Bab 95: 95. Madness!
Omniscient POV,
Eminence in Shadow,
Kouske woke up to the sound of loud screams all around him. He looked around to find a whole village being burned. The smell of blood filled the air as people, or rather therianthropes, ran in every direction, desperately trying to escape the chaos.
"What's happening here?" Kouske mumbled, confused.
[Relax for a bit. It's going to hurt,] said Clarice.
"What?" Kouske asked, but before he could say anything more, his head started aching immensely.
After successfully digesting the memories, he began to understand what was happening.
Currently, he was in the Golden Panther Clan's village, the original home of Zeta from Shadow Garden, known as Lilim at this point. She was the daughter of the clan chief.
Three months ago, she contracted an affliction known as demon possession. This condition decays the body of the afflicted and culminates in death.
In truth, it only affects female descendants of the Three Heroes. The church had spread the word that these individuals were cursed, causing everyone to turn against and disdain them.
However, this condition is actually a manifestation of magical overload that specifically affects female descendants of the Three Heroes. This results in progressive physical degeneration, leaving the afflicted in a state of fleshly decay until eventual demise.
Everyone was worried after seeing the initial symptoms and informed the church, which led to this situation.
A high-ranking priest named Petos came to the village two months ago after hearing about it. Despite their brute and muscle-headed nature, the therianthropes believed the man due to his association with the church.
He manipulated the clan members into disdaining not just Zeta but also her entire family, leading them to imprison all of them.
Now, as Zeta had completely turned into a grotesque monster, Petos revealed his true nature. Kouske knew he was from the Diabolos Cult and would become the 10th seat of the Round of Table after this specific clan extermination event.
Currently, Zeta's father, the clan chief who was imprisoned, is fighting Petos to save all the clan members from Petos's sadistic tendencies.
However, Petos is too powerful for Zeta's father to fight alone, and there are just too many Cult members present, indiscriminately killing everyone.
Kouske looked around and found the situation to be dire. If he didn't do anything soon, all the villagers might die.
As he surveyed the area, he noticed that he had grown golden ears and a tail, just like any member of the Golden Panther Clan.
He seemed to remember being the nephew of the clan chief. While he lamented that his actual race might just have been turned into a chimera at this point, that wasn't important right now.
He had more pressing matters to deal with. He could think about his race later on.
Kouske immediately cast a huge magic circle, encircling the whole village. Soon, it started raining, and the fire seemed to stop easier than expected.
This sudden change caused everyone to pause their fighting for a moment. However, the cult members quickly resumed pushing back the villagers.
Only a handful of cult members were the actual cause of this, as they were immensely stronger than the normal members, contending with several of the strong Golden Panther Clan members.
Kouske quickly ran towards those groups of cultists. His speed seemed almost like teleportation to the others.
Before anyone could even notice, he was already in the middle of the ongoing fight. At some point, Kouske's nails had grown larger, resembling sharp claws.
With a strike unnoticeable by anyone else on the battlefield, Kouske easily sliced through the enemies with his claws. Those cultists were turned into minced meat in a matter of seconds, leaving everyone shocked by the sudden turn of events.
Then Kouske made a simple hand gesture, clenching his fist, and all the other cultist mobs were sliced up by unseen strings spread throughout the village. The entire battleground fell silent.
How could someone young like Kouske be so strong so suddenly?
*
*
*
At that moment, at the edge of the village, Leonard, the current clan chief, was locked in battle with Petos, a creepy-looking, black-haired man, wearing sunglasses and dressed in the typical priest's clothing. No matter what Leonard did, it all seemed futile!
"You! Why are you even doing this?! Aren't you a priest of the church?" asked Leonard as he kept attacking Petos.
"Ha ha ha. Why do I need any reason to squash some bugs? Have you ever needed any?" replies Petos as he easily deflects them all.
"You!"
As they fought on the ground and leaped through the air, the surroundings were destroyed by the sheer force of their battle. Leonard and Petos exchanged words, though it was mostly Petos mocking everything.
Leonard unleashed a flurry of attacks, but Petos simply blocked and countered, hitting him back each time. Slowly, Leonard's body became covered in blood and injuries, as Petos was merely toying with him.
Leonard's uneasiness and urgency were palpable; he wanted to go to the village and help everyone, but Petos was enjoying himself, stalling Leonard and making him witness the demise of his village with his own eyes. Petos took a twisted sense of pleasure in doing so.
Everything was going smoothly when suddenly, the rain started falling over the village, causing both Leonard and Petos to stop in their tracks.
