Chapter 76 - Altar
To describe the village that lied before Arthur's eyes, he would use the word medieval only. Its huts gathered around simple roads with varying sizes, made from wood and leather. There also some fences for the animals but all that's left was eaten corpses. It seems that wild monsters have broken into the village after its residents disappeared.
Arthur placed his hand on the shoulder of the trembling boy, making him startle with a gasp. If they weren't mid-spring, Arthur would have believed the boy was shivering from frost. He turned his head toward Arthur and looked at him with tears threatening to fall.
"Be strong."
The two words Arthur said made Dimon nod his head and wipe away his tears. He then proceeded to go down toward the village with Arthur and the goblins.
It was a ghost town, for sure. The doors were squeaking and flailing about as if they were vomiting whatever was inside. The wind was unhindered as it seeped through the trees to make a mess of Arthur's clothing.
"Kaka," Some of the goblins almost tripped from the strong wind.
'Why is it so windy?' Arthur gazed at the sky and found some clustered dark clouds. He frowned at this since the weather was sunny a few moments ago. Would a chance in location cause this much change? He doubted.
"Is anyone here?" Dimon called out but there was no answer. They walked in the empty streets looking for any signs of life, but it seems life has abandoned this place ages ago.
Arthur walked into one of the houses as he began to examine its interior. Dust covered most of the tables and chairs, the beds were a mess, and the kitchen was clean. It's was as Dimon had said as if they disappeared in the middle of the night. Arthur opened some closets and found leather clothes and weapons. There was also some dried game that has been abandoned.
Seeing there's not much to be seen from this place, Arthur walked out and asked Dimon to guide him to the house of the mage. The boy was visibly shaken for some reason but still complied nonetheless.
The mage's house was like any other, except for it being tidier than the rest. Arthur examined the interior as he felt a weird sense of alienation.
"How did the mage hide this village?"
"He… used magic. Nothing can see the village from outside." Dimon answered his questions after slight pondering. Arthur nodded his head and concluded this was some illusion ability at work. The question was why did the mage disappear?
"We should go to the cave," Arthur said after seeing there was no hope of finding anyone here.
"Okay, I know the way." Dimon declared and started leading the group through the forest. His gait was clumsy and he tripped several times, but Arthur was patient enough. After half an hour, they reached what looked like a cave. On their way, the wind was getting stronger and stronger.
'What is this?' Arthur took a step back when he felt the fear-inducing mana from the cave. It was too… dark. As if a monster has opened its maw in their direction, danger alarms were ringing loudly in Arthur's head.
"This is the place," Dimon said as he tugged on Arthur's shirt and hid behind him. It was then that chills traveled down Arthur's spine at a sudden realization.
"Why don't you stay here, Dimon? We'll look inside." Arthur turned around and said at the young boy who shook his head with resolution.
"I want bury family." He said in a broken language. Arthur's eyes arched in a smile as he nodded understandingly.
"Then… let's go in together."
***
The cave was damp and dark, barely illuminated by the sun outside. However, Arthur still had flashlights in his waist bag and he used them to see the interior. If not for the chilling mana seeping everywhere, Arthur would have thought it was a normal cave.
As they kept walking forward, the mana kept intensifying. Arthur's body was getting heavy just from being there.
"Are you okay, Dimon?"
"Mhm," The young boy nodded with a pained face. The goblins were also breathing heavily as the mana weighted upon them. Arthur took out another bottle of healing water that he has been giving to Dimon for the past few days.
"Drink this, it'll help."
Dimon took the bottle and chugged it down. As expected, his body felt better after he drank the healing water. It was then that they reached the end of the cave where there was a black crack in the wall.
"This is… a dungeon." Arthur studied the portal that stood in front of him. It was a dungeon, every bit of it suggested that.
"You should stay here, Dimon."
"No!" Dimon refused as he grabbed Arthur's sleeve. In the end, Arthur simply sighed.
"Stay behind me then." Dimon nodded when he heard those words. And just like this, Arthur, Dimon, and the goblins entered the dungeon.
It was always a nauseating feeling when he teleported, maybe it had something with the change in space. The group found themselves in an empty corridor. It was pitch black in here and the mana was quite abundant. However, there was also a distinct metallic smell of blood.
The goblins were growing restless with the mana that has been creepily seeping from the walls, but they still advanced under Arthur's command. In the end, there were no monsters for them to fight. If you dropped a pin in this place, you'd hear the sound by the dungeon's portal.
At the end of the tunnel, space grew bigger and they stepped inside a giant hall, with a single altar in the middle. In the middle of the altar, there was a single round shape that was leaking all of that mana. It was a black egg the size of a human head. All around the egg were skeletons of monsters and humans.
"Kaaa!" The goblins were frightened at this sight and retreated. Arthur stood there as he felt his heart get crushed at the sight of the human skeletons. Small ones and large ones, there were so many.
"So, it's true, I hoped it wasn't." Arthur let go of a sigh he didn't know he was holding. "Why did you do it, Dimon?"
The boy looked at him with a confused look. Arthur slashed at him with his sword before he could react and managed to injure his abdomen before he retreated.
"AAAAH!"
The boy screamed as he looked at the wound in his abdomen with horror. However, Arthur didn't care.
"I should've used detection earlier to realize the truth, I'm still too inexperienced," Arthur mumbled to himself. When Dimon looked at Arthur with confusion, the latter simply sighed again.
"I already know it was you who killed them, Dimon. If that was your real name."
When the boy heard those words, his terror-struck expression morphed into apathy as he stood up, letting the blood gush out.
"H..o..w?"
Each letter in the word sounded so different because of the change of Dimon's voice as his form changed from a young boy to a robe-wearing man. There was still a wound on his abdomen but it was not that deep now.
"How did I know? I didn't until we arrived here. I could barely stand in front of the cave yet you were fine. Can't be this dumb, man. Although you almost fooled me, I somehow managed to make it in the end."
"Hahaha!" The man started laughing heartily as he heard Arthur. "It's true, I've done it so many times that I took fooling people for granted. However, is that truly all?" He grinned at Arthur as mana began to emerge from his body.
"No, there were other signs."
"Even still, you stepped into here. Fool!" The man mocked Arthur as he readied himself to attack.
"Well, I stepped here because, as I said, managed to make it."
"What?"
"What makes a runes master so powerful?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Die!" The man attacked suddenly and Arthur shook his head.
"Wrong, it's because of their control of runes." With a snap of Arthur's fingers, the man staggered and fell to the ground. He had his hands on the ground as he vomited blood all over them.