"No, not my mother, no!"
"Hahaha, Look carefully while he kills her."
A demon said while holding David's head to make him see another killing his mother. Then he heard his younger sister crying with her face full of tears. She looked at him and shouted, "Run, David!"
David wanted to say, 'How could I run while he is holding me.' but he couldn't. He just wanted to help his mother and sister, but he couldn't.
Ultimately, he watched helplessly his mother and younger sister be killed. He looked at the demons with hatred and anger. When the demon holding him saw his rage, he laughed loudly and said, "Kekeke, oh boy, I love those eyes. Despair more, weakling."
Another demon said while preparing something like a magic circle on some kind of paper with the blood of his mother, "Zarph, don't push him too much." He paused for a second and continued, "We need him alive to turn him into a slave."
"Tsh. I wanted to torture him, but you told me not to ruin the goods, and now you are ruining my fun time."
"You know that they are not like the humans from our world. They lived in peace." he turned his head, "Look at him." The demon said while pointing at David.
Zarph lowered his head and saw a fainting David with a face full of tears and snot. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Weak," he said while throwing David on the floor, "Va'feir, How much time do you need? I can't wait to return and f*ck some succubus bi*ches."
"Three, two, one, and finished. Bring him to me."
Va'feir walked closer to David and put the magic circle on David's forehead, only then did the magic parchment glow then convert into a black beam which got into David's forehead. After a few breaths the glow subdued and a black chain-like mark appeared on his neck.
...
Months later, David adapted to his life as a slave. He found others like him when he was working in the library. David was weak physically, but because of his innate talent, which was the power of illusion, and his good memory, he started working in the library.
He started working with the other slaves, and because of a loophole in the magic circle, he started smuggling critical information to the nearest human settlement.
Years passed in the blink of an eye, and David lost the anger and hatred in his eyes, and only calmness was shown. He traveled as a slave from place to place, with demons, dwarfs, elves, and beastmen. He saw and met thousands of people, there were only some emotions that were shared with most of them. Hatred, irritation, disappointment, despair, and sadness were the emotions he could see in their eyes. 'Why' he thought, 'You are the ones who conquered our lands, then why are you pitying us? why are you sad? why?'.
One day, He asked his master in confusion, "Why are the emotions most shared among the different species hatred, irritation, disappointment, despair, and sadness?"
She said while making herself a cup of tea, "You have good eyes, and that is a good question.".
She then sat on the other side of the table and said with a sigh, "Hah. Where should I begin? Hm. let's begin with hatred. hatred because of the 'Creatures' that invaded our planet and killed our families. irritation and disappointment in ourselves and the people we called once heroes or our hope but couldn't do anything in front of the 'Creatures'."
She paused a little for him to digest what she said. Then continued with a sorrowful low tone, "Despair and sadness because we had to move from ower homes, our lands, and our planet while watching our families' corpses in the ground that we couldn't bury in the ground because of our fear."
David turned silent for a while, then said," I am sorry to hear that. I didn't know that you had been through a lot. But that doesn't change the reality where you killed our people and conquered our land. You turned our planet into a chaotic battlefield with wars everywhere."
"Hahaha, I didn't ask you to forgive us. I know that you would never forgive us."
After saying that, the room turned silent. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the old elf taking a sip from her tea with a thoughtful look on her face.
A moment later, she asked him the question, which was in his head in the 30 years of slavery, "Don't you want to know where are the humans of my world?"
David nodded with a serious look on his face focusing all his attention on what the old elf wanted to say, then he heard her,
"Dead."
"...What?!" David shouted, "How? W-why? A-all of them?"
"Sigh, what I will tell you shouldn't be said to any of the humans on this planet because 'cornered rat will bite the cat' or that's what you say on your planet."
She continued, "Listen carefully. The 'Creatures' in the first stage seal the space and suck the vitality of the humans. In the second stage, they would unseal the space again and go after the other species."
"Why the humans?" he inquired while fear was evident in his eyes.
"Because humans are special. While elves could only make contracts with the spirits from the spirit world and borrow their powers with the plants and air magic, dwarfs could only cultivate their bodies and use earth and metal magic, demons could use magic based on their species such as charm demons use charm magic ..atc. Humans, on the other hand, can use any form of magic or could cultivate their bodies, and some special humans have innate talents or special physics. Do you understand now?"
David nodded with a bewildering look then asked, "I've read about the 'Creatures' and their weakness but why couldn't I found about the human part?"
"...Because the alliance of the Klamor world decided not to write anything about it to not alert the humans of this world or what is called the Gaia world, and it is an unspoken rule that no one mentions that. Ever."
"Then why are you telling me?"
David saw the old elf's facial expression change into a melancholic look and waited for her to answer. a few seconds later she opened he mouth and said, "beac-"
Knock. Knock. Knock
"Lady Olivia, It's time."
"...Okay, Sasha. Come in." she said, then looked at David and said, "Follow her. You will know your answer."
After that, David stood up and followed the maid Sasha, and before he could leave the room he heard, "I wish we could have met in a better condition."
When he heard that, he turned around and took a deep look at the old elf. Although she was old, that didn't mean she was ugly or looked old by any means. With the beauty of the elves, she had golden blonde hair, fair white skin, and a beautiful body with fat in the places that it should be. She had beautiful, deep emerald eyes on the mesmerizing face of a middle-aged woman.
'Why do I feel like it's the last time I will see her?' he thought while leaving the tree house where he was.
While following the maid, he looked at the settlement of the elves. they were living in the middle of the woods. With their plant's magic, the elves had strengthened the trees and built treehouses, and wooden bridges up above the trees.
After ten minutes, David and the maid were far from the settlement. The maid stopped and started to speak while turning around, "David Black, The slave of Lady Olivia, the head of the Wood Elves tribe. With the authority given to me by Lady Olivia, I will execute you for smuggling classified information and treason. Do you have any last words"
"...Sigh, so you found out." he said with a sigh and calm voice, "Can you tell me, How did you know?"
"The human settlement that you were transmitting the information to, came to us a week ago to ask us to take them under our protection."
"Pffthahaha. All these years, I was giving information to some idiots. I even gave them a way for humans to cultivate and what did they do in the end. Building their kingdoms and slave their people. Drunk with their power, and forget the invaders? Sigh, I am sad I couldn't tell them about the true danger, but alas."
He then looked at the maid and told her, "Do what you ought to do, Sasha. It was nice working with you."
Sasha looked at the middle age man in front of her with sadness and pity for a second, and then as a professional maid returned to her expressionless face and whispered, "It was nice working with you too, old man"
He wanted to say, like always, 'I am not an old man. I am in my fifties.' but he didn't and looked at her with a sad smile, while she was aiming her dagger at his heart.
After Sasha stapped his heart she left afterward without saying anything.
While his consciousness was fading, he felt something in his hands. He looked at it and found an envelope which had the words {From The Past}.