The Divine Hunter

Chilly morning winds blew into the open doors on the west side of the temple, blowing across a pair of human corpses lying on the ground. They were covered in tattered, yellowing, molding strips of cloth. Between the skeletons was a dirty, patched-up ragdoll covered in blood. The doll’s eyes were staring into the empty ceiling, as if telling it a quiet secret.

Carl wiped the sweat off his forehead and turned to the astounded temple administrators. This was what they found after a whole night of digging. Five minutes of silence had gone by. The administrator’s shock didn’t seem fake. That, or they were perfect actors.

Carl coughed and snapped the administrators’ attention away from the corpses. “As I guessed, there were corpses under the ground. This is how the nightwraiths were born.”

“Nightwraiths?” The priestess gave Carl a curious look.

“If someone bears a great grudge and enmity before they die, and if they die in pain, their souls are turned into nightwraiths, and they appear over the corpse or something they were deeply attached to. They appear along with the first sliver of moonlight, standing sentry in a certain place, releasing waves of hatred on everything around them. They torture and kill the people around them, creating more of their kind. As long as these corpses remained buried, the nightwraiths would never have been truly eradicated.

Carl paused and observed the look on the administrators’ faces, but he saw no hint of guilt or nervousness. There was only fear. Regular fear.

“I have to give it to the pros. Found the source of the problem in a single night. Even a moment of the monsters’ staying in the temple is sacrilegious toward Lebioda,” said Daisy unctuously. She took a deep breath. “No time to lose. How should we cleanse them? Do we burn them or bury them in the woods or throw them into the waters?”

“Calm down. Cleansing this thing isn’t as easy as you think.” Acamuthorm sneered silently, and he exchanged a look with Carl.

They’re showing their true colors. If someone found out they had a corpse in their house, the first thing they would do would be to ask why. And how. And a lot more questions. Daisy, however, couldn’t wait to destroy the evidence.

“Before we do this, I have a few questions I need answering. This is a temple, not a grave scattered in the wilds. Lebioda isn’t a god of death either.” And then his face fell, his eyes shining like lightning. He raised his voice, and it boomed like thunder. “So how did these corpses get into the cellar? How are the deceased related to you? And what’s with the doll? You denied everything when I asked you about the truth. You swore no one died in the cellar.”

The administrators were shocked by the sudden interrogation. Daisy blanched. She retreated to her guards’ side and answered solemnly, “But I don’t remember anyone dying in the temple. I don’t know these people.”

“Really? Well, I think you just don’t want to remember it. Why don’t I jog your memory?” Acamuthrom crouched and held up the pelvic bone of the corpse on the left. It was wide, short, and the walls were thin and smooth. The upper side was circular, while the front and back were wide. He knew the gender of this corpse immediately. “This was a woman.”

He observed the whole outline and picked up the skull. Acamuthorm brushed his fingers across the yellowing teeth, then he pointed the skull at the admins, as if trying to get it to interrogate them. “Between ages ten and fifteen. Time of death, uncertain as of yet.” The time of death was affected by many factors. The witchers were still young and inexperienced, so they couldn’t make any conclusions.

The admins said nothing. Acamuthorm went on with his investigation, and he murmured in surprise. “Ribs, legs, and hips are fractured in more places than one. Cause, outside force. A row of circular paw prints are left on the chest, spanning from the collarbone on the left to the right rib. Four paw prints, and not a canine beast. Not necrophages either, so it was a big cat.”

Acamuthorm looked solemn. Since the killer wasn’t human, then there must be more to this nightwraith haunting. “Left shoulder was crushed by incisors. From the marks left, there are about twenty-five to thirty incisors on the upper row. Incredible length and bite force too. The killer’s bigger than a cheetah.”

The admins took a deep breath and exchanged looks of awe and shock. The witchers took a deep breath, and they could imagine a bloody scene. A sleek, slender, feline beast crushing a gaunt girl under its feet, tearing her apart. The girl howled in pain as her bones were crushed. Her body convulsed, and the blood splattering from her wounds blossomed into roses of death, drenching her clothes and the ground. Her screams eventually quieted, and her blood became a crimson pool. In the end, she drew her last breath in agony.

However, that was not the only trace on the body. Carl scanned the waist of the skeleton and touched it, then he pulled a stretch of string from it. It was mostly white, but parts of it were reddish-brown. Blood covered it and dried up. The string was about the thickness of an index finger. Upon closer inspection, there was a lot of hair on it. The string was sticky to the touch, and that was after the stickiness had disappeared a lot after being buried in the ground for so long.

