The Ruined Death Knight

At the same time, at one of the largest houses in the Vashara village.

A man with bone-reinforced claws on his hand walked towards the same house with a frown on his head. His steps and demeanor bore an aura of strength and that of a hunter.

The man raised his hand and knocked at the door with an unmoving gaze.

*Knock~Knock~

It wasn't long before he could hear steps from the other side of the door and for the door to open.

"Come on in." The owner of the voice who opened the door was a beautiful woman with multiple fluffy tails dancing behind her.

The man with the claws nodded at the woman and went inside the house, staring in front of a table that had 2 other people staring back at him.

"You are late, Herlin." Another man said to Herlin with a frown.

Unlike Herlin, the man had a golden tail behind him.

Which for fox men, was such a rare evolution that was unheard of before. As only women grew tails.

"I had to deal with the recent events. Also moving around the town without being noticed by the primordial god's followers is a task on its own." Herlin said with a cold expression.

The man with the golden tail, Gilgamash scoffed in annoyance.

"What about the lording shadows?" This time it was the many-tailed fox woman that asked as she passed Herlin and took a seat at the table.

"Do you really believe that he-No, that any of us would have noticed them without being noticed back, Sernatta?" The woman named Kuroshi said, her tail and hair are a mix of white and black color.

She had her hand supporting her head lazily.

"You have seen them, going in and out of our very own shadows. For damn's sake! We wouldn't even know if they are here or not in the first place!" Kuroshi said in a mocking and frustrated tone.

"And that's not talking about the primordial one." Gilgamash added in.

Sernatta stayed silent at the two reminding the existence that they were now serving.

"We are getting off the point of this meeting. The strength of the oldest primordial is unfathomable to us. The only one who fought him was Shin'Yen and he told me that the primordial toyed with the whole fight. He even told me that he destroyed his skull, which is well known for being the weakness of all cursed warriors. Alas, the primordial has the capability to evade death, if not even surpassed death itself."

"Unkillable and immortality, with the strength to stand supreme. For all we know, he might be older than all our ancestors combine." Gilgamash added in.

"Not to forget that albeit he seems to favor the use of that long blade, he is still capable of magic. I can't even imagine what kind of magic such being could have mastered if we considered how long he live- No, how long he even existed." Sernatta said as she was brushing one of her tails on top of her lap with her hand.

"The lording shadows call him the creator, which hinds that they could be more or at the very least, create more lording shadows. Hehe~ We might be seeing five, but under our feet, it could be ten more if not a hundred!" Kuroshi say as she chuckled at the disparity of the idea.

The 4 strongest of forsaken ones fell in silence as they let all those things sink in.

It was only after a few seconds of silence that felt like hours that one decided to change the subject.

"I would say we stop there and talk about why we all came here." Sernatta said as she looked at Herlin.

"Today's accident, it was one of the Vashara people and one of your tribe, right? Though we heard few things, we would like to hear it from you, the leader of your tribes."

Herlin frowned but still nodded his head and explained everything he heard from the man who was lucky enough to escape from Talon.

After hearing the whole story, Kuroshi had an indifferent look while Sernatta and Gilgamash.

"We...were wrong. So wrong..." Sernatta said while looking down at her tail.

"If that one of your tribe hasn't accused the other of blasphemy, he too might have died." Gilgamash said with a grim tone.

"I think so too. I believed we got the wrong idea about the youngest primordial, White Life." Herlin nodded at the too, making Kuroshi confused with Shiro being mentioned now.

"Hoey, weren't we talking about Harsch Death and the lording shadow the whole time? Why mention White Life now?"

Sernatta turned her head and looked at her in annoyance.

"Don't you understand? White Life commanded the lording shadows to not kill either one of Vashara. But the lording shadow still did it."

"Which means that her influence among the Harsch Death followers is limited and can't be relied on to keep them away from our people by getting close to her." Herlin added.

"Making the will of Harsch Death all the more important...as those who broke his will can't be saved by White Life." Kuroshi mumbled as she finally understood the problem.

They had witnessed Shiro multiple times healing their wounds and even ordering a few Draugr's around to do her bidding.

Danzel speech of them falling under servitude also made them believe that she held the same authority on the undead as he had. Except only him able to overwrite her orders with his.

Alas,

Today's events proved to everyone in this room that White Life, or rather Shiro, had no reliable control over the undead.

Before they considered Shiro as their savior and protector.

And albeit their view hasn't changed much, it made the pressure that was put on them feel all the heavier from Danzel's orders.

"I do not understand why you all make those long faces. Seriously, in the end, we all are just supposed to do the same thing that we have done till now. Following the will of the primordial gods." Kuroshi crossed her arms together.

"The forsaken who died well deserved his punishment. Unlike them, they had already abandoned the lands of the primordial gods. And yet he still dared blaspheme and insult the very gods. While Herlin's man defended Harsch Death."

"As there was already a dispute among them, hence breaking the peace, both of those idiots broke the will of Harsch Death. Meaning that both should have died and become his followers for eternity. But despite that, the lording shadow spared you tribe member for defending Harsch Death where that forsaken one was punished rightfully."

"In my opinion, we should be thankful for the kindness of the primordial one. Without them, the woman of each of our tribes would have been raped to death and the man worked too exhausting to end up as food. We first need to be grateful to be unsatisfied with their will." Kuroshi said, her eyes glowing with mana and her aura radiating from her body subconsciously.

Sernatta closed her eyes and her face was emotionless, still brushing her tail as she heard those words, while Gilgamash had a frown on his face, clearly showing his dissatisfaction at Kuroshi.

Herlin in turn, nodded at her words.

"Kuroshi is right, without them many of us would have died and continue to be abused. Few of our people even reunited with their families after being kidnapped. I dreamed countless times of rising up against the hunters and freeing the people from all that suffering."

"I thought it was but a mere dream, wishful thinking back then, but that very wish was granted by Harsch Death. Just as our ancestors did, we should dedicate ourselves to their will and prove our worth." Herlin's calm yet deep voice made the others look at him, before nodding in confirmation.

"He is right, we should make ourselves useful even if it isn't directly asked of us. Prove to the primordial's our worth." Sernatta said

"To also guarantee our safety and goodwill of the primordial's to our people." Gilgamash added in.

"So that we can live like our ancestor, Wallren Sengata, and make the great wolf proud. We need to prove ourselves to the primordial ones like how he did once. For our tribe's man." Kuroshi said.

"For our tribe's man."

"For our tribe's man."

"For our tribe's man."

The 3 others voiced her last words in unison, creating a certain bond among them.

Alas, before they could savor the creation of a bond of survivors.

Each of them felt a sudden chilling run through their spine.

And just a moment later, a cold voice echoed through the room.

"I applaud the four of you." The cold voice said.

"!!!"

All four, at the same time, at the same second.

All stood up from their seats looking around them for the cold voice that they had all heard before.

And soon enough, their expectations were met.

Through the small openings of the wooden walls, a dark mist started to go in the house through the whole house, filling the whole room with a dark mist that circled around them.

And from inside the dark mist, footstep's plate boots started to appear.

Slowly, the appearance of the owner came out of the mist, looking down at the fox people with his flaring dark green eyes.

"I have heard your motivation, you four." Danzel said as he showed a malicious grin.

"And it just happend that I may be able to put your motivation into practice. To see if you are really worthy or not." Danzel eyed them one by one.

"For those who are successful, I will grant them unimaginable power." Danzel said in his cold voice.

"As for those who are not..." Danzel didn't finish his sentence. Letting their imagination do the rest,

And his sudden appearance fills them with fear, dread, admiration, and many other emotions.

His words felt many times heavier in their minds.