Arthur Decius – Loamwood Village

Arthur cautiously approached the quaint out-of-the-way village on the northeastern outskirts of the duchy. He had tracked another of Rembrand’s prisoner convoys here. They had seemingly been conducting investigations all up and down the border towns, snatching a person here and there and accusing them of witchcraft.

After what Arthur had seen up north, where the gold-clad monsters had tried to take an entire town, he knew it was all lies. They needed people for something…and Arthur needed to find out what it was.

The village lay nestled among a break in dense pine trees; rocky outcroppings wound their way around one half, providing a natural windbreak. The village was mostly built in the shadows of these natural rock formations laid out in a small scattered crescent. A rather impressively large rough-hewn town well sat in the dead center of the crescent.

The buildings themselves were far above average craftsmanship for a town this small. Finely milled lumber laid with precision and care that would match the manners of most lords. All lacquered in a finish that gave the buildings a honeyed glow.

This idyllic village was quiet as the grave as Arthur snuck from tree to tree towards it. No laughter of children. The smell of baking bread and smoking meat didn’t waft across the air as it should. There wasn’t a soul in sight other than a few scattered armored men near jailers’ carts.

This town should be a flurry of activity; it was a lumber town, and it was midday in the spring. The sounds of saws and axes should be ringing out, but instead only occasional gruff laughter and the uncomfortable thud of horse hooves on the ground broke the stillness.

Arthur managed to break from the trees right next to one of the fine homes and skirted up behind it. He wasn’t the stealthiest individual, and his half-ruined armor certainly didn’t help matters. At least it was so filthy at this point that the sun shining off it probably wouldn’t give him away.

He crept into the house through the back door; this was the kind of cozy town where people left their doors unlocked. The real threats around here normally weren’t your neighbors; it was stray monsters. Most of those couldn’t use doorknobs, and if you got one that could use them, you were already screwed.

The house looked normal and well lived in until he got to the front door. There were obvious signs of a struggle, an exceedingly violent one. Wood was splintered all around the doorframe, and the door hung on by a single hinge. The smell of burnt wood and hair hung in the air.

There was no blood, but Arthur knew from experience that there often wasn’t any when an adherent of Rembrand fought, their skills could cauterize wounds and evaporate blood instantly with searing divine heat.

“What is this depredation? Why, brothers…why would you do this? This home has no altars to dark gods, no hidden riches that would come from criminality.”

He looked over at a slightly singed portrait on the wall; it showed a happy family. A bushy-bearded man with a smart green jerkin stretched over his hardworking frame. He had a beaming smile and his arm wrapped around a lovely dainty woman with flaxen hair who looked at him with obvious love in her eyes. She held her hand protectively over her middle and obvious addition to the portrait to show she was with child.

The light rays streaming in the window began to still and gather into violently quivering spears of condensed light that sizzled against the dust in the room. Arthur took a few deep breaths to calm his growing anger. As his powers grew, it was more and more important that he kept a level head; his talent was deadly if he let it run rampant.

Before, it would just dramatically flare torches or candles and risk starting a fire. Now he had focused its purpose more in his sanctuary, shaping it into a tool solely for converting the light of the world into a weapon to smite the darkness and tyranny masquerading as honorable men.

Arthur left the building, winding his way behind the other home; he searched a few more quietly as he went. Most had similar scenes—signs of a struggle. Meals were left half-cooked; one even had a terrified cat hiding among the shattered rubble of a kitchen.

Arthur quickened his pace towards the only hub of activity within the town. The two-story building that had jailers’ carts parked in front of it. He approached from a sharp angle, crossing the street boldly towards the back of the cart.

The two guards were barely keeping watch, instead talking about the latest rumors surrounding the forsaken paladin. Arthur used their distraction to peek into the back of the cart. It was empty but still had small wet bloodstains. Which meant they had been unloaded recently.

He braced himself and walked straight around the edge of the cart towards the guards, boldly joining their conversation. “I have fought the Forsaken Paladin.” He interjected.

The guards jumped slightly; they were mere warriors of Rembrand not paladins, thankfully. “Oy, what the hell happened to you…sir paladin? Sorry, my lord, I didn’t realize we had reinforcements coming.” He looked questioningly at the half-melted appearance of Arthur’s armor.

