Chapter 2 – Rabier! The Pest Controle is here!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted works used here. I am writing this story for my personal pleasure only, without receiving any profit.

"Blah" speeches

Blah thinking

#"Blah"# Seraphim language

'Blah' telepathy

$"Blah"$ Discussions with the shadow plane

/Blah/ Old Draconic

Ϩ Bla Ϩ Parseltongue

Blah₱ Translated Pokémon language

[Bla] Pokédex entries

"Bla" Bijuu and other creatures

Bla Bijuu talking to their host

"[Blah]" Zoids

"b̶̧̺̲̟̞̭̲̘́̒̎̃̈̂̊̐l̡̙͕̱͚̭̠͙̼͌̐̽̽͘͜͝a̘͙͓̩͉͚̰̭̔͊͛̎̇͛̋̌͘" distorted voice

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Anoth crouched in front of the cage and looked at the young slave who was still being hugged by her mother.

"Look at me." Anoth said softly as he crouched next to Lariana. Raphtalia's head moved slowly in his direction. She was obviously scared. He couldn't blame her after what the dealer had told him about Rabier.

When Anoth started scratching behind her ears, she calmed down surprisingly quickly. In the end she even leaned into his hand.

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A few minutes later

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Anoth asked Belloukas, as the slave trader was called, if he regularly sold children.

His answer was more than clear.

A clear NO.

He actually hated selling children or even seeing them as slaves. But not all slave traders shared this attitude. He only had Raphtalia here because Rabier really wanted to get rid of her. Whatever the reason.

This meant for Anoth that if he saw slave traders with children in the wagons, that they do not work for Belloukas' clan. That made them legitimate targets.

There was only one problem if he did that.

What to do with the freed little ones?

He still had to come up with something.

He couldn't traipse around with dozens of kids with him. Especially not when the waves are coming in for a fight.

There wasn't much he could do about this point right now.

The transfer from Raphtalia to Anoth was completed within a very short time. And Lariana also had her own slave seal a short time later. Anoth had also bought a little bit of the special ink and immediately fed it to his shield.

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Slave User Shield

"My slaves do this for me!"

Help your slaves to become much stronger a lot faster.

All attributes upon levelling up +10 additional points.

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"Much stronger"... Yes, that's a pretty good way to describe it.

Plus the bonus from the Immortal Emperor Shield…

The word overpowered probably fits better.

That beastman over there was level 75. But if you looked at his stats and then factored in that bonus, he would be found food for someone who hit level 10.

So it will be worth resetting those with a higher level to level 1, giving them the slave seal and levelling them up again. They will in the end be much stronger and much faster than before.

Lariana was level 54.

Yes, he will definitely do that to her.

As soon as Lariana had her slave seal, the slave trader asked if Anoth would sell her to him. His aura gave him the answer and made him faint at the same time.

When Belloukas regained consciousness 15 minutes after Anoth and Lariana, who had Raphtalia in her arms, left the tent, he was just thinking to himself: Note to self: NEVER EVER piss off the hero of the shield. I have never felt such a powerful aura.

In the meantime, all three had made themselves comfortable in a pub that they had found after some searching. Admittedly there were quite a few here in Melromarc's Castle City, but very few of them let Demi human humans in. This one was one of those few.

Anoth had also snuck into the church with Lariana and reset her level. Which turned out to be easier than expected. They were out again before the nuns and priests even realized that Anoth had placed them under a simple illusion spell.

Anoth was also relieved to discover that Lariana hadn't shrunk to a child again. Lariana had warned him that demi human grow with their levels. But once they grew up, they stayed that way.

As Anoth found out, the pub was run by someone who had married a demi human and already had two children with her, with a third on the way.

Anoth left the two under the innkeeper's care after all three had eaten there. When Raphtalia and Lariana asked him why, Anoth's answer caught Raphtalia's attention.

"I am off to free your friends." Was Anoth's curt reply. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Be careful." It came from Lariana.

"Better worry about those who stand in my way." Anoth's eyes glowed as he said that. It was only a small foretaste of the immense power that Anoth really wielded. Because they won't live long enough to see the next day.

With that he left the pub. However, he did not take the path to the city gate but the next best path that led him to the city wall. He had arrived at the wall and jumped on top of it and back down on the other side before the guards on duty on the wall understood what had happened or even noticed him.

Anoth crept through the tall grass until he was far enough away from the wall. He then changed form into a massive black dragon and took to the skies.

A nearby shadow of the queen almost fell out of her hiding place in a tree when she saw it and could hardly believe her eyes.

She squeaked even more in surprise as the dragon's massive claws fished her out of the tree, resulting in finding herself seconds later sitting on its back.

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An hour flight time later

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"Why did you kidnap me?"

"Why were you watching me?" was Anoth's counter-question when they landed.

Anoth had chosen a small patch of forest not far from Rabier's residence. But out of sight of it.

When no answer came from her, Anoth answered for her.

"I know you're following me at the Queen's behest, and that's why I plucked you from your nest." The girl just raised an eyebrow under her mask. "You are to report to her about what I will find here."

"And why should I do that?"

"Don't pretend to be more stupid than you are." came it back from Anoth. "You heard the slaver's reply. When people like them already hate someone, it doesn't bode well. Slavers need to treat their own 'goods' well, after all, that's what makes them their money. And a healthy slave brings in a lot more than one who is about to die."

"The same does not apply to the nobles who buy the slaves." It came back from the shadow as she began to understand.

"Exactly. Mirellia has been out of the country for several months now. Her husband has been saying that ever since. It's about time she found out what's going on here while she was away. And not just what the beautiful facade tells you."

"How did you even find me?" This time it was a question that came out of the girl's personal curiosity.

"I could feel your aura and smell the blood on you."

"My blood?"

"You are wounded."

The shadow sighed as she pushed up her clothes, revealing her stomach where a bandage was on. Without saying a word, Anoth led the girl to a tree trunk and sat her down on it, than he carefully removed the bandage from her wound. A little later, the shadow felt healing energy flowing through her and the dull pain of the wound disappeared.

