Chapter 3: The World Outside
Shiva could not help but smile in amazement as she flew across the barren plains. It was not because she viewed the savannah as being beautiful. No, the tropical rainforests of Vanaheim were far more beautiful. The dry yellow grass and occasional shrub could never compare to the dense evergreen vegetation.
The reason she was fascinated by everything she saw was because she had never seen sight so clear in her world. The air smelled so clean, like back when people didn't need filters. The sky was clear and she welcomed the heat of the sun on her skin. Back on Earth she had never seen the sun because thick smoke clouds covered the sky. She had never played in the rain or gone to the beach either. The only rain she had ever witnessed was acid rain, carbonic which deteriorated building structures and sulphuric which burned the skin. There was no point in going to the beach either because it was littered with rubbish and the sea was filled with radioactive waste. That was the state of the world she came from. In this world however, she could experience all of it. The beach, the sea, the rain; things she only read about in books from a hundred years ago.
"Chichi-ue," Michael called to her over the wind. "You're smiling. Did something happen?"
"It's nothing," she replied cheerily. "It's just been a long time since I felt this free."
By flapping her six powerful wings hard she shot on ahead of him and begun to spin midair like she had seen jets in countless movies. Unfortunately there were no clouds to burst through before taking a dive and pulling up just before she hits the ground. She would have really loved to try something like that.
While Shiva was playing around in the sky Michael on the other hand was surveying the land. His 'father' had entrusted him with her protection so he was on high alert. He would not allow anything to get past him and pose a threat to her. If he did he would step down as Chief Angel.
"What's that?" In the distance, about a hundred kilometres away, there was some kind of community.
Using his racial skill [Omni-Sight] he was able see that it was a village inhabited by trolls. Shiva likewise used the same skill and saw the monstrous giants that lived in the village. Trolls were not friendly creatures. They were primitive beings of a barbaric nature and a taste for flesh, especially that of humanoids. Usually it would be considered suicide to march into a troll community, but Shiva used [Life Essence] to check their HP. It was quite meagre so they must be really low levelled and would not pose a threat to them.
"We might as well start here," Shiva said. "Let's go check it out."
The two of angels increased their speed to supersonic levels as they sped towards the community.
"We are approximately two hundred and fifty kilometres west of Zion," Raphael said, looking up at the mountain range blocking his path. "How come we haven't encountered a single intelligent being until now?"
There been no need to look for life-forms within fifty kilometres of Zion because of the Sacred Beast Ki's abilities so Raphael and his subordinates had less ground to cover. This world though was unlike Yggdrasil where you will always encounter a threat every kilometre. The most dangerous creature they had come across in the endeavour was a lion chasing after a gazelle, a sure threat to humans but it would shatter its teeth trying to bite through the skin of an angel as powerful as him.
They searched up three hundred kilometres north, east and south of the flying fortress. It was only when they came west did Raphael sense an intelligent presence within the mountains. It was sizable presence, but nowhere near as strong as Raphael or any of his chosen subordinates. The weakest of his subordinates was a Level 70 Power and this creature was around Level 60-65. He couldn't tell what it was though because it was within the mountain and it seemed to be warding itself from spying. Even [Omni-Sight] couldn't penetrate its barrier.
I guess we have no choice. "Pen-san and I will go inside the mountain, the rest of you will wait here until we either return or something happens. If something does happen and the two of us are unable to handle it will contact you immediately and ask for assistance." Chichi-ue said to avoid unnecessary fighting so I'll hold them back unless I find myself in an impossible situation, which I find highly unlikely.
As ordered by his 'father' he did not take more than sixty subordinates, in fact he had taken only a sixth of that. Three Dominions, three Powers and three Virtues, all between Level 70 and 75. The tenth subordinate he took was a Cherub. This was a female in a long black dress with no shoes. She had a thick brown mane for hair and her ears which were located on top of her head, belonged to a feline creature. The four black wings behind her and the lack of a halo atop her head indicated that she was a Fallen Angel. This was Penemue, one of the Watchers who guard Babylon.
