The Conquerors Path

"Kirsly is a good person at heart..."

Nathalia muttered, all her eyes focusing on me with a slight guilt, her shyness coming over her, while the apparent look of her, one not used to males fully filled her body language, a moment of silence falling into the room, the air thickening in tension, and it was within this that I suddenly spoke, a sigh leaving me.

"Sigh... fine, we will get to it, after all, I can't have my cute junior crying on me."

The rest of my words, made Nathalia blush at my shy comment, Krill's eyes moving to catch that moment. While he looked at me with suspicion, but he didn't hold onto that for long, as the duty of healing his sister filled him. The brawny dwarf with a huge presence spoke.

"Speak, what do you need to get this done?"

To this, a light smile started to fill me.

"What I need is nothing from you."

This reply of mine brought a frown to the man, who was already filled with a lot of pride, as he asked.

"You don't need anything?"

To this, I shook my head, my hand finding its way to pat Nathalia's head, who seemingly melted at the touch of her hair as I spoke.

"I am doing this for Nathalia, and above that, I too am quite responsible for the situation. Even though I didn't like Krisly's words, it didn't mean I had to go so far."

The light tone of apology slimmed down the comforting aura that surrounded Krill as he spoke.

"Still, there must still be something I can do for you."

He spoke, to this a thoughtful look came to my face which turned into a light smile as I walked and stood in front of the dwarf, my height thus dwarfing my opponent a lot. But even then, Krill's presence felt very high.

"How about this, we can be friends?"

I asked, my hand going forth to give him a handshake, the presence of my words bringing some trembling into the man's eyes, for even though I did put his sister in a coma-like state, it didn't change the fact that all my qualities are to his liking. A man of extreme power yet doesn't give off a hint of arrogance.

Plus, my reputation is good out there, not to mention that as a warrior and as one who has faced my friends who hold absolute loyalty to me, not out of fear but out of camaraderie and trust, these are all good qualities that this lonely dwarf looks for in one he can call a good friend. Truly, if I hadn't done what I did, he would have jumped to be my friend the day my fight was over.

And as much as Krill loves loyalty and power, he loves and cares for his sister more. Hence it's a bit hard for him to just easily get rid of the slate and start clean again. Seeing so, I added a little incentive.

"How about this, I will also fix Krisly's axe and have a battle with you, one man on man."

These finely worded words of mine stopped the trembling of Krill's eyes, it lighting up in a certain joy as his hands went to hold mine, a powerful pressure coming forth as he spoke.

"Deal."

Just as he said this, the entire aura turned much more relaxed, smiles filling the faces of Nathalia and Clara, a smile filling Nathalia due to the good relationship forming between us, people she cares about and another smile filling Clara due to the plan all going according to plan. Thus leaving the handshake, I spoke with a smile.

"So shall we start this?"

With that question, I walked towards the edge of the bed, my eyes meeting the barbaric beauty as Clara asked.

"You have it with you?"

Her voice filled with confusion to which I replied in a light tone.

"Of course, I always carry it with me, can't leave something important like this outside."

And as I said this, I turned towards Krill, my eyes meeting the man's as I spoke.

"Can I have the room to myself?"

This question just made him frown, the meaning of my words crystal clear. But before he could speak, I did.

"Nathalia can stay if you are worried anything bad will happen. I have spent time with her and have gotten to know her, and while I can see that you are a man of trust and his word, I still don't want to gamble anything on just my gut feeling. Though I am sure that if I get to know you more, I will be able to trust you, as a friend."

The meanings of my words were mixed, one side of it speaking highly of him and on the other side showing off my nature of being cautious. As a powerful dwarf of power, he can understand the sides of things, plus above that, I am still leaving Nathalia with me. After all, she is someone who won't let any foul play get through.

"Then I shall take my place outside, but please get my sister back to health."

With these words, he walked out of the room. One might wonder why does he trust all this and move along with the path, not questioning my word. Shouldn't he be more against it? Well, as I said, there are some of the good things about having a very great reputation, one clean and healthy enough, not to mention a noble position and past.

'They say don't judge a book by its cover, but when a lot is being spoken about the book, you can't help but form some judgment.'

Musing at this thought, I looked towards Nathalia, still shyly twirling her hair in her hands at the words of my trust towards her.

'I really need to push her gifting to me as far as possible.'

When she tries to fulfill ter way of the Dwarven tradition of proposing, I won't be able to just accept it, not now anyway. There are some things that must be done before that, and this girl lying on the hospital bed will be my first step to reaching that. Thus, without many words to Nathalia, I turned towards Clara, and with a nod, a certain earring came into my hand, one that already caused a sense of darkness to cover around the room.

And having her level of talent and now literally the best creator on the planet, Nathalia quickly understood what was in my hand. Even if she wasn't who she is, she would still have understood the earring floating in my hand, one with an outer golden covering with a single black ruby darker than any lay in the middle.

After all, this earring itself is quite famous, belonging to the very Imperial that had chosen Clara, a powerful artifact bouncing on the tips of legendary, the one said to have made the Imperial itself one of the best healers and fighter around. Clara hid the fact of receiving this earring because then a lot of issues would have come to me and her.

Especially from the demon realm, where several darkness healers walk. Moreover, from the demon families that focus on darkness healing, the powerful ones would go to the ends of the earth to get this. That would just be another headache and a blindside on Clara's body, which would just make it hard for her to move around.

"Keep this a secret."

I spoke, turning to look at Nathalia, who nodded her head in a slight daze. However, she quickly got over it. After which I gave the earring to Clara, who placed it on her ears. The moment she did so, a seductive dark feeling covered all over her like the power of her new darkness healing and a new branch of darkness she awakened getting stronger.

For a moment, a dark light flashed around the room. Soon, Clara placed her hand on Krisly's forehead, and a strange gas-like darkness was released from Clara's body, which quickly started to enter inside Krisly's body, drilling deep into her. Within seconds, the darkness fully filled Krisly's entire being.

And with that, a bit of Krisly's body started to turn black, the frown on her face receding to form a warm relaxing smile. Seeing it, Nathalia smiled a bit, while I looked at this with a calm smile. Clara soon began to do what I had set her to do.