War Aeternus 3: The Culling

by Charles Dean

  To my pack sisters, Sinead and Clodagh,

  I have a great request on this day, for I will be requiring you to travel with great haste over even greater distances to the land between Satterfield and Kirshtein. There, you will find the putrefying sickness of genetic rot that infested the kingdoms of old, and amongst that rot, you will find a man who stands between me and my prize. If not for my own mission, I would already be there to rip his throat out and cull the earth of his weakness, but alas, I must instead trust this mission to you two and your two kin. I am counting on you. Purify the road between those two towns of all disease that cannot withstand your fury, such that only the strong and worthy will come out of the journey alive. Do this for me, and make sure you kill the man with the silken shirt and the scent of mutton about him, for Ulchabhannadhbh has told me that he is attempting to poison the mind of our Herald with the defilement of weakness and corrupt his pure and savage nature. We must save the great Herald Lee before he swallows this poison.

  Lee was stunned when he finished reading the letter. He didn’t know exactly what to make of it or exactly what ‘genetic filth’ was, but it creeped him out and unnerved him in a way that he couldn’t put his finger on. For all of the help this strange Herald was supposedly intending to offer him, he found himself wanting to meet her less and less by the hour. And he was also glad that he hadn’t let Connacht’s messenger see it. If he had, Lee’s diplomatic troubles with Connacht would have been multiplied beyond his control.

  The worst part was that it implied that, if he ever became enemies with this new Herald, he would be at a severe disadvantage. The Herald had the one asset that could make or break armies in a war: speed. She had it in spades. It hadn’t been more than a few hours to half a day, yet already the Herald had been notified of Lee’s whereabouts, informed of the people near him, along with their intentions and directions, and had enough time to send out a hit squad that beat Lee to the scene. This was an incredibly dangerous situation for Lee to be in, and for once, he was happy with the idea of being in Kirshtein again.

  Lee sat in silence, ignoring Ling’s questions, for the rest of the way back to Kirshtein. He had enough on his mind already, even without having to stop and explain everything to her, and he knew that he was likely going to be hunted by more Phoukas in the near future. So, after healing himself back up, he decided that it would be a good idea to have some of his mana in reserve just in case something awful happened. Thus, he spent all but 30% on reshaping a few grams of metal to level up his Spirit Smithing and tried to make the most of the trip.

  Chapter 3

  Name: Lee

  Race: Human

  Class: Herald - None

  Level: 26

  Health: 360/360

  EXP: 4175/37000

  Primary Stats:

  Power 36 (39)

  Toughness 36 (39)

  Spirit 36 (39)

  Secondary Stats:

  Charisma 25

  Courage 20

  Deceit 26

  Intelligence 162 (178)

  Honor 3

  Faith 32721

  Personal Faith 233

  Skills:

  Unarmed Combat Initiate Level 7

  Swordplay Novice Level 8

  Sneak Journeyman Level 2

  Cooking Initiate Level 7

  Trap Detection Initiate Level 6

  Knife Combat Initiate Level 8

  Mental Fortitude Initiate Level 1

  Sleight of Hand Initiate Level 3

  Blood Shield Initiate Level 3

  Glass Smithing Initiate Level 10

  Divine Skills:

  Golem Sculpting Journeyman Level 1

  Appreciative Drunk Novice Level 8

  Nectar of the Gods Initiate Level 4

  Spirit Smithing Initiate Level 4

  Faith Healing

  Divinity Powers:

  Life in Death

  Titles:

  Cheat Code Fighter

  The Great Deceiver

  Lee and Ling were greeted immediately by two Humans and a Firbolg that rushed to meet them as they approached the gates of Kirshtein on their Krunklerump.

  “Great Herald! Your presence could not be more needed! First Paladin Miller requires your help right away!” one of the Humans said urgently. “Please! You must come help him!”

  Help Miller? Lee blinked. There are few people in this entire town that could fight Miller, much less Miller and the rest of the people from Satterfield together, not to mention Dave and Pelham. What the heck is he talking about? “Just tell me where they are,” Lee answered, deciding that he'd better not wait around to find out what was going on after the fact.

