Chương 51: The Demon Beast King Stirs

I woke up with people arguing around me, which pissed me off. I wanted to scream at them to shut up.

"I'm telling you, the government is taking this seriously," a woman's voice said insistantly. Wait, that's Claire, I realized. Why is she here? I was about to open my eyes when I heard a song in the background. Pierre, you ass! Instead of getting up, I lay there and hoped it was all a fever-dream.

"Let them," Pierre said.

"We've got bigger problems than some bureaucrats getting nervous." I cracked open my eyes, which felt like a mistake. My head felt like it'd been stuffed with cotton and set on fire.

"Abe!" Tala's face appeared above me, her whiskers tickling my nose.

"Don't move. You're still recovering."

"What happened?" My voice came out as a croak.

"How long was I out?"

"Three hours," Tala said.

"You passed out the moment you left the Liminal Lands." Right, I said as the memories returned. I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. The room spun and I had to close my eyes against a wave of nausea.

"Easy," Shelly said. She sounded exhausted.

"You burned through almost all your divine mana. Your body needs time to recover."

"I've had worse hangovers," I muttered. That was actually a lie. I doubted anyone would believe me, but I'd never actually gotten drunk.

"No you haven't," Tala said flatly.

"So shut up." I forced my eyes open again and then waited for the room to stop spinning. I was on my recliner, so someone must have moved me. Pierre was standing by the window while trying to look innocent. Shelly was sitting on the floor nearby with her back against the wall. She looked pale and drawn. There was also someone I hadn't expected to see.

"Claire," I said.

"I didn't see you arrive."

"Hey, Abe." She was sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee in her hands.

"Good to see you conscious."

"What are you doing here?" I asked. Then I realized how that sounded.

"I mean, not that you're not welcome, just…"

"I came to warn you," Claire said as she set down her coffee.

"The government is watching you. They've classified you as a Demon Beast King. The Church of Reincarnation is also on their radar. Rangers are being assigned to monitor supernatural threats and you're at the top of the list." I thought about what she'd said. Government surveillance was never a good thing. And Demon Beast classification didn't sound particularly pleasant either. I'd seen videos about demon beasts but hadn't really thought about it since I wasn't near any of them.

Apparently, I am one of them, I thought.

"Okay," I said finally.

"That's interesting."

"Interesting?" Claire blinked.

"Abe, they think you're building an army. They're talking about sending in teams to assess the threat level."

"Are they sending them now?" I asked tiredly. If it's not one problem, it's another, I thought.

"Well, no. Not immediately. They're still gathering information."

"Then it's not the most immediate problem," I said. I tried to sit up again. This time I managed. The room did tilt alarmingly, though.

"The Wild People are a bigger threat. I'm worried about what they summoned. For some reason, I've been having dreams about it." This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Everyone looked at me. Finally, Claire asked, "What?"

"How long have you been having these dreams?" Tala demanded.

"Since the summit," I admitted.

"I thought it was just stress, but now…"

"Now you think it's a vision," Claire finished.

"A premonition?"

"Maybe. Or I could just be losing my mind." Pierre asked, "What else did you see?"

"The Wild People." I wasn't sure why I suddenly believed my dreams were true, but I did. Either way, even if I did sound like an idiot, I felt it needed to be said.

"They woke up some type of owl-like creature. However, it can't fly. From what I can remember, it fought another creature and was injured." The dreams, nightmares, visions, or whatever they were, hadn't been clear. I actually had to piece together a lot of the information.

"Woke up what?" Claire asked.

"I don't know exactly," I explained.

"Part of me wants to say a witch. Another part of me says a giant owl. For the last few nights, I've been dreaming about something watching me. It's almost as if it's waiting for a moment of weakness." Tala gave me a look that promised we'd have a 'conversation' later about not letting her know. I wanted to tell her I'd just thought it was stress and fear, but I also knew I probably should've let her know. Sighing, I rubbed my face with my paws while trying to clear my head.

"Anyway, I think we need to start making a plan on how to deal with it. Do we get the government to step in with a military operation? Do we try to take care of it ourselves?" The room fell silent as everyone processed what I'd said. I could see Claire and Pierre exchanging glances. Claire leaned forward, elbows on the table.

