A New Beginning

Chapter 6

SMELL OF DEATH (2)

KASSE VILLAGE [FEW HOURS AGO]

“Why would you allow them to stay here in this village? When you know today’s the final day?” The village chief of Kasse village angrily shouted at the woman standing in front of her.

His eyes, which had seemed on the verge of closing in sleep, were now wide open, with red veins bulging prominently.

“Oh, father don’t shout at me like that.” The women cried falling on the table.

But there was no one to hear her sob. The village chief’s house was empty after the adventurers who came to deliver the item left.

“Don’t play games with me. You are not my daughter. And those adventurers are just kids. They should have left while they still had the time.” Seeing the women enact so familiar, the village chief was even more furious.

“Oh, come on I think I was doing my acting well. Not even the villagers doubted me. And it rather felt nice, since acting like your daughter gave me all the freedom to do whatever I wanted behind people’s backs. ⸺No one to question me.” The woman laughed, dropping up the emotional façade she wore.

“Why youuu…” The village chief growled.

“That’s how I was able to slip this in each of their food day by day.” The woman held out a small, ordinary-looking, pale brown seed in her hand.

“So, what are you going to do about this now?” the village chief questioned her intention.

“Don’t look at me like that. You were the one who wanted to get this place rid of all the poison. You agreed to it that no one can learn what happens at this place. And besides anyone could tell they were just some foolish green adventurers. An insensitive brat, a glutton, and finally a goody two-shoes girl who doesn’t know what she is doing. I mean who would provide free healing services in this day and age.” The women laughed savagely.

“So, how can we stop those adventurers from telling others what they saw here?” Even though the village chief might have first worried about the adventurers. But that vanished the moment he thought they could put a dent in his plan.

“For how many times, I am a poison monster, damn it. I had already mixed their food with a poison no one would be able to detect. I made sure their last meal was extra sweet for their last night. After all, it’s one of my special blends. And even if one of them had a strong poison resistance skill…”

The woman walked close to the window to check the state of the outside. However, it was nearly impossible to tell what was happening due to the thick mist, from the poisonous mushroom that grows in this village, spreading everywhere.

The woman untied her hair and a long thin black snake crawled out from behind her back and looped around her arm as it rested.

Patting its head, she stared into the snake’s diamond-like eyes.

“I am sure it will be too hungry once they all wake up, that they will like it.”

“What do you mean?” the village chief feared what the poison master might do.

“Nothing. So, do you have the delivered item? It’s the final ingredient so make sure it makes contact at the right time.” the poison master reminded the village chief of his duty.

When fear completely fades in a person. It is always for one of the two reasons.

One when they have no will to live.

The poison master could tell the same by looking at the village chief who was at his wits ends moments ago. Now grabbed the pouch tightly, ready to walk even the road to hell.

And the other when they are willing to die to get what they desire.

“After this night, we both will have what we have always wanted. So, let’s enjoy this long night, shall we.”

…

Only a few hours later when the mist started to clear, not because it was natural.

But something in the darkness was growing and fast approaching the village.

It was not through the ground or the sky, but from below the land.

Green tendrils seem to have been growing out from every nook and corner of the village for the past three to four months. And once everything was in place a purple flower blossomed at their tips.

Under the moonlight, pollen grains almost invisible to the naked eye, started to blow out from their stamen. But unlike simply traveling along with the wind, the pollen grains followed a certain path.

It straightway found its path to the villagers soundlessly sleeping. Unconsciously breathing in the pollen grains through their nostrils and mouth.

And after a few minutes, as if in response, their bodies started to show symptoms of change. Their body started turning green and purple blood flowed out through their eyes and mouth.

But this did not wake up the villagers, as if ignorant of the terrible pain they suffered from their organs melting and body slowly metamorphosing into something completely inhumane.

***

ELSIE

“Prince, do you think these monsters, were previously humans? Could these have been the villagers?” I asked.

At first, I thought, these new monsters got into the village by chance and started eating people. Some of these monsters also had torn or shredded parts of clothes on them.