She didn't know why she let this be done to her so easily. But for some reason she felt like she could trust the shield hero.

"Thanks." It came back from her as she put her clothes back on properly. "I ran out of healing potions."

"You are welcome." Was Anoth's answer. Either he was imagining it or the girl had turned quite red in the face. "I'm on my way now and you... you do what the queen has told you to do." In response, the girl only giggled briefly and was gone shortly afterwards.

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15 minutes later

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Anoth marched across the path, steadily approaching Rabier's estate. When he reached a hill he stopped. He could see the whole property from here.

How could someone like Rabier afford something like that?

It looked pretty nice from the outside.

At least seen from afar.

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45 minutes later

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Now he stood at the foot of the estate.

It was easy for Anoth to climb over the wall.

First he had to find out where the slaves were.

Probably somewhere in one of the dungeons of the castle.

He had to give Rabier one thing. Apparently he loved to act cocky. And to make himself nobler than he was. Especially when Anoth took a look at the statues of... Better not to think about it.

This garden was absolutely tasteless.

But just right for an egomaniac.

A little later he had reached one of the courtyards in the centre of which was a good 10 meter tall obelisk. An obelisk with runes on it.

It's a sealing spell. So something was sealed under those obelisks. Thought Anoth. Whatever it is. As long as the seal stays active, it doesn't matter.

It took a while before he finally found the entrance to the dungeons.

The stench alone that came from down there told Anoth what he had to expect down there.

And he didn't like it at all.

Two guards stood outside the door.

Seconds later: They were gone.

Anoth had hidden their dead bodies in some nearby bushes.

He opened the door to the dungeon with a simple unlocking spell. The click of metal bolts announced the opening of the door, which Anoth then simply pushed open.

As he entered the corridor beyond, he could see cell after cell. The entire right side of the corridor was lined with cells. Only a few torches bathed the corridor in a dim and flickering light.

Anoth slowly followed the corridor. The first cells he found were empty. The next one contained a skeleton chained to the wall. It must have been there for years.

Then he heard something that caught his attention.

It was a low whimper, further down the hall.

He didn't expect what he found there. Hanging from the ceiling and completely naked, there hung…

"Aegir?" asked Anoth surprised. Anoth ripped the door off the cell and stepped inside. Anoth had to summon a ball of light to be able to see exactly what he was dealing with here.

That was Aegir. Clearly. But how did she end up here?

Her condition was bad. She was completely undressed and malnourished. Her back bore dozens of wounds clearly from lashes. Several of them had been infected.

That a whip could hurt her at all didn't bode well. But it probably also had to do with an effect that made it impossible for Anoth to summon his rigging here. This was probably not only true for Anoth but also for her. And without the rigging, their bodies were just as vulnerable as any human.

What was strange, however, was that the sirens were very well able to call their rigging to them. And without any problems. Something wasn't right. But that will first have to wait.

Anoth raised his hand and touched Aegir's neck to check her pulse as Aegir slowly lifted her head.

"Am I dreaming?" she whispered weakly. "Anoth?"

"It is not a dream." Anoth said putting an arm around her. He then used his other arm to break the ties that held her to the ceiling. As soon as the last bondage was broken, she collapsed in his arms. Her legs were unable to hold her.

"What happened? How did you end up here? How did they even manage to get you here?" Anoth asked her after he put her on the bunk in the cell and gave her some water to drink. In fact, Anoth even had to help her so that she could drink anything at all. She was that weak at the moment.

"When you left our world, we decided to follow you." Answered Aegir leaning on the bars behind her. "Only that didn't work out as planned at all. When we got here we all passed out almost immediately and when we came to, we had this seal on our chests. Any attempt to escape or resist and the seal causes us severe pain. We knew at that point that resistance was pointless."

"Who are they?" asked Anoth.

"Yours truly, Atago, Takao and the two meta ships Fusou and Yamashiro who made it possible for us to follow you in the first place."

"Just you five?"

"Just the five of us."

"Do you know where they are?"

"I mean somewhere here."

Anoth left Aegir's cell and looked around.

And found them, moments later.

"Anoth!" cried a joyful voice.

"Atago!" Anoth cried, equally pleased, and hugged her through the bars of the cell she was in. At least she was wearing some... Well... The textiles could hardly be described as rags anymore. "Where are the others?"

"Takao's with me-" Atago was cut off as Takao pushed her aside. Without a word, Anoth and she embraced each other. Atago replied that Takao's tongue had been cut out by Rabier. Which caused Anoth to hug Takao a little tighter.

"I'll get you all out of here."

"Otherwise you would hardly be here." Takao said in sign language.

"I taught her." Answered Atago Anoth's unasked question. Anoth broke the door of the cell open before he followed Takao's signals that he should continue down the corridor.

It wasn't long before he found Yamashiro. However, she only indicated to him that her sister needed more help than she did. A look into the neighbouring cell explained why.

There was Fusou desperately trying to get a very emaciated and very ill weasel girl to eat. Anoth broke open the cell door and stepped inside. Fusou's eyes, as she looked at him, said Anoth more than enough. Relief was written all over her face and she immediately made room for Anoth.

Anoth took Fusou's place and immediately began examining young Demi human.

She was severely malnourished and had multiple wounds, several of which were infected. The worst, however, was that she suffered from blood poisoning and was seriously ill.

However, Anoth had some healing potions with him, including a disease healing potion that he had bought from the pharmacy. He had dripped a drop of it into his shield, which revealed the recipe to him.

Exactly this potion he gave her now. That will be enough to cure the blood poisoning as well as the illness she caught down here. Together with a healing potion, the wounds were no longer a real problem. However, he had to trigger her swallowing reflex with both potions; otherwise she would not have been able to get the potions down.

Anoth was pretty sure that if he had come a day or two later then there was nothing he could have done for the little one. That had been damn close.

