Becoming the Dark Lord

Luke’s ship was overrun by women in white, each one carrying a spear. They started calling out to each other in sharp, quick bursts.

Are they speaking another language? The system isn’t translating it.

“We didn’t come here looking for trouble,” Eleanor said, bow in hand.

They were being surrounded. Luke glanced back toward the helm and saw Anne there, three women with spears aimed at her. Then he looked at Charlie. She gave the slightest nod. At the first real sign of danger, the fight would start.

“This is a misunderstanding,” Eleanor said, listening as the women spoke in a language none of them understood.

“We’ll turn around and leave the island,” Luke said, watching them continue their exchange.

“You’re not going anywhere. Not until we know who you are and ask what we need to ask.”

“So now you do speak my language?”

She smiled. “The system translates what it wants translated.”

She turned her head and gave a small signal to one of the others.

A woman who looked to be in her early twenties leveled her spear at Luke. “That one is dangerous. He hasn’t drawn a weapon, and he’s wearing a magic ring.”

“I’m the least dangerous person here. You should see the woman with the bow in a real fight,” Luke said.

“We got the two from inside,” another woman announced.

Jack and Stephen were dragged out from the cabin area. Each had a woman behind him with a blade at his throat.

“The last time a woman held a knife to my neck like that, I had a fantastic night,” Stephen said.

“Shut up,” the woman snapped.

Luke studied them carefully.

They were following the ship from underwater. Either they already knew where to go, or they had some kind of powerful information-gathering skill, maybe something that let them see through walls.

“W-we’re here looking for my father. We didn’t come here to cause problems,” Layla said.

Eleanor looked at Luke, waiting for an order. Charlie did too.

Jack and Stephen have blades at their throats. We can’t just start fighting.

He looked back at the leader. But we can force a draw.

The women were still talking among themselves in their own language.

“Drop your weapons. And the man with the eyepatch takes off the ring.”

Take off the ring?

That would cost him access to ninety percent of his Witch skills.

”The sexy amazons aren’t messing around, Luke”, Artemis said.

“If we do that, will you let us turn around and leave?” Eleanor asked.

“That depends on what happens once we know who you are,” one of them answered.

“Then let’s cooperate and avoid making this worse,” Luke said, slowly pulling the ring off his finger.

He looked at Evangeline. It was quick, but she understood. The moment he moved to toss it down, she spat out a cloud of shadow smoke. When it cleared, Luke was behind one of the spear-women with a kukri at her throat.

“Now we have a standoff,” he said. “If you don’t get off my ship, this turns into something none of us are going to enjoy.”

The woman with the kukri to her neck laughed and said something in her own language.

“If you don’t release our Kalyssan, your friend dies,” one of them said, pressing her knife harder against Jack’s throat.

”Sacrifices are sometimes necessary”, Artemis said in his head.

“He dies, then she dies,” Luke said. “And after that, all of us start killing each other. And I guarantee that when it’s over, I’ll still be alive and every one of you will be dead. But before that, I’ll leave one of you breathing long enough to ask if it was worth it. Then I’ll kill her too.”

Black knives rose around him, floating on telekinetic force.

“So before we begin, I’ll ask the question now. Is it really worth it?”

“What is your name?” asked one of the women, her face marked with painted lines.

“Luke Moon.”

“You have a lot of courage, Luke Moon. But if I and all my sisters die here, the others on the island will come for revenge. Could you fight all of them?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said.

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The women narrowed their eyes and started speaking to one another in their own language.

“Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” a loud male voice said.

A man was climbing onto the deck.

He was Black, tall, and muscular, dressed in a priest’s robes. “And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Luke and the others stared at the man in confusion as he stepped between them.

“The Gospel of Saint Luke, chapter fifteen, verses one through seven,” the priest said with a faint laugh. “And you, do you know the story of Saint Luke?”

“Only the one who blew up the Death Star,” Luke replied.

The priest laughed.

“Father, you shouldn’t be here,” one of the women said.

“I was praying nearby when I saw the little confrontation,” the priest said. Then he looked toward Layla. “The person you’re looking for, your father, his name is Eddie?”

“That’s him. He’s my father,” Layla said at once.

“Then, Miss Layla Pumpkim, you’ve found your lost sheep.”

For a few moments, things seemed to calm down. The priest told Layla that Eddie was on the island. The amazons lowered their weapons.

“Let me go,” the woman Luke was holding said.

“Not until every last one of you is off my ship,” he replied.

“We already gave our word that we won’t do anything.”

“And yet all of you are still on my ship, and three of you are still standing near my navigator at the helm,” he said.

