Chapter 42: Fragment Of The Past?
"Save the King!" a voice screamed at the top of its lungs, sword in hand. But this creature wasn’t human, elf, or even orc—it was a goblin.
He stood in the middle of a battlefield with one arm missing, green blood spilling from his mouth.
The sky painted green from the amount of goblin blood it had absorbed.
This didn’t look a battle, it looked like a massacre with the goblins barely holding their own.
He wasn’t alone. The ground was littered with the bodies of goblins, each corpse left in a grotesque state. Yet these goblins had not been the savage, tribal kind. They wore armor, carried fine weaponry, and rode upon horses.
"PROTECT THE KING!" the goblins roared in unison, forming a defensive line. Their enemy stood before them—humans.
The humans slaughtered them like dogs. The goblins fought desperately, managing to inflict some casualties, but they were no match against human might. Archers rained down arrows from above, yet even as wounds piled up, the goblins pressed forward.
They were driven by something far deeper than the fear of death. They were sacrificing themselves for their King.
"Enough," a voice commanded.
The battlefield fell silent, the sound vanishing as though swallowed by a black hole.
A goblin adorned with a crown stepped forward. His body bore not a single scratch, yet his heart ached at the sight of his kin falling before him. If this continued, there would be no one left to rule over.
They couldn’t even handle the humans’ foot soldiers, and the true danger still loomed in the distance—the cavalry mounted on horses waiting for their soldiers to finish the job.
The surviving goblins stopped fighting and turned to their King. Their lives belonged to him, and he had chosen to stand at the front.
The humans, however, saw the goblins as nothing but vermin—creatures that needed to be exterminated.
This was why the goblin King went to extensive lengths to utilize the orcs strength to make up for a lack of theirs and he made progress, or so he thought.
This venue was originally meant to be a meeting between the goblins and the orcs but they were ambushed by the humans, this couldn’t be a coincidence due to the King’s rising influence in other kingdoms. The humans’ couldn’t have that and should this alliance go through, the goblins would effectively control an entire race.
Luckily, the orcs could be persuaded and they chose to betray the goblins for a few hundred gold coin.
The goblin who had first cried out to save the King turned toward him, tears brimming in his eyes.
"It is enough..." the King said, his weapon gleaming strangely with inscriptions carved along its blade.
He took a step forward. The humans had promised mercy if he surrendered.
But the moment he entered their range, a hail of arrows flew.
"You lying bastards!" the one-armed goblin screamed, sprinting toward his King. But he was too far.
The King glanced back, smiling faintly before mouthing a single word.
"Run..."
The arrows pierced his body, tearing through him as the humans pressed forward. The King had believed surrender would save his people. But it was clear now—the humans had no intention of keeping their word.
Blood spilled from his wounds, yet the King clutched his sword tightly. The weapon reacted to his blood, glowing as though alive.
"Y-You foolish humans..." he muttered. Without hesitation, he stabbed the sword into the ground.
An explosion erupted, tearing through the battlefield and killing everything within its range—human and goblin alike.
Just before his body disintegrated into nothingness, the King lifted his gaze, staring as though through the veil of reality itself. He smirked—looking straight into the eyes of whoever was watching.
-
Byung jolted awake, sweat dripping down his forehead. His chest heaved as he struggled to make sense of what he had just seen. Was this real or not?
He shouldn’t be able to dream of things this specific if it was the case but yet, he was.
A dream? It had to be. Yet the goblin in that vision looked exactly like the one he had seen in the mine.
He turned to his side. Maui was gone.
Byung frowned. She had no reason to leave his side. That wasn’t the only thing wrong—this place looked unfamiliar.
"Where am I?" he muttered, assuming Maui had moved him while he slept. But unease gnawed at him.
"Frrr... ffffrrr..." A distorted voice echoed faintly.
"Maui!? Where are you!?" Byung shouted, his voice cracking with panic. No reply came.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he noticed something. A shadow stood in the distance—one that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
"This... this is just like that time..." Byung whispered, recalling the corpse he had found in the mine.
"Find..." The figure’s voice became clearer, though distorted.
Byung froze. "Find what?" he asked, wary of closing the distance. If this place was anything like before, what happened here could bleed into reality.
"Find the sword..." the voice finished, but this time it came from directly behind him.
Startled, Byung whipped around—yet there was nothing. He turned back again. The shadow was gone.
"Are you the system? Who are you!? What are you!?" he demanded, but before the answer could come, his eyes shot open.
"BYUNG! WAKE UP!"
Maui was shaking him, her face pale with worry. Byung’s throat ached from screaming in his sleep.
"Maui..." He glanced around. He was back. The world he knew.
Relief washed over him, and he exhaled deeply. "It was just a bad dream. Did I scare you?"
Maui nodded, though her expression betrayed her unease.
"You look more scared than me... are you okay?" Byung asked.
Maui forced a smile and nodded again, but Byung could read her body. She was lying. The fear she radiated wasn’t from his screaming—it was from the words he had spoken.
"Find the sword..."
Maui’s eyes trembled. She knew something. Far more than she had ever let on.