She followed silently after Raphael, who found an entrance into the mountain range. It was a large cave thirty metres wide and about fifty high. It had been concealed by illusion magic which could have fooled anyone who did not possess the Archangel's incredible senses. As the darkness enveloped them they felt no need to cast light magic, not that they could anyway since none of them were casters. Apart from the superior eyesight if angels that enabled them to see in the dark there was also the fact that Raphael illuminated the entire place. Such was the presence of the highest level angel. In daylight the presence of a mid-tier angel was usually so bright it made the surroundings dimmer. For an angel of Raphael's level the effect is amplified.
"Pen-san, what do you think the creature in this mountain is?"
"A demon," Penemue relied stoically. "They have always loved dark places."
"They love fiery places even more," Raphael said to her. "I cannot sense any heat coming from this place so I doubt it's a volcano. Even if it was a demon in here I would be able to sense its demonic aura."
As a Scout, there were none inside Zion who could even come close to matching Raphael in the sensory department. As a result he was responsible for information gathering. In order to deceive his senses one would have to either be in possession of powerful defensive magic, skills equal to upper tenth tier magic or above or they would have to be a master illusionist. In all of Zion, even when counting the Elohim, the Supreme Beings that created the NPCs of Zion, only a handful could manage it. Currently Jophiel was the only one.
They soon reached what Raphael assumed was the middle of the mountain range. The cave widened in both height and width, becoming big enough to fit a town or a small city. There was no community anywhere though. What met the two angels as they emerged from the cave into the enclosed space was a form, a gigantic and dark form that seemed to suck in all the light from its surroundings, even the one emitted by Raphael. So dark was this creature that even Raphael couldn't see most of its features. Its eyes, its only feature that could be seen clearly, looked down on the two angels with cold fury.
For a moment there was silence. The creature glared at the two and the stared back. When nothing else happened the creature opened its maw and spoke in a voice that shook the entire cavern.
"WHO DARES ENTER MY LAIR!"
The sun was setting. It was time to feed the livestock. This duty, as always, fell to Uggu Fuu. The other trolls thought it disgraceful. War Trolls would rather be out in the field fighting and getting stronger than feeding livestock, so the duty fell to the weakest of them, Uggu Fuu.
War Trolls were not as big as Mountain Trolls but they were stronger, way stronger. Uggu, while being smaller than the others of his tribe, was not as muscular and possessed strength inferior to theirs. There were females in the tribe who were stronger than him. For this reason, his mother had named him Uggu Fuu out of shame, a long name for a weak child.
One day Uggu Fuu get strong, become strongest, he had vowed the day his father had exiled him from the tribe. He would so strong no one would beat him. They would all be too scared to challenge him. Then Uggu Fuu beat Father and become chief.
That had been years ago. Uggu Fuu never got stronger. Wherever he went he'd met trolls stronger than him, always stealing his food. They would beat him up and only leave him when they had gotten their fill of his food. After a few years of this Uggu Fuu got tired of it and decided to return to the village. The only reason he was allowed back in the village was because his father, the chief, had been defeated and replaced by his older brother, who had returned to the village after years away.
With the change in chieftain came a change in how matters were conducted. The new chief was quick to solidify his power by killing and eating anyone who challenged his right to rule. He was incredibly strong, having the strength to pull trees out of the ground by their roots and swing them like clubs. He implemented new rules in the village. Firstly the War Trolls would hone their skills with training, second only the chief could mate with the females and lastly they would attack other troll communities, subjugate them and force them to hunt food for them. No one opposed the first change, however the other two were only accepted after a few dead War Trolls and a few razed villages. No one objected after that, especially when the new chief obliterated an entire tribe of mountain trolls by his lone self.
In order to avoid the same fate all nearby villages provided them with livestock they could raise and eat. The raising part was hard for a race of carnivores as voracious as trolls so the other troll communities had to constantly deliver livestock. There were different varieties; goblins, orcs, beastmen and the rare and incredibly tasty humans. Uggu Fuu was in charge of feeding them, fattening them.
The War Troll community had a dozen huts surrounding the pen in order to prevent the livestock from escaping, though everyone liked it when they tried. None of these creatures could outrun a troll, still, it gave the villagers an excuse to chase them down and kill them.
