Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Kaizen's punch hit the hooded man hard, and he fell to the ground with a deafening thud. Korgrak, who was standing next to him, was surprised by Kaizen's attitude and tried to hold him back, but it was useless.

"Kaizen, what are you doing?" Korgrak asked, stepping forward to block another punch.

"That was so he'd understand that I don't like being flattered by people I don't know. And most of all, I don't like people who pretend to be something they're not."

The hooded man stood slowly, wiping the blood that dripped from the corner of his mouth. He looked at Kaizen with a mixture of surprise and admiration.

"Interesting," he said. "You are physically much stronger than I thought. I underestimated you once again, Kaizen. And that is a mistake I do not intend to make again."

Kaizen frowned. "Who are you, anyway?"

The hooded man smiled again. "My name is Gorgath. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Everyone looked at each other, but Kaizen didn't, he recognized the name. A few weeks ago, during one of his visits to Alina in the Library of the Magi, he had asked her about a book she was re-reading and it had that exact name, a story about a disgusting man who practically sold his life to the orcs for money and power. From what Alina told Kaizen of the story, Kaizen learned that this man had been captured by the elves and thrown into a cursed place where no one could enter or leave without the elves' permission.

"Are you... are you this Gorgath?" Kaizen asked incredulously.

The man smiled. "Yes, the same. It seems my fame has preceded me."

Korgrak and the others were very confused as to what was happening and why Kaizen was suddenly so surprised.

"Who is he, Kaizen?" Salles asked, drawing his sword.

Gorgath laughed softly. "It's a long story, man. But if the Psyker himself knows me, there must be stories about me. Legendary stories perhaps?" He asked.

Kaizen laughed sarcastically. "Legendary stories? No, not even close. There is just a dusty old book in a library that was once lost for hundreds of years. The story in that book doesn't talk about your achievements, only about your mistakes."

"My mistakes? Don't tell me that..."

"Yes, I know what you have done, Gorgath. You are a traitor, and a traitor of the worst kind. You have betrayed not only the trust of those who trusted you, but your entire species."

"No, you don't understand..."

"Of course I don't understand you, and there's no reason for me to try. How does it say at the beginning of the book, 'A traitorous elf deserves neither the sunlight nor the shadow of the moon'? I'm sure it was something like that, and now that I know your name, I understand what I felt when I saw your damned smile, I understand why you were trapped in the Lost Garden."

Kaizen's revelation left the group silent, each processing the information in their own way. Salles kept his sword raised, his expression tense as his eyes flicked between Gorgath and Kaizen. Jenwook, for his part, looked surprised, his eyes wide and his jaw slightly open. Anfrid looked pensive, as if trying to remember something.please visit

Korgrak, the leader of the group, was silent, but her fists were clenched and her gaze was deadly.

Finally, it was Gorgath himself who broke the silence. "You don't understand, you don't know the whole story," he said, his tone deep and respectful.

"I have all the time in the world." Kaizen said sarcastically.

Gorgath ignored the irony and began to tell his story.

He told how he had been a spy for the elves who had infiltrated the orcs to gain information about their war plans, but he had fallen in love with the daughter of the orc chieftain named Zara, so he took advantage of the elves' trust to steal their secrets and sell them to the orcs for a fortune. From that moment on, he began planning to give the elven territories to the orcs in exchange for a high position in the new orc kingdom and amnesty for being an elf. However, his plan was discovered by the elves, who sent an elite team to capture him and take him to the Lost Garden, where he would be forgotten as a form of punishment for his crimes.

"I spent centuries in that dark place, watched by these eyes, which in time began to resemble the eyes of the brothers I had killed with the information I had spread," Gorgath recounted. Gorgath recounted. "I had to fight for my survival against plant monsters with nothing more than my mouth. You have no idea how bad that was for me."

"It doesn't matter anymore." Kaizen said, crossing his arms. "You are an elf, and that is all that matters today. You probably don't know this because you haven't left this building yet, but the war between the five great races ended a long time ago, man. Not just a few hundred years ago, but at least a thousand years ago. The elves stayed in Midgard for a very short time, and as far as I know they fled to Alfheim. The orcs couldn't hold out for long either, so they spread out across the world, and with their forces divided, their numbers dwindled considerably. I have never met an orc myself. They probably live in underground villages far from any human kingdom or city, or they would be hunted down.

Gorgath, his eyes bulging, was on the verge of falling to his knees in shock. "Does this mean that everything I did was for nothing? After all, who won the war? The Giants?"

"Are you incapable of seeing that there are only humans before you? If there was a winner in the war between the five races for Midgard, it was surely the humans," Korgrak said. Korgrak said.

The words finally brought Gorgath to his knees, for he could not believe what he had heard. His expression was one of despair. If what he said about betraying his brothers for love was true, he had just lost his purpose. And if he was lying about it, he surely saw no reason to do so now that the people he had betrayed were in another world and the race he had helped was all but extinct.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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