  “The park! They’re at the park where you fought the enemy Herald. Hurry, please! I’d hate to see something happen!” the man pleaded unnecessarily.

  Lee jerked the mount around and snapped the reins without waiting for a further response.

  The first thing he saw when he arrived was a large number of Firbolgs with several Humans and Leprechauns mixed in. They were gathered around the statue he had made of Amber, and while he couldn’t actually see Miller through the throng, he could hear the Firbolg’s loud voice above those coming from the large crowd.

  “No one touches the statue, or they die!” Miller shouted. “I will murder each and every person not of my order that comes within five feet of our Divine and Holy Lee’s glorious creation!”

  “Glorious creation?” another voice, a higher-pitched voice that was just as boisterous as Miller’s answered back. “We people do not recognize this as glorious! It is a celebration of death, the murder of an innocent benefactor of our great city who was trying to aid us in our time of need! The one true Herald, Devin, died on his way to fight for our city, and your Herald was the one who killed him! How is that not a crime?! The labeling of it as heroic by the city council is nothing more than a flagrant and openly-illegal, corrupt abuse of power by those in charge! We, the people of Kirshtein, demand that our voices be heard! We will not tolerate the crimes committed by the charlatan, Lee, and we will not tolerate the celebration of the great one true Herald’s death!”

  What the . . . Lee blinked as he looked on in shock. He was, at this moment, incredibly happy he had left Miller in the town. No death notices had popped up, so he was certain that no skirmishes had started yet, but he didn’t know how long this back and forth had been going on.

  “Charlatan? He is no charlatan! He is a god, born of a god!” Miller’s shouts penetrated the audience again. “He will not be slandered, and his creation will not be touched. You and that wall of people you hide behind . . . You can come at me now, brothers! I will rip that pathetic, unmoving heart that cannot recognize divine art and beauty from your chest and eat it right in front of you as you die!”

  Oh no, you really shouldn’t anger him . . . you won’t like him when he’s . . . Lee tossed his head back and laughed at Miller’s threat, even though he knew that he really shouldn’t have. The hearty, nearly-villainous cackle was loud enough that the people in the back of the crowd heard him and turned to see what type of person would find any of this amusing. It was hard for Lee to contain himself since he knew Miller would absolutely keep to his word. The single-minded Firbolg was never one to hold back on fulfilling a promise when it involved blood and violence.

  “Who are you?! And how dare you laugh at this situation! Good people died right here, and you are chuckling? You are making light of it?” a man near the back yelled at Lee, and others immediately joined in with the proper mob mentality.

  Lee let it go on for a moment, simply absorbing the charges and accusations against him, and then he spoke up. “Oh, who am I?” He took a moment to collect himself a bit as he looked down at the rabble comprised of the three races. He was surprised to see Humans among the naysayers, given what the Firbolg he had killed did to them and how lowly he thought of them, but he suspected there would always be those who hated their own kind and rallied against them. “You guys all came
here to condemn me, so I figured you’d at least know who I was.”

  “Condemn you?” the man asked.

  “That’s right. Since I’m the one who killed your old Herald . . . and every single other bastard that tried to fight me after,” Lee said with a smile. “And as for that statue, I’m the one who made it, so I suppose you’ve condemned me twice.”

  “You are the . . . You’re Lee! You’re the charlatan from a foreign town that came here to disrupt the peace and order of Kirshtein!” the man yelled. As he shouted, more and more people turned to face him. Spurred by the others around them, they soon began to push forward, forming a semicircle around Lee. No matter how the throng pressed or shifted, however, they all somehow managed to remain equally distant from him and his mount--likely because none was brave enough to step any closer.

