Chapter 58 (1/2)
“So… we’re safe?”
Hao Ren took a long moment to calm his breathing as he stared at the silent, stone crypt in disbelief. The tunnel behind them had been completely sealed off after the Lightning Strike explosion. Their pursuers were blocked off by the collapsed tunnel. Even if the wraith knights were physically strong, they were made of metal; metal had a finite strength. So, the wraith knights could not have possibly dug through the sealed tunnel—at least for the time being.
It was time for a break to collect his thoughts.
“Maybe… not.” Vivian closed her eyes and felt the energy flow from the crypts. “The aura of the wraiths are everywhere but I can’t explain the spooky silence. The wraiths behind us are just a small group of the army…”
“Holy moly, a small group?” Hao Ren exclaimed in shock. “What was the castle owner thinking of?”
Lily had gone on the ground to check out the fragments of plated armor. Equipped with the natural instinct of a canine, she searched through the fragments as though something had attracted her interest. Then she found something—a twisted piece of chest armor. “Hey Battie, take a look! What’s this? Are these Letta runes?”
Doggie and Battie. It looked like they would not be calling each other by their actual names for a long while.
Vivian kicked Lily’s leg in protest before bending over to pick up the armor fragment. Sure enough, the silver metal plate had some squiggly patterns on it. Unfortunately, the plate was broken and the runes were not completely legible. “Let’s see whether there are other fragments. We might be able to find something readable.”
“I’ll help.” Hao Ren came up and joined Lily. They searched high and low for fragments. Most of the plated armor were frozen and they shattered under sub-zero temperatures. Literally none were in one piece. After some laborious searching, Hao Ren established that almost all wraith knights had runes on their armor.
The runes were inscribed on the same piece found on all of the armor. Their size and pattern were also identical. It appeared that the armor were the result of a mass production.
“Found it!” Lily was the first to find a whole piece of armor. She handed the one-square-foot metal plate to Vivian, who immediately deciphered it. “…The warden, watcher, sleepless warrior of the demonic chamber… under the order to defend the power of the demon, to drive out intruders… are not allowed to enter the demonic chamber… a covenant imbued and effected within the runes.”
Hao Ren could not make sense of it. “What does it mean?”
“Looks like we’ve got one thing wrong,” There was a subtle change in Vivian’s expression. “We initially assumed that the wraiths were the objects of the sealing mechanism and the avenging wraith knights were being confined down here. But little do we know that the knights are actually part of the crypt’s defense mechanism. They’re the guards here. There’s something else being held down here.”
Hao Ren looked thoughtfully at the metal fragment in his hand. He had guessed it from the beginning; the buried army was a thoughtful arrangement. Full-corps, well-equipped; no matter how one looked at it, these knights were not the prisoners. Instead, it made more sense to say that they were the guards of the crypt.
“Demon?” The word struck Hao Ren as Vivian deciphered the runes. “This…this isn’t funny! Don’t tell me that the one being held down here is a demon. How on earth can demons exist at all in this world?”
“If the Blood Clan like me and errr… werewolf like Lily exist, why not a demon?” Vivian threw the armor fragment on the floor before corroding it with her caustic blood flog. Then she spoke in a grave manner, “Humans made tons of errors in their records of mythology. A lot of the violent, foreign creatures have been summarized and categorized as demons. I’m not sure whether the ‘demon’ described in the runes is a demon or something else. It better not be the real thing or else, it’s going to spell big trouble.”
Vivian paused for a few seconds before continuing, “Judging from the standard of the runes on the stone wall, the crypt was supposedly designed by the demon hunters. Demon hunters are experts who wouldn’t make such a silly mistake in the categorization of unusual creatures. Most likely, the one being held down here is an actual demon.”
Hao Ren’s face twitched. “It’d be better if you didn’t say that last sentence!”
Vivian did not take notice of Hao Ren’s denial. She carefully surveyed the floor for armor fragments with runes in the hope that she would find out exactly what kind of demon was being held down there. On the other hand, Lily was anxious. “Did we just take out the knights tasked to guard the demon? Did we just commit a Himalayan blunder by letting the demon out!”