But then there were no bodies, pieces of flesh, or even a drop of blood around. But all the villagers were gone from the village.

And that would mean the monster we left in the in the well, could have been Sasha.

The prince did not reply. His hands were already full from keeping the plant monsters from attacking us.

Slicing them did not work as they would regrow most of their parts almost instantaneously. They feared fire but then again, fighting a mob of them would prove difficult if we just relied on firepower.

The prince somehow had an idea of where the cause of all this lied. And as we ran through the streets to get to the place. We reached the back wall of the village.

Two plant monsters stood in our way. The prince pulled his hands and long metal rods fell from the sky encircling and forming a trap around the plant monsters.

The rod encirclement was too narrow and strong that their tendrils could not pass or breakthrough.

Another giant metal rod flies horizontally through the sky and completely blows the tacky village wall apart. Now we had a clear view of what was behind the walls.

“Is it a greenhouse…” I guessed.

From the looks, it appeared to be completely abandoned.

But from how all the plant monsters were moving in this particular direction, the prince could have been right.

“Prince, is it alright to not search for that girl Alicia? She could get hurt.” I was a little worried about her wellbeing. I am sure she would be hiding in some corner if she woke up in this chaos.

“Don’t worry, I am sure wherever she is she will be fine.” The prince replied.

Does that mean she has good hiding skills so that not even the monsters can find her? I thought.

Either way, I could not tell whether the prince was too sure or cared too little about Alicia.

“Looks like we will find all our answers here and maybe her too.” The prince said as he forcefully entered the greenhouse after breaking the lock by kicking at it.

For a moment I thought the prince was being impulsive, since entering the greenhouse while being discrete could have been more beneficial. But maybe even the Prince was too unhappy with the situation.

Surprisingly, what we thought to be a greenhouse, was not at all an ordinary greenhouse.

It was large and had a lot of sunlight.

“It’s night, so why is it so much bright here.” I could not help but be surprised.

Form a vibrant lush green land, to the large dome made out of unbreakable glass, took our breath.

“So, it’s like a magical greenhouse. It has an extra dimension and the light being projected now must be the sunlight stored during the day.” The prince explained.

Either way, the light helped us to easily spot the source behind all this.

How did I know?

Maybe it would be better if I just asked the humongous green monstrous plant living a good life here. A twenty feet tall body, and long large leaves that just one of them could cover the rooftop of a single house.

The smaller green plant monsters that had gotten here before us were waving in front of the giant plant monster.

And once they would have completed a specific number of steps they would grow their roots into the ground and become inactive.

As if slowly, they were all falling into a deep sleep. Something like a ritual.

“That’s quite an arrangement you have got here village chief.” The prince exclaimed.

“⸺The village chief!?” At my astonished expression, the only other human here came out from behind the giant plant monster’s shadow.

“She said she would take care of you. So, how is it that you all are still fine and here? She screwed up.” the village chief was furious as he cursed someone else too along the way while blaming us to be still alive and kicking.

“Who else is involved with you? Why would you do such a thing to the villagers and turn them into a monster.” I objected and accused him.

“They are not monsters. My Gisla is not a monster. Just wait till morning you will see everyone will wake up and will be much stronger. Then this wretched place will no longer be able to take the life of anyone.” The village chief shouted at the top of his voice as if to assert the claim that it was for the greater good.

“But why would you involve all the villagers in this? Why would you turn them into this thing as well?” I wanted to know why a small girl like Sasha had to go through something like this.

“You won’t understand. How frail Gisla was when she came to this village. But she loved the flowers and the greenhouse here. But the very thing she loved slowly started eating away her life. This village is always shrouded in poison, and no one from the village accepted her anyway because she was weak. So, what if I turned them into something similar and strong, then we can all be happy in this garden.”

“You are out of your mind.” I could never understand what the village chief meant.

The Prince signaled me to wait and watch as if to learn more about his plans.

“Gisla I have finally come to the point where we can be back together just like before. You will be much stronger and be able to look after our greenhouse just like you always did. And nothing in this world will be able to hurt you then.” The village chief stated.

