The Birth of the New World

Gra

Winter is progressing slowly, and while here on the newly dug out island that is the base, the cold winds and snow of winter are being held back by Lain’s newly gained powers, that protection does not extend to the lands outside of the island, however.

Outside, far across the vast chasm that is slowly filling in with fresh water and turning into a lake, is a land of cold, harsh, snow and ice. A place where hard winds tear at unprotected flesh like blades and would leave a person frostbitten and dead before the day is out.

Lain has a promise that needs to be fulfilled out there. A promise that was made not just to herself, but also to a pair of girls and a dead man.

The surviving Goblins and Hobgoblins are out there, and she is either going to be bringing then under her wings as her people or slaughtering those that don’t bend the knee.

…

I give Lain a worried look as we trudge through the snow, Vivviv’s hand held in my own as we walk beside the winged Devil that is no longer the same height as me, but now taller by a few inches. Her horns don’t help with the height difference either, making her feel as if she is towering over us despite not even being a whole head taller.

She looks agitated, but also weirdly bubbly and excited at the same time? It took some thinking to figure out, not wanting to ask her while she is clearly in a weird mood, but my best guess is that it has something to do with her mate back at home.

The blue haired horned woman that smells of Kobold, she had been in the hospital for a while and just recently was able to return to living at Lain’s home. I only recently learned that a hospital is a place of healing, but that isn’t important.

Her mate, Sky, had apparently done something involving a… proposal and marriage? Some kind of promise that has everyone living in that big house of theirs all up in a frenzy, but now the two of them are wearing matching rings and being weird. I was going to research what these things are in Lain’s library, but before I could get around to it, she ended up dragging us out of the house to go and find my people.

Despite not being especially enthused about doing it, she had made those promises, and something about her is compelling her to see them fulfilled, even if she clearly has no desire to leave the house or her wife, or fiancée, or whatever it is that they’ve been calling each other… I try to stay out of people’s way there, so I only pick up things from the wayside occasionally.

On the subject of Sky, she clearly doesn’t like us, but she hasn’t done anything to antagonize us though. She just keeps her distance and ignores us if we end up in the same room. Which is how it is with most of the humans so far. They clearly don’t like us, which is understandable considering that my people just tried to siege their land and wanted to eat them… Aside from most people though, Lain’s family is weird. They keep trying to talk to us and get to know us, Lain’s sister, who looks nothing like her, being the worst offender as she is always wanting to hang out with us and bother me while I’m trying to read. Humans are weird…

Regardless, it helps that we are doing this now. No matter how much I don’t want to leave that library full of books, the warm fireplace, the soft bed and couches with their wonderful blankets and pillows, hot tea and cookies, and my cute little orange kitten that Vivviv found while scrounging around in the barn out back. His name is Farny, and his belly is wonderful and soft and I love him so much, Ahhhhh! I just want to go home and cuddle with him right now!

… Regardless. Back on subject...

I also made a promise that I would do what I could for my people, I can’t very well leave them out here and suffering in the cold, lost and separated after the death of our leader, my father…

I grip Vivviv’s hand a bit tighter as we walk down an animal trail through the woods, my magic pushing aside the snow to let us walk through without trouble or difficulty. Lain just simply walks along beside us, scowling out at the surrounding snow like it personally offended her, before returning a happy look down at her hand, playing with the ring on her finger, looking as unstable as always. Happy one moment and pissed at the world the next, this person is clearly crazy, and she still scares the living hell out of me, no matter how nice and accommodating she is to us at home.

I need to make sure that she doesn’t kill them all…

Working up the courage to ask, I look other and ask the crazy Devil. “Will you really not kill them? You promise to spare them? I know that we attacked your home, but…”

She doesn’t even bother to raise her gaze from the ring, the mirror polished silver band reflecting the sun light beautifully against the black scales that dress the back of her hand.

“Don’t worry Gra, my grudge died with your father. We had our differences, and we settled them. I hold nothing against your people, I never really did to begin with... I just need to be sure that we won’t have a repeat of this incident. The last thing I need is another Goblin King rising up, especially right next door, and trying to pull this stunt again. If your people swear to behave and fall in line, I will treat them as my own. My Demi-humans. But those who don’t, I must kill them. I can’t take the risk. Not again. I will have my borders clean and safe for my people so that we can rebuild in safety.”

