The only good news was that the settlement was larger than what had been reported years ago when adventurers identified it, it was supposed to have about 1000 of these blue-skinned non-humans but here there were at least 3 times that number with some buildings of at least 5 floors from which smoke is constantly coming out, very similar to the constructs seen in the forge by Gremory, but the difference was that here everything was mechanical and there was no magic involved.
'The adventurers who identified this settlement must have thought that only magic was capable of something like that... We should at least have checked it before attracting the orcs, but now it is too late.' Gremory thought as he ran alongside the adventurers through the settlement until he reaches the end of the settlement and went to the woods. All the non-humans present there were looking confusedly at the running adventurers, but they did not raise weapons or show any hostility from beginning to the end.
Furthermore, Gremory did not even see a weapon anywhere, much less such war machines, but there were large machines there, that were being used in plantations.
'Incredible, they seem to have automated part of the planting process.' Gremory thought as he took a small notebook out of his dimensional bag after stopping outside the settlement with the rest of the adventurers. He was trying to draw as much of the structures in front of him as he could before the destruction started, but it came soon after.
The screams started from the direction in which the adventurers came, but they were not screams from war. Although Gremory did not understand the language spoken there, it was quite obvious that, they were crying for help while a massacre began to take place in the settlement.
"What are they doing? Why don't they use their war machines to defend themselves?"
Redwig spoke without understanding why they were just running, yet they were not able to abandon each other so all they were doing was running around trying to escape from the orcs.
"It's because those things are not war machines, these non-humans are just farmers." Gremory said.
"But that way we will only be helping the orcs to get food." Danton spoke shocked by the scenes that were taking place in front of him.
Claire was starting to despair when that settlement started to be raided, they were non-human but there were children, the elderly, and innocent people who had nothing to do with this war.
"We can't let them just die like that, Gremory." She said while she watched the settlement catch fire and the cries for help intensified even more until she ran off alone to face the more than 9,000 orcs there. But Danton and Rudo followed soon after.
"Your friends are going to find death very soon." Redwig said sarcastically.
Gremory was thoughtful about what he should do, they just brought destruction to a species that had done nothing against them, and as a result, they even delivered a banquet to a segment of the orc army that would attack them in a few weeks.
'What would Robert do in my position?' He thought as he distracted himself from the battlefield and without realizing it, time began to pass more slowly until it stopped completely.
Gremory tried to move his body but in vain, he had disconnected from his physical body and was now on a different plane, the astral plane, in the same way when he followed his mana within himself to the abyss.
And so he did it again until he entered the abyss, there was darkness as always but beside her, there was someone else, it was Robert.
"OLD MAN!" Gremory screamed as he ran in the direction where they were, but when he got there only a look of disappointment was on Robert's face, as if he was afraid to even look at Gremory.
"What happened? I thought you were dead." Gremory asked confused.
"I'm dead." Robert replied with regret in his words.
"But then how are you here in the abyss."
"This the home of the dead my son, or should I call you Death? But I am still directly connected to you after what you did in Tuska."
"What? But I didn't anything in Tuska!"
"You did, you condemned the entire village to an immortality of suffering accompanying you while you kill and destroy everything in front of you."
"But I didn't do it on purpose, my shell faltered at that moment."
"Gremory, you keep your shell even while you sleep. Your shell didn't fail, you just looked for the easiest way to get rid of the pain and you decided to stay on that path. You don't realize it but you are just addicted to death."
The words of Robert shocked Gremory, but they made sense even to him after the irrational thoughts he had in killing those hundreds of orcs.
'Am I addicted to death?'
"Gremory, the energy you absorb is the essence of each person or creature, it's what connects it to the physical world so you're not just absorbing food or strength, but people. Most of them die with hate in their hearts and this is gradually becoming your hatred. You need to stop acting like that or soon you will have no more salvation." Robert spoke as he turned his back on Gremory and walked out on the sea of blood.
For the first time in a long time, Gremory was crying without being able to say a single word.
"Don't mind him, you're just fulfilling your destiny. He should be happy to have become a part of you." The darkness that had been quiet until now spoke in an attempt to comfort Gremory, who ignored her completely while forcing his way out of the abyss.
But even his physical body was crying when time returned to normal.
"Are you crying? What the fuc* is that?" Redwig spoke.
Gremory wiped his tears and said.
"Shut up, we'll go after them. Let's take the opportunity of the non-humans being attacked to make a total attack against the orcs!"