Ultimate Assassin Saga: Woodlands

However, it was still up the Chaos Demon who would be going on the hunt for this power and who wouldn't be. He could exclude any one of them, and even though they knew death could be waiting on the other end, they all wanted to go. This was their chance to end the threat to the Star Elves and they wanted to revel in the glory of success of that mission.

The Warrior Lord turned his eyes to King Taro himself sitting at the head of the table. Even Taro was completely silent and was busy eating, his own thoughts obviously troubling him if the frown on his face was any indication. He didn't know what King Taro could be thinking, but it couldn't be something good. He had to be running over all the bad situations that could come out of this.

He had to be because Acre certainly was.

He had no idea what it was out in the Jungle, but he had a feeling that Acheron was right. Whatever that power was, it was most likely what the Undead were feeding off of and making them capable of existing. When they destroyed that power, the Undead would stop coming and they would be safe. With that safety, they would be able to enter the Mortal Plane once more, living in the actual Whispering Jungle instead of a mirror dimension of it. In only that way would they be of any use to the Demon who was their ally.

The Star Elf turned his attention back to his plate and his half eaten food. He reached out and picked up his glass of tea, taking a drink. Once he swallowed the liquid, he sat the glass down and he picked up his fork once more, beginning to eat once more.

While he ate, he could hear the sounds of the other Warrior Lords eating their own food. The scraping of forks upon the plate as they scooped up food and metal ringing against teeth as they placed the food in their mouth were the two most common sounds. Even he himself made some of these noises, but he did all he could to suppress them and all together hide them.

Finished eating, Acre placed his fork down quietly upon his cleaned plate and he sat back in his chair. He took a few deep breaths to relax his stomach muscles. The food had filled him well and he had to curb the impulse to rub his stomach. He was always satisfied when he ate in the dining area, the food being much better than he himself could cook.

As he looked around, he noted that several other Lords had finished their own meals, having pushed back their plates and sat back in their chairs to wait. They too were looking around and he met a few of their gazes, nodding his head once to each of them to acknowledge their gazes. Then, his eyes lit upon Acheron who was also done with his meal and sitting back, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited.

The man's emerald green eyes seemed to burn with his impatience and he frowned. Why would a Demon as professional as he be so impatient? Was he that ready to go off to battle and destroy whatever it was that he sensed? He knew that Demon's loved battle and they rarely cared for their brothers in arms, but Acheron was different from any other Demon he'd ever heard about. He had honor and he showed genuine concern for all those around him, even having gone so far during the last battle to make sure that a little girl he didn't know got to safety before the battle had begun.

For that, he respected the man and would do anything he asked of him. He was loyal to those that deserved it and the Chaos Demon had shown that he was deserving of his loyalty. He wasn't just deserving of his own loyalty, but the loyalty of the King and all other Star Elves as well. He was a good man.

The Star Elf turned his gaze away from the other man and he turned his gaze to the King. King Taro had just placed his fork down on his plate when he looked at him and he pushed the plate back. Taro then picked up his glass of tea and drained it. When he sat the glass down on the table, he sighed and he cleared his throat, drawing the attention of every warrior at the table. As if he didn't already have all of their attentions in the first place, but that wasn't relevant anyway.

"Today is an important day." Taro began, his voice calm and loud enough for everyone to hear. The Warrior Lord noticed that his fellow Lords were leaning closer to hear him and he nearly smiled. The King had their full attention, that was for sure. "Today is the beginning of the end of the Undead. Acheron will lead us to the great power he senses within the Jungle, and hopefully, that power will be destroyed. We are confident that this power is tied to the life of the Undead."

The Star Elf King stopped, allowing everyone to take that in before he opened his mouth and continued with his litany.

"This battle will not be easy. It will be one of the most difficult fights we've ever had." Taro said, sitting back in his chair and his eyes darted from face to face, giving each equal time. Then, his eyes settled on Acheron and he smiled a little bit. "However, I ask that when you are asked by our esteemed friend to join the fight, you will do so eagerly and with blood lust in your hearts. You must fight for many things, the most important is our safety. If not for that, then fight for glory for your names will be immortalized in Star Elf history if this succeeds whether you live or die. Think hard on what I have said if you are chosen by our friend and remember my words. Let them rest in your heart and judge them to be true for yourself or not. With that, I give the floor to Acheron, our esteemed friend."

Acre had listened to every word carefully and he was surprised by how moving the King's words had been. For as long as he could remember, Taro had been King of the Star Elves and never before had he given such a speech. When his last words came, he turned his head as did all the other Warrior Lords and they each watched as the Chaos Demon pushed back his chair, getting to his feet.

The giant of a man stood there for a moment in silence, looking around at all of them. His emerald green eyes seemed to be searching their souls for something, but what, he had no idea. If he was looking for the stout of heart, he would find plenty of men like that here. They weren't the Lord of the Thirteen Waves for no reason after all.

Then, the Command Assassin rested his left hand on the hilt of his Diamond Blade. He'd noticed that gesture before, but he wasn't sure what it was suppose to mean. Before he could start to run through his thoughts of what it could mean, the Command Assassin opened his mouth and began to speak.

