"This is a trap, isn't it?" Aki asked to no one in particular when he arrived at the empty village. Not even a dead bush around to cause that american effect the movies showed, but considering the place was surrounded by a expanse of what was once a lush forest and burned crop fields, jackass could only imagine some blondie or egghead was going to pop out of nowhere and try to shoot him with a steampunk weapon.
So he cut off to heat vision and kept walking. No response. "You guys came ready to deal with the beast, didn't you." He whistled before turning to soul vision, wisps of black leaving his eyes. "I see." He tried to joke, but that was about when the lean and bladed figure Aki guessed was going to be a woman or a very effeminated guy attacked him from the back.
Instead of trying to move his body, he simply took the two kukris? to the back without flinching and cut of the assasins forearms off with a compact wind blade before wiping back and kicking them in the stomach.
"Bravo charge." A complete monotome said, Aki amplifying all sound and making their radio signal useless. That didn't mean the other three were going to stop the suicide charge they'd just received the order to do.
Noticing something, Aki frowned and pierced each attacker with metal spikes coming from every surface near them. Their necks were punctured in several areas, as if forming a collar of spikes that would decapitate them with but a move. It was, instead, something that completely stopped them from moving.
Suddenly six small objects left the assailants bodies and floated before Aki. Palming one, he ignored the beeping noise. "You can hear me through this, can't you?" He wispered to the small metal disk with some wires. "Know that when i find you, you will wish i was as mercifull as Doom, and killed you for good. Abberations like you are much worse than demons." He spat before all six devices exploded to his face.
*****
Far, far away.
There stood a being of light. It had a forgetable face, impossible to tell it's genter, the four bone protusions on it's forehead indicated it wasn't human, but besides it's glow, nothing else pointed to such. When the vibrations of the words said by Aki were translated though...
The reinforced stell of the chamber started to melt, the floating ologram of a monitor showing a skeletal figure with only it's lower body covered in flesh started flickering and was rapidly thrown into a molten wall before breaking like glass. It's eyes burned with a white light reminiscing that of twin suns and a wave of light disturbed the surroundings, the heat waves making the air vibrate.
Sound filled the royal palace of the holy nation.
"WE ARE GOING TO WAR." A calm and divine voice resounded for all those withing earshot, in a volume never heard before. No matter who they were or what they were doing at the moment, all dropped to their knees and muttered 'As the Lord commands.' with excitment and began to recite their prayers fervently.
*****
"So he just came home, said it was a trap, dropped off these four identical teens and told you he was going to train in hell?" Ella asked, slowly, as to confirm what the driad had just told her. It had been barely an hour since Aki had left with a promise to look for her family.
"Yup, and actually, these guys are still children, just very tall. And homunculi, so they are technically the same guy. You're apparently supposed to babysit them as well, shouldn't be too hard. They're like, jump..." Arcenis dismissed her concerns and said an order, making all four clones jump the exact same height at about the exact same time.
"But where did he find four homunculi?" She really didn't want to make that connection.
"Your country. They tried to kill him and he removed the thing linking them to people giving them orders, so now they don't do anything. If you tell them stay they will do just that and obey it over any bodily needs, their tactile choice making is still poor, they don't react to pain, are eunuchs..." She started listing the things Aki had writen down and asked her to tell Ela, but was mostly interrupted.
"WHO DID THEY WORK FOR?!" The nanny in question was about to have a mental break down though. Sometimes it was quite hard to deal with the mostly apatic being that was the driad. Unless it had to do with Aki, his happines or her forest, she didn't much react to anything with human emotions. Like he said, she was still a very big, woman shaped potted plant. She just didn't have the patience to deal with that a the moment for some reason.
"Geez, no need to scream." She waved it off. "They worked for that demon in the middle of the castle, the one most of your country worships like a god." And she was about to leave.
"What?"
"Oh, come on! It has a horn crown, radiates heat and has a four word long name, if that isn't a demon than you might as well fuck me till i spill my non-existent brain!" And she actually left while whiping her hair, completely ignoring the sound of shattering glass.
*****
"Fuck's sake, i speak english, i'm calcasian and i have a bigger than average dick, how can you even tell i'm not american?" Aki complained as he filled another page worth of paper work.
"You and a third of the things we summon initially show all those caratecristics, so just trusting you is a no go." The man with glasses and a expression that radiated 'I have no fucks left to give in this life' said. "Unless you want to go through the umbilical parasite that will identify everything you're made of, than paperwork it is."
"I can't tell if you just made a reference or were actually being serious but i don't want to be the chosen one since that would problably kill my wife or something like that." He rebuted, causing the man to sign off twice in the hard light tablet he had in hand.
It took a while, but Aki finished the paperwork and was taken out of the registering tent to the army quarterhouse.
"You can leave a dimensional ancor there in case you can, that is the request board, any special equipment in display can be bought, don't try to rob us, we will know, that is the place the hooker's hang out, that is the dog house, that is the kitchen and mess hall, that's the training ground and that's the command tent in case you need to report something useful or concerning, which depending on the info, will get you rewards. Any question, no, great, go kill some shit." The man quickly said and left without even lifting his gaze from his hand computer. Aki wasn't about to care though.
