Chapter 146: Still Alive

After noticing Gawain’s line of sight, Heidi went over to look too out of curiosity. She spent some effort to understand the ancient writings on the wall, but before she recognized the writings, Gawain took the initiative to explain the meaning first.

Everyone present was instantly shocked.

“This statement… What does it mean?” Amber looked at the statement that seemed to be a declaration. She was in disbelief as she said, “In normal situations, no one would say such things, right? Furthermore, it is written in such a place!”

Heidi developed an association. “Meaning only by defying the gods would allow humans to survive… Does this mean that the gods want humans to be extinct?”

“Things related to gods are mostly symbolic or have hidden meanings. A single statement wouldn’t allow you to understand the meaning of it,” Gawain spoke while being preoccupied. In his heart were thoughts that were connected to the Eternal Stone Slate’s shards and those deliberate and exaggerated truths that were meant to scare others.

Immediately after, Gawain turned to Byron and asked, “You mentioned you discovered the remnants of manuscripts and documents?”

Byron nodded and replied, “Yes, over here. But they are rather fragile, and we didn’t dare to touch it after discovering them.”

Those remnants of manuscripts and documents weren’t sealed up, and for some reason, when the staff evacuated from this place, they didn’t bring the documents away. The material of the manuscripts was made from the magic-injected parchments that the Mages of the Gondor Empire used to do their recordings. It was also due to this special material that allowed these manuscripts exposed in the air for a thousand years to withstand the corrosion of time.

The manuscripts might still be intact, but a lot of the wordings had already faded, and it was already hard to recognize some words after the wind erosion. Gawain took a rough glance and judged that at least half of them were already illegible.

It was fortunate that there was the other half.

Heidi was already prepared. She brought over scrolls and a ceremonial quill pen that were imbued with magic. After seeing those precious ancient manuscripts, she immediately opened the scroll and allowed it to float around her vicinity. She then used one hand to hold the quill pen and placed her other hand on the extremely fragile and ancient parchment. After a difficult and complicated incantation, magic started to surge around her body. The quill pen was suddenly freed from her fingers and was flying independently above the scroll and started to write rapidly.

The words on the parchment were faithfully restored and copied by magic. It didn’t matter if it was the clear parts or the faded and illegible parts, every piece of parchment was copied. Heidi then let out a breath of relief and carefully picked up the ancient manuscripts before placing them into a small box that was prepared in advance.

The contents of the manuscript might have been preserved, but these ancient originals were still rather valuable. It was best to be able to preserve them.

Gawain stood beside Heidi and was amazed by the convenience of magic. At the same time, he concentrated on the contents that appeared on the scroll.

In order to extract readable information from a large chunk of deformed words, Gawain read very slowly. Despite the case, some of the disturbing statements were still gradually taking form. These documents weren’t some research notes or diaries. After forming the words into various statements, Gawain felt they were like the ramblings of a lunatic, and it was filled with terrifying ideas and metaphors.

“…pay attention to it. It is watching me attentively from that festering flesh… It is inside my body, and I want to go inside its body too…”

“No one shall survive. The end of days is arriving… Blasphemous behavior didn’t allow us to struggle on whilst at death’s door…”

“…Eat heartily, eat heartily. I have eaten the flesh of gods again. After living a century, they didn’t come; they still didn’t come, but I don’t need them to come anymore. The world outside has already collapsed, has already collapsed…”

After this, it was a large section of disorderly scribbling. The words had turned into unrecognizable lines and symbols. It wasn’t due to the distortion of the manuscript or the fuzzy words, it was because of the writer that had seemingly turned crazy. A few manuscripts later, the disorderly scribblings turned into legible words again.

“It sleeps in the depths of mother earth; it sleeps in the depths of the ocean; it sleeps in the depths of the sky. It is calling my name. Those murmurings…”

“I can see it, the face of god. It is smiling to me in the light… It is time to depart. I want to go to its nation. Ah, that is the greatest blessing. God has bestowed blood and flesh for us to share, and it turns out that it is all for this day…”

After this, there were large sections of crazy lines, and the occasional single word would pop out from the scribblings, but they seemed to be illogical and didn’t have any grammar. Instead of saying those were words, it would be better to say these were crazy talk and incomplete sentences that would appear from a chaotic mind. It was impossible to read these manuscripts anymore.

Heidi had also noticed this point. After copying a few pages of ‘mojibake’, she finally stopped and used Sculpture Hand to flip those manuscripts. After verifying there wasn’t any more valuable information, she stopped her spell.

“What is written there?” Amber leaned over and saw the copied scrolls that were floating in the air and asked curiously, “It looks like some scribblings…”

“A lunatic’s crazy talk.” Gawain frowned. The words on the scrolls had caused him to develop deep unease, but he still gave a rough explanation. “…It looks like a person was abandoned in this place, and these things were left behind when the person gradually turned crazy.”