"That was too close. A day or two later and it would have been too late." Said Anoth as Fusou hugged him from behind. Anoth scratched her cat ears in response.

"I knew you would come." She said.

"How long have you been here?" Anoth asked them. His answer came from the cell entrance where Fusou was holding another young Demi human and now entered the cell.

"For almost three weeks." was her answer.

"Then you got here before I did." noted Anoth.

"Before you?" asked Fusou surprised.

"Yes. I've only been here about four days." replied Anoth. "And found out that the kingdom of Melromarc doesn't really like me. Because of this." Anoth pointed to the shield on his arm.

"Hmm?"

"There are four heroes who should save their world from destruction. The sword, the spear, the bow and the shield. Three of them are worshiped in Melromarc. You can guess who they are demonizing. But you will only need one try. "

"The shield." It came from Yamashiro.

"Right." said Anoth. "As I said, these four heroes are there to save their world from annihilation. They're only shooting themselves in the foot with their contempt for the shield. That hardly makes any sense.

Anoth sighed. "I don't know if the king and his eldest daughter are planning this alone or if the church is also involved. My gut feeling tells me that the church definitely has its fingers in the game. But we can also discuss that in more detail later.

"You two can walk right?"

"Yes." Fusou and Yamashiro nodded. "But our slave seal." Fusou pointed out while pointing to the seal on her chest.

Anoth thought for a moment, than he broke one of the natural stones out of the wall and began to draw a rune grid in it with one of his claws, which he had made visible. As soon as he finished, he pumped the stone full of manna until the seal that was now engraved on the stone began to glow with a bright blue light.

"Here take this." Anoth walked over to Fusou and simply touched the stone to the slave's seal, which began to disintegrate as soon as it was touched. "This will destroy the seals."

Fusou took the stone from him. "And what are you doing?"

"I'll find Rabier and clear the way. Get ready to get out of here."

"That's okay." Fusou replied with a nod.

With the slave seal gone, the four were pretty good at defending the slaves should guards spot them. While her resilience as a ship may be gone, at least for now, her physical strength was not.

And when someone hits someone with a power equivalent to about 70,000 horses, there is usually not much left of them.

Admittedly, without their rigging, the hits weren't even remotely as strong. But if a blow that still corresponds to the force of a good seven horses hits you, you won't get back on your feet that quickly.

Anoth snuck out of the dungeons and now began systematically eliminating the guards patrolling below.

As he was heading towards the main gate, he noticed something.

A parked carriage with several guards in front wearing a very interesting coat of arms.

I know that coat of arms...

Rabier's guards wore a different coat of arms. But that guard standing by the carriage...

Yes, that's the same coat of arms. No doubt. Thought Anoth as he compared the crest to the one stored in his inventory.

Apparently Rabier just had a visitor.

Oh how handy. Two birds with one stone.

Anoth looked around briefly and then found a point where he could climb up unnoticed. As soon as they reached the roof, Anoth sent a tracking pulse through the building.

"Where are you two?" murmured Anoth.

He found a few rooms that they could potentially be in. Anoth was able to rule out several of them pretty quickly. The movements he received from there were more like those the servants.

In the end, Anoth sent one of his shadow beasts out to find the two. Travelling through the shadows themselves, Ahri began combing the building.

It was nearly 30 minutes before he got word from the kitsune that she had found the two.

Once found, Ahri took a position under one of the closets in the room, only letting her fox ears appear out of the shadows. So Anoth could now overhear their conversation.

He didn't like what he heard at all.

They were just discussing the slaves they had gotten from Lurolona. Apparently the other lord (Rabier was easily identifiable, paintings and statues of him could be found throughout the estate) was not pleased with the performance of his slaves in his mines.

Apparently the other was a certain Lord Senerall.

The Senerall territory was not very large. He didn't have a lot of soldiers either. But a lot of money that he earned through the mines in his territory, which were operated by slaves.

Also, both of them seemed to dislike a neighbouring baron.

Reichnott.

Apparently that was because he treated the Demi humans well. While the two bastards who were talking here considered them scum.

Anoth had heard enough.

He now knew the aura of the two. The two of them will no longer be able to escape him.

But first he had to clear a path for the freed slaves and after he was done here he should probably also take a look at the lands of Senerall.

He already knew where he was going to take the freed slaves first.

As soon as Ahri returned, jumped Anoth off the roof, killing two guards running along just below. He looted their corpses a moment later and then disintegrated their corpses.

He didn't really know what to do with the armour or their weapons. But as raw material they were very saleable. No blacksmith will ask where the metal ingot came from.

A little later Anoth was sure that he had made enough space.

He had eliminated every patrol that was patrolling the western part of the facility and was now re-entering the dungeons.

"Time to go." Was all Anoth said to them. He didn't need to say more.

A little later they found themselves in a large open courtyard. Seconds later, Anoth had transformed into a massive dragon.

"Up with you. On my back and hold tight!" Alarm calls from the other guards could be heard in the distance. You have no more time.

A little later everyone was on his back and only seconds later they were already in the air.

Anoth deliberately did not fly directly in the direction of Reichnott's residence. But get away from it first. Only when he was out of sight of the fortress did he change course.

That way, any search parties sent out will be looking for him in the wrong direction.

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Sometime later

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Anoth landed out of sight of the Reichnott estate and out of sight of the adjacent village as well.

They will have to walk the rest of the way.

The shadow that appeared next to Anoth didn't seem very happy though.

"You can't just pick me out of a tree over and over again whenever you feel like it." She complained while crossing her arms in front of her.

Anoth just grinned at her and she sighed.

"By order of Queen Mirellia herself, I am to join your party."

"So you told her about what's going on at Rabier?"

"Yes. And she's not at all happy about it, to put it mildly. I'd better not give the exact wording here." she admitted. "Besides, she gave me two of her decrees." She pulled out two metal cylinders. "One is for you, the other for Reichnott." With that she took off her mask and hood.

A pretty girl with black hair and cat ears emerged.