"I am an outsider, not of your people. Hell, I'm not even of the same race as you. However, you've taken me into your homes and you've trusted me when others might not have." Acheron said, his voice filled with confidence and pride. He smiled slightly and shook his head. "I must admit that I was suspicious at first. Demons are treated with prejudice all over the world, and to be honest, I can't blame them. However, here I found immediate acceptance and I can't tell you how happy I am that I found that."

"Now, we have a common enemy." Acheron continued after a second of a pause and his eyes seemed to rest squarely on him. The Warrior Lord of the First Wave shifted slightly under his emerald green gaze, but he stared back, meeting his gaze squarely, with confidence. "Today, I choose the men that I wish to fight with me and I only hope that you can join me without the prejudices that others feel in their hearts towards my kind weighing you down. I will need your full trust, and without that, we will fail. So, with that said, I will choose who I want with me."

Acre waited, his hands closed tightly around the arms of his chair. He didn't know why he was so tense, but he was. He looked down at his hands and he saw that his knuckles were white with how hard he was gripping the arms of the chair. No matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't make his hands stop squeezing the chair and he raised his eyes.

And stared right into the eyes of the Chaos Demon.

The Star Elf felt like his breath had left him and wouldn't return. His heart kicked up a few notches, and despite how hard he tried, his nervousness only continued to increase. There was no reason for these feelings. He wanted to fight side by side with the Chaos Demon. However, there was something within him that was gnawing at him and making it impossible for him to relax.

"I will need the First Wave with me of course." Acheron told him, his voice carrying across the area and slamming into his ears. Instantly, the Warrior Lord felt himself relax and his hands were finally able to unclench from around his chair. With his nervousness gone, he smiled and nodded his head once to the man, showing that he was agreeable to it.

With that done, the Chaos Demon turned away from him and began to choose other Warrior Lords to come with him. Acre wasn't surprised that he chose the second, fifth, and tenth wave. They were all three very powerful units and their Lords were people that worked well together. If he didn't know any better, he would say that the Chaos Demon had known that and had purposefully chosen it that way. Of course, there was no way that he could know that so he banished those thoughts and sat back in his chair once again, fully relaxed now that he'd been chosen for the mission.

Acheron, accompanied with the four Waves of warriors that he'd chosen, left the Star Elf village, disappearing into the Whispering Jungle. Today was the day that he was going to end the threat to the Star Elves and free them from their fright of the Undead. They would find that item that was creating that power and destroy it, taking the Undead with it straight to the hells below.

That was their goal and they were going to accomplish it.

There wasn't a single noise in the Jungle as they made their way through it, but he hadn't expected there to be. After all, there were hundreds of warriors moving through the trees and not very many animals would dare to make noise with such a huge force moving through their territory. The animals knew that they were to large of a force for the animals to handle and so they stayed out of sight of the sentient creatures.

The Chaos Demon narrowed his eyes and stared into the darkness of the jungle. There were several rays of light that poured through the thick trees and lit the way, but they didn't do all that much to light the area completely. With how thick the trees were, it was impossible for the sun to shine through completely and illuminate the entire area, casting some of the area in front of them into darkness that could hide just about anything.

There could be predators hiding among the leaves of the trees, but he didn't think so. He was a Demon and he was traveling with more than four hundred Star Elf warriors. There was no way there was anything in the Jungle that was confident that they could deal with him and the Star Elves. There was simply no way.

The Command Assassin banished those thoughts and turned his attention back to what he was suppose to be doing. He reached out with his aura, casting a wide net over the Whispering Jungle. After several minutes of probing in every direction, he found the huge force once again. It was nearly ten miles east of their position so he turned slightly in that direction and he walked in that direction, the Star Elves turning with him. They were willing to follow him for one reason and one reason only: he could sense the evil that was keeping the Undead alive and well to plague their people.

"You sense this power, yes?" came a masculine voice from his left side. He cut his eyes to the side, taking in the form of the javelin wielding Star Elf Sirius. He was carrying the double headed javelin at his side, his arm swinging back and forth as he walked beside him, staring at him with serious eyes. It was obvious from the look in his eyes that he was daring the Command Assassin to lie to him, but he had no reason to do that. "You lead us to it?"

He blanked his expression carefully and he nodded his head once. "Yes, I do sense the power. It is around ten miles east of here. We are moving that way right now." Acheron replied easily enough and he turned away from the man, staring at the rune carved trees as he walked past them, moving deeper into the Jungle with the Star Elves walking close at his back, ready to fight at any moment.

Several minutes later, the power in the distance had grown closer, and the closer they got to it, the power only continued to grow. It was as if it knew that they were coming and was adjusting its level of power accordingly. It could be a sentient being, but he couldn't see how that could be possible. There was simply too much power in one place for it to be a sentient being. Also, it was a mindless power, not focused. Sentient beings put out focused power and objects put out mindless power. That was the reason that he thought it was a construct of some sort and not an individual.

The Chaos Demon could hear the Star Elves behind him shifting nervously. That nervousness permeated the entire group as did fear, but there were a few individuals who were neither nervous or fearful. Those individuals were none other than the four Warrior Lords which was no real surprise to him.

