A Broken Man

Chapter 34: Old Faces

A few days passed, Zane and Aphmau tried to figure out how to protect everyone in case the Shadow Lord, some of his Goons or even Ryuk comes out of the Nether again. Katelyn, Garroth, Emilia, Levin, Malachi, and even Dante were there too, trying to figure out what to do.

Aphmau: " Alright, so, the Nether Portal Protective Spell is weakening or being mess with and no one knows when it could completely give out again, letting the Shadow Lord or any of his minions get through whenever they want."

Garroth: " But we don't know when they'll be out."

Dante: " Why don't we ask the formal High Priest who looked up to the Shadow Lord? He clearly knows more than anyone."

Emilia: " Watch it, you blue hair son of a.."

Katelyn: " Emilia! Dante! Knock it off!"

Zane: " I already told you what I know about the Shadow Lord and his followers, at least the ones you need to worry about the most. But I don't think the Shadow Lord could go far without his Relic, even though it's doesn't have much power left, he still needs it."

Dante and Zane glared at each other, Aphmau snapped her fingers at them to get them to focus.

Levin: " Mom, what about Laurance? Are we still going to try to find and rescue him?"

Aphmau: " Of course we are. But we have to make sure that no more blood is spilled by this monster and his army."

Zane: " Your friend is surprising a strong fighter, he'll be fine, he just has to worry about Concubine and the other Mindwatchers in the Nether."

Aphmau and the others smiled a bit hearing that Laurance was alright, for now.

Katelyn: " So what's the plan?"

Aphmau: " Hyria told us that she'll do her best to keep the shield up, but she doesn't know how long it could last. The least thing we can do is train and strengthen our protections."

Zane looked over at Aphmau, she kept tapping her fingers on the table, he knew why but he didn't say anything.

Dante: " Well why don't we get rid of him? The shadow Army are most likely going to go look for him as soon as they get out of the Nether. And if we want to protect everyone, maybe we should..."

Garroth stood up and raised his voice, making everyone jump.

Garroth: " DANTE! That's Enough! We all took a vote and we AGREED to let Zane stay here unless he does something bad. And so far, he hasn't done anything but help around."

Dante: " Well he's going to cause the whole Nether to come her and kill everyone if he stays here because he stole the SHADOW LORD'S Relic!"

Aphmau: " Dante! Just.. Stop. I don't want to get into another argument right now because it not going to help with anything."

Dante looked away. When the small meeting was over, Zane stayed with Aphmau.

Zane: " He's right. They're going to start looking for me as soon as they surface the Overworld."

Aphmau: "  *sigh* I know. But we'll be ready for them."

Zane: " ... You're thinking of him."

Aphmau: " Who? The Shadow Lord? Well yeah, he.."

Zane: " I meant who his Host is, you're thinking about Aaron, aren't you?"

Aphmau: "..... Yeah.. Seeing him in his body just brought so many painful memories."

Zane: " That's one of the tricks he uses to get in your head. He and his army loves to play with people emotions. They claim that those who show their emotions or humanity, he sees them as weak prey and he kills anyone who starts to regret some of their actions. To the Shadow Lord, that's a sigh of betrayal."