The other guard was either a bit duller or a bit bolder. “Lord! What was fighting him like? Are the rumors true that he wields demons?”

Arthur held one hand behind his back as he talked, slowly forming the sunlight above them into condensed orbs. “The truth, I’m afraid, is far darker; even demons should fear that man. He takes animals, plants, anything around him, and turns it into twisted abominations he pulled from the depths of his sickening imagination. Now excuse me, I must join the others.”

The first guard suddenly looked suspicious. “You know we can’t join once the ritual has started… What garrison did you say you are coming from?”

Two beams of condensed-shaped light speared downwards through the tops of the guards’ skulls. The heat was so intense that it instantly melted through flesh and bone, melting armor as it passed before turning a small spot on the ground to glass. They both dropped roughly, instantly felled by Arthur’s light.

With a soft sigh, Arthur quietly answered the dead man’s question, “I don’t have anywhere that I hail from anymore.”

He walked towards the front door, and an intense alien energy started prickling across his skin with every step closer he took. It felt dirty, vile, a wrongness that went beyond physical discomfort and pressed down on the sanctity of his sanctuary. Arthur stiffened, gathering light behind himself in a series of searing javelins.

He needs to act now. He blasted the front door from its hinges with a powerful kick, exposing the dark interior to the day’s light; a charnel house greeted him. The smell of blood and something sickly sweet gagged him.

The room’s large foyer has been transformed into a dark, twisted ritual. The bent, bowing, broken bodies of nearly a dozen people lined its edge, framing the boundary of the ritual. Lines of blood ran from them, flowing of their own accord in spiraling patterns towards a thin red slit in reality itself.

A Bishop of Rembrand stood before the hellish slit in space, the woman from the painting in his grasp, knife across her throat. Her husband’s limp corpse was being pulled slowly into the tear by a dark-scaled hand that reached out hungrily. A paladin flanking the bishop turned in shock towards Arthur, drawing his weapon.

Arthur didn’t give him the chance to strike. A dozen javelins of righteous light flew over his shoulders, melting through the man’s armor and knocking him back in a fast series of staggered blows. He fell outside of the ritual circle screaming as he cooked within his golden shell.

The bishop turned enough to meet Arthur’s gaze and gave him an entirely inhuman smile flecked with blood. He jammed the dagger into the woman’s throat and pushed her into the thin portal. She disappeared with a dull flash and the sound of tearing flesh.

“What evil is this? Do you not serve the god or order!?” Arthur shouted in astonished confusion; he expected something untoward was happening, but nothing this depraved.

The bishop cackled in amusement. “Of course we do, fool, but why should we or our lord care who hands us the leash around the neck of the world as long as we hold it?” His eyes held an unhinged, mad glint.

Arthur began gathering mana into a great swirling maelstrom just outside the doorway, capturing the light before it could even hit the ground. Arthur’s words ground out through clenched teeth. “In the name of Veritatis, goddess of truth and justice, I find you guilty of murder and consorting with the dark powers.” The world went white as Arthur unleashed divine judgement into the room.

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***

Vraxious—forsaken lands

The massive figure ahead suddenly and startlingly launched itself into the air toward Duchess, giving Vrax a damn good look at what it actually was and letting him get Predator’s gaze off. It was shaped like a frog with slimy blue and green flesh. Its tongue trailed from its mouth, the sucker on the end moving with uncomfortable dexterity.Its wide mouth was laughable large and ringed with Sharklike teeth each the size of a damned kite shield. [Froggoth Tier-1 [Threat: Moderate]

Vrax ducked to the side, making sure he would have a clear view of where it landed. He actually knew of these monsters; they were not exclusive to the forsaken lands, occasionally popping up near the fringes of the kingdom, especially near waterways. It was dangerous, but nothing compared to some of the other creatures he had fought, especially since he was pretty sure he had a dandelion that would make short work of this specific beast.

Duchess swerved in the air, twisting her body to avoid the flailing tongue. The Froggoth’s maw almost clamped over her, but a sharp, powerful rake of her claws across its face sent it tumbling back down, trailing blood. that caused all the devourers to immediately change.

The flock unfolded itself, revealing the horrors beneath, and cascaded downward one after the other towards the monster. Feeding tendrils flailing and whirring in anticipation. Duchess wasn’t far behind them, looping around at an angle to hit it from the side; she looked pissed that it had dared try and attack her.

