As time went by, life had been getting more and more convoluted, what with the presence of demons that needed to be stopped, his own reputation starting to catch up to him and a feeling of no longer really knowing where he fit in anymore. Aside from the deaths he had encountered within the battle tower, where Aamon had killed a woman whom he personally did not know, but had peculiar feelings for due to the fact that he had lived out the death of someone else in some twisted dreamscape, where the person he had “experienced” died while fighting alongside Charles and eventually Aamon himself, he himself was glad they had all at the very least survived. More than that, he was glad one of the demonic threats to this country had been taken out before they could go out and kill any more than they already had, as several magic knights hadn’t survived the opening of the tower.

And then there was the fact that he had come to learn of dwarven and elven people migrating to a specific location within the Fringe near the land of Heart, and that there was a chance that he was himself a descendant of a royal family. What the details of all of that were and just how distant his relations were to them was not something he was aware of or really cared about, though it was being handled by people that seemed trustworthy enough to look into it. For himself however, Griswold really only cared about continuing to do his job to the best of his abilities. As no matter what he turned out being, at the end of the day, it would not sway him from the things he held dear to his heart, which was to help those that needed it the most. And at this point, a clever reader might have noticed the lack of the word “people” in that sentence, as he wasn’t just there for them.

He also cared about animals, even about monsters, as they were all part of a natural cycle that had to remain balanced. To this end, he had unfortunately been forced to make a bunch of choices that ended up rather sour for some, like the former crimson lion that had become a farmer and willingly brought the ire of a forest spirit upon his household by claiming more and more of its forest, as well as taunting it by killing the creatures of the forest for no reason and destroying the holy places within it. From him, he had taken his farm away, believing it to be the proper course of action that would avoid a lot more bloodshed without need. And that was just one of the times where he had chosen the life of one of nature’s creatures over the many needs of the people of this country. And truth be told, today seemed to be another one of those days where hard choices needed to be made.

Some time ago, he had first uncovered the minotaur attacks that happened in the general area along the main roads leading out of Sosshi, which had become quite a thing. As no one knew what had been the cause of it all at the time, finding bull-headed creatures killing people with large axes in the area that was looked after by the black bulls possessed a certain level of irony Griswold could not deny. Still, he had done what was required of him, killing those that had killed others, as well as those that had come to avenge their fallen. Realizing that it was getting close to becoming a vicious cycle of killing, he had sought to find where they had been coming from, hoping to figure out some way in which they might find common ground. Because if there was one thing he did not want to do, it was to mindlessly butcher anything that was different for the sake of them being different, as that would make him no better than the average human.

For that reason, after several weeks or maybe even months of struggling in various parts of the country, he had now finally returned to the cavern he had uncovered when he had some time ago. Though it felt odd that he was seeing things through on his own, where he had been shadowed by a kid throughout most of the events that led up to this, it still needed to be done. So as he stepped into the cavern, creating a small sphere to cast some light upon his path through the darkness, he wondered where the kid had gone off to. When last he heard of him, he had been spending the day in the tavern room he had paid for him, though he had disappeared at some point after. Reminding him of the other boy he had more or less been mentoring throughout some rather difficult events, both Koji and Noah had more or less managed to disappear off of his radar since that point in time.

Maybe they had done the wise thing and stopped trying to become magic knights in a world that seemed so ugly at times.

Deciding to leave things for what they were, he shifted his mind towards the mission at hand, realizing quite well that no one was impervious to damage, at least not really. And if he wasn’t careful about his dealings, there was a chance there was an axe with his name on it waiting around the corner, ready to cleave his head. That said, if the things he was facing were anywhere near the level of the minotaurs he had already been forced to put down, there really wasn’t a whole lot to fear. Since that day, Griswold had been getting a lot more powerful, whereas the fight against Aamon had done a lot to both humble him, as well as boosting his sense of worth. After all, not just anyone got to fight an archdemon and walk away with only a shattered sword. And while that alone really stung as it was his most powerful weapon, it wasn’t all bad.

