MTLNOVEL Chapter 33: Plundering An Auction
As Jack and his group continued to be led around the Dark Elf City Harganeth, they tried to enjoy the sights. That was almost impossible for anyone other than Jack because the city was weary all the time. He found it morbidly fascinating to see all the dark ways the Dark Elves could torture.
Plus, he was not a fan of Alfheim since it was almost always unnaturally bright. It went against his and Apophis' main affinity to Darkness and Shadows. As such, he didn't spend much time in this realm when he and his sworn brothers traveled through the Nine Realms.
However, the realm of the Druki was nothing like the rest of Alfheim. The realm was supposed to be bright, warm, and full of Life, but through the dark magic of the Dark Elves, their realm was the opposite.
Harganeth was freezing cold, there was a perpetual snowstorm, and the buildings were made of blackened metal, polished bone, and spider silk. Every building was covered in spikes, and impaled on those spikes were undying slaves.
They groaned in agony, some even screamed showing the cruelty of the Drukhi. As they were walking, Rossweisse began to tip-toe closer to Jack. Their guide, Nilkaunnic glanced over at her with a smile playing at his lips.
It was a sick thing as the Drukhi unlike other Dark Elves were far too pale. Their skin seemed almost chalk white and their eyes were just black, not unlike Jack's, but a sickly black rather than a deep one.
"Does our decorations scare you, Valkyrie?"
Rossweisse was about to speak when Jack placed his hand on her head. When she felt his touch she felt more calm, so Jack asked him directly.
"What is the story with the corpses? Seems highly inefficient to string up slaves like that without them dying."
Nilkaunnic smirked as he looked up at one of the buildings covered in them.
"That is how we punish particularly rebellious slaves. It serves as a warning to the others that death is far from the endpoint. They exist in that state of half-death until they decay. Even that is not a release as their souls will be collected and refined into Soul Stones. Those Stones will then be used in our Soul Furnaces.
Every part of the slaves has use. Their pain, their labor, their fear, even their deaths are worth something."
Jack looked across his group as Aya, Rossweisse, Akeno, Moka, Baldur, and even Ophis didn't seem amused. Ophis in particular glanced around the city with disdain. At first, he didn't want to bother with the city, but something began to rise.
Seeing his girls displeased made him displeased and he would need to do something about that soon.
"So, Nilkaunnic, what is the point of the slave's pain? You said their pain is valuable to you? How?"
Nilkaunnic didn't smile as he explained the next part.
"It is something unique to us, the Drukhi. We are unique among our kin the Dark Elves. We delved too far from the Light of Alfheim and embraced hedonism. We can feed on the pain of others to rejuvenate ourselves and empower ourselves. As we grow older, we become dependent on it to sustain ourselves.
If I stopped causing pain to others, I would begin to rapidly weaken until I would perish. Pain and suffering are the lifeblood of the Drukhi."
Rossweisse frowned as she heard that. If every Drukhi needed to cause pain and suffering just to live, what was the point of life? She also wanted to know one thing.
"Are you all just born like this, needing torture to live? Is that the case for when you are born?"
Nilkaunnic glanced at Ophis who was looking right at him. He stopped smiling before he honestly told them the truth.
"No. Drukhi who are born do not need to cause suffering, they are innocent. That innocence has to be broken very young. When they can, they are taught to love causing suffering. Breaking slaves is part of growing up. If you can't break slaves, you are broken and others break you. Eventually, they adapt and as time goes on they become Drukhi."
Jack nodded as he decided not to stick around anymore. He didn't need to show any mercy for these things. However, he decided to get this over with as he could tell, Rossweisse, Moka, Aya, and Akeno wanted to be as far away from here as possible.
"I think that will be all. Where is Hag Graef again?"
Nilkaunnic sighed as he knew that if he sent them that way they were going to pillage the auction. However, Ophis didn't even wait as she pointed her hand at his head, and instantly his thoughts were dragged out of his head.
When she got to the location, she nodded to herself.
"I got the location. Let's go see this auction and see what treasures we can get."
