Soulforge Legacy Series

The fabric seat wasn’t what I would call comfortable. Especially with my two tails. You would think that the designers would have considered the issue given how many people had the damned things. But they didn’t.

Sure, I could spend a bit of mana and shift into my human form, but I didn’t want to. Actually, want isn’t quite right. It only explained half my issues. The other half had to do with how much it muffled everything. Every one of my senses was dulled. Senses that I had grown used to.

It would be like putting on a pair of noise canceling earphones and blocking your nose. People dealt with those issues all the time, but that didn’t mean they wanted to. Especially when they needed to communicate something.

Which left me wiggling around to try and figure out a good position. One that I could live with for however far we had to go.

“So,” Xander broke the silence as he started the truck. Slowly maneuvering it down the hill and away from the city. “Did you learn your lesson?”

“What lesson is that?”

The glare he shot me asked me if I was serious. Still, he answered the question. “That, whenever you enter the town, the first thing you do is register it as your spawn point.”

Ah, well, he wasn’t wrong. And I should have known better. Still, how was I to know that would be an issue. The respawn system changed from game to game, system to system. Most of them simply required you to enter the city or even sleep in a bed.

“And the respawn point in Gravepoint is?”

“There are quite a few churches to choose from.” Of course there was. What was a human city without competing religions. At least none of the groups required anyone to attend. Or, at least I hoped that was the case. “There is even a small altar in the main guild building.”

“Fine, I will deal with that when we get back.”

“Ah, about that.” Oh, what now? “I am afraid that the council is demanding your presence.”

“Again!” I let out a groan. “What did I do this time? Oh wait, let me guess, I wasn’t allowed to leave the city without their permission. Or is it that I died too soon for their investigators to force me to say what they wanted.”

The look he shot me shut me up. “There are a few charges being lobbied against you.” Oh, yay. “Evading arrest.” When did I do that? “Escaping custody.”

I guess dying was a form of escape. That being said, it wasn’t my fault I had died. I wasn’t the one that shoved a needle or two into my brain and turned it into soup. It felt like someone was stretching for any and every reason to get me under their thumb.

“Entering a lower-level region without permission.” That was the one they got Xander with the last time he had helped me. And while they had given him what amounted to a slap on the wrist, he did something they wanted. Had been where they wanted. Been under their control, even if only for a short period.

So what would they do to me. To someone without any real connections. And why did they want me? Surely there were better options.

As though he could hear my thoughts, he spoke. “Believe it or not, I doubt that most of that will stick. And what does will be minor.”

Unlike what he had probably intended, his words emphasized my worry. Brought forth the pessimist in me. And she pointed out all the recent issues. “You didn’t see what they did. How far they were willing to go to break me. To get me to agree to whatever they were saying. To confess to things I had no part in.”

“And those things will be brought up in your trial.” I laughed at his words. Trial. Right. Like such a thing would be allowed to happen.

Sure most places and countries had such a system, but most of them had their outcomes predetermined before the trial was even scheduled. Even the USA, which claimed to presume innocence until proven guilty, was guilty of this.

And this was only made worse when the rich and powerful came out to play. Get in their way and you might not even make it to trial. Or pay the right people and you might never even see the inside of a cell.

Just look at all the CEOs who had made decisions that killed countless people. Or those convicted of white-collar crimes. How many of them got away with a slap on the wrist?

Considering everything that had been happening I wasn’t going to enjoy such treatment. If anything I would be used as a scapegoat for whatever was going on. For whoever was really doing the killing.

We sat in silence for quite a while before the silence was broken again. This time by me. “So, where are we taking everyone?”

“Back to the city.” This guy was fucking annoying at times. Especially when his grin gave away that he knew what I was asking and was doing this on purpose.

“Which city?”

“Lunaris,” The random motions his right hand moved in told me that he was trying to think up a way to explain something.

It was a motion that reminded me of the times he tried to explain some concept or what he wanted me to do to a part. Seeing it made me almost wish to go back to such a simpler time. To when fighting wasn’t a part of my life.

And who knows, maybe I could ask for the gods to allow me to go back. To rewind time and let me live through that time once more.

“The city serves as the capital for the Beastkin.” His words broke me out of my memories.

“Wait, wouldn’t that mean that we are leaving…” I stopped for a moment as I realized I didn’t even know what the name of this nation was. “This nation and taking their citizens into another country?”

“We are in the Keldonian Empire and not really.” After a deep breath, he started to explain some of this worlds geopolitical shit. It wasn’t simple. More so than I thought it should be. Still, it had nothing on Earth.

Basically there were a multitude of separate nation states. Each ruled their populace but only at the behest of the Empire. The only exception was the city of Gravepoint and that was only because we were not from this world and there was no way for them to force us to listen.

Apparently they tried to threaten us but that was hard to do when we just kept coming back. Sure they could station people in every city, but how long would that truly work? Especially when we humans were really good at breaking shit. Put us in a corner and we became masters at it.

There were apparently some threats of mass destruction spells that finally had the Emperor relenting so long as we followed an agreement. One that we had both technically broken at different times by entering the low-level region without permission.

Still, even with the peace, there were those that thought it was only temporary. That the two sides were gearing up for a battle that neither side would win. A cold war of sorts. Though, with the threat of the demons, the two sides might be forced to join forces against the more powerful enemy.

Yeah, I laughed at the idea the moment I thought it. Even if the two sides joined forces, the moment one found an opening, they would take it. I don’t know if it was a coincidence or if some god was fucking with me, but my laugh happened just as we crested a hill.

A horde of monsters filled the valley on the other side. Bunnies, boars, wolves, spiders. Every monster I could think of appeared before me.

As with every other truck I had ever seen or heard in a movie, ours was not quiet. Every eye in the valley turned toward the noise. As one their eyes locked onto ours. Then they charged.

Neither of us had time to get out of the vehicle before they were on us. Blades sliced through monster flesh nearly as easily as it did through the air. Still, no matter how many monsters we killed, we were no closer to getting to the back of the truck. Even as people screamed, cried, yelled, neither of us were gaining any ground.

Then the yelling shifted. It came not from the back of the truck but from next to me. My head turned just in time to watch Xander fight off one spider only for a giant wolf to come up behind him. Maw snapping closed around his throat.

Blood spray formed an arc that stretched over the truck. Then something near me snapped. It sounded like one of those mouse traps, only I doubted they felt as warm or moist. Then I was falling .

My eyes snapped open, searching for the monsters. For the creatures that were about to kill everyone. Only there was nothing there.

I was still in a much darker cab. The only light came from the headlights and whatever dials were on the dash in front of Xander.

“Good,” Xander sounded weary. “I was wondering if I was going to have to wake you up or not. See if you can find a decent camping spot.” With a nod I kept an eye out while attempting to bring my heart rate back down.

Where did that nightmare come from? Was it my brain fearing my failure or something else? On top of that, when the hell did I fall asleep? Especially as one or both of my tails were constantly being pinched by the back of the seat.

I just had to hope that this was a one-time thing. If not, I was going to have a few issues. Though, for now those issues didn’t matter. Those were problems for future me to deal with. The current me needed to focus on finding a place to camp out.