Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The soldier in the imperial army uniform received a blanket and a cup of warm honey tea. As he held the cup, still slightly trembling in his words, he told the story of how he and his fellow survivors had lived through these days:
“The atmosphere of the city was weird quite some time ago. And we could see more than the commoners as soldiers. The Ebon Blades suddenly gathered and took our quite a command, and gave some very odd orders, like to carry the Foundation Stone out of the city and bury them there…
“Later, they had forbidden any outside contact, saying that this is a special war measure, then they started segregating the encampment, and we were divided based on our brigade. And they had sent out brigades upon brigades out for missions, but no one actually saw anyone leaving the camp, and those people ‘sent on missions’ seemingly just disappeared.”
“Then those brigades came back, and I saw them from afar, and felt that something inside them had changed… I’m not talking about their looks, they look the same, but their eyes were weird, and there was this weird aura around them.”
“Then the cases of missing people increased. People began having nightmares, and the nightmares were very real. We have seen monsters with so many eyes and limbs, and sometimes when we wake up, we can even see eyes on the wall. Some of the soldiers started to feel scared and thought that they were cursed. So they went to look for their officers, and the officers sent them to the mages to ‘dispel the curse’. They were back the next day, and they looked all normal, and there were no signs of nightmares when they sleep. But I was even more afraid, as I felt that they were not even sleeping anymore… They were just laying there, the whole night, acting as if they were sleeping.”
“I knew a guy called Wyatt. He was from the same village as me. He is the biggest tosser in bed, but the moment he was taken away and came back, every night during bedtime he would lay like a log on the bed, not tossing about, or snoring…”
“And one night I woke up at night, and I saw Wyatt sleeping like a log there, so I turned over to look at him, and I found his eyes open! He was staring at me, without a word, but I could hear his voice in my head!”
The surviving soldier started trembling hard, as his voice slurred and started rambling. Constance had to cast a calming spell on him, “Calm down, calm down. Those monsters are dead. Focus on the point, what happened afterward?”
“I was afraid, very afraid… The second day after that, an Ebon Blade came looking for me, said there’s a special mission for me. They said that there is a curse of plagues in one of the quarters, and got a group of soldiers, with me in it to ‘clean up’ the infected. I sensed something wasn’t right when I got there as there were no traces of plagues, they had simply cordoned the entire street off while the Ebon Blades went into slaughter everyone in there…”
“I then found an opportunity to escape, and running away was not difficult at all. I could not believe this myself, they did not even mind me running away, and they clearly saw me ran. By the time I turned back, I saw them still standing there, looking at where I was hiding. Each of them was expressionless, like puppets… Then I ran into the city quarter, and found out what happened.”
“By the time we were quarantined, there were not many normal people left in the city, they had quietly infected and spread the taint, until at least half of the city was corrupted only did they kidnap people in broad daylight, and until the day I ran, most of the city had become ‘them’! No matter where I ran to, I could not escape their eyes, their eyes are connected!”
“But I still found a group of survivors, the ones you found with me. Your Imperial Highness, you won’t be able to imagine my surprise and joy then. They were hiding in an abandoned factory, and they were quite a big group back then, but on and on people heard voices in their sleep and those weak-willed ones would rise and walk into the darkness outside the factory. Those that had left never returned, and most of us tied ourselves to the pillars before we even dared to sleep, but even so, our numbers dwindled, and some vanished as if the nightmares had eaten them whole, and by the time I found them, these were the only ones left.”
“And not long after, the Ebon Blades started the final ‘cleansing’ with the soldiers in tow, by then, ninety percent of the city had become them, and the rest could not even hide. The soldiers drew their blades and dragged those who had for some reason or another did not turn into monsters out of their hiding spots and butchered them in the streets, while the rest simply looked on, with hunger on their face…”
“As I was a soldier, I had noticed this beforehand, so I led everyone out of the factory to escape, I tried my base to avoid the soldiers, and we lost a few more in the process… We finally found this church, and there was a big undercroft underneath the church, and the entrance of the undercroft could be sealed, so we hid in there until today.”