It had allowed him to focus more on his other sword, a weapon that was meant to be a symbol of unity between dwarves and elves, as well as a relic that presumably belonged to the same family he was related to at some level. While the blade had a strange form when compared to the ones he had used up until now, it was lighter and faster while possessing the innate ability to grow stronger. As someone who had been growing stronger at a stellar rate whenever he had been pushed, Griswold had learned to recognize that potential within others, even inanimate objects such as a sword. Knowing that he himself grew stronger through means and situations of strife, that just meant he needed to bring his weapon into such situations too. Believing that through growing better attuned to his new weapon, its powers, capabilities and the weird shape it had, it was undoubtedly going to get stronger, all it took was proper combat.

So when one of the minotaur came around the corner, having smelled him due to the wind blowing in and out of the cavern carrying his scent, Griswold countered the strike with his new blade, altering the trajectory of the heavy blow into the ground right next to him. Then, with a strike from his fist, he knocked the bull to the side of the head, causing it to tip over and fall to the ground. Reaffirming once again that he had not come here to kill any more of these creatures if it could be helped, he now possessed the power required to take them down without having to take them out. With it hardly being a match for him, he kept pressing further into the place, heading down the same corridor the foe he had just taken down had come from. Believing it to be the right place, his nose told him that this was the way to go for sure as the scents were strongest here.

Passing deeper and deeper into the place, at some point, every noise made reverberated through the darkness as no sound came this deep from the outside world. More than that, but at some point, the place seemed to no longer just be a cavern, it was some kind of underground complex. With the floor, walls and ceilings made out of cobbled stone, it was clear that this had been made by someone rather than being a natural occurrence. Wondering why these minotaurs had been making such a place at the bottom of a cavern, some things started falling into place for him. While there were still a bunch of questions in his mind, this place was starting to answer one of the oldest one, primarily the one as to where these creatures had been coming from. And from the look of things, this place was really old and seemed to not have any food sources that he could pick up on with his nose.

As such, it made sense that these creatures had only recently arrived, and they had been coming from the very basement of this complex, perhaps even being made there. Or maybe they had been frozen in ice or something, or had been teleported in from somewhere by something. While that was still hazy, there was no doubt about it that this was the place he had been looking for, and so he picked up the pace. No longer sifting through the dark to find his way, upon finding this complex, as well as the torches that lit the space, he could run at higher speeds at his leisure. Passing through one hallway after the other, he used his Ki and his sensory in unison to find his way through what seemed like it was just a massive labyrinth. Which in turn again brought up the question as to who had built this place, and why it was all the way down here at the very roots of a mountain. And that’s when it hit him, several mana signatures with a larger one at the center, which could only mean one thing.

Dashing through the halls and making his way over to the very center of this maze of tunnels and hallways, he saw several minotaur, with one particularly mean looking one standing behind them. And behind them, there was a door, though his senses were being blocked from perceiving what was behind them, though in his experience, things like that were usually a good thing. Upon making his arrival, the bull-men that saw him seemed to instantly fly into a state of frenzy, which made him wonder if maybe they had heard about his earlier exploits or because they were just this protective of their supposed home. No matter the case, they moved on him instantly, each with their own unique axe lunging at him. Wondering if maybe they were sentient to the point where they had a society in which they all made their own weapon as some kind of rite of passage, it meant they wouldn’t be that much different from the elves, the dwarves and even the humans.

But since now was not the time to ponder on such things, he used his strength as a means of leveraging the blows away from him, utilizing his new sword as a medium. Disarming one of them by sending their axe straight into the ceiling with a parrying move, he went in with a shoulder tackle, knocking one of the beasts flat on their ass before moving towards the next. Realizing the first was not out of the fight but merely disarmed, he had to make the best of it and aim for the big guy. Using his peak speed to get close to it, he sent a powerful punch towards it. But what he had not exactly been expecting was for the beast to use its own anger in unison with its strength, punching Griswold’s own fist right back. As the two fists collided, he felt something sprain right that instant, as the force behind the minotaur’s punch was greater than his own. Sending him back several meters, the black knight barely had the time to gain any footing.

