Chapter 73: Rest In Peace, Tud’or
Ka’z’s eyes fluttered open, but the brief moment of consciousness was immediately followed by a stabbing pain that tore through his chest. His entire body stiffened as his hand instinctively flew toward the wound, his claws digging into the fabric wrapped around his torso while his teeth clenched tightly together.
Even the smallest movement sent another sharp pulse through his chest, making his breathing hitch. This was not the kind of injury he could simply grit his teeth through and ignore. His body felt as though something had been driven straight through his ribs and left there, twisting whenever he moved. He tried to lift his head enough to look down, but the pain became so intense that he immediately abandoned the attempt.
"Huff!"
Ka’z exhaled shakily, allowing his head to sink back into the haystack. For several seconds he simply lay there, staring at the ceiling while his breathing slowly steadied.
"Ooh my God..." he gasped, his voice barely audible as his fingers cautiously reached toward his chest.
His claws stopped just before touching the injured area. He didn’t even want to know how bad it looked. Instead, Ka’z gathered what little mana remained within him and forced it toward his palm. "Lumen Carn Kael." The words came out strained and uneven, almost collapsing halfway through the incantation.
A golden halo appeared around his body, its gentle light spreading across his scales before sinking into his wounds. Almost immediately, the burning pain in his chest began to fade. It did not disappear completely, and the healing was nowhere near as rapid as he would have liked, but the difference was enough for him to finally breathe without feeling as though his chest was being torn apart.
Ka’z maintained the spell for several seconds before his concentration began slipping. His mind felt exhausted and his entire body felt like it had been dragged through a war. He reluctantly released the spell. At least now he could move.
It was then that his ears flicked.
Crying.
Ka’z’s expression slowly changed as he turned his head toward the sound. Only now did he realize room was empty. That alone felt strange.
Za’r and the others should have been nearby, especially considering the state he had been in when they brought him back.
The absence of his friends immediately made something inside Ka’z tighten. Then the memories returned. They came rushing into his mind all at once, and the sudden flood of images caused a stabbing pain behind his eyes.
Ka’z groaned and pressed his palm against his forehead.
"Goblins..." His voice broke.
His eyes widened as everything returned to him.
"Tud’or... Tong’a... Lan’ka..." Ka’z whispered each name as though saying them aloud could somehow confirm they were still alive.
His breathing became quicker.
"No."
He shoved himself away from the haystack.
Pain immediately exploded through his chest, but Ka’z forced himself upright anyway. His legs trembled beneath him as he rose, and for a moment he nearly fell back onto the bed. He caught himself against the wall and remained there until the dizziness passed. Then he began staggering toward the doorway.
He coughed three times before he reached it. The third cough brought blood up into his palm.
Ka’z stared at it briefly, his brow tightening, before wiping it against his body and continuing forward. His wound was still bleeding, his body was barely holding together and his legs felt weak, but none of that mattered anymore. He needed to know what had happened. He needed to see them.
Leaving his room, Ka’z followed the sound of crying through the winding tunnels of the colony. The familiar passages that usually felt cramped and lively now seemed strangely cold. Kobolds stood along the walls with lowered heads, some openly crying while others simply stared at the ground with hollow expressions. Several noticed Ka’z as he passed, but nobody stopped him. Perhaps they were too shocked to speak. Perhaps they simply understood where he was going.
Eventually, Ka’z reached the assembly grounds. The sight waiting for him nearly stopped his heart.
The usually crowded area was filled with kobolds, but nobody spoke loudly. There was only crying, muffled sobbing and the occasional trembling voice. At the center of the gathering stood an elevated platform, and upon it lay a charred figure covered in blackened scales and burned flesh.
Ka’z stopped and his vision blurred immediately. He did not recognize the body.
His eyes moved rapidly through the crowd instead, searching one face after another. He needed to count them. He needed to see who was here and who wasn’t. His mind desperately searched for familiar faces while tears began rolling down his cheeks before he even understood why he was crying.
Then a voice broke through the crowd.
"Tud’or!!!!!"
Lady Zira’s cry ripped through Ka’z’s heart like a dagger.
His legs lost their strength.
Ka’z collapsed onto his backside, his eyes widening as he stared at the charred body on the platform and his vision remained blurred by tears, but now he began seeing things he had failed to notice from a distance. The broad shoulders. The shape of the head. The familiar scales beneath the layers of blackened flesh.
Tud’or.
Ka’z felt as though all the air had been sucked from his lungs.
The cave suddenly felt unbearably stuffy. He couldn’t breathe properly. He couldn’t think properly. He couldn’t even hear the people around him anymore. Everything became distant as he slowly pushed himself back to his feet.
He walked but he didn’t know where he was going.
Ka’z wiped his tears and the mucus running from his nose with the back of his hand, but more immediately replaced them. He passed through the assembly grounds, through the tunnels and eventually toward the cave entrance. The cool night breeze brushed against his scales when he finally stepped outside.
He didn’t stop.
Ka’z climbed the hill and every step made his chest hurt. Halfway up, he felt the wound reopen. Warm blood began soaking through the clothes wrapped around his torso, but he didn’t care. His eyes remained fixed ahead as he continued climbing until he reached the hidden entrance to his secret chamber.
He staggered inside.
The moment he reached the haystack bed in the center, his legs gave out. Ka’z collapsed onto it and stared blankly at the ceiling while tears continued running down the sides of his face.
"Why didn’t you listen to me, you idiot!" Ka’z cried, his voice breaking completely.
The grief that followed was ugly and exhausting. There was nothing dignified about it. Ka’z cried until his throat hurt, chest hurt, his eyes burned and his body could no longer produce enough tears to keep going. Eventually he simply lay there, exhausted and staring at nothing.
After several hours, Ka’z’s attention eventually drifted toward the translucent panels tucked away at the corner of his vision. They had been there the entire time, patiently waiting for him to acknowledge them. Normally, seeing a system notification would have immediately captured his attention. Now he barely cared.
Still, curiosity eventually won.
Ka’z focused on the panels and they enlarged and slid toward the center of his vision.
[Mission: Protect The Colony From Grash And His Group Successful]
[Special Reward: A unique reward will be granted for every member of Grash’s elite group successfully killed.]
[Two Members of Grash Elites group were eliminated.]
[Tertiary Element Unlocked: Blood {Sangu}]
[Warning: Blood magic is classified under cursed elements. Using such element slowly permanently alters the users appearance and corrupts their core. When a core is fully corrupted, it loosened access to the Orthodox elements the world is used to and instead gains access to the unorthodox elements.]
[Special Reward: 200sp]
Ka’z stared at the messages without expression.
Two hundred system points.
Normally, he would have been ecstatic. Blood magic was something he had never expected to obtain this early, and the mention of cursed elements immediately raised dozens of questions in his mind.
But tonight, none of it mattered.
What was the point of gaining another element when he couldn’t protect the people around him?
His eyes eventually narrowed at one particular part of the warning.
"Orthodox and unorthodox magic?" he muttered.
That was new.
Ka’z had never heard those terms before. He was about to think deeper about it when a soft mechanical sound interrupted him.
Creak!
Ka’z’s face tightened.
The wall beside him trembled slightly before sliding open. Kong’gong walked through and Ka’z blinked several times in surprise.
"It’s good you are here. I was worried you would do something stupid when you left the cave." Kong’gong released a sigh of relief as he stepped inside.
Ka’z stared at him.
He was genuinely speechless.
He had sneaked out specifically because he didn’t want anyone following him. Yet somehow Kong’gong had known exactly where he had gone.
"How are you able to sense so far under the earth but you are blind outside?" Ka’z finally asked.
He couldn’t hold the question back anymore. The entire thing had been bothering him ever since he discovered the strange limitation of Kong’gong’s perception.
Kong’gong chuckled and rubbed his chin thoughtfully before answering.
"At the bronze core you just gain access to your primary elements. At the silver core you gain a secondary element and the ability to shape your magic and give it form. At the gold realm, however, you are able to give life to your magic by putting a portion of your consciousness in it. You can create a bird of fire and let it fly through the air, viewing the world. Or create a shark of water and let it swim through the water and see through its eyes."
"Or put your consciousness into a hill and become the hill." Ka’z interrupted, his voice filled with surprise.
Kong’gong nodded firmly, a small smile appearing on his face as he walked toward the entrance of the secret chamber. Ka’z followed him, still processing what he had just heard.
"That’s why I said I can hear and see everything happening within this hill. But once I step out, I will just become another helpless blind magic beast." Kong’gong sighed.
Ka’z slowly nodded.
That finally explained everything.
The two fell silent as they stood beside the entrance, staring out at the night sky filled with stars. The forest beyond them looked peaceful now, almost offensively peaceful after everything that had happened.
"Tud’or’s dream was to create the magic that would allow us to beat humans because even he acknowledged that they were the greatest threat. He eventually created the magic, but that same magic ended up killing him because he wasn’t yet ready to use it." Kong’gong’s voice became heavier as he spoke.
Ka’z blinked.
"Grash didn’t kill Tud’or?"
"Hmph!" Kong’gong snorted disdainfully. "How can a dirty goblin defeat our best talent of the last century? Tud’or whooped his ass so hard, he ran back home like the bitch he is."
Ka’z stared at him.
For a moment, he didn’t know how to react.
Then something inside his chest loosened.
He had spent the last several hours imagining Grash standing over Tud’or, imagining the warrior chief being defeated by the same monster who had nearly killed him. But that hadn’t happened.
Tud’or had won.
Even in death, the warrior chief had not been defeated.
"If Tud’or did not die, he was bound to make it to gold realm. He could have reached and even surpassed me." The old kobold’s voice softened as he stared toward the distant forest.
Ka’z looked down.
He wasn’t sure why hearing that made him feel so much better.
Perhaps because Tud’or had always been someone Ka’z admired. The warrior chief had represented strength, courage and everything Ka’z wanted the colony to become. Knowing that Grash had not been able to defeat him made the grief slightly easier to carry.
Fresh tears slipped down Ka’z’s face.
He quickly wiped them away, but a strange smile appeared through the tears.
"I see..." His voice trembled. "That’s good."
Kong’gong didn’t say anything.
He simply reached over and gently patted Ka’z’s back.
For once, Ka’z didn’t complain about being treated like a child. He stood there beneath the stars, quietly crying while Kong’gong remained beside him, allowing him to grieve the warrior who had died protecting the future of their colony.