The Last Dainv

Chapter 297

Gale and Erin sat by a campfire just far enough from the castle walls that the guards wouldn't consider them a threat. Close enough to be able to see the walls' outline.

The fire crackled as Gale bit into the last bits of meat on the humongous brumd leg. The meat was really gamey, just the way he liked it. A bit tough and seasoned with nothing but its own juices. He'd grown a taste for beast meat ever since the Eclipsed.

"It is time." Erin stood up from where she'd been sitting cross legged. The bones from the brumd leg were on the side, half eaten until she said she didn't like the texture of the bone.

Throwing his bone to the side as well, Gale casted the orb of Distort around them. The campfire's light bent around them, and all light as well, making both of them invisible within the orb.

"Ready," Gale said.

Blue outline enveloped both of them, and Erin's telekinesis lifted them off the ground. They flew over the flatland that divided the castle from the cliffs beyond. Once they reached the city walls, they flew over it, revealing what was inside.

Erin descended them gently inside, touching down in a narrow alley between two stone buildings that looked like houses. Gale deactivated Distort the moment his feet hit the ground. Her feet never hit the ground.

Peeking through the alley's entrance, the castle looked just as expected.

Desolate. That was the only word for it that he could think of.

Although it was night, the streets should have some activity. At least people should be walking around with torches or at least rustling inside the buildings. Taverns should be noisy, but Presence Between heard only gentle shuffling of feet within the walls of buildings.

The vendor stalls that lined the main street looked like they were abandoned. But his tendrils said otherwise. Rotting vegetables sat in wooden crates and beside the stalls. Meat in the next stall smelled like it had been left out for weeks.

It was either no one was buying or couldn't buy.

Looking around at the buildings, most were dark inside. A few had faint candlelight from far away, nearer to the centre where the castle's square lie. But the shuffling inside meant that there were people inside.

"I've got this," Gale said.

Erin nodded and floated back into the shadows of the alley.

The Dark Hunter is on the prowl for clues and leads on what happened to the castle city. What should have been an epicly walled in city had a void inside it that left it desolate.

Distort activated. Approaching a random house on the street, the entrance doorway was cracked right in the middle. As he touched the wood, the wood was brittle and flaking. Clearly, this one was an abandoned house.

He pushed the door open, and the hinges creaked loudly in the silence. Inside was the living room with the kitchen. Tendrils located stairs that led to the 2nd level, containing two bedrooms.

Looking around, this place was ransacked. Furniture was cracked and on the floor. Table was broken in half. The cupboards were all open. Nothing was left. Moving upstairs and into the master bedroom, he saw red stains by the bed.

Gale backed out and exited the house. He tried for the one that had a dim candlelight by the window on the second floor.

Moving to its door, instead of opening it, he phased himself through the door. The ground floor was similar to the last house, except the furniture was intact and still very dusty.

Climbing the steps in silence, the candlelight reflected off the rough stone walls. Once he arrived at the top, he finally saw the candle by the cracked open bedroom's door.

Gale saw the man kneeling beside the bed. His hands clasped together, head bowed, as he mouthed inaudible words.

He was old. White beard, no hair. Wrinkled face with white hair for a thick beard. His body was practically skin and bones as he wore a brown shirt and pants that looked like they were made of the same material as his top.

Pushing open the door, it creaked.

The man's head slowly turned towards the door. "If you wish to take anything, you will be surprised I have nothing. All I can give you is the satisfying allowance to give this old man death."

"I'm not here to hurt you." Gale slowly moved towards the man.

"My fate is sealed. Your lies are not necessary."

Gale materialized the Drovairt badge from his space storage and held it out for the old man to see.

The old man squinted. His trembling hands reached up to rub his eyes as if he couldn't believe what was in front of him.

"Drovairt..." he whispered. "You are from the upper valleys?"

"I'm an ally of Drovairt. I need to ask you some questions."

The man sighed, shoulders sagging before taking a breath. "Ask away. I will answer what I can."

Gale crouched down to meet the man at eye level. "What's happening in this city?"

"There are many things happening. The nobles? They are but a small issue. Kair is angry with us and punishes everyone, good and evil alike." He shook his head. "Now look at our city. This is no longer the Kulbran I grew up in."

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"Will you heed my question on why you believe Kair to be angry?" Gale asked.

"The abundance the lower valleys once took for granted has been taken away by Kair herself. And in doing so..." the old man spat to the side. "The nobles. They hoarded everything. Said that Kair demands the peasants support the nobles loved by Kair."

"You think Kair loves only the nobles?"

"Who would believe that rubbish?" The old man's fist trembled. "It is their greed that caused Kair to be angry at us. It is their folly, yet what can peasants do?"

"You really believe it is greed that made her angry?"

"Many generations ago, we slowed our cultivation of the land. Kair responded and made the lower valleys more fertile in response. This is history recorded by the grand sages themselves. No one can deny this fact."

This kind of matches up to what Tyain said about the generations before having fruitful yields. But then graduallygradually, the land decayed into what it is now.

"I'm looking for a monster. A shadow-like monster with big claws. Do you know of it?" Gale asked.

The old man flinched. "You know of them?"

"We tracked one here."

"Those are Kair's royal guards," the man whispered so low it was hard to hear. "They come every night. Anyone caught outside after the bells toll is taken."

"Taken where?"

