"Welcome, customers," the innkeeper greets, voice devoid of emotion as before. "How may I assist you?"
The group of sinners strides in, the chimes of the bell falling away behind them. The others who weren't with Carnage and Ernest complain about the same feeling of dread that clings to the bones and the smell encapsulating the area.
"You weren't lying," Agnar says, her instincts are screaming at her to unsheathe her sword, but she doesn't, only remaining on high alert.
"Someone should stay downstairs just in case the innkeeper follows." Ernest suggests, and Artticus's hands fly up.
"I got this." He cups his fist, slapping his muscles in a show of strength. "Ya guys, go ahead; I got this!" He smirks proudly, approaching the counter.
"Do you guys really think he can do it?" Flor murmurs among them.
"If he can't, it's his fault," Carnage replies.
Scrambling up the stairs, they grimace as the air thickens with the stench of rot seeping into their nostrils. The black mold clawed further down the walls, spreading in dark, creeping patches that seemed to pulse with life.
'It's much worse.'
"Bloody hell, it's that moldy scent again." Ernest hisses, flicking on the ability of his glasses and peering around. "Let's get this over with before I hurl."
"It isn't just mold." Flor inhales carefully, then stiffens, her expression sharpening as she steps closer to the wall. "Black mold has a sharp, earthy odor, but this…" She shakes her head. "This is decomposition. The smell of a decaying body is mixed into it."
'I had a feeling it was.' Carnage thinks. 'The smell of a decaying body is hard to forget, especially if you spent countless years around them.'
She takes a step back, suddenly wary. "When mold feeds on organic decay, it releases toxic spores and gases. Breathing this air for even a short time could make someone violently ill, with dizziness, lung damage, and even organ failure if the exposure is long enough."
"Do you think it can affect us in hell too?" Carnage inquires.
"I don't know, but it's best we get out of here quickly," Flor advises.
"Right. Found anything, Ernest?" Carnage turns to him.
"I think I found it?" He says, questioning his own eyes. "It's saying it's on the roof?"
"The roof?" Agnar questions.
'That can't be.'
"It's perhaps in the attic," Flor exclaims, glancing up at the ceiling. "There." She spots the hatch.
The rest of them look at her, confused.
"You guys don't know what an attic is?" She tilts her head, and their pure silence says it all. "It's a place between your roof and the floor. It's usually where most people store their old belongings and memories."
'Like the chambers of lost memories?' Carnage thinks.
'Like the old archives,' Ernest thinks.
'So basically the ancestral safe,' Agnar thinks.
Though they all think of something else, they shake their heads at her explanation.
"Agnar, would you?" Flor inquires. "Just pull the string down to open it." Aganr, the tallest of the five, approaches and jumps, locking her finger around the loop, tugging it open, and the staircase falls.
The foul smell becomes worse, as if opening the doors to the maggot throne room itself, causing all of them except Carnage to recoil in disgust.
'Yep, it's exactly what I expected. The rotting body, sealed within the damp air of the enclosed space, with a wooden exterior and interior, the withering of this building was set in stone.'
Carnage ponders inwardly.
'Not everyone had a throne of gold, steel, or stone; some had wooden ones. They were always the ones screaming the loudest, since they had to battle the mold creeping into their skin, worsening their condition, and the maggots eating away at them.'
Breaking away, he ascends the first step toward the dark attic. The stench barely fazes him; he has seen, felt, and smelled far worse, and this is nothing worth concern.
Creak…
The wood groans into the quiet air as he continues his ascent, his head gradually peering through the floor as he enters, and his entire stature seizing in place.
"What do you see?" Ernest asks from below. He doesn't answer. "Carnage?!" He calls out again.
"I'm going up," Agnar says, impatience claiming her. Covering her nose, she rushes up the stairs, halting as well.
"Agnar?" Ernest calls out. "Not you too."
Hesitantly, the others ascend the stairs, each gasping as their eyes settle on the cause of their surprise.
'I've survived hell and torture. Witnessed bodies and deaths, if piled up, could rival the highest mountain of Coronach. And yet, no matter how cruel or vile the depths of hell are, there was one part of humanity that never appeared there. The innocent. Those whose hearts had not yet been tainted by the cold, merciless embrace of what we call life. Children.'
Her frame is frail, with loose strands of blonde hair still clinging to her rotting skull. A tattered baby-blue dress drapes over bones where scraps of flesh and black mold stubbornly cling, grimly fashioned with a knife protruding from her chest. Her body, or what was left of it, limply leaned against the wall, holding in her tiny frame a black box.
'Still... I feel nothing. No remorse. No anger. No urge to cry.'
With that single train of thought, it ignites a frustration, not in the world and how cruel it can be, but in himself, because he knew, if necessary, he's willing to do the same for his revenge.
A second passes as they all look on, the silence suffocating. Shivers run down one of their spines, the reality of what they're seeing settling like a weight in the pit of their stomachs.
No one dares speak; the only sound is the faint creak of the attic floor beneath their feet.
