49 A Missed Rendez-Vous

The orodil kept shaking his head while walking side by side with Meridiana. For sure they will be known but not in the intended way that they first thought.The original plan was to at least appear as good people or something in those lines. But they realized that just gaining the goodwill of people was not such an easy task or maybe they made some mistakes. Even after trying everything in his head, the only thing that really went wrong was that small test made by the old man. If they had done it, it would have probably turned differently.

As for the succubus, she had not yet vented her anger and was still fuming a bit. She knew that if she killed those annoying elf, they wouldn't be able to do anything in this city. They could be recognized as a great threat at best and not as some powerful adventurers. But she hadn't forgotten that he tried to kill her multiple times, only because she slightly hit that venomous woman. The moment she grabbed the elf, she knew that he loved that woman from all his heart. She could only blame her bad fuckin luck for having that thief stood up against them.

Since they had done everything they could and those archaic humans will take some time to analyze the head of the monster, the only thing the two could do was checking the progress of the group that they met near the cavern. If the righteous way was a dead end, they could still enter the shadows to progress. The only drawback was the fact that it was a lot easier to manipulate the masses when you are a hero for them instead of being a criminal. Otherwise, none of them, between Leilade or Davion and Meridiana, would have wasted their times infiltrating the human societies. Since they still didn't know where they were in the entire Universe, they won't make the same mistakes as the dark gods and alienate the very world that they were on.

As they began their ascension of the mountains, they tried to see if they could find a traces of those humans, but to their expectations, they were totally incapable of doing it. The succubus didn't want to waste any mana for casting a spell to find them and while Davion could notice the traces of monsters, it was impossible for him to track a group of human that left two days ago. Once again, they wondered what Kardel was doing and where he was. Their guesses were that he was either hunting the strongest monster on this planet or rampaging the Synnada Empire. And while he was doing those things, he won't be able to get back anytime soon. After a few days of searches, they abandon the idea and just got back toward their base. It seemed that it will be the turn of Ymir to finally move.

During the times where the two demon commandants traveled through the mountain, the group of ten humans was constantly searching for their contact inside the cold mountains. But the more they walked, the stranger the environment turned and even the leader that was fifty years old and had seen many strange things was left stunned by it. To their knowledge, the mountains were the domain of numerous races of creatures, some were true monsters with only some basic animal instincts while others were intelligent races. The snow wolves were part of the first group while the trolls were part of the second.But even if it was a lawless land, the snow wolves wouldn't actively charge toward the troll territory without any reason. But this was happening right in front of the group of humans.

When they saw the first wolf, they immediately form their formations and were ready for a fight. One wolf was not that deadly, but those creatures rarely moved alone. What followed was not just dozens of wolves, but hundreds of them. Seeing this, all the humans felt despair, but it quickly vanished to let place to stupefaction. None of the wolves tried to even attack them, all they did was passing through as quickly as they could, fearing something so terrifying that they didn't even look at the warriors.

Because they didn't dare to move inside the sea of fur, they were stuck in the same place. Watching the last monster jumping a cliff and disappearing from their sight, they turned around to look at the direction those wolves came. None of them were quicker than those predators, meaning that whatever was scaring them would be able to catch them easily. Because of this, none fled and all were preparing some of the magical devices they kept in case of an emergency.

One was looking like a dark bomb created by the dwarf, but it contained the might of a spell casted by a 5th Circle Magus. It couldn't possibly harm the incoming threat from the outside, but the fact that it was shaped like a ball allowed the humans to throw it inside the maw of the monster. They already had to use two of those decades ago, when they faced One-Eye inside the cave. It was at the beginning of the exploration and the cause of the abandon of the project. The monster ate it without any problem, but the magical bomb only incapacitated it slightly, not even killing it. On the other hand, just that device could destroy their entire group if it was launched in the middle of them.

But as the seconds passed, they still didn't notice anything weird. After a minute, some couldn't help but relax a bit, because they were beginning to feel to tense. In the end, five minutes after, the leader himself began to drop his vigilance. Looking at his subordinates, he couldn't but feel the same perplexity. Everything was too strange for them, but one point was still cumbersome. The direction those wolves took was their path to reach the troll village. Three additional days would be needed but they had no idea how irrational the rest of their travel will be.

The next morning, what greeted them was a group of ice elementals staring at them. Normally, they harbored immense hate toward mankind and only because they were weaker than the group of humans caused the elementals to not attack. But this time, it looked like they were waiting for the humans. Because the two groups never befriended each other, weapons were drawn and the temperature became even colder. But no actions were taken, prompting the leader to order to lower their weapons.