Uggu Fuu approached the pen with a large rusted bucket in hand. In this bucket was mixture of leftovers from previous meals. Uggu Fuu threw the contents inside the pen and watched in satisfaction as the livestock scrambled for it. He smiled as he watched them scratch and claw at each other. They dumb food, eating themselves. Only the humans did not join the fray. They ate their food undisturbed. A delicacy such as that could not be allowed to starve, especially now that the sole female was five months pregnant. They have kept her longer than all the other livestock and each of them knew that anyone who took food from them would be killed immediately without remorse.
Uggu Fuu stayed and watched the livestock to make sure the humans ate in peace. After a while he was satisfied with the result turned to leave them when he sensed all activity in the village stop. Mothers had been conversing with daughters about giving them to the chief to produce offspring as strong as him and fathers were teaching sons how to handle a club. All activity came to an abrupt halt. Uggu Fuu immediately found the cause of this.
Two figures had entered the village. They were garbed in white clothes. One in strange white clothes that Uggu Fuu would never know was called a suit and the other wearing pure white armour. They were both very short, not even reaching Uggu Fuu's waist. The two creatures were humans with a peculiar smell and an aura of danger, but Uggu Fuu was not smart enough to know realise that and he was smarter than everyone in the village. All he saw was two humans who walked into the village as if they owned it.
It didn't take long before the shock of the tribe turned to glee. Two more of the delicious humans had just stepped into town. Among the tribe of forty War Trolls most of them had never tasted human meat before but they desperately wanted to, especially after listening to the ones who had. It was apparently one of the most delicious meats, second only to elf, whatever that was. If the number of human livestock increased that would mean their chances of finally tasting human would increase as well. That was the thought of two youngsters as they got up and charged the humans with their giant clubs. Everyone watched in glee to see the results, imagining the two young trolls bludgeoning the humans to death.
If Trolls were smart enough to read the auras of people they would not have smiled so gleefully. If they had been aware that the two beings who had walked into the village had done it because they were confident no one in their community came even close to presenting a threat they would have turned tail and run for their lives. Unfortunately trolls did not possess a high enough intelligence and stayed, even when the creature in the armour drew its sword and instantly decapitated the young trolls.
Sure it shocked the trolls, but only for a while. The two youngsters had long names so they were not strong, that is why they were defeated. With most of them coming to that conclusion one trained warrior charged the two with his giant club. However, he was bisected with one slash. This shocked the War Trolls again but angered them even more. Three warriors charged the armoured creature at the same time. No one moved when they were decapitated with a single slash.
Monsters! Uggu Fuu thought, panic starting to rise from within. Not human. Too strong! However, the rest of his tribe though they were now hesitant to engage, did not come to that conclusion.
The second creature, which was not wearing armour stepped forward and began to speak. From its tone it sounded like it was asking a question. The problem was that no one understood what it was saying.
".era yeht dekcuf woh meth lleT !sdrater ginkcuf ,lla meth llik s'teL !erad dluow sdaehtihs esehT," the being in armour said to the other. (Chichi-ue, they cannot understand you. Why don't you switch to common speech)
".dnatsrednu ot bmud gnikcuf oot era yeht tuB .thgir er'ouY, " (What are you talking abou- oh)
At this point Shiva's cheeks reddened and she looked away so Michael could not see that she was embarrassed. How had she not noticed it before? All this time when she thought she had been speaking Japanese she was actually conversing in the angel tongue of Enochian? Was it because she was an angel that she was able to speak the language?
Seeing the look of confusion on the troll's faces she decided to put her thoughts away and access them some other time.
"Why have you locked up these people like animals?" she demanded, now clearly speaking what she knew was Japanese, or the common tongue as Michael called it.
When she and Michael were nearing the village they were able to make out the figures in the pen at the centre of their community. Nine goblins, two beastmen, four orcs and three human; eighteen in total were being held like cattle in a pen. They were all naked and from the look of them slept in their own waste. Shiva, who had been an avid reader of fantasy novels in the Real World, did not need help figuring out what they were being kept for. She had yet read a book with a vegan troll.
