Chapter 8: The Strongest Man, The Half-Fiend and the Strongest Leg Forward Part 2

Foreword:

Story Start: Stepping into the light shown through the open door of the unlit temple, Adlet and Atro saw an old woman likely somewhere between seventy and eighty. The woman was short with a surprisingly long beard uncommon for women, she also wore a full set of armor and held a warhammer that she used as a cane.

Atro said to Adlet, "this dwarf is Aywen, she can be intolerable but reliable."

Aywen laughed and said, "that is funny coming from you, I may be intolerable but what does that make you whose general attitude scares everyone away from you or makes them hate you. When was the last time you had a friend that wasn't involved in fiend hunting...never?"

Atro replied, "I never needed anyone besides those to help me in my hunt."

Aywen looked at Adlet and said, "as I said, he couldn't make any friends that weren't related to his fiend hunting because if it wasn't for his obsessive knowledge and somewhat admirable skill, than nobody would give him the time of day, they would be to busy throwing the clock at him to try and get him to go away!"

Adlet sweated as Atro gave Aywen a death glare then a terrifying smile and walked up to Awyen.

Atro said, "do you still think you can back up those words with your dwindling strength, dwarf?"

Aywen gave her own murderous smile and retorted, "dwindling strength, I am still in my prime, never felt better, you look like you are falling over, I can help knock you down, I have done it plenty before, won't hurt to do it again."

Adlet was ready to try and come between the two old warriors if they began fighting but before that happened a loud laughter echoed through the Temple as the pair laughed at the same time.

Atro said, "ahahah, glad to see you haven't lost that foolish spirit."

Aywen said, "hahahah, good to see you haven't lost your stubborn attitude, best thing about ya. Now anyway onto why you're actually here, who is the fine young man next to you." Aywen turned to Adlet and said, "I am Aywen Artal, but you can just refer to me as Aywen, and you are?"

Adlet introduced himself, "I am Adlet Mayer, the only person to ever complete master's training, former brave and the strongest man in the world!"

Aywen laughed, "haha! Well an interesting person has come into my temple, I have heard of you of course, you're famous and infamous, especially in Piena, ha, they still hate you. Anyway may I ask what business the strongest man in the world has with me?"

Adlet explained his request and what he wanted Aywen to do.

Aywen summarized, "so to make sure I have this right, you want me to use my powers to help me attach your mechanical legs to your girlfriend so she can walk again. I don't have a problem with that, but nothing is for free as you should understand, I have a problem that a graduate of the greatest fiend hunter ever alive should be able to handle. Considering the greatly declining number of fiends after the actions of this generation's braves, this may be your last chance to flex those skills you worked so hard to train."

Adlet asked, "what fiend can you not deal with that you would need my help?"

Aywen pointed to Atro and said, "I need you to deal with the creature that this old man failed to kill and let escape."

Adlet had in depth knowledge on most if not all fiends, there were very few fiends that could defeat his master that did not reside in the Land of Wailing Demons. Only one came to his mind…

Atro completed his thoughts, "the so called dragon, his real name is Chishiki, an intelligent and old fiend, he has been around since the beginning. Unlike most of the intelligent fiends who stayed in the Land of Wailing Demons to plot, it is believed Chishiki actually has not once returned to that land and has instead resided in this land. Ever elusive and always traveling, difficult to track."

Aywen cut in, "you tracked him down though, near two hundred years ago, I still remember me mum telling me that legend of how the dragon beat the old angry man, always puts a smile on my face."

Atro shouted, annoyed, "how did I become the villain of that story? Anyway, I failed to kill him because he ran away, I almost had him and he knew it but I would say without a doubt in a one on fight he is the most dangerous fiend I have ever encountered."

Adlet asked what was on his mind, "so you want me to track him down?"

Aywen waved her hand and said, "no need, I know where he is, he is sitting pretty deep in my mine and I want him out! It is kind of difficult to mine if there is a literal giant monster in your mine wouldn't ya say? Adlet if you can kill it or chat it up and make it leave, whatever it takes, get it out of my mine, I will assist ya with fixing your broken girlfriend."

Adlet, "she is not broken."

Aywen replied, "sure whatever, anyway do we have a deal or not?"

Adlet replied, "fine, if this is what it takes."

Adlet and Atro left the temple, and trekt back to their home.