Marching forward without listening to the worried advice of his subordinates, the warrior in charge tried to talk with them. What met him was complete silence, but soon after, the elemental began to draw on the snow something. The final product was a huge monster with four arms, with a fuzzy thing around him. Clearly, the elemental made the snow around that creature dotted with lines, but the human had no idea what it meant. Shaking his head, he tried to indicate that he hadn't seen it from where they came. In answer, the elemental pointed at a direction that could lead them to the Massalia Kingdom if they followed it. Trying to link the two, the leader managed to get the acknowledgment that this monster came from there. Soon after, he saw the elementals rushing from where the humans came.

"Leader, what is happening?" The half-elf couldn't help but ask it. They were a little too far to see it clearly, but afterward, they approached and saw the drawing. But they didn't understand what it meant.

"That thing, it came from the Massalia Kingdom or from the mountains on that side. And from the looks of it, it is the very thing that makes everyone mad around here. From what I understood, even the elementals that hated us and were scared of us preferred to converse with me to know if we met that thing. I have no idea what it is, so if you know anything, tell me. Otherwise, our only hope is to reach the trolls as soon as possible and leave this place before the monster arrives."

Everyone began to carefully examine the drawing and even pondered about the weird lines near the body of the creature. But the creature had only one distinct feature, his four arms and the silhouette was not precise. Meaning that either the elementals only heard about it and tried to draw it from that description or they never saw the creature clearly. As for why it was huge, they drew a small human near it, and it only reached the thigh of the monster.

Instead of carefully walking and making sure they didn't intrude in the territory of some predators, they threw away any precautions and rushed toward the trolls at full speed. Instead of three days, they only took two before seeing the wooden walls and the leather huts. But those two days were not without more strange situations.

Everything they thought they knew about this place was destroyed mercilessly by what they saw. Right before sleeping the day before, they saw a drake flying above them and going toward the North. Those cousins of the dragon were extremely territorial and never left their nest without a good reason. But this specimen was flying as quick as it could, and from their sides, it didn't look like he was regretting his choice. That only proved to the humans that the threat of the four arms monster was high enough to make a drake flee in panic.

Following this sight, all types of creatures were going toward the North, even if it meant more risk. Unlike the totally lawless areas of the South, near the fallen Kingdom of Pankow, the North was more subject to the invasion of humans. Because of this, the rule of the strongest was applied more viciously, because two threats awaited the runaways. Other monsters and greedy humans. It was because of this that the elementals still preferred to stay here and didn't try their luck in the northern mountains.

Thanks to those incredible situations, the humans never had to battle once but they were all totally exhausted mentally. Their nerves were on the verge of a breakdown, seeing more and more terrifying monsters than everything they battled passing a meter away from them. And the moment they reached the trolls, everyone collapsed and breathed normally again. A huge weight was lifted from their chest, because they could easily see some smokes inside the village, meaning that trolls were present. They didn't flee like everything else and will probably be able to explain the unusual behavior of the monsters.

"Uhanz, UHANZ!" The sentries shouted the word for humans but instead of comforting the tired group, it made them shiver. The tone employed by those guards was not of joy or surprise, like usual, but of worry and even terror.Instead of walking with big smiles on their head, they were tightly gripping their spears, pointing them on the group of humans. The leader had expected some worry and even some tension, but they were treated like a threat. His organization had centuries of dealings with trolls and other races, but it didn't look that way anymore.

Advancing toward the guards, he tried to ask what was wrong. He was one of the few interpreters capable of talking with relative ease with trolls and in no time, he received an answer that froze his blood. The huge monster that elementals drew left a day ago from the village, but he did say what he was looking for. A group of ten humans with one having long ears. The trolls didn't say that they were expecting that group to arrive, but that was the extent of their help. They didn't want to incur the fury of that monster and pressed the group of humans to immediately go back.

This time, no one knew what was the reason behind the actions of that huge creature. But they only knew that whatever will happen after they will be caught will not be pretty at all. Trying one last time to conduct the usual business, they only met a closed gate. The faces of everyone was as pale as the snow nearby, and since it was a failure, everyone wished to escape as quickly as possible.

"We need to go back in Archet as quickly as possible. Damn it, how did that monster hear of us? It is still weird, no matter how I look at the situation. But since the trolls don't want our stuff, we have no use of them. Drop everything, only keep what is needed for 5 days in those mountains."

"But, boss. We usually take 8 days to arrive here and two additional to reach Archet?" The half-elf still voiced his worries. If they ran out of food, they wouldn't be able to survive around here. But the leader was adamant in his decision.

"I know, but unless you plan to end up in the grip of that thing, drop everything. That way, the trolls will still be able to get everything they asked, even if they let us down. They didn't totally betray us, that is still good. Imagine if the monster was rig…"

The human never managed to finish his sentence, because what he caught in the corner of his eyes was the very thing that he dreaded. At the same time, he finally understood what were the lines surrounding it.He couldn't help but curse the fact that those elementals were so bad at drawing something.