As if responding to his voice the giant plant monster wakes up from its slumber by shaking off the pollen that had settled on it over a long time.

Its giant enclosed structure tilts closer to the ground. The village chief stepped forward too.

“Gisla come back to me.” He calls out, his neck overwhelmed with the memories of the past.

The closed bud of the giant green monster blossoms and inside there was a human body.

Its eyes and mouth closed like a corpse of a woman. But its entire body was discoloured into green and hairs were replaced by vines attached to the monster’s body.

“That bag…” I pointed at the bag the village chief took out from his pocket.

It was the same bag that we brought for him as part of the quest. So, did we somehow help him in executing his plan?

The village chief untied the knot and with a hopeful expression, spreads the content of the bag on top of the giant plant monster and the green woman’s body inside the bud.

A white crystalline solid powder falls like glowing particles. For a second it looked like everything succeeded when the woman in the bud opened their eyes.

“AAA……ACCHOOOOO” Suddenly the big plant monster made an unnecessary quirky sound.

“Did it just sneeze…” I called out.

I had never seen a plant sneeze before, so I couldn’t be sure.

“Acchoooooo….” And then it sneezed again.

“Just what was in that bag anyway.” I ended up asking the prince inadvertently.

“Beats me. But it doesn’t look like what the village chief wanted had worked.” The prince prepared himself just in case.

“ArrrrrGHHHH….” The woman in the bud finally opened her mouth but it totally blew out our ears.

“Gisla are you alright? I have waited for you for so long. Say something. What is happening to you? Are you alright?” The village chief worriedly stepped in closer.

“Wait, that’s not her.” I wanted to warn him.

But the green woman’s body inside the bud then pulled out her hands, grabbing the village chief. It let out a loud shriek right at his face.

A normal person would have already fainted by the intimidating sound, but somehow the village chief was not in his right mind either.

“Gisla, wait. It’s me. I want us to be together again just like before in our happy garden.” The village chief smiled.

But his happiness evaporated from his face, the moment he saw below at his abdomen.

Small vines had entered through his body and had started eating him from the inside.

The village chief spat blood on himself until he fainted and got completely devoured by the very monster he created from his love.

The woman retreated to the top of the plant, spotted us from there, and howled back at us.

The giant plant monster which housed it suddenly became active and it started pulling out its large tendrils deep rooted into the ground.

“Why do I feel like something like this has happened before.” The prince sighed heavily.

“I suppose we have to clean another person’s mess again if we want to get out alive.” I reminded him.

I was ready to engage in a fight with the prince. And since no one was here he could have used his skill freely.

And by seeing him fighting for a long time I think I can easily support him now.

I can’t say I was not excited, so this time I wanted to protect the prince and help him fight.

CRAKKKK…..CRAKKK…..CRAKK……

“Now what…” I think I was slowly losing myself with the pace at which everything was going down here.

I turned to look upward at the source of sound.

Black-robed men, entered by breaking through the outer glass wall of the greenhouse and swiftly descended to the ground with the help of ropes at several spots.

As they dropped to the ground they held out magical lasso loops around the giant plant monster and tied it down to the ground. Rendering it completely immobile.

“Who are…they?” I think I was still relaxed until then, but now my entire nervous system felt heavy.

The presence of these men alone was so overwhelming and threatening that I wouldn’t want to think of anything else now except for escaping.

I can’t say whether they are enemy or just strangers. Fighting them was too dangerous. That’s what my instinct said.

The prince looked shocked too.

As the black-robed men collected around forming a squadron, another robed man directly jumped from the top wall of the greenhouse without any support of the rope.

“He is deadly…” I muttered to myself the first thought that came to my mind.

I needed to escape with the prince. I can’t even begin to fathom how strong these people are. But I always know when I need to run for my life. And this was one of those times when I absolutely had to.

I looked around for the prince but he was gone from the place where he just stood beside me.