Even though she knew it was common in fantasy novels for trolls to eat people it did not stop her from feeling disgusted and furious, especially when she saw one of the trolls throw them food which landed on the ground, in their faeces. How inhumane, to subject them to such horrible treatment. She had felt like vomiting but apparently that option was not available for angels. Even the goblins, orcs and beastmen with their barbaric streak don't deserve to be subjected to such inhuman treatment.
"ANSWER MY QUESTION!"
Shiva was livid. She came from a world where the standard for living was so high and expensive that people trampled over one another to advance. The rich had it all and the poor had nothing, human rights were negligible. But this, this was something only a demon would do.
"WHO LET PUNY HUMAN OUT OF PEN?" a loud deep voice responded.
It came from the biggest hut. A second later an enormous troll appeared. He was the size of a mountain troll, but as muscular as the other trolls (come to think of it Shiva only realised now that she had never met this particular breed of troll before.) It, like all the other males of the community wore a loincloth made of animal hide and in its hand it carried a metal club twice as long as Shiva's body, and as thick. Its footsteps were loud and accompanied by soft tremors. When the other trolls saw the troll the first emotion they felt was fear, fear of being killed for hesitating to fight the two beings. However, after a second relief replaced their fear. These creatures were strong, but surely not as strong as their chief.
"Are you the mastermind behind this atrocity?" Shiva asked the troll.
If she had taken a bit of time to remember what she read in the fantasy novels she would have realised that trolls were not smart enough to understand words with more than three syllables. The answer she got after much confusion was, "OG! TROLL CHIEF!"
If he was going to introduce himself then she should probably do the same before she killed him. Trolls were creatures with intelligence slightly above that of a wild beast, so them eating people could be overlooked, that was how just how the world worked. However, she could not spare anyone cable of such monstrosity. I'll kill them all!
"I am Shiva." She was about to say something else but was interrupted when the big troll, Og, said a simple, "NO!". Shiva screwed up her face in puzzlement. "What."
"PUNY HUMAN WEAK, PUNY HUMAN NOT HAVE SHORT NAME LIKE OG. PUNY HUMAN LIE. PUNY HUMAN NAME LONG BECAUSE HUMAN WEAK!"
WHAT! The past few hours had been the most outlandish in Shiva's entire life, yet the statement from the troll Og had her more confused than anything else. He's denying me my name because it's short? Short name means you're strong and long name means you're weak? What the fuck is that?
"YOU KILL OG MEN!" the troll screamed, finally noticing the six bodies lying around. "OG KILL YOU!"
For his size OG was surprisingly fast, managing to close the gap between them within a split second. He brought down his club hard on Shiva's head. However, before he could land a blow Michael appeared before his creator and deflected the club with the flat of his blade, shocking ever troll present.
Real monsters! Uggu Fuu thought to himself as he slowly backed away. Brother not win, Uggu Fuu will run.
"Michael, would you please step back," Shiva told him calmly. She seriously felt like smacking him on the back of the head for interfering.
Michael was of course opposed to letting her fight. "Chichi-ue, I cannot allow-"
"It's fine," Shiva said forcefully. "These guys are incredibly weak so they pose no problem. Why don't you watch out for creatures that might actually be a threat?"
"Understood," Michael bowed before he stood back.
"Surrender now and I might just spare your life," Shiva said turned to the giant and took her staff out of her item box. Of course she had no intention of sparing him.
To trolls it seemed like it had just appeared out of thin air and most of them did a double take. Shiva however did not have time to deal with their reactions as she brought up the staff to defend. It was probably a very strong attack from the troll, but Shiva did not feel anything when she blocked it. The troll began to attack with stronger blows, some of even generated wind strong enough to damage the huts. However, Shiva didn't budge at all and when she tired of block she sidestepped and allowed the club, which she had now identified as being made from adamantite, to strike the ground. Then she stepped on the club, causing it to bend under the pressure of her foot, and struck at the defenceless troll so fast none but the person behind her saw. Head, ribs, knee; because she was feeling particularly mean she made sure her hardest blow caught him between the legs, causing him to howl in pain and sink to his knees.