"Ah… So there was a cute kitty under the hood." noted Anoth. Which made said kitty blush on the spot before she got herself under control. "And what do they say?"

"It gives you a free hand to deal with Lords Rabier and Senerall and their soldiers and staff as you see fit. Number two gives Reichnott control of the two territories." She answered. "She's also offering you what's left of Seaetto territory."

"Lurolona?"

"Exactly." she confirmed.

"Hmm..." Anoth toyed with his thoughts a bit. It gave him some advantages and his sirens would easily provide security should some idiot try to invade the place again. At the same time he would then have a place where he could send the freed slaves of the worst bastards.

Disadvantage... Well, he will first have to rebuild everything there first. Everything was destroyed there. It also tied him to Melromarc to some degree.

No matter how he turned it. He needed a place for the freed slaves. Some of the other lands surrounding Melromarc would of course also be an option. However, Anoth knew far too little about them at the moment. So they weren't really an option for him at the moment.

Well played Mirellia. Well played. She probably overheard what I said in the throne room at my "trial".

Maybe it was a good thing that Lurolona was nothing but ruins. This allowed him to plan the location from scratch.

Anoth had made up his mind.

He accepted the offer and handed over the management of the area to Arbiter: The Lovers VI with the help of Compiler and Omitter. The three will be able to run the place without any problems. And just to be on the safe side, he also sent Arbiter: The Empress III and Enforcer VIII: Determination there as well.

Along with the various other sirens, these will probably be more than enough to defend the location should the need arise.

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An hour later

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Schwarz, as the cat Demi human girl was called, had joined Anoth and they had meanwhile reached Reichnott's estate.

Anoth had also discussed with her whether a reset to level 1 was an option for her. However, Schwarz initially rejected this. But I wasn't completely averse to it either. She was level 95. With the bonus, she would have reached the same stats again at about level 10 or 11.

Their skills have also been preserved. And many of these abilities had a so-called alpha, beta indicator to use them.

What does that mean?

One rule you have to know: alpha overwrites beta.

Small example:

Silent running

Precondition:

Level 50 β

Skill: Level 50 α

Means in this case: If your skill level has reached 50, you can use the ability. No matter what character level you have.

However, these alpha and beta indicators only appear after a level reset. Before that, the Regular Level indicator applies.

It meant that Schwarz could use her abilities again after a few levels up. At the same time, she will become much stronger very quickly.

A reset of her level was therefore definitely worth considering and worthwhile.

But that could wait. In order to do that, they needed access to a Dragon Hourglass anyway.

A little later they had reached the Reichnott estate, where they were received surprisingly hospitably. Especially after seeing the condition of the people freed from Anoth.

It didn't take long to persuade Reichnott to leave her here for now. This was only simplified in fact by the Royal Decree.

Anoth apologized to Van Reichnott, the homeowner, which he won't be able to stay any longer for the moment, but he had to go back to Rabier and then Senerall to finish things there. After that they would be able to talk in peace. After picking up Raphtalia and Lariana.

Anoth left some of his sirens behind in case Rabier's people ended up with a few more brain cells than he expected and they decided to check here.

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30 minutes later

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Stealth was now optional.

He marched straight to the main gate and blew the two heavy swing gates off their hinges with a mighty gust of wind.

The Falling Gates crushed two of the guards assigned to guard the gate before they even had a chance to respond to the attack.

The other guards hardly had time to understand what had just happened when Anoth was already in their midst and began to slaughter them. It really couldn't be called a fair fight. A fair fight would mean that the opponent had at least a chance to come out victorious. These guards here didn't have that chance.

The other guards, knowing they didn't stand a chance against him, fled inside the main building and began locking the main door.

When they finally turned around, their facial features turned to horror.

Anoth was already in the room with them and pointed to the open window behind him. With a grin that couldn't have been wrong on the face of the devil himself.

Luckily for them, their aura wasn't nearly as tainted as the other guards'. As a result, these guards only received a beating of a lifetime and some broken bones.

After that, Anoth went in search of the "Lords" Rabier and Senerall.

They had to be somewhere. "Lord" Senerall's carriage was definitely still present. Even if it was now little more than firewood. Anoth had taken care of that.

While searching for the two... [Insert any swear word here] ...he found something else.

Apparently, Rabier didn't spare his own housemaids either. Because what he found in one of the rooms was... The less said about it, the better.

All he could give these girls was a decent burial.

He'd heard rumours about the King of Faubrey, and if they were true, Rabier was only just behind that worthless bastard.

What he then found in the next room made him stop.

Is that Malty? He thought at first glance. No, this isn't Malty, nor is it any of her sisters.

She did look a lot like her though. However, this woman was clearly more muscular and a few years older than Malty. Also, she had brown hair, not red.

When entering the room, Anoth punched a hole through the open door and broke the neck of the guard who thought he had to hide there.

Then Anoth approached the obviously badly wounded woman. She was completely naked. Her body showed clear signs of torture and she had a fresh stab wound in her chest.

Anoth was surprised that she was still alive at all.

However, she was unconscious and had lost a lot of blood.

When Anoth took a closer look at her face, he saw a scar over her right eye.

"Purifier, Kendra." Immediately said sirens appeared next to Anoth.

The eyes of the two sirens widened when they saw why Anoth had called them here.

"Take her to Van Reichnott for immediate medical attention."

Kendra just nodded as said kitsune carefully lifted the bloody, barely alive woman in her arms. As soon as that was done, Purifier wordlessly opened a portal again and both scurried through.

As soon as they were gone, Anoth began the search again. The two had to be somewhere and Anoth didn't mind playing cat and mouse with them for a little bit.

The two really couldn't escape.

If they did anyway...

Anoth knew their auras. They couldn't hide from him at all.

Even if he wasn't using this aura search at the moment.

It was no more fun chasing your prey without it.

In the end, Anoth needed about half an hour to find the two he was looking for. During this time he made sure that the building got new door holes, guards were thrown out of the windows (often with a pictures of the master of the house over their head) and so much more.

