Freeday, 3rd of Febrinna, 5662 AE, 468th Year of the 5th Era

Ivan and I quickly rushed over to the main doors of the fort’s praetorian headquarters. It was quite easy to spot considering how out of every other building within the abandoned old fort. It was the only thing that one could consider being in remotely good shape, relatively speaking of course. The building itself wasn’t particularly big, as in it seemed only about two stories tall and maybe a third level on top of the roofs, but judging from its size, it shouldn’t be too big. Perhaps only as big as a tennis court.

It was just as we were about to open the doors of the building did we realise that it was barred from the inside. Whatever the madmen were doing inside of those walls, it seemed important enough to do everything in their power to prevent it from being interrupted.

As if some decrepit old doors were about to stop us. I gave Ivan a look before he immediately swung his berdiche upon the doors with his pure strength alone, utterly decimating the doors, hinges and even parts of the wall surrounding it, in only a couple of swings. When the doors broke down, we immediately entered, weapons at the ready just in case.

However, when we entered the building, I was immediately struck by an eerie sense of dread. The rotting stench of the air that assaulted my nostrils was horrible. Fresh blood could be seen splattered across different places on the walls and ground which only added its own iron-like dry smell to the general putrid stink of the whole building. If my vomit and my shit were to meet each other, fall in love, and make an abomination together, I’d imagine it would smell something similar to what I was smelling now.

All of this wasn’t helped by the fact the building itself was dimly lit by the few torches on the walls, dusty, dank, and moldy. Did this bloody cult not grasp even the basics of hygiene? It was a bloody Roman fort, for Christ's sake, they could have easily built up from the remaining infrastructure and get some decent plumbing put in place. Add to all of that was the fact that I could hear the faint sound of screams surrounded by some ominous chanting though it sounded a little too distant to make out clearly.

Ivan and I immediately scouted out the building complex to see if there was any clue as to where this ritual was being carried out because from what it looked like to as at the time, the building was basically as deserted as can be.

“I don’t get it, this place is basically empty!” Ivan said in frustration

“Do you hear that ominous chanting though?” I asked him to confirm whether or not I was hearing things

“Yes, I hear it, but I don’t see where it could be coming from! This is absolutely frustrating… I’ll try and see if I find anything upstairs. You should see if there’s anything else you can find here. It sounds dumb, but there may be some secret passages around here that we don’t know about.”

I nodded at Ivan’s suggestion. What he said made the most sense out of every possibility. There was no way such an important ritual would be held in a conspicuous space like this one, not to mention the plain surface of the praetorian headquarters was far too small to conduct anything outside of maybe a few small rites.

Honestly, though I can see well enough in the dark due to the powers of my skills, it was still a bloody pain trying to find anything in this darkness, not to mention that due to my heightened senses, my nose has yet to adapt to the wretched stench of the building which tanked my focus a little bit more.

Regardless, I noticed something as I was searching around the ground floor. In fact I was surprised I didn’t notice it from the beginning. Though there was indeed a mess of blood all over the place, there were higher concentrations of it on the floor which formed a sort of trail-pattern which headed towards somewhere. A literal blood trail. Honestly, could these beasts be any sloppier? Absolutely disgusting savages!

Snooping around the grounds a bit more, I could see that the trail lead to a dead end of a wall which irked me a bit. As I paced closer towards the wall, I knocked on it and though it did indeed feel like a stone wall, I could also subtly hear echoes of reverberation from the knocks coming from the other side of the wall which all but convinced me that there was something behind it which might give explanation to where the ritual was being held. If the tropes from the games I’ve played in the academy were anything to go by, there must be some sort of hidden mechanism or switch around here to open these walls… I’d be fucked if the mechanism involved magic but I should try out all possibilities first. Although, considering this wasn’t a game that constrained me to a single linear path to go through things, I could just…

*CRASHH!!*

As I drew my weapons to unleash a blast that might be able to blow a hole in the walls, I heard a large crash and sounds of scuffling coming from the second floor where Ivan was at which immediately drew my attention away from the false wall. It wasn’t just a crash as I could now hear the sounds of clashes of metal from upstairs.

“Ivan!! What the hell is going on there?!” I asked as I readied myself to jump in

*You have gained 1700XP!*

Soon after a body fell over from the second floor and I could see it was a werewolf but donning black-clothed armor similar to the elite ‘Shadow Guards’ Ivan and I had fought during the siege of the encampment. I clicked my tongue as I saw that we were currently in the middle of an ambush.

