Melvin led his army to the portal gate after paying the village chief a large sum of gold for the time he spent with the priestess, it was a deal made between the two. Once the wolf pack traveled back to their world, they were greeted by the demigod's guards who'd been ordered to arrest them for the offense they'd committed.
At the break of dawn, Melvin's trial commenced. He was forced on his knees alongside his men who were behind him. They were stripped of all their armors, pendants, and weapons. Their magic was also sealed by the star mages that were present in the hall.
Melvin looked up to see the demigod he hated so much. The mere look at her already made his insides twirl uncomfortably.
"My Lord Melissa, I was arrested last night and kept in a disgusting cell by your soldiers. This is unjust because I don't know what I have done!" Melvin sweatdropped, cautiously analyzing the things in his head before he'd put them in words. It was just some safe steps to not anger Melissa, the demigod who could set him on fire in a second.
The demigod didn't say a word. She glared at him then yawned before turning into her toddler form. The length of her red hair remained the same, but her robe looked three times her normal size. She was mysteriously okay with that.
"My lord, we were having a normal conversation like the adults we are. Why did you have to shapeshift? I can't take you seriously in this form. You look the age of my six-year-old son."
"I'm sure your son would scold you for this as well. You're a supposed adult, yet you have no idea of the law."
Melvin was insulted but he tried his best to not show it. He was sure he'd be able to talk his way out, he'd done that so many times.
"Since you remain oblivious, or maybe you're playing pretend. I will tell you what you've done but I will let you know, your men at the back will die with every accusation stated."
They protested, but Melissa wasn't going to listen.
"You went to earth for a nonpolitical reason." One of the soldiers felt tightness in the centre of his chest, accompanied by a shock of pain from his neck to his pubes. He gasped heavily for air that refused to go into his nostrils. He searched one last time for the oxygen that strangely wasn't present in the air before he finally gave up.
It all looked like a joke in the beginning, but now, the men were scared of losing their lives. They were trying their best to explain but little did they know, they'd been muted by Melissa. They thought she and the prosecutors could hear their pleas but it was just their imagination playing dirty tricks in a serious situation. The hall was dead silent, the tiniest pin drop could cause an echo.
She continued calling out their transgressions "You're not an official — you have no right to use the portal at night." Spears were jerked at the back of two random soldiers without warning. It was slowly pushed deep so they'll feel every ounce of the pain. Once the shiny metal jabbed out from their abdomens, they inhaled their last before they passed. Ninewere left behind, Melvin included.
"Melissa please —"
"You disrespected the deity they serve by stepping your dirty foot into their house of prayer!" Three others had sharp knives stabbed into the nape of their necks and their forehead as well.
"You ruined the interiors of the chapel" a fierce electrical flow beat through the last four of his men, causing damage to vital centres in their brain. Their face was canvassed in blood, the hair/fur on their bodies scorched along with their skin, and the atmosphere was filled with the stench of burnt flesh.
It was an awful sight for Melvin. To watch all the men he called brother's die. "YOU BITCH!!! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE YOU'RE BETTER THAN ALL OF US JUST BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE A SOFT SIDE FOR HUMANS. SOL WAS BETTER BEFORE YOU CAME. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? JUST BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPID DEMIGOD TITLE YOU THINK YOU'RE THE BEST!!!" no one could make out what he was saying, it was like a complete mime drama with the way he woofed like the weak pooch he was.
Melissa cutely snickered at the wolfman and he found that disturbing "What's so funny?" He asked angrily.
"You should know that I didn't hear a word you said. You've been screaming only to yourself" that's what she found funny. How he failed to realise that. She gradually formed back to an adult body. Her form stretched with every step she made and her cream robe swept the stairs of her throne's pulpit as she advanced towards him.
To tease him even more, she shapeshifted to look like the priest from earth. She trailed his jaw with the back of her hand then tapped the bridge of his nose playfully "Your miserable face is such a beautiful sight. It is a shame you're going to die."
Melvin wondered how she found out then it clicked in his head — one of the wishes she made was to be omniscient. He dropped his shoulder in defeat, there was really no escape from her.
He didn't have anything else to say. He waited for her to state the last offence, moreover, he thought, maybe he should say it himself.
Once His lips moved, Melissa knew he said what he had in my mind.
"At last! you admitted your crime of molesting a priestess. You're not so moronic and insensible after all" She swung her hand towards his neck and his head went flying. The blood from his neck sprouted up and his body fell forward unto the blood pool created by all the corpses at the focal point of the hall. Finally, his head bounced as soon as it came in contact with the tiled floor.
"Call the maids to clean this place up" The executors bowed and went out to call the cleaners. Melissa sat back in her throne and her advisor who she trapped in his fox form crept into her laps. She gave him a rub on his head and grinned "I couldn't care less what you have to say."
She'd been accused countless times of being sympathetic towards humans. She claimed that most of their accusations were valid, but she despised most of the human race just like any other beastman.
The deal was that she acknowledged the fact that they are like fragile glass. The path The beastmen were taking would have made humanity have collapse in no time. She only came to limit what her kind got used to and she was able to get the senates of Sol to reason with her. Most of them agreed but not all concurred. The majority ruled in the end.
Before her ten years rule, five hundred humans were taken to Sol every year, where twenty percent died in the hands of cruel masters and the rest were enslaved to do as much work as possible. It was funny how the humans were selling one another to their rivals, some men sold their wives, some wives sold their husbands, some would gang up on their children and sell them off as toys to the beastmen's offsprings. Melissa found all that to be very disgusting. They pretend to hate the slave system, but the same humans benefit large coins from it.
The human population was declining and Melissa's major point was that they needed them. Letting them all die would mean that they'll go back to work. What they hated the most.
She successfully changed the slave scheme to two thousand humans every eight years. That way the human population wouldn't drop severely.
Everything she did was part of a promise she made between herself and the only human she cared about. Whenever she thinks about it, she had no major reason whatsoever to have participated in that tournament. In her perspective, there was nothing special about the demigod title and the summer tournament was just a dumb game to play.
In a few days, her reign will finally be over, and whoever wins the tournament might not favour the humans the same way she did. Well it was their luck and their raindrop God was who should be blamed.
They had limited days to make the most out of their liberation.
***
Noah wiped his sweat-drenched forehead with a napkin as he took a seat on the rock right next to the mining tunnel where other gatherers moved in and out with sacks and more sacks.
It looked like he wasn't going to be home anytime soon. They weren't making progress and they had to finish their work before they could go back. He wished he could find a way to tell Artemis because he knew she wouldn't talk to him whenever he gets back.
He sighed "maybe she feels so lonely" he got a pat on his back then switched his gaze from the ground to meet his leader's grey eyes.
"Don't be sad. You'll get to see your daughter eventually" those words were meant to console but it only made him feel worse.
***
"A few days from now, the tournament is going to start. And a few days from now, daddy will be home. I know I can win! I'll surprise everyone" she fist pumped the air confidently at the thoughts of her victory.
When she heard the prize for the competition was a chest brimming with gold, and the demigod title, it perked up her interest. Especially the money involved.
Her father always said she was strong, and she thought the same. She didn't care less of Edvin's warning about the losing rate of humans in the summer game. She was sure she'd make a difference and be the savior humanity has always been waiting for. With the raindrop God by her side, everything was possible.