For as he got pushed back, another minotaur dashed right at him, bring down his axe upon Griswold’s position in an attempt at cleaving him in half. Not about to be done in by some hybrid creature, a powerful upward strike allowed him to sever the head of the axe off of the handle, causing the creature to just smack a piece of wood into the ground with all of the momentum behind it. Opening itself up to attack, Griswold landed several punches along the chest and head area, feeling more like a boxer than a mage when he went about it. Causing the beast to plummet backwards onto the cobblestone floor, the disarmed bull aimed to attack him from behind, only to be met with a gut shot from the black knight’s elbow. Placing perhaps a bit too much force behind it, it caused the minotaur to throw up violently to the point where it passed out.

Showing that their anatomy was not all that different from that of humans, at least not when one forgot about the fact that they had the head of a cow. Now that only the biggest of the minotaur remained, the one that possessed a physical level of strength that was greater than his own, the two looked at one another for a bit before Griswold decided to act first. Placing his sword back into its scabbard and unclasping it from his belt, he tossed the sword onto the ground beside him. Following up on it, he placed on foot in front of the other while lowering himself ever so slightly to increase his footing by a fair deal. Finally, he put his left arm next to his body while extending the right in front of him in an L shape with the fist pointed up. While this was a defensive stance, it would allow him to respond much faster to hand-to-hand combatants of this calibre.

But more than that, it served as a challenge, a challenge to see exactly how clever this beast truly was. And low and behold, after a momentary stare down, the beast huffed, extending its arm to the side and dropping the immensely heavy axe down onto the ground. Clearly accepting his challenge, the beast began flexing it’s muscles while stomping at the ground, seemingly getting ready to get into a battle of fists. Preparing himself by reinforcing his body with mana, the black knight did not use it to improve his speed. Instead, he would use his own speed while aiming to match the physical power of the minotaur for the sake of a fair fight. Glowing ever so slightly as he prepared himself, Griswold again decided that he would be the one to make the first move. Setting off, he dashed right at the bull, again throwing a punch that was met with another. This time however, it seemed that neither was going to be giving way or get knocked back.

With both of his feet still on the ground, he used this stalemate to get around the large arm, pivoting to the side and launching a powerful kick to the beast’s side. While it was too tough to get knocked down so easily, it grit its teeth as he got sent backwards, his hooved feet tearing through the cobblestone floor rather than falling over. With Griswold on the verge of smiling ever so slightly, he was kept from it by seeing the look of pure rage on the face of his adversary, proving that this was not just some show of fists and vigor, it was a settling of scores. Leading Griswold to believe that the beast had in fact learned of the ones of his kind that had met their end at the hands of Griswold’s late black blade, the best thing he believed he could do now was to win this fight and find out what was behind that door.

Launching himself at his target once more, evading a large fist that almost hit him, the elf simply having the upper hand when it came to the speed at which they moved, he fired one powerful fist into the beast’s gut. Following it up with an uppercut aimed directly against the bull’s chin, the beast keeled over with its full weight, collapsing against the floor before a deep huff of air was released from its lungs. Letting go of the mana that empowered him, he attempted to walk around him and make his way towards the door, only to feel a hand wrapped around his lower leg. Turning his gaze back towards the creature, Griswold could tell that it was just barely holding onto consciousness, and that he was in no position to truly harm him, though that was not what got to him. What got him by surprise were the tears rolling out of the creature’s eyes.

“Are you proud of yourself, “Wolf”. Does slaughtering my children and beating us to a pulp make you feel better about yourself?”

Finding himself rather surprised by this turn of events, as well as the fact that this creature could have apparently spoken up at any time but had just chosen to remain quiet, what was even more odd was the fact that it believed Griswold to be the aggressor in this case, which was simply not true at all. Something he would need to make clear if this was to have even a hint of a happy ending for anyone.

“I think you’ve been poorly informed of the way things have been going, creature. Your … children, they were out along the main road, slaughtering people who were traveling down the main road for no reason. They were also the ones that attacked me and attempted to kill an innocent child.”

