Serum

Dirk’s body was grabbed by two elven soldiers, causing him to put up a struggle. 

“Let go of me!”

“Be quiet, damned human!”

He was thrown, tumbling to the street outside the building. 

The commanding officer then looked back. 

“Anyone else?”

“No, nobody. Seems he was abandoned.”

“Is that right?”

The commanding officer, a tall and slim man standing at 7ft 2 inches garbed in fitted silver armor, knelt down and smiled at Dirk.

He could see the thick red scar over Dirk’s eyes and splitting the bridge of his nose, a blade wound that had supposedly blinded him. It was obvious to him why Dirk would be here all alone. 

“How does it feel to be abandoned by your own people? How long have you been sitting there knowing that you were destined to be captured because your brethren felt you were nothing more than dead weight?”

“...”

Dirk was silent, his teeth gritted in unwillingness, but not opening to refute. 

This made the elf grin wider. It was like he could taste Dirk’s conflict and despair. 

And at that moment, Dirk could hear laughter in his mind. 

[Hahaha! You’re actually a good actor, huh? How long are you going to play around with this guy?]

‘As long as I need to. Getting out of this city is priority. But I also want to know what’s going on, so maybe I’ll take it further.’

Dirk thought as the smiling elf stood back up and smirked. 

“One of you take this thing away. The rest will continue the search.”

With his command, Dirk was grabbed before getting dragged off through the city. 

He walked unsteadily, playing the part of a recently blinded man. Like that, he was brought to the city gates. 

There, a few hundred other people were chained up and piled together. Dirk was chained with them, nobody sparing him another glance. 

Looking around, Dirk could see many families and few soldiers. Anybody who fought was killed, so those who remained are those who didn’t resist. 

In fact, Dirk looking like he was blind was almost perfect. He looked like a strong warrior standing well over 6 feet tall, so under normal circumstances he would probably be killed. But because he was crippled, nobody deemed him a threat even though his strength was likely sensed. 

Strength meant nothing if you couldn’t use it. This logic was what Dirk was betting on, and it was working. 

He sat there among all the people, taking note of faces and having Spyte run some scans. 

However, after about an hour of sitting there, his attention was caught. 

By the gates, he could see the Tier 8. 

It was a tall elf over 7 feet tall and dressed in thick blue robes. He carried a wooden staff that radiated pure might, threatening to warp space simply by existing. 

His presence was almost overwhelming, and Dirk’s mana vision had some issues making him out, like staring into a bright light. 

It was a good thing his mana vision had been upgraded. Otherwise, simply looking at that person would likely alert them. 

Thankfully he didn’t attract any attention. Right now, he looked like nothing more than a Rank 5 knight who had been blinded and rendered useless. 

Dirk could see the Tier 8 mage talking with the Tier 7, about what he couldn’t make out. They spoke a different language so not even Spyte could glean their words from their lips.

But after their conversation seemed to conclude, Dirk spotted some movement not far away. 

There were elven guards dragging four people over. Dirk quickly recognized them. 

The shadow troops. 

The four were dumped before the Tier 8, however, only 1 was alive. 

The Tier 7 spoke in the standard language. 

“Here are the rats. They were caught snooping where they shouldn’t have been. However, three of them were able to kill themselves. Only this one remains.”

“Hmm.”

The Tier 8 looked at the sole survivor of the four shadow scouts that had left the Sky King with Dirk. 

It seemed the Tier 8 was able to pick out the abnormality with them, identifying them as foreigners who definitely weren’t a part of the original population. 

If it were just the Tier 7, they would’ve been able to get in and out. It was why they were sent in the first place. But in front of the highest echelon of power in this world, they couldn’t do anything. 

It was lucky that three were able to kill themselves, but it seemed one either didn’t have the conviction or got stopped. 

Dirk could see the male features of the survivor. He was gritting his teeth with ferocity, his mouth leaking blood and his body beat beyond repair. All of his limbs were chained. 

Dirk subtly sighed. He had been able to completely hide his identity and abnormalities that would have made that Tier 8 single him out. 

However, one wrong word on that man’s part would alert the Tier 8 to his presence. They knew that he had left with him, and simply saying that there were 5 scouts instead of four would seal his fate. 

However, this time, Dirk had to thank Elven pride. 

Upon looking at the beaten man, the Tier 8 scoffed and waved. 

“Take care of him yourself. I’ve wasted too much time here as it is.”

“Of course, your excellency.”

The Tier 8 bowed in respect, and with that, the Tier 8 made his way out, leaving the city. 

Dirk closed his eyes in relief. At the same time, he gave that unfortunate man one last glance. 

There was nothing he could do for him. He would be tortured for information, and the methods available to powerful beings would likely break him within the day. 

He would regret not being able to kill himself, whether it was his fault or not. Nonetheless, their operation would be exposed. 

