Their expedition was stopped many tis because of the demonic beasts that had decided to co out of the mountain to hunt the down. Rasmus was the one who dealt with all of them on his own, and at that point they couldn’t ignore his skills anymore. The more they knew about him, the less they thought of him as soone evil, arrogant, and full of himself. They realized that he didn’t have any desire, not even a shred of ego in his words just pure intention to get rid of problems so they could achieve efficiency.
Doloran was the first one who understood why his wife, Marina and her twin sister Agnesia didn’t mind Rasmus at all even though he had done many questionable deeds. He realized that Rasmus wouldn’t hurt him or anyone in the group as long as he had no reason to. It was similar to the beasts that he had been accustod to his whole life that Rasmus didn’t hurt others for no reason, and if he did hurt soone, that ant he had his reason. However, that understanding also made him and everyone open their eyes that if Rasmus had decided to erase them, they wondered if they could be safe from him.
"You took care of them already?" Doloran asked out of curiosity. For the first ti he struck up a conversation first with Rasmus.
"It’s done, but sothing was off about them," Rasmus answered as he removed the gloves that Miguel had lent to him that had been covered in corrupted blood. "They’re getting smarter," he added as he looked at Doloran and Lance since they were the experienced ones in dealing with Demonic Beasts.
"Smarter?" Lance furrowed his brows.
"They didn’t attack aimlessly, they waited and they coordinated with each other," Rasmus explained as he cleaned the blades of his swords. "It was like they were being guided by sothing," he added.
"We don’t know anything about that," Doloran said with a worried expression. "Does that an those things have leaders? Just like any animals and beasts..." He slowly turned to look at the mountain where the peak was hidden by the thick clouds.
"But they weren’t like that before," Yur said, floating beside Aris. "Back then, those demonic beasts were mindless and they were savages that killed everything that lived. Spirits couldn’t stop them because they were many, not because they were smart," Yur added.
"I also don’t sense anything different from the mountain. It feels the sa as before, not even a slight changes," Yur looked at the mountain and listened to it since a Great Spirit like Yur could listen to anything.
"If Yur can’t sense it, then how can we?" Marina muttered, her blank gaze pointed at the spot on the cliff with her brows raised.
At that mont, everyone looked at each other and they felt fear begin to crawl on their backs. Rasmus, Aris, Videl, and Serena shared the sa look, a sign that sothing ominous lived among the demonic beasts. With that being said, they assud that a powerful demon, one of the Pri Lords or sothing else was inside the Efiva mountain.
"Any guesses?" Aris asked as she looked at Rasmus, Videl, and Serena.
The three of them shook their heads, not knowing what kind of danger was ahead of them.
"Should keep doing this cat and mouse play?" Cierra asked as she looked at everyone. "I have a bad feeling about this. I feel like we are being played and being lured toward sothing that we can’t handle," she added.
Aris couldn’t stop thinking about what Rasmus had said before the expedition, about them making a mistake for going here. Not to ntion that a being called Belial also appeared out of nowhere ever since they started the expedition to the Efiva mountain. As a leader, this put an undeniable pressure on her, realizing that it wasn’t easy because she would be responsible for everything that happened here.
"What should we do? I believe everyone feels the sa way," Agnesia looked at Aris.
Aris looked everyone in the eye, from the left all the way to the right. Her gaze lingered at Rasmus longer than it should as if she was hoping that he would give her sothing for her to consider. However, Rasmus didn’t even make a single facial expression, not even a single movent of the muscles on his face.
"We are so close from seeing the source of this corruption. We will see what it is and we will leave after. We need to understand what we are dealing with before we can find the solution," Aris answered without a single doubt on her face. "Yur, lead the way," she turned to look at Yur.
Everyone nodded with understanding since Aris was right that they needed any kind of information about the origin of demonic beasts. With that being said, they followed Yur to the cave where it used to be a path that only spirits used to enter the mountain.
It took them two hours to finally arrive, but they were shocked when there was just a small crack in the wall. It was so small that only ants could enter the crack, and they wondered how they could fit into that.
"I hope this still works..." Yur said and placed its tiny hand on the crack.
The wall slowly vaporized like dry ice being heated, allowing the crack to widen until the wall turned into a mouth cave. It was big enough to fit Doloran inside, and so they all went inside the crack in complete darkness. Thankfully, Yur’s body could glow in the dark, acting as a guide and a light for them to follow and see around them.
It was a safe tunnel just like Yur had predicted since both ends of the tunnel could only be opened by spirits. They were safe there, but the further they went, the less they felt calm. They could feel the ceilings tremble and could hear faint sounds of demonic beasts.
After they walk that felt like an eternity, they finally arrived at the other side of the tunnel. They watched Yur stare at the wall, trying to check if it was safe on the other side of the wall. When Yur placed its hand on the wall, everyone unconsciously held their breath.
The mont the wall evaporated, Doloran and the others imdiately covered their noses. The pungent sll was so bad that it hurt their nostrils and they could feel the headache inside their skulls. The damp air with the pungent sll and the extre heat made it unbearable, but they tried their best to endure it without gagging.
Doloran and the others had to wrap a thick cloth around their faces, but even so, they sll was still strong. They looked at Rasmus, Videl, and Serena who were unbothered by all that, shocking them even further.
"Co follow , but be very quiet..." Yur’s voice was barely above a whisper as Yur placed its tiny index finger on its lips.
Not a single of them made a sound as they followed Yur because their lives depended on their own ability to not make a sound. The place was still dark, but not pitch black and their eyes had gotten used to the darkness, allowing them to see a little. When the right wall was no longer covering them, that was when they finally saw the mountain’s dwellers with pale faces, even Aris, Rasmus, Yur, Videl, and Serena were unsettled by it.
They were like ants walking on the side of the ceiling, looking down at a room filled with hundreds of thousands or even millions of powerful demonic beasts. They knew and had seen how big the Efiva mountain was, but they didn’t expect the inside was full of those gigantic demonic beasts, swarming and fighting each other. The sorcerers, the witch, the warlock, and the druid, all of them felt it when their knees gave up out of fear. Doloran and Lance almost lost their strength, but they managed to grab the wall behind them.
"If these things were released..." Rasmus paused, trying to calculate the damage, but it was too much for him to calculate.
"No humans could survive. These things would swarm the whole continent," Serena added with her eyes narrowed.
Videl’s eyes scanned through countless wyrms, drakes, and even wyverns that had been corrupted. He was looking for it, the Womb of the Mother, the cause and the source of those abominations. Suddenly, he saw it, a glimpse of it that was hidden underneath an odd wall formation, a big slimy glop that looked like an organ that was pulsating slowly, releasing a black substance with a pungent sll.
"There..." Videl pointed at the Womb of the Mother.
Everyone averted their attentions toward the spot where Videl pointed at. They finally found it, the source of the demonic beasts that had haunted Neva long before humans existed. They witnessed the birth of a demonic beast that they didn’t know it was possible. They watched a wyrm co out of the Mother of the Womb, covered in black gooey substance and began to drink and eat the substance on its body and on the ground.
"You said it couldn’t produce anything," Rasmus muttered next to Videl.
"Now we know it can," Videl narrowed his eyes, finding it disturbing because sothing felt wrong about everything in this place.
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