The Froggoth hit the ground with a crunch, flattening a patch of vegetation. Lux rushed forward to attack the downed foe, and Vrax followed closely behind until he got within ten strides. Then he rended the life from around himself, summoning two things from his menagerie. First, Sunshine came crashing out of the sagging plant chutes, already in a full sprint towards the Froggoth.

Behind sunshine a single Gullet diver dandelion Moaned uncomfortably on its stalk before plucking itself violently and drifting towards the utter clusterfuck unfolding ahead. Vrax just stepped back slightly; this didn’t look like it was going to be much of a fight.

The devourers hit it first, greedily snaking whirring tendrils into the slash marks across its face, digging deeper and deeper as they sucked blood and blended flesh out at an impressive pace. Duchess wasn’t far behind, landing on its right side and immediately clamping her jaws around one of its bulbous eyes. Her claws grabbed the tongue jutting from its mouth to stop it from using its main weapon.

Sunshine and Lux both hit its legs at about the same time. Vrax raised an eyebrow and lowered his spear. It was a fucking massacre; the devourers alone probably would have killed the thing with how far they were burrowing into its face.

Damn…Get fucked, random enemy around my level… I mean, you are just a giant frog with a few tricks, but…you’re the size of a small cottage; it’s still impressive.

Duchess ripped her head backwards, tearing the massive eyeball free. She tugged against the still-attached eyestalk for a moment before flicking her tail up and into the empty socket, abruptly stilling the beast. She shook her head again violently, finally pulling the eye free, and held it in her hand curiously for a moment, like she wasn’t sure how to go about eating it.

She dropped it abruptly when she noticed Sunshine tearing into the dead beast’s leg and rushed over in a near panic. “I called the drumsticks!” She crooned in the noblewoman’s voice.

“Mine! Lux creaked from where he was nibbling on the other giant frog leg.” Vrax watched the odd drama unfold with his spear held loosely in his hand as he wondered what the hell had led to this being his new normal. Not that he was particularly mad about it, but it was starting to be a whole lot of potentially murderous creatures to keep track of at any given moment.

Sunshine and Duchess went tumbling off into the foliage as she pulled the eldritch flower away from the savaged leg. She huffed and pounced on the leg herself while Sunshine began crashing through the brush looking for something else living that didn’t bear the mark of Vurune to protect it from Sunshine’s unending hunger.

Oh, yep, nope, better put the murder machine is back in the hell dimension.

Vrax rushed over and added sunshine back to the garden before it did something problematic like charging another hilltop. When he looked back towards the corpse Duchess had a severed frog leg in her mouth and was trying to bully Lux away from his.

“Oh dammit, Duchess, share the fucking legs!” Vrax yelled and shuffled over to chase her off. she rounded on him with a snapping hiss.

“I’ll gut you like a fucking fish, you wee pissant!” She bellowed in the voice of a drunken dwarf.

“I will stuff you back in the asshole dimension if you don’t share!” Vrax yelled back, flaring his smite a bit to show he meant it.

Lux shocked both of them by launching himself onto Duchess’s back and at the same time forming a massive hooked blade that looped all the way around her neck. “Mine!” He creaked wrathfully.

Duchess looked a bit mollified and slightly put off by the unexpected violence. “Fine, fine, the peasants can have a cow.”

Vrax rubbed his hands down his face in frustration as Duchess shuffled off with her leg, giving Lux a very unnecessary tail slap on her way that sent him flying back into the foliage. By the time he had gotten to his feet again to retaliate, Duchess hovered safely out of reach overhead, huffing in amusement.

“Hunt!” Lux yelled and pointed at the duchess.

“I swear to god you little bloodthirsty ass twig, I’ll stuff you into the damn be-good garden too if I have to!” Lux creaked something that sounded an awful lot like sass and settled back into his meal.

***

The rest of the trek across the reserve was blessedly incident-free; Vrax skirted wide around the enchanting tree rising from the center. As much as he wanted to explore the shit out of it. He was almost certain that whatever was in this reserve, that had killed everyone else off before they could report on it, was in there.

