Tara received some messages from Eli stating that he was going to be a little overly-dramatic with Lucy and that she should join him soon, she grumbled out loud. Part of her grumbling was because he was spending so much time with Lucy, but most of it was how melodramatic he was being lately. It was as if every time Eli didn't know if what he was doing was good or evil, he just covered the whole scenario in drama. She knew this time wouldn't be any different so after talking to the others about what to do next, she headed over to them. As soon as she left Crater Town, she felt a shudder in their connection that completely locked her out, it was like a padlock made of hardened blood was holding her at bay. She sped up to get there faster, but had a feeling it was already too late.
When she arrived, the first thing she saw was Lucy with eyes as wide as saucers in a daze and tears running down her face. Then she saw the blood, and realized that Eli probably killed him when he attacked Lucy, which made her relax. When she got to them she noticed that the other lord was still alive but in terrible shape, his chest was exposed and what was left of his leg was mangled. This wasn't him killing, this was him torturing, punishing someone who had wronged him. Surprising even herself, her first emotion was jealousy, because he had been driven to such extremes on behalf of Lucy and not her. Then she felt disgust for a brief moment but that was quickly replaced by worry for him, he would not do well after this. When he reflected on this moment, he would be angry with himself.
"Ash, honey, is everything alright?" Tara said, keeping her distance.
"Everything is under control, just waiting for Bethany to get back with Ghost so I can give this guy to him."
"You are covered in blood," Tara said as a simple statement, doing her best to not make it sound like she was accusing him of anything. Tara turned and looked at Lucy, "Are you alright Lucy?"
"She is fine, and this guy will live, I just hit him with some life magic so he will heal enough to not die, at least not right now."
"Maybe Lucy should go back to town."
"You don't need to do that, do you Lucy?"
She stood there almost catatonic staring at the chunk of ribs still in Eli's hand. She couldn't bring herself to speak yet, but she shook her head no as more tears fell down her face.
"See, she is fine, send a message to Bethany asking her to hurry," Eli said to Tara.
They didn't speak for a long time, Eli's breathing returned to normal and he dropped the hunk of person he had been holding. By this time, Drak was starting to heal, which looked more painful than when he had been attacked. Lucy regained her composure, cleaned herself up a bit and stood closer to Eli while he was still standing like a statue, not bothering to clean any blood or even Lucy's vomit off of himself. Another hour went by and Tara heard back from Bethany that she would be back soon. Tara thought about letting Eli know but she opted to let him meditate or whatever he was doing. It wasn't much longer when Bethany finally returned.
"Holy shit! What happened here? This guy try to escape or something?" Bethany asked, walking closer very hesitantly.
"Worse, he tried to attack Lucy," Tara informed her.
"Well, serves him right then, you ok Lucy?"
"Y-Y-Yes, just having trouble collecting myself."
"I bet, Just know that his protection isn't free, we expect everyone to earn the lives he gives us," Bethany said with some edge in her voice.
"Go easy, she is still recovering from shock," Tara said, giving Bethany a disapproving look.
"You can go easy, anyone who takes advantage of him on my watch, stops breathing. We cannot afford to be soft, being soft will kill you faster than anything else in this new world."
Eli's eyes opened as they could see some people approaching from the direction of the center of the safe zone. He used a short distance blink to move away from the blood enough for him to be clean. He motioned for the three women to stand behind him and they did so without saying anything even though Tara desperately wanted to talk him out of whatever it was that he was doing. Ghost stopped just inside the safe zone barrier and Eli again motioned for the women to watch the prisoner as he walked up to the barrier to talk to Ghost.
"I hear you had a bit of trouble at the place you kicked me out of, it's a shame you were so rude, I could have helped you fight them off," said Ghost in an almost sincere voice.
"Nothing we couldn't handle," Eli said and then continued without pausing, "this guy here is the lord of the safe zone to the west. Despite his appearance, he used to be a human. I was wondering if you would take him off my hands, I don't want to kill him since we don't know how the system will react to that yet. If you hold him for me, I will consider it a personal favor."
This was a lot for Ghost to take in, honestly he would benefit from taking this man and he was sure lord Ash knew that. So there had to be some other game at play since, if the roles were reversed, he wouldn't give up a prisoner so easily. This was tricky, doing this as a favor would put him and Lord Ash on even ground, legitimizing lord Ash's organization. They would be seen as people who trade favors as equals, however, Ghost knew for sure that Lord Ash could kill him in an instant. The feeling of power he gave off was unmistakable, it wasn't magic or anything, just something about the way he stood and moved, like the world would bend to get out of his way.
"Ok, we will take him," Then Ghost looked at Lucy's face which was clearly still in some kind of shock, which led to him taking a closer look at the guy he had been pointing to. Ghost immediately covered his mouth, the thing that used to be human was monstrous even before he saw its injuries. He had suffered from savagely brutal attacks, Ghost put it together quickly, the monster man had tried to attack this girl, and Ash had punished him in a way that would send a message to himself and his people.
While still trying not to vomit, Ghost signaled his people to grab the monster man and take him with them. "I appreciate being brought in when something so close to my area takes place. I will collect my favor now though, I want you to join us in defense for the next monster horde. It is coming from the ocean and we could use your help."
"I can lend you three of my people, I cannot help as the safe zone barrier extends quite far into the water. I think that is a fair trade of favors."
"I agree, as long as none of them are your new recruits."
"No worries there, they will be training with me at that time, if they can improve enough. You know how it is with new recruits."
"Indeed, in fact, I wonder if I might come by before the event to exchange ideas. There aren't any other lords around so no one else for me to compare notes with, if you get my meaning." Ghost said with a wink. Ash was clearly strong and most likely as alone as he felt being a lord, making friends would offer far more benefits than keeping their distance.