When Jack heard that, he paused as he looked at the girls around him one more time. They all seemed sick of being around these monsters so he decided to do something about it. Plus, he could tell Baldur was thinking the same thing.
"Baldur, my brother are you thinking what I am thinking?"
Baldur also looked toward him with a big smile.
"Jack, are you thinking what I am thinking?"
The two grinned before they smashed their fists against each other. When that happened, Akeno, Aya, Rossweisse, Inner, and Outer Moka all could tell where this was going. Even Ophis who was watching the whole thing had a smirk as she saw Jack and Baldur yell the same thing together.
"WAR TIME!"
Baldur spun around and still wearing his new gauntlets he punched straight through the head of Nilkaunnic, their guide. The Drukhi's head was punched straight off causing it to go flying through the city.
Jack then took a deep breath and unleashed a titanic blast of black corrosive fire throughout Harganeth. The flames instantly began to spread as the buildings of the Drukhi were extremely flammable.
Seeing that happen, made Aya extremely excited. She was glad that she could finally let loose her repulsion of these things.
"FUCK YEAH!"
She clenched her fist as an aura of crimson Touki and mana surged around her. She smashed her fist into the ground causing a wave of crimson energy to spread out which then detonated with extreme force.
It caused buildings and the earth to erupt in massive explosions. Mighty Detonation her Sacred Gear was perfect for mass devestation after all. Rossweisse and Akeno looked at each other with smiles as they began to carpet-bomb Harganeth without mercy with their magic.
[YES! BLOOD! MURDER! TAKE THIS CHANCE AND PLUNDER ALL THE TREASURE! FEED THE SOUL TO BRYNHILDR AND ME!]
Jack was about to revert to his true form, but before he did, Inner Moka took Outer's place. She walked toward Jack before pointing at her Rosary.
"Take this off, let me loose."
He smiled as he grabbed it and with a firm tug removed the rosary. When he did that, Inner's full aura as a Shinto Vampire was unleashed. Instantly, Moka was enveloped in a crimson-black aura which began to transform into gigantic bats that screeched and roared.
From her shadow emerged a swarm of rats, and dogs which were created through her Shinto Powers. Moka was without a doubt the strongest out of the girls as even without removing her rosary she could already reach Ultimate Class or S rank strength.
After four years of feeding on the highest quality blood from Jack, her aura surged higher and higher until it exceeded the Ultimate Class. Moka smiled exposing her fangs as she was glad to let loose.
"Summon household."
Under her order, her household began to spread through the streets. As they moved they began to put an end to the slaves that had been prevented from dying while freeing the ones who could be. At the same time, they began to massacre every single Drukhi they came across.
Blood, screams and pain began to flood the streets of Harganeth freely. Baldur who watched all this was going to make it even worse.
"HEIMDALL! SEND OUR BROTHERS!"
As he said that, a massive rainbow ray of light slammed into Harganeth. From the Bifrost portal, Thor, Vidar, Tyr, Hermod, and Hodr, the sons of Odin and Jack's sworn brothers. The only one not here was Heimdall as he was still the watchman.
When the five gods appeared, Jack greeted them all.
"Thor, Vidar, Tyr, Hermod, Hodr, welcome to the slaughter my brothers."
Baldur jumped next to Jack with a laugh and a smile as he gazed at their brothers.
"IT'S BEEN TOO LONG SINCE THE SEVEN OF US HAVE FOUGHT LIKE THIS! JOIN IN!"
Hodr, Baldur's twin looked just like him, only that he was born naturally blind. Didn't matter as he was the god of Darkness and Winter. He tapped his staff onto the ground causing black frost to begin to spread.
"Yes, it has, these disgusting parasites should have been purged long ago. Let's kill them all."
Thor ran a hand down his crimson-red beard.
"Agreed, there is no way I would miss all this skull cracking. Mjolnir needs her fill of blood."
Vidar began to tap his foot on the street as he watched the Rossweisse, Akeno, Moka, and Aya continue to ravage the city.
"We can do the greetings later, our brothers invited us to slaughter, let's get to it. Before the ladies take all the glory."
