Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age - Chapter 155

The last hobgoblin was slain by One, meeting the same fate as its brothers, a slit to the throat where its blood poured out.

Covered in the blood of of these monsters, One returned to the beast’s lair which was effectively under their control.

The knights had the goblinmancer in their custody, he was tied up between his legs and forced to kneel. When he arrived, the knights and Toby did not greet him verbally, they just nodded.

He then noticed that there was something missing in their eyes, the spark of humanity. Now, they were becoming more like the man in black and the only difference was that they had more humanity to spare.

Ignoring this development for now, One walked towards where the goblinmancer was, he was asleep and his face pale. His face from his own sweat and tears, One was disgusted.

With no patience to spare and time ticking to save the remaining villages, or at least the survivors, One raised his hand and slapped the goblinmancer awake. The slap was powerful enough to send him crashing into the ground and he screamed in pain.

The goblinmancer opened his eyes and was met by the deathly gaze of One’s purple eyes which were locked on his being, as if he had been judged of all his sins and his punishment was at hand.

“S-spare me!” The goblinmancer begged but they fell on ears deaf to the concept of mercy to those whose beings did not deserve such a gratitude from their victorious foes.

One grabbed the goblinmancer’s cloak and started burning it little by little using his palms, the cloth began to catch flames and heat slowly spread across his upper body.

“No! Please! Stop!” The man begged and swirled about, trying to break away from his bonds and escape.

“I bet the women in your room said the same thing to you when you had your way with them,” Toby suddenly said. One did not know what he was talking about so he scanned the lair and found the bodies.

With this new revelation of his actions, One continued to torture him. At first, he intended to engrave into him that further resistance was futile and that any questions he were to be asked were to be answered with full honesty. Now, it was given a new meaning.

As if his conscience was returning from the depths of his heart, he could hear the screams and cries for help of his victims, not the goblinmancer’s, his.

One knew it would be hypocritical if he tortured this man for committing atrocities but he too had committed his own kinds of atrocities, the massacre of hundreds of thousands with the wars he waged and the efforts he undertook so blindly so that he could rebuild his home. After so many years of not caring, their souls seemingly crying out for vengeance, surrounded him and began to haunt him in his mind.

Yet, he was still uncaring, he heard the screams and wails but he did not flinch. What was he to regret? Will regret bring back what had already been done? It was already too late to do anything about it. He knew he had already took the path where he could no longer turn back, there was no redemption, there was only the goal he was given.

And so, he chose to be the hypocrite. He tortured the goblinmancer due to his hypocrisy to look as if he was now the hammer of justice which served to undo the wrongs of the world.

After 30 grueling minutes, One was finished. What was left of the the man’s skin were third degree burns as if he was baked inside a huge oven. His bashful face was all but gone and his head was bald.

The knights and Toby did not flinch even when the goblinmancer begged them, some even smiled when Ome began to burn his skin.

“He deserved it,” Were their thoughts of what happened to him.

It wasn’t long until the questions started rolling in, why he did what he did. He told them out of pure desperation that he was tricked and that he was said to have been given immortality by the God of War and that he would seek vengeance upon them who wronged him and his plans.

“He is here!” The goblinmancer cried out. He sensed the presence of his god and was overjoyed, thinking that he was there to help him.

He was wrong. His god was there but he didn’t do anything, even when One ordered his knights to beat the man senseless, his god only stood there and chuckled at his suffering.

He then realized that his exact suffering and emotion was what fueled the powers of his god, to think he would be abandoned by his own patron broke his heart and his sanity.

The entire thing wasn’t complex at all, he just raised a goblin army and some hobgoblins for a few years and tried to take over this region of Fiorg. One soon learned that the other villagers were decimated as well, same fate as the rest of the eastern frontier.

To test the goblinmancer’s claim that he was immortal, One gave his knights one goal, to kill him. If he was indeed immortal, then was he invincible? Like, would he die if his body had life-threatening injuries?

And so, he became One’s pig, his immortality was tested and he was stabbed multiple times in the ċhėst. Yet, he still lived on. Next, One specifically ordered for his heart to be stabbed right through, a knight volunteered and he stabbed, sinking his sword into his ċhėst.

The man survived. He felt the pain of each attempt, the feeling of his heart getting crushed and the blade travelling through his body.

His heart was crushed and blood stopped flowing throughout his body, yet his mind stayed firm and alive while the rest of his body seemingly began to shutdown.

“So you are immortal, but not invincible,”