Even though the fires were extinguished, the cultists would finish the job soon. As the fight progressed, Petos began to grow bored.
But he suddenly sensed all the cultists dying with the arrival of someone new, making him eager to see what was happening on that side.
Wanting to end things quickly, Petos's speed increased to the point where Leonard couldn't even see him. Petos attacked Leonard from all directions, and Leonard, relying on mere instinct, managed to deflect only a few attacks.
Even so, his limbs became broken and unfit for further battle. As Petos aimed to end Leonard's life with one final strike, his attack was suddenly stopped, making sparks fly all around. The strike was blocked by a therianthrope who was only a teenager.
"And who might you be?" asked Petos, just a bit intrigued.
"Kouske?! Why are you here? Leave, now!" yelled Leonard, still holding his twin blades in his broken hands, intending to fight.
"Were you the one who killed those useless ones? How did you do it?" asked Petos, wanting to know a bit before he inevitably killed the kid.
But neither Petos nor Leonard received any answers. Suddenly, Kouske appeared behind Petos, shocking him. Petos tried to stop Kouske's attack and kill him right then and there, for humiliating him like that.
The idea that a kid could so easily get behind him was unthinkable; the members of the Round of Table would think less of him and make fun of him if they ever found out!
But to his horror, his strength fell short against the simple attack of the strangely relaxed boy. Not only that, Kouske's claws easily cut through Petos's weapon, beheading Petos before he could even register what had just happened, without much fanfare.
Only a deafening silence remained. Leonard couldn't understand the change in Kouske, but for all it was worth, he was glad that his clan had survived extermination.
*
*
*
After the fight with one of the freaky mobs from the Round of Table of the church, Kouske went around healing everyone. He even healed the clan chief from his horrible injuries.
"You, who are you? Are you really Kouske?" asked the clan chief, unsure.
The Kouske he knew was mostly detached, always lazing around. He was also shocked to see him using healing magic, which is quite rare, on such a large scale.
"I am. Do you have any doubts, uncle? Maybe I should tell Aunty about your little rendezvous behind the women's bathroom five months ago? What were you actually doing there? Surely, you weren't peeking?" replied Kouske mischievously, speaking quietly enough that his aunt, who was a bit far away, wouldn't hear.
However, the other therianthropes around them heard easily with their enhanced hearing and looked oddly at their clan chief, who had just fought for them despite their blatant betrayal.
"N-no. Say no more!" said Leonard, looking at his wife to make sure she didn't hear anything while trying to cover Kouske's mouth with his hands.
Leonard was now being framed by his own nephew. Five months ago, he had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a mistake on his part, but unfortunately, his nephew had caught him.
After healing everyone else, Kouske headed toward the cage where Zeta, better known as Lilim at the moment, was locked up by the cultists. Seeing Kouske approach the cage, many villagers started making noise again, talking about staying away from the cursed and other superstitions.
"You guys are still on that even after being attacked by the church? Are you still going to believe their nonsense?!" Kouske yelled in anger, making them all go stiff from the pressure.
Therianthropes, by nature, followed the strong. The villagers had already betrayed the clan chief and his family. Kouske, being his nephew, had also been imprisoned.
He wasn't going to be nice to people who had betrayed him once. If therianthropes followed the strong, then he would just show them what righteous dictatorship was!
Kouske planned to bring the other muscle-headed therianthrope clans under his rule too, without any casualties. He would leave those who wanted to live in peace, but the brutes would face a brute-like invitation.
If even after defeat they did not follow him, he would leave them be. Maybe he could create a functioning therianthrope nation. Little did he know, he would later be known as the Golden Prince.
When he reached the cage, he saw his aunt crying while holding a toddler in her arms. The boy was Zeta's younger brother. In canon, Petos had killed the toddler and her whole family in front of Zeta's eyes.
Zeta still remembered it all, even in her altered state, making her hatred for the cult immense and by far the strongest in Shadow Garden.
She was crazy enough to cause mass genocide just to eradicate the cult. Her thought process was always different from others.
Unlike the other therianthropes, she was a thinker rather than a brute. She was also different from the other Seven Shadows in that she was willing to stay apart from Cid to remove all threats for him.
Cid had called her the greatest genius in Shadow Garden. While Cid had to train hard to become strong, Zeta had reached the third strongest position, in Shadow Garden, with only half-hearted efforts.
Cid said she was good at whatever she did, but the problem was she never put her best into anything. The mind of a bored genius.