"How..." Flor breaks the silence. "How can someone be so cruel…"
Carnage approaches, the floor bleeding into black as he draws closer.
'This has to be Bella.'
He recalls the wail of the innkeeper earlier on.
'But who is Bella to him?'
As he is able to wire his brain to connect what's missing, thumping sounds coming up the stairs tear through the space.
"Can't you be quieter, Artticus?" Flor chimes.
He barely has time to register what's happening before Agnar yanks her aside, just as the innkeeper barrels in, sending Evrad crashing into the wall. The impact splinters the wood, shards flying like deadly rain.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" he roars, darting toward Carnage with a wide, sweeping arc of his knife.
"Look out!" Ernest warns.
Carnage notices, drops low to evade, and then drives his elbow into the man's stomach. Saliva bursts from his mouth as the air is knocked from his lungs.
"Oh heavens." Flor gasps as the man tumbles down, gripping his stomach.
"Leave my beloved Bella alone!" he screeches, scrambling to his feet despite the pain. Rage blazes in his eyes, and beneath it, a raw, unrelenting hunger to kill, accompanied by a pained expression that screams desperation, guilt, and all-consuming sadness.
Carnage can't ignore it, can't unsee the pain behind his rage. It mirrors part of his own. He swipes again and again, and Carnage weaves, receiving slight gashes.
"What are you doing? killing him!" Flor screams.
Agnar steps forward, hand drawing her sword, until she halts, catching a glimpse of Carnage and understanding his motive, which results in her backstepping.
"What are you doing?!" Flor yanks her arm. "Why aren't you helping?"
"I am to join no warriors' fight if they do not ask for aid." Agnar tugs her arm free. "He does not need my aid."
"What?"
Carnage ducks another attack. 'I need to know.'
"Who was she?" He shouts back.
"Forget… Remember… Forget, Bella!" The innkeeper rambles, as if waging a battle with himself. "Nooo!" He roars, launching into a sudden, feral assault.
"Come on, remember!" Carnage's fist collides with his face. "Who was she?"
The man's head falls back with the punch, but he recovers swiftly. "She! She's!" He shakes his head, a new boost of strength overcoming him, as he attacks without stopping. "I must protect our village! I must protect my..."
The sound of tearing flesh ripples through the air. Carnage's gaze falls, watching as a piece of wood is lodged into the man's side, Ervad's hand pulling away.
'Gods.'
The innkeeper stumbles back, eyes widened. "I must protect." His blood erupts with a cough. "My..." His knees buckle, and he collapses to the floor. "Daughter..." He mouths before falling to the ground.
Dead.
.
.
.
Descending the stairs to the tavern's ground floor, everyone is quiet, reflecting on the battle that just transpired and the sight they are about to face. They all had already concluded Artticus was dead; the blood on the knife the man was wielding says it all.
However, they are astonished to find him leaning against the counter, a stab wound marring his stomach, his face unreadable.
"Artti!" Flor dashes over, taking out her potion bottle and summoning another potion of critical healing. "Are you alright? Drink this!"
'Hmm…' Carnage looks upon him for a bit before smirking. 'What a weird bunch of people.'
Taking it, he drinks it down, still holding a blank, defeated expression.
"I'm surprised you're still alive." Flor examines the wound. "It looks pretty deep, and there's a lot of blood already drained from you."
"Come on, no time for questioning; time is running low," Ernest says, his features stern, though he's still reeling from the man's and Carnage's actions.
To him, the fact that Carnage hasn't once drawn his sword tells him that, beneath all his hardened walls, Carnage is still human, just like them.
"Yeah." Carnage nods, retrieving the other black box from his inventory and placing it on the table.
Carnage, containing the blistering pain exploding through his arm, activates his power, watching as the red energy warps around the two black boxes.
'Even my skill of stopping the sensation of pain isn't working against this type of pain.' He winces as the covenant affirms his success in unsealing it.
The box clicks open, revealing the remaining letters: S, K, I, and G.
__________________
Name of the village—
▯▯▯▯▯▯▯
___________________
「Place the letters inside, beginning with the first letter: S 」
Ernest places the first letter inside the system panel.
__________________
Name of the village—
S▯▯▯▯▯▯
___________________
「Then the letters: K」
Agnar goes next, picking up the letters spread out on the counter and placing it inside. The system continues, and each of them places a letter inside that spells out the name until there are only two left, which Carnage places inside.
__________________
Name of the village—
S|K|R|E|I|G|H
___________________
'Skreigh village …'
「Congratulation! The first section of your mission has been completed! 」
「Second hint: Where trees wither, a shack of memories stands tall.」
「Time limit: 30:43」
"Thirty minutes left?!" Everyone's eyes widen in fear and astonishment.
"Has anyone seen a shack?" Flor asks, panic settling in.
"We did," Carnage says calmly. "In the forest, on our way back."
"Then let us match." Aganr urged, and they no longer walked but ran towards where they saw it.