“Just… please, give them a chance. Let me try to talk to them first. They aren’t a threat to you, so please give a chance to convince them. I’ll make sure that they-!”

Lain waves her hand and stops me before I can get too worked up, I can feel myself shaking with worry at the thought of her slaughtering them if my people attack her.

“Don’t worry, Gra. Don’t worry. I’m not here for massacre and genocide. I’ll give them every chance we can give, but at the end of the day. When we leave here, they will either be following willingly, or I will remove them. I would like to get home sooner rather than later, but I did make you a promise, didn’t I?” She asks as she finally removes her eyes from the ring and looks to me, meeting my gaze evenly.

Her eyes, those fires that burn behind those golden halos of hers. Every time I look into them, I can feel Father’s power there. Captured and tamed, made hers fully and completely. Even in her Field, her magic, I can feel some little part of him that now tints her soul. I know that she ate him and made him a part of herself, even if there is nothing truly left of him inside of her.

Still, whenever she looks at me like this, I can’t help but feel that I am standing beside him again. That it is his eyes that I am looking into.

Regardless of how much she scares me, part of my soul, the broken part where my connection to Father was severed by his death. It longs to reach out and connect to hers. To finally be reconnected to my King…

I quickly look away and give Vivviv’s hand another squeeze, fighting down the uneasy feeling in my chest. Bless Vivviv, this simple girl. She doesn’t even seem to be paying attention to what’s going on or even caring for that matter. Just happily humming a song she learned from Lain’s music collection as she looks around at the snow-covered scenery, bobbing her little green head along to the tune. I want to give her a hug…

Eventually, I just give a nod and respond. “Mhm… You did promise. I just can’t help but worry…”

“I understand. I get it, I’m scarry. Plenty of people are scared of me right now, but just know, I always keep my promises. I may be a Devil, but I’m not a liar.”

I just nod again and Lain returns to lovingly playing with her ring. With the conversation dead, and Vivviv’s humming being our only noise, we continue to wander in the woods, guided forward by Lain’s intuition as her unfulfilled promise is seemingly guiding her to where she needs to go.

At least that is what I think is happening? We tend to just change directions at random, just turning as Lain does. I already asked her once if she knows where she is going, but all I got in response was a shrug earlier.

…

It takes a couple of hours of just aimlessly wandering, but we do eventually end up finding them. Our first sign was the smoke, weak fires burning off in the distance.

When we finally arrived at their camp, I had to hold back countless feeling at the sight of them. Pity and disgust being some of the worst.

My people hardly even react to us entering the area, just giving a blank look in our general direction before returning to languishing in their misfortunes. They look dead. Despite being alive, their eyes are dull and listless, their bodies withering away and looking malnourished, being only maintained to the bare minimum as they lay about and wait for death to take them.

The only reason that they haven’t frozen to death out here is because one of my younger Brothers, a Fire Mage, had survived the war and managed to escape with these survivors, holding everyone together. But even still, his Field is just barely covering everyone that is left, just barely putting in enough effort to keep them all from freezing to death. And even then, I can feel that he is only doing it because of some last shed of responsibility that was left with him. He is already on the brink of just giving up and stopping, of finally just giving in and letting the elements take them all.

My people have given up.

Without Father, they have lost their purpose for living. It was because of him that we are even capable of calling ourselves people. Of having thought and reason and motivations beyond just basic survival and animalic desires. Without him to guide them, they have nothing…

Lain doesn’t move to do anything, simply turning to look at me as if to say that this is my show, to give me my chance.

I… I honestly have no idea what to do here. Do I give a speech and try to rouse them back into action? I’ve never given a speech before, and quite frankly, the idea of doing so just sounds horrible. I would probable just mess is up if I did. What would I even say?

Not knowing what else to do, I look around the camp, if it can even be called that, considering that they are just loitering in the collapsed remains of what appears to have once been an old warehouse. The first things I notice is the mages.

