"So give me a rough picture of this world?" asked Margoth looking somewhat bored of doing nothing interesting.
Before Margoth could get an answer from Draven, the girl's groaning reached their ears.
"Hrgg"
Draven turned back to see the girl trying to stand up but the ropes around her limbs made doing so a difficult task. Draven took out the broken sword from the sheath hanging on his waist. The girl's eyes revealed intense shock and fear looking at him approach her with a dagger in hand and a smokey figure of a scary snake above his shoulder,
She frantically tried to crawl away,
"HRRHHHMM!"
She couldn't get too far as Draven had already come to her side and squatted beside her. The girl squirmed like a fish out of water. Draven just grabbed her wrist,
"Stop, I am not going to hurt you, Sarah"
"Unless you give us a reason to" Margoth threatened the girl with his grumbling demonic voice,
Her face was turning pale seeing the cold stare of Margoth,
"Now I'm going to cut these ropes and take out the cloth in your mouth. Will you scream?" Draven asked the girl while Margoth hissed at her,
"Hrrmmm" Sarah shook her head slowly,
She avoided making eye contact with Margoth in fear,
Draven first cut the ropes around her legs and then cut the ropes that tied her wrists together. Finally, he pulled out the cloth stuck in her mouth.
Margoth's smokey figure slowly floated towards Sarah, circling her.
She controlled the urge to scream,
"Sarah Keen, you're safe here. I am Draven and this is-"
"Margoth, one of the Elden Gods" Margoth interrupted Draven and introduced himself
"Who…what…are you?" Sarah mumbled,
"She's not the brightest knife in the kitchen" Margoth hissed again,
"The question you should be asking is what can you do for us and what can we do for you?" Draven stood up,
"Currently you're a wanted criminal of UFH and we all know what will happen to you when they capture you which they did"
"Why do we need her again?" asked Margoth as Draven grabbed her elbow and helped her to her feet.
He began to walk towards the round table with Sarah reluctantly following him behind.
"Listen Sarah, currently you are a fugitive. You're not going to get your life back ever. The best thing you could do right now is take out the assholes you killed your family"
Margoth seemed surprised as Draven continued,
"No matter how good of a hacker you are, you can't go up against the supervillains by yourself. UFH will capture you but the supervillains, they will first rape you and torture you and if you're lucky, they will end your life"
"That's rough and she doesn't seem very lucky" Margoth evilly chuckled,
Sarah followed him behind uttering no words. She was pretty shaken up and her face was still pale,
"Are you a hero?" asked Sarah
"Was"
"Shut up" Draven threatened Margoth.
Draven had known Margoth for more than a decade by now and Margoth was the only part of his life he had no control of. The Elden god would do whatever he likes whenever he likes. There was no stopping after he decided to do something. Draven needed Margoth to absorb the souls and turn them into soul energy which then passed it to another ultimate power living inside him. Margoth needed Draven to kill people so he could survive by absorbing soul energy.
They needed each other and in simple words, they were having a symbiotic relationship.
"What you need to know is I'm not a hero, I'm a guy who would do the right thing to put an end to this hero-villain crap"
Sarah took several minutes pondering what he just said.
"You're gonna go up against the heroes too?" asked Sarah. If there was another girl in her shoes, she would have thought about escaping the dark creepy cave and the two creepy people. However, she was one of the smartest people in the world who could rationalize everything.
As far as she could think, Draven was right. She wouldn't be able to escape UFH for long and if she went against those who hurt the ones she loved, they would do exactly what Draven said.
"This is him" Thought Sarah in her mind,
"There are no heroes, no villains. Just people with different agendas. There is a healing potion under the bed, take it. If you want to run away, feel free to take whatever you need"
Margoth knew he was playing her so he did not say anything. It would be extremely stupid for her to escape the cave. The only safe place for her was with Draven.
Initially when Margoth met Draven in the void, he did not think he would survive without any powers but he did. Draven was a constant surprise. That was why Margoth chose to stick with him. He was a perfect killing machine with an unsettling storm of revenge within him.
Leaving the girl to stare at the board, Draven went to the corner of the cave and laid down to get some shut eye. He only slept for two hours a day and that too because his body needed the rest as he did not want to waste his time sleeping. He hated closing his eyes because every time he closed his eyes, the images of his family getting murdered in front of him flashed across his mind.
He was haunted by these images for years. His mind replayed the events that happened that day thousands of times now. Simply, he was experiencing hell for decades.
Margoth's figure disappeared when Draven closed his eyes. Sarah remained near the round table looking at the various portraits of people and five question marks.
The cave was filled with deathly silence for almost fifteen minutes. Then, Sarah heard Draven growling. She hurried to him. Draven was shaking and blood was leaking out of his nostrils,
"Leave him be" when Sarah got closer, Margoth appeared above Draven.
"I won't…I won't let anything…happen to you Mary" Draven was mumbling in his sleep,
Soon Draven started to pound the ground with enough force to create a hole in the ground.
"After you get a room of your own, you won't have to deal with this. Me on the other hand got used to this" Margoth shrugged before vanishing into thin air.
Sarah was the last missing piece in Draven's quest for vengeance. The fragile peace built by the UFH was in jeopardy. In his path to revenge, Draven would change Etheria forever. But to better or worse? Only the gods knew the answer.
This day marked the beginning of Etheria's Angel of Death.