Chapter 297: In Plain Sight

"Pretend to hate you? Do those people you trapped really despise you that much?"

"I gave them a false hope of leaving a place they thought they were trapped in for all eternity. If I were in their shoes, I would be beyond seething. Not even to mention the jester is extremely mentally unstable while the queen simply has a bad attitude."

Pelo nodded his head as they all continued to walk.

"I see. I will do what I can to try and talk them out of harming you. From what it sounds like, you wouldn’t survive this trip back even if you made it."

Enki remained silent while Pelo glared at him, hoping to see some sort of denial from his claim. However, the denial never came, confirming his suspicion. Enki knew there was little to no chance of him surviving this trip, yet he still offered refuge for all of Paria. His actions filled Pelo with a newfound respect for the old man. Pelo looked forward with a determined glare in his eye.

"I can talk them out of it. I won’t say I’m friends with you, but I will still try my best to convince them to keep you alive. Afterall, you’re the only one who can get them out of that place, right? So, killing you would all but mean they are truly trapped for good."

"Boss..."

Enki refused to say a word. He simply kept leading the group in the direction of Chrono Kingdom while keeping a lookout for any monsters that may come about.

Days of travel had passed. Everyone sat around a small fire enjoying each other’s company. All of them ate a small bit of venison from a deer Enki managed to catch with a trap.

"Did my son teach you how to make that trap?"

Enki nodded his head.

"He was the handiest person I’ve ever met in my hundreds of years being alive. Truly a one in a million man. I hope he is doing okay."

Pelo grinned wildly after taking a large bite of his meat.

"He’s more than okay. He’s always had a funny way of surviving the impossible. Trust me, I probably know that better than anyone."

Lin’s two kids were leaning on her with tired expressions.

"How more do we have to walk, mom? My feet hurt so much."

Lin rubbed the little kid’s head.

"Sit down and eat your food. It won’t be much longer. We can all take turns carrying you boys again, okay?"

"Okay, mama."

Enki raised his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet. Pelo looked at his gesture confused. He whispered over to Enki.

"What is it? Do you hear something?"

Enki quickly stood up and doused the fire without saying a word. He grabbed all the meat that everyone had left over and tossed it as far as he could from them before frantically whispering to them to get down as low as possible.

"Don’t make a single sound until they’re gone. There’s too many of them."

Without arguing, everyone dropped themselves to the ground. Lin smothered both of her boys into her body as they shook in fear. Just then, a wave of sound began to crash over them. Thousands of chaotic screams howling from miles away, slowly growing louder with each passing second.

Suddenly, the creatures making the sounds made themselves known. Hundreds of them broke through the clearing surrounding everyone. Each one roaring while running over their campsite. Pelo knew that a calamity like no other was bound to happen, but for the first time since they started travelling, he got to see the dreadful fate of humanity firsthand. Each beast savagely searching for any sign of prey to feast on while climbing over its comrades.

Three hours of constant waves of creatures later, it was finally over. They had passed. Enki slowly stood up and looked around before whispering to the others.

"They are finally all gone. They will be back. We need to hurry."

As Pelo looked at the destruction left behind by the corrupted beasts, he felt sick to his stomach. The grass had turned a dull grey, the trees were completely uprooted and broken into dozens of pieces, and black blood puddled itself in deep holes here and there. The environment around them had been completely changed.

"Those beasts... where did they all come from?!"

Lin was busy comforting her kids.

"It’s okay boys. We’re all going to be okay. Enki saved us from the scary monsters."

Enki shook his head without answering Pelo’s question.

"Let’s hurry."

Without taking much time to gather themselves, they continued their journey onward. The terrain was identical everywhere they went. Anything that was once brimming with life was now decaying or dying, large rocks and hills had been flattened from the stampede, and there wasn’t a single life anywhere to be detected. Finding food became an impossible task.

Another three hours passed before Lin began speaking to Enki again.

"Boss, I know this is a bad question to ask, but... are we going to die?"

Enki remained silent, but he stopped walking.

"You knew the risks, Lin."

"I know, but it’s just... it feels like we’re going to die of natural causes from such a scarcity of resources. I never expected that to be a danger as well."

"Indeed. I thought that way too once, but that was before I met my friends. You can thank them that we have even managed to make it this far."

Pelo’s eyes looked grim as he stared off into the distance.

"This terrain hasn’t changed for hours. I hope I don’t offend you, Enki, but does this place really exist?"