Among the survivors, and most noticeable, is the Fire Mage, his active Field making it impossible to not notice him. Layered under his, as to not get in the way and also because they just can’t bother to try, is the Fields of what feels like three Earth Mages, a single Water Mage, and lastly one of my fellow Ice Mages. The last I checked, besides myself, there was only two others, born from some of the newer generations, so I take a bit of solace in knowing that at least one survived.

Besides the six mages, there is also about a dozen of my regular Siblings, or Hobgoblins as people have been calling us, mixed in with a horde of maybe three hundred or so little ones. Off in one corner, sequestered away from everyone else is where the expecting mothers are gathered, protected from the wind by some still standing walls.

“Is this everyone that is left?” I ask myself, feeling depressed and honestly shocked. We had numbered in the hundreds of thousands not too long ago, but just a single war had shredded our numbers down to such a pitiful point. I have to mentally remind myself that there is still more of our people out there in the world and that we aren’t on the verge of extinction… But that isn’t right, is it?

Those that are still out there, scattered across the world, they aren’t like us. They never received Father’s words, his gift, their minds never being awakened to true thought. Compared to us, to even our dumbest little ones, those others are nothing but animal-like creatures that can’t even talk or think.

We are alone out here, reduced to a mere couple hundred. If I hadn’t understood what it meant to know that we lost, then I truly do now. My people are beaten and waiting to die…

As I am slowly growing more and more depressed, I eventually feel another Field come into the area and turn my attention that way. Exiting the wood and walking towards the camp, one of my little Sisters arrives with the corpse of a monster floating behind her.

It takes a moment for me to recognize her, but my memory quickly catches up with me when I realize that she is our Metal Mage. The only one to ever be born into our ranks, she made quite the stir when the others learned about her magic.

What was her name? Kay… no. It was, Kan’t’ve, right? Yeah, that’s right. Ha, I really need to get better at remembering names…

Kan’t’ve seems to notice us as well as she draws near, the monster corpse being held in the air by floating sheets of metal as she walks over. I can’t see her face because of that helmet she always wears, but she doesn’t seem too perturbed by our presence. She isn’t scared or agitated, nor does it look like she is readying for a fight. She just walks over with one hand resting on the pommel of her sword as she brings the corpse over, dumping the thing off in camp before heading to us. The others hardly react to the fresh meat. Where usually, doing something like that would have ended up with a feeding frenzy of little ones swarming the corpse, there is only a few people grunting as they hoist themselves up onto their feet to go and get some food. Most don’t even bother moving.

Kan’t’ve arrives before us and gives us a look over, stopping just a short distance away. Reaching up and pulling her helmet off, I can finally see just how exhausted she looks. Her eyes are lacking their normal energy, and she just has a disinterested look on her face as she looks at us.

“So, the Grey Demon, the Traitor Sister, and the Little Failure have arrived… Have you come to finish us off?” She asks, her voice sounding hollow.

I cringe at being called a traitor but try not let it show too much on my face. Vivviv on the other hand bristles and points at Kan’t’ve, declaring, “I’m not a failure! You guys are the failures! I get to eat cookies and cuddle with Gra every day while you are out here like a bunch of losers!”

Kan’t’ve just give her a look and sighs.

“You’re right. I don’t know what cookies are, but we lost… So, are you here to kill us or not?” She asks again, seeming disinterested in arguing.

Lain speaks up and answers her, surprising her slightly as Lain had answered her in our language, having already learned and mastered our Gift of Language which she seems to have inherited from consuming Father.

“No, we aren’t here to kill all of you. Only the ones that won’t follow or try to fight us. Though, looking at all of you, I don’t see very much fight left…”

“What do you mean?” She asks curiously. “Follow?”

Lain just turns to me and gestures with her chin, silently telling me to handle this.

“The Grey Demon, Lain, has decided to take us under her wing and make us her people. She will help us find a place to call our own, where we can grow as a people and develop, but we will be hers now. She will become our new King…”

“You would have us all betray Father by following his enemy?”

I grimace at the word, betray, but nod and say, yes.