The Warrior Lords were trained, powerful warriors that could face down anything without blinking an eye. They didn't reach their ranks as Generals of sorts without having a strong spine and resilient resolve. There were other Star Elves of course that would make good Warrior Lords, but at this time, there were only Thirteen Waves because of the few warriors there were. However, he had no doubt in his mind that once the Star Elves grew to a certain number, the Thirteen waves would be expanded upon.

The Command Assassin stepped down, walking down the slope slowly. He was careful not to lose his footing since the footing of this area was more treacherous than any of the other places. There were tree roots sticking out of the ground, creating dangerous stepping places if you didn't watch yourself. Also, he noticed that there were pitfalls here and there, traps to prevent them from getting where they were going.

Acheron frowned at the sight of these barely covered pitfalls. Had these been created by the enemy on purpose? Or had the pitfalls been made many years ago by something else? Was it something reminiscent of the Mortal Plane that had been brought with to the mirror dimension? He didn't have an answer for any of these questions and that bothered him to no end.

The Chaos Demon liked to know what he was getting himself into. However, ever since he'd started this journey into the Wilds, he'd run across things that he had no idea about. It was quite bothersome and it gave him several headaches. There was nothing that he could do about it though so there was no reason to get frustrated or angry over it.

He would simply have to accept the unpredictability of his new life and move on. If he didn't, he would be constantly wallowing in all the things that he didn't know. There were many things in the Wilds, and even though there were only two more provinces for him to go through, he was sure that they would be teeming with uncertainty at every turn.

Just as that though entered his mind, he took a step and he felt the world give out below him. He cried out in surprise as he fell down below the ground, but he reached out with his arms, catching the sides of the ground, holding himself above. He looked down into the hole below him and his eyes widened. The hole beneath him was filled with several close together sharpened wooden stakes. He wasn't even the first to fall into this hole. There were several Elven bodies down below, long turned to skeletons and the scent of blood was strong within the pit.

"Take my hand." came the voice of Acre and he turned his head. He saw that Acre was standing next to the pit and was bent down with his hand outstretched. Without a second thought, he reached out and took the man's hand. Acre pulled with all of his strength and he was freed from the pit. When Acre released him, he stayed where he was, on his fours and staring at the ground, cursing himself for his foolishness.

Shaking off what had just happened, the Command Assassin got to his feet and he turned to the pit. The pit had several Elves gathered around it already and they were looking down into the pit, muttering among themselves. He frowned at that and wondered what the big deal was. Sure, it was a pit filled with sharpened wooden stakes that would've impaled him if he hadn't reacted and saved himself, but it wasn't worth spending time on. Then, he remembered the bones of the Elven corpses and he knew.

The bones he'd seen were members of their village that had probably gone missing over the years, never to be seen again.

He stood there, unsure what to do. He couldn't offer his sympathies. They would ring false because he didn't know the victims, and to be honest, neither did the Star elves. At least, not for sure anyway. They would have their suspicions of course, but not one of them would know for sure.

The first to break away from the group gathered around the pit was one of the Warrior Lords. It was the Waraxe wielder that had been introduced to him as Orion. Orion walked right towards him, his foot steps churning up grass and leaves beneath his boots. Despite the huge axe strapped to his back, he moved with an easy grace born of the Elves naturally, seemingly uninhibited by the weight of the Waraxe strapped to his back.

The Warrior Lord stopped in front of him and stared. He didn't say a word, but continued to stare, his eyes blank of all emotion. It was as if he was trying to see into Acheron's very soul. To make sure he didn't suspect him of anything, Acheron stared right back and didn't dare break his gaze. The man's lips turned down in a frown and his brow furrowed up.

"Those bones in that pit." Orion began, his voice steady and calm. There was no anger, no fear, and no betrayal in his voice at all. He was completely composed and calm as was his aura. That surprised him some, but he didn't suppose it mattered. These men were warriors and warriors were trained to be cool under pressure, even when they found something like a pit full of bones. "We suspect that they are the bodies of men and women of our village who never returned. After this is done, we will return here and we will take the bones back to the village. We will find out who they are and maybe then some families can have some peace of mind knowing that we found their loved ones."

The Chaos Demon nodded his head in understanding. He did understand of course. It would be hell to have a loved one out there and not have them not come back. For someone you love to go missing would play hell on the mind, heart, and soul. You wouldn't know if they were alive or dead and whether or not it was your fault that they were gone. Disappearances was something that was hell on those that had disappeared, but most of all, on the one's that were left behind.

The Warrior Lord nodded back and turned away from him. He placed his hands on his hips, stroking his own hips and stared at the pit ahead with all the Elves gathered around. The Warrior Lords had already broken away from the pit and left the normal soldiers behind to stare and wonder about the skeletons in the pit. They needed to get going soon though or this would take all day and the power would have even more time to gather its forces to it to protect itself.

"We have to go." Acheron called to the men gathered around the pit and he watched as they turned away from the pit to face him. He saw the looks of confusion, pain, and worry in their eyes, but he ignored it. They didn't have time for idleness. "If we don't, the power will gather more power to it and we will have no hope to defeat it then."