46 Suspicions of Weakness

Even immortals and beings living many ages sometimes still felt extreme emotion once in a while. The most would be fear of dying, in front of a greater threat or anger, hate. All strong emotions related to a terrible situation. But unfortunately, it was an immense shame that was engulfing both Meridiana and Davion. For the first time since they arrived on the planet, they were debating whether that plan was the right one. They agreed to this masquerade only because it sounded both safe and a little bit funny. Instead of just grumbling in a dark cave like Ymir, they could travel the world, do nearly as they pleased and have some fun. But as they left the huge building with, in her hand, a small notice telling them to slay a few normal wolves, they felt deeply ashamed of themselves.

Instead of a domineering aura, a desolated pair of armors left the northern gate under the baffled gazes of the humans. They only raised their heads when they entered the wood a day of walk later. Looking at each other, they realized that no one should ever learn what happened. Before, just their very presence on one of the numerous planets of the Demonic Empire would be a grand occasion. They were the ones fighting the Lanfos directly, the only real threat after the fall of the Ancients. Their subordinates only had worship, fear and deep respect for them. But those humans, they just …

"Never, again." The cold voice of Davion woke up the succubus and she replied back the same sentence. Trying to forget the ridiculing stares and disappointed face of the receptionist, they quickly searched the woods. At first, they met nothing but herbivores and small mammals. A rabbit, a couple of foxes and such. Each time they noticed a group of humans, they avoided it, and in less than an hour of intense running, they finally found their first target. Two injured wolves and two corpses were laying on the ground.

One dead man was under an equally dead predator and both of them were being eaten slowly by the panting wolves. From the looks of it, someone tried to hunt those wolves but fell victim instead. The moment Davion and Meridiana appeared in their visions, they began to growl and showed their teeth. But that small mistake of judgment quickly vanished and even injured, they tried to run away. Unlike the monsters of the mountains, they didn't have the same luck. The orodil effortlessly caught their two heads and crushed them. The animals didn't even have the time to take more than two steps before it happened.

Looking once again at the task, Davion extracted the right canine of each corpse. While crushing their skulls, he still took care of not harming the lower part of the maw. Normally, just those three trophies should have been sufficient, but neither of them thought like that. For them, to wash some of their previous mistakes, at least ten of those predators needed to die. Barely half of an hour later, they found a den filled with a dozen of those wolves.

The same reaction of fear could be seen, limited to only the adults. Some cubs still tried to attack the two aliens but miserably failed. Because they were void of any sharp tooth, they still survived. Unfortunately for them, none of the rest shared the same fate. Leaving the bloodbath filled with headless bodies, the couple managed to gather 14 canines. Only that result was satisfying enough and with their speed, they quickly disappeared from those woods in direction of Archet.

THUMP

The gorgeous woman was shocked by the behavior of Meridiana. Without even greeting her or doing anything like that, she just put the proofs of their deed on top of the desk. The fourteen bloodied canines were displayed, accompanied by the small notice describing the task. While it was only some random wolves that usually lived only to be slain by rookies, the distance was big between that forest and the city. Only by not resting and running day and night one could gather so much. Feeling puzzled, the receptionist still asked what bothered her.

"Wonderful, you have achieved your first quest, one of grade C. Now if you want to be acknowledged as a real adventurer, you still need to do something riskier. But I am certain that you will manage to succeed." She harbored her biggest smile, something she had done thousands of times. Sometimes, they saw them coming back. But more often, faces never reappeared. Before the two strange people in front of her turned around to look at the two walls, she still questioned them.

" … just as a formality, did you do this task by yourself?" That sentence was pronounced with a very innocent tone, but for Meridiana, it only reminded her of the previous incident. Her shame was turning into anger, that a mere ant dared to suppose that she was incapable of even killing a few wolves. Feeling that his companion was having a hard time, Davion put his two hands on her shoulders and pressured the succubus. The latter still took a few seconds to calm herself, regretting once again to have been fooled by Leilade like that. Who talked about holidays in a peaceful planet?

"Yes." The voice of the succubus was almost like a murmur and the woman in front of them almost missed it. The human was incapable of recognizing the emotion inside the voice, but, while she still had her doubts, without proofs, she couldn't refuse the completion of the request. Searching in of the drawers near her, she pulled a few coins. Giving them to the two strange people, she wished them once again the best luck possible. She stared at them a few seconds more, before a group of adventurers arrived and reported what happened to them.

