Chapter 356: Party? (1)
Chapter 354
"...."
The group froze at the last entry because the style had shifted completely.
Instead of being calmly written with a piece of charcoal, it was smeared in dark, dried blood, the strokes erratic and shaky as if the writer had been in a desperate hurry.
But luckily, the entry wasn’t completely finished.
{.... Oh. My bad. I should probably introduce myself properly, but I don’t have much time. I’m literally gutted and won’t even make it through the hour. All you should know is that—I’m sorry; the one who has been writing these journals up until now is dead.
I’m part of the group. Heck, I didn’t want to write this, but that idiot forced me to do it, saying it was his last wish and I should grant it. Anyway, I’m being chased at the moment, so here it goes.}
They all paused for a brief moment, swallowing hard before reading onward.
{... We went into the Spire and boy did we encounter something crazy. We actually stood no chance to begin with.
It was all for naught.
If anybody is reading this, kindly just give up because you stand no chance.
We-We-We were deceived. Now that I’m in this condition, I can finally see why he didn’t jot this down.
Sigh... We were so close, but ultimately failed. Freedom was right in front of us, but its trial was just too tough. All I want to say is that don’t tr—}
"Huh? What happened? Why didn’t he finish writing it?!" Kai shouted, his voice echoing off the narrow cavern walls as the text abruptly cut off.
"Did—did he die right there?" Nebula asked shakily, a fearful look clouding her features as she wondered what the previous expedition must have experienced.
She hadn’t had the time to read the journal from beginning to end when she first found the cave.
It was just this last paragraph she had been able to glance at before she was initially attacked and forced to flee.
So she, too, was now completely gripped by the weight of the story.
"Yo! What the hell happened? This can’t just end here! The fool had enough time to tell us exactly what was waiting inside the Spire, but he died before he could speak the truth! Damn it!" Caster shouted, raising a fist as if to punch the stone wall in front of him, though he refrained from doing so out of a sudden respect for the dead.
Ray was oddly silent, his sharp gaze shifting from the wall to the broken bones and the scattered skeleton on the floor.
Without any remaining flesh to inspect, it was difficult to reconstruct the exact injuries.
Now that he had read the journal to its abrupt conclusion, he finally realized that the skeleton lying in the dirt belonged to this exact final survivor.
He glanced at Nebula for a fraction of a second, then back to the blood-stained script, shaking his head slowly.
"No. He didn’t just succumb to his wounds. He was actively killed."
Everybody turned to look at him, confusion written all over their faces.
"What do you mean ’killed’? Well, actually... he was killed by whatever lethal thing attacked them inside the Spire, right?" Van questioned, trying to follow the logic.
Ray shook his head, walked directly to the rock face, and pointed his finger at a specific, smeared sentence.
"Right here."
{... Being chased}
"From what I can deduce, even though they were severely wounded, they still possessed enough stamina to run all the way back here and write a lengthy message.
So why did they suddenly stop mid-word? It explicitly says here that they were being chased. That means whatever was hunting him caught up to him right inside this cave and finished him off before he could complete his warning."
"Bu-But what co-could have that be-been?" Nebula asked with a shaky voice as she cautiously looked around the damp cave.
Ray shrugged, his demeanor entirely unbothered.
"How do I know? All I know is that something didn’t want him to finish his warning for some reason," he replied, a subtle, smug smile playing on his lips.
"..."
"So uh... what do we do now? I don’t know about you all, but I feel strange upon reading all these. The previous expedition had seven members and they lost. We are seven... eight now," Chloe spoke after a brief, tense pause between her words.
"Exactly. The warning explicitly said we should turn back. We don’t even know how strong the previous group was.
They could have been far more powerful than our group, and yet they lost. So what’s the assurance that we can do this?" Van questioned, his hands visibly shaking in fright.
Ray glanced at his best friend, then at Chloe.
But before he could offer a reply to calm them down, Trisha cut in, her voice freezing the panic in the room.
"We are attempting the Spire tomorrow. Just because the previous group failed doesn’t mean that we will. We are different. We aren’t them, and they aren’t us. We will surely survive this."
"Ar-are you sure about that?" Nebula asked with a slight stutter, as if the whole revelation was still thoroughly spooking her.
Ray grinned, smoothly stepping back into his confident facade.
"Definitely. I have absolute faith in my group. We won’t lose, no matter the hurdle. Right, guys?"
The others thought it over for a few seconds.
Kai and Trisha gave a confident, immediate nod.
After a moment of hesitation, the rest of the group followed suit.
"Ye-yeah. We can do this."
Ray rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he stared at the blood-smeared text of the last entry, especially the final paragraph, before stating:
"Now, we don’t even know what exact threat we are going to deal with, so I don’t even know how we are going to prepare against tomorrow."
"But didn’t Nebula say that a pack of wolves would linger close to the Spire? I don’t think I heard or saw anything on our way here, though," Kai declared, his gaze narrowing in confusion as he recalled her earlier warnings.
Ray looked at Nebula for a few seconds, keeping his expression neutral, then replied to Kai.
"That should be a good thing for us, right? Or do you actively want to make our journey harder?"
Kai shrugged, letting the matter drop.
He turned around and looked at the rugged walls of the cave before looking back at the gathered group.
"So what do we do in the meantime?"
Felix thought for a few seconds, then a bright grin broke across his face.
"Let’s party."
"....?!"
"Huh?!"
The werewolf nodded enthusiastically.
"I mean it. We don’t know when the last time we will all be together like this will be. What if we reach the Spire and by some chance escape? When we return back to the Corps, we will have a mountain of duties to do. So why not do something together which we will forever use to remember this day—even in death."
The werewolf glanced at Nebula, who flashed him a small, encouraging smile, before he turned back to the others who were lost in deep thought.
"So let’s go out and hunt some wolves together, gather some firewood which we would use to roast the meat. Also, we would need some seasoning if we can find any wild herbs. We all deserve a change of taste today. We all deserve this treat. Right, guys?"
Caster nodded along instantly. "Not a bad idea."
"Mhm. Sounds nice," Chloe agreed, her previous anxiety completely vanishing.
Ray shrugged, his mind already calculating how to use this sudden development to his advantage.
"Sure. Let’s go."
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