Chapter 16: Echoes of Chaos and a Hidden Lair

Gern didn’t tarry long, her objective unequivocally set on Victor and Glot’s room. As for whether it was indeed their room, despite the apparent lack of occupants, the sheer lavishness of the place offered an immediate answer. Nobles, ever eager to flaunt their esteemed status, naturally resided in the most extravagant of dwellings.

And indeed, her assumption proved correct, for Gern soon unearthed a diary belonging to Victor.

“July 1st, XX Year: I stumbled upon signs of the Heretic God cult within the city. They proved incredibly tenacious, and it demanded considerable effort to thoroughly expunge their presence.”

…

“October 20th, XX Year: From a merchant, I procured certain leaves. They possess the power to invigorate my spirit. Should we manage to cultivate them, our fortunes would surely swell.”

…

The diary’s entries were a jumbled mess, yielding almost no discernible useful information. Its sole utility, perhaps, lay in simply confirming to Gern that she was indeed in Victor’s room.

Gern scoured the house for a considerable period, her gaze eventually falling upon a handful of crumpled notes nestled within a waste bin.

The papers themselves were contorted beyond recognition, the script upon them smudged and illegible, as though they had been steeped and disintegrated by some corrosive liquid.

Scrawled across the paper were fragmented pleas: “Save me! I don’t want… Heretic God… he is… corrupting, save me! I don’t want to…”

The remainder of the text was illegible, yet the profound despair of the writer was palpable. Merely observing the frantic scrawl on the paper, Gern could already sense the overwhelming anguish embedded within.

Still, no truly valuable information could be gleaned from these fragments. Gern found herself involuntarily delving into her memories, trying to recall the actions of the Heretic God cult in her previous life.

However, those memories were incredibly distant. In that former life, she had been nothing more than a humble commoner, battling daily just to survive, with absolutely no leisure to concern herself with such matters.

As she pondered, a vivid fragment of memory abruptly resurfaced. It depicted the aftermath of an entire town’s sacrifice: a figure, shrouded in impenetrable darkness, its precise form indiscernible, ascending from the ground into the heavens, ultimately enveloping the entire city in its shadow.

And in that moment, she had stood just outside the town, observing this horrific spectacle alongside the cultists of the Heretic God.

‘Could it be…’

In her past life, having been a devotee of the Heretic God cult, she had indeed been privy to some of its more arcane secrets. That rising black figure, for instance, was known as the Chaos Scion.

In truth, it could no longer be considered human, for the instant that individual fully absorbed the Chaos Essence Stone, the very power of Chaos would assimilate them, transforming them entirely into chaos itself.

Devoid of consciousness, it possessed but a single, primal instinct: to transmute all existence into chaos.

Solely through the esoteric rituals of the Heretic God cult could the actions of a Chaos Scion be controlled.

Perhaps she could use this particular clue to reverse-engineer some deductions. She distinctly recalled that in her past life, the Chaos Scion had emerged from the town’s outskirts.

The precise location eluded Gern’s memory, though she vaguely recalled it being atop a small hill situated to the east of the town.

Perhaps she ought to venture there and test her luck…

****

Meanwhile, Eliza had already made her way back to the academy’s encampment. Conveniently, the areas flanking the grand arena were precisely the same dungeons once used to confine slaves.

Eliza, therefore, saw fit to imprison both the current suspects of the Heretic God cult and the already-confirmed group led by Victor within these very cells.

Once she had arranged the newly captured individuals from the manor, she made her way to the cell where Victor and his son were being held.

“Hey, you two,” she called out, “don’t imagine playing dead will allow you to slip past.”

From the oppressive darkness, a faint rustling sound emanated, and in the very next moment, a pair of dust-laden hands clasped tightly onto the iron bars.

“Lady Eliza,” a voice pleaded, “we are truly not pawns of the Heretic God cult. We were all coerced!”

Eliza’s gaze, sharp and cold, fixed upon the two figures within the cage, her pale golden vertical pupils reflecting nothing but stark indifference and profound revulsion.

“Forced, you say? Very well then, how do you propose to explain this vial of potion?”

As she spoke, Eliza produced the vial of jet-black potion from within her robes. It had been discovered in Glot’s storage ring, alongside an empty container, indicating that one such vial had already been expended.

Glot, rendered speechless, ceased all movement, as if utterly devoid of further argument.

