Gazing at the distance, Roberion and Percival saw the luminous pillar indicating where the targets of the Cerulean Baroness are. From what they saw in the video transmission, their enemies seemed to be in another incarnation altogether; he only had the suspicious word of the baroness that they weren't Blessed. Sure, these guys seem strong, but for now, I only saw how strong these weapons are; maybe they themselves are weak. For fuck sake, though, why did the Cerulean Baroness let these two monsters into this trial? This trial is surreal. How can a mastermind run an experiment like this?! I bet I could make a better trial than her, unless that's all on purpose.
"Sir, are you alright?", Percival whispered to Roberion.
"Yes, sorry, Percival; this thing just doesn't make sense. But anyway, let's not waste more time. What I fear more than fighting these guys and dealing with the baroness is doing that all alone", Roberion patted Shining Crown to keep walking, still alert. The null continued, "I don't know Percival, but I suspect we can`t pull our punches in this one. I just get the feeling that this whole thing is reaching a crescendo. Everyone is rushing on this planet— the altered nulls like me, the fiznaults, Shade, and even those other armored guys from before. The Cerulean Baroness is the worst of all; all these changes to this selection are suspicious. Do you think I'm wrong, Percival?"
The capybara takes a look at one of the buildings suspiciously but speaks quietly. "Sir, I think you aren't wrong, but that's all speculation. I will stand by you nonetheless, whatever you choose to do; I will defend and fight for my patron with all the knightly honor I can muster!"
Roberion looked thoughtfully at the purple pillar of light and said, "You have a point; let's feel the atmosphere as we get near the place. Be vigilant."
The trio kept traveling; looking around, what seemed to be only desert roads appeared; there was no signal of human life. Weirdly enough, they could see undeads running in the direction of the pillar, ignoring the presence of Shining Crown, the null, and the knight capybara. The situation was strange; Roberion had to control his instincts of just throwing fireballs and killing the undead; they were at a safe distance; fighting them would only make him waste his time and danger his life.
As the troupe kept going after the pillar of light, although with difficulties, the roads seemed to be based on true ones. It wasn't a few times that Roberion accidentally took a dead end street, just like now.
"That must be a joke; why did she make the city this way? It would be better to make all participants connected so they can fight and encounter themselves all the time. By the way, Percival, I'm daydreaming, or it seems as though as we go to the center, the more destruction and death we see?", Roberion pointed to a dead human at the side of the road, an emerald crystal breaking out of his chest. The blood seemed to stop pumping out of the wound. Roberion wasn't a medical expert, but it seemed the person was dead for a while.
"Sir, in most of the buildings we passed by, I smelled blood. I suspect what we are seeing on the roads is less death than inside these concrete behemoths", Percival sniffed the air.
"They aren't actually made of only concrete; they are probably made of that gray material too. Most importantly, if you have some weird information like that, talk to me; it doesn't matter if it seems unnecessary. But that is indeed interesting. Is that a coincidence, or is going into the building more dangerous than the roads? Would that be because of the participants or the baroness? We don't know anything in this mess; anyway, let's go."
As they kept walking deeper into the center, more and more corpses showed up. Percival remarked on the buildings he smelled the blood from. The closer they got to their point, the more dead bodies were on the roads and less on the buildings and warehouses, and no living thing could be seen.
That didn't include the undead. The strangest of all is that the streets seemed to be in a religious procession or some sort of event; the undead were walking in a constant flux, and Roberion's group needed to travel near the sidewalk to be away from them and not interrupt their procession.
The baroness really is upping her game. Connecting all the dots in this situation, I would be a gullible idiot to just think she is using these undead to fight the armored guys—all these dead people, no living beings walking these streets. She is probably cleaning the city. Finding that saferoom was luckier than I thought.
Roberion looked at a dead null on the sidewalk. Shining Crown crashed on its arms as he walked forward, not taking another glance. The roothorn was ruthless, or maybe he was afraid and anxious. Roberion didn't know what the roothorn felt most of the time, unless the being sent him his feelings through his connection. That dead null could be me. I hate this feeling of being submissive to a more powerful being, dammit.
It wasn't only corpses and destruction that increased as they neared the purple pillar. The sound of explosions could be heard in the distance. Roberion felt like cattle being guided to a slaughterhouse. He tried to distract himself by analyzing the damage to the buildings and the dead humanoids and undead. For now, the emerald crystal was more interesting. Sometimes he saw that in undeads, sometimes humanoids, it seemed extremely prevalent in humans. Roberion didn't know if the killer had a type of prejudice or if it was a coincidence.
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Some buildings seemed to have a type of insect burned in some part of their surfaces; some bodies had that too. He didn't know what happened with these insects; did people kill bugs by burning them? Sometimes he saw frozen bodies, some broken, some still intact; the only thing he knew for sure was that it wasn't the woman he killed with the [Hellish Cannon]. This ice magic seemed to be a common spell.
