Adopted Soldier

Even the people who woke up safely in their homes and had no visible injuries felt some kind of pain in their lower abdomens . This happening after that weird event where the clouds started changing color, made the citizens of the Granado Empire very anxious and confused .

If that wasn’t enough all throughout the world, the animals have started changing, even some of the trees and rocks were becoming different . There were even reports of sightings of pigmen, large men with pig faces that resembled fantasy creatures like orcs . There were even reports of some more fantastical creatures like minotaurs, and centaurs, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere . The orc-like creatures, as well as the minotaurs, were extremely hostile to humans . While some creatures that looked like dogmen were rather docile, only some of them have been spotted attacking humans .

Others claim that those things didn’t just suddenly appear, that these creatures were the former animals turned into monsters . Others claim that not all of them changed the same way, for example, a farmer who was able to escape and report in a nearby police station, claimed that he saw the pigs changing once he woke up . Some of the pigs became pigmen the things that looked like orcs, while some of them simply tripled in size but remained looking like normal pigs, while others suddenly gained spiky looking bodies . He even saw some pigs breathe fire like dragons . The same reports were being reported all over the world .

The scariest report was that some people saw a giant shaped shadow flying through the skies . They claimed that this shadow of the creature they saw was the size of twenty football stadiums .

Almost every country after hearing these reports immediately sent men to farming areas, zoos, and other places with wild animals near the city . As for the being in the sky, the countries decided that if it doesn’t attack they shouldn’t bother it for now . Some of them didn’t want to believe such a large monster existed . It was a scary time as some of the animals started to eat humans . You could actually hear some people saying that it was the end of humanity .

. . .

While the chaos was happening all around the world, the Emperor of the Granado Empire was also receiving similar reports, but instead of helping his citizens and backing out from the war . The Emperor had other ideas . He thought that since this event was happening all around the world, it was obviously giving trouble to the enemy countries of the Southern Union, and Berdonia too . This was the perfect opportunity for an all-out attack .

If they attacked now while everyone in the world was panicking from the monsters, victory was practically in the palm of Granado Empire’s hands . When the Emperor told his advisers his brilliant plan, most of them advised to not follow through with such a plan .

"Sire, if you go and do this, without protecting our people and land first, then even if we conquer Berdonia and the Southern Union, the Empire wouldn’t be able to hold on and will be destroyed from the inside . Even if we somehow survive this ordeal, the people of our Empire will likely revolt out of anger . "

Some of the more militaristic advisers argued against those who didn’t like to attack at this opportune moment .

"What cowardly things you people are saying . Our people, the people of the Granado Empire, aren’t as weak as you think . Monsters that look like they came out of fantasy novels, heh . " The man spat before he continued talking . "If any of our people die in the hands of such monsters, then it was their fault for being weak . This is a great time to cull the lives of all those weaklings while taking care of our enemies as well . "

The Emperor’s advisers continued arguing, until the Emperor slammed his hand onto the table, making everyone stop talking . "Fine, I have heard your opinions . We shall send out the minimum number of men to quell the citizens’ unrest and deal with those so-called monsters . The majority of our forces will make a final strike on the capital of Berdonia . To make sure that this plan succeeds I will personally join the battle . Also, I want you to prepare the railguns . "

After the Emperor gave out his order, the people present had no other option but to follow . As they were about to disperse a messenger entered the meeting room . He bowed in front of the Emperor and silently approached him and spoke in a loud voice so that everyone could hear .

"Sire, the monsters have entered the inner palace, and are eating the soldiers stationed here . Please evacuate immediately . " When the people present heard that the monsters were inside the palace, and were even eating the soldiers they couldn’t help but start panicking and wanted to retreat immediately . Yet they couldn’t do that in the presence of the Emperor .

"How many are these monsters? Where did they come from?" The Emperor remained calm even in such a situation which in turn made everyone else feel calm .

"There are hundreds of them, the specific numbers can’t be determined . As for where they came from, it is speculated that they came from the mountain near the palace . "

"Ask for reinforcements, everyone else should retreat to-" The Emperor wasn’t able to finish what he was about to say as he suddenly exploded . The people present were first stunned, when they finally registered what happened in their brains, the people who saw their Emperor blow up started to panic .

. . .

In an extremely secure room that was unknown to anyone else aside from the people who built it and the person who had it made, unfortunately, the people who built it have all died mysterious deaths and the only person who knows of its existence was sitting inside the room watching numerous monitors .

This person was none other than, the Emperor of the Granado Empire . The Emperor who was watching the monitors was actually monitoring his clones movements, but to his surprise, all his clones have exploded at the exact same time . Not one remained, even those that were in the lab have exploded . This was obviously an attack by someone, fortunately, none of those were the real him, and the killer would never find him . He just needed to create new clones and all will be well .

As he was thinking about who was capable enough to figure out the locations of all his clones, the Emperor heard someone whisper in his ears .

"The Shadow has come for you . " Those were the last words the Emperor of the Granado Empire ever heard as death came to him .

Shadow who had successfully killed his target looked at the now dead Emperor and spoke to the dead body . "As was said, Shadows never die . . . The deed has been done, all that face the Shadow have only one fate and that is death . "

The new Shadow almost failed this mission, as he too fainted when the clouds arrived . He even fainted during his infiltration of this room . It was a good thing that everyone else had fainted almost at the exact same time . Shadow was lucky that he woke up before the Emperor who was in this room regained consciousness . Once he was inside and had confirmed that the one in the room was the original Emperor, Shadow activated all the bombs he planted on the different clones he found . Once he was sure that none of the clones survived he proceeded to kill the Emperor’s original body .

"Uncle the deed has been done, I hope you’re having a fun time in Valhalla . " Shadow for a moment reverted to his former self, looked upward closed his eyes and reported the success of the mission to his uncle, Sayaka’s father, the former Shadow . Once he was done doing that his figure faded away from the room .