The ride was long and the elf didn't make it easier. Kon was awkwardly shoved into the space between the neck of this horse-creature and the elf. It was because of this he became aware of the fact he now had a tail. Based off of how much discomfort he was feeling from his rear it wasn't a short stubby thing. He was pretty sure that the elf was sitting on it as well.
The horse-creature suddenly stopped, letting out a long drawn out neigh. The elf leaned forward, crushing Kon forwards as she stroked the neck of the beast. Alongside them the knight paused as well, scanning their surroundings. He paused on the road up ahead. Reached up to the sword sheath on his back as a tense silence filled the air.
The knight's voice broke the tension.
"Reveal yourself"
Nothing moved for a few moments before out of the grasses and behind some rocks on the road up ahead emerged people. They were dressed in simple clothing, all coloured a mix of greens and greys. In total four people emerged, one was wielding a sword, another was holding a club and an far in the back archer along with what appeared to be a staff welder stood.
Bandits. Kon thought as the one wield the sword hefted it, placing the blade upon his shoulder as he pointed at them, his voice gravelly and like someone needing to blow their nose.
"Oi! You lot... hand over all you got and we'll leave you with your lives!"
The knight turned to the elf, who chuckled. A feeling of horror suddenly grew in the pip of Kon's stomach. He recalled how the knight had dispatched the [GOD] with brutal efficiency. With an almost casual air the knight in question pulled his blade from the sheath and dismounted his horse. He strode towards the bandits.
The bandits didn't seem to anticipate the casual and self assurance in the knight's reaction to their demands. The lead bandit gritted his teeth.
"Right then, a fight it is."
He said as he took a stance, his eyes narrowing as he focused on the knight.
"Better get-"
The lead bandits sentence was cut short as the knight dashed forward with inhuman speed. With a single stride he buried his sword into the gut of the lead bandit. The man gasped, his eye bugging out as his grip failed on his blade. The weapon dropped to the ground before the bandit shakily reached downward to feel the point of the blade buried in his belly.
The knight chuckled, as very slowly he started to pull his sword upward. He leaned in, his helm that hid everything but his eyes made the madness in them all the more frightening. The man gasped, desperately trying to pull himself off the sword but the knight didn't give the man the chance. With a swift movement he wrenched his blade upwards, the weapon tore through bone and flesh like paper and with a wet slicing sound. The knight in a similar manner to how he'd had dispatched the [GOD] tore his blade up and through the man's torso.
The bandit unfolded like a flower, half of his upper body going one way, the other half going the other way. The already dead lead bandit let out one last gurgle, a bubble of blood and spit leaking from his mouth as he grew still. The lead bandits death had a wave like effect on the rest of the bandits. The archer letting out a cry of rage pulled her bow taut before letting off an arrow easily deflected by the knight.
The man welding the club stumbled backwards, a horrified look on his face as he started to rapidly retreat. In a matter of moments he was running full speed away. A wise choice. As for the fourth member, the staff welding bandit who Kon had determined might be a mage, if this world had magic he wasn't sure but considering everything and how he'd come to be it was highly likely.
The possible mage had crumbled to her knees and was staring at the remains of her former comrade with a distant detached kind of horror. She was muttering to herself based off the movement of her mouth but Kon wasn't close enough to hear.
He'd turned pale at the sight himself, the sheer brutality of it worse then when the knight had dispatched the [GOD] at least with that thing it hadn't exactly been human, this had been a human. At least Kon thought the man was human... it was hard to tell with half of him split in two and his insides spilling out to colour the dirt red.
The knight slowly stalked towards the archer, deflecting arrow after arrow with inhuman speed and precision. The sheers display of skill and strength had Kon still and quite. He'd taken the knight as the strength of the little group he had been taken by but he doubted he could even run away from something like that. He'd be caught or worse with ease.
The knight had reached the archer. She screamed and pulled a dagger from her side, throwing herself towards the knight. The action seemed to amuse the man and with an almost lazy swing, the knight brought his sword horizontally across the archer. She stumbled to a halt before her upper half just... slid off her lower half and she crumbled to the ground.
The mage turned slightly, staring to cry. Her muttering was loud enough that Kon could hear it from his position now.
"Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me."
