Chapter 13 - Have we met before?

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"Hey boss, didn't you say there would be a goblin village around here?" asked a man with a broken voice.

"Yeah, the source was verified. I killed a guy and took his pouch. It had a lot of silver coins in it. He looked hella broke, so there's no way he had those clothes with that much money," responded another man. He looked more muscular than everyone in the group.

They were about six and were all wearing black and gray clothes. From the top of their nose until the mouth, a thin cloth covered them. It was done so they wouldn't be recognized.

"Then if that guy came back with silver coins, it means it has already been looted, no?" asked another man.

"You brain-dead fishes! We're not here for the village but for the people going there. Only fools and desperate people would go alone in a forest full of monsters," their leader rebuked them.

"We're going to wait until it gets a little darker. We can't have the army discover us."

They stopped talking as they made their way toward the goblin village.

"Hehehe..."

On their way, they heard laughing coming from a kid.

*shh*

The leader put his finger on his mouth to make them quiet.

When they looked toward the source of noise, they saw a small kid with long black hair walking with a smile plastered on his face.

He looked to be around ten years old. On his back laid a pretty big backpack.

In a quiet voice, "Boss, it's a student from the academy. There are almost only nobles there. We've struck the jackpot!"

"Yeah, we can ask for a ransom from a noble. Which means gold coins, we're good for life!"

They were pretty close to the goblin village, which was far away from the periphery of the forest. Even if they were to light a firework, it would make light at most. The sound would be small.

They then all started chasing after the kid, who in their eyes had transformed into a pile of gold.

"What the—" Before he could react, Dante was assaulted by six men. In an attempt to escape, he tried to run away but was then knocked out unconscious.

"Let's go!" They all shouted at the same time, happy that they would finally escape their pitiful lives of stealing and fighting for food in the slums.

"This kid looks like a flower boy, he's definitely a noble's heir!" observed one of the bandits.

"I will finally buy some delicious food." One of them started crying. They all patted his shoulder.

"I'm gonna finally be able to buy one of those—" Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes dilated and his pants became wet.

Everyone noticed the anomaly as they inquired, "Hey bro, are you alright?" "Nah, he's maybe in shock. He's been living on the streets longer than us," replied someone else.

The boss, however, observed his abnormal subordinate. He then looked in the direction he was looking and had the same reaction.

"RUN!" he shouted. When everyone looked in the same direction, they saw it. A four-meter-high completely pale monster with four long arms. Its head was that of a skull with just skin on it and flesh tendrils.

As they all started running away, the abomination just trotted toward them, grabbing them one by one by their necks.

It was extremely fast for its size and caught all of them quickly. Except for the last two, which it couldn't grab because it only had four arms. It stomped one and grabbed the other with its mouth.

The one grabbed by its mouth screamed. The monster looked displeased as its teeth dug

into the man's rib cage, which crumbled with a crusty sound. The man without hair became as quiet as a corpse.

Everyone became quiet, not because of shock but because they were afraid to be the monster's next meal.

The abomination then walked very slowly toward the unconscious Dante and gently picked him up with the tendrils on its head.

It then started walking toward the forest, which had become quicker than a morgue.

...

I felt my head hurt like hell as I opened my eyes. All I saw was a cave wall. It was dark, and I couldn't properly see.

"Those fuckers, there I was gonna enjoy a walk in the forest." I thought. I then stood up and walked toward my backpack and took a small gem that illuminated the cave.

What I saw was nothing short of a red paint macabre.

Fingers, feet, heads, guts, and blood covered the whole cave. They were everywhere, even on the ceiling.

My blood ran cold as I froze at the sight, not of a slaughterhouse, but of the giant pale back moving and making chewing noises.

As if reacting to the light, it turned around and looked at me with its pure abysmal black eyes. It was observing me. Then, with its four giant arms, it grabbed me and turned me around in the air.

As if looking for any injuries...

It then put me back on the ground and gave me... a severed and half-chewed arm...

Bit by bit, my fear turned into interest and then into happiness. "You look familiar…?"

'Why am I asking something like this? I don't know. I don't care.'

From the black holes that served as eyes, a liquid flowed out. It looked sad, not at my words, but at my status. For some reason, I could understand its feelings.

But why would it be sad?

Before I could make any assumptions, it opened its mouth. With air coming out, it started closing and opening it again, as if trying to articulate something.

"M...y... Li...ege..."

"My liege? What do you mean? I don't kn—" Before the boy could finish, the monster grabbed him and put him on the floor again.

"C...o...re."

It tried to say something, but Dante couldn't listen as his head had been thrown against the hard floor.

As if its own life didn't matter, it let go of Dante and then, with its four arms, dug its arms and ripped open its own chest. Blood, bowels, guts, and all its organs splattered on him.

He was unconscious and couldn't see what was happening. It then started searching for something in its chest cavity, producing the sound of flesh being ripped and moved around.

Anyone who would witness this horrifying scene would have vomited their insides out.

Then, as if finally finding what it was searching for, it grabbed its heart and tore it apart from its chest. The tendrils in its head then started moving and getting longer until they could reach the ground.

They made their way toward Dante's chest. When they reached him, they took the shape of sharp scalpels and dug into his chest very carefully.

With precision, they cut one rib after another until his heart could be seen and reached without hindrance. The tendrils of flesh then grabbed the monster's heart and cut it open, picking up a very small marble-sized abysmal black sphere. They then cut his heart open very delicately as they put the absolutely black marble in his heart.

The monster was panting heavily, its purpose of saving its liege accomplished. Green light appeared on its hands and tendrils. Dante's convulsing body started to calm down as his wounds

and bones started to regenerate.

Its job done, it collapsed on the side with a heavy noise. Its caring eyes still looked toward the recovering Dante, its life meaningless compared to him.

But before it died, its tendrils reached its head and then cut it open, reaching for what looked like its brain.

A small and red tendril-like creature, compared to the pale white and lifeless tendrils, slowly left its head and slithered toward Dante, wrapping around his arm.

Then, everything became quiet. It was nighttime, and the smell of blood reached thousands of meters around the cave. Yet, not the slightest nocturnal predator dared to approach...

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