"What do you have to say about this, Meryl?" Billy asked.
"I told you… he was originally a good leader, but then he suddenly decided to conquest the whole continent," Meryl replied. "He got worse when he got the powers of others…"
"No one suddenly losses their mind…" Billy said. "Something must have happened… like he learned something or found something. Hey, why are you guys fighting each other?"
"Because the savior needs powerful warriors…" The lion-like demi human replied.
"Why does he need powerful warriors?" Billy asked. "He probably can conquest the world by himself if we don't stop him."
"A powerful enemy is coming… and he needs our help…" The lion-like demi human asked.
"Your name is… Laffu," Billy said after he frowned for a while. "What more do you know?"
"Oh! The power of the savior… as expected, you are like him," Laffu said.
"We aren't saviors… now answer my question," Billy said after he realized that saying the same thing about their leader would only cause problems.
"I don't know… I am from a recent generation," Laffu replied.
"Recent Generation?" Meryl asked while frowning. "He has only been around leading you guys for ten or so years… and you are an adult."
"... How old are you?" Icarus asked.
"I am six months old," Laffu replied.
Everyone blinked several times… they couldn't believe their ears. That was nonsense, Laffu was taller than Billy, and it was impossible for a species of humans to grow that fast. Billy didn't know much about science, but he knew that making things grow faster never ends well in the end. That is even true to the more complete things.
"... Their numbers never decreased since they fought each other to create powerful warriors for the last two years," Billy said. "The maker probably created a cloning machine to reproduce and make the demi-humans grow much faster."
"Wait, wait… that kind of technology in this world of magic?" Icarus asked. "Isn't that insane? Even back on Earth, that thing was supposed to take hundreds of years…"
"You forget his original ability… he can create anything," Meryl said. "That attack that Billy repelled could destroy an entire mountain… it doesn't surprise me that he can do things like clones."
"Do you think he told them the truth?" Lucyna asked. "Is he preparing for some sort of battle? What kind of enemy people like him would have to fight in order to go to such lengths?"
"Maybe he has just gone insane, it isn't like there are any signs of enemies on the level of the Titans," Icarus said. "Even those wouldn't be a problem to the current us."
"What do you think, Billy?" Meryl asked.
"I think that we should ask him directly," Billy said. "I don't want to assume anything and spout nonsense like we will have to fight aliens… even though his cannon could shoot down my drones in outer space."
"I guess you have a point… there are still some of them fighting, so we should focus on stopping them and then look around for the cloning machines," Meryl said. "After that, we will head to the dungeon… can you make some prisons to stop the survivors from escaping or doing anything?"
"I will see what I can do…" Billy replied and then sighed.
In the end, Billy created some handcuffs that drained the mana of those handcuffed and used that mana to shock them when they moved from the spot too fast. It had been a lot of work to come up with those effects, but mass-producing them had been easy. As for stopping the remaining demi-humans… most of them were too injured to begin with, so the struggle had been minimal.
"The number of prisoners is too high…" Billy said at the end of the day. "Anyway, did you find where they had been created? It would have been a pit if the first explosion destroyed everything…"
"Icarus is working on that…" Meryl said while she watched the prisoners with a complicated expression on her face.
While they were waiting for the news, Billy studied the prisoners. All of them were adult demi-humans. At least they looked like adults. They all also looked physically fit, like they had enough muscles but not too much to get in the way when doing some types of attacks. The ones who looked more feral had higher parameters. Still, there were others who compensated with some skills or physical traits… their variety was impressive… the maker definitely gathered the best of each tribe and replicated them. When one generation found someone stronger than the old generation, that one would become the basis for the next. That explained why their status was so high despite their lack of time for training.
"Are any of you old enough to tell what your leader is planning?" Meryl asked.
"As if they would answer more than that knowing why we are here to do…" Billy said. "What are you going to do with them once we defeat their leader?"
"They will be free to do whatever they want… we value our freedom here," Meryl said. "Still, it will be hard for them to understand that they can live for themselves and not for someone they have never met."
"It seems some of them saw him, though," Lucyna said.
"I would bet that he just programmed some memories on them using the machine that created them," Meryl said.
When one combines magic and technology, it is hard to imagine what was impossible. In any case, Billy wondered how they would feel once they learned that their lives were so limited and those that survived the battles lost their memories and their sense of self… Billy couldn't even imagine what kind of lunacy made the enemy think that such a thing was necessary…
"I found the place…" Icarus suddenly appeared and then said. "The entrance was hidden because of a spell, but it disappears once someone touches the area… It is way worse than you could imagine."