Eliza offered a faint smile, clapped her hands, and commanded her subordinates to unlock the cell.

“Come,” she instructed, “take them to the interrogation room.”

“Name.”

“Glot.”

“Age.”

“24.”

…

The interrogation proceeded with remarkable ease, Glot proving unexpectedly cooperative with Eliza, a fact that genuinely surprised her.

Based on Glot’s revelations, the manor had, in fact, served as one of the Heretic God cult’s key strongholds.

However, some time prior, Glot himself had been responsible for destroying that very stronghold, and the corpses they had discovered earlier were none other than the Heretic God cultists he had personally dispatched.

It was also there that the opportunity arose for him to become an inside informant for the Heretic God cult.

Upon hearing Glot’s harrowing ordeal, Eliza felt a profound sense of sympathy. Yet, she knew that the corruption of a Heretic God was notoriously difficult to purge entirely; only high-ranking officials of the academy or members of the Holy Light Church possessed the means to fully cleanse such defilement.

Moreover, there was a crucial prerequisite for cleansing Heretic God corruption: it could only be done for those recently infected. Should too much time elapse, the individual’s soul would irrevocably morph into the very image of the Heretic God cult, rendering them beyond redemption.

Given the duo’s exceptional cooperation with the investigation, Eliza resolved to petition the academy later, seeking permission to cleanse the corruption from their bodies.

Having concluded the interrogation of the two, Eliza proceeded to the area where the corpses were being kept. The students had already performed a comprehensive examination, unearthing several scattered, yet intriguing, clues.

All these disparate clues converged, pointing towards a single destination: a desolate, barren mountain situated just beyond the town’s borders.

Eliza concluded that she needed to personally investigate the situation.

****

In the grand arena, Sina had effortlessly claimed victory in her match, now standing poised in its very center. As she felt the collective gazes of the surrounding crowd converge upon her, a wave of profound boredom washed over her.

Ever since both Glot and Gern had been disqualified, not a single remaining contestant had managed to impress her, leaving her with virtually no sense of challenge or pressure.

Upon returning to her seat, Sina suddenly noticed that Miss Luoya was no longer there.

“Strange, where did she go?”

Sina furrowed her brow, her gaze sweeping across the entire venue in search of Gern. Ultimately, she learned from the guards stationed at the arena’s entrance that Gern had departed the martial arts grounds quite some time ago.

****

In the desolate mountain range beyond the town, the silver-haired girl, Eliza, forged ahead with considerable difficulty. The terrain was notoriously treacherous here, densely overgrown with thorny, tenacious vegetation at every turn.

Although these prickly obstacles were incapable of piercing her skin, their incessant scraping against her body still caused a stinging discomfort.

Leading her small entourage, she followed the guidance of the clues, eventually arriving before the mouth of a mountain cave.

Overgrown with wild grasses and thorny bushes, it presented itself as nothing more than an unassuming, ordinary small cave.

Eliza conducted a meticulous search of the area for a period, yet yielded no significant discoveries.

This very lack of evidence only solidified Eliza’s belief that this was, in fact, one of the Heretic God cult’s hidden strongholds. Had there been any obvious traces or clear clues, she would have, conversely, suspected a cunning trap.

“Let’s go,” she declared, “we’re heading inside.”

The cave’s interior was exceedingly narrow, capable of accommodating only two individuals walking abreast. The air within was both dim and oppressively damp.

Nevertheless, Eliza’s draconic eyes were perfectly adapted to such gloom, allowing her to clearly perceive the cave’s intricate internal structure.

The entire cavern was hewn from dark, obsidian-like rock, with water continually dripping from various stones within, contributing to the overall pervasive dampness.

“Stay close to me, don’t fall behind.”

Eliza raised a hand, conjuring a lighting spell; a radiant orb of light coalesced in her palm, bathing the surrounding rock walls in a brilliance akin to broad daylight.

After an indeterminate passage of time, the cave began to broaden significantly, eventually revealing a fork in the path. Yet, this particular branching passage was entirely choked with a chaotic pile of shattered rocks.

Eliza’s brow furrowed. These stones were undoubtedly the result of a cave-in, and by the look of it, the collapse had occurred quite recently.

To ensure their safety, Eliza utilized earth magic to reinforce the surrounding rock formations, thereby mitigating any further risk of the cavern collapsing.