CLANG…

The sound of fresh metal striking came from the gathered coalition of the small group of robed men.

The prince had instantaneously manifested a black sword and struck at the strongest member of the black-robed men.

But the robed man put forward his arm and blocked it. I knew the prince’s sword was sharp enough to easily cut down a person equipped with a full-body armor.

But that was not just any ordinary hand, it was a special magical hand artifact.

Burst of sparks came out as the bloodlust of the prince grew deeper. I had never seen him act like that before.

The wind caused by the strike alarmed everyone. I took out my sword but I was instantly surrounded and blocked by two of the robed men. I couldn’t even see them when they surrounded me.

“Why have you come here? Tell me.” The prince shouted baring his teeth at him.

He repeatedly attacked the black robed man. Too fast even for my eyes to follow. But the robed man easily blocked each attack by swaying his metal arm like shooing off a fly.

“I didn’t realize you missed me so much… My Prince.” the man called out to the prince.

“Don’t call me that.” The prince backed off to come up with another strategy.

By this time the hood of the black-robed man who engaged just now with the prince came off.

He was a tall and muscular middle-aged man with wavy black hair, which somehow resembled similar to the prince for a moment. With a bearded chin strap and black colored eyes, one of which was covered with a black eye patch.

A deep wound from a sword ran down diagonally from the top of his face down to his lower lips.

This kind of description in the entire empire could have sparked the name of only one individual.

A black patched eye, a magical prosthetic arm. A sword scar on his face. And with that kind of exceptional power and aura...

It’s ⸺the Rogue Hero.

The Empire’s most wanted criminal and greatest enemy. The outlaw. The Empire’s Villain. The undeserving one. And what not...

What is someone like that doing here? And why does the prince look so angry, do they know each other somehow?

The prince once again lunged at the Rogue Hero, this time attacking with a sequence of fists and kicks. But the rogue hero dodged all of them and grabbing the prince by his leg, threw him back like a stuffed toy.

He is strong just as the rumours say.

The prince did not give up just there. Manifesting his special skill; giant pillars of black metal began falling from the sky on top of the rogue hero.

The rogue hero in response pulled out his long sword from his back and like a current flowing, cut down through the metal rods which until now to me always seemed indestructible. At the same time, he punched back the other.

Taking advantage of the chaos, I quickly pulled myself back from being surrounded and got close to the prince.

He was breathing heavily and his knuckles were completely bruised and red by continuously punching against that magical iron hand.

I wish Alicia was here now, then she could have easily healed the prince.

“Hahaaa…. You have grown pretty big from the last time I saw you. My Prince.” The Rogue Hero seemed to emphasize those last two words a lot.

“I will kill you this time for sure.” The Prince gritted his teeth. At this time, I did not know what should I do.

The Rogue Hero till now has not even used any kind of magic or his hero skill. And even without those he was able to push back the prince.

It would be a miracle if I could hold myself against even one of his men. So, how can I help him here?

“You won't be able to land a single hit on me if you keep trying to go for my other eye. Just what’s with the imperial royals of this empire, thinking of my body as some kind of play doll? The Knight Hero took my arm and the Empire Hero the Emperor, your father marked my face. And you, my prince at the tender age of seven took one of my eyes.” The rouge hero gave out a hearty laugh.

“You murdered my mother in front of me. How could I have let you go without making you pay? This time I will shred your heart open!” The prince shouted fiercely at him.

The prince’s mother was murdered by the Rogue Hero right in front of his eyes. I felt an ache in my heart. That would tell why he is so angry.

If I too ever find out who murdered my father, I would try to kill them too.

“⸺That won’t work.” While the prince had completely lost his cool. The Rogue Hero was busy checking out the place.

“I did not expect to find anyone here. And I think I am a bit late too. Things already look bad as it is.” The Rogue Hero analyzed the giant green plant monster and the green woman monster inside it glaring at everybody.

“Seems to me that it’s about to mature very soon. We need to stop it right here or things could get out of hand real soon.”

“Why did you come here? Did you know this was going to happen?” The Prince asked.