Leaving the building fuming, Meridiana immediately attacked Davion when they found a more secluded location. "Why are we playing by the rules anyway, why can we just kill them all anyway and be done with …" A strong hand lifted her helmet and was then placated on her mouth, preventing from saying anything more compromising. The orodil listened to his surroundings, to see if anyone heard what was told a few seconds before. Fortunately for them, the only one that heard them was a rat eating a small bread crumb. He still looked at the two strangely, but after they scanned the animal, they found nothing unusual. Meaning that it was truly a random rat and neither a magical invocation or an animal controlled for afar.

"Let me go, BACK OFF!" Sensing that she was not calming at all, the tall giant reinforced his grip and completely locked her in his arms. For nearly a minute, he felt her struggling, but what could she do against someone twice her size and much stronger physically. She finally stopped moving and he released her. Talking more normally and more quietly, she still didn't stop insulting the humans.

"We are two commandants of the Demonic Army; we have fought against stronger races than those ants. Why should WE comply and not them, give me a reason why?"

"The Ancients." That sole name managed to instantly calm the succubus. In her state of rage, she still hadn't forgotten about the fact that the only source of mana for her was living beings. But that was just an inconvenient more than a true weakness. But they heard what Leilade learned, about the dark gods and her conjectures about why those powerful beings still died in the end. They still didn't know how much changes were made by the smartest race of the Universe and the possibility of one of their guardian dog to be present was still too high. Just that terrifying monster was enough to crush the five of them easily, provoking her current state. But since she was still mad at all those mockeries, she proposed something else.

"Fine, we have to appear as something different than a dark god, I get it. But you saw that it failed miserably and everyone is suspicious of us. Maybe they will treat us better if we do something extraordinary instead of just slowly doing those ridiculous chores. Who will respect us if we manage to kill more of those small puppies?"

While she was viciously speaking, one point struck a chord inside Davion. Before they were armed by Agnil, he would have refused, but who would have better equipment than them on this planet? For him, the answer was no one, that was how high he valued the soul of the deceased dwarf. Sighing, he asked the succubus what did she meant.

"So what's your plan? Kill a dragon? We don't even know exactly where they are, what could possibly be enough to be respected here?" Hearing this, Meridiana smiled and retorted back.

"Something that no one has ever done. But first, I need to know if it is really true or if those things are known around here." It took only a few seconds for the orodil to understand what she meant and he followed her back to the Adventurer Guild. They bypassed the receptionist and immediately entered one of the doors near the training room. Above it was marked "Library". In it, an old man tried to stop them.

"You can't just enter like that; you have to …"

CLANK

Meridiana put a gold coin created by Malakov on the table, shutting the complaints of the librarian. She quickly marched around, roaming the different layers to find what she sought. Davion followed her, but not without checking the reaction of the old man that was carefully examining the coin. He saw him pulling a few books and comparing the images in them to the gold piece that he was holding. Finally, the succubus found the book that was essential to her plan. Reading it at a speed that would make some of the surrounding readers stunned, she confirmed what she thought. Closing it and putting the book back in his rightful place, she looked at Davion.

"As I guessed, you know that strange insect hanging above us in the goblin den. They have no description of it in this book supposedly describing all the lifeforms of that region. That meant that either they never really explored the caverns, thing that could be possible or everyone who did die. Now guess what would happen to the two heroes that brought back a complete corpse of such a monster?" Davion nodded at those words since it was good for both of us to do it. It will relieve some of the emotions of the succubus and it will speed up the process greatly.

"Fine, but first, you retrieve the gold coin. You didn't use the one from that backyard nation, you took one created by Malakov. And it is not time yet to show them."

Quickly walking toward the exit door, the two passed in front of the librarian that was still trying to uncover the origin of the gold coin. Even with his extensive knowledge and the help of many books, the mystery was still not unraveled and he was thinking about contacting some of his friend magicians to help him. Lifting his head, he soon forgot everything and didn't even saw the couple leave. Only a few minutes later did he realized that he was submerged by books talking about past legends and tales surrounding treasures and artifacts. Shaking his head, he began to tidy up everything.