Chapter 462 The Missing Girl (1/2)
An old diary, its covers blackened, the pages yellowed and covered in various signs of decay.
19th of June—clear day
Brought Old Abel to herd sheep, but it appeared short of breath. Leah was right—the herd was getting bigger, and Abel hasthe will but not the strength. Perhaps I should find another shepherd dog, and let Old Abel who had toiled for seven to eight years rest.
22nd of June—cloudy
Two of the sheep are about to give birth! It should have been a monumental event, but for some curious reason the lambs were not looking good and had trouble breathing. Was it because the mothers were disturbed during pregnancy?
Either way, my flock has grown again—I should perhaps consider selling a few of the goats and let little Ebrach learn a few things in town and see if there's an enchanted cavalier in the making!
22nd of June—gloomy
The lambs are all dead… Perhaps their gestations were indeed affected, with my neglect being the bigger issue. Although Leah consoled me, it still does hurt.
The mother sheep seemed sad too—they were their children after all. On another note, why do grasslands always have such gloomy weather? This has gone on for a few days.
27th of June—dark
The flock did not dare to leave their pen. Old Abel had barked as loud as he could, but not even a single lamb got out.
The dark day outside is getting even blacker, and it's now almost impossible to find the path. The fog is obscure but not damp, and neither was it about to rain.
Really weird.
29th of June—fog
Even the grass is withered. The fog seems to be toxic, and it feels like every other plant is drying up too… The ewes that had recently gave birth were also dead—it was as if they had decomposed for some time when their remains were found.
Come to think of it, the lambs looked strange when they died. Could it be…
From this point, a black stain had stuck the following few pages together—appearing to be either blood or ink.
7th of July—clear day
The fog has finally dispersed!
The aberrations that had appeared last night seemed afraid of sunlight! Ancestors protects us—our whole family were unharmed, but the other shepherds were all dead.
What is going on? Be that as it may, I really hope that I can keep writing in this diary.
9th of July—thunderstorm
Earthquake!
I had planned to move to the city, only to meet an earthquake the moment I woke up!
The house is fine, but the pen crumbled—and yet not one sheep came out, I daren't take a look…
The noontime downpour is here again, we could only pack our things and wait in the house. The road to the city would have definitely become a mire in this weather.
Come to think of it, I've not seen Abel for several days. Where has it gone?
11th of July—fog
That monster ate all the sheep…
And what on earth was that black shadow that suddenly appeared in the weapons…
Leah's arm is hurt, and for some reason the blood wouldn't stop… She's asleep with some bandages on, but I don't know if she would recover…
Later entries were a mess, with the diary having traces of being soaked as well as scattered black stains. It appeared to be a mixture of tears and inks, with some obscure writing scrawled so untidily it was unintelligible.
Leah… Dead… Monster… Abel… Ebrach
1st of August—clear
I've finally arrived at the shelter after passing through the grasslands.
This forest has a scent of holiness… but I'm about to die.
My child…. I wish you would have a peaceful life in this crazy world.
It was a fogged night in the western region of Grandia. There was a human village built over a river island amidst a virgin forest, burning brightly even as the river streamed roaringly. Under the swaying light from the fires, smoke rose intermittently, passing through the wooden roof, the dancing flames themselves fluctuating.
In one of the huts that was about to fall, the black-haired crimson-eyed warrior quietly put down the diary with one hand—the other was holding the smaller hand of a little boy, whose face was splattered with blood and filled with immeasurable panic and gloom.
”Your grandfather seemed to have loved your father very much,” Joshua muttered.
”And your father loves you too.”
After bidding the titan farewell last night, Joshua had headed all the way north, following the guidance of the Mirror of Holy Splendor as he dashed towards the fourth Sage's Legacy.
He could only form the colossal lifeforce giant by unleashing most of the lifeforce imbued within the Azurite. It was an energy that far exceeds his body's limits, which was why Joshua needed to learn the compressing method of the titan and the Evil God of the Air to force those energies within his body so that energy and flesh could fuse as one. What was more, this was done by the very strength of his own body, and not dependent upon the Sage's Legacy.
After his physicality was honed to the next level, the warrior's speed was much faster than before. In one night, he had left the Xayar Mountains and passed through a large grassland—but as the sky gradually gloomed and the thick fog appeared, the guidance from the Mirror of Holy Splendor began to fluctuate. In the end, it simply became a normal mirror, no longer able to provide coordinates through the power of the Holy Light.
Joshua was not surprised. In another world where the energies were fundamentally different, it was a sign of how prepared Pope Igor was for the mirror to have kept working for so long. Even he, a Supreme champion had his ability largely restrained, while that was just a little mirror. And yet, it had kept working—as expected of its creator, the most powerful amongst Legendary-pinnacle champions, a god who walked amongst men.
Following the final direction given by the mirror, Joshua flew southwest. The sun was now shining across the land, allowing the warrior to see things that made his heart sink.