Gabriel imdiately understood that the object was important.
The Seer Witch’s reaction made that clear. It was a unique object.
The old woman’s wrinkled hands continued trembling over the papyrus while her white pupils seed lost within so horrible mory.
That revelation had filled her with deep fear.
And that only made Gabriel’s heart beat faster. Because in The Heaven Beyond All... danger almost always ant absurd rewards.
He had heard it during his free ti. Participating in various forums and streams, searching for ways to stay inford. He knew that danger was tied to the best classes, the best items, hidden events, and chain quests.
Missions designed to remain buried beneath impossible risks. And the mission’s progress... only kept growing.
Gabriel stared at the papyrus like a starving coyote looking at wounded prey. He imdiately regained his energy.
"What exactly is the Trail of the Blood Firmant?" he asked carefully.
"And are you alright?"
The Witch slowly raised her face toward him. Her expression remained stiff, shaken.
But there was no mockery left in it anymore, only a tension she could not fake.
Then she spoke.
And for the first ti... she truly sounded like a genuine quest NPC.
Her voice beca distant. Ritualistic.
"The Trail of the Blood Firmant is a forbidden ruin."
The mist shifted around them both.
"Once protected by the Vampire Fathers within books worn down by ti."
Gabriel sharpened his focus. Vampire Fathers, the expression itself represented hierarchy and danger.
"It is said... that whoever spills their blood upon the ruin shall obtain imasurable power," the old woman continued.
A red window imdiately appeared before Gabriel.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
UNIQUE AND IRREPEATABLE MISSION UPDATED.
Main Objective:
• Decipher the ancient papyrus.
• Find the location of the Trail of the Blood Firmant.
• Offer blood to the forbidden ruin.
Warning: "Only accepted blood may claim the legacy."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Imdiately, he felt sothing strange coursing through his body. His own cells reacted to those words in a successive vibration. His breath caught in his throat.
Imasurable power.
This was not ordinary dialogue for a beginner quest.
It felt... like a legendary chain.
And if it truly was unique, then no one else would ever be able to obtain it.
Ambition glead in his eyes as he quickly grabbed the papyrus.
"Then we just have to decipher it."
He spread the parchnt beneath the dim light of the alley.
And his excitent collapsed instantly. The contents were written in impossible symbols, with twisted lines and long, elegant characters.
He understood absolutely nothing. Though sothing about it felt strangely familiar; as if he were looking at a forgotten language he had once known.
Gabriel frowned.
He tried reading it again. Nothing.
"Damn it..."
Disappointnt began growing inside his chest.
But then the Witch finally spoke.
"Your eyes, your mouth, and your chest do not rember yet."
Gabriel raised his head.
"What?"
She slowly extended her bony fingers over the parchnt.
"Visions observe the world. They interfere, they are heretical... But they can also observe the forbidden."
The old woman closed her eyes, and the air began vibrating faintly.
The symbols on the papyrus emitted a dim red glow.
Gabriel instinctively stepped back.
The Witch murmured incomprehensible words, then pointed at several symbols.
"Moon."
"Blood."
"Cathedral."
Slowly, she was translating the map, explaining the origin of the mysterious symbols.
Not completely, but enough. The two of them began piecing things together.
They quickly discovered that the papyrus contained an encoded location. Different symbols pointed toward its truth.
An ancient puzzle. And as they advanced... Gabriel felt certain fragnts of the map awaken echoes within him.
The towers, the bells, the fire.
A mont later...
They finally found the answer. The Witch pointed at a circular symbol marked with blackened ink.
Her voice dropped into a whisper.
"With this, the well of the Ancient Church."
A new window appeared before Gabriel.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Objective updated:
• Go to the Ancient Church.
• Find the hidden ruin.
• Awaken the Trail of the Blood Firmant.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He was finally close to completing his objective. He only needed to arrive and claim what was his.
But then he saw the old woman stepping back.
One step. Then another.
"What are you doing?" he asked in confusion.
The old woman smiled softly. It was the first ti she had done so without madness.
"Our paths separate here, my Count."
Gabriel was bewildered.
"From this mont onward?"
"Phenona reject those who see too much."
The mist slowly began wrapping around the Witch.
"Besides... I must not approach the Trail."
"Why mustn’t you?"
The old woman remained silent for a few seconds.
"Because so things must not awaken twice."
Gabriel felt a strange chill.
Before he could ask anything else, he saw her slightly lower her head.
"My na is Calínea."
The alley fell silent.
Gabriel watched the old woman for several seconds.
