Chapter 715: Some Words
Garrick was completely stunned. He slowly pushed himself up to his feet keeping his massive hands visible and nonthreatening.
"VoidClaw?" Garrick whispered, his voice filled with disbelief. He had never met the man before but knew of his description.
He stared at the legendary warrior. His mind raced, trying to connect the dots of this bizarre situation. He first tried to think of any reason that VoidClaw might be looking for him. Did he offend him in any way before? The answer was no. He thought about his own humiliating capture and the terrifying power of the woman who had defeated him.
"Did that damn fierce woman and her group manage to trap you into helping this kid as well?!" Garrick asked carefully. He truly believed that only someone with that level of absurd physical strength could possibly force a being like VoidClaw into service.
Khaos looked at him as if he were an idiot.
"No Garrick." Khaos answered. "They are certainly not good enough for that. I am here entirely on my own accord. But they were clearly good enough to capture you and stuff you under a rock."
Garrick wanted to scoff loudly and defend his honor. His pride demanded that he shout and boast about his legendary skills. But his survival instincts completely overrode his arrogance. He was acting very polite and incredibly cautious in front of Khaos. He knew perfectly well that the muscular man standing in front of him could beat him at his full strength.
"I was cheated!" Garrick muttered while rubbing the back of his thick neck. He looked away avoiding direct eye contact. "I was tricked by those older and craftier people. They set up traps and cowardly formations. It was an absolute injustice. I was entirely captured by their deceit."
Khaos simply raised a single perfect eyebrow and waited. The silence in the realm grew incredibly heavy.
Garrick shifted his weight from foot to foot. He simply could not maintain the lie when faced with someone who truly understood the heights of power. The heavy restriction of the golden seal pulsed against his foundation, reminding him of exactly how he got here.
He spilled the beans completely abandoning his excuses.
"Fine, I’ll admit the truth." Garrick groaned while shaking his head in awe. "But you have to understand, that woman can be so damn fierce and unbelievably strong. I have fought across countless sectors and I have never experienced anything like it. What kind of woman has a body that powerful? Her physical strength is completely absurd. It defies all logic and reason. She hit me so hard my ancestors felt it."
Khaos laughed, a sound of genuine amusement.
"That sounds about right," Khaos agreed while folding his muscular arms over his chest. "She has always been known for her rather… direct methods of resolving conflicts. She does not waste time with formations if her fists can do the job faster."
Khaos looked at Garrick and his eyes softened slightly with a hint of nostalgia.
"I have heard of you before, Garrick," Khaos continued. "I heard many tales of your early days roaming. You fought absolutely everyone you could find. You were always actively looking for challengers to prove your might and your combat abilities. You never backed down from a brawl, no matter how massive the opponent was."
Khaos offered a nod of genuine respect. "And you are probably right about your grand title. At that same age, very few beings in existence were your true opponents. Your physical foundation is a marvel."
Garrick brightened up immediately at the immense praise Khaos was throwing at him. Hearing such incredible validation from one of the most feared and respected warriors was a massive boost to his shattered ego. His metallic skin flushed with pride and he puffed out his chest. He was standing a little taller on the pale stone.
"I was unstoppable!" Garrick agreed with a wide confident grin. "No one could pierce my defense! I was a walking force of pure destruction!"
However, the moment of triumphant pride was incredibly short lived. Khaos narrowed his eyes and his tone instantly shifted from nostalgic praise, to a sharp cold reprimand.
"However." Khaos scolded. "You were far too stupid to do anything else but fight. You relied entirely on your raw durability and never bothered to cultivate your mind or your wisdom. You let your arrogance and your desires dictate your path completely. And that sheer stupidity is exactly what eventually led you to your fate now."
The sharp words hit Garrick harder than the combined blast from the two Demon Lords earlier that day.
Garrick completely lost his pride once again. His chest deflated and his shoulders slumped heavily in defeat. He knew Khaos was right. He had never bothered to learn strategy or caution. He just punched things until they stopped moving and assumed that method would always work.
He let out a long miserable sigh and sat down heavily on the pale stone floor. He crossed his thick legs.
"I suppose that is how things go," Garrick admitted, his voice quiet and completely defeated. "A few wrong choices or a bit of bad luck and someone ends up exactly like how I am now. Trapped and bound. The worst part is that she limits my power! I tried to show off against two weakling Demon Lords today and I was blasted into a forest because I am restricted to the power ceiling of this lower realm! It is humiliating!"
Khaos chuckled softly. "She did that to protect the boy's journey. If she let you walk around with your full strength, the boy would never learn a single thing. He needs a shield to survive the extreme, not a weapon that ends every conflict before it begins."
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"He does not need a shield!" Garrick complained. He was waving his massive arms. "He has a soul that scares the living daylights out of me! An old man in a straw hat showed up and my instincts completely shattered. I fell to my knees and begged for mercy!"
"Ah so you met it already." Khaos noted with a knowing smile. "You are incredibly lucky he was in a peaceful mood today. If he actually decided to cast his line, you would not be sitting here and complaining right now."
Garrick shuddered visibly. The reminder of that terrifying soul made his metallic skin crawl.
"But I suppose I should look at the bright side" Garrick continued trying to find a silver lining in his miserable existence. "At least that fierce woman was not entirely unreasonable. I only have to serve the kid for five hundred years. When you really think about it, that is not too bad for someone like me. Five hundred years is just a short nap. I can do my time and walk away free."
