118 Paradise Unbroken (1/2)
Tranquil waves washed the empty beach on a clear and sunny midday. Not a thing stirred aside from the peaceful ebb and flow of the sea in the private eden that they'd found by chance…
As far as they knew, the little beach had no name, nor did the island.
It wasn't even a marked location on their maps, presumably because of where it existed. They had discovered the hidden stretch of untouched pink beach far from civilization, within the deep wilderness past the Southern coast where only a few dared to venture…
A short chain of seemingly unnamed islands laid past the Southern coast that only Chosen had the qualifications to visit because of the dangerous beasts that lived on them.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please clickfor visiting.
One of them did have a proper name, though. It was a name only known by the Chosen of the South who had experienced the horrors contained within the island back when they'd been trainees. In the South, it was a rite of passage for trainees to be sent to a particular island for a test that'd challenge their survival skills to the limit.
On the surface, it appeared like a paradise — lush rainforests, clear skies, and nary a threat in sight, but… it was nothing but a cruel deception.
Nightfall was to be feared on the island, for it always heralded the arrival of those-who-hunted-in-the-dark. The Shadow-stalkers were an insidious batch of monstrosities that'd been created by the Ancient Mulians in an attempt to refine and harness the power of subjugation that the Outsiders possessed.
They were remnants of condemned criminals, turned into mindless, obedient horrors that only answered to their Mulian masters, much like the Infested. At night, what remained of the sorry, twisted monsters would come pouring out of the abandoned research station that'd been built beneath the small island.
Although the South could have destroyed the research station and the tormented creatures who lived in it, they had decided against it in the end.
The South ended up repurposing the island and turned it into a miniature test site for their trainees so that they could experience what it was like fighting the Infested in a safe and contained environment that instructors could easily supervise and control.
In truth, the trainees were not in danger, despite how it seemed at night. They'd be stalked, chased, and hunted by the shadow-stalkers, but the instructors supervising the test would never let the abominations make the final killing strike.
…Nevertheless, it was still a terrifying experience for the young trainees, whether or not it'd actually been a test without a true danger.
Generations of Chosen had come to fear the notoriously beautiful island they called… the Verdant Tear. It was a taboo place that no one wanted anything to do with…
The concept had arisen out of the ill-intentioned idea of ”fighting fire with fire.” What the Ancient Mulians had planned to do, at least in theory, had been a perversion of everything they'd stood for at their core…
Simply put, they had tried to create their own army of Infested, one that would answer to the Mulian empire. Rather than let the Infestation continue to harvest their entire multiverse of every single soul and turn them into Infested, they'd do it themselves.
In essence, the project was created to deny the Infestation of what they wanted and even use their own kind against them.
There were some who even claimed that given enough time, they'd unlock the full extent of the Outsiders' secrets.
That once they fully comprehended how the Outsiders controlled souls, they'd be able to completely turn the tide of the war, once and for all.
Had the project reached that point, the Ancient Mulian scientists would have set their sights on the Infestation itself instead. They would have tried to take the Grand Swarm for themselves and used it to fight the Outsiders on their own terms and, perhaps, even subjugate them as well.
Greed, ambition, and desperation had taken hold in the hearts of the Ancient Mulians to the extent that they had nearly forsaken their humanity.
Were it not for a certain individual's condemnation of the secret project and his direct order for it to be shut down, the Ancient Mulians would have surely ended up walking down a path of no return that'd destroy them from within…
Where'd that girl go off to? It's been at least fifteen minutes since she'd left to ”powder her nose,” as she called it…
Well, whatever… It's not like anything here is even remotely capable of posing a threat to her, a Goddess of War, anyway…
Reed felt that something was off and that she was most likely up to no good, but couldn't find the will to even care about it. His hammock slowly rocked back and forth when a cool breeze passed by, which he greatly enjoyed.
Ahhh… It's like nature's trying to rock me to sleep!