Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 171: Shamelessness

“You know who we are. Open the gates or we’ll open it for you,” Ogras said with a loud voice, looking up at the hapless guards.

There was no response for a few seconds, and the silence stretched on as the humans up on the wall looked at each other with despondent faces. Ogras was almost thankful for their inaction, as it would save a lot of time in their end.

“Very well, thank you for making this easy,” Ogras said with a shrug as the gate was drowned in darkness.

Constant sounds of wood breaking and splintering could be heard as the thick gate was impaled by numerous shadow spears. Shouts erupted from the wall, and a few attempted to stop Ogras’ attack. A few arrows and ineffectual spells sailed toward him, but Ogras effortlessly ignored them without breaking a sweat.

The demons didn’t stay passive when they saw their general being attacked, and a multitude of far more powerful attacks blasted into the wall, completely decimating the top sections of it. Screams and wails could be heard, but Ogras didn’t care as he stepped forward. It felt nice to not be the defender for once, but the conqueror.

Step by step he walked through the remains of the gate, his shadows suffocating the small fires that had started from the spells. The demons followed behind him, and finally the Valkyries walked in the rear with troubled countenances on their faces.

One by one they stepped through the wall of smoke into the town proper, and found themselves face to face with around two hundred warriors. They looked scared but they stood their ground, surprising Ogras somewhat.

“Please, we just want to live our lives in peace, why do you need to keep coming here?” a woman in the front shouted with red-rimmed eyes.

“Well if it doesn’t suit you, then you’re welcome to swim out of our sphere of influence,” Ogras answered with a smile. “But as long as you stay in Lord Atwood’s kingdom you will need to follow his laws.”

“Since when is this area under the influence of demons? We never agree to follow one of your kind,” another man with a large sword shouted back.

“Then you’ll be happy to learn that Lord Atwood is a bona fide human. Now let me ask you something. Where are all the children?” Ogras retorted.

The defenders looked at each other with troubled faces, apparently readying themselves for a fight.

“Why do you want to know that? There’s no need for you to bother our children,” the woman aggressively shot back, fear covering her face.

“Well, depending on what you did with them we will either kill you all, or we’ll-“ Ogras didn’t get further as Janos walked up and coughed next to him.

“Something… Off. Catch me one?” a voice suddenly said next to him, making Ogras turn to the taciturn Illusionist.

“You’re saying they are under an illusion?” Ogras asked with a low voice.

“Maybe. Saw glimmer in eyes. Mind control,” Janos answered with a small shrug.

Ogras thought it over for a second until he turned his gaze to a building that was placed just behind the defending army. With a slight exertion, he managed to extend his shadows all the way over there, and with a few well-placed stabs he destroyed the supporting beams of the structure.

The house soon collapsed with a large crash, making many of the defenders worriedly turn around, afraid of getting ambushed. Ogras took advantage of the brief lapse of focus to flash over and grab the woman in the front. Shadows swirled all around her in a fraction of a second, and she was completely immobilized as Ogras teleported back to his own side.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? RELEASE ME!” she shouted and tried to frenetically rip free from her binding.

The shout made the humans finally realize what just happened, and a few shouted some weak demands to release her. Ogras only snorted and nodded at Janos who walked over and touched her forehead. She quickly calmed down and her face gained a wooden expression, devoid of any life.

“Ask now,” Janos said and backed away.

“What’s your name?” Ogras asked the woman placed in a trance.

It was one of Janos’ more convenient skills. The only downside was that there had to be quite a difference in attributes between the illusionist and the target for it to work. Besides, even weaklings with extremely strong convictions or wills could break out of it, though this woman seemed to possess neither.

“Katherine,” she mumbled without changing her expression.

“What happened with the children of this town? Are they dead?” Ogras asked.

Ogras knew that if these people had killed all the kids, then Zac would have personally eradicated everyone here, so it would make his life quite easy. They could simply mow every combatant down, construct a teleporter and be back before supper. But if not, perhaps the situation was more complicated.

“He’s holding them captive. We need to follow his order or he’ll hurt them. He ordered us to make you leave,” she said, some fear once again emerging on her face.