Khaos nodded his handsome face, reflecting a deep understanding of the situation.
"I completely agree," Khaos said. "That is actually quite nice of her. It is incredibly rare. Normally she would absolutely never give an out condition like that to an enemy. She is not exactly known for her mercy or her patience. Usually she just erases the problem entirely."
Garrick let out a loud bitter laugh. He leaned back, resting his weight on his hands.
"Well, this entire situation is entirely because of my big mouth and my total lack of restraint," Garrick confessed, deciding to just lay all his embarrassing secrets out on the table. "I completely brought this upon myself."
Khaos tilted his head slightly, clearly interested in the exact details of the beast's downfall. "Oh? Do tell."
"I had been chasing after her for a long time. I just so happened to meet her again." Garrick explained, his face flushing with embarrassment once again. "I saw her once fighting and I was completely mesmerized by her power and her fierce beauty. Thanks to my dragon blood I am a terrible skirt chaser and can’t stop my own instincts."
He shook his head at his own stupidity.
"I finally had the good luck of running into her again," Garrick continued. "I stepped right up to her and tried my chances. I offered her the world. But she just looked at me and told me to leave because she was married. She gave me a very clear warning to walk away."
Garrick slammed his fist against the pale stone.
"But I did not listen!" Garrick groaned. "I still decided to chase her. I thought the husband was just an excuse or a challenge. I pushed my luck and I opened my big mouth. And the very next second I got completely beaten up. It was not even a real fight. It was a one sided massacre. That is how I ended up trapped under that damn mountain."
Khaos laughed. He found the idiotic bravery of the beast hilarious.
"You were such a colossal fool!" Khaos laughed. "To approach her like that and completely ignore her warning takes a special kind of suicidal bravery."
Khaos slowly stopped laughing and looked at the sitting beast with a knowing smile.
"But look on the bright side." Khaos followed up his tone shifting into something far more dangerous. "If you truly like her that much and respect her power, then you certainly will not mind guarding her son for five hundred years."
The words hung in the silent air for a long, heavy moment.
Garrick froze completely. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his jaw dropped open. His mind completely stopped processing information as the reality shifting implication of those words finally crashed into his brain.
He stared at the ancient sect leader in terror.
"Her son?!" Garrick yelled, his voice cracking violently. He scrambled backward on the pale stone looking like he had just been struck by lightning. "She has a son?! No one knows that! At least I certainly did not know she had a child! I thought I was just guarding some random human she decided to bless!"
Khaos smiled a very cold calculating smile. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them.
"It is quite the secret," Khaos said softly, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Very few beings know the truth of his lineage. And now you are one of them. I highly suggest that you do a good job protecting him. Because if you fail or if you let any harm come to him she will find out. And she will come back and kill you herself."
Garrick gulped loudly. The terror of facing that fierce woman again made his metallic skin turn completely pale. He realized exactly what kind of terrifying monster he was currently bound to.
"My life is already tied to his for these five hundred years anyway." Garrick told Khaos. "The golden seal etched it directly into my soul. If he dies I die instantly. I literally have no choice but to protect him with everything I have."
Khaos let out a soft satisfied hum. "That sounds exactly right. She is always incredibly thorough with her bindings."
Khaos paused and looked at Garrick with a very serious focused expression.
"Now, tell me." Khaos asked, his tone suddenly completely professional. "Did the woman have any message for me before she dropped the mountain and sent you here?"
Garrick frantically shook his head side to side. "No! Absolutely no message! She did not say a single word about you or anyone else. She just beat me to a pulp, dropped the rock and left!"
Khaos stood silently on the pale stone and thought about it for a bit. He analyzed the lack of a message and the sudden aggressive delivery of the beast. He deduced that this was something that happened by chance.
Li Yu’s mother must have gotten the information from his own wife, information about Li Yu’s life that Li Yu shared with them in that hidden village. Then through pure chance Garrick shows up and she decides on this. She clearly broke some rules by sending Garrick here but it’s not enough to cause anyone to take action.
"Very well," Khaos said. He looked down at the man. "Do a good job Garrick. Keep the boy safe."
Before Garrick could even nod in agreement, Khaos casually raised his hand and executed a flawless palm strike. The invisible force of the strike hit Garrick directly in the chest. It did not hurt him but it carried a terrifying amount of spatial authority. The strike instantly blasted him completely out of the isolated realm.
The pale stone vanished. The void rushed past him and the heavy sulfur scented air of the Capital slammed back into his lungs.
Garrick crashed violently onto the tiles of the upper palace roof rolling several times before finally coming to a halt. He laid flat on his back, breathing heavily and staring up at the glowing moons.
His heart was pounding furiously against his ribs. The sheer amount of stress he had experienced in the last few minutes was completely overwhelming.
He thought to himself as he laid on the warm tiles, feeling incredibly suffocated by his new reality. He was permanently bound to the son of a terrifying woman. He was serving a boy who possessed a soul that was too terrifying. And now there was a legendary warrior hovering in the shadows watching his every move, also terrifying. His situation was simply terrifying. Not the forces he faced but his very own forces.
'Why in the world is a scary being like VoidClaw hanging around here too?' Garrick wondered desperately while rubbing his temples. 'What kind of cosmic nightmare did I just get myself dragged into?'