Chapter 185: Onwards

I only let my emotions show once I was far enough away. Far enough so they wouldn't see me. Far enough, so they wouldn't notice.

And once I'd done that, I pulled myself together and flew back to the Torchlight woods. Naturally, I arrived rather early. Luhen wouldn't be here for another two days. I pondered a moment – what was the best way to pass the time? 

I closed my eyes as I floated above the forest. Where was the nearest powerful cursed monster? I didn't have to wait long – I felt the corrupted demonic magic almost immediately. It was to the north, past my alcove, near the mountains in the distance.

I beat my wings and allowed the wind to carry me. It didn't take long for me to reach my goal – a cave at the foot of the towering mountain. I landed on a nearby hill to rest for a moment. I could feel the cursed power in there.

What was it, I wondered? What could this cursed monster be? 

I took a deep breath and released my power. Just enough of it, to draw the creature outside. Yet, nothing happened. No one came. Somewhat confused, I released some more of my magic – not enough to be discovered from afar, but enough to threaten whatever lay in wait in that cave.

Moments passed, and nothing emerged from the cave. Now somewhat worried, I slowly approached. Cursed monsters were driven to madness by getting exposed to the clashing forces of Divine and Demonic magic. Once the curse took hold of them, it was near impossible for them to control their urges.

So, the monster not coming out to attempt to kill me was highly unusual. As I approached the entrance to the cave, the stink of blood filled my nostrils.

I coughed and quickly covered my nose and mouth with my cloak. Were monsters fighting in there? That'd explain the smell and them ignoring me. Now curious, I stepped inside the cave.

It took only a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cave, and only a second more for me to notice that this was a magical darkness – the sunlight should have been illuminating the interior at least a little bit, yet it was pitch black inside.

The smell of blood was still there, and it was almost powerful enough to hide the moist, dusty smell of the cave. Almost. 

I took a few steps further in as my sword appeared in my hand. I didn't want to be caught off guard. There were so many tunnels leading further inside that I felt like anything could jump on me at any time.

Somewhat uneasy, I continued with slow, careful and deliberate steps. It didn't take me long to find the source of the stink – a trail of thick, dark red blood. It hadn't even dried yet and it looked like something had crawled in it. Taking care to not step in the blood, I followed the trail. I could feel the cursed power of the monster getting closer as I continued.

I was prepared for anything as I tightened my grasp on the hilt of my sword, then promptly jumped up as I heard a low clatter behind me. My heart racing, I watched as a tiny pebble rolled to my feet. I waited for a few seconds, ready to kill whatever came my way, but nothing happened.

Feeling like an idiot for getting startled so easily, I sighed and continued following the trail of blood. Soon, the tunnel I was walking in opened to a large cavern. And there, I finally spotted the owner of all this blood.

A massive, gigantic snake lay motionless on the ground. It had long, deep wounds all across its body. It was dying – so much was clear. I approached it carefully, ready to finish it off if it tried something with the last bits of its power.

What could have wounded the beast so badly? I looked around, expecting to see a larger monster laying in wait, but there was nothing.

And what was even weirder was that the cursed power I felt belonged to this snake.

The first thing that came to mind was that a player had come and wounded it and left it to die – I knew there were strong enough players out there capable of killing a cursed beast. But the more I looked at the wounds, the less it made sense. No player would leave a source of experience and skill points half dead and just leave.

The creature's breathing was getting shallower as time passed. I could see it was in pain. "Rest well," I whispered as I killed it with a quick, hopefully painless strike. I felt its souls enter my chest moments later and shivered with the cold. "Now," I mumbled as a few images flashed before my eyes.

A battle in the distant skies as the once normal snake watched from the ground. A demon and a few Ereth fought with explosions and flashes of magic accompanying them. At first, it wasn't clear which side was winning, then one of the Ereth plummeted to the ground. Then, another one. The snake quickly slithered back inside its safe, silent cavern, but it still couldn't escape the curse.

I blinked a few times. That was it? Was that all that's left of the snake's memories? I gritted my teeth – I had hoped to see what wounded it so badly. Was a demon nearby? An Ereth? A player? Perhaps an even stronger creature?

I stepped closer to the corpse, hoping to find at least some answers. 

The wounds on it were deep cuts. Was it a sword, or claws that did this? My bet was claws, as it looked like the ends and edges of the cuts were a little jagged. As I walked along the massive snake's corpse, I also noticed its crushed scales. It seemed as if something had crushed its body at certain points – or at least that's what the rings of crushed scales made me think of.

Was it a large lizard that had done it? A Chinese dragon with claws?

I pondered as I arrived at the creature's tail. What could it be? 

After checking the cavern for more clues, and returning empty handed, I decided to abandon the search for now and headed back to the surface. Taking care not to step on the bloody trail, I watched the ground as I walked.

I was about at the entrance to the cave when something caught my eye.

I knelt by the trail of blood and stared at the foot shaped tracks. Someone had stepped in this trail. 

My first instinct was to check if there was any blood under my shoes. After making sure that there wasn't, I glanced at the entrance. Someone had followed the creature inside, wounded it badly and then left without killing it.

Was it a trap laid for me? 

No, only a few people knew I was alive and none of them would do such a thing. Fetheion, Asher, Lucius and Mona were people I trusted with my life. As for Rina and Alex… They couldn't get here fast enough even if they wanted to do this. And they wouldn't do something like this in the first place. Despite their distrust towards me, they were good at heart.

As for Luhen… I didn't think it was him. We had already agreed on meeting, there would be no point in him setting a trap like this.

After safely concluding this was, in fact, not a trap, I approached the cave entrance and looked outside. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I decided to ponder about this later and set off to find a water source. I felt sick because of the stench of blood – I wanted to wash my face and clean myself a little.

I didn't have to walk long to find a shallow creek. I knelt by the water and splashed some water on my face. I shivered when the ice cold water coming all the way from the mountains touched my skin. My face felt numb for a bit, but I finally breathed a sigh of relief. 

I hadn't noticed how on edge I constantly was since leaving Fetheion's hideout. Despite all the time I had spent on my own, I always had people to fall back on in case things went south. Asher was always quite literally a thought away. Though now I had the ability to move around using the rifts, I still felt much more alone and isolated than before.

Perhaps the fact that I was supposed to be dead had something to do with that too.

The reflection I was on the flowing water startled me. My eyes wide, I looked up to see the distant silhouettes of perhaps a dozen Ereth soldiers fly over me. 

My heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw the awfully familiar figure they were protecting.

The figure of the Divine who orchestrated my death.