BXBX NOVEL Chapter 394 393: Some More Evidence
Jahi PoV
The carriage ride was spent listening to the two smart women riding with us debating possible theories and ideas, all while the rest of us listened on in silence as we mulled over whatever they pushed forwards as evidence or as theory.
Possible motives for the appearances, how they might be linked to Ceremonial Grounds or Fiends, what is doing it...
They used the little evidence they gathered to theory craft possibilities for what we might be facing, and it was a rather interesting thing to watch.
You could almost see the gears turning in their heads as they bounced idea after idea off one another, only to be pulled back to more plausible ideas when we noticed that they were getting off track.
Sure, we didn\'t contribute much, but we provided them the basic things they may have missed as they talked complexities, and that was how we spent the ride over to the next location, one of three unnamed villages that dotted the map that Adelina had.
We knew they had Gates because all contact with those villages was gone, and the Tragon Kingdom had sent people to investigate them, only to have those parties never return either.
Something happened there, and we were of the mind to believe that the Gates were either still open, something had occupied those areas, or now, maybe they were former Ceremonial Grounds.
The evidence of what might have occurred would be slim to none of a chance it was still there, but we needed to investigate either way, which is why we stopped a thousand feet away from the village, overlooking it from a nearby hill.
Adelina exited first, her swiftness letting us know she didn\'t want to be near Nirinia, who still smelt slightly of sex, which made the Djinn role her eyes.
Everyone else filtered out behind her, rejoining our squads as we prepared to march out down to the village.
Currently, we were looking down at a village situated right beside a river inside a small canyon, the buildings built into the side of the hills, which were adorned with fields of untended crops.
Going down to investigate, we found rotting corpses scattered about, all of which were bitten, clawed, squashed, or cleanly cut - traces of Wind Mana lingered on those wounds.
Those corpses that still retained their heads had their eyes removed brutally, usually a jagged gash across the face to blind them.
Kolia looked around and made sure that there was nothing else amongst the dead, checking the small village for mana that simply felt wrong, like back in Huran, but nothing was found by anyone.
Just corpses and demolished houses, while the sounds of flies and scurrying of rats let us know that these corpses had been here awhile.
The buildings were broken down like something heavy had barreled into them, while the few villagers that had tried to run were cut down by Wind Mana, like the creature or person who did this wanted to utilize close quarters combat above all else, only resorting to magic when it made killing those far away easier.
No monsters skulked around the perimeter, and the only evidence we could find was a perfectly clean, untouched circle inside the center of the village.
Blood was splattered around the circle, but never crossed the line, while dead villagers were scattered about.
Nothing passed over that line, and Kolia gingerly brushed her fingers over the dirt, pinching it before letting it fall down to the ground.
"This... was a Gate alright. Sterile, even now... interesting. Faint traces of... something. Mana, perhaps? Similar structure and feeling, but not... exactly mana? Hm..."
Leone knelt beside Kolia, staring at the dirt with interest before replicating what Kolia had done, pinching some of the dirt.
Kolia began to collect a sample, all while under the watchful eye of the Legion, who spread out around the village and searched for anything else unusual.
"That is interesting... Was there not something similar to this back at Huran?"
Hearing Leone\'s question, Kolia shook her head, scooping some more dirt into the glass vial as she said "No. The Arch Fiend would have overridden the Gate\'s contact point. My guess is that the Gate\'s have the same... feeling of the Labyrinthian, while Fiends have their own unique feel, which pervades anything it touches. Am I correct, Marquess?"
Mom looked towards the circle and nodded, replying "Correct. I\'ve only been inside a few times, but the very fabric of reality inside the Labyrinthian is... different from the rest of the world. Things unnatural to us happen commonly inside the Labyrinthian, like the changing and shuffling of biomes and locations. As far as I\'m concerned, the Labyrinthian is a living, breathing structure that does what it needs to survive. With the Fiends, they also have a different feel to them. Pervasive is definitely the right word to use..."
She sneered slightly as she spat to the side, her ruby eyes flaring as she muttered "Disgusting creatures, Fiends. Arrogant, pompous, disgusting things..."
Kolia chuckled softly at that, before getting up and staring intently at the vial as she backed away slowly from the circle.
"Good! I worried that the sample would lose its... essence if I moved away from the contact point, but..."
She continued backwards, still looking at the vial before grinning.
"Alright! I\'ll gather a few more samples and then we should be good. I don\'t think we\'ll find much else inside this village, but that does help us understand more about just what we could be dealing with. And I feel that the city of Huran was simply... an unlucky coincidence. I think that the Fiends aren\'t connected to the Gates; like you said, two different entities."
Beckoning for us to begin departing, the Snakekin woman continued to stare at her samples with a grin, before handing one to Leone as they began to once again debate the possibilities of what we were facing.
It was a boring investigation, but at this point...
I would take boring over something else crazy happening like at Huran.