Chapter 208 : Chapter 208
Chapter 208. Survival
Three days later, a squad of ten scouts from the Kroll Kingdom cautiously entered Zu’Aman City.
The horses’ hooves trod over shattered bones and scorched earth, producing a grating crunch that set one’s teeth on edge. Although the stench of blood in the air had faded somewhat, it was mixed with the charred odor left after souls had been burned, making their hearts tighten as they breathed it in.
The Captain reined in his horse and signaled for the squad to stop. He dismounted, drew the short sword at his waist, and used it to push aside a half-charred orc corpse.
A large hole had been blasted through the corpse’s chest cavity. Traces of Holy Light scorching still remained on its bones. It was clearly a casualty of the final melee.
“Captain, there is someone alive over here,” a scout called in a low voice from behind a broken wall.
The Captain strode over and saw a Holy Light Knight huddled in the corner. His armor had shattered into iron scraps, and one of his legs was twisted at an unnatural angle.
His eyes were still open, but they had lost focus. A faint rasp came from his throat, and his hand was clenched tightly around a bloodstained holy emblem.
“Water…” The Knight’s lips trembled, his voice as thin as a mosquito’s whine.
A scout handed over a water pouch, but the Captain held him back.
“Do not waste the water,” he said in a low voice, his gaze sweeping over the penetrating wound in the Knight’s chest.
The edges of the wound were marked with dark-purple corrosion. He had clearly been struck by the Blackgold Empire’s dark poison.
“He cannot be saved.”
The Knight seemed not to hear him and only repeated in a murmur.
“Divinity… Demigods… all gone…”
The Captain frowned, crouched down, and pressed him further.
“Demigods? Where did they go? Who obtained the Divinity in the end?”
Yet the Knight suddenly began to laugh. His laughter was as shrill as the cry of a night cat. As he laughed, he coughed up a mouthful of black blood, then his head tilted to the side, and he breathed his last.
The squad continued deeper inside. The closer they drew to the center of the city, the more tragic the scene became.
Half of the City Hall’s dome had collapsed, and several dried corpses hung from the exposed beams.
The once-bustling commercial street had become a stretch of scorched earth. Bloodstains had coagulated into a blackish-red layer on the ground, and stepping on it felt like treading through thick mud.
In the deepest part of the plaza, a massive energy crater remained. The rocks at the bottom had been melted into glass, clearly the trace left behind when Demigods had clashed.
“Something is wrong here.”
A young scout could not help trembling.
“There is not even a bird. It is too quiet.”
The Captain also felt his scalp prickle.
By all reason, a battlefield of this scale should have attracted scavengers, yet Zu’Aman City was abnormally clean, as though even vultures had flown around this place.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past, carrying a faint beastly roar from the distance.
“Guard up!” the Captain shouted in a low voice, drawing his blade from its sheath.
In the direction of the city gate, a dozen or so enormous multicolored figures stood atop a pile of corpses, their eerie green eyes fixed on them.
These figures exuded terrifying auras from head to toe. Corrosive saliva dripped from the corners of their mouths. They were clearly remnants left behind by the battle.
“Retreat!” the Captain decided at once.
They were scouts. They had not come here to throw their lives away.
The squad turned their horses and galloped madly toward the outside of the city.
Behind them, the multicolored figures let out shrieks, and the sound of claws scraping against the ground drew closer and closer. One scout who had fallen behind was struck by a claw and screamed as he fell from his horse. In the next instant, he was swallowed by the crowd.
Only after they had rushed out of Zu’Aman City’s range and could no longer hear the wolf-like howls did the surviving scouts dare to stop and gasp for breath.
The Captain turned back and looked over. In the dusk, that ruined city resembled a crouching giant beast. In the shadows of the city gate, there seemed to be countless eyes still staring at them.
“Go back and report to His Majesty.”
The Captain wiped the cold sweat from his face, his voice trembling.
“Zu’Aman City… has become forbidden ground.”
The scouts did not dare delay any longer. They spurred their horses and raced toward the Kroll Kingdom.
Behind them, the ruins gradually vanished into the night. Only that scent of blood mingled with burning seemed to remain lingering at the tips of their noses.
No one knew who had won or lost in that final melee, and no one knew into whose hands the Divinity had ultimately fallen.
Zu’Aman City was like an apple core that had been gnawed clean and casually discarded on the wasteland. All that remained were corpses and wreckage scattered across the ground, warning those who came after.
It warned them what sort of mad struggle had once taken place here, and how many unwilling souls had been buried beneath it.
Meanwhile, in the distant Royal Capital, William was reviewing a Military Intelligence Report concerning the Kadiya Kingdom beneath the lamplight.
When the scouts’ report was delivered to his desk, he merely looked at it in silence, then filed it into the dossier marked “handled.”
Night poured across the land like ink, and the ruins of Zu’Aman City gleamed ghastly white beneath the moonlight.
Those multicolored figures did not leave the city. They only wandered along the inner side of the city walls, their eerie green eyes like ghostly flames as they guarded this land of death.
Deep within the ruins of Zu’Aman City, a rustling sound suddenly came from beneath a pile of rubble, as though something was struggling below.
Immediately after, with a muffled THUD, a hand covered in blood and dust suddenly thrust out from the shattered stones. Its knuckles had turned white from exertion as it clutched a broken slab of masonry with a death grip.
Soil trickled down, and a figure slowly propped herself up from the ruins.
It was Pandora.
Her gilded armor had long since shattered into scrap metal, most of it hanging loosely from her body. The exposed skin beneath was covered in wounds so deep that bone could be seen.
A hideous gash across her abdomen was still bleeding, staining the shattered stones beneath her red. With every movement, blood ran down her thigh and dragged a long trail across the ground.
Pandora coughed, and bloody foam splattered across her chest, yet she seemed not to feel it at all. She simply used her sword sheath to brace herself against the ground and slowly straightened her body.
Sunlight passed through the gaps in the ruins and fell upon her face. That face, once bright and beautiful, was now ashen and defeated. Only her eyes still held a trace of flame that had yet to go out.
She raised her head and looked toward the sky. The clouds shifted, covering the sunlight, much like her current situation.
Then she turned her head and looked toward the southeast.
That was the direction of the Radiant Sun Empire.
“Heh…”
A dry laugh squeezed out from her throat, thick with the taste of blood.
“It is all over… At least fate spared me.”
The Leaf of Life had withered. Of the Radiant Sun powerhouses who had come out with her, not a single one could stand again.
She had used the last of her strength to detonate her Domain Core, and only then had she avoided being dragged into hell by Mog’s Ten Thousand Souls Bone. Even so, she had ended up in her current state.
The severe pain in her abdomen made her vision darken. She staggered and caught hold of a knight’s sword planted in the ground beside her.