klisemfg Chapter 299 Times have changed
Chapter 299 Times have changed
The Demonic Swamp Forest is in turmoil.
The scent of blood spread with the night wind, and those nocturnal creatures were all rushing towards the same area.
A one-eyed old wolf that was driven out of the tribe emerged from the grass and boldly stepped onto the uncovered water source. The broken limbs and arms all over the ground made its saliva constantly secrete, and the saliva dripped down, but it looked cautiously at the bloody man standing in the field and dared not move.
"Eat." A voice sounded.
The old wolf got permission, bit a large piece of the stump, dragged it into the shadow from where he came, and began to eat it. Since then, all the creatures hiding in the dark have shown up boldly, silently dividing up the blood and flesh on the ground. On ordinary days, some of them are even natural enemies, but at this moment, with abundant food in front of them, there is no need to fight.
Apart from the occasional crackling of wood from the unattended campfire, the only sounds in the camp were the terrifying sounds of swallowing and chewing.
This place is like a wild sacrificial site, where some strange sacrificial ceremony is being performed.
The old wolf bared its teeth and bit the bones in its mouth hard. It looked at the spring vigilantly. The blurry figure ignored the blood, flesh and beasts on the ground. She stepped into the spring and began to wash the human blood on her body.
The spring water took away the stains on her body, and the figure became blurry and transparent again.
Only by staring at those water lines that looked like a split line could one tell that there were people sitting in the water, resting quietly, replenishing the energy consumed by this crazy killing.
"You find it weird, don't you?"
The voice sounded again, startling many wild animals in the field. They raised their heads again and looked. They saw a huge figure fluttering its wings and landing silently on the ground. They let out a few low growls and buried their heads in eating again.
The gargoyle had quietly left the camp at some point and now landed beside the spring, silently looking at the corpses on the ground.
"Times have changed. They are no longer our allies." The voice said as it washed itself, accompanied by the sound of splashing water.
The only response she got was silence. Under the gargoyle's expressionless appearance, no one knew whether it was thinking or what it was thinking about.
"…Forget it, what does a guy like you know?"
The transparent figure sighed and touched the gargoyle's head. The familiar movement made the gargoyle turn around and let out a dull snoring sound from its throat.
“I don’t know why you woke up and got mixed up with Goletia’s children… but maybe you can help me?” After the excitement of the fierce battle faded, the voice revealed fatigue, “I have to leave here as soon as possible.”
The gargoyle stood still for a moment, turned his head and looked in the direction of the small camp, then chose to stretch his front limbs into the water and fished out the invisible figure in the water. After a "splash" sound, the spring water dripped down its strong arms and fell to the ground.
Then it flapped its bat wings, took off into the night sky, and flew towards the other side of the Demon Swamp Forest.
No matter how strange and changing the world on the ground is, the moon remains the same as it was at the beginning, bright, quiet and indifferent.
……
When the colorful mandarin ducks in the forest jumped into the trees early in the morning and began to sing courtship songs to the reserved female birds, Lilith was the first to sit up from the soft cotton mattress.
She had gone to bed the earliest last night. When she crawled out of the tent weakly, she found that the whole camp was quiet. No one was awake yet. The stone campfire had long been extinguished, leaving only a pile of burnt white charcoal.
There was always thick fog in the Demon Swamp Forest in the morning. Lilith rubbed her arms and felt a little cold. She took out her sword, pushed the burnt wood aside, put new firewood on it, and rekindled the campfire.
When the white smoke rose, there was finally some movement in a tent nearby. She turned her head and saw Lucas crawling out from inside with a confused look on his face. He greeted Lilith.
"Shh-"
Lilith quickly signaled to him not to wake up the others, but perhaps because of his influence, Ian soon walked out of the tent dressed neatly.
The three of them sat around the campfire. The dog quietly finished his breakfast, and then prepared to head to the Fountain of Purity, but -
When Lilith went back to the tent to put away her bedding, she was about to put away the gargoyle that was squatting beside her, but when she looked up, she was startled!
