"What was that?" The tremor took them by surprise. The patrolling spearman was unable to hold the ground, and fall of his butt.
"Did it start again?" The shield-bearer plunged his shield in the ground, tightened his grip. The nightmare was still fresh in their mind.
After the attack from the enemy, the strange phenomenon had started. The whole city of Yeomcheon rocked for one whole day, before falling silent. But the tremor at city centre continued for months.
The city centre of Yeomcheon became off-limits. The Chararch was already in ruins. The broken skeletons of the houses and shops remained standing around the city a centre, to show the remnant of the glamorous past.
The main army had already left the city. Those who remained were the remaining of general Andlat's corps. The general herself was stationed here to protect the entry point of Torria, where Akai, Vorn, and Riyasu left under the command of General of West with 120,000 strong armies.
It was not that, the quakes had totally stopped after that day, but it was neither frequent nor strong as today.
"Could it be the remaining energy of the crystal?" The young swordsman asked with fearful eyes.
"But…" before he could say the next word another strong shock sweep the land from underneath his leg.
One of the soldiers, around the city centre, reported it to the general. The constant tremor attracted other patrolling squads too.
"When did it start?"
"At morning there was a small quake, but soon the frequency increased, and it is now stronger than the morning." The guard answered the captain.
Before the captain to ask again the tremor rocked the whole city. Not too distance away one of the two storied buildings was reduced to rubbles.
"Move away, don't go too…" The captain couldn't complete his sentence before a chasm appeared through the city centre. The crowd was broken into chaos, but the tremors stopped after the chasm appeared.
"There is something. It's moving." A shout grabbed the attention of all those who were present there. But another entity entered the city centre at the same time.
In the presence of General Andlat, everyone was silent, nobody knew whether was it because of her charisma or her frightening reputation, but none. dared to talk. The thing which was crawling out of the chasm concerned them more for the moment.
It was naked, without a shard of cloth on its body, the view confirmed the gender of the one. His long hair wasn't letting others see his face. The whole body was full of dark spots, nobody could recognize the body colour him. Though the structure looked like a human nobody could be too sure. What peculiar was something was coming out its back.
He was supporting himself with his four. His tries to stand, send him on his four again.
Before one could fully observe the thing one brave soldier moved forward without hesitation.
He went straight to him, but rather than attacking him, he went and support him to stand up.
"You have grown. But you should have taken a bath. It's hard to talk" The soldier said
"That is the first thing you talk about after I came out of the underground after… How many days I was underground?" The thing asked.
"It is 7 months and 12 days. It's good to see you back, Captain." Chanakya said with a smile on his face.
*********
The evening of the same day
"Are you sure you could do that? That is impossible even for the whole army. Or... had you found something underground?" Even with Andlat's surprised expression, her voice was still seductive.
The manor, of the previous city lord, was stood unscratched through the tremors, those rocked the city from time to time. The room was too big for just two of them, but what confused Kinoya, was the design of the room.
"That is not important. What is important whether the general want to do it or not?"
Andlat was surprised by the response of Kinoya, who was standing before her. Not just her, even the guard of the general acknowledged his intelligence, but she felt that the air around him had changed.
He was talented but also respectful. But the boy in front of her was different. Neither fear nor respect was present in her eyes. Arrogance won't be the right word to explain it. It could be said that the boy is now confident, the shard of hesitation that could be felt before, now vanished completely.
She put up a slight curve on her face, but the words of her didn't match. "This is how you talk to your superior?" A deadly cold aura started to leak out from her, the temperature took a nosedive.
The effect was more prominent on Kinoya. It was hard for him to move, even harder to breath. If it was some months ago then he would have submitted without hesitation. But…
The aura Kinoya excluded was totally different from the chilling cold aura of Andlat, it was calming, more down to earth, but was strong in its own sense.
A flash of surprise appeared in the face of Andlat. The aura was different from the black smoke that the boy used to expel from his body, rather now, he had some weight around him now.
"I have no superior. As long as I remember I was thrown out of the army, in the same city. Do I really need to respect you?" Though Kinoya said with a straight face, the pressure on him was becoming unbearable, he could try to remove the deathly cold aura around him by channelling his mana in the spell circle, but it won't be long before his mana will be used up.
"If you are not of military why are you planning to help us?"
"It's not that I want to help you. I am doing it for two reasons, first no matter how they treated me I was born and brought up in the empire." That was the bluff, but he needed to get the attention, "and the main reason is, it is fun. I want to beat that White freak. I felt he is someone on whom I should step on."
Andlat burst into laughter. "I Like you, boy, I like you more." Kinoya could see, in a blink of an eye, the light in her eyes changed from a general to a predator. His whole body broke into sweats. "I can do what you told me, but what will I get in return?"
'Chanakya was right. She isn't someone I could control.' Kinoya was emotionless as usual. "I may not be a soldier of the empire, but you are a general of the Empire, and what I am doing is for the good of the empire. You still"
"Cut those crap. If I don't get what I want, you are not getting anything too." She said with a bewitching smile on her face as she came towards Kinoya.
'I didn't think that I will be so helpless, even with the spirit essence.' Kinoya understood very well that this wasn't just the difference of power, the woman in front of him is of a whole different level. He was already at his limit, even before she had revealed her full power.
No matter how much he tried, he couldn't take a step back. He could only watch as the woman came towards him, with a smile that sent a chill along his spine.
"Then what you want?" That was all he could utter.
"I want you." She said and planted her lips on Kinoya. He resisted for a moment, but…
The memories of the past flashed through his mind. The pain, hate, wound, and blood, it overwhelmed his mind. The cat girl, the demon woman, even Munai's face flashed in his eye. He resisted hard, but before the resistance could grow stronger, clamming mana has flown through his body. He relaxed, as his lips melted away in her mouth. The system's mechanical voice didn't have any effect on him.
'Even if I resist I may not win against her, and if he wakes up... I have come a long way without him, and I don't want to start from the zero again.' With the thought in his mind, he kissed her back.
Surprised Andlat released him and took a good look at him.
"I have no problem to give myself, to you for tonight."
"Boy, do you understand what you just said?" Andlat was shocked. 'Is he really just a kid? Or maybe he is really just…'
"I know, I know very well."
"Even with your blind eye, you would have fetched a high price in an auction."
"Does it matter? But general, if you missed the chance it might not come again."
A tinge of red appeared on her cheek. She wanted to eat him alive, the desire inside her was building. Under general's order, she wouldn't touch any of the soldiers.
The slaves she had brought with her or the soldiers of the enemies she had captures were becoming useless. On top of that, she couldn't leave the city. Now with such a tasty treat in front of her, she was almost losing control over herself.
"Boy there is no turning back, and if you can't satisfy me tonight, then there won't be any help from me." With the words, she kissed him again.
Kinoya didn't struggle. He let her soft lips savour the taste of dried lips. It took some time for the dance of her tongue to stop. "Don't worry. But if you try to trick me just remember that the things I could to the enemies also could be done to this army too." Kinoya stepped forward and planted a kiss on her lips.
Andlat felt a chill in her spine, but her desire her fear overridden her fear. She dragged Kinoya while ripping off the clothes on his body, she took him to the bed.
The magic light stopped, the room plunged into darkness, and silence came with it. But the silence remained just for a few moments before broken by an ecstatic moan. The guard outside the door could only stand there, ignoring the moan and the occasional whimpers those continued even after daybreak.