In the end, his path led him to a huge floor-to-ceiling painting of Rabier.

Then a gust of wind passed by from behind it...

He was in the middle of the building. He could therefore rule out windows.

Anoth reached out and punched a hole through the picture and, as it turned out, also through the door behind it and saw a staircase leading down.

"Oh, so that's where you ran to." The smell of expensive colognes was still in the air. And also another smell that Anoth didn't like at all. Anoth simply cut a hole in the painting and kicked in the door behind it down. After that he began to follow the steps.

Slowly he walked down the old slippery steps of the stairwell. The spiral staircase led deeper and deeper underground. When he finally arrived downstairs and opened the door to the next room, he saw something dimly.

With a wave of his hand, Anoth lit the ever-burning candles and torches and found himself in a laboratory.

An old laboratory that had obviously not been used for years.

In front of him were multiple man-sized glass containers in which clearly disfigured creatures were swimming. Anoth could no longer say what they used to be. There were also parchments lying around everywhere.

He'll come back here later to investigate further.

First he had to find his two fugitive rats. The lab wasn't running away from him.

Immediately Anoth ran along the tunnel. It wasn't long before he reached the end. When he emerged he was outside the property and in a nearby wooded area.

Anoth took a few steps and crouched down to examine the tracks on the ground.

He quickly found them and began to follow them.

Barely 10 minutes later and he had caught up with the two fugitives at the edge of the forest.

"Hello there~" Anoth said happily. "Shall we leave already? The party hasn't even started yet~" Anoth's grin was positively demonic.

The next three hours were filled with screams of pain and the sound of bones breaking as Anoth made their death as painful as possible.

At the end, an armless, legless Rabier was hanging from a branch with his own whip, and Senerall had been impaled on a broken branch with almost all the bones in his body completely ground to bone meal.

The two were no longer recognizable. In fact, it was hardly recognizable that the two of them had actually ever been human.

Anoth washed the blood from his hands and arms into a nearby stream. The wild creatures will take care of disposing of the corpses. Neither of them deserved a funeral.

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An hour later

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Anoth was back in the old laboratory and began to sift through the old parchments.

Many of the old texts were barely or no longer legible, or bugs and rats had eaten a whole part of them.

What he could still read indicated that someone was trying to make Demi humans "real people". The bastard who did these experiments did pretty much everything with them.

The less said about this "experiments" (read: torture) the better.

Apparently the whole thing traced back to a magician and alchemist named Merrill Barlow. And according to the last records, the experiments ended here about 80 years ago. He was pretty sure that whoever had done this was already long dead.

Unless…

The papers also included her daughter's name. And these were much more recent. In addition, she seemed to be even more cracked and unscrupulous than her mother.

Beatrix Barlow seems to have been mainly after the beastman.

The last entries here were just 12 years old.

The wind knows where she was now.

But he will definitely remember the name.

After that, Anoth turned to the head-high filled glass containers.

Could he even risk burying them?

Several of them showed clear mutations. Damn two of them, he now realized, were dead zombies.

Others contained foetuses so disfigured that Anoth was unable to tell if they were animals or something else.

In the end, Anoth just shook his head. He secured all the documents and marched out of the lab. Just before he left the room, he raised a hand in its direction and conjured up a magical fire that burned everything that was left in the laboratory to ashes and only then went out. Burying them regularly or even getting them out of the vessels was way too dangerous.

As he then began to comb the building, he found that the remaining surviving guards had apparently fled.

Also good.

Senerall was next.

Everything else had to wait.

.

Almost 20 minutes of flight time as a dragon later

.

He had found one of the mines.

Right now he was circling over one of them.

Below him was a camp secured with wooden palisades. In it Demi humans ran around carrying heavy sacks and pushing carts as well as various guards who whipped anyone who showed even the slightest hint of weakness.

In fact, from up here he could see several guards whipping one of the Demi human humans while they were laughing and drinking.

The more he observed what was going on down there, the more the camp didn't look like a labour camp. But like an extermination camp that finds its victims through work.

Anoth had seen more than enough.

Anoth folded his wings and dived from nearly 20,000 feet.

First of all, he had to kill the one to whom the slave seals were bound to. The manager of the camp. That wasn't really difficult.

He only had to follow the energy currents of the slave seals. The place where they met was their master.

Just before hitting the roof, Anoth transformed back into his human form and erupted through the roof of the building where his target was located with a tremendous crash. Moments later, the manager of the camp was laying unconscious on the ground with Anoth standing over him.

With the camp manager now unconscious, he was unable to kill the slaves before Anoth could free them.

A small spell made sure that he remained unconscious for the time being.

He'll need him later. Alive.

Now it was time to deal with the rest of the camp and the soldiers who were just trying to kick in the door to the office he was in.

Anoth patiently waited for the guards to finally open the door only to send them flying across the building with a blast of energy from his right hand only to then fly out of the windows at the other end of the building.

The few soldiers who tried to stand in his way were no match for Anoth and were dead before they even had a real chance to do anything.

He was on the second floor of the building, so Anoth took the stairs down to the first floor. Arriving at the said stairs, he kicked down a guard who was coming up and who also outlined the other guards who were coming up with her fall. Anoth ignored the moaning soldiers and simply stomped over them towards the front door.

Moments later, said door exploded out of the building at the hands of a whole mob of groaning guards that Anoth had simply catapulted through the door. Groaning, they lay in the middle of the camp.

As soon as he was finally out of the building, he shot fireballs into the camp's guard towers, which were destroyed with an awed explosion.

Immediately afterwards, Anoth pulled his two demon swords, Fūjinga and Raijinga, from their scabbards that had appeared on his back. Now the fight really began.

The guards began charging at him only to be catapulted into one of the other buildings by Fūjinga's wind attacks or they were grilled with lightning by Raijinga.

Within minutes, the courtyard was clear of any guards who were still alive. The demi humans, meanwhile, were all hiding somewhere.