At least, that’s what Dirk thought would happen. But after the Tier 8 left, he watched as that man started sobbing. 

Even the Tier 7 was confused. Then, everyone watched as his eyes widened. 

“W-Wait! Please!”

*Woosh!*

All of a sudden, his body went up in invisible flames. The power of those flames distorted space, but more than that, Dirk could sense the power of the soul. 

His soul was actually burning! Dirk was almost more curious than he was horrified. After all, damage to the soul was infinitely more painful than to the body. It was no wonder he seemed so horrified. 

His screams didn't even come out as his body directly crumbled to ash. But even when his body disappeared, the flames continued to burn in the air for a minute or so before dissipating. 

The other three corpses ignited as well, their souls burning but for a much shorter amount of time before disappearing all the same. 

“...”

Dirk was silent before sighing once more. 

Why did he ever think Pandora would let some troops jeopardize her mission or let them stand as loose ends? It was good that she had contingencies, granted, her methods were the most brutal that Dirk could conceive of. 

Well, since this was the worst case, he couldn’t argue with her. At least there was no chance of him being exposed. 

After that, the Tier 7 marched off in anger.

And not long later, Dirk saw ten wagons roll into the city and stop by the crowd he was in.

“Everyone get up and board!”

The several guards around started yelling and grabbing people, shoving them into the wagons. Those remaining were forced to tear their eyes away from the burnt corpses.

Out of the ten wagons, Dirk was forced into the 3rd.

Once filled, the wagon was chained closed, and they all rolled out of the city. 

Dirk watched as they crossed the barrier left by that Tier 8. 

Beyond that, they simply followed a paved road for miles, but not looking like they would reach their destination anytime soon. 

Sitting in the mass of people and brooding over the recent events, Dirk was suddenly tapped. 

He turned, finding a young woman looking over at him with fierce eyes. 

She moved close, shifting people before planting herself right next to him and whispering in his ear. 

“Who are you?”

“...Eight.”

Dirk spit out that number in English, making it sound different. 

The young woman only nodded. 

“Alright, Eight. My name is Gianna. You look somewhat strong.”

“I am, but I’ve been blinded.”

“Yes, I see that. I may be able to help though.”

Gianna raised her hand, and Dirk saw some light magic bloom above her palm. 

He could feel the healing ability of the magic, realizing what she wanted to do. 

“I’m only Tier 4, but I know a special healing spell that may be able to fix your eyes.”

“...I see.”

Dirk almost sighed again. He didn’t actually need healing, and there was nothing she could do anyway with his curse there. 

Hearing his silence, Gianna brought her palm forward. 

“Here, let me help you. We’ll need all the strength we can muster.”

“Hang on.”

Dirk grabbed her wrist. Not to mention the fact that she couldn't heal him, but infusing her light mana directly into his body, while not harmful, would expose him. 

Unfortunately, it seemed like he was going to be forced to share some secrets, but since that was the case, he may as well share some to maintain others. 

“Listen, I don’t need healing.”

“But-”

“Don’t worry about me. For now, let’s just lay low. However, I need you to tell me the situation. Why are we being rounded up?”

“...”

Gianna was silent for a bit, scrutinizing him as her light magic dissipated. 

Eventually, she put her hand down. 

“Fine. As for what’s going on, I only know that the World Tree is going to war. Part of that war involves rounding up all non-native races and either killing or enslaving them. If what I heard is true, we’re being brought to a labor camp to work until we die.”

“How many other cities were destroyed?”

“I don’t know. But considering how many humans and vampires live within the Otherworld, I can imagine a few others that would’ve been raided like ours.”

“How long ago did this all start?”

“We’ve had suspicions that the elves were turning since a few months ago. I overhead one of the nobles saying that both the human and vampire emissaries were killed, but since we weren’t able to receive any information from the capital, nobody could say for certain. I mean, who thought the elves were suddenly going to attack us? We haven’t had any hostilities for over a century…”

Gianna frowned, as if trying to wrap her head around the absurdity. 

But Dirk was interested in something else. Despite being on a wagon and getting sent to what may be her grave, she seemed unbothered, if not slightly confident. 

Dirk probed. 

“So, what’s the plan when we get there? Are there resistance forces?”

“Yes, there are.”

She nodded with conviction. 

“We’ve received word that the resistance is waiting for us. Over the past few days, we’ve been slowly giving ourselves up. Once we all get to the labor camp, we only need to await word and strike when the time is right.”

“I see…”

Dirk muttered in thought. At the same time, he thought about how strong this resistance force may be. 

There were no doubt many humans and vampires within the Otherworld, enough to occupy a few cities. And among them, there were many strong knights and mages. 

So unless they were systematically wiped out all at once, there would definitely be survivors, and the resistance force they could muster would be great. 

And they would also have the most information. Dirk quickly decided that he needed to get in contact with the resistance, and he was glad that they would be coming to him. It made his job easy.