“While I’d like to say I’m fine… HAH!!... I’d appreciate less asking and more jumping into action to help!! Oi you bastards..!!” Ivan said in between shouts and attacks as he was being assailed. This was off. Though I had leveled up a bit since the last time I faced these fuckers, I still wasn’t too keen on facing an opponent without a more distinct advantage in terms of power. Regardless, I had slightly bad feeling as I immediately crouched to make my jump.

Just before I was about to jump upstairs to help the man, I felt an immediate sense of danger come about me as I was crouching down getting ready to jump. As if out of nowhere, two swords were crossed above me, piercing the empty space where just a second ago my torso was. Fuck, I should’ve expected this to be honest. Things were far too quiet for there not to be an ambush like this. I wasted no time in slashing away the opponents around me as I turned and swiveled, summoning powerful gusts of air to throw my opponents back.

“I’d love to come up there this instant, Ivan, but looks like I’m a bit preoccupied as well at the moment!” I shouted as I put up defensive stuff, eyeing down what I can now clearly see as my two assailants. They had lost their advantage in the element of surprise as I was now aware of their presence and so they eyed me with just as much caution. “Alright boys, it seems like you want to dance. I’m a little rusty but…”

As I was staring down my two assailants, I caught a quick glint to my right before I immediately lunged my sword and swiped sideways with it, empowering my attack with some heavy wind gusts, accelerating the strike and increasing its power. Just as I did that, as if the empty space grew lungs to speak, a shout was heard. Not a few seconds after that, the body of a ‘shadow guard’ werewolf appeared seemingly out of a smoke of darkness. Not too dissimilar to Ivan’s own powers. I didn’t waste time redirecting the orientation of my sword strike as I set out with my other hand instead which was holding Windwyrm and I lodged the blade up to its shaft into the werewolf’s lower jaw before bringing my other blade back to cut the man’s head off as if my two weapons were the blades of scissors and his head were paper. I could tell my heart was beating a little faster as I took in the full unadulterated sight of the werewolf’s blood spurting out of its neck.

*You have gained 1700XP!*

Not willing to take any more chances with this, I closed my distance with the remaining two shadow guards in front of me who looked like they were still a little bewildered at how I managed to sense and slay their little friend. Regardless, the sight of me coming after them immediately seemed to have slapped back a bit of common sense into the beasts but not before I managed to nick one of them in their neck as they stepped back which caused an audible groan to come out.

I grinned as I saw this before unleashing a few dozen flurrying strikes towards them. I’ll give credit where credit is due. And these two shadow guards I believe have earned at least some credit as they managed to block and parry many of my own attacks. I was purposefully holding off from using too much of my mana because of my fear an emergency situation would prop up which would require me to utilise the skills and powers at my disposal and I’d only look like a stupid fool if I were to suddenly lose my juice in the middle of an important fight. It would cause me to lose both my life as well as my dignity. I shudder at the mere thought.

As I began parrying strike after strike from these elite cultists, I had felt something was off from their swordsmanship. It gave me an odd feeling for a while but after a few more turns parrying off the enemy's vicious attacks, I had finally realised what it was. These ‘shadow guards’ were indeed remarkably powerful and had immensely quick reflexes which regular people could do little to fend off against but their technique was sorely amateur and far lacking when it came to a longer melee. Once you got past the pure brute strength and speed, you'd quickly realise these fools lacked a proper stance. Perhaps they had experience in street fights or as mercenaries, but the lack of technique will be their undoing.

After getting over the initial shock of their strength and stamina, I had refocused my efforts to try and use their overpowering physicality to my advantage. As they kept on savagely striking towards me, I focused on the weak points of their attacks as I swiveled around them and even managed to get in between. When one of the shadow guards moved to strike me with a quick attack I parried at the hilt of his sword before weaving his blade and redirected it towards the other shadow guard behind me. The poor bastard couldn't avoid the strike in time as he was stabbed by his comrade's sword. As the two werewolves were in shock, I immediately seized the opportunity to cut open both their throats with Windwyrm, killing them as blood splattered from their necks before they finally dropped dead.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

*You have gained 1700xp!*

*You have gained 1700xp!*

Just as I had finished up with these two bastards, from the second floor railings, a downward ice slope appeared as I saw Ivan sliding down said slope as he stood upon his own two assailants with each foot standing upon the chest of one of the werewolves. When he landed upon the ground, he quickly swung his berdiche, slaying the two poor beasts.