Suddenly, an obnoxious laugh started coming from where Enki was. Pelo suddenly felt a little creeped out at his strange reaction to such a question and tried taking it back.

"S-Sorry, I’m not trying to say I doubt you, we’ve just been travelling so long and-"

The laugh grew even louder and more obnoxious than before. It sounded like Enki was having an episode of some sort. Pelo straightened himself and called out to Enki again.

"Stop laughing like that, it’s creeping me out!"

Enki turned around as the laughing continued with a straight face.

"I’m not the one laughing."

Suddenly, a man appeared in front of Enki from thin air. His facial expression was anything but normal. His face crinkled as a wide, devilish smile appeared. His hands were thin like an old man, yet his puffy clothes made him look much larger than he was. Through gritted teeth, the strange man spoke inches from Enki’s expressionless face.

"My... my, my, MY, MY, MY!!! AHAHA! Oh, my! Are YOU who I THINK to be?!! AHAHAHA!"

Pelo felt a chill run down his spine with every word escaping the man’s mouth. This person was far beyond normal. It was clear something was wrong with him.

"How could I leave you here forever when my shop is here? You must have been eager for my arrival to come so far away from the kingdom. Are you not afraid of the barrier?"

The creepy man started clawing his own hands, making them bleed.

"Barrier, barrier, barrier?! Oh, YES!! I REMEBER THAT THING!! You mean our prison bars?! OUR ENSLAVER?! Oh, MY Enki we have SO MUCH TO DISCUSS HAHA!!"

He looked over at the Lin while licking his lips.

"You even brought me a meal?! YOU ARE TOO KIND ENKI!!"

Enki’s eyes dimmed.

"Go ahead and try. Their enchantment I put on them will kill you before you can finish your first bite."

The creepy man smiled even wider and drooped his while clapping his hands together.

"You promise?"

Another creepy chuckle escaped through his teeth.

"You don’t even try to act normal anymore, do you Pops?"

"Normal?! HAHAHA! NORMAL YOU SAY?! WHO IS REALLY THE CRAZY ONE HERE, HUH?! YOU USED US TO ESCAPE; WE PUT OUR FAITH IN YOU BUT YOU THREW IT IN THE TRASH!! If anything... no, no, no, you don’t get to say ANYTHING is crazy, you hear me?! Look around you, Enki!! My, my, oh my Enki, my dearest most wonderful... ahh... the kids may want to cover their ears for the words I have been aching and itching to tell you!!"

Enki remained firm as Pops continued screaming in his face crazily.

"I find it very unfortunate the calamity didn’t wipe you out. I would have rather found a guardian trapped in here than see you and that queen again."

"Guardian! OH MY, OH MY, MY DEAR ENKI YES!! Yes... they came. Oh, they came, Enki. Hoardes upon hordes of monsters, leviathans, guardians oh YES! THEY ALL CAME HERE ENKI THEY DID!!! And yet... oh, and yet... look at me!! I am still moving! I’m still in one piece! WHAT OF THE QUEEN?! SHE LIVES TOO!! THE LIVIATHAN... yes, the leviathan. Oh, it has grown so much! That poor thing you left all alone with us to care for it. You see, it didn’t like having a scarcity of food, so we made sure it was plenty fed with better meals than humans. OH YES, THE LEVIATHAN IS NO MORE HAHAHA!!"

Enki shivered slightly.

"You killed it?"

"Killed, killed, no... NO WE WOULD NEVER, never kill our baby, our child, OUR HOME!! It has GROWN ENKI!! Oh, yes. Our child, our HOME HAS GROWN FAR BEYOND WHAT YOU THINK!!! It is what it should be, yes, oh yes. Our Leviathan is now a Keeper!! A KEEPER THAT KEEPS US SAFE HAHA... no, no, NO!! IT KEEPS US TRAPPED, but trapped is safe, yes?! HAHAHA AND NOW YOU ARE STUCK WITH ME AND THE QUEEN!! Oh, dear Enki. You will pay... you WILL pay with lifetimes of suffering, LIFETIMES OF TORTURE HAHAHA!!"

As much as Pelo wanted to try and plea for Enki’s safety, seeing the broken mentality of the man before him proved there was no point. He now understood why Enki was so silent before when he tried sharing his idea to beg for his forgiveness before. There was no redeeming a man who had done something to so terrible to someone already beyond broken.