Just as the reports had said, there were tons of fables swarming along the walls of Gojin.
Fables were exactly as they sounded. They were entities drawn from those of folktales, myths, and legends-- told and passed down for countless generations through human word. They were the typical bedtime stories mothers would recite to their children before falling asleep. Ranging from "The Tortoise and the Rabbit" to "The Abduction of the Lady of Spring", the imperial family of Gojin were the only ones who possessed the ability to control them. Of course, stronger fables could also control those weaker than them-- just like how the Grand Duke was controlling all the fables at the gates to guard his dead master's empire.
Goblins, hell-hounds, lesser stories (you name it) swarmed the perimeters, ready to strike anyone and anything daring enough to get close. Splatters of blood both old and new could be seen tainting the walls. In some instances, one could even make out the shapes of corpses. Good thing there was no sign of the Lazruche Empire's monsters, though.
Suwan, his two advisors, and his dual troop of five stood a good few yards away from them. Just enough to not be detected. Seeing it in person, there really was no way to get past the horde of fables.
And now that he was here, Suwan began to become doubtful. He wasn't even a hundred percent sure whether that man was alive, and wasn't sure he would be roaming around his own kingdom if he really did come back. Personally, Suwan wouldn't. It would be too stupid and obvious, and he was neither of those. But he couldn't take any chances, now, could he? He could be anywhere and maybe here. Yet, if he wasn't, the risk that came with it would be for naught and detrimental to his forces. The mines weren't worth it, either.
"Well, your majesty? Are we still going to continue forward?"
Almost as if he heard his inner conflicts, Nuanxin spoke up. It was a question asked in an indifferent tone, and no one would think anything else of it. But having known him ever since they were little, Suwan knew Nuanxin was mocking him. Clearly implying, See? I was right. We shouldn't have come. Even you're not sure, right?
"Why? You scared?" The other advisor asked. He, too, spoke in an indifferent tone. Nevertheless, the other two knew it was anything but.
"Be quiet, Ginu."
Nuanxin and Ginu faced off through the corner of their eyes, silently sending promised death threats to each other. The ten soldiers who stood at the back would never guess just what kind of childish behavior the top three figures of their empire were conducting. After all, the stoic postures that stood straighter than a stick, the two loosely clasped hands behind their backs, and the cool air surrounding them wouldn't give a single hint away.
Suddenly, Suwan went rigid followed by Nuanxin and Ginu. There seemed to be a lot of impossibles happening today. It had almost been a decade since they'd eradicated of that ruthless megalomaniac and his uncanny ability to control the dead, yet the group of thirteen could see as clear as day a whole mob of them limping towards the fables guarding the wall.
Ryuhwai Pojun, the former emperor of Gojin before he-- the rightful heir to the throne-- came along and overthrew him. The Pojuns were originally a vassal family of Gojin. But after the sudden and mysterious death of the previous rulers, Yong Ah and Boten Ah, as well as the disappearance of their only son, the Pojuns rose to power as the next in line. During his prime, Waru Pojun had been cruel, but his son-- Ryuhwai-- was even more so. No one knew from where, but he'd obtained the power to summon and control the dead at will. Although very similar to the Ah family's ability to control fables, there was a clear distinction why Ryuhwai's ability was immoral and evil even though they both worked with 'dead souls'.
Every ruler of Gojin possessed a core within them since birth, allowing them to innately communicate with any fable as fables also possessed cores of their own. The core was like a mediator between the two parties. If the fable felt like aiding their summoner in their cause, then they would help, but if they didn't, that was the end of it, and no one could do anything about it. Even if a fable did agree to help, the summoner would have to promise them repayment or an offering of some sorts that would satisfy them for their service. If they were denied such compensation, the fables had permission to ingest their summoner. The give and take of this ability allowed for balance and order with zero animosity to be felt between the two parties.
Ryuhwai's ability, however, forcibly brought back dead souls that'd peacefully passed to do his bidding. It was common knowledge that the dead should be left alone, for if anyone messes with their departure, they would rise up to haunt the living and bring in vast amounts of negative energy. Yet, when he was alive, Ryuhwai had the common practice of ceaselessly resurrecting countless corpses without a care for the consequences. Of course, being denied their entrance into the afterlife and a forever full of peace, the souls would become both enraged and feral. Taken over by such powerful negative emotions, the souls would turn into mindless spirits with only the intent of devouring any living thing within their path to soothe their dark energy.