"No one knows. They simply vanish." The man glanced toward his shuttered window. "You should not be here. The bells will toll within the hour. When they do, no one is allowed outside. Not even the nobles' dogs dare to patrol after dark."

"What happens if you're caught outside?"

"Kair's royal guards take you away. They drag you into the darkness, and you are never seen again." The man's hands began to tremble. "My wife was taken three moons ago. She went to fetch water from the well and did not return before the bells."

Suddenly, the sound of church bells ringing loudly echoed throughout the whole castle.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Three hits of the bell.

"You must leave now!" the old man whispered harshly.

"Didn't you say it'll ring in an hour?" Gale asked.

"An early bell toll means a house will be chosen," the old man said, trembling, bowing his head at him. "Please. I beg you. Leave my house, otherwise give me death now."

"One last question. What does a house being chosen—"

"Please. I beg you. Leave."

Gale got up. No point in asking any more questions. He's got enough information to get by. The old man won't answer any more and was getting more scared by whatever was happening by the second.

Phasing through the 2nd floor's walls, he went back to the alley where Erin hid. She stood exactly where she was before, not moving an inch except for her rhythmic breathing.

Gale conjured a Distort orb around both of them and activated the skill, making them both invisible. "Follow me."

They moved through the desolate streets as Presence Between's tendrils guided him through the narrow streets and alleyways towards what looked like the city's square.

No one was outside. Not even any guards.

Arriving at the square with a wide open space, numerous stalls crowded around the edges, all empty of any items except for the rotting items by what looked like makeshift garbage bins.

A main road led to the castle's giant iron gates, and from beyond those gates, Gale could see 5 different people moving towards the square. 4 Resonants and a mundane.

The mundane wore a plush red cape gilded with white fur. He wore a golden crown embedded with a single red gem while his own armour was patterned with gold.

That must've been the king.

The iron gates shuddered open and lifted to allow the king and his men to pass through, and they soon arrived at the square.

"We must hurry. Choose a house," the king said.

The men moved down a narrower street to their right. Gale and Erin followed them through the street.

The king pondered at each door as he passed by at least 6 doors before choosing one with a dim light that seeped through the window. He pointed at the door, and one of the men immediately walked up the steps of the house and opened the door.

It was locked, but a single kick opened the door.

Screams of two children and a woman could be heard, and that was when the man who went in came out of the door, grabbing a child by her head. A man inside in peasant wear exited the house, grabbing the knight by his arm.

"Please! Take me instead!" the peasant shouted.

The knight looked at his king, who then nodded once. Letting go of the kid, he took the man by his arm immediately and moved away from the house.

"Dad!" the daughter tried to chase after her dad, but was then held back by her mother.

"Get inside!" the father shouted.

The mother took that as a cue to close their broken door as best as she could after taking her struggling daughter inside.

"We must hurry," the king said.

Not hesitating, the king and his men moved back towards the city's square. The father did not resist. They didn't need to drag him, as he willingly went, knowing his fate was already sealed.

When the men arrived back at the square, the knight threw the man onto the ground at the centre of the square. The king's men then stepped back a couple of steps. As the king knelt on the ground, clasping his hands together, his men did the same.

A shadow coalesced in front of the king, taking the form of a familiar monster, the shadow scout.

"Oh Kair's messenger. Please take our offering and give us abundance in the coming days," the king said.

Gale clenched his fist, knowing full well what was happening. Erebus materialized, but then tendrils fed him multiple corrupted signatures within the city. More shadow scouts roamed around the streets.

The remnant in the square moved towards the man. Its giant claws took hold of the man in a single grasp. And as expected, there was no resistance from the man who was about to be taken away.

Turning back towards the darker streets, the remnant turned and walked with the body in his hand. As soon as it touched the shadow, it disappeared.

The king and his men then stood back up. None of them talked as they moved back towards the gates to the castle.

Gale deactivated his distort when the tendrils showed the castle doors shut behind them. A cold hand weighed on his shoulder. Glancing behind him, Erin had floated closer to him.

"Your patience is commendable, child," she said.

"I could've done something. I could've killed that remnant right there and then."

"Should you have done so, you risk more exposure of the corruption on our presence."

"I know..."

"The father had given up his own life. It was his own volition. Sentimentality on a life that has abandoned duty is irrelevant. Do you understand?"

"Fine, fine. I get it. But what does that have to do with resolving this rift?"

Erin looked up at the clouded night sky. "The corruption is smart. They are not just animals that run on instinct. They invade and destroy from within. Tell me, child, have you identified the stain on the king?"

Gale shook his head.

"They've corrupted him. His insanity grows. Yet his method to survival is one of logic. Should he attempt to confront the corruption himself, the annihilation of this city is assured."

"Then what do we do now?" he asked.

"Do not ask me, child. The king himself has not yet abandoned his duty towards his citizens. Ask yourself what you want to do."

The mystery needs to be solved first, that was the first priority. For now, the suirvival of the citizens this city is his particular concern. There were too many questions still left unanswered about what's happening. No clues yet pointing them to resolve the rift.

Right now, there was no clue as to where the Origin Spirit was or why the remnants were tracking the spirit in the first place. The citizens calling the remnants Kair's royal guards was also something that bothered him.

In other words...

"We need to at least talk to the king, not to convince him, but to get a lead," Gale said.

"Then let us wait until daylight," Erin said.