Versatile: Alternate World

Chapter 963 The Fall of a Kingdom

(Warning: The following chapter contains disturbing scenes that might be too "detailed" for you to read. Feel free to skip this if you hated extreme violence.)

I don't know what is going on and why King Arthur is alive and well. I clearly saw him die at the hands of Almira using the Clarent but now, King Arthur is back and he is alive in the flesh. He even looks bulkier than before and based on the smell coming from him, that's clearly the scent of blood. He might have killed a few before the elf man.

As soon as I said "King Arthur", he grinned and started laughing like a maniac. Everyone is on the edge of their shoes as we ready our weapons against him.

"You look well, Manato. Not as well as me, though but, I can say that you have grown more stronger compared to before. I can't wait to fight against you once again, and kill you this time," King Arthur grinned, clearly out for blood.

But he started shaking his head. "But unfortunately, I don't have time for you. I am not going to waste more time with you and your companions as I have already done what I came here for and thanks to the ruckus that the beastmen did, my plan was indeed a great success. Anyway, I am not gonna bother you all, as I will be going now, enjoy the gift I left behind. It's best enjoyed if you all check inside the houses of the elves right now. Alright, bye-bye for now."

"Wait!" I changed my Versatile Weapon to its gun form and quickly shot it in his direction. However, King Arthur is faster and he disappeared before the bullet could even touch him. Instead, the sack he was carrying before is the one who received the bullet shot.

When the bullet pierces the sack, blood spurts out from it and it slowly trickles on the road.

Pandora heightened her senses for a bit before she stopped after she confirmed it. "He is gone."

Akira and Sora immediately approached the sack. Sora starts poking it a bit while Akira is waiting for anything to happen and is ready to protect his sister in case it is dangerous.

"This thing is a bit hard, and it feels like I am poking on some circle things?"

Akira seems to already have an idea of what it was. He steeled himself and grabbed the sack and opened it up, Sora wanted to peek but Akira stopped her from doing so. The moment he peeked, his face turned to full disgust before he closed it up again and threw up.

"Akira, are you okay?!" Sora quickly rubbed the back of her brother who continued to puke.

"What is it Akira?" I asked to confirm my guess.

"H-heads...URP..." Akira shortly answered before puking once again.

I knew it. But I am not truly sure of it at first. Now that Akira confirmed it, then that is enough for me to know that King Arthur just straight up did something inhumane.

Approaching the sack and peering inside, I immediately realized why Akira started puking. What he saw inside are indeed heads. Severed heads of the elves. I didn't bother to check anymore as I had already confirmed what King Arthur left behind. 

"What's inside, Kazuma-kun?" Renatta asked.

"I suggest that you don't peer inside and check the contents for the sake of your stomach and your mental health. But I am not gonna stop you from checking inside."

Hearing that, Renatta approached the sack, alongside Mila, Avos, and Izmir. The moment they opened it up and peeked inside, Renatta started to puke as well. Izmir has a bad look on her face while Mila and Avos are not looking good but manage to hold on.

Avos immediately tied up the sack and ignited it to flames.

One of the houses' doors opened and Pandora came out from the house and shook her head.

"I see what he meant by a gift for us. I just checked inside the house and realized now why the people living here are not present. It wasn't because they were gone but because they had died."

"Died?" Alena frowned.

"Yes. All of the people living inside the house have been executed brutally and used their body parts and innards to decorate the walls. I don't want to fully describe it in detail but you guys can go inside and see it for yourselves."

I can see in Pandora's face that she is holding back her disgust and her desire to puke. Her stoic and emotionless face gave it away immediately.

Avos decided to check on the house inside and a few seconds later, the house lit up in flames before Avos went out with only a shake of his head.

"Let's check up on the houses. Anyone who can withstand watching anything brutal and disgusting, help me out in here."

In the end, the only people who can go are Avos, Mila, Labo, Lina, Tina, and Me since the others are not that strong in the stomach. Even Pandora who seemed to be fine decided that she had enough seeing those scenes for today.

And so, we spent the whole day checking the houses one by one. And when the breaking dawn arrived, we explored the whole place and discovered that all of the residents of the kingdom are all gone and dead. Not a single one survived, even a child was not spared at all. Every single one has been brutally killed. I got desensitized from what I have seen but it was totally not in someone's right mind doing all of those heinous crimes.

Upon realizing the situation, Izmir who just recovered from the news, stood up and looked in the direction of the castle.

"No...there's no way right?" Izmir then started running towards the castle.

"Izmir?" Renatta frowned as she followed her sister to go there as well.

Avos and Mila had no more energy to move and decided to rest. Even me and Labo are no longer in the mood to go and explore seeing all of the grotesque and disturbing things we have seen in one go.

Avos sighed and looked at the burning houses after we burned them to destroy everything and also send away the dead by creating their bodies. He had a sad expression on his face.

"What are we going to do now?" Avos looked at Mila who also had a sad look on her face.

"I don't know anymore. After everything that we have seen so far, I am not sure if proceeding will matter much now," Mila sighed.

"I can't believe it, all of our hard work, all of the effort we did to rebuild the kingdom, has disappeared in one night. We didn't even get to defend it from the true enemy as we faced the one invading. It seems that the Elven Kingdom has truly fallen and has no other way to stand back up again..."

When Avos said those words, I was reminded of the prediction that Cotton had made before. I wasn't expecting it at all. The descent of the war god will mark the end of the Elven Kingdom. And that has been fully realized.

...

...

While the group is left sullen by the sudden events, Renatta and Izmir track their way back to the castle. This time, they have seen nothing more horrible than what they have seen so far. All of the guards that were previously stationed there have been killed. Their bodies are torn apart like some monster decided to go berserk and they were there during the time it went wild.

It is also evident that they decided to fight back since their weapons are drawn but seeing not a single survivor, things are looking grim. Renatta has already puked out what she can puke earlier and has already gotten sick at puking that she can't do it anymore while Izmir is holding herself a bit more but she is also ready to give in as well.

For the first time in so many years, the two siblings decided to help each other. Renatta helped Izmir and patted her back as they traversed the bloody corridors.

"Don't give up sis, we are not yet done. Let's go," Renatta helped Izmir up.

Izmir nodded and the two continued to move toward their current destination.

Like the rest of the places, the whole area is littered with torn-up corpses of the guards. It's not something that they would be seeing every day for sure.

Seeing the situation, the two hurried to the throne room. Both are hoping that the place won't show them anything. It was one of their hopes that nothing would be seen once they decided to go inside.

But those expectations and their hopes are all shattered as they open the massive door to the throne room.

The throne room isn't bloody in the whole area, except for one place and that is where both the thrones were previously present. What is present to them right now is none other than a throne made from the bodies of the king and queen, with their heads, sitting at the "seat" itself, and their face filled with shock. It was a clean cut since they were not seen with any battered appearance.

As a result, the two siblings started to cry together once more, hugging and consoling each other. Now is the time they needed themselves more than ever.