Because how could it not be? Anyone who wandered in here looking for treasure would immediately beeline for the giant tree house. It had ancient magic still glowing above its front door. Hells Vrax almost went straight there and probably would have if he wasn’t thoroughly over not being able to level up. The faster this trial was completed, the better.

He fully intended to come back, probably once he had hit the second tier. A massive blessed treehouse already with accommodations built in. Surrounded by a curated selection of dangerous beasts wasn’t something he would pass up forever.

It was like someone in the past had made this place for future him. He could already imagine everthirst roots draping down the sides and a horror or five climbing through the branches on guard duty. There wasn’t any rule saying his castle had to actually be in his capital; besides, this place was pretty close.

He pulled himself from his daydreams of an eldritch castle as they reached the outskirts of the reserve. The rolling hills and twisting brooks faded away and back into a dense stretch of wide-leafed tropical plants that rose just high enough to be considered trees. Snails the size of his head inched around the thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground, greedily munching.

You could only see for five strides at best; the coverage was so thick. This would be dangerous to traverse, and Vrax wanted to take full advantage of the stealth his talent offered him in this kind of omnipresently dense foliage. So Vrax dismounted Malice and put him in the menagerie. He had room since the gullet diver hadn’t gotten to do anything last fight, simply being summoned and then blowing around grumpily before dying.

Vrax had learned his lesson. Any vein diver he carried on him for combat now had a definitive and short lifespan to avoid another never-ending clusterfuck like the one he had left beside the kings road. He could do something about the ones in his capitol that covered it in a haze, but he wouldn’t. He honestly liked the ‘Fuck off without an invite’ fog of death. It looked pretty at night too, a false green aurora gently lighting the streets.

With Malice away and Duchess far above Lux and Vrax crept forward. Lux walked with a disconcerting gait, slightly stilted and uneven, reminding Vrax a bit too much of the ancient betrayed Spriggan. It was reasonably quiet, though, somehow, almost certainly through Lux commanding the plants to cushion his steps.

The large leaves twisted and bent slightly as Vrax pushed onward. Always obscuring his form while allowing him to see unimpeded. Unless something here had a rather impressive detection talent, he would see it first.

They passed under a nest of buzzing wasps the size of ravens that were more often than not carrying small game like rabbits and tree lizards impaled upon their tails. The wasp nests continued for a tense half league. They seemed to dissuade any real monsters from lurking here. Thankfully they seemed uninterested in Vrax and Lux’s calm, quiet passing.

That or, they just didn’t notice the two of them. Vrax was fairly certain he could have fought them off with smites. But it would be a close thing; by the time they exited that stretch, they had passed thousands of the Wasps, and he sure as shit didn’t have enough mana to smite all of them.

The landscape gradually shifted back from the dense tangle of jungle into a more open-air forest containing a bizarre mix of white-gold-hued pines and the occasional willow, all laid on top of immaculate gold-green grass. Vrax started picking up the pace when suddenly, off to his right, he saw it.

A jagged scar carved into an otherwise unassuming field leading to a small cave. It wasn’t nearly as verdant as it had been in the rcording, only lightly coated in rotting moss laid over stone with grass peeking through. The cave looked nearly completely collapsed inwards and somehow more sunken than he remembered, but this had to be it, the place where a paladin aspirant had died a millennium ago.

Vrax veered sharply to inspect the area. He was sure the creature wouldn’t still be here a thousand years later, but if he was lucky, he might find some clue, some hint about the past that would help him now. At least he was in the right area.

“Lux, stay up here and keep watch.” Lux nodded, and his bark ripped from his body, swirling into a long-bladed limb as he began to slowly patrol the rim of the depression.

Vrax slid down the edge near the cavern using the slick moss like an icy path. He leaned around the cavern corner, peeking past the rubble. It was too dark for him to make out much. He slowly and carefully pulled a smelter moss vial from his bandolier and rolled it into the room without breaking the vial.

It rolled to a stop a few strides inside, illuminating the tight cavern with a low, green, unsteady glow. Vrax relaxed slightly; the cave was still long abandoned. The rock walls had been slowly coming down for a millennium, and small bits of debris were strewn across the floor.

Unrecognizable bone fragments and bits of metal that once belonged to armor are all hidden under a thin layer of scum and pooling water. Vrax carefully edged into the room, sticking to the shadows just in case, as he began his investigation of the ancient nest.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep