Chapter 72: | Survivors of the Goblin Den

At first, they looked anxious and afraid, but when Theo held out his hand, one of them bravely reached out and touched it, even though her hand was shaking.

Her eyes went wide, the fear in her chest easing. A smile spread across her face the moment her hand touched Theo’s, and she even gripped it tightly, as if afraid to let go.

The other girls followed suit, placing their trust in Theo one by one. Theo smiled, pleased, and led them away from the area.

When they caught sight of the horror in the main chamber, they immediately felt sick, some of them retching, turning their faces away, unwilling to look at the blood and everything else laid out there.

Theo noticed their fear. He asked them to turn around and close their eyes, and they obeyed without question.

He stepped forward toward a woman collapsed on the ground. Her clothes were torn to shreds, her eyes hollow and empty, deep trauma etched into her gaze.

He crouched down beside her and covered her body with the black cloak he was wearing.

“Easy now… I’ll—”

“Kill me,” the woman whispered, the mage, gripping Theo’s hand tightly.

“I don’t want to live anymore… please, kill me!”

“End my suffering!”

Theo was a little taken aback hearing her plead like that. He told her she needed to keep living, that she still had a long life ahead of her.

But the woman refused. Her body had been defiled. Her purity was taken from her by those disgusting monsters. She’d be nothing but cast off garbage to everyone around her now.

He could see the despair in her, sobbing uncontrollably as she begged Theo. He turned it over in his mind. He worried that if she went back home and people found out the goblins had brutally assaulted her, her life would never be normal again.

It would only become a mental burden she’d carry forever. She’d live out her days suffering under the weight of that trauma. Ending her life… might genuinely be the kindest choice for her.

But Theo still couldn’t bring himself to do it. He couldn’t kill her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She deserved to live, to start a new life out there somewhere.

“Please… kill me…”

Before long, Theo looked up and saw Avara had arrived. She shifted back into human form and told Theo the villagers had come, but they were waiting outside the mine’s cave entrance.

“Ava.”

“Yeah?” Avara asked.

“I have a request for you,” Theo said.

Avara glanced down at the woman wrapped in Theo’s black cloak, who was begging Avara to kill her.

Theo didn’t say anything more after that, but Avara seemed to understand exactly what he meant.

She took the cloak and handed it back to Theo. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you,” Theo said.

He turned and walked back toward the kidnapped girls. He gave one of them a light tap on the shoulder, and she turned around immediately.

“I wanted to ask… Do you know where they kept the Claukgard?”

“I don’t know… there’s nothing here,” the woman answered. “Maybe they’re keeping it in the kobold den.”

A kobold den, huh? I did notice their axes were made of Claukgard material, the signs match perfectly.

From behind Theo, Avara arrived and let him know it was done. Theo nodded and glanced back briefly, a single sharp feather lodged right in the left side of the mage’s chest.

Now every member of Zay’s party was truly dead, not one of them left. Theo didn’t have time to give them a proper burial either. The mine would have to serve as their final resting place.

“Looks like the Claukgard’s kept in the kobold den. I need to head there.”

“Why don’t we just do it tomorrow? You’re already worn out from tonight,” Avara said.

What Avara said made sense. Using Foresight combined with the Eternity Ring had drained a huge amount of his strength.

He also had no idea exactly how many kobolds were in that den, could be fewer than the goblins, or far more.

In the end, Theo decided to follow Avara’s suggestion. For now, he asked her to help him get the victims out of the goblin den.

The eight women walked together, holding onto one another, turning their faces away every time they passed another scene of the brutality that had happened there. Avara led the way up front, with Theo keeping watch from behind.

After passing through several intersections, they finally reached the entrance of the mine cave. Avara looked startled, since she didn’t see any villagers there, even though they’d been waiting earlier.

“Did something happen?” Theo asked.

“Not sure,” Avara said. “I’ll go scout ahead.”

Avara waved her hand and shifted into her crow form. She flew fast out through the mine entrance and up above the mine itself.

Within minutes, Avara came back and shifted into her human form again. Her eyes fixed on Theo as she gave him the news about the kobolds.

“The number of kobolds on guard has gone up,” Avara explained. “There might be as many as twenty three of them now.”

“Heading out now would be a hassle, especially after wiping out all those goblins already,” Theo said.

He turned and looked at the eight girls. Given how dire the situation was, they had no choice but to stay here for the night and head back the next day.

Theo knew well enough that kobolds would retreat to rest during the day. That would be their best window to get everyone home safely.

“We’ll stay here for tonight,” Theo said, looking at the eight girls. “You all don’t mind, right?”

They shook their heads, fully trusting and willing to go along with whatever Theo decided. They retreated deeper into the cave and settled into a dead end passage, careful not to touch any of the trapped treasure scattered around.

Theo and Ava stood near the cave entrance, side by side, looking out toward the darkness beyond.

“Do you want me to keep watch outside?” Ava asked.

“No need,” Theo answered. “If any kobolds come this way, we’ll kill them before anyone knows what happened.”

Avara laughed softly, arms crossed as she talked with Theo. “Sorry for doubting you.”

“What?”

“I thought you were being reckless, maybe even crazy, charging into a goblin den all alone. But I forgot you’ve got power that goes beyond anything a god could match,” Ava said.

“Honestly, I didn’t plan on using that power at first. But after seeing how cruel they were, I changed my mind.”

“My blood just boiled over. My head went blank. I activated the skill without caring about the risk at all,” Theo explained.

Avara glanced back at the girls, now asleep, huddled together for warmth. “We couldn’t save Zay’s party, but we managed to save them.”

“The village is going to be so relieved to hear this,” Ava said.

“Yeah, they definitely will.”