Atro looked at Adlet and said, "this will be difficult, luckily I have been preparing equipment for defeating this beast for years. Let's see, fire retardant clothing, scale breaking bombs will be the key, no poison will get through until you make an opening. Ohh yes, the eyes of the night, a handy tool I created that will mean you don't need to carry a torch as wearing these googles will allow you to see in the dark like an animal."

Adlet saw Atro begin to pull out the gear he had prepared for this fiend and noticed something important. Adlet asked Atro, "so why do you only have one set of gear, will we need to create a second to defeat it?"

Atro sighed and said, "no, this is not a fiend that can be fought together. I would only slow you down at my age and furthermore if you do not put your everything into fighting this beast, if you hesitate then it shall kill you."

Adlet prepared as best as he could and set out to fight the monster that stood between him and finishing Fremy's legs. Before he left he said to Atro, "if I don't come back...keep her safe." Atro merely nodded his head and with that Atro left.

Aywen and Adlet stood at the entrance of the mine. Aywen said, "good luck, also apparently the miners heard it's voice as far as a couple hundred feet from the entrance in their heads so I don't know how fiends work but watch out for that."

Adlet murmured out loud, "strange, it must be a talkative fellow."

Adlet walked inside the mine, abandoned mining equipment was strewn about the entrance. As he walked further in he heard a voice. "Welcome Adlet Mayer, I have been expecting you."

Adlet shouted out, as he walked down the mine shafts, "few fiends want for friendly conversation but I will bite, what do you want, why are you here?"

Adlet could hear the amusement in its voice, "why? I simply wish to talk to you of course. You're an interesting creature to me. I know all about you as I know many things. The other fiends sought to play with that Majin and either destroy or recreate humanity, I cared not for such things. I desired only one thing, knowledge. While the others of my species craved the destruction of humanity, I found interest in them. I wanted to understand your kind, learn from them. In time I even learned to transform into a human, albeit with some difficulty and that greatly helped my research. Fascinating creatures, you especially Adlet Mayer. A small boy who lived a quiet life with his family until it was taken from you by the fiends and their machinations and so you devoted your life to their destruction under the oldest and most dangerous man alive. Afterwards you become brave through a mess I don't even wish to bother and recap and during the whole thing you found a new creature, one I had never heard of before, a half-fiend. Neither human nor fiend but a mix of both, a new creature, a new person, yet she was still a fiend, by all of your training and all of your hatred you should have killed her on the spot. Yet instead you did not, of course the answer to that is love, you fell in love with her at first sight yet was it true, you later learned of Tgurneu's power and still you decided that your feelings could not be fake, fascinating. Tell me is there any reason besides the incredibly ridiculous emotion that is love that you did not kill her? She easily could have been a trap, she could have transformed into a monster at any time with you knowing it, the number of things Tgurneu could have done to that girl to make you suffer is endless yet you blindly trusted her, tell me that was not solely based on...love?

Adlet replied, "it was based on everything, her eyes, her words, her actions, I could never see a monster, it was simply a person in pain, someone who had been betrayed and misled her whole life who just wanted someone they could believe in. Even when the so-called love spell faded, and I nearly succumbed to my hatred, I still remembered all of that, and stopped myself, Fremy wasn't a monster she never was. Everything she did she didn't know better, she couldn't have, it was the monsters that raised her that was at fault, I also understood the creature that created her, that what he had done was his ultimate form of torture in his mind and such he would not have done anything more. That is all."

The fiend continued, "Interesting, so fiend hunter, what of this world, the woman you love is a first, a creature unheard of and thus feared by many, humans fear what they do not understand. She will likely always have enemies, she will never know peace, is this world not unjust, is it not cruel, do you not despise the people that would hurt your precious Fremy out of sheer ignorance?"

Adlet replied, "people are idiots, it is true they fear what they don't understand, but that does not apply to every person, there are those that you can trust, those that will help and guide you, it doesn't matter who you are, what color your eyes are, some people can that those kinds of things don't matter. Those people will find Fremy." Adlet smiled as he thought of those in the village who Fremy could call a friend, Yazzan, Neneriel, Manuela, Lucia, even master. Adlet continued, "Fremy is already in good hands, with or without me she will survive, she is a lot stronger than you give her credit for, even without legs she still is one of the braves, a lot of people seem to forget that fact."

