Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 1087: Despicable Man

He looked back at the warrior beside Kaiden. She had powers now, people who listened when she spoke, and a sword she knew how to use against the things that had ruined his life.

"Could you help me?"

Mrs. Weller rested her hand beside his on the blanket.

"You’re fourteen, sweetheart. He’s asking people to give up being human and bind their lives to his dungeon. That is far too much to decide because you’ve watched a broadcast."

"It would let me get stronger."

"And what would you do with that strength?"

"Fight monsters. Like she does."

Her hand covered his.

"Milo, we just watched that woman get beaten to death. I know she came back, but she still felt every moment of it. How could I help send you somewhere that might happen to you?"

"It already happened to my family."

The words came out louder than he intended. He pulled his hand from beneath hers, furious at the thought of being kept safe in this room while those things kept killing people outside it.

His parents were gone. Other children would lose theirs tomorrow, or the day after, and he would still be here watching people try to stop it. He hated the monsters so much that seeing them die in recordings had become the best part of his day.

Now someone was offering him a way to fight them himself.

"I want to kill them," he said. "I want to get strong enough that they can’t do that to anyone else. If he needs me to train, I’ll train. Whatever I have to do, I’ll do it."

Mrs. Weller drew her chair closer to the bed.

"I can see how angry you are. You have every reason to be. But you are still young enough to awaken, Milo. You could gain powers without doing this."

"Only fifteen percent of people awaken!"

He wanted a class of his own, powers he could learn to use. But a year could pass, then another, until he reached twenty with nothing to show for all that hoping.

"You want me to wait and see if I’m one of them? While monsters keep tearing up other families? What if I never get anything? What if I awaken and get an F-tier class? Then I can’t even be Dungeon-Born!"

"You can have a future even if you don’t awaken. There are people who care about you here. You have school, a safe place to sleep. I want you to have time to grow up before you make a decision you might regret."

"I hate it here!"

Mrs. Weller went still beside his bed.

He was crying now, which made him even angrier. She would think he needed comforting, that he would feel better after she tucked him in. Tomorrow she would ask about his homework, and he would have to get through another whole day wanting to tell his parents things.

"I hate this room. I hate going to bed here. Everybody keeps saying I’m safe, but I want my mom. I want my dad, and they’re dead, and being safe doesn’t make any of it better!"

Above his pillow, the painted family smiled outside its yellow house. He wanted to tear the picture down. He wanted to go home so badly that even saying it hurt, and there was nowhere left to go.

"You give me food and a bed. I know you’re trying to help. But what am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? Just keep watching monsters kill people?"

"Oh, Milo..."

Her voice was full of sympathy. He could hear that she cared, and he desperately wanted her to understand him instead of asking him to endure more of this.

"Kaiden Grey may have helped a great many people," she said. "I am grateful for that. But your life would depend on a core he controls. What happens if you want to leave him? If he asks you to do something you don’t want to do?"

"Why would he?"

"He is showing people soldiers who grow stronger and come back when they’re killed. I’m afraid he’s building an army of super soldiers, and you have just told me you’d do anything to become one. That frightens me, sweetheart."

Milo rubbed his sleeve across his wet face.

"He said families could go. Carpenters, people who grow food. You heard him! He said we wouldn’t have to fight for him."

"I heard him. I also heard what you want to do."

"He’s on our side!"

The accusation against Kaiden made Milo furious all over again. The man in his interface had been fighting monsters while everyone else tried to keep people alive in rooms like this one. Milo had watched families being saved in Japan; he had seen what Kaiden’s family could do together.

"He’s humanity’s hero. He’s been stopping dungeon breaks, saving people. He got those people away from the vampire in Japan. He gave Taigi’s people a home. He even saves innocent humans from evil humans! Why would he free people just to chain us up?"

Mrs. Weller reached toward his hand again. He let her hold it this time, hoping she had finally heard him.

"I know you believe in him," she said softly. "But I can’t help you take this risk, Milo. I won’t-"

"I do understand how this all sounds," Kaiden spoke up suddenly.

She stopped speaking. Beside the live feed, a comment had caught his attention, and Kaiden looked directly into the camera.

"I know there are children watching. I’m still not fully convinced that this is the right path to take."

Mrs. Weller’s hand tightened around his. Milo listened, afraid that Kaiden was about to withdraw it.

"If I were a father and another man put this idea in my child’s head, I’d want to murder him," Kaiden admitted. "I can understand parents who feel disgusted by me."

"But... While I haven’t lost anyone I love, thankfully, I’ve had nightmares of monsters taking my lovers, mother, or sister away from me."

Milo squeezed Mrs. Weller’s hand and waited for Kaiden to finish the thought.

"It was just a hypothetical scenario, the mere imagination of my brain. Yet I was so miserable, so full of hatred. Never had I wanted more power than in those dreams, the strength to avenge the fallen and protect those I still cared about."

"I can’t imagine being a child in such a position and being told that I can’t do anything because I’m too young. Children who still have a place on Earth will be automatically denied by the dungeon, while those with nowhere to go... That’s why..."

He shook his head. "Enough of me trying to justify my actions. Instead, I’ll respect you as people capable of making your own thoughts and choices. But to make this life-altering choice, you need information, and more importantly, assurances. To that end..."

Kaiden rose from the step to address his dungeon.

"I’m asking you to put your lives in my hands. You should have something stronger than my word to hold me to."

He clapped his hands together.

"I wish to make a binding oath with the population of Earth and the administrators of the Dungeon Master system as my witnesses."