"Now would be a great time to surrender," Shiva said passively. In truth she was enjoying it, especially that crotch shot. It helped not only to quell her anger but also relieved a lot of stress she had been feeling lately.
Og's skin had broken in most of the places she had struck and blood was gushing out of his wounds like a fountain, however, before Shiva's very eyes the wounds began to close and within seconds it looked more like someone else's blood had spilled on Og than his own.
Amazing, Shiva thought, transfixed by the scene. In Yggdrasil no one ever bled, when someone was injured they continued on able to fight and when they died the burst to pieces. Even the trolls in Yggdrasil did not bleed. A player would only be able to tell the troll was regenerating when they used [Life Essence] or a similar skill. So this is how the real thing looks like?
While Shiva was thinking about this Og stood up and swung his bent club. This time Shiva felt something was different in his attack, there was a certain distortion around him and the speed of the attack had increased multiple times. This time she didn't wait to see what would happen. Clutching her golden staff hard she willed it to change and what met the club was a katana blade, which cleaved the club cleanly in half. It was then that Og realised how completely out of his depth he was because his eyes were now wide with fear. However, it was too late for him. Even if he had submitted earlier she would not have spared him. But he didn't need to know that.
"I gave you enough chances to submit but it seems you're too stupid to reason with."
Her next attack cut his head cleanly off, there would be no regenerating from that. Silence followed the few moments after the might War Troll Chief's body fell to the ground. His blood had sprayed everywhere around him and would probably have sprayed her clothes if she had not cast a silent [Shield] around herself. Her gaze went to the golden hilt katana with a crystal blade in her hand. The combined efforts of Seraphim's top mage Tsukiko and top smith Masamune had yielded the weapon she carried. Imotep, it was a Divine Artefact. A sword that could dispel any magic up to the tenth tier and a staff that amplified all magic that used mana and reduced consumption to thirty percent. It was by far her favourite weapon.
When she finally began to move her surroundings suddenly broke out in chaos as all the trolls tried to distance themselves from her. She ignored them and walked over to the pen where the humans and demi-human were. They all looked up at in wonder and those with high intelligence had pleading eyes. With a sigh Shiva went into her angel form and hovered above them.
The light of high level angels like Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones had healing properties. Although the effect did not do much for middle and higher levelled individuals it was very effective when shone on low levelled beings. All the wounds of the people were healed instantly. There was no trace of even the fresh ones they had recently inflicted on each other during the scramble. Shiva glided out of the pen's air space and returned to her human form. Imotep had long since returned to a staff and had been stuffed back into Shiva's item box. However, that did not mean she was going to let monsters who were capable of such monstrosity get away. None of them would escape.
"Michael, kill them all! Let none but the youngest live. These creatures are a blight upon this world. Wipe them out!"
-END-
Character Stats
Heteromorphic Races
Jophiel: The Beautiful Mistress of Nightmares
Job: One of the Seven Archangels, Virtue of Charity
Alignment: Neutral, Sense of Justice: 0
Racial Level: Angel 5
Archangel 5
Principality 5
Virtue 10
Seraph 10
Job Level: Psychic 10
Seer 10
Illusionist 15
Master Illusionist 15
Puppeteer 10
Puppet Master 5
Racial Level: 35, Job Level: 65, Total Level: 100
Ability Charts
HP: 70, MP: 100, PHYATK: 30, PHYDEF: 85, AGI: 50, MAGATK: 75, MAGDEF: 95, RESIST: 95, SPECIAL: 80
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Heteromorphic Races
Raphael: The Watchman
Job: One of the Sven Archangels, Virtue of Diligence
Alignment: Good, Sense of Justice: 200
Racial Level: Angel 10
Archangel 5
Power 10
Seraph 10
Job Level: Scout 15
Gambler 5
Assassin 10
Ninja 10
Archer 15
Sniper 10
Racial Level: 35, Job Level: 65
Ability Charts
HP: 80, MP: 10, PHYATK: 80, PHYDEF: 80, AGI: 100, MAGATK: 50, MAGDEF: 70, RESIST: 90, SPECIAL: 85
Haha, Happy New Year to all! Thanks for reading this fanfic.