“So, you have finally started thinking. That’s great. As a reward, I might just tell you.” The rogue hero was too laid back which made it more so irritable.

But the prince was in no mood for a joke and just stared back at him.

“Ufff…. Kids these days. There is said to be a dangerous parasitic seed in existence that can take hold of any being whether alive or just about when they are dying. Once it manifests completely you get a monster something similar to this. The bad part is they are so resilient and strong that you will need an army of pyro masters to burn them down till they completely perish.” The Rogue Hero explained to us as promised.

“Seems like you yourself are not sure what it really is.” The prince taunted.

“Of course. No one can be sure of the unknown. Because you cannot find this seed anywhere on the human or the demon continent.”

“Huh… Sorry…” I quickly apologized for my surprised reaction.

“It's alright missy. I take it you are a personal guard of the prince. It’s surprising the prince would trust anyone after what had happened. Ordinarily, people will always be surprised to hear something like this.” The Rogue Hero excused me like I was a two-year-old kid.

During the Great War, the only existing landmass was divided into two. The Human Continent and the Demon Continent. If this seed is not from one of these places.

“So, where did it come from? Or you yourself don’t know and are just making up some delusional stories.”

“Prince I don’t think you should speak badly of that place. After all,…” The Rogue Hero coughed to take a pause and then gave us a wry smile.

“The Dark Continent. That’s all I can tell you about that place.”

“Never heard of it.” The prince quickly replied.

“That’s your homework to take care of. Don’t ask it all from me. Now if you will excuse me to do what I came here for.” The Rogue Hero pushed back his robe and moved to command his forces as they left our side.

“Torch all of them.” He gave out the order.

All the members of the rogue hero’s group called the outlaws, used their strongest flame magic to burn the plant monsters that had settled into the ground.

With the level of flame magic that was being used, one could have easily turned a city into a sea of flames in ten minutes.

But just as the Rogue hero explained, even with that firepower the plant monsters were generating fast and able to keep up with the attack.

While the prince and I were conflicted about what to do since the plant monsters were also once human.

And the outlaws were set on vanquishing them.

There was one being who was against their destruction. The giant plant monster let out a furious howl and the ground shook.

The outlaws holding it captive lost their footing and set the boss plant monster free.

Finding its chance quickly, the green woman's body pulls itself out from the bud even before its awakening time.

From its finger, hundreds of green vines sprout and launch into the air to attack the outlaws.

For a moment it felt like all of them were finished, but then the rogue hero got quickly close to the green woman’s body and chopped off her hands, failing the attack.

It was a quick and decisive move. Unfortunately, it left him too wide open.

Another root from the ground pulled itself to throw the Rogue Hero far.

I am sure he will be fine.

It was evident that with these many people, the giant plant monster was cornered. The green woman, who was only the shell of the monster, yet to fully awaken felt threatened by us.

It decided to use its last resort, which was awakening the other members of the monster group before they matured.

We felt another earthquake and this time it was much more prolonged than the previous one. As if the giant plant monster was trying to shake the sleeping plant monsters awake.

“I won’t let you do it.” The Rogue Hero rushed and tried to reach the green woman’s body who was behind this all.

But this time the monster had anticipated his attacks or rather it felt too threatened that it launched all its vines in all directions to stop the rogue hero from coming closer.

Ultimately, the rogue hero’s blade fell short to hit the monster’s body. The outlaws and the rogue hero thought that they had lost their chance to take down the monster before its awakening.

But out of the blue, the prince, jumped off using the Rogue hero’s shoulder as support and sliced the head of the green woman cleanly off.

Its head rolled to the ground and everyone took a breath of relief.

I thought I could see its eyes rolling and water droplets falling from it.

Was this monster conscious somehow... There were too many questions. And right now, with the tension around between the Rogue Hero and the Prince.

It felt like a war could break out between us, anytime. Don’t I get a say in this?

“AGGGGGHHHHHHHH…..” Like a dying animal giving out its final cry, the rolling head suddenly let out a growl taking all of us by surprise.