Anoth put his two swords back into their scabbards on his back, which immediately disappeared again. Then he marched towards a Fox Demi human who was crouching on the ground and crouched in front of her.

It was a few seconds before said Demi human realized the noise had died down and looked up cautiously. The first thing she saw was a pair of combat shoes, and then her eyes wandered upwards. Then she saw something that made her eyes light up.

"You- you are the hero of the shield." she said in a hoarse voice. When she looked into his face her heart almost stopped.

"Hello Kii." said Anoth. That was all it took, and just a split second later he was embraced by the battleship girl, who was crying with joy.

"You found us. You found us. You found us. You found us. You found us." She repeated again and again.

"Amagi, Tosa and Shinano?" Anoth asked after Kii had calmed down a bit.

"Are here too. But down in the mines." Anoth pulled something out of his pocket and then pressed it against Kii's chest. Kii flinched when she felt a brief pain in her chest and then looked down.

The slave seal that was still emblazoned on her chest a few seconds ago was gone.

"What…?"

"Take it and use it to free the other slaves and bring them here."

Kii just nodded and Anoth then marched over to the mine entrance. Seconds later, screams from the guards were heard coming from there.

In the meantime the other demi human humans had come out of their hiding places and watched everything. And it hadn't escaped their notice that Kii no longer had a slave seal. One of the braver slaves came out first and asked Kii to remove his seal.

Only a few moments later he too was without a slave seal.

That broke the dam and now everyone flocked to her to get rid of the hated seal.

Anoth, meanwhile, marched down into the mineshaft. Using the demon swords here was far too dangerous. The tunnels weren't even remotely structural fit enough and would certainly collapse.

So he limited himself to the sword form of the shield and one other ability of his.

Chakra Chains.

Technically you didn't necessarily have to use chakra to create them. They could also be formed with other energies. Provided you had enough of it.

In this case, the chakra chains actually consisted of manna and did not shine yellow-gold but light blue. Here they were used to crush opponents and, if necessary, to support areas in danger of falling. At least until the areas could be evacuated.

In this case, the row on the great farm of Anoth came to his advantage. Because apparently the soldiers in the mine had also been informed and had all gathered in front of him to oppose him.

"Stop right there!" shouted one of the guards. Which Anoth completely ignored and kept coming towards him. Then Anoth started to grin.

It wasn't a happy grin.

Moments later, the limbs began to fly.

The "fight" lasted less than a minute after which 20 guards lay dead on the ground and Anoth marched deeper into the mine.

There he found a few more guards that he simply crushed with the chakra chains without stopping.

Then finally he found what he was looking for.

It was the remaining slaves. The three guards who were supposed to be guarding them weren't worth mentioning and so seconds later he was able to hug Amagi, Tosa and Shinano. What struck him about the three was how emaciated they were. This was also visible with Kii, but not nearly as pronounced. They also had their fox tails severed.

Anoth had the vague feeling that Kii had served as the camp commander's personal toy and that she had fared a little better than the others as a result.

Altogether, Anoth freed 427 slaves from these camps alone.

.

Two hours later

.

Two hours later everyone was gathered in the main yard. Anoth had contacted his sirens to take them away from here. The simplest and most uncomplicated way to do this, were portals. And since he himself had never been to the ruins of Lurolona, he couldn't open one after going there.

But his sirens were already there and had hastily begun to build a tent city out of military tents. Because in Lurolona itself not a single building stood on its foundations. What the wave didn't destroy was destroyed by the knights (read: bandits) who came after it.

Arbiter VIII: Strength was the one who opened the portal and came through. With the rigging inactive, her massive metal hands were absent, leaving her with normal sized human hands.

The siren, with dark gray skin and a great deal of scarring from many battles, and long silver-grey hair, glanced over the assembled Demi humans and then at Anoth.

"What happened to them?" she asked him.

"Extermination camp." Was all Anoth said and it was all that was needed to be said as Strength rubbed her forehead. Only when she looked up did she notice the presence of Kii, Amagi, Tosa and Shinano.

She was about to walk over to them when a flare shot up into the air behind her.

"You'll have to postpone the greeting until later." said Anoth.

"Yeah, I guess I will have to. Damn it." Escape Strength.

"How is it in Lurolona?"

"We set up a tent city of military tents. Not the most comfortable place to stay, but at least sheltered from the wind and rain." replied Strength.

Then they saw another flare rising in the distance. A military group was not far away.

"Okay! Everyone listen!" cried Anoth, who knew that he now had at most 10 minutes to take her away from here before the knights arrived. "This portal will take you to Lurolona, where some of my people will be waiting for you. They will provide you with housing and supplies. Now please go through the portal one at a time."

It took a while, but when the first courageous ones had stepped through the portal, the others quickly followed.

"What about the supply?"

"Lurolona is a coastal village with rich fishing grounds." replied Strength. "Supply won't be a problem. If we can't get it by land, we'll get it by sea."

It was a few minutes before the last of the former slaves had passed through the portal.

Right after that, Strength opened a second portal to Reichnott's manor, which Amagi, Tosa and Kii eventually walked through, carrying the Shinano because she couldn't walk anymore. None of the four was really ready to fight at the moment.

"Take good care of them." Said Anoth to Strength.

"We will." She Insured him and then also stepped through the portal that closed behind her.

With that, the camp was now empty and Anoth trudged back to the camp commander's office. He had a little over three minutes before the knights would arrive.

As soon as he entered the office, he was greeted by said commander… well…. "Welcome".

"Hahaha!" laughed the commander. "They will kill you! Worthless Demi humans! None of you will-" he got no further than that because Anoth's fist suddenly parked in his face and catapulted him backwards over his desk.

Anoth catapulted the desk out of the way with one arm and grabbed the bleeding commander by the collar. Immediately afterwards he threw it into the middle of the room where he had conjured up a seal in the meantime.

A little later the commander found himself standing in a T-pose in the middle of this seal because the seal forced him into this position.