*You have gained 1700xp!*

*You have gained 1700xp!*

“I would've sooner died of old age waiting for you, Carl. Pfft!! Hahahahah!” Ivan said as he put his hand over one of his eyes in and laughed in a cackling manner like he was some edgy brooding antihero “These bastards think they could use the dark to cloak themselves against me! Fools! I am the darkness!”

I facepalmed so hard as I gave a frustrated sigh at what I saw. The man's actions were giving me severe secondhand embarrassment. Ivan only laughed when he saw me cringe so hard at him.

“Oh lighten up will you, Carl!” Ivan slapped my back “No harm in having a bit of fun…”

“A little hard to do when you're surrounded by corpses, but whatever makes you happy, I guess…” I shook my head at Ivan's foolishness. “Regardless, let's focus back on the task at hand. While investigating around here, I felt the back of that wall to be hollow as I could hear the chants especially loudly through that section.”

“This wall?” Ivan headed towards the section of the wall I had pointed to as he gave it a few knocks as well “Yup, seems like it.”

“Yes. If we look around the surrounding area there might be a button, chain, or lever we could pull to open up the-..!!!”

*CRASSHHH!!!*

“Ta-da! Open sesame!” Ivan had dramatically motioned to the giant wall he had crushed through with his axe swing as I could see the shards of ice around the edges of the hole in the brick wall. “I said the magic words and look! The door is open! Aren't I amazing?”

“I guess that works too…” I sighed as I made my way towards the path that had opened up. To no one’s surprise, there was indeed a pathway behind the walls which I could now see was a winding stairway that led downwards. The stairway was illuminated by the light of torches that hung from its walls. I gave Ivan a look before bowing and saying, “After you…?”

Ivan only smirked before his presence vanished into the shadows once more, as not even I could easily make out where exactly he was though assuming he wasn’t an asshole, he should still be around here. I shook my head as I entered into the staircase and it was then where the chanting started sounding clearer and clearer as I was sure we were reaching the source of the chants which I assumed would be the ritual area. At this point, Ivan had uncloaked himself from the shadows as he followed after me closeby.

After we had reached a certain point in the stairways, I was starting to get a clearer idea of the chant as I could make out some words which I do not entirely remember, but seems oddly familiar to me for some reason…

“Malkane… Gorrisu odolaren semea!” I could hear the chanting becoming louder and louder. “itzuli berriro eta askatu zure semeak…!”

As we saw the edge of the stairway, red light could be seen shining into the dark crevice of the stairway hall. I raised my hand slightly to signal to Ivan that we should proceed carefully. As we crossed through the rock-like doorway, I could only be shocked by what I was seeing.

We had entered into what I could only describe as a very large and spacious cavern within the hill which Anteron stood atop of. We had indeed been climbing down for quite a while but I wasn’t expecting to stumble upon such a large area. The cavern had a sort of circular shape to it and in the middle was a sort of pool that had a stream of water flowing out from it. Its walls of rock were filled with strange markings and symbols that I noticed were glowing a strange red colour. It was indeed very ominous, but that wasn’t what caused me the most concern. What I saw was truly horrific. Everything else I had seen prior to this point didn’t even hold a candle to the brutality I had witnessed here.

In the middle of the cavern’s pool stood a man in an ornate crimson red robe with his arms outstretched to the ceiling. Around the man within the pool were the numerous lifeless corpses of many dozens of women, all relatively young, ranging from prepubescent teens to adult women. All the corpses were naked and all of them had gaping holes where their heart should be. The corpses were bloodied and from the holes in their chests, I could see their blood flowing up - literally floating in the air - and gathering concentrically to form an orb-like object above the head of the man in the crimson robe.

Around the pool were numerous bodies of men and children, probably reaching more than a hundred in number, laid out on their backs forming a circle around the pool. All their corpses were headless as their severed heads were placed upright upon their chests facing the pool. Their lifeless eyes and their expressions of fear before death as if bearing witness to such a gruesome sight. This was utterly disgusting. It took everything in me to hold myself back from outright throwing up at the brutality.

“Malkane… Gorrisu odolaren semea!” again the head cultist chanted. Now I had taken note of the twelve other hooded figures who were wearing similar robes to the old cultist I had killed yesterday prostrating themselves towards who I assumed was the head of this God-forsaken cult. At the cult leader’s chant, the other cultists there answered again, “itzuli berriro eta askatu zure semeak…!”

This was madness of the highest order and this madness could not continue any longer. From what I could see, this profane gathering of heathens were on their last legs. There were no other werewolves, no more wolfbeasts, no shadow guards to spring up out of nowhere to attack us once more. No. All that was left were these bastards in front of us, and by God, I will bring forth Heaven’s Wrath and God’s Righteous Fury to bring down divine retribution upon these Godless Heathens!