She could use most weapons, mastering them easily but never perfecting her art due to boredom. Her swordsmanship was great, only inferior to Cid and Alpha because of her lack of effort.
Maybe laziness just runs in the family or it's just that her being a cat therianthrope, she was just naturally lazy!
She could effortlessly copy many difficult techniques from all the Shadow Garden members and even many of Cid's techniques at first glance, but hers were always crude imitations as she never tried perfecting them.
Kouske never understood how she came to the false understanding that Cid wanted to be the actual God of the world and even created a secret organization for it when she didn't like Alpha's leadership but never opposed her as defeating her would be a 'hassle' for her. If she had trained earnestly, she could have easily been stronger than Alpha.
Kouske stood in front of the cage, staring at the grotesque, meaty abomination that Zeta had become. The mana overload had disfigured her body beyond recognition.
After a while, he used his new skill, Alteration, which enabled him to manipulate the state of anything.
With a precise application, Kouske restored Zeta to her original state. Instantly, she reverted back to her beautiful self, albeit still underdeveloped in a few areas, but recognizable nonetheless. Zeta was a year older than him.
Kouske could have used the same method Cid employed—manipulating the mana within the body to restore balance—but that process might have been time-consuming and painful for Zeta.
Instead, he opted for the easiest, most painless method by using his skill.
As Zeta slowly opened her eyes, she saw Kouske standing there. He smiled warmly and said, "Welcome back!"
Still a bit confused, Zeta looked around at her body in disbelief. Suddenly, her mother rushed forward, hugging her tightly and bursting into tears. Zeta's eyes grew moist as she hugged her mother back.
They gave Zeta some extra clothing, and as they returned, the villagers erupted into noise. For the first time, someone cursed had been restored to normal!
All the while the members of the Round of Table were disappointed in Petos and mocked him, thinking that he had lost to the 'weak' clan chief of the Golden Panther Clan.
*
*
*
It's been some time since curing Zeta. Kouske also told Zeta and her family about the whole Diabolos Church and the three heroes and their descendants.
Now, somewhere in the forest near the Kagenou territory, bandits were having a heyday after killing some merchants and looting their goods.
"Keep drinkin', you louts! Today's raid was a great success!" yelled one of the bandits, urging the others.
"Walking around the forest at night with all that art shit on him... I say merchants are getting way too careless lately."
"Yeah. But ya catch a glimpse of that hag's face as she croaked?"
"Yeah! 'Please at least let my son live.' What a joke, man."
"So then I said, 'If ya wanna live, show me yer valu...'" one of the bandits was saying when he was interrupted by a psycho dressed in an all-black robe who suddenly jumped on top of the fire.
"Whoo fuckin' hoo! Evening, bitches! If ya wanna live, show me yer valuables!" yelled the psycho, finishing the bandit's sentence for him.
"Wha..?! Who the fuck is this midget?!" yelled a bandit.
"I told you to bring out the gold, dammit! You there. Jump for me!" yelled the psycho, pointing at another bandit.
The bandit jumped as he was told, and metallic noises could be heard from his pockets.
"There. I heard it! It went 'chingching'!" yelled the psycho in euphoria.
"What's that guy's deal?" blubbered one of the bandits.
"Stay calm, gentlemen. I am just an unremarkable midget who happened to be passing by," said the robed psycho.
"Today, I am here... to test the specs of my new weapon, the slime sword, and my slime suit," he continued with the excitement of a curious child, as suddenly a sword materialized in his hands.
"?!"
As everyone was confused about what the hell was going on, the strange guy kept talking.
"Slimes, as you're no doubt aware, are liquid creatures that can change their shape with magic," the strange man explained like a mad scientist, making everyone present draw blanks in their heads.
"I caught a fair amount of these slimes, turned them into jelly, and made a suit that covers my body and an easy-to-use sword out of them."
"Their magic conductivity is a miraculous 99%! This means... this nifty function allows its user to change its shape in any way they want! Why not buy one for the family, good sir?" he said as he slashed the chest of a bandit with the shape-shifting sword, surprising everyone with the sudden attack.
"Oraoraoraoraoraora..."
"Oraaaaaaaa!"
Before anyone could react, tragedy and madness fell upon the bandits as the madman brutally attacked and killed them all, dancing in his own madness.
"Oraoraoraoraora!" he kept going, making even the ones observing him from the side have second thoughts about making contact with this madman.
"Uh... Whoops?" said the madman as he looked around the place.