"I don't have the time to torture you to get my answers from you so I'll use this method." Anoths answered an unasked question while leaning against the wall of the room. "It's a seal of truth. It will compel you to answer all of my questions. It doesn't matter whether you want to or not.

"I've got pretty much exactly three minutes before the soldiers arrive and about two more before they break down the door to this room. Let's go then.

"Where are the other mines?"

.

Few minutes later

.

There was only one other mine in the Senerall area. A second mine collapsed about three months ago from a methane explosion and was abandoned.

And his guess about Kii was confirmed. However, none of the guards could "tame" her enough to "enjoy" her.

Anoth could hardly resist a grin at this point. Slave Seal or not Kii only let those who SHE considered worthy get close to her. And so the bastards here were limited to staring.

When Anoth had finished his interrogation, he pointed to a corner of the room where after a few seconds a figure materialized, Anoth nodded and immediately asked the guy some of her own questions.

When the shadow had everything she needed, she vanished just as she had appeared.

In the meantime, reinforcements had reached the camp.

Anoth broke the truth seal.

"If they find out what you- ARGH!" the head of the camp started to yell before Anoth rammed a blade into his chest without comment. Immediately afterwards he pulled the blade out again and jumped out through the hole he had made in the roof.

Seconds later he was gone.

.

25 minutes later

.

Anoth stood on a nearby rise and watched the second camp.

It was deserted just like he said.

When he examined the abandoned mine more closely, he found some chunks of ore which he fed to his shield.

None of the results were really worth mentioning. Just some upgrades for his stats. And also only fixed scores as bonuses.

Only when he fed it an old rope did he get something interesting out of it.

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Rope Shield

"I think I got caught in the ropes..."

Always have a rope on hand when needed.

Ability: Air Strike Shield

"I put my shield in front of you."

Create a shield up to 5 meters away from your position for 15 seconds.

[Part of the mining set.]

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"Why the hell does a piece of old rope unlock such ability?" Anoth wondered when he read what he had unlocked there.

Anoth got up and decided to test the ability. "Air Strike Shield!"

A transparent and shimmering green shield appeared in front of him, floating in the air, which disappeared again a few seconds later.

"Hmmm…." Anoth had an idea. He had received a horn shield from one of the slain creatures. It only gave a small defence bonus. Nothing really worth mentioning. But what happens if he combines both.

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SECRET ABILITY DISCOVERED

Battering Ram Shield

"Clears the way!"

Clear your way and send your opponents flying.

Attack +5%; Ram Power +500

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Interesting.

So it actually worked.

Anoth aimed at the wall of one of the buildings that was still standing.

"Battering Ram Shield!" Immediately, a greenish glowing and transparent sign with a horned billy goat head on the front shot towards the wall and tore a rather impressive hole in the wall of the rather simply built wooden building.

"Very beautiful."

He also found some mine utensils which he fed directly to the shield.

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Minecart shield

"And another load of ore!"

Even more inventory capacity.

Inventory + 200

[Part of the mining set.]

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Pickaxe Shield

"Blows away even the strongest stone! Allegedly."

Improved ore mining results.

Ore Yield Increase +50%

[Part of the mining set.]

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Dynamite Shield

"Everyone loves a little bit of TNT."

Blast even the most stubborn stone to get its resources.

Resource Gathering +150%

[Part of the mining set.]

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Shovel Shield

"And away with the dirt!"

Efficiently shovel up dirt and other loose material and maybe find a surprise or two in between.

Resource Gathering (Bulk) +100%

[Part of the mining set.]

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Really useful.

But the set wasn't complete yet. There were a few more parts to discover.

Pressing the set name spat out a list of missing parts.

-miner's lamp

-Miner's helmet

-Support structure

-Mallet

-Chisel

-Kibble

-?

-?

-?

-?

The question mark parts were bonus finds that would enhance the other parts of the set.

Anoth found all the things he was looking for, except for the kibble, within a few minutes. This was a very shallow mine. Therefore, no kibble was needed here. For this he will probably have to find another much deeper mine that operates a winding tower.

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Miner's Lamp Shield

"Works even in the deepest darkness!"

Indicates valuable mineral deposits which can then be mined.

[Part of the mining set.]

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Pit Helmet Shield

"The world underground has its own dangers."

Better protection when trekking underground.

Defence +25% when underground.

[Part of the mining set.]

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Support Structure Shield

"Don't let the roof fall on your head."

Stabilize your environment when going underground.

[Part of the mining set.]

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Mallet Shield

"Let's hit that rock over there."

Break larger chunks of raw ore from the deposits

Resource Gathering +50%

[Part of the mining set.]

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Chisel Shield

"Let's split the boulder in two."

Break huge chunks of raw ore from the deposits

Resource Gathering +100%

[Part of the mining set.]

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Very beautiful. That alone increased resource collection from just 2 per run to 11.

When the set is completed, the quantity will surely increase again.

Anoth couldn't say exactly why the mine had collapsed, but after the first glances at what was still standing, everything pointed to a massive methane explosion and a fire that broke out directly after it. Just like the camp commandant had said.

And so Anoth decided that he had wasted more than enough time here and flew on.

The stopover only lasted about 10 minutes.

.

Another 10 minutes later

.

And so he finally found himself standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the last of the three mines just below him at the base of the cliff, after observing the mine for a while from a nearby hilltop.

Something was strange here.

Why were the guards here all drunk?

He got the answer when slaves began pouring out of the mine.

The interesting thing about them was that none of them wore a slave seal. Their seals were probably destroyed when Lord Senerall died. Or the slaves themselves found a way to get rid of them.

They had probably also stunned the guards and were now attempting a break out.

His sirens found out, that they used a special fruit to make alcoholic beverages.

A so-called Lucor fruit.

They probably just mixed a few more of them into the barrels than they should.

Anoth's attention was drawn to a cloud of dust in the distance as it quickly approached the camp.

Apparently the troops from the first mine were heading now this way.

Time was running out for the now ex-slaves.

They will hardly be able to avoid the heavy cavalry on this relatively flat terrain.