Weirdly, Roberion thought that fireball would be the most common spell he could encounter, but he didn't see any enemies using it against him. He did see some burned corpses, but he didn't know if it was the work of a spell or a weapon.
He didn't see any automatons like Shade used; if he could guess, it wasn't normal to have them. Shade seemed to be someone important; even the fiznault respected the gigant; he wouldn't say he missed Shade. But it was nice to know someone strong was watching your back; even if they could probably kill him later, at that time he was safe.
What I'm thinking?! I'm really stressed out; no way in hell would I want to be near someone stronger than me, especially someone as dubious as Shade. I will want company when I get stronger enough, but what could I do with company anyway? I already have Percival and Shining Crown; I'm not entirely alone. One is a beast plant, and the other is my weapon, but that isn't too bad; they at least wouldn't try to kill me; maybe the other Percival, that asshole. Roberion kept his serious expression, looking ahead.
"Sir, sorry if this is improper, but did you wash yourself?", Percival looked at Roberion with a weird look.
"What type of question is this?! Obviously I…Did? Didn't I? That's true, isn't it?", Roberion sniffled himself, grimacing a little, "Alright, point taken, but it isn't like I have time to bathe; you know better than me."
"The fizznault village had a lake, sir."
"A lake where they traveled with corpses, and don't mention the other bigger lake; they said that there are monsters there."
"…Alright, sir. But think about it: if I can smell blood, our enemies could find you through your odor too", Percival said seriously.
"You didn't wash—right, sorry, sometimes you die. Weird is that Shining Crown didn't wash itself either; do you smell him?"
"This valorous mount seems to have an odor of the plant kind; it wouldn't be the same as a flower but similar to a tree sap. I don't think our enemies would find it strange. Unless in this place, there doesn't seem to be any tree or plant here."
"True, but let's focus on the path. We are still in danger; what a weird time to bring up this topic", Roberion could hear the clamor of fighting far away in the distance; they were safe, but not for long.
Shining Crown kept walking forward. Roberion noticed that after his talk with the Percival, the mount was walking more proudly, elevating his horn a little; he couldn't guess why. What mattered, though, was that the mount was healthy; if needed, he would use the roothorn in the fight; it was do or die against the armored individuals.
At almost five kilometers of distance, he could see a great change on the path; various people were walking to the pillar. Weird enough, it seemed that Roberion wasn't the only one with a mount; he saw two people with bulls charging ahead. No one fought themselves; they didn't fight the undead either. He did see some people try to retreat, though, and the result was haunting.
Nearer to the confrontation, Roberion could only hear explosions and see lights and multiple colors moving around. People there were killed mercilessly by the undead if they tried to retreat; some tried to use the building as a way of running, but it didn't change the result. The building changed shape, either trying to block the path or helping the undead attack the escaping participants.
The Cerulean Baroness didn't kill the participants directly, but she was for sure bending the rules. Roberion noticed that none of the participants could fly. He thought flying could be an easy spell to learn, but maybe it wasn't. It didn't change that people could have flying vehicles, but it seemed that it was on cheating weapons that Cerulean Baroness drew the line.
Most of the participants took a look at Roberion but ignored him after. Although he could feel some looking at him with a desire to kill, all of them were focused on the fight ahead. It didn't take long to find out why the participants were running from there.
The place seemed like a camp from hell; the bodies around looked to be in the thousands. Roberion thought that the place seemed to be some sort of weird park, but obviously there aren't any trees; trees were absent in the city. The gates that were around the place were long destroyed or warped, bodies from humans and undead all around them, like some sort of flesh wall. The flat ground made it easy to see the harrowing vista of the battle.
Talking about bodies, the entire park was full of bodies as far as Roberion could see; some participants even used the bodies as some sort of cover, raining spells from their protection. The defense they gave them was barebones; the reason was at the center of all the chaos. A pillar of purple light around two beings with power armor, one with a missile launcher, is the reason for the explosions that shook the place, burning anything that hit it to charcoal. His rifle was only used when someone neared him.
Getting near the warrior was difficult because his teammate's machine gun seemed more like a gigantic scytle than a gun; it's shoot fanned out, perforating and destroying everything. Almost all defenses were destroyed; going against these gods of war is courting death, and death is a difficult mistress to please.
Roberion exhaled and inhaled the air. The smell of burned flesh, blood, explosives, and gunpowder seemed like a mix from the underworld. This place was like a warground; do or die. Most of the victims of those two were undead and launched themselves like martyrs against the armored warriors. Roberion looked at Percival and said, "Buddy, what mess did I get into?"