Berserk: The Prophet

.........

As night deepened, the flames in the laboratory were extinguished by the sand.

Green and Trunks' team did not come away empty-handed; they captured quite a few wanted soldiers who were on the run during the patrol in the besieged city of Pence.

However, the centurion named Donovan had already disappeared, and several captured soldiers had committed suicide by poison, seemingly indicating that it was premeditated.

A cacophony of clashing swords came from their northwest direction, towards the laboratory.

Green and Trunks exchanged a glance, a bad feeling rising in their hearts at the same time.

They led their team quickly toward the laboratory ruins, where they saw a group of Serpent Cult warriors and men in black engaged in fierce combat with Pence's elite soldiers.

The person being protected by soldiers is...Grand Duke Casarian? Shouldn't he be in the fortress?

The situation was critical, and without time to think, Green and Trunks joined the battle.

Several arrows fired at Casarion were quickly cut down by Trunks' greatsword.

"Why aren't you staying in the fortress?" Trunks' tone was somewhat impatient.

"Hmph, isn't it all for the sake of personally searching for evidence!" Casarian wasn't in a good mood either, but now was clearly not the time to make a scene.

Although Casarian's legs and feet are not very nimble, he wields his noble metal staff with great skill, and even if it is not good for offense, it is more than enough for defense.

Clearly, the assassins from the Serpent Cult who came to carry out the operation were no match for the group and were killed one by one.

It seems that Pence City now has another task: searching for remnants of the Serpent Cult.

Casarian retrieved numerous fuel residue samples from the laboratory ruins, pressed a button to place the samples into the large armrest of his wheelchair on his left, and then had a soldier push the wheelchair back to the fortress.

Trunks shook his head, intending to send his knights and the garrison familiar with Donovan to search for him outside the city. After all, the city had been turned upside down, and as long as he was still in the city, he couldn't escape.

Dawn was breaking, and the long march had left everyone exhausted, so they decided to rest for a while.

.........

Berserk - Grant

When Green woke up, he was in a noisy concentration camp, wearing only a liner, and Bazzo was shivering in the same cage as him.

It was difficult to even stand up in the low cage, which was only about a meter high. The ceiling and the ground were covered with some haystacks, but this provided almost no warmth, since the outside environment was still very cold.

It's already early January.

Green stretched his stiff body slightly; even he felt a chill in this weather.

Green breathed warm air onto his hands and observed his surroundings. The concentration camp was heavily guarded, with fully armed soldiers all around, making escape virtually impossible.

In the center is a playground, which contains rope nets and various wooden equipment used for training. From the edge of the wooden fence of the playground, you can faintly hear the howling of wolves coming from inside.

An incredibly rich aroma of vegetable porridge wafted into every cage containing a child. Immediately, all the children's eyes were fixed on the source of the aroma.

Two Juda soldiers were cooking a large iron pot containing unidentified wild vegetables, carrots, and a dark, mushy porridge with a small amount of oats mixed in.

This shredded vegetable soup, despite its appalling appearance, made every child trapped in the cages swallow their saliva with hunger, their eyes filled with an extreme longing for food.

"Listen to me, you'll only get food if you finish today's training, understand?!" A burly-looking sergeant cracked his whip, making the cage vibrate.

The children's limbs were stiff from the cold all night, and they were shivering like little chicks. They were too weak to respond to the sergeant's words, but they were all eager to get started.

The sergeant, content with his own unbridled display of power, turned to another group of soldiers and said, "Let's begin."

The soldiers opened the cages and released the children one by one. The children rushed to the playground and began their training for the day.

Anyone who was slow to act would be whipped by the soldiers. Under the threat of hunger and fear, the children did their best to complete the quotas set by the soldiers.

Everyone had only one thought in their minds: they had to eat that bowl of hot vegetable soup.

Here, Baziso and Green are no exception.

They were the first to complete the task. As soon as the topic of food came up, Bazso ran to the big iron pot and filled a large bowl with vegetable soup and two pieces of meat.

Even Green was surprised by his speed.

However, in a place where people are treated like livestock, only by striving hard can one avoid being deprived of the right to live.

The best food rations were reserved for the children who finished their tasks first, and Green unceremoniously took the last two pieces of dried meat and sat down on the big rock with Bazso to enjoy breakfast.

The group of children didn't seem to dare to snatch Bazso's food at all. Just look at the few bruises on Bazso's body and the guys who were staring at him with bruised and swollen faces, and you'd know what had happened.

...Here, it's almost identical to Grant's prison.

All that remains is the dust of the defeated; for the weak, only the despair of extreme hunger and cold awaits them as they perish.

Green was already somewhat numb, eating what he was eating without a care. The chance to survive had to be seized by his own hands; he was not a saint and could not save the world.

After breakfast, they faced even more arduous labor: moving large stones to reinforce the walls that trapped them. Any hunched child who fell to the ground would be punched and kicked, and then forced to move stones again until they died.

Green and the other children struggled to carry the large stones, their sweat dripping onto them. Exhaustion and hunger caused some children to collapse, but the cruel overseers did not let them go, continuing to drive them with whips.

During a brief moment when he returned to retrieve stones after moving some, Green noticed a thin child trembling as he tried to lift a heavy stone, unable to budge it for a long time. The overseer, clearly losing patience, was itching to strike with his whip.

...His slender figure was just like a mini Hanks.

Green felt pity, but he knew that if he went to help, he might suffer the same fate.

However, his inner kindness prevailed over selfishness. Green quickly went to the child and helped him lift the stone.

"Thank you..." The child looked at Green gratefully.