CHAPTER 27

Just before dawn, when Demkil’s forces were wrapping up their investigation of the event that occurred on Swinger’s territory and preparing to mobilize a party consisting of eighty knights from across the first three Slayer Squads, the sudden approach of a royal carriage caused them to halt. There was no questioning who it was, as everyone present knelt down on one knee to greet the one who would step out of the carriage; everyone, that is, except for the Second Captain, who remained standing in obvious defiance.

The horses were reined in to slow to a halt before the kneeling knights, and the coachman, a member of the Royal Guard, knights that did not have as much authority as whom were ranked Slayers, but were still considered Nobles in their own right, opened the carriage door for the passenger to step out. The passenger stepped out slowly, with an adorning crown atop of his bald head and a black and silver mantle upon his shoulders. Wearing armor underneath, it seemed that he was prepared to join a battle, yet he chose his crown to wear instead of a helmet, stroking his salt-and-pepper beard as he surveyed the knights before him. Then, his eyes fell on Rubia.

“What are you doing here, Second Captain?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Your Majesty.”

Though they referred to each other by their respectable titles, their tones towards each other carried no respect whatsoever. The King talked down to the Second Captain as if she were a petulant child, and the way she spoke toward him made it seem as if she regarded him as little more than a grumpy old man. Of course, most of the knights, especially the Captains and Vice-captains, were used to those interactions at that point. After all, the Twelfth King of Slayers, Demetrius Demkil, and the Second Squad Captain, Rubia Demkil were father and daughter, albeit estranged, obviously.

“I’m scheduled to be here around this time, not that it’s any of your concern. In fact, I’m sure I had instructed you to head towards the northeastern town of Noraston.”

The King spoke with authority, but Rubia waved it off with a scoff.

“There was no need; by the time we reached the first checkpoint along the way, we had received word that the incident that occurred there had already been resolved.”

“That’s impossible… Wasn’t the incident involving a hive of deviant First Tiers? Because the reported number of them seemed so great, I sent your squad to handle it, since yours has more members who are specialized in culling. Who else could have wiped out all of those Mutants? Did you even bother to investigate further?”

“I’m not a fool,” Rubia retorted defensively, “I sent people ahead to survey the town, finding it more prudent to return to the capital, since domestic incidents were more likely to occur. Then, we heard the emergency bell, rendezvoused with the First Squad, and headed here to Swinger’s estate. The rest should be obvious, no?”

King Demetrius examined the area beyond the knights, taking note of Swinger’s establishment in ruins, as well as the Demon that was uncomfortably sealed in a cage it barely fit in. His eyes fell back onto his daughter, and with a tone much stricter, he inquired about the obvious anyway.

“And, what of Nexus? Did you encounter it here, or not?”

“Of course not,” Rubia answered, doing little to mask her disappointment. “If I had, I probably wouldn’t be here now, according to your assessment.”

The King’s eyes shifted from the Second Captain to the Third, though it took Mestard a second too long to notice.

“Oh… Yes, Your Majesty! The Second Captain’s statement is true; Nexus had already escaped before the Third Squad could arrive to support the Fifth. Unfortunately, only the Fifth Captain survived Nexus’s attack. However, the most recent damage was caused by the Demon that the First Squad’s Spellcaster Unit ensnared.”

The King sighed, but it was unclear whether it was from disappointment or relief.

“Very well. All my Slayers may rise, but everyone else remain kneeling, as you are.”

As instructed, the Slayers from the first three squads stood, which were only eight out of the eighty knights present. Among them was the Fifth Captain, Lolicia Waldhart, who had returned at some point to convince her brother to let her join the search party. Unfortunately, she chose her timing poorly, as King Demetrius took notice of her, and planned to make an example of her.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Lolicia didn’t yet understand what she had done wrong, and she was still upset about the loss of her entire squad, and though she tried to be respectful nonetheless, her attitude was still evident in her tone.

“I’m standing as you instructed, my King.”

“That’s precisely the problem, Lolicia Waldhart. I instructed my Slayers to stand, and from what I’ve heard, you are no longer deserving of that rank.”

“What…?” Lolicia reacted almost in outrage, but that only fueled the King’s own wrath.

“You dare question your King?! You being the sole survivor means that Nexus did not flee from here, but rather left freely after you escaped to save yourself! Third Captain Mestard attempted to cover for you, but the fact that you stood as a Slayer means you still haven’t considered your failure! You stand here so proud, after sacrificing your entire squad… Do you make a habit of spitting on your former allies’ graves?!”

“I didn’t mean to…!” Lolicia attempted to defend herself with a quivering voice. “Nexus was just too powerful! It was as if it had already regained full control of its power! I ordered everyone to retreat, but they were attacking in a panic! I had to survive in order to warn the reinforcements…!”

“If your squad was meant to fall in battle, you should have sent one of your members out as a scout to pass along your dying message, and then fall along with the rest. Instead, you abandoned your comrades, then you make excuses as if you’re more of a victim than the families that have just lost their loved ones!”

The King’s words certainly dealt a devastating blow to Lolicia’s emotional and mental state. Though her helmet concealed enough of her face to hide her expression, her trembling shoulders were still seen, and her soft sobs still heard. She responded to King Demetrius, unable to look him in the eye any longer.

“Please… Forgive me, my Liege…”

“You are hereby demoted to the rank of City Guard. If you’re willing to work your way back up to the status of a Slayer from there, you will both earn my forgiveness and regain my respect. Until then, you shall kneel upon every sight of me, and never raise your head or voice to me.”