Back then, he had summoned fables from far and wide to fight against Ryuhwai's army of zombies, and he'd quickly wiped all of them out along with their master. However, not long after Ryuhwai was eliminated, he had somehow also obtained the ability to conjure the dead and used them against the other nations to further expand his reign. It was only then everyone realized what a power-hungry person he was. It was also what brought all the nations together in the end-- to eradicate the impending foe. That meant there were only two plausible conclusions to this dire predicament. Either, as rumors said, he had been resurrected, or, unlike rumors, it wasn't him who came back but Ryuhwai instead. Either way, both scenarios were a major headache.
A high-pitched, girly scream that could only belong to Ginu drew Suwan out of his thoughts. Whipping around, he immediately realized with an internal curse that he'd foolishly let his guard down. There was a small chunk of undead that'd strayed from the larger portion, running towards them in jagged movements. Contrary to what one would expect, these things were surprisingly fast and swift which was why so many had succumbed to them in the past.
Outstretching a pair of hands as pale as snow, Suwan was about to let loose his abilities when a gargantuan red hand suddenly came down upon his shoulder with great force. He glanced over in surprise to see what it was, only to freeze in place. A grumpy yet mischievous-looking face peered down at him. Atop its head sat a dark, fluffy cloud of hair-- a short, bright, golden horn peeking out through the curls. A sharp canine jutted out from the left of its bottom lip. In its other hand was a large spiky club made out of mountain rocks, comfortably resting atop its bare shoulder. The only clothing it wore was a skirt of some sort, brashly made from the skin of a tiger. It was obvious that it was a-.
"Goblin!" Ginu shrieked, face completely drained of blood and making the large creature wince from the shrill sound.
With a grunt and a twitch of its head, it grumbled to Suwan, "Move. Not safe. Go home."
Releasing him, the goblin marched towards the group of undead who were getting dangerously closer by the minute. The club fell of its shoulder, and, with one fell swoop from its mighty arm, the zombies were instantly smashed into a vast array of flesh and bones. Black blood dripped from the weapon made of solid stone as the goblin straightened up and wiped it on its skirt. It was an instant victory.
On the other side, the sounds of other fables battling the main group of corpses could also be heard. It seemed that the fables were easily pushing back their unexpected guests with great prowess. But because the sounds of snarling, growling, barking, and roaring were too loud, no one noticed the undead of past fears quickly approaching them from behind. It took large, quiet steps, raising a large daodao sword over its head-- its intention to chop Nuanxin in half blatant as day.
The goblin, having sensed this, suddenly whirled around with great urgency and lunged forward, hollering to Nuanxin, "Behind!"
Startled, Nuanxin turned around as well. The only thing he could register was the gigantic stature of the corpse and the gleaming daodao right above him before his body immediately locked up and collapsed to the floor out of fear. Nuanxin had always been weak in terms of physical aptitude. Born from a very intelligent scholar of Aolan, the only thing he knew to do was administer foreign affairs and conduct political discussions. He was born with very little of the Aolan Empire's abilities, so his father took it upon himself to raise his frail son into the most intelligent mind of Aolan to make up for it. Due to this, Nuanxin was completely helpless in actual life and death situations. Not to mention, in front of a weapon-wielding undead.
Suwan, Ginu, and the other ten soldiers were hastily moving to help Nuanxin when they were suddenly blocked by the big red body of the goblin whom deemed it too late to save their companion and, instead, turned its attention to the ones it could. In quick, hasty moves, the twelve people found themselves snuggly pressed up against each other within the arms of the goblin.
"The fuck do you think you're doing?!" Ginu screeched, his stoic and serene composure completely shattering. "Do you not see he's going to die?! Look! Get out of my way! Let go of me, you fuck!"
Too soon, the blade had already shifted momentum and was about to be brought down inches away from the young Celestial Advisor's face. He was going to go from being one Nuanxin to two Nuanxins. Ginu's screaming grew even higher. The goblin still didn't budge, keeping the people of Aolan tightly within the safe embrace of its arms even as they attacked him to somehow get through.
All they heard from the other side of the giant, red body was a loud swoosh as the undead swung with full force. Ginu wailed with heartbreak, streams of tears and snot that could fill oceans flowing down his fair face, and everyone else held their breaths, waiting apprehensively for the gut-twisting sound of blade cutting flesh.