There was a dried handprint on the gargoyle's body. The dark red color... Lilith subconsciously reached out to touch it and got a hand full of fine powder. This is... blood! ?
She turned her head sharply. The others were still asleep. In order not to disturb others, Lucas and Ian had walked to the edge of the camp and were looking over from a distance.
"...What did you do last night?!" Lilith asked in a panic, lowering her voice.
However, the gargoyle didn't even snore this time. It had turned back into a stone statue. Lilith turned her head again to look at the edge of the camp. As if Lucas was about to come over, she quickly put the gargoyle into the ring and walked towards the two of them.
"What's wrong?" Ian could always notice the subtle changes in her expression.
"I don't know yet..." Lilith had a feeling that something happened last night, and her heart was beating wildly. "Let's go over there and take a look first."
Ian didn't ask any more questions, just nodded and led the way.
It wasn't too far from their camp to the Spring of Purity, but the terrain of the Magic Swamp Forest was complicated, and they had to go through many twists and turns. By the time they arrived, the bright blue morning light had completely turned white, and the sky was bright. Before they had completely passed the last vine barriers, Lucas asserted -
"They will definitely evacuate, and then this place will belong to us."
Lilith didn't say anything. She understood why Lucas made such a judgment, because - it was too quiet.
It was not known whether the so-called large army was just a bluff. In any case, she knew they were not coming just by the noise. When Lilith thought that she might be able to see the little goblin flapping its wings beside the Fountain of Purity tonight, her heart, which had been frightened by the bloody handprint early in the morning, finally calmed down.
Ian, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped.
Lilith was still moving forward using her hands and feet, but Ian suddenly grabbed her wrist with such force that even her thick skin could not help but grin.
"What are you doing?" Lilith was a little confused by Ian's sudden action. Then she heard Lucas gasp. She moved forward again, but Lucas grabbed her other arm.
No, brother, you, you guys??? This is a steep slope, it’s already hard enough for her to climb!
Lilith was so angry that she kicked one of them and growled - "I can walk by myself!"
Then, ignoring the two people's obstruction, he climbed up the slope using his hands and feet and looked towards the Spring of Purity.
This look was like seeing the entrance to hell.
Everywhere they looked was a horrifying mess, with broken limbs scattered all over the ground and blood splattered all over the place. The entire stone floor was like a crazy and distorted painting. The dark brown blood stains spread wantonly and seeped into the cracks in the ground, emitting a strong fishy smell that irritated their nasal cavity.
Flies buzzed around the bloody land, the sound of their wings being particularly harsh in the dead silence.
Most of the broken limbs and arms were already free of flesh and blood, with bones sticking out, and some were still clinging to torn pieces of clothing.
"This is, what is going on..." Lucas finally found his voice after being shocked, his voice trembling.
It’s not like he hasn’t seen dead people before; some were beaten to death, some starved to death, some died of disease; he’s seen them all, but what is this… ?
They, they are the Knights of Light!
No one could answer his question, and when Ian saw that he failed to block Lilith's sight, he let go of her hand and was the first to slide down the slope into the camp to investigate the situation.
Lilith and Lucas couldn't bear to watch any longer and could only follow closely.
As soon as she stepped onto the solid stone floor, Lilith felt something bumpy under her feet. Her body stiffened, and she lowered her head and slowly moved her foot away - it was a tooth.
Now that she was closer, she realized that the teeth were scattered everywhere, and some were still embedded in the remaining mandible, as if they were screaming out the pain they suffered in life. Lilith felt her stomach churning. She endured the nausea and hurriedly retreated to the spring, but she kicked a bump in the grass and almost tripped her.
The swarm of insects were frightened by her movement and flew up, circling in the air like a small black tornado. Lilith then realized that the mushrooms that suddenly appeared on the shore did not grow from the fertile soil, but from the body of the knight under them, whose armor was still white.
Lilith's face suddenly turned pale - this is impossible...
The knight who had been complaining about an itchy chest... She, she clearly gave him the antidote!
Lucas walked over and saw this scene. He seemed to have no idea how to react and just stared at Lilith blankly.
