NOVGO.NET Chapter 409: Searching For Answers
Chapter 409: Searching For Answers
As usual, Delwig stirred with early morning life, but Damien and Arielle were already beyond its walls before the sun had fully risen.
Fenrir padded along the dirt road, the massive wolf quiet despite his size, pulling the two-person carriage they had brought with them. The eastern gates closed behind them with a heavy clang of iron.
“You’re certain about this direction?” Arielle asked, her voice muffled under her cloak. Her eyes swept the vast expanse of plains stretching east, broken only by jagged ridges and clumps of forest.
Damien nodded. “I can still feel faint residue from the stag’s corruption. It drifts this way. Whoever transported it—or did the infusion—left traces.”
He didn’t say it aloud, but [Hindsight] had left him with more than memories. The stag’s essence still lingered in him, a tether pointing eastward, like a scar only he could sense.
Behind them, Lyone had remained in Delwig. The boy hadn’t taken kindly to being left behind, but Damien had made it clear: he wasn’t ready for this hunt. Arielle agreed, and Captain Apnoch, after hearing Damien’s plan, had insisted on personally taking Lyone under his wing.
“Train him with the sword, the spear, the bow—whatever it takes,” Damien had told Apnoch. “But most importantly, make him understand battle doesn’t forgive hesitation.”
Apnoch had only smirked. “That I can do.”
The eastern wilds were harsher than the western approaches Damien remembered from maps.
The earth was cracked and dark, littered with jagged stones. Old watchtowers lay in ruin, skeletal remains of Delwig’s forgotten frontier defenses.
Wind carried the faint stink of sulfur, and twice already they had passed scorch marks gouged into the soil.
“These weren’t made recently,” Arielle murmured, crouching to touch one of the blackened craters. “Weeks old, at least.”
“Yet the essence lingers.” Damien crouched beside her. He placed his palm on the ash. A faint hum of corruption pulsed against his skin, like an echo trapped in the ground. He withdrew quickly. “Whoever did this didn’t bother to cover their tracks. Or they’re confident we won’t follow.”
She frowned, brushing strands of hair from her face. “Confidence or arrogance—either way, it works against them.”
“Actually… If this was well planned, then it works against us. They might as well set up a blind trap.” Damien stated. “However, we shall proceed regardless.”
They pressed on.
By midday, the plains gave way to a dense stretch of woodland, the canopy thick enough to cast the forest floor in near-shadow. Damien dismounted Fenrir and dismissed the wolf with a touch. The creature dissolved into motes of essence, vanishing into his bond.
“No space for him here,” Damien muttered. “Too confined. We’ll go on foot.”
The forest was silent—too silent. No birdsong, no rustle of small animals. Only the wind through leaves and the crunch of their boots. Arielle gripped her staff tightly, blue essence gathering faintly along its length.
Damien extended his senses. He felt it again—thin threads of corruption clinging to the roots and bark. Not natural seepage. Something carried here. Something tested.
They walked in silence for hours, speaking only when necessary. Arielle’s eyes scanned the undergrowth while Damien kept his focus on the pull of corrupted essence.
Finally, as the sun dipped lower, they reached a clearing.
At its center lay corpses. Not human this time, but beasts. Wolves, bears, boars—at least twenty bodies, their eyes burned out, their cores shattered. Black veins spread across their skin, evidence of corruption that had eaten them from the inside.
Arielle gasped softly. “It’s worse than we thought…”
Damien crouched by the nearest corpse. He touched the shattered core cavity. Cold essence clung to his fingertips, biting like frost. His jaw tightened.
“Experiments. Failed ones,” he said. “They forced corruption into these beasts too, but couldn’t stabilize it. Their cores exploded.”
Arielle’s voice was low, grim. “So they’re testing… not just one method, but many.”
Damien stood, his eyes scanning the perimeter of the clearing. “And if there are failures, it means there are most likely successes.”
~~~~~
Meanwhile, back in Delwig, Lyone’s blade clashed against Apnoch’s spear with a ringing crack. Sweat poured down the boy’s face, his arms trembling from strain. Apnoch, calm as stone, pressed forward with relentless precision.
“Again!” Apnoch barked, sweeping Lyone’s feet out from under him. The boy hit the dirt with a grunt, coughing. “You hesitate too much. I believe you’ve got a retry decent talent like your older brother but your talent means nothing if your body can’t keep up!”
By older brother, he was referring to Damien who’d addressed Lyone as his younger brother when the first arrived.
Lyone forced himself up, glaring stubbornly. His time talent flickered faintly around him, distorting the air for a heartbeat before collapsing. He raised his blade again, teeth clenched.
Apnoch allowed himself the faintest smirk. “Good. At least you don’t quit.”
He lunged again.
Damien and Arielle searched the corpses until the last of the daylight faded. At the far edge of the clearing, Damien finally found something different—a marking carved into the bark of a tree. A rune, jagged and angular, smeared with dried blood.
He reached toward it, essence flaring faintly against his palm. Recognition struck him like a blade.
“This rune… it matches the chamber the stag was bound in.”
Arielle stiffened. “You mean—”
“They were here,” Damien confirmed. “Not long ago. Days, maybe.” He straightened, eyes narrowing. “They’re not hiding. They’re leaving a trail. Testing their work in the open.”
The thought made his chest tighten with anger. Whoever these humans were, they didn’t fear discovery. Or worse—they wanted to be followed.
Arielle touched his shoulder lightly. “Then we’ll follow. But carefully. If they’re luring us, we can’t play into their hands.”
Damien nodded, though his eyes burned.
The last rays of sun bled through the canopy, painting the corpses in crimson light. The air reeked of rot and corruption, a promise of what awaited them further east.
Damien clenched his fists, forcing his fury into focus. “Whoever’s behind this won’t remain in the shadows for long. We’ll drag them into the light.”