“Who’s he?” Ogras asked intrigued.

It took a special level of scum to go through with that kind of plan, and Ogras was almost impressed.

“The lord, Lord of Eyes. He’ll hurt them unless we do what he says,” she repeated.

“Why don’t you just kill him, and you’ll all be free?” Alea asked as she stepped forward.

“We can’t, it would harm the children,” she said with a frantic shake of her head.

“Why?”

“It…” the woman began, but started frowning in confusion.

“Hypnotic suggestion,” Janos said.

“What?” Ogras asked, slightly annoyed that the man still hadn’t worked out his speech impairment after all these years.

“Protective measure. Implant suggestion. Can’t attack, fail,” the Illusionist said with a pained face.

“He’s saying that his lord has implanted the townspeople with a hypnotic suggestion. An attempt to kill him or rescue the children will end in failure, and even kill the children,” Alea translated, being used to Janos’ stilted speech.

“Then why bother with kidnapping the children? Can’t he just hypnotize them to follow his orders?” Ogras asked skeptically, feeling that the whole thing sounded like a pain in the ass.

“Weak hypnotist, too many, too big suggestion,” Janos said.

Ogras finally understood what was going on. Hypnosis generally wasn’t some supreme skill that could make people, especially strong cultivators, believe or do anything. Hypnosis was essentially tricking the brain, not forcing it to believe something. No hypnotist could make a man kill himself, for example, as that would go against the primal instinct of them.

However, this Lord of Eyes had found a pretty smart solution. He didn’t implant a suggestion that tried to force the into unconditional surrender, but a suggestion that an attack on him would end with the hostages dying. For all people knew, it might actually be true, so implanting it would be far easier than saying that the lord was simply invincible.

It was an extra layer of protection the hypnotist created for himself on top of having actual hostages. Ogras brows rose at the realization, as this level of cowardice was something else. Still, the man couldn’t be a complete weakling if he not only managed to capture all the kids but even managed to implant the whole town with suggestions.

He only hesitated for a second before he put on his [Circlet of Tranquility]. It was the same item he’d used before to protect himself against mental attacks, and it also worked against mind control. It might be an over-the-top measure against some random hypnotist, but he wouldn’t gamble with his little life. It would be a true embarrassment if he was hypnotized by some hack at an isolated town on a baby world. He might just as well kill himself from embarrassment.

“Where is this Lord of Eyes now?” Ogras asked next.

“He’s hiding in the library,” the woman answered, her face once again having turned expressionless.

“I’ll be right back,” Ogras said, as he looked at the building the captive indicated.

“Do you need help?” Alea asked, but only received a small laugh as an answer as the shadows swallowed Ogras.

In no time he walked amongst the book-cases, the claws on his feet creating a clacking sound in the otherwise silent library. Rows and rows of dusty books lined the building, actually making Ogras a bit excited.

This baby planet was far more interesting than he ever could have imagined. The poor saps lived their whole lives without a speck of Cosmic Energy, yet they had created so many fun things. The almost endless amounts of movies and shows were a testament to this, but that only scratched the surface.

Lately he’d asked around a bit about the history of the world from various humans, mainly the congenial one currently running the tavern, and what he learned truly astounded him. The humans of planet Earth had a shorter history than his own clan, yet they had gone from cavemen to taking the first steps of discovering the multiverse.

Who knew, if they were left alone for another few thousand years they might actually have become a new lineage of the technocrats. He wondered just how they could be so industrious. A few thousand years was just a blink in the history of his own homeworld, and nothing really changed.

Perhaps a few wars would take place, and a few new clans emerge. Perhaps there was something in the air of this world making the humans so restless, forcing them to keep reinventing themselves.

He truly looked forward perusing this library, but that would have to be saved for another day. He kept scanning the building with [Omniscient Eyes] until they fell upon a certain bookcase against a wall. His mouth tugged upwards and walked over. He gripped the wooden bookcase with a hand and simply flung it away, not bothering with finding the hidden mechanic.