"What exactly did you see? Details matter." I closed my eyes, trying to remember.

"It's injured. Whatever it fought, it lost. Or at least didn't win cleanly. But it's recovering. And it's... hungry. Not for food, but for something else. Mana, maybe? Or life force?" I opened my eyes and continued, "And it knows about me. It's been watching through the dreams. Waiting."

"Waiting for what?" Willow asked nervously.

"For me to be weak," I said quietly. Pierre then brought up the obvious, "Like right now. After you spent all your mana creating a planet."

"How would it know?" Shelly asked.

"Divine energy leaves traces," Willow said softly.

"Usually, he throws out energy. Now he's like a burnt-out lightbulb. No offense."

"So Abe basically rang the dinner bell,'" Pierre said as he looked out the window.

"How long until you recover?"

"I don't know," I said. I really had no idea.

"Hours, maybe? A day?"

"We might not have hours," Claire said. She was already checking her weapons. I was about to say something else when I noticed Pierre tensing up.

"What's wrong?" I asked. If Pierre was nervous, it wasn't good. Although we had our differences, I respected his abilities.

"Turn on the perimeter cameras," Pierre told Shelly.

"Fuck, we shouldn't have turned off the alarms." I was confused for a second before I realized what was happening. One reason we'd turned it off was because we'd been getting so many regular visitors. Pack members such as Luke, Alder, and Pierre were always stopping by. Claire stopped by occasionally. \ And then there were the druids, such as Kathy and Willow. That was in addition to all the animals who had flooded into the area to leave offerings. Now, apparently, we were about to have some unwelcome visitors.

"I'm sorry," Shelly said, as if she alone had made that decision.

"This is my fault. I turned off the alarms because I was tired of resetting them every time…"

"Stop," Pierre cut her off.

"We all agreed. This isn't on you. Don't worry about it. What we do need to worry about is what's out there. Pull up the cameras." Hastily, Shelly sent the video feed to the television. It showed multiple videos on a grid. Most of the cameras were normal. However, on one of them, we saw the cannibals.

"The Wild People," Pierre said grimly. He went to the window to look out again. Then he walked to the front door and hit a big red button on my eye level. Everyone froze, realizing we were in deep shit. As soon as he hit the button, steel shutters on the outside of the window swung shut with a bang. We could also hear metal bars moving outside the door. Another thing the button did was call for reinforcements. Now we just have to survive long enough for them to get here, I thought grimly.

"How many?" I asked, trying to stand. My legs wobbled and Tala immediately pressed against me, supporting my weight. I couldn't believe how weak I was. Willow and Shelly don't have much mana to begin with, and after caring for me, they had even less. That left us with Claire and Pierre to deal with the Wild People.

"Can't tell. They're staying in the shadows." Pierre's voice had gone cold and professional.

"Can you fight?" Pierre asked bluntly. I tried to reach for my divine energy and nearly fell over from the wave of dizziness that followed.

"No. Maybe. I don't know. I'm still running on empty here."

"Same here," Shelly said.

"I'm in no shape to channel defensive magic, not that it would have helped too much." Willow looked just as exhausted, and even more tired than Shelly. She also looked frightened.

"Don't forget me," Tala said.

"I can fight." I felt a little ashamed since I'd completely forgotten that Tala was supposed to be not only my guide but also my guardian. Although how she was supposed to protect me was beyond me.

"You're a squirrel," Claire pointed out.

"I'm a divine squirrel," Tala corrected.

"I'm stronger than I look." Despite everything, I almost smiled. Then we heard the first impact. Something hit the shutters, strongly. My smile faded away. That had been strong. So strong in fact that the glass inside almost shattered. Then I heard them crawling on the roof. I wasn't worried about them getting in that way since there was a strong wire mesh that kept out anything larger than a… well, me. However, my sense of security was shattered when something fell down the chimney.

I immediately knew we were fucked. The Wild People were known for their poison arrows. It only took me a moment to realize they'd dropped poison down onto the fire. Damn!