She was repeatedly begging the knight not to kill her. The man stood over the kneeling mage and considered her, the similarities in the position the mage was in now to the one Kon had been in only a few hours earlier was disturbing. It was even more horrifying was when the knight lifted his sword and like an execution from ages gone. Decapitated her in a single stroke. The headless corpse slump forward, blood spraying from the stump.
The knight hefted his blade, cleaning it with a rag from his belt. Up ahead the bandit who'd started retreated was throwing himself forward, a clear manic desperation in his actions. He was far enough away that Kon doubted the knight could catch up. But it seemed that didn't matter as the elf had other plans.
An arrow sailed over Kon's shoulder, spooking him from the sheer speed of it. The arrow acted more like a bullet, flying through the air with horrifying speed. The sound it made was loud enough that the feeling man heard it before it struck. He turned his head just as the arrow reached him. The image of the arrow impacting the man's face before with an almost agonising slowness sinking into his head. A low thump echoed out as the man jerked to a standstill. The arrow protruding from an eye. Blood poured from the wound but it didn't seem like the man cared. Mostly because in the next moment he slowly toppled like a tree being felled to collapse onto the grass alongside the road.
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A silence fell upon the road as the knight sheathed his sword and walked back to his horse. When they started to move once more, Kon was staring into dead space. It was the casual nature of it. Neither the knight or the elf had seemingly blinked at the killings. It had felt more like a road bump then the ending of four lives.
The rest of the journey went by quickly. The dirt road slowly turned into a stone path before like how a stream joins into a river the road merged onto a highway of cobblestone. There wasn't many travellers from what Kon could see. Aside from the two who'd taken him, in the distance he could see a caravan slowly trudging along
The horses quickly caught up with the caravan and slowed their pace. Gently trotting alongside it. A few faces peaked out from the caravan, interested in the people who'd shown up. Of those Kon saw there was a few elves, several who look strangely young and one who seemed ancient.
The rest were a mix of human and human looking but clearly not human. Some children, some adults and a teen. There was even a slave, a stocky looking man bound in chains and wearing a similar collar to the one currently sitting on Kon's neck. The man looked dejected and downright depressed, although considering he was a slave he did have a lot to be depressed about.
The travel continued for a while, slowly more people appearing up ahead before finally in the far far distant. A city appeared. The only issue was that even at this distance the city felt... too big, too large. The sheer number of towers and spiring buildings stabbing upwards towards the heavens seemed endless. Kon tried to count them as they slowly drew closer but lost count after getting to over a hundred.
The city grew closer, reveal more that made its existence alone mind boggling. Above the city was a massive seemingly stone structure. It was like someone had raised a circle of stone and lifted it upwards. On the circle Kon could see what looked like tiny structures and small black dots flittering to and from the massive circle in the sky.
How the what was clearly a city in the sky was kept aloft was made clear when after around thirty minutes later they reached the outer farming districts of the city, in the centre of the circle was a massive rotating blade, it was spinning so fast it almost blended into the sky. Underneath the stone circle was similar propellors. Just far smaller and rotating at slower speeds.
It was the wet dream of steam punk fan. A giant flying city. The thoughts of getting to see that city quickly dried up as Kon recalled why he was even getting brough to this place. He brought a hand to the collar still bound around his neck. Slavery. It seemed he was a rare specimen, a curiosity that was worth enough gold to convince these two to drag him all there way to this place to sell.
The outer wall of the city slowly came into view. A towering construct of stone that seem to have no edges, not points of breakage. It was like the wall was one massive piece of stone raised from the ground and further built upon as needed. The thought of someone having the power to do that made moving through the entrance to the city almost haunting became the damn wall was almost a the horse's length in width alone.
The city itself was a melting pot of sound and smell. They'd seemingly entered a market off the bat, people screaming words and trying to tell all manner of things. Kon spied people selling meat, skins, rocks and weapons. And of course, at the very far end of the street, as it split into two more highways of sounds of smell. Sat a massive build that almost screamed wealth and power.
People were moving in and out of it, most of them in chains. This was clearly whatever equated to the headquarters of the slave trade in this city. And Kon was heading right towards it. A sense of nervous anxiety slowly filled his body as the horses slowly trotted towards the building.
