Chapter 127: New Starting Point

I looked up at the sky and tried to take in everything. "I'm back and so is the Crimson Order." I looked around and saw that this castle was cut in half by my swing and rubbles were everywhere.

I looked outside and all I could say was, "Holy crap…" Afal was there standing and around him is a giant hole. That's the aftermath of the fight? "Afal!" I called out to him.

"My lord." He jumped literally hundreds of meters away and managed to jump to where I was. He then kneeled.

He's the loyal type but this… hmm… I guess it's fine. "Stand up." I ordered him to and he did stand up. "How's the fight?"

"It's fine. I just needed to land a decisive blow."

"I see."

"…"

"Ehem. Find the others. I have an announcement to make."

"I will." Afal then disappeared.

After waiting for a while, they gathered to where I was. Everyone was beaten up and wounded. "I guess everyone won their battles?" I asked.

Everyone looked at each other and said, "Yep!"

"That's great. These two years aren't in vain. Now that we regained our kingdom, we now own a continent. Our Crimson Order is back. So, first things first, we need to rebuild everything. This will take a long time so I have some plans."

Everything in this continent are already corrupted but the poison on the ground disappeared when the one who controlled the undead died. So we don't have to trouble ourselves on cleaning that.

Corrupted trees are still trees and cleansing them might work according to Zeta turning them into normal trees.

To rebuild a whole kingdom in less than a month or maybe even a week, we need manpower. So that's where Zeta comes in.

I grouped Zeta as a leader with Afal and Rize to kill everything in this continent. Monsters should start spawning soon. Using Zeta's Corpse Defiler, he can create countless undead to work for us.

Expanding on that plan, there'll be gatherers, builders and crafters. But none of us know how to do all that so Grien and Ortov are here. They'll teach Zeta all about that.

Greta and Yefa will be scouting and mapping this whole continent. The map used for this continent before is useless now so I need to know where there are dungeons or where there's high activity of monsters and trading routes.

I specifically ordered them to tell Zeta if they found a dungeon.

Finally, I left Precia in charge of the continent for now. I had somewhere to go.

I used teleport to get into the king's chambers. There was no one there so I headed out and went in my way to the throne room. And there he is. The king of Itz sitting on the throne.

The guards were startled and pointed their weapons at me. They all asked one thing, "How did you get in here?"

I simply ignored their questions and looked at the king. "Hey."

"Lord Zieglind… you're alive?" The first thing he asked.

"I guess so." I replied."

He then followed up with an exasperated sigh. He raised his hand, "Leave. I have something to discuss with this young man."

The guards were hesitating but it's the king's orders so they left. The king then led me into the conference room.

He first started the conversation, "First, how did you live? That blast was enough to destroy Polk in its entirety."

I didn't want to say Herold's name here. "I don't know."

"…" The king was silent but he doesn't want to question me about that further. "When did you come back?"

"Like a month ago or two weeks ago? I don't know. I forgot. But it was very recent."

"Hmm…" He wasn't satisfied with my answer. "So, what do you want?"

"Well I actually don't know."

"You…" The king sighed again. "What did you even come here for?"

"Well I don't know what I should be doing. There's this continent I've taken over bu-"

The king then interrupted me. "Wait… what did you just say?"

"I took over a continent."

"Which one?" It seems that the king believes what I'm saying.

"Burliande."

"Bur- you've got to be kidding Zieglind. Burliande is now in ruins when the undead took over"

I placed my hand on his shoulders. "Mass Teleport!" And teleported both of us at Burliande. "Familiar with the place?"

I saw him the land that was once Burliande. The green grass that stretched as far as the eye can see is now just a vast rocky land. No greens, just mud, rocks, and corrupted trees everywhere. It has lost its former glory but I will rebuild a better one than that.

"I've been here at Burliande before and this place where we're standing on is the kingdom of Huyre. But it's just rubbles now."

"You're a king so help me. I don't know what to do with this giant place. I was going to overtake a kingdom first but the spread of the undead was too much."

"I can't help you directly. I'm still the king of Itz but someone is still controlling us."

"What does that mean?"

"Every kingdom in this world has been overtaken by players. But to those kingdoms that still have us, the original people in this world, we have players threatening us. Some don't want to rule a kingdom but they give us orders now and then."

"Why…?"

"Why you ask? It's because we're too weak. Players have a better advantage than us and we don't have a plan to overcome it. I can still continue leading my people in Itz but when that player speaks to us, we'll be in huge trouble. Because even though we're the people of this world, we're just in a prison locked with those players."

"Do you want protection?"

"No. Their circle is far too big for just your party. This situation is far out of our hands. Our lives are at the mercy of the players out of this world. It's just the absolute law that will keep happening every century."

"Maybe not now, but maybe in the future, I'll change that absolute law."

"What's your goal?"

"Tartarus."

"HAHAHA! Interesting. I see I see. You're going to be a great investment. Anything you need, I'll provide with the resources at Itz. But the population, you'll have to come up with that yourself."

"Then… You know of the underground trading in your kingdom right?"

"Of course. Even if I wanted to stop them, there's nothing I could do."

"Then maybe it's this time. I will help you raid the underground trading."

"What do you want there?"

"Slaves. I'll take everything."

The day after tomorrow, I joined the raid at the underground trading at Itz. It was the same as always. The dark atmosphere and the absolutely horrible smell. This is where I first met most of my group members. I wish they were here to unleash all their pent up rage against this place. But I'm here because of business and they'll just destroy everything.

The guards busted in first and the mercenaries hired by the slavers there stood up and readied their weapons. They were mercenaries so they're far stronger than normal guards. But I don't want useless deaths so I just blocked all their throwing knives and attacks at the guards.

We continued blasting through the underground trading place. The black markets filled with illegal stuff, cannibal shops, and slave shops. We killed everyone that was the head of those shops.

Finally, I arrived at the slave shop. "Yo owner." I greeted the guy who introduced me to my members.

"You… you bastard! Why are you here!? And with the king's guards!?" He grew angry.

"Don't be angry. I'm just here to deliver justice."

"Justice? Do you mean massacre?"

"You kill, cook, and eat people, took slaves in abused them, and had sold thousands of black market items. To me, this looks like justice." He was silent and trying to figure out what to do. I then yelled, EVERYONE!" I got the attention of all the slaves. "Starting from now on you ALL ARE MINE! I don't care how you live or if you disobey me. But in exchange, I want absolute loyalty. I will set you all free. But you can choose to stay here if you want. So… what will it be?"

"Don't speak!" The owner yelled loudly.

But the slaves in cages disobeyed their owner and shouted what they all want to say. "KILL! KILL THAT MAN!" Then large shocks of lightning went through their bodies.

They disobeyed their master so the slave marks on their body shocked them.

"I see… so you want this man dead in exchange for loyalty. I see I see. Fine! Since you're all my people now, I will do this for everyone."

"No don-" Before he could finish talking, a swift slice of my sword on his neck sent his head flying.

"Come, everyone. I'll lead you all to your new home."