Uriel spent a couple minutes studying the corpse that rolled down the staircase just like he thought Luna would have done in that situation. Although it was a fairly certain fact, he still needed to confirm it was the sa panther he had fought just a couple minutes ago. The deep wound on its eye was all the proof he needed, but he also wanted to extract the flux orb from the corpse.
"What are you doing now?" Nika watched the scene with disbelief on her eyes.
"I want the orb." He nonchalantly replied. "Also, I think its fur would make a great coat..."
"Then you're out of luck, every part of a cryptid disappears after they die so you can't take any parts with you. Extracting the orb should be possible, but one like this is so strong will take hours to disappear but, even if we knew exactly where to find the orb, it would be impossible to dismantle that thing with the tools we have. If only your dagger wasn't blunt..."
At Nika's remark, Uriel gave up on the free entity level orb and focused his attention towards sothing else. The corpse of the panther was evidently bruised up, but it looked like it had been like that before his encounter with it, what worried him was the profound wound on it's chest. It was a cleave so deep it almost cut the feline in half.
"Then, what do you think did this?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure it wasn't any of us, I'm the strongest at the Mapple corp. regular security departnt. The only ones stronger than are the higher ups from combat division."
"Combat division?"
"You could say they're sothing like an army. Bodyguards are usually tasked with protecting people from outside the corp or regular employees, but there's a whole level above us where only heavenly rank and above can join. It could be said that bodyguards deal with people, while the combat division deals against cryptids."
"Shouldn't they have brought the combat division to this expedition?"
"I guess you're right to think so, but even though this expedition is funded and led by the Mapple corporation, it's actually just one of Walter's side projects. The only ones from the combat division that tagged along are in the zeppelin protecting him.
Besides, everyone thought this place was as safe as can be, it's been going for over six months and the only casualties were caused by the Ocelotl."
"Is it safe to assu they will co and rescue us?"
All Uriel got in reply was a slow shake of her head as she was aware of the inner workings of the corporation. As long as no one from the Works family wasn't in direct danger, then the combat division would do nothing. Even if the whole research crew was wiped out in front of their eyes they wouldn't lift a finger unless ordered to do so by the current head of the family.
They both retreated in silence and the atmosphere between them was tense. The temptation to leave everything behind and run towards the safety of the zeppelin was starting to affect them, but the most affected one was Nika who was nearing the end of her patience.
All it would take for her to evacuate the place was to knock Uriel out and carry him unconscious to the zeppelin, sothing like that wouldn't even be considered a breach of contract as long as she did it with the intention of saving his life. Just as she was about to make a decision on whether to do it or not, Uriel broke the silence.
"There's another way!"
"What do you an?"
"I can't be sure if this will work but there's an ossuary nearby. Well... it's actually not that close but it might have an underground passage to other buildings and it should be safe."
Seeing Uriel so excited, Nika decided to give it a shot and went along with it. So far the kid in front of her has proved ti and ti again how useful he was with tangible results, not just that, she had trained many bodyguards during her career and she had yet to see soone grow as fast as Uriel did in the face of danger.
Although the general public loved to tag the strength of an evolved in ranks, it was actually the ntal fortitude of a person the most important factor to determine whether a person was suitable for combat.
Even if Uriel's fight looked comical, the fact that an evolved dared to go in combat against a monster level cryptid couldn't be disregarded, he even managed to hurt the entity level panther instead of crapping his pants and crying for help like a normal person.
Nika ca out of her thoughts as they walked towards the ossuary in the silence of the mist, then she noticed sothing strange. There weren't any cryptids nearby, not just that, the only battle traces left were so scorch marks and pieces of garnt but, every single corpse had disappeared.
Even the blood had mysteriously vanished and although it could be said it was a good thing, not even half an hour ago they had crossed the sa path and it had been littered with bodies.
"What happened here? Why aren't there any corpses?" Nika asked, but Uriel was just as clueless as her.
Reaching the building was faster and safer than they initially expected, but the strange phenonon that took place didn't let them lower their guards for a second. The structure in front of them was similar to the pyramid but smaller in size. There was also another difference of note which was the snake carvings on each side of the staircase that led up to the top.
"This is weird, this building was nothing but ruins just yesterday and now it looks brand new." Uriel said as he touched the neat surface of the polished stone bricks.
"Rember that Schlieman dude? well, it seems he crushed orbs to his heart's content all over the place, it's no wonder the buildings got repaired." Nika said dismissively.
"I know, but the other ones didn't look nearly as good as this one. I wonder..." Uriel swallowed a lump of saliva and then continued. "If my theory is correct, crushing orbs near the structures repairs the buildings, when Schlieman went on his rampage he repaired most buildings which caused them to be activated and quickly drained the energy which, in turn, deactivated the protective barrier."
"You already ntioned this."
"This building is smaller, maybe it's in better condition because it required a lesser amount of flux orbs, it could also an it's energy requirent is lower too. What if this building is still active? I an, if it is we don't know what to expect, it may as well be related to the disappearance of the corpses." Uriel said, struggling to gather enough courage to climb the stairs.
"I don't know what got into you, but if you keep acting like a sissy you won't ever get a girl."
"Do you even know what an ossuary is?" Uriel glared at the unfazed Nika.
"Do you think I'm an idiot? of course I know." She scoffed, but then placed her index finger on her lip and looked upward in a pensive manner.
"You don't know, do you? An ossuary is sothing like a catacomb, which is why I thought there might be an underground passage. The whole purpose of this building is to place the remains of their fallen." Noticing that Nika still didn't get his point he continued. "Human remains... dead bodies."
"And there were no corpses on the way here..." At Uriel's detailed explanation Nika finally seed to understand and she began crossing herself repeatedly.
"It's not possible... is it?" Uriel asked, trying to reassure himself.
"No, no, no, it's not possible... they must have gotten eaten or sothing..." She gulped down in fright, then continued. "So... is there any other way?"
"None that cos to mind. I'm not that familiar with this site."
And so, they went up the stairs of yet another mysterious structure in hopes of finding a way to bringing the protective barrier back up accompanied only by the sound of their own footsteps.
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