“It is either that, or death. She isn’t going to tolerate having us living so close to her land. Please, just bend the knee and swear to obey her. I don’t want to see more of us dying for a useless cause.”

“Why should we bother? Without Father, we don’t have a purpose. We need our leader, and I don’t see you taking up the position, Big Sister.” She says with a tired scowl, my title leaving her mouth like dirt on her tongue.

“She can give us purpose. More purpose than just mindless following our leader to our deaths over a grudge. Under her, we will have the chance to grow, not as mindless and hungry creatures that only know how to follow and obey, but as actual people. Have you ever thought about having a life outside of all of this? Of what would happen after everything is over? Of what you would do once all the fighting is over?”

“… No.” She says after thinking for a moment, being too tired to bother trying to fight with me, and instead humoring my questions.

“I was always just happy as long as I could swing my sword for Father. To cut down his enemies and become stronger. I never really thought about it…”

“Then what if you could wield your sword for her? Does it have to be Father that you serve?”

“Father is the one that gave me this gift. He made me who I am. It’s only natural that I should serve him.”

“Father is dead.” I tell her flatly, trying to hold down the pain in my voice. Regardless of how I felt about him, his death still hurts me. I was still his daughter, no matter how much I hated him…

Kan’t’ve just give a sigh and turns to look towards all the others, watching as they lazily move to get a bit of meat from the corpse before returning to languishing without a purpose. She even turns her back to Lain, someone she should consider an enemy, an action that she would have never done before all of this.

Eventually, she returns her attention back to us, disregarding Vivviv and I as she addresses Lain.

“Can you really give us a purpose? Can you lead us?”

Lain just simply nods, her long sinuous tail moving lazily behind her like a black snake as she answers.

“Yes. I will make you a people. Despite everything that has happened between us, I will treat you as one of my own. Just like my Demons, my Gremlins, and all the others that will eventually follow. I will make you mine, and through our connection, I shall help give your people the push they need to become more.”

Kan’t’ve looks off to the right, considering her options for a bit. She then asks, “Will I get to see Xander again?”

Lain raises an eyebrow in confusion, “Hm?”

“Xander, he is one of your Demons. The cute one with the sword. I had a lot of fun fighting him. I wouldn’t mind getting to do that again…” She says with a slight blush on her tan cheeks.

Lain just looks at her for a long second before breaking out into a laughing fit, bending over as she laughs and holds herself. She quickly manages to pull herself together and apologizes.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing. That was immature of me… Hah… So, Sam wasn’t kidding when she told me he seduced a cute Hobgoblina with his sword skills. Ah, I love this~ Yes, Kan’t’ve, you will get to see him again and spar to your heart’s content. I promise you. In fact, when we head back home, I can bring you straight to him if you’d like, to prove my word.”

Kan’t’ve frowns at being laughed at, looking away as she puts her helmet back on to hide her blushing face, but she doesn’t seem angry.

“… Very well, I see no real reason to refuse then, besides personal grudges. But there is little reason to seek revenge against you at this point. No matter what I try, I see absolutely no way of killing you. I don’t think I can even harm you with my current strength.”

“You can’t.” Lain states simply. She isn’t bragging or teasing, nor is she trying to demoralize her by saying this. She is simply stating a fact.

“Mhm…” Kan’t’ve nods. “Well, it’s better than continuing what we are doing out here, which is nothing… Very well, I shall become a traitor as well, if you will accept me.”

Knelling before Lain, Kan’t’ve pulls her helmet off again, her face looking stoic despite her depression, and sets it in the snow beside her. She then draws her sword and plants into the ground before her, looking up at Lain as she waits for something to happen.

Watching Lain, I witness as her demeanor changes like it sometimes does, like when she had made our contracts. With a smooth smile growing on her face, looking in control as if everything is going exactly as she desires, she speaks with the weight of royalty and divinity, her presence taking on a new air as she lets the world know of her power.