"B-bastard! How dare you!" shouted the only remaining bandit.
"Shucks! We're down to just one guy? Guess I will have to test nifty function number two on you," replied the madman with a strange calmness and disappointment.
"Stop talking shit! I am still a master of the royal capital's Bushin style," the remaining bandit said loudly, more to convince himself in his nervous helplessness. Then he took a stance.
"You'll regret looking down on me!" yelled the bandit as he leaped and attacked the madman.
But the madman didn't dodge and let him hit him easily. But, to his utter horror, the attack did nothing at all. It felt like hitting an iron.
"Nope, didn't cut through. See?" replied the wannabe mob, showing the bandit the unscathed spot on his suit with excitement.
"Changing shape isn't all it can do. It comes with proper defensive power too!" continued the madman.
But before he could finish, the bandit started attacking him. The madman easily dodged the attacks, observing the popular style from the capital. It did impress him a bit since they weren't still stuck in the old ways of teaching. But he was still getting bored. Suddenly, the sword in his hands vanished, making the bandit exclaim in surprise.
"Where did your sword go?!" yelled the bandit, thinking it was his perfect chance to put an end to this madness as he closed in.
"You didn't listen, did you? Oh well, I am almost done," said the hooded man as he barehandedly approached.
At some point, a knife manifested from the sole of his shoe, and he stabbed the last remaining bandit in the chest.
"Slime sword nifty function two: you can draw your sword whenever you want, wherever you want."
"Gotta say, you were stronger than my sister," was the last thing the bandit heard before darkness consumed him.
"Let's see... I guess these are my spoils for the day," said the man—or rather, the boy—as he removed his hood and checked the bandits' treasury.
"Damn. These thieves sure stole a lot," said the mad boy as he grabbed hold of all the valuables.
"Now that I have avenged you merchants, your funds shall fund my rise to become the Eminence in Shadow!" declared the boy as he unnecessarily made remarks about his cause.
Kouske and Alpha were watching as all this was happening. He observed Cid's manipulation of the slime suit and slime sword. While Kouske had been doing the same for a while after coming to this world, seeing the original in action was different.
He had also been trying to mix the slime liquids of this world into his smithing. Blacksmiths from all over the world would choke on their food if they heard how mana-conductive the weakest monster in this world was, even better than the legendary Mithril.
The slimes of this world were pretty OP! Kouske had already recovered Alpha, so most of his work was done. It was good that he had kept an eye on Cid to know about all these things. Kouske came forward in front of Cid.
"Yo!" Kouske lazily waved his hand as he approached. Beside him was a beautiful blonde elf.
"?"
Cid was a bit surprised that he hadn't noticed the therianthrope at all. But suddenly something came to his mind.
"You! Are you here to steal MY money?! Over my dead body, bitch!" yelled the wannabe mob, making Kouske stop in his tracks, looking at him with some strangeness in his eyes.
But suddenly Kouske brought out a gold coin from his pocket, flipped it towards Cid, and said, "Catch."
Cid instantly jumped to catch the coin. Then he looked strangely at Kouske for a while after catching it.
"I won't give it back!" Cid suddenly yelled, hiding the coin as if his life depended on it.
"..." Kouske.
"...." Alpha.
"Do you wanna work for me? I will regularly give you money," said Kouske after staying silent for a while.
"Nah. I am good. I don't work for anyone," replied Cid instantly.
"I will give [xxxx] amount of money each month. Don't you need money to be the Eminence in Shadow?" said Kouske after a while.
"I will even be your dog! Woof woof!" Cid instantly barked, acting like a dog after hearing the amount.
"...." Kouske.
"...." Alpha.
It seemed Kouske would have to regularly earn more money to make this wildcard work properly. But Kouske could use Shadow to hide his direct involvement with Shadow Garden as he is trying to build a properly recognized therianthrope nation.
[A/N: This should have happened when the MC was 10 years old, but he is 12 right now. My mistake. Just think of this as a bit AU for now. Kouske won't change the name of Shadow Garden or the Seven Shadows. He will just move forward with the group under his alias, Akatsuki.
Akatsuki (dawn) and Shadow, huh? And who do you want Cid to pair with? That senpai from Japan? Rose Oriana? Victoria? Beta? Or that academy girl whose adoptive father was a cult member?
TBH, Rose Oriana would be the best, but I am a bit reluctant... Ahem... Maybe that Japanese senpai then?
Next chapter will be the start of Slash Dog events.]
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Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
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