Carl pulled on both ends, and the string showed remarkable resilience. “What is this?” Carl looked at his companion curiously.

“Cobweb.” Acamuthrom inhaled sharply. He guessed, “Regular spiders can’t make strings this thick. Perhaps an arachnomorph had taken up residence here sometime earlier.”

Arachnomorphs were about the size of cattle. It had great speed and jumping power. It could spit venom and incredibly sticky webs. Those creatures could easily hunt lions or even a Skellige man.

Daisy tensed up. Her face was hidden in the shadows, her expression a mystery.

“Impossible. Poviss’ weather is chilly. Arachnomorphs do not live in places like this,” Carl refuted. “Even if we set that aside, if an arachnomorph had taken up residence in a temple, the children would’ve been turned into breeding grounds for its larvae. I think it’s some sort of mutated, gigantified spider creature.”

The admins’ faces morphed. The mention of breeding grounds sent chills down the admins’ spines, and goosebumps appeared all over them. Acamuthorm observed those people through the corner of his eye, then he turned to the smaller skeleton on the left. “A girl. Younger, and her bones have the same cracks. Small amount of cobwebs on her.”

He fell into a long silence. First, they were killed by a strong, gigantic feline beast, and then a mutated spider creature took their bodies. How much pain must they have gone through? That’s why they turned into nightwraiths and haunted this place. But why were they the only victims while everyone else was spared? Creatures that size would never leave quietly after only killing two girls.

Acamuthorm had questions, but he couldn’t sort everything out yet.

“Still can’t remember anything at this point, Daisy? You have two people dead in your temple, and none of you had any idea about it? That can’t be true. That’s a lie. Answer my question.”

“I did not lie in the slightest. I’ve never heard of any spiders or big cats.” Daisy licked her cracking lips and shook her head stubbornly. “If they had appeared in the temple, they’d have created a big ruckus. Everyone must’ve seen them. The news would’ve reached every household in this area.”

Acamuthorm mused, falling into his thoughts. They’d never heard of anything about these creatures on their way here.

Shocked and indignant, Rumachi asked, “Why do you insist on asking? Do you think we’re related to the killers?”

“Only gods know the answer to that,” Acamuthorm muttered.

Dino went red, and he argued, “Please, I swear that these poor children’s deaths have nothing to do with us. If we were the killers, we’d have never led you into this and helped you find the corpses. We’d only get ourselves in trouble if we did that.”

Carl nodded.

“I’ve always thought of the kids as family. I give my everything to them and care for them the best I can. I’d never beat them or yell at them. How could I ever hurt them?” Daisy blinked innocently. “The number of children has always been eighteen since I came to serve Lebioda. Not a single one has gone missing.”

Acamuthorm mused over it and looked at Carl. He mouthed, ‘Sign?’

Carl shook his head. The young witchers practiced Aard and Igni the most, given their craving for battles. Axii, the Sign to control the heart, wasn’t as perfectly honed as the other two. They could use it to stun someone for a while, but it wasn’t enough for any interrogation. Not to mention Roy told them not to use Axii on any gods’ ardent believers, or they’d be in grave danger.

“Calm down, you three. You took this the wrong way. We don’t believe you’re related to the killer in any way. We’re witchers, not volunteers or commissioners of security. We have no obligation or interest to judge a human’s actions.”

Carl circled the place. “We just want to finish the request and find those killer beasts and deal with them. That is the only way to cleanse these skeletons. If we can’t do it before nightfall,” Carl threatened, “the nightwraiths will return.”

In reality, all they had to do was take the skeletons away, and the nightwraiths would leave the temple, but the admins didn’t know that, so they were horrified.

“Let me reiterate. For six months, we’ve never left this temple. We’ve never seen the spider or big cat you mentioned.” Daisy clenched her teeth. “So these must be remnants from Sinny’s tenure. She’s the previous priestess.”

“Then tell us about that priestess. Has she left any messages before she went on her travels? Or any written records? Make it fast.”

Daisy mused and started saying, “Grandma Sinny has always been a nice person…”

Dino and Rumachi would add to the story sometimes. Acamuthorm listened for a while, and he thought asking these questions had no meaning. He gave Carl a look and looked at the kids outside, then he took the ragdoll. “You guys keep talking. I’ll take a piss and feed the steeds. Don’t want to leave Wilt and Scorpion thirsty.”

Daisy looked at the witcher as he went into the courtyard, and she continued talking as if she hadn’t seen anything.action

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