Chapter 499 What Shouldn't Exist

"...Peculiar," Archard suddenly stated.

"What is it?" He asked.

They all turned their gazes towards the armor-clad, wizened man, who was looking down at something floating in the pool of liquid.

It was bloated by the depth-inhabiting liquids, and missing half of its body—though it was revealed to his eyes not to be human by the snout it possessed.

"A lacyrie…? It's…half-eaten?" Samfrey said, plugging his nose as he looked at the desecrated corpse.

"Eaten?" Memo repeated, "what would be eating a lacyrie?"

"I believe you answered your own question," Calytrix added.

Her words led to a disgusting, but likely conclusion to the fate of the bloated, half-consumed lacyrie.

"...So, they're cannibals, too?" Samfrey muttered out in disgust.

"It is believable," Archard said.

As he turned to look around, only able to see a sparse few meters around the dreadful lake of the abhorrent depths, he made a gut-wrenching discovery.

"It's not just that one," he said.

His words brought the group's attention to something that was right before their eyes, but only noticeable now: dozens, if not hundreds of lacyrie corpses floated in the deathly liquid, some stagnant as they laid in a hill of corpses.

"What's going on here?...Are the lacyrie eating each other?" Samfrey asked, covering his nose.

"If it was the case of them all eating one another, then where are the ones that did this?" Memo asked, trudging through the blood-filled lake.

"...In my own guess, this isn't the effort of many lacyrie," Archard stated, moving along the body-filled waters.

"How do you figure?" He asked, keeping Belus drawn as he led the group.

Archard remained silent for a moment as the sounds of the group sifting through the murky, ominous waters filled the silence.

"Logically, it doesn't make any sense to me. They have enough food to survive, so why would they resort to cannibalizing one another?" Archarded reinforced his words.

Memo huffed, "We're not dealing with "logical" creatures here, so there's your answer."

"No…I think I get what he's saying," he added, keeping his eyes forward, "this place…kind of feels like the piled-up trash of one being."

"May I have a say?" Calytrix asked with a smile, as if unbothered by the abhorrent landscape they were in.

Deep within the abominable, death and blood-soaked cavern of the lacyrie, there wasn't any time to waste voiding another's opinion. Not only was it absent of light, but the cavern of blood-water was obscured by the many bodies within.

"Hit me with it," he told her.

Calytrix smiled, walking closer to him, "Lacyrie are creatures that evolve and grow more powerful with the more they consume, yes?"

"Sounds about right," Samfrey added, still covering his nostrils from the rancid air.

"...What's that have to do with this?" He asked, looking at the girl who's height reached only to his chest.

At last, before Calytrix could answer yet, they reached the end of the corpse-filled waters. He lifted himself onto the ridged, stone ledge, bringing himself up before assisting the others out of the waters.

Again, the path forward was enigmatic, and shrouded in shadows as all that laid ahead was a dark, ominous tunnel.

Calytrix adjusted her dress after standing herself, "As I was saying, the lacyrie evolve and thrive off of that which they consume; their hunger is endless, boundless, and without satisfaction. It is something rumored as a myth, though…I venture to believe it is reality."

"What is it?" Archard asked, tightening the straps of his armor in the face of the singular path available to them.

"The "Orc God"..." Calytrix answered.

"An "Orc God"? What's that have to do with this?" He asked.

"Sounds like something I read as a child," Memo added, "children's stories have no bearing here."

Even with doubt surfacing in the midst of her words, Calytrix continued, "Think about it for a moment. The lacyrie evolve through consumption, and what we've found is…a garden of lacyrie corpses, eaten, yet…no lacyrie to be seen."

Just then, it seemed her words finally were sewn between the others as they all looked at her with gazes not inhabiting doubt.

"If what you're saying is true…" Samfrey trailed his words.

Calytrix nodded, raising a single finger, "One lacyrie. There is likely just one inhabiting this domain."

"And that one is this "Orc God" you're talking about, is it?" He asked, tightening his hold on his broadsword.

"It is highly likely…" Calytrix adjusted herself, "no…I'd say it's the one, true explanation for this situation."

"What makes you so certain? Maybe they really took each other out in some sort of feeding frenzy," Samfrey asked, keeping his daggers drawn as they all waited before the tunnel.

Even though some had contention with the girl's words, within, they all felt the same aura emanating from the bowels of the tunnel; a deep darkness, residing past its depths. It was what prompted them all to hold their weapons tightly as they stood before its entrance.

Calytrix looked at the frosted-haired adventurer, "While that certainly is a possibility, even the lacyrie we faced so far wouldn't be able to take a castle like this, especially with a couple adventurers assisting," she smiled, "what I'm saying is: the lacyrie didn't continue to evolve as they arrived here–they attacked because amidst their ranks…"

"The "Orc God" was already among them," he finished her words.

"Correct," Calytrix confirmed with a nod, encircling the white-haired man, "however, I don't believe the "Orc God" already achieved that state when arriving here, but they were at least close to a complete evolution. Right now, I'd say they're in an "infantile" state."

There no longer came any doubt or backlash to her words as to them, it all added up to explain the situation.

"...You're pretty knowledgeable about orcs, aren't you?" Memo asked abrasively in a sarcastic manner, though his voice remained monotone.

"I am knowledgeable about that which occupies the darkness, is all," Calytrix shrugged her shoulders as her twintails cascaded down her slender, pale shoulders.

He looked at the whispering tunnel, unable to see past the veil of shadows as he wrapped his fingers around the blue-wrapped handle of Belus.

"So, how powerful is an "Orc God" supposed to be anyway?" He asked, keeping his eyes on the tunnel.

"It is likely–"

Before Calytrix could reach the conclusion of her words, the entirety of the nebulous cavern began to rumble; the stone beneath his soles rumbled, vibrating intensely from an unknown source.

…What is this? He thought.

–He knew. The moment he asked himself that, he found the answer already in his mind as he cemented his stance, holding his blade in front of him.

"It's coming," he said.

The serious words that left his lips prompted the experienced adventurers to ready themselves, gathering into an unspoken formation that pointed towards the rumbling tunnel.

"No," Calytrix corrected him, though for the first time, her words seemed begrudged, "...it's here."