Chapter 1082: Autopsy
“What fine work…” Nestor murmured as he set about his grisly business. “Whoever did this is a master without compare…”
“High praise coming from you,” Leon observed.
Following the defeat of the monster below Artorion, Leon’s orders were carried out swiftly, with all the teams exploring the tunnels recalled and the enormous cavern sealed off until a more coordinated and prepared expedition could be organized to explore it. They didn’t leave empty-handed, however, and took the monster with them. Upon returning to Artorion, Leon had given the carcass to Nestor for study while he personally saw to the grand funeral of those who fell in battle against it.
It had been a raucous affair, though he hadn’t expected much else. Some of the fallen had been from the Lion Tribe, and they celebrated their fellow Tribesmen’s deaths with more gusto than anyone else. There was mourning, too, but for the most part, it seemed that Leon’s people sought to honor the sacrifice publicly while keeping their mourning private.
That didn’t stop him from treating the dead as heroes and ordering the construction of a grand mausoleum to commemorate all those who’d died during the establishment of the new city. It would be constructed on one of the nine peaks that his palace would occupy, to showcase how he felt about their sacrifice. Few would actually be interred there given how many they’d already lost just from the three missing arks on top of those who would be handled in other ways according to Tribal tradition, but their names, at least, would be recorded for posterity.
When all of that had finished, Leon returned to Nestor’s lab, finding that the man had not only gotten much work done, but he appeared to have set aside all of his other work to focus on the monster instead. Leon had been a bit concerned when the dead man fed much of the monster’s flesh to his now quite large cat, but he hesitantly trusted his ancient kinsman when he said the meat wasn’t poisonous.
‘At least he kept the hide,’ Leon had thought, seeing the tough flensed hide in a disorganized pile in a corner. Messy, but Nestor had promised to have it cleaned soon—not until he was finished, though, since he still had plenty of carcass to slice apart.
As Leon watched the dead man work, he informed Nestor of all that had happened during the battle, including the soul realm attack that even affected the Thunderbird. Nestor had been interested from the beginning from Leon’s description of the strange malaise he’d felt down in the cavern, but until then, he’d chalked it up to a strange reaction Leon had had to the toxic magic that permeated the cavern.
He changed his mind once Leon began describing the battle with the monster.