The King's Game - Seven Calamities Arc (Part 2)

Chapter 19: The Behemoth, Newgate the Pillager

Crowds gathered as they waited with bated breath for the news their king had for them. In little over an hour, the majority of the capital had gathered as they watched the king step out. No trumpets blew and no announcement that the king had arrived was made, yet with his mere presence alone the people grew silent.

"I stand before you with sad news, many may have not liked his attitude and personality, yet he stood for this great kingdom and for each and every one of you before me. It is possible that some of you have already heard the rumours and it saddens me to say that the rumours are true. Robertus Garnet, who was mostly known as Baron Garnet, was killed by Royland and Blackbarrow was razed to the ground. I'm sure that he fought until the bitter end, despite the cruel ending he received, but it is thanks to his sacrifice that I had enough time to rally the greatest army the world has ever see. I swear to each and every one of you here today, I swear on the lives of our ancestors, that I will lead this army to victory and we will tear the head from Royland's body!"

The crowd erupted with a mighty unified cheer for their king and his patriotic speech. 'We believe in you!', 'Show this so called warrior of the Gods our true might!', 'Avenge all those that died in Blackbarrow!', could be heard coming from the crowd. The king smiled, his people believed in him and trusted him with their lives and futures.

Conanus raised his hand to silence the crowd, "Words cannot express how I feel right now. Many did not approve of my rule, and I will admit it was a bloody one, but would you have a peace lover as your king in face of this situation? It could; no it had to be me! I will prove that I was the right king to anybody who still doubts me, once we take Royland's head we will build a tower that will reach into the heavens. I will take our great army into those heavens and I will slaughter each and every one of the Gods that reside there! I will bring all their heads back as trophies and have them spiked on the castle gates to remind all that see it, that even mortals can kill the all-powerful Gods!"

Hearing the crowd chant his name, Conanus turned and walked back inside his castle as the chants continued and not a single citizen left.

"That was quite the speech; King of Mortals."

"It irks me that I have to converse with my advisor through a bat, but I suppose I have no choice in the matter.", Conanus said as he looked at the cloaked scrawny man then to the bat, "I trust things went well in Midharbor?"

"Better than well, soon everything will come to fruition."

"That is excellent news. I have a task for you. I'm sure you have heard news of a group of bandits terrorizing villages and razing them to the ground."

"Indeed we have caught wind of this. If I am not mistaken a small town not too far from here was completed destroyed not too long ago. What was that town called again? ..." The bat replied as he tried to recall the name.

"Smallcrest."

"Yes! Smallcrest that's what it was called. So what is it you want us to do?"

"I want you to find the bandit leader and kill him using the army of the dead you raised. You know what to do once you killed them all."

"That is something I'm afraid will not be possible."

"What do you mean?" Conanus exclaimed in outrage.

"We know exactly who it was that razed that town to the ground. To do a job so swiftly and leave no survivors at all to tell the tale could only mean it was the work of the Iron Dominion."

"The Iron Dominion?"

"They are a fearsome bandit group, led by a monster that's sole purpose is to destroy everything in his path. It's just rumours, but it is said that this monster is half human, half orc. He demands strength from his men and kills the weak. He is known as Newgate the Pillager; it is also said that he made a deal with something even more powerful than the devil. I fear that he will not be able to be converted into a member of our undead army."

"How do you know all this if he leaves no survivors?"

"A man was allowed to live, due to an overwhelming respect Newgate had for him. He later left the Iron Dominion, taking a small group of bandits from the Iron Dominion with him. We met him once, although that was quite a few krosts ago, his name was Stanwick the Lunatic."

"His name leaves question to the information obtained from him."

"There are somethings that only make sense when seen with your own eyes. Regardless of how you feel we will not mobilise the undead army against the Iron Dominion."

The scrawny man and the bat melted into a black puddle that seeped through the floor, leaving Conanus alone in the room.

"I swear that once you served your purpose I will have you and that annoying bat slaughtered before my very eyes. Hell, I will be the one to take your heads."

Elsewhere a terrified bandit entered a dimly lit room. The bandit shivered as he walked down the long hall with the skulls of people that emitted a faint glow. He approached a giant wooden door that was reinforced with the skeletons of people and 'decorated' with aged blood. The bandit held his breath and raised his fist to knock on the door, but before he could get his fist to move, the door begun to open. The room was brightly lit and on a throne of bones a behemoth of a monster sat, with a skull filled with wine and a bloody mace at his side. The bandit silently screamed at his body to turn and run, but his body knew better, his body knew what it would suffer if it listened to the mind.

The behemoth said nothing and just continued to stare at the bandit at the far end of the room. His gaze was enough for the bandit to understand what he had to do. The bandit rushed forward, stumbling from his fear, as he made his way within reach of the behemoth's mace. Before the behemoth, the bandit couldn't raise his head no matter how hard he tired, yet he didn't want to even if he could.

"B-b-boss, uhm; you see, we couldn't get a name from anybody. A-and one of the guys got out of hand; he set a building on fire. There was nothing I could do; they, they ran so I had them killed; I couldn't let the villagers get away." The bandit stuttered as he kept his head down and sweat beaded on his forehead.

The behemoth placed his skull goblet down and reached for his mace, the bandit who was looking down didn't have time to run or say anything. The mace slammed down, splitting the bandit's skull open and crushing his bones. Blood begun to pool at the behemoth's feet, seeing this the behemoth kicked the crushed body away from him and placed his mace down beside him.

A man walked into the room and surveyed the body and the bloody mace, "I will get men in here to have this cleaned at once."

"His body gets added to the door." The behemoth said as he took a massive gulp of wine.

"I take it he didn't have the answers you were looking for?"

"He came back with excuses. I need a name, I don't care who gets it or how they get it, I need to find out who saved that people from the village and killed my men."

"At once, I will have a reward placed for whoever can get the information for you.", the man said as he begun to leave, "One more thing, you should really learn to relax Newgate."

The behemoth crushed the skull in his hand causing the wine to splatter and run to the ground, "I can't, not when he is coming to see me."