Chapter 27: Monster of a father

With the goblins taken care of, the next thing was to find the nest. They headed into the forest under the veil of night, moving carefully as they tracked down the nest.

Snow used her nose because, for some reason, there was a strong smell of blood that followed. After what seemed like a few minutes of walking, they came to a cave in the forest.

"This is the place," Snow said.

"We are going to need some light," Roger said. Leon nodded and made a flame on his palm. They walked into the cave, the darkness enveloping them, the only light coming from Leon’s flame.

"Seems there are some torches on the wall," Snow pointed out.

"Yeah, weird for a goblin cave to have that," Roger replied.

Leon used wind magic to fly above ground and began to light up all the torches until they got to a large chamber at the end of the cave tunnel.

The moment they entered, they were hit by a pungent smell, the smell of rot and waste. They looked around, and what they saw stunned them, making them gag.

Human and goblin flesh littered the floor, some covered in flies and worms, a whole grotesque scene.

Roger looked at the two of them to ensure that they were fine, and then he turned his attention back to the scene that was in front.

They all noticed that there was a large black cloak covering something in the chamber, which stood easily at eight feet tall.

"What’s that?" Leon asked.

"It’s clear that Micah was up to something here," Roger muttered and headed toward the cloak.

"Let’s see what sort of evil he was doing here," he said and pulled down the cloak. The reveal stunned them all.

They looked with wide eyes.

Standing there was a massive grotesque monster, eight feet tall. Its body was made of mismatched, mutated parts of goblins and humans, sewn together with threads. Blood and other liquid seeped through the seams and dripped down.

The body was not the worst part of it, but rather the head. It was the head of a young boy, his eyes were sewn shut, blood dripping from the eyes.

"What sort of monster would do something like this?" Roger asked as he backed away, his breathing getting heavy.

Leon stared at the monster until he spotted a mark engraved right into the head of this creature. It was the same tattoo that he had found on one man that had first blocked them when they had become adventurers.

’It’s the same, does that man have some sort of relation with this...’

His thoughts were halfway through when suddenly the creature let out a horrendous scream that shook the cave. It pulled itself forward, and the chains wrapped around its arms and legs slammed against the walls and tried to stop it. Blood spilled from the seams again.

All of them stepped back in fear when it happened, Roger already reaching for his blade.

"Why, daddy, why??????" The creature suddenly cried in the voice of a child. It slammed harder to break the chains. It began to cry, tears of blood streaming down its face.

"Daddy, it hurts, it hurrrrrrrrts!" He screamed and pulled even more.

"It can’t be," Leon muttered.

"You bastard used his son," Roger completed what all of them were thinking.

"Monster," Snow muttered.

They all stared at it. This boy was used as part of this chimera, this monster, by his very own father.

"How can someone be so heartless?" Roger asked.

"What do we do now?" Snow asked.

"We put him out of his pain and misery," Leon said and pulled his wand.

Roger looked at him and then used his sword to bring Leon’s wand down.

"I agree with you, but you do not want the tears of a kid on your mind as you grow older. I’ll handle it," he said and then turned to look at the creature. He gripped his sword calmly and approached it.

He stood before the crying creature as it screamed about his father even more.

"I’m sorry, kid," Roger said and moved to attack, but the chain that was holding the creature’s hand snapped and came swinging along with the hand. Roger saw it and reacted fast. His sword blocked the chain, and he was blasted back hard into the wall at crazy speed. Roger slammed into the wall hard.

The creature let out a deafening roar and went after Roger, snapping all the chains from the wall.

Leon moved fast. He cast an ice spell that created ice around the feet of the creature. The ice kept growing until it climbed up to his knees and stopped it from moving.

The creature kept pushing until the ice started cracking, but Leon had bought enough time for Roger to move. Roger got on his feet and grabbed his sword. He took a stance and got ready to attack. He shut his eyes for a second, and for the first time since Leon knew him, he channeled his mana.

A soft, warm glow emanated from Roger. It grew in size rapidly, and then he compressed it again. Roger looked up and then dashed. The creature broke out of the ice and went for a full-on swing. Roger dodged the first hand, and then the second. He leaped into the air and got into eye level with the creature, pulled his hand back and went for the attack. A clean slash landed and decapitated the creature.

The head of the kid hit the door, and the body of the monster followed soon after.

Roger landed on the ground. He looked at the kid’s head and saw that the blood tears had stopped, only replaced by real tears that had been shed at the last moment. He picked up the head. They would give him a proper burial.

"Let’s go," Roger said. Snow followed behind him, and Leon moved too, but before Leon left, he spotted something under a corpse. A book. He reached for it and pulled it out, a hard-covered, rough book with a skull lock on it.