The mana sucked the breath out of my lungs before depositing us onto a rocky platform. When the cold stone hit my back I rolled onto my front and shot to my feet.

“What just happened?”

I spat out ash and spun slowly. We were underground somewhere. Skylight filtered through the remnants of a broken ceiling while the skeleton of buildings stood, barely more than walls of stone and ash. We were inside one of the buildings, a home if judging off the size.

Alice stood, rubbing at where the monster had dug into her skin. “Where are we?”

“No idea,” I said. “Looks like we’re in an abandoned city.”

“The monster?”

Despite listening for the sound of screeching, there was only silence, and the empty sky.

“Nothing. If we’re lucky it died in the crash.”

“We’re never that lucky.”

I snorted. “Do we know what happened?”

She walked forward and bent down to pick up the knife. When she held it to the light, the crystal embedded in the wolf’s maw crumbled and scattered.

“Some kind of emergency enchantment. Never heard of it before.”

“Why did someone throw a knife this valuable if it could save their life? Makes no sense.”

Alice pointed behind me. “Maybe because of that?”

I turned around and spotted what I had missed in my brief scan. There was a lump of red cloth buried in the corner, along with the wisp of a firepit just before it surrounded by faded runes and circles. I stopped just short of touching them and examined the runes.

One stood out, the same rune having been on the knife before it burned my retinas.

I sniffed the air, but all I smelled was the subtle smokieness of the world and its lifeless land. Up close, the body of a person was far more recognizable. The tips of bones poked out from underneath the gray blanket laid over their legs.

Alice joined me and crouched, reaching for the lump. “That’s a Grimm’s cloak.”

She grabbed the right flap and peeled it back, revealing a metal emblem. The same emblem Devon had given me. As she pulled the cloak away, she revealed the skeletal remains underneath.

I squinted at the ribcage.

“Look there. Part of their rib is crystalized. And there are pieces missing in the lower sections.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She traced the grooves with her thumb. “Claw marks.”

While she continued to examine the body I stood guard. The monster leader hadn’t shown itself, but I didn't trust our luck. If it was dead, that was fine. More likely was it was recovering and biding its time before it found some way to track us.

Alice searched the dead Grimm and found a pack. There was dried up food of some kind along with a canteen and other bits and bobs including a journal made of worn leather. She flipped through the pages but shook her head.

“Will have to show this to Astra later. It’s written in code.”

I motioned to the corpse. “Grimms have regeneration. How did they die?”

“Remember what Devon said?”

“How to kill a Grimm,” I said. I glanced at the crystalized bones. “Is to wear them out, to tire them of their regeneration.”

“Could have been corrupted. Poison to their Lore Matrix.”

I sighed. “Well whatever it was, it explains the knife. And we know Grimms have come here before. If what Nameless said was true, he even ate one of us. Maybe this person failed.”

She stored the journal and stood up. “We can’t leave them here. All Grimms must be returned to the pack and laid to rest.”

Her words sparked the inner voice in my head, but it mumbled something incoherent before silencing.

“You proposing we carry a skeleton with us? We still have to fight. Even if the leader is dead, there are other monsters.”

She reached down and fiddled with their cloak, undoing the strings tying it together and giving it a flap to remove the ash. After freeing it from the dirt and grime she folded and stuffed it into her satchel.

“If we can return before we leave, we should grab the body.”

Doubtful but we can try.

I checked on the connection to Freki. It no longer buzzed with pain so I sent a drop of mana through. It was happily devoured with a spark of joy bleeding through the link. In the physical, I opened my eyes and extended my hand.

Freki stuck his snout out of my shadow and slowly rose, knocking his horns into my leg. He was smaller, but my mana helped relieve him of that problem.

“Sorry boy. We’ll get you into shape.”

“Wulf!”

“Good fight, Freki,” Alice said.

He headbutted her leg, his tail slapping against me before sniffing the air and moving toward the skeleton. His nose poked at the crystalized bits and recoiled, growling as flames spilled from his maw.

“Rest first and have Freki scout?” I asked.

Alice nodded and we settled in, pulling out food while Freki dived into the shadows. As I sat down, I kept one half of my attention on eating with the other watching through Freki’s eyes.

The city wasn’t anything special, the houses made of dull gray and a distinct lack of glass windows. They seemed equally made, most buildings having the same structure in terms of length and width, with only a few key differences.

Buildings on the north side were more intact, with only a single wall or two lying as pieces of rubble. The furniture was similar to its surroundings; eaten away with only the ghost of what it used to be left behind.

But something about the empty city set me on edge. I ordered Freki to check inside every room, and despite his searching, it only confirmed what I thought.

Where are the bodies?

A city that looked eaten away by time. There wasn’t a single corpse or bones of any kind. Which could mean that the city wasn’t hit with an attack but merely abandoned.

“See anything?” Alice asked.

I shook my head but stopped as Freki set eyes upon the most intact building in the entire city. It stood far taller than the rest, with being nearly twenty times the size of the houses.

“Maybe. Big building, near the north side of our position. He’s approaching now.”

The double doors were cracked open, and he slipped between the stone doors. His eyesight adjusted and I took in the large room filled with pews that looked as new as the day they were carved.

Grand tapestries hung from the ceiling, with a carved skylight allowing the sunlight to enter from above, lighting the golden statue toward the back.

“Alice. You need to see this.”

“See what?”