“Kan’t’ve, do you vow to become one of my people and to obey my words? To accept my gift and use it in my service? To become one of my people?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then I accept you as one of my own. From this moment forward, you are no longer merely a Hobgoblin, but a Demi-human. A servant of the Demon Queen. As one of my people, you shall be afforded the same rights and freedoms that I give all my people. You will have freedom, and you will have my love.”

Raising her hands, Lain take one finger, her black fingernail growing out into a claw, and cuts her palm open. With black blood pooling in her hand, she offers it to Kan’t’ve.

“Drink my blood and become more. Become one of my people.”

Reaching out with both hands, Kan’t’ve accepts Lain’s offer and drinks her blood, her lips becoming stained black as some of the blood spills down as a line down the side of her face.

I can feel something inside of my soul reacting to this, as if it is reaching out and longing for the same. The part of my soul that was severed by Father’s death is itching and aching, crying out for union and reconnection.

Parting from Lain’s hands, Kan’t’ve swallows, her body shivering under all her metal armor as something inside of her is writhing. With a gasping breath, she reals back, looking like she was just struck, her hands going to her face as tears well up in her eyes.

She has to stop herself from nearly collapsing, gasping for air as her body violently shakes and quivers. And once it finally comes to a stop, she picks herself up and looks towards Lain with tears in her eyes, having to hold onto her sword just to keep herself upright.

“My Queen… Please, order me. I will do anything!” She declares with tears running down her eyes, looking as if she is in bliss.

“I order you to be your own person. To find purpose, for yourself, in your life. Like all of my people, I grant you free will.”

Like a key finding its lock, something seems to click inside of her, but she is confused and directs her concerns to her new Queen.

“But… How do I do that?”

Lain just smiles. “That is for you to figure out, just like every other person. You have your whole life ahead of you now. But don’t worry, I, and others, will be more than happy to help you along the way.

Kan’t’ve nods slowly, seemingly looking inside herself as she tries to ponder this. Eventually, she asks, “What can I do for you in mean time then? I want to help.”

“Assist Gra with helping your people. Try to convince them to do the same as you did. The more that you manage to convince, the more that won’t have to die today.”

She bows and returns her sword and helmet to their rightful places. Standing, she moves to join me off to the side, saying, “I will. Still, even if we are connected now, this doesn’t mean that I have suddenly forgiven you for killing Father. Nothing has changed.”

“And I don’t expect it to. You have free will, feel free to use it as you please.” Lain says with a shrug. “Just know that I won’t tolerate any attacks against the people I care for. If you ever decide to get revenge against me, then leave me as your only target. I will accept your challenge at any time.”

Kan’t’ve nods and then turns to me, looking a little bit more revitalized now. Just looking at her has my soul aching to follow her example, but I hold it back and ask, “So, how should we do this?”

She just shrugs.

“Eh, let’s just go around and slap them until they do as we say. We’ll drag them in front of her if we have to.”

“Good!” Vivviv declares, cracking her knuckles like a little delinquent, though she is hardly intimidating…

Marching out without another word to us, Vivviv declares to all our dejected people, “It’s time to get up and move people! We have a new boss, so get up or we’ll make you get up!”

The first Brother that she approaches just gives her a curse, telling her to screw off before he tries to roll over and go back to sleep.

Vivviv immediately descends upon him in a shower of slaps, grabbing him by his dirty clothes and going to work on him as he sputters and curses, yelling for her to stop. When violence doesn’t work, she snaps her fingers, making a dozen roots and vines burst out of the ground to wrap him up and haul him into the air.

“I’ve got our first volunteer!” She calls as she drags him back towards us, all the others in the camp watching with a mixture of fright and curiosity in equal measure…

Lain just points to the bound Hobgoblin and says, “You know, I actually do need them to volunteer of their own will. Won’t work otherwise.”

Vivviv just gives her a smile full of teeth, looking surprising vicious. A stark contrast from her usual flowery and sweet self.

“Oh, don’t worry. They’ll volunteer. They all will.”

Lain just looks to me and says, “Your girlfriend is scary…”

“She’s not my… Mhmhmmmm…”

Fighting down my embarrassment, I quickly turn to go and get to work. I’m going to save my people, even if I have to drag them, kicking and screaming, towards salvation.