At least not on foot.

Anoth jumped down and landed with a cloud of dust and an impressive bang at the entrance of the camp, crushing the leading knight who was just crossing the border into the camp and his mount as well under him.

"What the…?" exclaimed one of the other "knights" in surprise. "Demi human scum! Kill 'em all!" he then yelled immediately after recovering from his initial shock.

The fight that followed made the 30 knights look like bloody noobs. They were fighting someone who had far more experience than they had combined. The fact that many of these "knights" only "fought" people who couldn't fight back made it even easier.

It was over not even two minutes later.

You could hardly call it a fight really. It was more of a massacre than anything else.

Only when the fight was over did he turn to the Demi humans who were cowering anxiously behind anything they could find.

"Won't you hug me you three?" he finally asked after he had put away his weapons again.

Moments later he had three girls attached to him who were more than happy to see him.

M4A1, M4 Sopmod II and Ak-15.

For some reason the three of them all had cat ears at the moment. Probably a late side effect of upgrading them with Wisdom Cubes. Namely, this allowed them to store the necessary nanomaterial for their ship forms, which came from the Fleet of Fog, in a pocket dimension. This upgrade with the nanomaterials was only possible because Anoth found out that their processors had more than enough power to hold a ship form.

Granted, none of the three was a particularly large shape, but at least they could take the form of a cruiser of up to 15,000 tons.

But it also means in turn that they could not access this here. The same rules apply for their firearms as well. Because the Wisdom Cube, which controls all of it, for the regular Kansen had to have an undiscovered bug somewhere which Anoth had still to identify.

Anoth wouldn't be surprised if the idea of getting the guards drunk came from AK-15. When he asked said question and everyone pointed to a grinning AK-15, it was confirmed.

Well, it had worked.

The only thing they hadn't counted on was the cavalry.

The evacuation here went very quickly when Strength reappeared via the portal. The slaves here didn't look quite as bad as at the other mine either. Apparently the local mine manager paid more attention to that than the other one did.

The three T-Dolls were the last to go through the portal, closely followed by Strength, who closed the portal behind her.

Anoth himself collected all the drunken guards who were still alive and locked them in a room which he additionally reinforced with magic, making it possible to open it from the inside.

Reichnott will take care of the guys and then decide how to deal with them.

Now only the Senerall estate remained.

.

An hour later

.

Anoth has been circling the property in his dragon form for a good half hour now.

There was hardly any activity to be seen.

Actually none.

There weren't even any guards who were supposed to be on duty outside.

Had word of his attacks already gotten around?

Well, he could now continue circling and admire the structure of the roof or land and look around.

A little later, Anoth landed directly in front of the main entrance of the property and slowly moved towards the main building, still in dragon form.

It was far too quiet on the premises.

When Anoth looked through the windows of the three-story mansion, there was no one to be seen. Anoth switched to the aura view to see if anyone was still on the premises.

In the end there were only two auras he saw. Otherwise the entire property was deserted.

They must have been forewarned. Thought Anoth as he finally assumed his human form and moved towards the position where he had seen the two auras coming from.

It quickly turned out that the two of them were two pretty badly battered housemaids that he found in a locked cupboard that he had to break open.

On the way through the building it was already clear that someone had grabbed everything he could as quickly as possible and then made a run for it. There were bright spots on the wall where paintings were obviously hanging. On the furniture there were dust-free outlines etc.

He was pretty sure the thieves were the estate guards or the rest of the Senerall family members who, after learning they were being attacked, grabbed whatever they could and fled.

The two maids confirmed that it was the rest of the Senerall family and that the soldiers were actually mercenaries.

That explained the thefts.

The two maids, he found, weren't quite as badly wounded as he'd thought. A few simple healing potions solved her problem.

When he then searched the building, he also found the office of the masters of the house. It had been completely ransacked. And apparently someone had hastily burned important documents.

30 minutes later it was clear that he wouldn't find anything interesting anymore.

.

A little bit later

Back at the Reichnott estate

.

Anoth had taken the two girls and handed them over to Van Reichnott, who immediately included them in his own staff.

Immediately afterwards he flew back to the Rabier estate.

Anoth now began to search the buildings and bury the bodies he had found. In fact, that was the first thing he did.

Then he looked for documents and other stuff that could tell him more.

In the study room he found some documents. Most revolved around the usual administrative paperwork of his properties. Nothing unusual there.

But in a secret compartment he found documents proving that the Church of the Three Heroes got some money from him. And that money came mostly from the slave trade and smuggling.

"The church is probably not as clean as it claims to be." Mumbled Anoth to himself. "The pope made pretty good money from his business. So did Senerall and the king too, if I look further into this.

"Thank you Rabier for being such a conscientious note-taker."

Anoth packed all the documents. He will then give this to the next best shadow so that the queen could take a look at it herself. He couldn't imagine that Mirellia would be pleased with what was in here. Especially not when he also packed Rabier's diaries, which Anoth found under a loose board in the floor of his bedroom.

In Fact Schwarz should be able to send the documents directly to her.

Unfortunately, he found no other clues to other parties involved besides the church, the king and Senerall.

On the way out, Anoth's path led past the large obelisks. As he passed these, he heard an almost inaudible cracking and crunching coming from the stone.

Anoth marched directly towards the obelisk and began to examine it more closely.

"Not good." he murmured after a few minutes. "The seal that holds the creature in the ground is crumbling. It will last another year or two and then it will break. And there's nothing I can do to stop it."

A damaged seal like this one could only be repaired by deactivating the seal. Which, for obvious reasons, isn't an option here.

There were temporary seals that could then take over the seals in such a case, but the seal used here was one of the few that would implode if you wanted to put a second seal over the first. That option was gone too.

What now?

If he doesn't do anything, the seal will break within the next year and the creature holding the seal underground will do...who knows how much damage.

Or he breaks the seal now and destroys the creature here and now, reducing the damage to a minimum.

The choice was easy.

Anoth broke the seal.