Behind the bookcase was a drape, hiding the entrance to a small room. When Ogras pushed the garment to the side he saw a grimy-looking man wearing rags sit pathetically in a corner.

“Wha- Please, spare me! I’m just a nobody, tending the books,” the man cried with a wretched appearance.

“Spare the waterworks. The Lord of Eyes, I presume?” Ogras said as he stepped into the small hideout.

“Wha? No, I’m Gregor, the librarian,” he answered with a confused face, but before he could continue a spear of shadows penetrated his leg, making him shriek in pain.

“Don’t waste my time, I want to be home before dinner. Where are you keeping the kids?” Ogras said as he looked down on the prompt showing above the man.

Gregor Johnsson.

Level: 34

Class: Hypnotist (Uncommon).

Most used skill: Seed of Suggestion

Highest Attribute: Wisdom

“Wait, ok, it’s me. But know that if I’m harmed any further the children will all die. We are linked through my Mental Hive-skill,” the man said between grit teeth.

Ogras snorted as he felt the gem on his circlet heat up, and from how hot it got he realized that it was actually a quite strong attack. The man must have leveled up his [Seed of Suggestion] skill to at least high level from using it on the whole town.

“Don’t bother using your Seed of Suggestion skill like on the villagers. And even if your little suggestion was true, what would I care about some human brats dying?” Ogras said as another leg of the hypnotist was gored.

The man was now wailing and crying on the floor, sounding like he’d been put through the thousand tortures.

“Please, no more, I’ll do whatever, I’ll work for you! The kids are hidden in the town hall. There’s a hidden bomb shelter in the basement, they’re there,” Gregor cried, tears and snot freely running down his face.

“It’s a shame, someone like you would make a decent asset. This level of shamelessness is in a way a strength. But I don’t want to rock the boat with the little lord at the moment, I have an inheritance to receive, after all. So my apologies,” Ogras said with a somewhat regretful face.

The Lord of Eyes confusedly opened his mouth, but before he could speak a large shadow spear impaled his torso, completely skewering him. A small burst of cosmic energy entered Ogras’ body, but it soon dissipated out of his body once again, reminding him of his predicament of being stuck on the bottleneck.

Ogras placed the corpse in his bag and returned to the armies who were still in a standstill.

“It’s done, the kids are in the basement of the town hall over there. Hidden bomb shelter,” Ogras said as he appeared.

From there it didn’t take long to sort everything out. When Ogras showed the corpse of the Lord of Eyes, chaos took hold of the defending army, with everyone crying that the children were doomed. Only when the Valkyries and a few demons were leading out roughly three hundred haggard, but living, children would they calm down.

The Hypnotist was dead, but the suggestions still lingered in their minds, though they would dispel by themselves over time according to Janos. The Illusionist also walked around and helped to speed along the process, and soon a few people, including the formerly captured woman stood in front of Ogras and the others.

“Thank you for releasing us from this mental prison, and sorry about the way we acted earlier,” the woman said with some embarrassment.

“It’s no problem. Lord Atwood would surely have come to your aid sooner if we knew what was going on here. Since your town appeared fine on the surface we mainly focused on saving those facing death on the other islands,” Ogras said with a straight face. “I’m surprised you are so calm facing us demons. Most humans are a bit more… shocked.”

“Well, we only met the Beastkin in the Tutorial, but I guess you’re another of the new races sharing the fused world?” the woman asked.

“Uh, right. You actually have cultivators here?” Ogras asked intrigued.

“Yes, roughly two thousand of us are cultivators,” she answered as a matter of course, but Ogras could barely contain his surprise.

This could only mean that Refugee’s Harbor was a drop-off site for a human tutorial group. It explained why the town was largely fine when most of the humans they scooped up on the various islands were on their last legs. But before he could ask any follow-up questions a beautiful, but dirty, woman somewhere in her twenties pushed herself to the forefront of the cultivators of Refugee’s Harbor.

“Please, excuse me! You said that the Lordʼs name is Atwood? Is it Zachary Atwood?” she asked with a hesitant face.

“Why do you know that name? Who are you?” Ogras asked with a frown.

“I’m Hannah, Zac’s girlfriend.”