Clang! The sharp trill of metal greeting metal echoed, sending shivers down everyone's spines. They all started in shock. Clang? Another blade? Did Nuanxin defend himself? But that's not possible. They stayed still, listening intently for any other sound, but none came. Another heartbeat of silence later, they heard Nuanxin's trembling voice speak up.
"W-W-Who are you?"
Who? There was a 'who'? Hurriedly, Suwan and Ginu squirmed their way up or around the goblin just enough to peer past its body to see what was going on. Indeed, right there, standing in front of Nuanxin and holding off the daodao of the undead with a single dagger, stood a mysterious 'who'. They were dressed quite suspiciously, clad in a dark cloak and an equally dark attire. The hood of the cloak was huge, and it draped over the mysterious person's head, making it impossible to perceive their face. Even their hands were wrapped in stained bandages almost as if they wanted to reveal nothing of their identity.
The person simply glanced at the tear-and-dirt-smeared Nuanxin who sat on the floor, before raising their foot and kicking him off to the side. With a slight 'oomph!', he tumbled over. Suwan and Ginu were flabbergasted. No one treated a member of the Aolan Empire in such a vulgar manner! There was only one person who ever did that, and he wasn't even supposed to be alive anymore!
After getting rid of Nuanxin, the person turned their attention back to the undead. Reaching under their cloak, they brought out another dagger and quickly moved with extreme swiftness, chopping off the foremost part of the arm holding the daodao which fell with a clang and a thud. Rotten, dead blood spurted out from the elbow stump and dyed the green of the forest floor black as the undead took a step back. The person wasted no time to render a second attack during its stupor.
Lithely leaping forward with the agility of a feline, they used both blades to slash at the corpse. Two large cuts that formed an 'x' appeared on the upper torso of the body and more rotten blood gushed out. It appeared the injuries went deeper than what Suwan had expected seeing that the corpse was having a hard time moving its arms. A telltale sign that a few tendons or ligaments had been severed.
The person was ruthless with their attacks. One after the other, darting from one point to another with great ease, they continuously targeted all the weak-points of the human anatomy: joints, tendons, ligaments, the Achilles, pressure points, all of them. Even if dead, the corpse had previously been a living person, and would, therefore, have the same physical weaknesses as any other human being. Finally, the undead could no longer move nor stand and eventually sank to its knees with a harsh thump; its whole entire being soaked under its own blood. The person-- immediately jumping and twisting in the air-- pounced upon it like a starved panther, swiftly dismembering the undead of its head and releasing another series of dark fluid. The head flew high up in the air, following the shape of a parabola before descending and rolling down a few feet away from its body-- the body fully collapsed on the ground and unmoving.
Upon the person's soft and elegant landing, the velvety grass of the forest floor gently rustled. The person themself took a quick survey of their surroundings to make sure all was finished and, once confirmed, stowed away their daggers into the darkness of their cloak. They seemed to have sensed the wary yet curious glares of the Aolan bunch as they slightly turned to fully face them, still hidden behind the safety of their dark, inky hood.
For some reason (he didn't know why), Suwan had the odd feeling that the person was staring at him. Although he felt a bit uncomfortable, as the leader and face of his empire, he calmly received it and returned the stare with a cool gaze reputable of an Aolan. The two stood like that in silence for a few moments. Ginu looking at them like they were crazy from under the goblin's giant arm.
Then, out of nowhere, the person randomly lifted up their bandaged index finger-- and gave it one twirl. Almost as if it were waiting, the goblin immediately released all the people it was hugging before barreling towards the other fables at the gates of Gojin, snapping and breaking an array of branches along the way. Everything had been taken care of on that side as well. The Aolan soldiers stared after it in awe, still in disbelief that a goblin sacrificed itself to protect them instead of eating them or tricking them into its own games.
Once the goblin's large form had fully disappeared, the person also made to take their leave. Slightly turning and bending their knees, they were about to run off when Nuanxin suddenly shouted.
"Excuse me! Thank you very much for saving me! If ever the chance arrives, I promise to pay you back someday!"
Although no one could see their face, hesitation was evident in the person's movements. They didn't seem to know how to respond. In the end, after much silence and contemplation, they decided on giving Nuanxin a small nod of acknowledgement before vanishing into thin air.
Coincidentally, just as they left, a large ray of sun pierced through the brush of trees, and Suwan could have sworn he saw the glossy, crow-like, iridescent reflection of dark, black hair that belonged to someone he once knew before.