Adlet thought he heard the fiend chuckle at his response, the fiend asked, "you do not hate the people of this world but what about the world itself? Is it not cruel? If things like fiends did not exist, if people weren't cruel, you would have never lost your home, your sister, what is the point in living in a world where the things you desire the most could be crushed and tossed away from your life forever?"

Adlet replied, "let me ask you this Chishiki, what is the point of dying? Moving onto an unknown for the hope of a better reality is foolish, yes it is an inevitability but why would one wish to rush into it. And if you do not wish to rush to death then all there's left is to deal with the world we are in. Sure there are horrible things, people die though you can do nothing about it, atrocities are committed every day, the weak are trampled on by the strong, there is much bad. But I will always choose to deal with that over the notion of giving up on a world with Fremy in it. I found the love of my life, any world that gives me that is one I will desperately grasp onto."

Chishiki roared in laughter. "Hahahaha! Very amusing you truly are interesting, one final question. What about me and my kind? I belong to a species that will not rise again for hundreds of years, if that even happens based on what happened in the Land of Wailing Demons. You could hunt us to extinction or you could leave us be, the few fiends that are around are the dangerous kind like me, who can hide in this part of the continent, yet even so they are still monsters and they shall still kill humans, both to survive and out of instinctual pleasure. You could hunt them down, yet would you risk hunting such creatures yourself, it is likely you would die, yet if you did not try, you would leave them to slowly kill in the darkness? Would you risk separating yourself from the one you love over your own sense of morality?"

Adlet thought for a moment and replied, "I could go on an impossible task such as that, yet I feel my hero days are over, I spent many years devoting all of my life to save the world and I did so, as cruel as it is, as selfish as it is, if Fremy would have me, I would gladly give up the mantle of fiend hunter and pursue a simpler life with her. Other heroes exist, they will never earn the title of strongest man alive but I have to save some monsters for them." Adlet said the last part as a joke.

Chishiki asked, "And what of me? I am a creature of murder though midly less, I have lived many years among humans yet I could never change my body to survive without the consumption of their kind, as such I have taken many lives and will continue to do so. Particularly from the poor, the sick, and those who would not be missed, the countries that held orphanages were always so delicious." Adlet tried to keep a smile on his face to mask his great hatred building for this beast. Chishiki continued, once again Adlet could hear amusement in his voice, "I have no remorse for those I killed, yet I do so simply to continue my existence, I seek no grand destruction of humanity, regardless I am without a doubt a monster, the cycle screams from the weak that I have silenced with my teeth shall never end as long as I live. So to make this interesting I will make you a deal, you near the deepest and largest open space in this mine, it is where I currently reside, you have two options. Option one, I leave, neither of us fight and you complete your objective, you don't lose your life and aren't separated from the woman you love. Or option two, the foolish choice, I fight you and kill you, I am not particularly fond of this one and as you said yourself you are certainly not willing to play hero if you would be guaranteed to die, so I don't see why you would pick this one."

Adlet smiled and said, "a wise man once said that you should not sit and do nothing about the wrongs of this world simply because you cannot write all of them. I may not be worthy of being called a hero for my cowardice, but even I cannot stand idly by when evil is in front of me, if I couldn't defeat such a pitiful enemy as yourself, then I would no longer be worthy of the title of the strongest man alive. I will fight you and I will kill you and I will live because I am the strongest, I won't lose!"

Chishiki sighed and said, "fine so young and intelligent, so much to offer the world, come at me then, you have chosen death!"

To Be Continued In Chapter 8: The Strongest Man, The Half-Fiend and the Strongest Leg Forward Part 3

Afterword: Why did you give the Saint of Mined Metal an A name, there was already enough with Adlet and Atro. Just did, came up with the name, like it, kept it. I apologise if the usage of A names gets confusing during their scenes, if I was a good writer I would use character's last names more often than their first disregarding are protagonists, I should call Atro Spiker, Spiker instead. However I decided to call him Atro early on and so I just kept it to stay consistent.

Why a dragon, and a dwarf? Well first off, Aywen has the traits of a dwarf and is thus called one and it is unknown whether those are due to her sainthood or just natural but she is fully human. Secondly I think the idea that great fiends that hide among humanity shouldn't be too absurd, one of the great fiends if I remember correctly hid as Nashetania's dog, so not too crazy in my opinion, plus I wanted to give Adlet in his capacity as a fiend hunter, one last fiend to fight.

Till Next Time!