Then he slowly nodded.
"Thank you, Calínea."
The Witch let out a small laugh.
"In the night, you must survive first before giving thanks."
And then she slowly disappeared into the mist.
---
Gabriel imdiately began moving.
He needed to take advantage of the silence in the streets while the Paladin patrols continued roaming the city.
And he had already been seen before, which ant they were probably searching for him.
He adjusted his hood and advanced through the alleyways. He tried to rember the ntal map, alternating between left and right, searching for the broken stairs, the narrow bridge, and the ruined plaza.
His route was going relatively well... until he heard screams, many screams.
"There!"
Gabriel turned sharply.
Two Paladins had just spotted him at the end of the street.
Shit.
He reacted instinctively and started running. Horse hooves thundered behind him, driving his weak legs forward.
The chase had begun.
Gabriel ran through a street filled with Hollow Echoes. The creatures barely reacted while horses shattered cobblestones behind him.
"Purify the contaminated!"
A spear flew past his shoulder, striking the cobblestones with a heavy impact.
Gabriel turned violently around a corner. A tall Hollow Echo accidentally stumbled into one of the horses, causing the rider to curse furiously.
That bought him a few more seconds. But Gabriel’s breathing worsened with every step.
His lungs burned as he kept running.
His entire life had been raised beneath a cruel and rciless truth: slow people died first.
He leapt over a pile of rubble, but stumbled, crashing brutally against the wet cobblestones.
Pain exploded through his knee.
"Fuck...!"
He forced himself back up while enduring the pain. He could not stop now, and started running again.
Distant bells began ringing.
And then he finally saw it.
The Ancient Church.
It was gigantic, abandoned, and darkness was its eternal companion.
Its towers rose above the mist in solitude.
He only needed to get inside. Until the hoofbeats behind him changed, heavier, slower, more imposing.
A chill crawled down his spine. He knew sothing worse had just arrived.
Gabriel barely turned his head.
And finally saw him.
A massive knight advanced atop a black horse covered in dark armor. He was far larger than the other Paladins.
His re presence alone was enough to crush the atmosphere. The helt’s visor pointed directly toward Gabriel.
His instincts imdiately scread, reacting to the danger. He tried to accelerate.
Too late. He felt cold.
A mont later, pain began spreading through him.
A spear brutally pierced through his abdon. Gabriel’s eyes widened in horror.
The bloodied tip protruded from his side. The impact made him stagger violently.
A tallic taste filled his mouth and overwheld his senses. Blood, far too much blood.
The horse passed beside him, leaving behind an icy gust.
Gabriel fell to his knees, his world beginning to spin. It hurt so much.
But then he rembered the hunger, the cold, the garbage.
His life.
Survive. He needed to survive.
So he did not collapse, he crawled. His fingers left trails of blood across the cobblestones as he dragged himself toward the church.
One, two, three ters.
tallic footsteps echoed behind him.
The great knight had dismounted from his horse. Slow, calm, like an arrogant predator.
Gabriel finally managed to stand shakily before the wooden doors. His vision was blurred and his balance weakened.
The knight slowly approached. In front of him, he looked gigantic and arrogant.
Trying to crush Gabriel’s will without effort.
The next second, the tal boot slamd into his chest.
The blow launched him violently backward. The old wooden doors exploded apart as his battered body tore through the church entrance, rolling across the dust-covered floor.
Blood rapidly spread beneath his body.
The knight entered a few seconds later. Silent, observing the result.
Gabriel struggled to breathe. His body was limp, his face deathly pale.
The blood continued pouring out. But then... the church began to vibrate.
The atmosphere started to evolve. An ancient pressure filled the place.
The knight stopped as he witnessed the unpredictable changes.
Sothing was awakening beneath the floor.
Gabriel’s blood spread and slowly advanced through the cracks in the stone floor.
As if it were being drawn in. Silently absorbed, carefully guided.
Toward a hidden compartnt beneath the ancient church.
The knight’s eyes widened slightly. It was already too late for him.
Gabriel imdiately understood what was happening. The Trail had been there the entire ti, hidden underground. It hungered for blood, it had been waiting for him.
A tired smile slowly appeared on Gabriel’s face. He had survived the sa way the rats of Lower Neo-Atlas always survived.
By crawling, adapting, and deceiving monsters far larger than themselves.
He slowly raised his trembling hand.
And extended his middle finger toward the enormous knight.
Inside his mind, an exhausted yet satisfied thought appeared.
"No matter the era..."
"Knights are still all brute force and very little intelligence."
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