"It's not me..." Lilith explained in panic with a pale face.
"No, it's okay, Lilith..." Lucas responded in panic.
Ian saw Lilith's panicked look, walked over and was about to say something, but suddenly closed his mouth and looked to the other side of the camp.
"They're coming," Ian said softly.
The ground shook slightly. Some of the brave little animals were reluctant to retreat even when they saw Lilith and her companions, and were still busy cleaning up the debris from the corpses. But at this time, the animals' vigilance finally prevailed. They were finally startled by the noise that was getting closer and closer, and fled into the depths of the jungle in all directions.
A flash of white suddenly appeared among the dark green shadows of the trees.
The knight troops in white robes slowly advanced like a steel torrent, closely guarding the gods' favored ones in the middle. The sunlight struggled to penetrate the layers of dense branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows, reflecting on the knights' armor that shone with a cold glow.
There really is a large army... Lilith shuddered and sighed secretly, but what should they do? How to explain that all this has nothing to do with them? If they run away at this moment, it will make them look guilty...
Some of the new Knights of Light have already entered the camp. Their eyes are firm and alert, scanning everything around them through the gaps in their helmets. When they finally cast their gaze on Lilith and her group, Lilith finally spoke with difficulty -
"Not us... that's how it was when we got here."
The leading knight remained silent and stern. He did not respond to the words. He just turned his head and looked at the god-favored one in a white robe who rushed to the front behind him, "We are too slow."
"We were fast enough. It looks like it happened last night, just after dawn. She couldn't have gotten far." The God-favored One did not react to the remains of his companions on the ground. He just analyzed the situation calmly, which shocked Lilith.
What was even more shocking was that while the God-favored One said this, he picked up the lithe corpse that had been bitten to the point where only bones were left and threw it in the middle of the camp.
Several more God-loved Ones and Knights of Light came forward, ignoring the blood staining their white robes, and repeated the same action, collecting the flesh and blood scattered on the ground, even the guy covered with mushrooms was not spared.
Then, the first one who was favored by God in white robe suddenly chanted a spell that Lilith had never heard before, with blood and flesh all over the ground, and other favored ones followed closely behind.
Lilith felt the ground trembling slightly. She lowered her head and discovered that the bloodstains on the ground seemed to have come to life and were quickly gathering in the direction of the God-favored Ones. The pile of corpses glowed with a strange red light, turning every white robe red.
——What kind of spell is this? Why does it look so disturbing? Lilith looked at the red mist in the sky and couldn't help but frowned. These gods' favored ones looked more like dark wizards than those of them in black robes...
Perhaps because the expression on her face was too obvious, the knight in front walked over and stood in front of Lilith.
"Sir...this really has nothing to do with us. We are just students of Gloria." Lucas thought he was going to make trouble and hurriedly explained.
"Leave here as soon as possible. Dangerous pagans have come into this forest. Anyone could become one of them before we catch her." The knight was much more steady than the previous vanguard. After hearing Lucas' words, he did not blame them at all. Instead, he calmly advised them to leave.
Pagans? Lilith was about to ask what kind of pagans they were, but Lucas had already pulled her away from her daze.
"boom--"
There was a loud explosion behind him, and the blood stains recondensed and fell down again, as if they were given life. They fell to the ground and crawled desperately, but... they crawled in different directions.
"Have they become smarter... letting wild beasts gnaw on the flesh so that the blood can be scattered throughout the forest?" The leading God-favored One pulled down his hood, looked at the messy blood lines on the ground, his face darkened.
There were so many signs leading in all directions that they had no way of finding them. If everyone followed them, they would have to be divided into many small teams. In that case, they would be the ones in danger tonight.
How could we let them go into the forest? It would be like releasing fish back into the sea, which is the hardest to catch! - The God-favored One was secretly annoyed.
Another one favored by God was still looking at her feet. She watched helplessly as a bright red blood line passed under her feet and rushed straight towards the three young men who appeared inexplicably.
"stop!"
The sound of swords being drawn was heard behind her, and Lilith's back froze in place.