In the cave, an old voice suddenly echoed.
Kael couldn’t help but his body tense up, or the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He also experienced a sense of déjà vu.
Could the person who had escaped have returned with more n?
A doubt arose in his mind: if Said had followed him to the waterfall, had he seen him go in and killed him on the hidden path?
At that mont, multiple scenarios and conjectures flooded his thoughts, along with the search for a solution.
But he found none. In every case, it ended with his death.
Kael noticed that the voice sounded extrely old, but full of determination. This weighed heavily on his heart. However, unlike the first ti, he had now awakened his core, created his dantian, and ford his magic circle. His strength, though considerable for soone of his rank, was not enough to take on an entire group.
"You, who have found this inheritance, listen to my story so that you may access it," the ancient voice echoed again behind him.
Kael turned slowly. As he turned, he saw the skeleton of the Demon Wolf, standing upright as if alive, arms crossed, staring at him despite having no eyes, only two empty sockets.
"Surprised?" bood a harsh, aged voice. "Fear not, young one. If you are seeing this... it is because you have desecrated my corpse."
A pause. The eye sockets seed to sink slightly, as if sketching a smile.
"I was known in my ti as General Bloody Claw. Warrior of the Second Age... the Dark Ages. And what you see here is nothing but the last roar of a spirit anchored to bone."
His tone was not hostile, but neither was it friendly. It was the voice of soone who had nothing left to lose.
"The thod that allowed to return montarily is the Zu Three Minutes. It allows to rise for a brief mont when soone disturbs my remains. Only once. Only three minutes."
Soone from the Dark Ages... So the Zu were much more mysterious and extraordinary than he had imagined. Kael stared at the corpse for about eight seconds before speaking:
"What do you want from ?"
The skeleton tilted its head slightly. "What I want is simple, and it is carved into the stone of this place: listen to my story. Only then will you be able to cross that passage and claim the legacy that lies beyond."
Kael gripped the coin sword as he ntally assessed the situation of the man who had escaped and calculated the ti remaining before reinforcents arrived.
After thinking for a second, he started walking toward the cave exit. Ti was not on his side, and he wasn’t going to take any chances. He could explore and investigate the inheritance more thoroughly later.
Ding!
[A mission has been generated]
Ding!
[Mission #2: Listen to the story of the Demon Wolf’s corpse]
When the notification windows popped up in front of him, Kael narrowed his eyes slightly.
It was the second ti the system had suggested sothing like this. The first ti was when it told him to talk to the Zu Bloody Sage of the Seventh Heaven, who was in the dici Clan vault.
The skeletal corpse tilted its skull, as if it could see the windows suspended in front of Kael.
"You’re not convinced... I can sense it. But perhaps this will tip the scales: aren’t you curious about the Zu you extracted from my bones the first ti you ca here?"
Kael finally looked at him, interested.
"The Zu you took," continued the Wolf, his voice now deeper and more serious, "is called Zu Taisui Black. It’s an aberration. It only activates once, and its function is not to attack, defend, or heal... but to connect. To what? I never knew. I died before I could find out."
Kael crossed his arms, leaning his back against the damp wall of the cave.
"Speak, then," he said coldly. "Don’t waste my ti."
The skeleton laughed, though it wasn’t a laugh... but the dry crackling of bones vibrating with mory.
"Oh, no, boy... when you hear my story... you’ll be the one who feels like ti has abandoned you."
The skull of the Demon Wolf slowly turned toward Kael, as if it could see through ti.
"In the darkness of the Second Age, when the language you now use did not yet exist, there walked a naless man. A man who was the beginning, who devoured the beasts, and who was the first to use the Zu."
Kael said nothing. But his eyes, fixed and cold, shone with an almost imperceptible intensity.
"That man was the first to look up at the sky. The first human to set foot on this earth, we call him Adam."
...
As he resurfaced, the fast currents pressed against Kael’s body. At the sa ti, the cold water drenched him from head to toe. He fought against the pressure of the liquid, moving forward with quick steps.
After erging, a breath of night air, laden with damp grass and rusty tal, invaded his nostrils.
Blood. Fresh, pungent, mixed with the stench of exposed entrails. Amidst wisps of fog, corpses lay mangled on the ground: limbs twisted at unnatural angles, dark pools seeping through the grass, staining the bright green crimson.
Kael turned his face toward the waterfall, pondering the story told by the Demon Wolf, which spoke of
Without further ado, he left the place, entering the forest at high speed toward the dici mansion.
After Kael left the scene, a group of five people arrived. They were all dressed in black and red.
They were the ones tasked with secretly protecting Kael, under orders from the head of the dici clan, Zephyr.
When they saw the scene, they were shocked. It was too shocking to have been done by a single person.
"Did the young master do this?" One of them asked into the air.
"That’s not possible. The young master, despite having S-rank talent, doesn’t have that much battle power. Plus, they outnumbered him. So it’s unlikely that young master Kael was able to do this," said another, after quickly studying the scene.
"Then why did the young master’s trail lead us here?"
With this question, silence fell upon the place. Only the sounds of animals and insects could be heard for at least a minute.
"Well, let’s not waste any more ti. Clean this place up and let’s go. Afterwards, we’ll report what we saw to the clan chief, Zephyr."
The leader of the group looked up at the moon, which was partially covered by clouds, and muttered:
"If it was him who did this... what kind of monster is he creating?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)