Defiance of the Fall

was the reason why he had struggled so hard to find his sister as quickly as possible.
The worst thing was that he couldn ’t comply even if he wanted due to the splinter hidden away in his brain.
He could give his whole Cosmos Sack to the emperor and still maintain his position, and the Emperor probably wouldn ’t believe his excuses.

He honestly would have been happy to dump the [Heart of Oblivion] on the old emperor, especially if it helped save Thea.
But now it had caused even more trouble for him instead.
It truly was a cursed object.

“You cannot make any deals with the Medhin.
Both the Emperor and Vasidas will turn on you the minute they have what they want,” Ylvas quickly said.
“They barely consider anyone human, apart from their own family members.”

“I know,” Zac said.
“But it still makes our job harder.”

“I don’t think it changes things.
The emperor must keep her alive to lure you in, but we can simply pretend you don’t know about the situation.
We’ll keep hunting squads and weaken their forces,” Ylvas said.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea anymore,” Zac said.
“If certain squads start dropping now they might realize someone is coming for them, losing our small element of surprise.
It would give our position away.”

“Fair enough,” Ylvas said.

“Thea is one of the three strongest cultivators of our world, ” Zac slowly said.
”Freeing her would also bolster our forces.
I will quickly set her free first while you occupy the emperor.
After that, I’ll hit the personal guard as planned.”

Beruv Ylvas seemed to consider the options for a bit until he slowly nodded.

’

“That works as well.
However, you must hurry.
I am not a match against Nenothep in an even fight, and if he’s empowered by his personal guard I will not even last for thirty seconds.
You quickly need to dispatch the personal guard and help me lessen the burden or I will fall,” Ylvas said.

”Agreed, ” Zac said.

It truly seemed that there was no getting off this train now.
The Emperor and his son had forced his hand.
Anger was starting to build up inside him as he kept killing the beasts around them, but he forced himself to keep calm.
He couldn ’t do something hotheaded that risked both the operation and Thea ’s life at this juncture.

So he tried to maintain his calm as the two went back to traveling between the mountains to look for allies and beasts.
But an odd sight suddenly entered their eyes.
As they traveled they spotted a huge pit in front of them.
At first, Zac assumed someone had dug a trap for the beasts.

However, as soon as they walked over they could quickly discount that possibility.
While the pit was over ten meters deep there was no evidence suggesting that they had found a trap.
There were no spikes in the bottom, and the walls weren ’t sheer so even a normal human would be able to simply walk out of the pit.

The two kept walking and after thirty more minutes they had lost count of how many pits they ’d seen.
Both were completely befuddled at this point, and it even started to make them a bit uncomfortable.
They truly couldn ’t understand what was going on, and it almost felt like they were walking into a trap somehow.

”Animals? ” Zac finally ventured with an unsure voice.
”Like rats or moles. ”

”No, these are man-made, ” Ylvas said.
”They are simple holes go straight down, there ’s no burrows or tunnels either so they would serve no purpose for shelter.
But I do not understand why someone would dig so many holes.
Burying array flags? But then the holes should be filled and hidden afterward… ”

“Tracks over here,” Ylvas suddenly said as he looked at the ground.
“Some huge bugger by the size of the footprints, weighing at least 150 kilos, likely more.”

Zac readied his weapons as the two silently followed the footprints for another fifteen minutes.
Luckily due to the size of the one who left the prints they had no problem following them even if Ylvas whispered that they were a few hours old.

’

Oddly enough it didn ’t lead toward a mountain, but rather straight into the core of a large forest in an extra-wide valley, and weirder still was that there were no animals around.
Since they had entered the zone with the pits there had been fewer and fewer beasts.
Zac started to worry that one of the Dominators had moved its camp and scared away all the wildlife.

Suddenly they heard a thundering sound from the distance, and both of them quickly got ready for battle.
But they soon realized the noise was actually snoring, and they speechlessly looked at each other.
Zac immediately guessed who it was and he wryly smiled as they followed the tracks until they looked at a shoddily camouflaged camp.

Someone had simply broken off a few smaller trees and put them in a circle around a clearing.
But the cover wasn ’t high enough the two of them could easily see the ramshackle structure in the middle.
Two enormous feet were sticking out of a much too small cover made out of sticks, and the thundering snoring came from the man inside.

“Stay here, for now.
I know who this is.
He’s an ally, but a bit special.
He is also is quite strong, so If we can get his help we will have a great array breaker on our side,” Zac said as he started to approach the crudely built tent.

“Billy, are you awake?” Zac said as he poked Billy’s feet with a stick he picked up.
“It’s me, Zachary.
The Super Brother Man.”

Advertisements

There snores continued for a while until they abruptly stopped.
The next moment billy rose from his slumber, causing the whole campsite to collapse in splinters and broken twigs.

“WHO WOKE BILLY?” Billy growled as his eyes wildly looked about.

In his hand was the huge club he’d seen him wear before, looking like a tree trunk with an enormous cranium stuck at the end.

“It’s me, Billy.
Zachary, the Super Brother-Man,” Zac tentatively said as he threw away his poking stick.

“Oh, it’s you,” Billy said with a snort after he spotted Zac.
“I am mad at you.”