Thor, Tyr, Hermod, and Hodr all split up as they began to rush through the city, killing every single Drukhi they could get their hands on. Blood literally flowed through the city in rivers.
All the while Ophis took her sweet time as she pillaged the city for all its valuables. She helped free the slaves, who wept with joy. This would not end here as every single city in the Kingdom of the Drukhi would follow.
Eventually, Jack didn't even restrain himself as he reverted to his dragon form. He blasted the city with streams of fire and shadow burning entire sections of it. When he did that, Thor, Vidar, Tyr, Baldur, Hermod, and Hodr, followed his example and they let loose.
As Harganeth was ravaged and plundered, Odin who was informed of the actions Baldur took shook his head. He may be old, but he knew that the Drukhi would eventually pull all of Alfheim into a war.
As such, he did not try to stop his sons, far from it. When they finished with Harganeth, he was going to set his sons and his armies loose onto the entire Kingdom. In less than an hour, Harganeth which had once been one of the greatest cities in the Drukhi kingdom was nothing, but burning ashes and bodies.
Thor, Tyr, Vidar, Baldur, Hermod, Hodr, and Jack all sat down on an elevated pile of corpses of Drukhi. They were going to burn them all to make sure that the disgusting acts of the Drukhi never returned. They had plenty more cities to burn down, but they could come later.
Jack raised the drinking horn they were passing around. It was enchanted to contain nearly endless Mjod the strongest mead around. He drank and drank before he stopped.
"AHHH, that hit the spot."
His sworn brother laughed and cheered as he passed the horn over to Thor. Thor the strongest of them, slapped Baldur on the back causing Baldur to wince.
"Brother you did good to invite us to this. It has been far too long."
Baldur rubbed his back as Thor was really strong.
"What can I say, I saw that Jack was planning on doing something so I jumped in."
Jack smiled as he looked over to Rossweisse, Aya, Moka, and Akneo who all felt very happy to have been able to save thousands of slaves.
"I did it for them. I saw that they abhorred this place so I decided to do something about it."
Rossweisse began to tear up as she wiped her tears away.
"Jack, you did it for us?"
He nodded.
"Yeah, especially for you, my little Valkyrie"
Thor smiled as he saw that.
"Ah, love. Reminds me of my Sif."
Baldur also had his beloved.
"My Nanna is just as beautiful."
Tyr this time reached into his cloak and pulled out a picture of his wife, Zisa goddess of Harvest.
"I have to say brothers, my wife is more beautiful."
That did leave Vidar, Haldur, and Hodr as the only ones not married a bit annoyed. Here were Thor, Baldur, and Tyr bragging about their wives while they had no wives. Not to say they didn't have Demigod children, but still, not having a wife was annoying.
As for Jack, he just smiled as he looked at his brothers drinking and laughing. He eventually stood up and he stretched.
"Alright, this was fun, but I got another city to get to. I got an Auction to plunder."
When he said that, he saw that his sworn brothers all began to smile.
Thor, Vidar, Tyr, Haldur, Hodr, and Baldur all stood up. Thor even rested his giant hand on his shoulder.
"Your going to raid another city and keep it to yourself?"
Vidar shook his head.
"Shame, and leave us out of it?"
Tyr raised an eyebrow as well as he pushed him for information.
"True, what are brothers for than to share in their glories."
Haldur and Hodr also joined in which made Jack grin.
"Bring it in, group hug."
He spread his arms around and instantly all seven of them shared a massive brotherly group hug.
"TO WAR!"
Ophis who watched the whole thing smiled. She glanced over at Akeno, Aya, Moka who still had her rosary off, and Rossweisse who were watching the conversation taking place. The girls were smiling as well as they moved Jack being happy and being with his sworn brothers made him happy.
Ophis who had watched all this smiled to herself.
'I wonder what other fun events Jack will show me.'
(If you are wondering why I stopped uploading for this fanfic, I was not by choice. Not really. During the months of November and December, I received a very bad case of seasonal depression that nearly killed my joy for writing.
Now that the new year is here, I am here once more and I plan to continue this story. Jack is back and here to stay Constantine should return as well.)