Way of the Knights

Chapter 922: Grimm’s Nightmare

General Grimm never this kind of stress in his entire life ever. 

It has been a month since the last time he had seen Skroll who’s supposed to help him track the mysterious beings harassing their troops, he doesn’t even know if he’s alive still since he didn’t really found his corpse either. 

Two weeks ago, the God Emperor announced through an edict that they are officially gearing up for war, which was to be expected but the thing that caught him and the others off-guard is the fact that they haven’t heard anything from the God Emperor ever since. 

Grimm tried to have an audience with the God Emperor but he was only greeted by anxious soldiers who were doing their best reach the God Emperor as well. 

Apparently, there was in intruder who came and sealed the path towards the top of the tower where the God Emperor is. 

Judging from their descriptions, he discovered that the invader was a human, which blew Grimm’s mind away since he didn’t expect that. 

He couldn’t understand how a puny human managed to infiltrate this deep to their base and even managed to cut off their connections with the God Emperor. 

Just like the anxious soldiers, Grimm also wanted to know what happened to the God Emperor but he couldn’t break the seal. He was powerless against it. 

In his desperation, he tried searching for Finn. He thought that since Finn was previously a human, he should be able to understand how to undo the seal. He’d ask Skroll but he’s missing and he hadn’t heard anything from him ever since. 

Sadly, even after combing through every single corner of Paradise, Finn was nowhere to be found. They’ve caught all the criminals who escaped the Abyss Prison, all but Finn. 

Grimm was still trying to search for him but now, he had other matters to attend to. 

With Skroll and the God Emperor missing in action, Grimm automatically became in-charge of the upcoming war. Unless the God Emperor himself gave the order for them to stop this war, they will continue it and Grimm has to manage it while they’re not around. 

Sufficed to say, Grimm is completely unprepared for this. 

Although he had expected that there will be war, he didn’t know that he’ll be the one leading it. He’s used to receiving orders from the God Emperor, being pointed at which way to go and who or what to kill. 

He couldn’t escape this responsibility either since that’d be considered as treason. 

Because of this, Grimm felt a heavy burden weighing down on his shoulders. He remained anxious to the point of always biting his nails. For now he concentrated on bolstering their defenses since he didn’t want anyone encroaching on their home again. 

If he got eliminated or even isolated as well, their Race will be akin to a headless chicken. He had to be really careful here. 

For now, the situation is more or less fine. It certainly could’ve been better but this has to do it for now. Grimm had no doubts that this won’t continue for long though. 

Usually, whenever their race invades and eliminates potential enemies, the God Emperor will personally oversee the operations. He’d be at the helm of it all and will raise the morale of the troops with his unparalleled glory and strength, usually Skroll and Grimm would be at his side, waiting for orders but now, he had to do it alone. 

Before long, his men will start questioning him. What’s he supposed to say? If he revealed the fact that the God Emperor was ambushed by a Human, wouldn’t that greatly affect the morale of their troops? 

Can he even rise to the occasion and succeed in this? He isn’t as charismatic as the God Emperor and most certainly not as strong as him…him being the leader of this operation might not work but his hands are tied. 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Grimm was shocked out of his stupor. He immediately flew out of his office to check what’s going on. There, he saw one of his men running towards him with a panicked face. 

“General! It’s bad! We need you!”

“Why? What’s going on? What are those explosions about?”

“Invaders came, General!” The soldier reported with a desperate expression on his face. “W-we didn’t know how, our sensors never detected their ship until it materialized right above us.”

“We then received heavy fire. They were swift and wiped out half of us in a blink of an eye. They also blew up the transmitter towers on the edge of the map!”

General Grimm’s face became unsightly upon hearing that. He didn’t utter a word of reply, instead he summoned his ride and immediately flew towards the center of the explosions. 

On the way there, he could see the burning remains of the Transmitter Towers which caused his face to become twisted. 

The Transmitter Towers are very important for the protection of Paradise. These towers siphon some energy from the Forbidden Ultima Core to extend the protective barrier of Paradise and usually, these towers are located at a high density area. 

What really caught Grimm off-guard was the state of the land and people who were caught up in these explosions. 

A trail of crimson smoke was left in the vicinity and the mere sight of that caused Grimm’s skin to crawl. He could feel that, that seemingly harmless smoke, is in fact extremely dangerous. 

He then smelled the strong stench of death and decay around the area. Looking closely, there are were rotting bodies everywhere and what’s even more horrifying is the fact that most of the rotting people are still alive. 

They were crying out for help, clawing at their throats for air and trying to get away from this place but their rotting bodies never turned better if anything, it only got progressively worse until they exploded into pools of blood. 

Out of nowhere, Grimm suddenly felt a strong killing intent locking-on to him. He managed to recover quick enough to notice a projectile barely missing his ship. 

Grimm sweated coldly but it didn’t end there. After the projectile, crimson lightning began raining down from above him, forcing him to unfavorable situations. 

His surroundings turned dark and flashes of crimson filled his vision. He maneuvered his vehicle to avoid the lightning strikes and he managed to dodge most of them but not all. 

A lightning barely missed him but didn’t spare his vehicle, causing it to be destroyed and for him to suddenly start plummeting down. 

Grimm braced himself for the impact and was uninjured for the most part. 

He sat up and oriented himself to his surroundings, trying to see where he landed to find out the optimal route to solve this issue. However, his surroundings turned really dark, cold and depressing. It chilled him to the bone. 

At the corner of his eye, he saw a faint blur of a shadow moving around him. 

Grimm was alarmed, he immediately took out his weapon and an heavy armor wrapped around his body. He scanned his surroundings carefully with all of his senses, trying to see where this blur is because he’s certain that he’s not just seeing things. 

To his surprise though, he found out that for some reasons, his senses are suppressed. With his strength, it shouldn’t be hard for him to see everything around this area down to the last marble block but right now, he could only sense a kilometer in front of him and that’s it. 

This certainly added dread to his heart and caused him to tense up even more. 

“Sixty seconds…”

Grimm’s soul nearly leapt out of his body but his instincts kicked in. He slashed his sword behind him, he felt some resistance but he didn’t fight it, instead he used that chance to gain some distance away from whoever was behind him. 

“Who!?” He demanded. 

Unfortunately, Grimm failed to see anything. He didn’t even heard a sound. 

The next moment, however, will probably be something that will haunt him fro the rest of his life. 

A hand grabbed him from behind, covering his mouth. Then, he felt a sharp steel aimed at his throat. Grimm’s eyes dilated. Primal fear took root on his heart which caused him to freeze up, not moving even an inch from his position. 

“I was standing behind you for a whole minute.” The voice behind him sounds like a man and his tone was filled with such a thick killing intent that Grimm felt incredibly suffocated. 

“I could perform one stab every second, which meant that you died sixty times already…”

“For someone who pride yourself as a General, that’s a bit embarrassing isn’t it? I wonder how you’re able to sleep at night knowing how incompetent you are.”

“Can’t say that I can relate…”

General Grimm can’t even refute that, he’s crippled with fear at this very moment that all he could do was breathe heavily and try to find ways to escape this predicament. 

“You are one lucky man, though.” 

“Your death isn’t scheduled today.”

“But make no mistake, General Grimm.”

“You’ve picked the wrong people to mess with.”

“Celebrate, cry, or pray. Do whatever it takes and cherish your remaining days alive.”

“One day…my blade will find its way to your heart.”

“And just like the rotting people that you’ve seen…”

“You will suffer the same as them.”

“Until then…live in fear…”

After that, the voice disappeared and the darkness retreated. 

But for General Grimm…they never went away.