After hearing the significance of those words, everyone present couldn’t help but feel their blood running cold. These might just be the ramblings of a lunatic, but it was unknown why the words sounded like they contained some special energy that emitted a chilling aura.

“I—I am starting to dislike these things…” Amber’s body was filled with goosebumps and hid behind Gawain. “This place is giving me a very, very strange vibe.”

Just as Gawain wanted to express a similar opinion, a very slight rumbling sound echoed from behind him before he spoke.

Immediately after, it was a series of rumblings.

Everyone immediately drew their weapons and turned to face the direction of the sound. In the eyes of everyone, one of the vessels in the middle of the hall had some movements!

The originally empty and transparent breeding vessel was suddenly filled with a liquid. The surging liquid was rapidly emitting large bubbles, and a distorted and strange figure appeared from within the bubbles. A second ago, it had been an illusory figure, but in the next second, it had solidified into something real…

It had a blood-red color and a giant’s physique. It was like a particularly robust aberration, but it had a face that resembled a human’s. The face had tightly shut eyes and was filled with agony and insanity!

This monster looked like it was a fusion of an aberration and a human, and it was formed out of nowhere. Immediately after, it struggled to break out of the tightly sealed vessel, and an unbelievable scene appeared. The vessel that should be tightly sealed had suddenly turned illusory, and the monster’s body had also turned illusory. The duo rapidly fused and pervaded; subsequently, the monster actually squeezed itself out from the vessel!

Gawain drew his longsword and yelled, “Take it out!”

The monster was currently regaining its body, and the moment it got free from the restraints, it rushed at the soldiers closest to it and charged while uttering a muddled roar. “Hungry… hungry!!”

Longswords slashing from all directions had sealed off the monster’s path. Immediately after, a scorching blade, a poison-coated dagger, and a series of arcane spells were launched at the monster. Apart from the arcane spells that were bounced off, the rest of the attacks had landed on this distorted organism.

However, its vitality was so tough that it was frightening. Even if the limbs were chopped off or the bones were broken, even the aberration’s weakness at the back had been slashed by Gawain, it still didn’t die. It was still struggling to climb back up and lunging at Amber who just happened to be in its vision.

After Amber stabbed with her dagger, she immediately retreated to the side and was preparing to watch on the side. She never expected herself to become a target for the monster and ended up screaming due to the fright. Subsequently, she shrunk into the shadows and escaped.

The monster missed its attack and lost its balance, allowing Sir Byron to have the opportunity to pierce through the monster.

The monster that looked like the fusion of a human and an aberration fell to the ground. But it didn’t disperse like a regular aberration; instead, it wriggled and gradually recovered before it started showing signs that it was climbing back up again!

“It isn’t dead yet?!” Gawain was shocked by this anomaly and immediately grasped his sword to attack another time. But before he could take any action, Amber who had hidden in the shadow realm suddenly jumped out again and grabbed onto Gawain’s arm while screaming, “Gawain! The shadow—shadow realm, something is inside!!”

Gawain had never seen such a frightened expression on this half-elf who didn’t fear anything. It was different from the previous frightened expressions which she exaggerated on purpose. Amber was truly frightened this time, and Gawain felt that if this place was a little eerier, this young lady would immediately cry on the spot!

Gawain took another glance at the monster that was in another battle with Byron and the group. Apart from a tough vitality, Gawain was sure that the monster wouldn’t be able to suppress Byron and the others for now. Gawain immediately grabbed onto Amber’s arm and said, “Bring me inside to take a look!”

Amber had a rare hesitation as she said, “But inside the shadow realm…”

“I’m here!”

Amber gritted her teeth and tugged Gawain’s arm while shouting out, “Alright!”

The strange loss of balance was felt again. The sound and senses from the real world were rapidly fading. Gawain’s vision blurred out for a moment, and he was pulled into the shadow realm by Amber.

This parallel world that existed at the same time with the real world seemed to always maintain a similar brightness. It wasn’t too dark nor too bright; be it on the surface or in the deep caverns, it would always maintain a dusky and unaffected vision.

Gawain immediately looked around after entering the shadow realm. Like other places in the shadow realm, this place had also used a certain disorderly method to reflect off the real world. The circle-shaped hall had a pale luster, and in the vicinity of the hall, there was a dark lump that was like moving smoke, while in the real world, it was where all those magical equipment were placed at. In the center of the hall was the ‘thing’ that Amber mentioned.

The original metallic base and transparent vessel were missing. It was replaced by a pool of black smoke that was surging in the middle, and it was also constantly extending out. It was like a red mud that was like fresh blood.

While the mud was constantly surging, there were countless chaotic mutters filling the mind!

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