do everything by himself. Making Uto strike a deal, if Dawsid agrees with the deal he will be taken as a traitor. Immediate execution will be placed upon him and Uto whose hands are for a long time itching to kill will complete the task gladly.

"How can I believe, don't spout such nonsense here!" Dawsid angrily yelled at Uto, who with another creepy smile replied.

"I guess, we have to do it more violently then..." Just as Uto completed the sentence something scratched Dawsid's cheeks.

'What's this...' Dawsid thought and lowered his eyes at black spikes with a purple hue.

Not only on his cheeks but also every other part of his body was about to be pierced by those spikes. He was completely immobilized, black spikes were scratching all his body.

"So, what is your decision~?" Uto questioned playfully, Dawsid with wide eyes stared at Uto.

'He is stronger than Lances... No, with this ability they aren't even comparable...' He concluded.

"Who is this Lord of yours?" Dawsid asked with a serious expression, trying to get more information out of Uto.

"Someone who will give you the power to stand on the top of the food chain, someone who will give dwarves another chance!" Exclaimed Uto, pressing more on Dawsid's emotions.

'Power...' Dawsid's mind was already filled with different ideas, he was ready to accept a deal right after seeing this person's power, but now he wants more...

"I'm still waiting for answers." Daydreaming of Dawsid was interrupted by Uto.

"Can you guarantee me that this deal would be fulfilled?" Inquired Dawsid.

"State your wish, I might fulfill it right now~" Uto changed the topic, not answering the question. Dawsid looked surprised but he fell into the trap.

"Wish...Can you bring me the head of Elven leaders, no... all of them, Sapins and Elenoirs." Uto was utterly shocked... at the stupidity of this person.

He was making a deal with him, for cooperation. If he could just bring the head of Kind and Queen, then why would he even ask for cooperation?

'Uto great job. Now I guess I have to bring him their heads...' Ashborn told Uto telepathically.

'Being praised by my king, that's the greatest honor.' Uto thanked and disappeared in shadow leaving baffled Dawsid standing there.

"He wouldn't really... bring me their heads now, right?" Muttered Dawsid gulping.

"Not exactly head." Voice behind him answered. Dawsid heard someone falling behind him too and when he looked back, he saw Alduin, Virion and Blaine laying on their butts confused about what was happening.

"Another hallucination, or was that monster brat again?" Pondered Virion loudly, Blaine and Alduin had almost the same thoughts.

"W-What are you doing here?!" Dawsid shouted at a group of people, this made two kings and one former king more surprised.

"They are here to clear future confusion. Dawsid Gre- Geh- Ga- Whatever you are, as a traitor you are deemed to be executed." Responded Ash, walking past laying people.

"What bullshit are you spreading!" Growled Dawsid, but his visible trembles were noticed by others.

"Shut up. You have no right to speak." Ash appeared in front of Dawsid and literally grabbed his mouth.

"I think I understand what's going on." Virion stood up, his face clearly showed anger and irritation.

"Mr. Ashborn, Are you sure?" Both Alduin and Blaine stood up too.

"There's no need to ask for this... Do you think I will be doing something so senseless without reason?" Stated Ashborn, of course, nobody could speak back.

"Hm, I almost forgot about her..." Mumbled Ashborn as he merged with his shadow and soon came out from the nearby shadow again, this time she threw a dwarf woman right at Dawsid.

This was Dawsid's wife and queen of Darv, Glaudera Greysunders. She also was deemed to be executed, because trying to help a traitor by calling someone with Artifact. That was what Ashborn saw...

"Ask them whatever you want now, I don't want to waste my time here waiting before you finish the interrogation." Voiced Ashborn, he intended to kill both traitors by himself.

"Wait, she was calling Lances..." Blaine said suddenly, recognizing the artifact in the woman's hands.

"Someone is approaching from above at a very quick pace." announced Virion sensing danger from above.

Everyone tensed up, Virion got on guard, but he wasn't seriously planning to take on Lance. Ash remained standing near all of them, looking at the ceiling waiting for the right moment. It came soon, when the oldest of the Lances, Olfred, flew smashing through the ceiling aiming a gauntlet made out of magma at Ashborn.

Auburn-haired in response covered his hands with a layer of mana, catching magma gauntlet in his hand. He thought this would at least, shock Olfred, but surprisingly he tried splashing magma at Ashborn's face. Swiftly Ashborn put his second hand in front of his face.

Olfred jumped back seeing this and stood in front of King in a protective manner. Ashborn meanwhile just stared at his burning clothes.

"Virion, I thought you were a competent King. Are you seriously listening to what this adventurer is bluffing about?!" Dawsid started spouting some nonsense to save his sorry ass, Virion stared at him with a deadpan look, not intending to do anything to save Dawsid's sorry ass.

"Obviously, I trust him more than you." Virion replied scratching the back of his head.

"This took a lot longer than I anticipated." Mumbled Ashborn.

Oldest Lance widened his eyes, but the last image he saw before everything turned black was the hand in front of his face and soul-piercing purple-glowing eye.

"So Virion, anything you want to ask them?" Ashborn glanced at Virion.

"Was there another continent involved?" At which Ashborn shook his head in denial, there wasn't exactly contact from different continents.

"Then can you keep Glaudera alive? We can't exactly appoint someone as leader of Darv like this now, we need her for reasons. Just her being alive is enough." Virion requested, Ashborn got what he meant and decided to keep her alive.

"Alright." The next moment the terrified shorty king was laying on the ground dead, her wife was also petrified from the scene, she was too afraid to even scream, while Olfred was unconscious.

"Will you stay in Darv, or should I transport you back?" Asked Ashborn, they just shook their heads.

"Situation must be explained, but I'll be glad if we had other Lances with us." Virion told Ashborn.

"Hm, then you don't have to worry." Ashborn tasked his shadows to protect kings.

"Also, I'm going to interrogate this one here." Ashborn looked over at unconscious Olfred and transferred him into his shadow.

Olfred in front of others mysteriously fell down into the shadow, nobody questioned what was happening anyway.

.

"Ugh, that hurt..." Olfred woke up after his short slumber. Ashborn forcefully awakened him, to finish 'Interrogation' quickly.

"You have questions to answer." Olfred looked at the voice to see the same person who knocked him out.

"Y-You are that person!" He exclaimed, pointing at Ashborn. This wasn't how the highest-ranking soldier should act, but Ashborn didn't mind it, since his reaction was natural.

"You had too many openings when trying to protect your king. Was that intentional?" Ashborn's question confused Olfred at first, but after remembering what actually happened there he widened his eyes.

"So it was." Seeing man's reaction, Ashborn noted.

"Some kind of dispute between you?" Ashborn continued questioning Olfred.

"Why should I answer?!" Thundered, Olfred tried to seem intimidating, but in response received complete humiliation, just seconds after Ashborn released his mana pressure.

"Should I repeat my question?" Ashborn asked, already kneeling Olfred.

"He wasn't a good king." Oldfred avoided directly answering the question, but it was already enough for Ashborn. He concluded that Olfred wanted Dawsid dead.

"Do you perhaps know who is the candidate for leading Darv, after Dawsid?"

"Fa-... Elder Rahdeas." Ashborn raised a brow at this, he almost heard Olfred saying 'Father'.

'That was it?' Ashborn realized the whole scenario of what was happening in Darv. Rahdeas, apparently the elder, wanted to take over Darv. So here comes this Lance, who is his son. Olfred wanted Dawsid dead for his father to get the position of leader. (I know this isn't exactly what happened. Keep in mind these are just early conclusions.)

"And grumble about why other races look down on Dwarves, I see why..." Ashborn's insult made Olfred clench his fists in anger.

"You are dismissed now, go visit your Elders." Ashborn disappeared from Olfred's sight in a blur.

_________________________________________________________________________

"Haven't visited you for a long time, Kaspian." Ashborn announced his presence to Kaspian.

"Ah, yes Mr. Ashborn, we haven't seen each other since your sister's birthday." Responding, Kaspian put his hand forward for a handshake, which Ashborn accepted.

"I had something to do in Xyrus academy, I also met your niece there." Said Ashborn.

"Oh, you met with Claire? She is a big fan of yours haha." Said Kaspian followed with an awkward laugh from him.

"I'm aware, she also said the same about you." Ashborn tried to tease and almost made Kaspian embarrassed.

"That little... She isn't wrong though. You can also count me as one of your big fans." Kaspian confirmed Claire's words.

"So anything that has to be discussed with me?" Ashborn returned to the main topic.

"Yes, we caught a few spies. Since they refused to speak, we suppose they are from another continent. One of them tried to cooperate with us, but after saying one word he died for unknown reasons, in addition to that we found a way to identify spies. They have some strange markings on their backs, few artificers, even Gideon himself also are trying to learn more about those marks. That's what we got at the moment." Kaspian reported, impressing Ashborn from a lot of information gathered in a short amount of time.

"Mr. Ashborn any strange activities in Beast Glades?" It was not Kaspian who asked Ashborn.

"Yes, mutated mana-beast. It was a good decision to cancel all the activities in the dungeons. I suggest you be ready for being attacked from the Beast Glades, it's probably the most unexpected place to create a foothold, but maybe this is what they want. To be exact they might want us to think that way." Advised Ashborn, receiving a nod from Kaspian. Ashborn didn't tell Kaspian the whole thing though...

"Building a wall as the first line of the defense, this might win us some time..." Kaspian already started to plan their defenses.

"Anything other than this? Maybe you have some requests?" Asked Ashborn, Kaspian just shook his head.

"Then, I shall leave. I have some undone work in Xyrus academy."

_________________________________________________________________________

PLEASE READ THIS.

Ok so, I have to write on phone again. Apparently, my keyboard wasn't waterproof (It was clearly stated in the description though.) So it's god damn hard to write there when I have a few fics to manage.

And I got a selfish request for you guys. We uploaded collab fic on Webnovel and for some mysterious reason, it doesn't receive much attention.

https://www.webnovel.com/book/tbate-%7C-severing-fate_21454208205316805

This is a link to a Webnovel. Four authors are working hard on this FF and just because of the tag system it doesn't receive deserved attention. I'm not forcing btw, you might actually like FF and maybe write review later :))

That's it CYAAA