The surviving soldier’s rambling tale finally ended, and Constance could only sigh, “For such a logical plan…. those half-way transformed monsters are even scarier than the ones that have fully turned, the mind is a scary weapon.”
With the soldier’s descriptive ability and mental state, it would have been difficult for him to clearly illustrate the harrowing experience that he had been through, and would not use any embellishments or metaphors to emphasis his point, but from what he had said, anyone could tell what sort of hellish experience that was. As the city had slowly ‘changed’, the ominous aura was getting more serious and obvious day by day, and everyone was turning into monsters, yet the power behind this was beyond their ability to strike back.
There was no escape. The monsters had already locked down all roads leading out of the city.
This was only the first month of the Battle for the Turn of the Eras, and based on past history, this was only the prelude to the nightmare awaiting this world.
“Seems like you don’t know what actually blocked out the taint that allowed you to survive inside the undercroft,” Rheia said as she looked at the soldier in the eyes. She could determine the truth and falsehood of every word and every hidden meaning behind every sentence. But from the soldier’s emotions, she could not find any reason to explain the inexplicable survival of this group of people. They were not so strong-willed until they could resist the taint of madness, and in fact, after so many days of suffering, most of them were already at the brink. Forget about the taint of the Mad Lord, even any nightmarish conduit could easily corrupt their minds. “The reason should be inside the undercroft.”
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“This was what we found in the undercroft,” Graeme said as he led a few soldiers carrying boxes of items out, if it’s not here, it probably is something built within the undercroft like a barrier or something…”
The soldiers of the north had taken out everything that looked remotely like magical. Even anything that looked special was taken out as well, broken pottery, moldy blades, old statues of gods, ritual items as all sorts of things were laid on the group.
Thankfully there were not too many of them. And it seemed like the church was not all that wealthy.
Constance and Rheia stepped forward to inspect the items, and the first thing they did was to focus on the religious items: The former was clearly not too concerned about the gods, and the latter was trying to professionally analyze if the Gods of Dawn and Dusk were actually her comrades…
And Rheia’s attention was soon caught by a shiny object among the junk.
Constance too was attracted by that object with a unique presence, she used her sword to pick up the item, and frowned slightly, “What is this…”
Before she could even ascertain what it was, Rheia suddenly yelped, “Huh?!”
The object on the tip of Constance’s blade was an intricate silver wide armband, and the armband was really lavishly decorated, and the wide corners made it look a little bit like an arm guard, while and the hollow embossing on it depicted all sorts of complex runes and pictograms of flora and fauna but the size was clearly not for adults and were more like adornments meant for a child’s arm.
Upon hearing Rheia’s voice, Constance turned to look at the mysterious and powerful “little girl”, and for some reason, she had linked the latter with the armband together.
The size… seems to fit?
“This…” Constance gave Rheia and uncertain look, “Could it be yours?”
Rheia was just about to shake her head to deny that, but she suddenly recalled something and replied in a rather ambiguous matter. “It just looked familiar. Would I actually have something inside… a church like this?”
“I just think that the size actually matches,” Constance picked up the armband and placed it beside her arm. Of course, she was in her armor now, and could not put it on, but even without it, this band could not fit her. “It’s clearly meant for a child…”
“Let me see.” After suppressing her veins from popping on her forehead, Rheia said stiffly as she stuck her hand out for the armband.
“Here, have it.”
Constance passed the armband over, and just as Rheia’s fingers touched the armband, a thunder suddenly cracked in the ski.
Both of them looked up in surprise.
They only saw a rift opening in the sky, and the dark red rift looked similar to Gorgon’s Abyss, and within the rift, there were countless of floating wreckage and bright lights, as beams of light shot out like lightning among the shadows as explosions roared from the deep clouds.
And an ethereal light belt pierced through the chaotic world behind the rift.
Rheia was shocked and quickly removed her hand from the armband.
And the bizarre scene in the sky disappeared.