Forest Of The Dead I

"Against the humans?" Kies asked, though not very surprised. He already knew that this was going to happen eventually but he hadn't expected it to be so quick. And for whatever reason, he started feeling anger at them, anger that he hadn't felt before. It was just for a short moment but his mind screamed 'revenge.' But just as quickly as that feeling came, it disappeared. Kies didn't understand why he suddenly felt that way for a split second.

"No, you're not ready for that yet," Tornon told Kies.

"Huh?" Kies was confused. Wasn't there only one war going on between them and the humans? Who else were the demons fighting against?

Kies asked this question and Tornon explained to Kies what he meant. "Which your current strength and skills, at most you will only be able to fight and win against two human soldiers at once. Sending you to the battlefield is not a good idea right now."

"Then what am I fighting against?" asked Kies.

"Oh, my bad. I worded it wrong. You're not actually going to be fighting anything- wait... actually, you are."

"Sorry, I'm not following what you're saying."

Tornon brought his hand to his chin and then said, "You know what the Soulless are and what our relations to them are right?"

"Yes," Kies answered. Ammine and Arc had briefly explained to him what they were. He knew that they were part of the alliance between the demons and his race during The Red Tides War.

"Okay, that makes things a whole lot easier to explain."

"Do you want me to fight them?" Did something happen that caused them to become enemies now?

"Well, I prefer you not, but considering their current situation, you will most definitely have to." Tornon shook his head and let out a sigh. It sounded like he was tired of whatever was going on with the Soulless. "The Soulless have no single leader to guide them. It has always been that way. Instead, they have a hierarchy system where the lesser undead are led by the more powerful ones." Tornon scratched his head and explained what the problem was. "What happened is that the powerful undead are at odds with each other, which means that they won't be able to aid us."

"And you want me to deal with that?" Kies wasn't sure that he would be able to deal with the matter by himself but before he could ask about it, Tornon answered his question with his next sentence.

"I originally tasked Ammine with this job alone but I thought it would be a good idea for you to tag along as well and gain some experience. I don't really care how you do it as long as you get them to stop fighting among themselves and help us, but the fastest way would probably be to ally with one of the commanding undead and subjugate the rest." Tornon murmured something and then snapped fingers. Suddenly, a portal appeared in front of Ammine and Kies.

Kies looked through the portal and saw that it led to a dark and gloomy forest. "Wait, we're going right now?"

"Yes, there is no time to waste. We are fighting against the humans right now as we speak. We need the undead's assistance as soon as possible." Tornon waved his hand for them to quickly go through the portal.

"As your order your majesty," said Ammine. She quickly got up and yanked Kies up as well and then pushed him through the portal along with herself.

"Hey! Can't you give me a warning before you do something?" He should've gotten used to it by now but he still couldn't stand it when Ammine did something to him without saying something beforehand.

Ammine ignored Kies and started to look around the forest. Kies shook his head and joined her in figuring out their surroundings.

Kies saw that all the trees around them were bare and the skies were dark and cloudy even though it was still afternoon when they left the castle. Kies wandered around for a bit but made sure that he was still close to Ammine who was standing still with her eyes closed doing something. The soil was coarse and there were no plants at all other than a few glowing mushrooms. After exploring for a bit, Kies walked back to Ammine who was still concentrating.

"That's strange," she said. "I don't sense anything around here at all." Ammine opened her eyes after a few moments. Kies wanted to say something but it looked like Ammine was still in deep thought about something. "Ugh, looks like we have no choice."

"What do you mean?"

"It looks like we will have to walk until we find them, which is really risky since they can conceal their presence and ambush us."

"Aren't they allies?"

"Yes, but they attack anything that is living for their life essence."

Ammine chose a random direction and then the two started to walk through the forest. Ammine wasn't the happiest about it since her wings were quite big and they kept hitting branches they walked past since they were quite low and the trees were in close proximity to one another.

"Stay alert, there is no telling when we might get jumped," Ammine warned Kies.

"Got it-" Just as Kies said that, something grabbed his foot and pulled him down.

Ammine turned around and stomped on the hand that was reaching out from beneath the dirt. There was a groan and the hand let go of Kies.

Kies quickly got back up and looked at the place where the hand came from and saw that something was climbing out of the dirt.

"Hmph, looks like we're surrounded," said Ammine. Kies looked back up and saw that more hands were reaching out the dirt from all around them.

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