  “Yeah! That’s me! You got my name right!” Lee shouted with a laugh as he pulled out his sword. The charlatan part is definitely right as well. Lee’s eyes narrowed as he looked around at the crowd for the most obvious threat. “I’m so glad that you all came out to see my art and were so happy that you couldn’t wait to take a piece home for yourself . . . But, sadly, I’m going to have to disappoint you all. It’s not going anywhere.”

  “That’s right! We didn’t murder anyone. We killed the Herald of Deigha in the name of justice, and anyone who comes near this statue will feel that same justice!” Miller yelled too when he saw Lee, a smile creeping across his face. He was clearly proud that he had protected Amber’s monument.

  “Miller, I’m glad you’re trying to reason with these bastards, but there is no point in logic,” Lee laughed. His face was red and flushed, and his knuckles were white from how hard he was gripping his sword, but that didn’t stop him from finding the situation amusing. “I’m going to just say it here: You’re all cowards. Bloody, freaking, cowards. Do you think time will fortify your courage or attenuate our resolve? Do you think if you wait out here long enough, more men, braver men, will come to your aid? You must because, if not, why would you be standing around here fruitlessly occupying all of ours? That man”--Lee pointed to Miller--“has drawn the line in the sand, but I will make it even clearer. If you take a single step in the direction of that statue, you will die. I will not let a single one of you filthy, loathsome and craven bastards disgrace the honor of that woman. Do I make myself clear?”

  “We’ll die? Are you really going to kill me, the eldest and only prince of the house of Tigernach with so many witnesses and in cold blood? Well, I think you’re full of it, but if you’re not, then let my death be the chains that shackle you to prison!” The loud man from earlier stared Lee, turned to face the statue, took a deep breath and then stepped forward.

  “Miller!” Lee shouted across the mob, a sly smile creeping across his face. “I believe you made this man a promise. If you’d be so kind . . .”

  The encouragement wasn’t necessary. As soon as the man placed his foot firmly one step out from the crowd and in the direction of the statue, Miller rushed forward and thrust his spear right into the man’s guts. The man’s eyes went wide in shock first, and then he threw his head back and howled in pain while clutching at the spear as if he could somehow remove it.

  Miller let go of his weapon, leaving it firmly planted in the man’s gut, and then shoved his massive fists into the man’s chest. The sickening sound of bone and marrow being broken apart filled the square as Miller ripped the man’s rib cage open in a single, violent move. The giant Firbolg then reached into the man’s chest, grabbed his heart, and pulled it out.

  The man’s face, already contorted in a combination of horror and excruciating pain, was splattered with his own blood as Miller finished his violent work and, true to his promise, took a bite of the man’s heart right in front of him and spat the bloody bit of organ back in the prince’s face.

  You have killed Prince Ualtar of House Tigernach. Your party has been awarded a fine gold ring, a fine silver pendant, an emerald, a pair of fine silk shoes, the seal of House Tigernach, 1178 gold and 201 Experience. Your share of this is a fine silver pendant, the seal of House Tigernach, 392 gold and 67 Experience.

  “I really thought he’d have passed out or straight-up died before Miller got the first bite,” Lee said to Ling behind him, “but either way, are you ready?”

  “I am, but I don’t have much room to maneuver with you on the Krunklerump.

  “Okay then,” Lee said quietly as he hopped off the mount.

  “I have to admit that I didn’t really think he had the guts to do it.” Lee pushed into the crowd, moving toward where the man had died. The crowd opened up and parted for him once they realized what he was doing, as he walked over to the blood-soaked Miller and the now-dead prince. “Even if he did die, at least he wasn’t as spineless as the rest of you. So, who’s next?” Lee asked, looking around at the people. “Which one of you aberrant fiends will come forth to die next?”

  They had all been bravely shouting encouragement moments ago, but they were now strangely silent. Most of them seemed to be fixated on the impossible-to-ignore visual reminder of what might happen to them. The mob mentality had not protected them in the way they had clearly thought it would, and neither did status seem to act as a shield. Instead, it had become abundantly clear to these civilians and nobles that any step forward to desecrate Amber’s statue would result in a fight to the death, with a quick end being the best these non-combatants could hope for against the seasoned Firbolg and the troops behind him.

