By Steph
Chapter 7 - Motivation
Koru stayed in the deepest part of the Forest with No Name, in a virtually uninhabited land with no negative emotions to feed off of. His ‘home’, if one could even call it that, was a large cave that went underground. It was nearly pitch-black in there; save for the few small candles he had lit. He didn’t need much light, if any, but for some reason he liked to burn them.
He owned very little, just an old throne-like chair that he sat in quite often, and some bottles of cheap wine. He didn’t have much of a need for material possessions. No, his goal in life was more than just to live luxuriously. He wanted the entire world.
He would start with that vixen dark lord. Damnable woman. Five hundred years ago when he’d been banned from the Mazoku race, he had never thought of coming back to them. They were all so set in their ways, just like the dragons. Just because he did things in a different way, they thought he was incapable of being a servant for them. ‘Not enough respect for his superiors’ they said. ‘Can’t follow orders.’
That day had been the start of his miserable life.
Until the lord Beastmaster had called him to her, and given him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He’d been out of action for a long, long time, and had permission to complete the job however he wanted. He could do it as cruel as he wanted. In fact, the more violent and cruel, the better.
He had thoroughly enjoyed killing that dragon girl. Especially cutting her, torturing her. Her screams of pain and suffering had been delicious.
But her pain had not been not half as delicious as the pain of Zelas’ servant, Xelloss. Koru could still remember as the great and mighty beast general watched his lover being tortured, listening to the screams of his beloved. The pain and anguish radiating from him had been the most delicious of all. The fact that Xelloss had refused to feel anything positive from the dragon girl’s pain had intrigued Koru. He almost wished he could have asked Xelloss why he would have such feelings for that repulsive slip of a dragon girl, but it was too late. The job was done.
And still he wondered. How had it been possible for one of their race to become the lover of one of the dragon race? The dragons were the sworn enemy of the Mazoku, those who claimed to be so much more ‘pure’ than Mazoku, when they had done things just as evil. Never before had one of the Mazoku race looked upon the dragon race as anything other than self-righteous hypocrites worthy of nothing but destruction.
That Xelloss, servant and Beast General under Zelas Metallium, the most powerful highest-ranking servant, would lower himself to such a degree as allying with one of the dragon race was disgusting and absurd to Koru. After Xelloss had destroyed thousands upon thousands of dragons, golden and ancient alike. What had been his purpose in his alliance with the dragon girl?
Koru took a long drink from his bottle of wine and continued staring at the wall of the cave, lost in thought. He didn’t notice the other presences in the room until he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. He was out of his chair and whirled around with a snarl to face the intruder. He blinked, and stared for a few seconds, then shrugged.
“Do you have to be so damn intrusive?” he growled.
Two pairs of sinister ice blue eyes stared at Koru from the shadows, their owner’s profile hidden completely. A soft voice replied, “We were simply watching you stare at that wall. It must be quite interesting.”
“You’re funny.” Koru frowned and sat back down in his chair, trying to ignore the troublesome two Mazoku behind him. Josef and his twin brother, Exira, had assisted him in the destruction of Xelloss and the dragon girl. The two had the ability to bind black magic. They were not powerful otherwise, but that ability had given him just the leverage he’d needed to defeat the beast general. However, they weren’t trustworthy, either. He didn’t like that they still came around, asking when he was going to become Zelas’ new servant. He wasn’t about to share his glory with them; he hoped they figured that out soon.
But he tolerated them because they were cunning and didn’t miss much. They could blackmail him in a second, not to mention strip him of all his powers, and he didn’t need that. He had to find a way to get rid of them eventually.
“We’re simply here to see how your ‘date’ with the Beastmaster went,” Exira replied casually. His form was still hidden by the shadows.
“It went quite well, if you must know. We made hot, passionate love, and she made me her slave right there on the floor.”
Josef chuckled. “I’m sure that’s how it went. I can see the dark lord just throwing herself at charmer like yourself.”
Koru scoffed. “She just doesn’t know what she’s missing. So why are you two really here? I know it’s not because you were interested in my love life.”
“It’s Lina Inverse, Koru. She has gone to the village where the dragon girl lived.”
“To pay her respects to her dear departed dragon friend, probably. It has been a year since then. There’s really nothing to worry about.”
“But this is Lina Inverse we’re talking about. She doesn’t forget things that easily. Perhaps she plans on investigating her friend’s death more…”
“And so what if she does? She’ll not find anything that she doesn’t already know. No more proof. She has no idea who exactly did it. However…having her poking her nose into our business is not what I would call a good thing. So, perhaps you two can create a diversion?”
Josef glanced at his brother, who returned the look with a meaningful nod. They looked back at Koru and replied, “Of course.”
Koru smiled as the two Mazoku disappeared, and resumed staring at the wall.