Doing as instructed, she kneeled back to the ground, her head down as her body still trembled from the frustration, sadness, and the weight of responsibility, but she bore it all silently. Then, only seven Slayers stood along with the King.

“Now then,” King Demetrius spoke in a lighter tone, “Let’s inspect this Monster, shall we?”

Without awaiting a response, the King was already making his way to the sealed Demon, which had reverted to its initial quadrupedal form. The three Captains followed behind him, with their Vice-captains following behind them. Upon closer examination of the Chimera, the King frowned in disappointment and disgust, then turned to Mestard.

“Is this really the Demon you had trouble with?”

“My apologies, sire, but it’s the truth. We had discovered a possible weakness, but then it transformed and set us back, and while we were figuring out the next approach, it trapped us. The Third Squad would have been eliminated as well, if not for the First and Second’s arrival.”

“Wait… You said that it transformed after you discovered its weakness? As in, it adapted?”

“Y-yes…?”

The King looked back at the demon, wearing a strange expression of fascination mixed with hatred.

“I thought it was just another Mutant that got possessed by a Demon by pure happenstance, but it seems more likely to be an interesting part of the project that Swinger was working on.”

King Demetrius then turned to Head Captain Waldhart, seeming impressed.

“Well done, not killing it impulsively like you used to. Examining its capabilities further could lead us to discover new ways to exterminate the more recent Supernatural pests, as well as the higher tiered Monsters. Was there anything else found?”

“The Second Squad was in charge of investigating the wreckage, Your Majesty.”

“Oh…” With less enthusiasm, he turned to his daughter. “Well?”

“No.” Rubia replied succinctly.

There was a brief silence as the two stared each other down. When the King began to inquire further, Rubia had cut him off, which no one else would have dared to do.

“Did you even bother to…?”

“Of course I did! All we found was a dungeon filled with Swinger’s dead Mutant servants! We… We also may have found the remains of Swinger himself…”

“But nothing else noteworthy, like this Monster?”

“Nope, it seems to be the only one of its kind.”

“That’s disappointing… If there were other subjects like this one, we could have tried a few different things simultaneously. Very well, then. Deliver it, and any other assets Swinger managed to his students. They’ll have to figure out how to carry on where he left off.”

“Hold on…” The Second Captain spoke up, daring to question the King as the former Fifth Captain did. “You do understand that experimenting on Demons won’t lead to anything positive, don’t you? The Mutants are one thing, but Demons are Second Tiers for a reason! One slip up, and an entire city could be wiped out!”

Perhaps because it was the King’s own daughter questioning him, he responded differently to Rubia’s challenge in comparison to Lolicia's audacity.

“Which is exactly why we must experiment, to learn how the Demons use their power, and how we can restrict that power, or even use it against them. If there are Monsters that we’re unable to kill that are weaker than the Second Tier, then there will definitely come a time where we’ll have to confront a Demon that cannot be killed. If you think there is a better way than this, then go ahead and share it with us.”

With that, everyone’s attention was on Rubia, waiting to hear what idea she would come up with. However, she remained silent; she had been criticized before, as a result of suggesting mercy towards a Monster just because it hadn’t killed anyone yet, and then after the Queen’s death, she had been suspected as a possible traitor for a time. Of course, King Demetrius silenced such claims, in spite of how much she argued against his methods. However, if she were to suggest something considered treasonous among the Slayers, she doubted that he would aid her again.

“That’s what I thought,” the King stated smugly. “You spoke up, thinking that I had not considered the risks, when it was you lacking consideration. Remember that next time you try me.”

Suddenly, Rubia reached for the hilts of one of her swords, which alarmed everyone. The knights who didn’t know better thought that the falling out between the daughter and the father had escalated to a disastrous level, until they realized that the Second Captain glared not at the King, but towards something leering in the shadows beyond him. The other Slayers took notice, readying their weapons as well, but the King raised his hand to signal them to stand down.

“This is a perfect opportunity. Show everyone here what you can do, son.”

Rubia particularly flinched upon hearing the King address someone as his “son.” It wasn’t right for multiple reasons, the main one being that she was an only child up until the late Queen gave birth to Axis, who the King had never acknowledged as his child. So she wondered, along with everyone else, who he could have possibly been referring to…

Then, showers of light rained down upon the shadows, striking various Mutants that had survived the incidents that occurred between Nexus and the Demon Chernos. Previously servants of Dalton Swinger’s, they were waiting for a chance to escape, not even considering an attack on the King or the knights, but in a flash, that escape was denied as they were mercilessly shot down.

When the shower ceased, and the Mutants were dispatched, the knights, excluding the Slayers, conversed amongst themselves in their confusion, in spite of the obvious inclinations.

“Where did that come from?!”

“Was that an attack by the Spellcaster Unit?”

“No way, they’ve never used Magic that powerful before!”

“Oh yeah right, like you would be able to tell how powerful that was.”

“The whole fucking night sky just got lit up! Anyone with eyes would be able to tell!”

“Silence,” the King ordered, and their chattering immediately ceased. “I was going to introduce him anyway, since I want him to join the search party for Nexus. Come on out, son.”

Surprisingly, from beyond where the carriage was parked, an unrecognized knight in light armor jumped down from a tree. This time, unexpectedly, the Head Captain of the Slayers spoke up to the King with a minor protest.

“With all due respect, sire, although that showing was impressive, it is unwise to include someone new within our ranks for such an important task.”

“Consider him another contingency, Waldhart. If Nexus truly has full control of its power already, then he will be an asset you will require.”