Way of the Knights

Chapter 349: Carvings on the wall

It was but a mere feeling…fleeting, but also lasting.

‘What was that just now?’ She asked herself. ‘An attack? But that can’t be. There’s five of us here, how can it pass through our defenses?’

‘And I’m not hurt…’ She told herself, ‘In fact, I don’t think it has any bad intentions. But what was that?’

“Luna, you good? Is there something wrong?” Ellen asked, seeing her friend’s unnatural expression. 

She shook her head and replied: “No, it’s nothing. It’s must’ve been my imagination.”

Ellen’s gaze lingered at her for quite sometime, she wanted to ask more but it seems that Luna didn’t want to tell so it’s best to not push it. She figured that whatever caused her to be like that must not have anything to do with the mission. 

“Alright, let’s pay close attention to this place. Let’s see if there’s any survivors, maybe we can ask them what happened here.” Luna said, throwing that thought at the back of her mind and focusing on the mission. 

“Well, I hope there really is one.” Paul commented as he walked in front of them. “Cause from seeing all of this, we might as well consider it a miracle if we see an intact corpse.”

Paul raised a very good point there, and because he mentioned that, the team now noticed that he’s correct. 

They had been walking inside the cave for a decent pace all this time, yet they never came across a single intact corpse. A severed head is the ‘most intact’ body they have seen, while the rest are just pieces of flesh and bones. 

The team moved on in silence, trying their best to check if there’s something they could find that will give them some clues. 

“I see some intact bodies right there. Let’s make a turn.” Anne said to the team while she points at a certain direction. The team didn’t hesitate and started moving towards the location she was pointing.

They eventually came across the ‘Breeding Area’, the part of the camp where the cages women were. 

One glance was enough for them to realize where they were, and of course the sight of the malnourished and naked women didn’t make any of them happy. If anything, it just dampened their mood even more. 

“Let’s check if any of them are still alive.” Luna gave the command and the team immediately went on the move. 

They dispersed and checked every cage, using their senses to see if there’s someone alive. Unfortunately for them, all of them are dead. 

They regrouped and shared their thoughts to one another…

“I’ve got none.” Mark reported.

“Same.” Anne added. 

The rest shook their heads as well, signaling that they didn’t find anyone alive either. 

“Well, that sucks.” Paul commented, “Guess we have to keep searching then.”

“You know…” Ellen said, “There’s something weird about these corpses. But I can’t put a finger on it.” 

“Now that you say that, I also feel the same.” Anne added. 

“Right?” Ellen said, “Of all the corpses we encountered so far, these are the only one’s intact. All of them looked like they just fell asleep and never woke up again. What’s up with that?”

“There’s also no signs of struggle when they died.” Mark added, “The injuries they received are weeks old, if someone did something to kill them, there should be some kind of injury on their bodies, but I didn’t see one. In fact, none of them even had a fatal wound. There are no streaks or stains of blood on their cages.”

“So you mean to say that they died from a mysterious cause?” Paul asked then commented, “That’s creepy.”

“No that’s not it.” Luna said, catching the attention of the team. However they were shocked her face is revealing some kind of an annoyed expression, but somehow she’s trying to suppress it. 

She sighed and said: “The cause of their death is not from a mysterious source. They were offered Salvation, a chance to end their torment and go to the other side.”

“Oh, is that so?” Paul reacted, but Luna’s expression was really bothering him so he asked: “Is there’s something wrong? Why’s your face like that?” 

“What do you mean?” Luna asked, genuinely confused by his question. 

“You look like a child who’s candy had been taken away from you.” Paul added, but Luna’s still confused. 

Ellen shook her head and said: “You look pissed and scary. That’s what he’s trying to say.”

Luna’s eyes widened and asked: “Do I now?”

“Yes you do.” Ellen and the rest nodded to her, much to Luna’s surprise. 

“It’s like you’re on your period.” Anne added, “Only, that shouldn’t be possible since upon stepping on Knight Realm, us girls don’t do that anymore. So? What’s up? Is there something you want to tell us?”

“I-” Luna trailed off. She genuinely had no idea that she’s been like that. She doesn’t know how to respond to them. She started asking herself what’s wrong but she doesn’t have any idea why either. 

“You know what, let’s talk about that later.” Mark chimed in, “Let’s focus on the mission on hand, shall we?”

Everyone nodded and threw this notion at the back of their heads. They then moved on and inspected the rest of the locations inside the camp. 

The inspection didn’t give them much information at all. Aside from that fact that whoever did this mass killing, gave the innocents a quick and painless death while tearing the guilty onto shreds. That’s the only thing they could get from this situation. 

They had no idea what kind of person did this, or if it’s even a person at all. They don’t know what kind of method he/she/they/it used to achieve such a feat. They had no idea how many were responsible for this nor just how strong was this mysterious entity at all. 

They eventually arrived at the deepest part of the camp, the place where the leaders were supposed to be. And what they saw and feel, didn’t really make sense to them. 

“What happened to this place?” Paul asked as he felt shivers running down his spine. 

In terms of appearance, this place didn’t really look entirely different from what they had seen so far. If anything, the could tell that there’s only a few corpses in here.

The thing that made a stark contrast is the residual aura inside this place. 

“It feels…heavy. Evil but not really? Am I making sense here?” Ellen added. 

“Kind of. I feel the same, but I don’t understand how is that possible.” Mark commented. 

“It’s not just that too.” Anne chimed in, “This power feels like it doesn’t belong here.”

“Right?” Ellen exclaimed, “I thought so too. This power doesn’t conform to any kind of transmutation that regular energies could do. It doesn’t fall to neither Energy Essence, Vital Energy or even Spiritual Energy.”

“But how can that be though?” Paul asked, “You guys know that we have to make a report about this, but how can we even begin explaining this?”

“…”

Luna stayed silent as the team discussed amongst themselves. 

It’s not like she doesn’t agree to any of their statements, but for some reason somethings really bugging her. She didn’t know why but it feels like all of them are missing something extremely important here, and she can’t put a finger on it which makes her incredibly annoyed. 

As she was trapped on her thoughts, the team investigated more things about this place in their attempts to analyze what happened here but sadly, they really had no idea. 

So far, all they knew is someone or something incredible visited this camp and wiped them out, leaving no one alive to tell the tale. 

Luna wasn’t idle either. She joined them into searching additional clues for their report since it’s obvious that someone or something got here first. 

She looked for clues on the ground but she only found blood stains and pieces of flesh and bones. She looked at the ceiling but found nothing worth of notice there. She then began inspecting the residual aura that’s left in this room.

And just like what they said earlier, this aura feels evil yet not at the same time. Luna could even feel some holiness onto it. Ellen was right as well, this power doesn’t belong to the three main categories of cultivation or the Three Human Paths, which somehow tells her that this wasn’t done by a human but that’s not it either. 

Yes, while this power doesn’t conform to the Three Human Paths, she could feel traces of them here. In fact, it felt familiar for some reason but the thought completely eludes her. 

She then began expecting the walls just like the others. Luna saw some streaks of blood here and there, adding to the mess that’s already in here. But just as when she’s about to be convinced that there’s nothing on them. She saw something that really made her emotional. 

Pain gripped her heart so bad that tears uncontrollably fell from her face. She shivered as she traced the carving on the wall. It reads:

“I was here. I miss you. Wait for me. I love you.”