“A word is a word,” she answered.

The ones by the helm stepped away, and little by little the amazons began jumping back into the water and leaving the ship. When only five remained, Luke let her go.

Then she snapped her head back and slammed it into his face.

“If we give our word, we keep it,” she said, turning to leave.

Luke touched the split in his lip, then swung and punched her in the face. She staggered, caught off guard.

“I believe in gender equality,” he said.

Her face twisted with fury. She lunged for him, but a blade stopped at her throat.

“If you try to hurt Master Luke again, I’ll cut your throat and the throats of all your little friends,” Charlie said.

The amazon spat something angry in her own language at another woman. They were furious.

“Mia,” another voice called.

It was a woman like the others, only older, somewhere near forty.

“It’s over.”

The amazon, Mia, muttered what was probably a curse at Luke, but lowered her head.

“Yes, sister,” Mia said, walking away while muttering under her breath in her own tongue.

“Welcome to our island,” the amazon leader said. “And don’t start trouble.”

Luke turned his attention back to Layla’s conversation with the priest. He pulled his soul-cat from [Soul Infiltration] out of Layla and sent it into the amazon leader instead. Layla’s conversation had been nothing but questions about Eddie, how he was doing, whether he was safe. If the leader was planning anything, Luke wanted to know first.

“Why did you hit him?” the amazon leader asked.

“Because I felt like it,” Mia answered.

Wait, what?

Luke froze for a second. His ears were hearing them speak in their own language, but through Soul Infiltration, inside his mind, he was hearing the conversation in English.

Interesting. I didn’t know my Rank Skill could do that.

The skill let him see and hear through the soul he had infiltrated. Completely by accident, he had just discovered one more use for it.

“The man I hit is dangerous, but the other two aren’t,” Mia said to another amazon.

“The skinny one doesn’t have enough muscle,” the other woman said, looking at Jack.

“I felt something dangerous from the blonde,” Mia said, meaning Charlie. “She wasn’t bluffing with that threat.”

The ship anchored at the island. The amazons were one of the groups providing security there. Too many islands had been attacked lately. Some groups had learned that hunting down the people actually pushing through the event was troublesome, since those tended to be strong. So instead, they started raiding islands, where the odds of finding weaker people were much better.

“Layla, my daughter, I can’t believe I found you again!” Eddie shouted.

The man came running through the village in the middle of the night.

“Dad,” Layla said, running straight into his arms.

They all watched the reunion for a moment, then stepped back to give them space. Eddie was crying. Layla was too. Luke set Katarina down nearby.

“You’re here too. I missed you too,” Eddie said to the plant. “You look even more different now.”

The plant was happy to see him again as well.

“We did it, Luke,” Eleanor said. “We brought them back together.”

“At least that much,” he said. Then he looked at her. “Do you think about your family a lot?”

“Always.”

He walked over to Evangeline, who was leaning against the ship’s rail.

“I don’t like moments like this,” she said, watching the water.

“I figured.”

“I just don’t know what to do with them, that’s all.” She straightened a little. “There are halos over there, Cinderella. We can teleport to the next Beacon area.”

“Evangeline, can I ask you something?”

“Sure. As long as it’s not something that gets me on your girlfriend’s hit list again.”

“Why are you clearing the Beacons?”

“What do you mean?”

“Out of everyone, you’re the one I least understand. You could stay on some island resting, enjoying yourself. And don’t tell me it’s because you want items to sell later so you can retire rich. We’ve already seen there are easier ways to get rewards, even treasure.”

She shrugged. “A friend of mine needs to win the event so he can find his mother again. That’s reason enough for me. Or maybe I just plan to charge him a very healthy percentage of whatever he gets when he wins. I do, after all, intend to become a millionaire again.”

“Knowing you, it’s probably both.”

She laughed, then looked back at the water. “I would give anything to see my parents again, Luke. But they’re gone. So if you manage to find your biological mother, then part of me feels like I’m helping the little Evangeline who ended up living on the streets all those years ago.”

“Thank you.”

“But you’re too focused on your mother. Not that you shouldn’t be. Still... what about your father?”

“I don’t even know who he is.”

“You never looked into him? We’re friends with Eleanor, and until a few months ago, before the apocalypse, she probably could’ve walked into the Pentagon and had coffee there. You never once asked for help?”

“I never looked into him. He abandoned my mother and me. And in all these years, he never came looking for me. If I’m ever going to learn anything about him, I’d rather hear it from her. She’s my priority.”

Evangeline let out a slow breath. “I grew up with both my parents, so I see it differently. I just hope the Moon family gets to reunite the way Eddie and Layla did.”