The awakening process which we thought had been put to stop, was again set into motion.

The back of the other plant monsters suddenly started to split apart. Similar green bodies in the form of humans could be seen rising from them.

Not only that, the detached head, started to grow back its full body again by putting the vines together.

I had spent my entire life in the forest, living in the wild. So, I know when an animal reaches the end of its life and how painful it can be when it's near to its death.

“Don’t stop shooting your fire spells. Use your full magic.” The rogue hero ordered his troops.

The prince was too busy trying to keep the green body of the woman from fully regenerating or from taking command of the monsters.

It was difficult to fight only just one. And now we just might have to fight an entire army of them.

“Just what kind of monster is this? How can it be this resilient? Is there no way for us to win?” I shouted.

At that time, I thought only a miracle could have stopped this from escalating into a disaster.

Just like any fairy tale a light would shine and vanquish all evil. At least that’s how all the miracles are always described.

And it did come out of nowhere.

Everything in front of my eyes suddenly turned grey.

And like a gentle feeling of death, slowly gripping my heart. I stopped moving. I have stopped thinking too.

And it was not only me.

The prince. The Rogue Hero and the outlaws. All had a devastated look on their faces but no one dared to move or make a sound.

This was not just any intimidation or a malicious force seeking us, it was pure and filled with destruction.

A spark ignited, and in an instant, the colossal green plant monster was consumed by roaring black flames, casting an eerie glow on us.

I saw it only just start as a spark but it instantaneously spread to quickly burn the monster.

All that fire magic the outlaws had previously used could not get rid of the monster, but this black flame easily overwhelmed it.

The more it tried to regenerate, the more the fire quickly spread.

In seconds the giant plant monster including the green woman burned to the ground. The other smaller plant monsters that were awakening suddenly rotted down to their core and fell to the ground after drying up.

It was most probably because the main source had died out, the other plant monsters could not survive on their own.

But the real question was, who was the one behind the black flames?

Once the deathly feeling had been lifted and all the monsters were taken care of. I slumped to the ground and so did the other outlaws. They too could not handle the magically concentrated atmosphere.

The Rogue Hero had a solemn expression on his face, in contrast to his clumsy talks.

“Might I ask you Prince? Is there anyone else who accompanied you here to this place or you saw someone else.”

“No. I saw no one.” The Prince deftly denied.

“I see then there’s nothing here for us to do anymore. It has been one surprise after another today. I hope we never again cross paths for your sake and mine.” The Rogue Hero raised a signal and suddenly a teleportation circle appeared on each of the outlaws and him.

With a flash, they all left leaving us confused as to how and why did they come to this place.

I looked at the prince, who was tightly gripping his sword as he stared at the dried-up corpses of the plant monsters.

Why would the prince lie? Was he trying to protect Alicia in some way?

Wasn’t she just an acquaintance?

I am sure even he is thinking right now about where she might really be.

***

̄\_(ツ)_/ ̄ SUPPORT ME IN MY WRITING ̄\_(ツ)_/ ̄

Everyone who is reading my novel and loves Alicia on her exciting adventures in this new fantasy world.

Thanks a lot for all your support! It really means a lot to me.

Till now I have published from volume one to volume eight for free. And I hope to continue to do so even now. It has really been an exciting work for me to narrate you the story of our main character who fights her way to the bottom of abyss with her magic and skills and then eventually storms in the outside world.

Keeping the text error free takes a lot of revisions and consumes time, but no work is ever perfect. With your support and reviews I know that I have improved a lot in my writing.

You can support my writing by reviewing my book on the platform you are reading.

And even now I am asking for a bit more that if you voluntarily support my writing.

.

Patreon page Link - https://www.patreon.com/noelelitia

Paypal link - Click Here

Join discord community - https://discord.com/invite/WUGFUxbpbd

.

I hope that you keep enjoying my work and in knowing the interesting characters which will be constantly introduced to you in the story.

I hope that the next chapter too proves to be to your liking!

Happy Reading Everyone!!!