"I will be leaving for training with my recruits in 10 days, how does the day before that sound?" Eli asked him.
Ghost took a step forward out of the barrier and put out his hand, "I look forward to it." Ash grabbed his arm to shake hands clasping at the forearm, then Ghost turned with his new prisoner and all his people left.
Eli, Tara and Lucy stood still and watched them leave, following Eli's example, they did not move until he did. When Ghost and his cadre were totally out of sight, Eli's shoulders slumped and he took a few steps away from the barrier before sitting on a rock. He put his face in his hands and just breathed slowly. Tara wanted to comfort him but Lucy beat her to it, giving him a side hug and rubbing his back, then Bethany joined and hugged him from the other side. Both women had not hesitated, there wasn't a flicker of doubt in their hearts, they felt safe with him. Something Tara realized she would need to get on board with, but the doubt and hesitation was involuntary for her.
The brutality he showed so casually, whether it be from this most recent incident or all the times they have seen him cause destruction, Tara hadn't realized that she was distancing herself from that part of him. The part that would burn the world for those in his heart. When she had heard him say those words, she thought it romantic, but as she witnessed it, fear and doubt had started growing in her without her even realizing it. But Bethany has not wavered, perhaps it is because she met him when he was being brutal and savage. Perhaps that's why she seems so comfortable around him no matter the situation. Bethany accepts him, probably too much, what if he loses perspective and starts killing.
Just then, Bethany glanced at Tara and a questioning expression appeared on her face. She stood up and grabbed Tara's hand and pulled her inside the barrier so they could talk and Eli would have trouble hearing them.
"What is your problem?" Bethany asked her.
"What?" Tara responded all confused.
"You are lucky I don't slap you into next week for the way you treat him. He does something soul wrenchingly difficult for him, and you look at him as if he might kill you at any moment. There's so much fear on your face, I bet he can smell it."
"I'm not afraid of him Bethany, I love him, I trust him." Tara explained, but in her own heart she knew that wasn't entirely true.
"Look at you, you don't even believe your own words. He clearly doesn't like hurting people, but he does it to protect us. Every time he forces himself to be a brutal savage for our sake, I look at him with awe and admiration, but you only show fear on your face and distance yourself from him."
"I'm not doing it on purpose, I guess I just haven't adjusted to this life like I thought I had." Tara resigned herself to the truth as she said those words. "I've been having nightmares about the tutorial."
"Look, as much as I want him for myself, or even how much I want to be naked with him on a beach with his perfect bod…" Bethany stopped herself and cleared her throat. "Ehem, I mean, he needs you to help him keep a part of himself human. The rest of us can't do that, we would just watch as he transforms into a god with only a concern for godly things, crushing the rest of us by accident."
"How do I, what if he, I just can't see myself going along with it if he ends up just some ruthless murderous king of the world."
"What. The. Actual. Fuck. are you talking about?" Bethany said loudly and slowly emphasizing every word. "How did your mind get there? Have you even been paying attention to him at all?" Then Bethany paused and squinted at Tara. "Oh wait, I see now, in your head, he is still the guy you knew from before the system. Well wake up sweetheart, cause Eli and Lord Ash are two sides of the same guy, if you don't figure that out you will push both sides of him straight to me and Lucy, and I won't mind sharing him. Although I think Lucy is too damaged for him right now."
"Are you alright my lor… Eli?" Lucy said, all of her hesitation and shock from what she had witnessed vanished in an instant the moment she noticed he was troubled.
"I am fine Lucy, thank you for comforting me, I was worried that I had scared you away for a minute there."
"You couldn't do that if you tried, I was not scared of you, it just took me a minute to realize that I wasn't in training anymore, that this was real, and the reality of this world is harsh."
"I would like for you to stay at my side, I wish to know more about where I come from and about my family. But I need to trust you more and I need the information to come slowly so I don't lose myself in it. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I do and I would love to be by your side forever, it is my purpose." Lucy said. Eli didn't miss how robotic her words sounded when she spoke of her purpose, it wasn't obvious, but it was there.
"Well then I need you to be wiser, I need you to pay attention to what I do, but most importantly I need you to know why because that will help you see consequences that you may overlook. For example, why do you think I was so brutal to Drak?"
"Because he was going to hurt me, and letting someone hurt your people is advertising weakness."
"Wow, that was a really incorrect answer." Eli paused when he saw her face show confusion as she looked down in embarrassment. "Let me explain. What you said was correct, except that I do not care about showing weakness. Anyone with enough strength to threaten me would know it would not be a good idea for them. So if that isn't why then tell me why I did it, and here is a hint, think long term."
Lucy tapped her chin and thought for a while, when it was clear she wasn't coming up with an answer, Eli took pity on her.
"If I had handed Drak over to Ghost in perfect health, how do you think that would have affected Ghost and his people's opinion of me?"
"He would see that you are capable and merciful, since you were able to capture him so simply."
"Incorrect, he would not trust anything Drak says, there would always be the possibility that we were working together to feed him false information or to set some kind of trap. Since he was brutally injured, what do you think their opinion is of me?"
Lucy shrugged and said, "That you are to be feared?"
"Yes, that is correct, that coming for me means you get brutality and cruelty. It also gives weight to my level of strength as well when Drak tells Ghost about it."
"So that was all just a deterrent?" Lucy asked as if she didn't believe it. "Surely there were other ways to deter them."
"Yes, but he attacked you, not on a battlefield or in some large conflict. He attacked like a coward just to hurt you knowing he wouldn't escape, he just wanted me to hurt me by hurting you. You haven't been with us long, but I protect my people, I take that seriously. Now Ghost knows that as well."