“Ivan…” I said to my friend as I gave him a look with a serious face.

“Carl, I seriously think we should consider turning back now… Report this to Hunt, and we can return with the full force of the expedition! I don’t think-...!”

“It would be too late by then!” I exclaimed in a hushed tone as I pointed towards the large blood orb floating in the air in the middle of the cavern “It’s obvious from that that these beasts are summoning something… something bad, something I think we’re better off knowing nothing about than if we waste any more time dilly-dallying and finding out the worst way on what the hell they’re trying to call!”

Ivan only followed my pointed hand as he gazed at the blood orb for a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath and exhaling. He then nodded before saying, “...On your command, Carl…” after which once more he faded into a smoke of shadows.

I had looked once more upon the blood orb before I too let out a heavy sigh after inhaling before I did the sign of the cross and threw in a hail mary… As I had made the sign of the cross once more, I locked in my sight upon the cultist leader. I had emptied my mind of any other thought as I felt the air around me cooled. It was then I used a large portion of my mana and energy as I lunged towards the head cultist with the strongest strike I could muster to end this in a single swoop.

Launching myself from the high rock platform I was on, I had closed the distance between us which was roughly about a couple dozen meters in what felt like a flash. I had focused myself fully into this one attack and as I now stood crouched in front of the cult leader’s body, blood spurted out of his neck as his head flew off. At that moment, even if only for a few seconds, I had felt as if time had stood still.

*You have gained 3400XP!*

When the head of the cult leader finally dropped to the pool with a splash, the other chanting cultists immediately stopped chanting and soon enough it had seemed that they were beginning to come out of their trance-like state as they at last noticed the head of their leader floating around on the waters of the pool as his body too dropped with a splash. Without much time to think as the damned old cultists were slowly coming back to consciousness, I spent a good deal of my energy and mana unleashing a mad torrent of wind, sending some of the bodies on the ground and the mutilated body parts flying awry.

The remaining cultists who had noticed this immediately attempted to transform themselves into their beast forms in order to eliminate me. Hah! As if I’d give them the chance! In the next few minutes, I had started my own carnage upon the transforming cultists as they were at their most vulnerable position.

In support of me, Ivan materialised from the shadows as he spent a good deal of his power to unleash many strikes of darkness and ice stalagmites to complement my torrents of wind slashes. The combined might of our attacks had sent the old cultists into a state of mass confusion and panic as many of them had even cancelled their transformation into their beast forms. In the next few minutes, we had unleashed our own scene of brutality as we had rendered the old bastards into similar states of mutilation and carnage as they had done towards their victims.

*You have gained 2400XP!*

*You have gained 2400XP!*

*You have gained 2400XP!*

….

*You have gained 2400XP!*

As I had lopped off the head of an elder cultist and Ivan had struck his axe splitting in half another one of the cultist Soon enough silence prevailed once more before Ivan and I slumped down to a dry part of the cavern near the pool. We were breathing raggedly as our chests were rising and falling at frequent intervals. It wasn’t long until the both of us laughed…

“Fucking old mutts! Hahahahah!!” Ivan said as he shook his head while still breathing heavily.”That shows them not to mess with us!”

“Si…” I said, breathing still heavy. For a final battle, that really did seem anticlimactic, but a win is a win no matter how one wishes to spin it! “Well, how do we report this to Hunt, then? We basically finished the expedition ourselves, hahaha!!”

I was laughing along with Ivan as I had my back against his as we were sitting down. However, after taking a few moments to laugh, I had noticed Ivan had abruptly stopped laughing. This was strange. Very strange…

“Hey, Ivan! Cat got your tongue?” I tried joking, but Ivan gave no answer in response, well at least not verbally. Immediately Ivan turned my head towards the middle of the cavern and I saw that the gathering ball of blood had not at all vanished and was still there. “...Dear Mother of God..!”

As Ivan and I were struggling to even sit up straight for the next few minutes as we waited for our mana and energy to recover, the blood orb had finished sucking out the blood from all of the mutilated corpses, including those of the cult leader and elder cultists whose lives had reached their expiration end date at our hands.

All the hair on my body stood on edge at the sight of the blood orb swirling and convulsing in the air before slowly making its way downwards towards the pool. Neither I nor Ivan had any clue what was going to happen. But whatever it was, I just had a gut feeling that it won’t be anything good at all. This night was going to be another very long and very shitty night.