Chapter 156: Rescue Operation (2)
Four sturdy men stood guard at the passage leading to the uninhabited area. To be precise, they stood in the crumbling corridor in the southwest sector of the residential area.
They were handpicked cultists from the Wellad branch, highly trained in martial arts. Of course, no amount of skill in martial arts could allow ordinary men to stand against Karnak's group. Even Hugot hadn't assigned them as guards expecting them to serve as a meaningful line of defense.
That was why the standard two-man patrol had been increased to a four-man team, and each of them had a whistle made of bone hanging around their necks. If an enemy appeared, at least one of them was expected to survive long enough to blow the whistle and alert the others.
From the start, they hadn't even entertained the idea that they could actually stop an intruder. It was essentially a suicide mission. Yet their vigilance remained strict. They were fanatics of Tesranach, after all.
Even if they died in battle, they believed the Black God would resurrect them. So, the four guards stood gripping their spears and swords, their eyes fixed on the dark corridor ahead.
Then, a chilling sound echoed through the passage, and an eerie cold began creeping into the air. One by one, the torches flickered and went out.
"Huh?"
"What is this...?"
The guards exchanged puzzled glances. In the outside world, such an occurrence would have been terrifying. But here, it was merely unusual.
"What, ghosts?"
"Why would wraiths be here?"
To cultists, wraiths were no more mysterious than the tigers or wolves that lurked in the mountains beyond. They were common enough to be regarded as neighbors of a sort. They were certainly fearsome, but they weren't some unknown horror. The only thing that puzzled the guards was why ghosts had appeared instead of the intruders they were supposed to watch for.