Clearly striking a nerve as the grip around his leg increased, Griswold prepared to release himself by force, were it not for the look of shock on the face of the bull-man. Accepting the idea that something odd was going on around here, it did not seem convinced of Griswold’s honesty, which was not all that peculiar when one thought about it. After all, at this point, he was just the man who had been going around putting the minotaur’s children to death before invading his lair. If someone like that came up to him and told Griswold that he was going about something all wrong, he would likely be angry too, not to mention being dismissive of whatever they had to say to him.

“You lie… there is no main road anywhere near our home. We were here long before master came and saved us from the dragon. Thanks to the master, my children no longer have to suffer becoming food for that monster… and then you came along.”

Unsure as to what he was hearing about masters and dragons, Griswold knew that there were no such things as dragons for as far as he was aware. And if there were, someone would have more than likely seen it, given how close the cavern entrance to this labyrinth to one of the main trading routes within the land of Clover. But that’s when he got an idea. Maybe the reason why these creatures had only popped up so recently was because their home had been moved here somehow, by someone or something possessing a lot of magical power. Figuring that it was just about the only chance he’d have at convincing this creature that he was not actually the enemy here, it would be worth giving it a shot.

“A Dragon? I’m not sure what you’ve been told, but there are no such things as dragons here. You’re in the forsaken region of the land of Clover, I’m a magic knight tasked with protecting the people, a member of the Black Bulls.”

After that, things fell silent as the minotaur just stared up at the ceiling. Whether it had gotten its fill of talking or if it had just figured out that he had been wronged and lied to this entire time, the grip it had on Griswold’s leg was loosened and eventually released fully. And just as the creature was about to pass out, it had a few things left to say.

“Knew it was too good to be true. Some Stringbean like him couldn’t possible defeat a dragon… Go through that door over there, confront him and punish him for what he did… to my children.”

Passing out as it passed its wish on to Griswold, who had picked up his sword from the ground at this point, he dashed forward and barrelled through the doors with such force, both fell out of their hinges. Setting foot in a mostly empty room, he looked around to see a bunch of large canisters that were filled with something he could not clearly see. While he could read some of the names that were labelled onto them, some of them said “Minotaur”, “Troll”, “Werewolf” and “Wyvern”. Not really sure what to make of it, the man standing at the far end of the room had already noticed that Griswold had arrived, and how could he not have. While many of his features were hidden, he could clearly see a grin on the face of this hooded individual, who was working with what seemed like surgical tools. Only knowing what they were due to Franklin, it made him wonder what all of this was about.

“Ah… it seems the wolves are at my door, kekeke. And here I was enjoying my experiment, which I should thank you for. If you hadn’t killed those that wandered out, I’d not have gotten nearly as many functional samples. But I guess the gig is up now that the big boss knows of my deception, meaning this is hello, and goodbye!”

Unsheathing his blade, he wasn’t going to just let this piece of filth get away with using everyone in the way that he had. With a burst of speed, he crossed the distance between the two, only for a portal to appear right in front of him and sending him to what seemed like a point roughly ten meters above water. As the rush of speed and the teleportation had more or less turned his approach into a high speed dive, Griswold crashed into the water with enough speed to send him in quite deep. Scratching, clawing and kicking at the water until he made his way to the surface, he swam his way to the shore, finding out once he got there that he had been teleported all the way from the labyrinth into Sivert Lake. Kicking at the water as he made his way out, he knew that even if he were to rush back there now, the man would be long gone. Right now, the only somewhat comforting thought was that the minotaurs would not work with him anymore.

Wanting to know what this man was doing and what he meant by “samples”, Griswold had a feeling that he would be seeing this guy again real soon. After all, people such as these were not often just skulking in the shadows for no reason, these people wanted to reach some kind of new height. And when they did, they wanted the world to witness what they had been able to create, which was something Griswold imagined would be between the lines of horrific and dreadful. But until this man showed his face in the land of Clover again, there was nothing Griswold could do, other than reporting this at the headquarters of the Bulls so that the country might become aware of the man and his schemes before it was too late.

[End of Mission Chain]