Pinging down three anchors and surrounding them with several 'arrays', Aki left and passed through the front gate after showing a small card he'd been given. Breathing deeply, he sighed. "Brinstone, sulfur and guts, here i come!" And he ran. A lot. To the sound of 'Red like roses part II'.
The guy who'd been cheking him actually received a report on this and wrote him off as human.
*****
One day he whispered promises of love, showed how caring he could be, and the very next noon he declared war against the neighbor country before going to hell for training. The emotions she felt when hearing such nonsensical words about him were confusing at best.
Anna found herself wondering what the fuck was wrong with her for liking a guy like that.
She'd asked around, directly and indirectly, and she apparently wasn't the most normal woman around even by tribal standards.
Humans natural aversion to blood and pain asside, normal woman don't stay with man who have 'grandiose', have to check the dictionary for that one later, in any level similar to what Aki has because they simply don't focus enough in a relationship to keep someone else satisfied with being by their side, or something along those lines.
"Teacher, what does this word mean?"
"Caos, disarmony, a state where all do what they want without bothering with the consequences." She quickly aswered her student. It was self studying time and she liked to think about her day during such periods.
'Maybe the women they speak about simply don't understand how to serve a ruller? No, i'm pretty sure there should be classes for that in the capital or something. I mean, i guess harems are supposed to give emotional support to their menbers, but they simply don't work like that around here...'
"Teach, you look like you are wondering something very complicated, could i help?" Annabeth, the oldest child she teached, at about seventeen, asked while holding her head with her hands, elbows on her desk and knees on the ground. She was quite tall and well build after all.
"I was just wondering how come i've fallen in love with such a strange person." She softly rebuted while patting the messy red hair the girl had. It was quite soothing for some reason.
"Does it really matter? If you love him, then you do. That's it." She sounded confused, as if she'd asked why the sky was blue.
"I know, i'm just not used to feeling this kind of love. These kinds of questions keep popping in my head even if i know they are useless." She shrugged. Even if she didn't let it out much, she had plenty of emotions and pondered over them all the time. There was no denying she had feelings for the maniac wolf boy.
"Them that just means that teach is madly in love, right?" She asked with a cheeky grin. Anna responded by pinching the girl's cheeks and stretching them. Aki was right, this felt good.
"I won't say you are wrong, but you shouldn't tease adults like that." She said before stopping, a small upward movement of her lips the only indication of a smile.
"Meany." She said and rubbed her red cheeks before getting a look of insight. "Teach, i've been meaning to ask, but how is our 'supreme overlord' like."
That made Anna stop to think. It was true that most citizens had no idea about Aki's personality, his physical description was only partially true too, so describing him was actually plenty hard, nevermind that plenty other students suddenly stopped what they were doing and began to pay attention to what she was saying, some actually thought they were hiding that well and some didn't care to pretend not to be paying the conversation any mind.
She was about to open her mouth and say something to buy more time, but then it happened.
[ATTENTION! ALL CIVILIAN PLEASE WALK IN PANICKING DISSORDER TOWARDS ANYWHERE BUT THE REINFORCED SHELTERS OR THE CLOSEST PUBLIC BUILDING! A HOSTILE FORCE HAS BEEN DETECTED! SURENDER OR PREPARE FOR THE ASS WOOPING OF YOUR LIVES!] Roared the public anouncement system Aki made sure to install in every block of the city. It was also surprisingly cheap and easy to maintain when so many people used them to announce merchandise or hear about local promotions.
Standing up, Anna suddenly clapped her hands to gatter the attention of all present and asked them to follow her towards the gym. Her eldest students were making sure the youngest children could keep up, but their pace wasn't specially fast and none were strained while making way through the school.
They'd joined up with another two groups going the same way, their leading teachers a bit less stone looking but still composed and following protocol.
When they finaly reached their destination, several magical fortifications had already been activated, Anna herself would be incapacitated inside of this field if not for her resistration to it's system. On the way here she'd had an idea though.
Some still held fear and dispear now that they were not occupied with the task in frontof them, so she decided to make a speech.
"Everyone, attention please." She got up in a small wooden box so she would be seen by all present and used a spell Aki had teached her to make her voice more calming and attention grabbing instead of just louder. "I know everyone must be worried by the attack, how are your families and loved ones, how will things be after things settle again?" She had their attention all right, she just never expected there to actually be so much pressure from those pleading and hope-seeking eyes. She could deal with that. At least that's what she told herself. "There is nothing to worry about though. Our dearest overlord may be a young, a child who loves bad jokes and being complimented, but he truly cares and worries about people. Something anyone spending time around him eventually find's out, is that as long as he is worried about something, there will be plenty of solutions thrown around till one of them does exactly what he wants. He has put so much preparation into keeping the city safe, i ask you to please believe him when he says in his strange way that the enemy will be defeated and all will be protected." She asked with that umbelievably soft voice she almost couldn't reconise as hers and bowed a bit before dismissing them and asking for calm again while she went to the wall to help in any way she could.