He didn't want to be sold off as a slave. He'd died from overworking, so he wasn't quite as keen on spending the rest of this life also being overworked. Kon froze as another thought hit him, after all he was rare enough to be worth gold. That meant whoever was buying him wasn't getting him for dumb manual labour. But that only left being a thing to be displayed or...
A deep shiver ran down Kon's spine as he crushed that thought away. It was best not to think about that he thought to himself as they came to a stop before the building. A fat chubby man noticed their arrival and Kon could feel the greed emitting from the man in waves, enough that he could almost see the air weighing down with it.
The man came to a halt before the knight, elf and Kon. He gazed up at him, his eye never leaving Kon's body, roaming with plain greed as he spoke.
"How much for the [GOD MADE]?"
He said, his voice like thick wax and deeply unpleasant to the ears. The elf sitting behind Kon grabbed him by the neck and hosted him off. Placing him alongside the horse as she spoke.
"Fifty gold."
Her voice ran out clear and the fat man's expression soured, he clearly didn't like the high price tag and if a man who felt like the embodiment of greed was feeling robbed Kon was sure how to feel himself.
"Surely we can-"
The man began to say but was cut off by the gruff voice of the knight.
"60 gold or we take our business elsewhere."
He said, earning a dirty look from the fat man but it was clear he didn't want to loose the opportunity of purchasing Kon. He licked his lips, a disgusting action with his features. The fat man's eye twitched.
"60 gold but I want to know what kind of [GOD] it came from."
The knight exchanged a glance with the elf before shrugging. He turned back to face the fat man.
"Lets take this indoors."
He said, getting off his horse guiding it to a stable nearby. Seemingly for exactly this. The elf did the same before shoving Kon in front of her, entering the building after the knight. The inside was a far cry from the outside. People off all manner of races and sizes were being dragged around, several were crying but were quickly shut up. Another person shook as he was bound in chains and collared before getting dragged off. The fat man lead them through the mess, going up some starts to a much calmer area of the building. After a few more turns they approached a private room. Upon entering the knight took the first seat, followed by the elf as the fat man stayed standing.
His unpleasant gaze roaming over Kon as he gesture at the duo to speak. The elf went first.
"The [GOD] was a summon type. Kept throwing creature after creature at us. It likely had a [ELEMENT] of mystical or ether to it. I'm not well versed in what that mean for the [GOD MADE] that come from it but considering how its last resort was to throw its [GOD MADE] at us I'm pretty sure they're special."
The fat man nodded, the rolls of flesh on his face jigging with the motion.
"Summoner you say. That is a rare type."
He paused, turning slightly towards the knight. A brief and silent exchange went down before the knight spoke. His gravely voice echoing slightly in the room.
"Summoner type like Elyen said. Was tough though, never had that much difficultly in killing a [GOD] before, particularly with a blessed blade. Probably had an [ELEMENT] of fortitude to it. Maybe even a half formed [LAW]."
The fat man raised a bloated brow.
"A [LAW]? Doubtful. Even if it was half baked, a [GOD] with something like that would have been known about for a while. A [LAW] makes ripples in the world large enough to notice for most diviners."
He said his waxy voice as ever unpleasant to the ear. He tilted his head as he seemed to consider what he'd been told. He tapped his thigh before nodding.
"Alright, sixty gold it is."
He spoke curtly the words somehow more nasally then before. He flicked his fingers, producing a white bag that made clinking sounds as he rolled it in his grip. He threw it over to the elf. The elf caught the bag of gold with ease, deftly pocketing it before standing up and grabbing the collar around Kon's neck.
With a soft click it came off and she pushed him towards the fat man who had produced a collar of his own. He deftly slipped it around Kon's neck, not giving him a moment. The movements practiced nature betraying just how much this fat man had done that.
As the cold metal of the new collar click around Kon's neck and the knight and elf walked out of the private room. Leaving him alone with the fat man. Kon couldn't help but had the feeling like he was trapped in a room with sexual predator. That was the vibe the man gave off as he placed once of his flabby hands on Kon's head.
"You'll make a wonderful gift for the emperor."
The fat man said, his grin widening as Kon resisted the urge to puke from the sensation of his sweaty flabby hands on him. All he could think of was that disgustingly mushy sensation as the man dragged him away into the darkness.
What do you want to happen.