  “What? Nothing?” Lee asked, looking around. “Well, I suppose that settles it then. I’ll give you all a few minutes to clear the park, or else I’m going to murder each and every one of you where you stand.”

  “On what grounds?! This is city property, and as citizens, we have the right to be here!” the one who had challenged Lee earlier shouted. He stepped forward, and the people parted for him in the same fashion they had for Lee as he defiantly made his way up to the inner edge of the crowd, took a step forward and then spat as hard as he could in Lee’s direction. “We are the people of Kirshtein, and we will not be--” His sentence was cut off as a giant spear hurdled through the air and pierced his skull. The long weapon split the man’s skull in half, piercing through his nose and out the back with ease.

  Lee turned around to see a smiling, but now-spearless Miller.

  “You said to kill anyone who took a step toward the statue, and he was taking steps toward the statue!” Miller quickly defended his actions before even waiting for Lee’s response. The giant grinned, and the whites of his teeth stood out in stark contrast to his face, which had been dyed red by the man’s blood. Lee was fairly certain there was a piece of the man’s heart still stuck between his teeth.

  “I did, didn’t I?” Lee nodded. “You know, I think I saw one of the people on the edge, one that was moving out of the man’s way, make a step toward the statue too,” he added with a devious grin. The people who had been closest to the man as he died all took in a collective breath as they scurried back further away from the statue in a state of shock. The circle around Amber’s monument grew in diameter as none of them wanted to be the closest person to it, each slowly shifting one after the other to make sure he or she wasn’t standing nearest.

  Lee watched with disgust. Despite all the laughter, the fact that they would threaten Amber’s statue less than a week after she gave her life to save him from the racist demagogue these people still seemed to follow left him feeling like a clump of bile was stuck halfway between his throat and his belly. “You know . . . I just don’t have the patience for this. Ling, I want you to pick one of them at random and start shooting in sixty seconds if they aren’t running--and I mean actually running--out of the park by then.”

  Ling swallowed hard enough that Lee could see her do it from where he was on the ground, dozens of feet away, but she didn’t protest. Instead, she just gave him a two-word response: “Yes, sir.”

  Lee felt bad about giving her the task,
but he took comfort in the fact that the people bolted no sooner than he had voiced it. Some of them took a few seconds longer than the others, but they all took off, running away at full speed.

  “Timorous men, how mighty and brave they were when they had stronger bigots to hide behind,” Lee remarked with a rueful smirk as he watched them scamper.

  “Was that really necessary?” Ling asked when the last of them was out of earshot, and the only ones who remained were Miller, Ling and Miller’s so-called paladins. He recognized about half of them as men from Satterfield, but the other half was completely foreign to him. They had likely been recruited in the short period of time that Lee had spent traveling to Satterfield and burying Amber properly.

  “Yeah, it was,” Lee answered flatly. “And if I hear about anyone doing anything to the statue again, I’ll probably kill a few more than today just to make sure the point gets across.”

  “You’ll just martyr them,” Ling said, looking at the corpse of the prince near Miller’s feet.

  “Maybe. That’d be nice if it were the case.” Lee kicked the corpse he saw Ling looking at for emphasis. “It’d be better to get them all out together, angry and upset with me in the same place, so I can kill them all at once.”

  Ling’s complaints about Lee’s behavior grew along with her voice. “That’s not what we do. Doesn’t Augustus preach forgiveness?! This isn’t who you are, and you can’t let who you are change, even if you are upset!”

  “No, it isn’t who I was,” Lee said resolutely. “I’m all for forgiveness, but if they threaten me or my beliefs or her statue, then I’ll just have to forgive their dead bodies instead of their live ones. If they give up on that thinking and go home, I won’t press the issue at all. That’s the forgiveness I offer.”

  “That’s the spirit! Justice can be served to all who threaten the works of our Herald, Lee, or the god, Augustus!” Miller asserted, proudly standing next to Lee.