The Regressed Heir of Ravencrest

Chapter 54: A Trial of Deception

Ethan expanded his senses while maintaining the Night Sovereign Art as he moved silently through the forests east of Maple River. The cool night breeze carried the chirping of crickets, the rustling of leaves, and the occasional growl of wandering beasts hidden deep within the darkness. Several paces behind him, Rune followed without making a sound, his blue eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.

After several minutes, they finally arrived at the tree the village chiefs had described, its massive trunk standing alone near the edge of the forest...just a few miles from the neighboring village.

Ethan rested a hand against the rough bark, his fingers slowly tracing the deep grooves carved into its surface. To most hunters, the marks would have looked like nothing more than scratches left behind by a passing beast. Even Ethan had briefly considered that possibility. But the longer he examined them, the less convincing they became. The spacing between each groove was too even, while the depth remained almost identical from beginning to end.

His gaze lingered on the damaged bark for another moment before he sensed something else. A faint trace of lingering energy still clung to the tree. It resembled the Primal Force possessed by beasts which are above the realm of Dire Beasts but beneath it was another presence...something disturbingly similar to aura.

It was when Ethan tried to look for more clues...Rune suddenly nudged his leg. Rune’s ears twitched once before his nose lowered toward the ground. After taking several cautious breaths, Rune quietly slipped into the undergrowth, following a scent it detected and urged Ethan to follow him. Ethan immediately followed behind, trusting Rune’s instincts without question...Barely a minute later, Rune came to an abrupt halt beside a patch of disturbed earth hidden beneath thick shrubs.

A torn piece of cloth lay among the fallen leaves.

Ethan crouched down and picked it up, immediately noticing the dried blood staining one corner of the fabric. His attention then shifted to the ground, where several overlapping footprints had escaped whoever had attempted to conceal them. Judging from their size and spacing, there had been multiple victims rather than just one. Their uneven footsteps dug deeply into the earth in several places, revealing clear signs of resistance before disappearing altogether.

Around them were several steadier sets of footprints belonging to their captors. Unlike the victims, their strides never broke rhythm, they maintained coordination from beginning to end. Every now and then, small drops of blood stained the ground before vanishing entirely, suggesting the victims had been restrained and carried away rather than dragged. They found similar claw marks in few more areas. With Rune helping him search the area, Ethan carefully examined every trace they could find before finally concluding there was nothing else to uncover.

Without wasting any more time, the two continued toward the next settlement.

By the time they arrived, the village had long since fallen asleep. The only sounds that broke the silence were the occasional crackling of lanterns and the distant cries of nocturnal beasts echoing through the forest. Ethan and Rune quietly searched the outskirts where the disappearances had occurred. Just as before, they found scattered bloodstains, several overlapping footprints, and unmistakable signs that multiple victims had struggled before being subdued.

But there was one thing missing.

The claw marks.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He searched the surrounding trees, nearby rocks, and every place where such marks could have been left.

Nothing, he couln’t find a similar trace no matter how much he searched...

The discovery lingered in his mind as they continued their investigation.

The third village yielded much the same result. Scattered blood and signs of resistance. Yet once again, there wasn’t a single claw mark to be found. The same pattern repeated itself in the fourth village, then the fifth, each investigation reinforcing the same conclusion.

Ethan slowed to a stop, his gaze drifting toward the darkness between the trees.

The more villages they investigated, the more the first crime scene bothered him.

If beasts had truly been responsible, similar claw marks should have appeared elsewhere. Instead, they had only found them once.

Someone had wanted the first investigators to believe a beast was responsible.

That thought settled in his mind as the tried to connect the remaining pieces...until everything fell into place.

It wasn’t the beasts, that was for sure. Whoever was behind these disappearances hunted deliberately at night and moved as a coordinated group. The lingering energy left behind on those claw marks resembled the Primal Force possessed by beasts above the Dire Beast rank, yet at the same time it carried traces remarkably similar to aura. Ethan’s expression grew increasingly grim as he analysed the moments.

I hope it’s not those crazy bastards obsessed with forbidden experiments...

His pace unconsciously quickened.

I need to move fast.

Yet another thought refused to leave him.

Every village they had investigated until now had followed the same pattern. Only a handful of people disappeared from each settlement, taken alive without unnecessary bloodshed. If his suspicion was correct, then those captives were most likely being kept alive for whatever twisted experiments those lunatics intended to perform.

Then why...

’Why did something about this investigation still feel wrong?" There was a strange sense of unease building up in Ethan’s heart unknowingly...as he questioned the circumstances.

The question lingered in the back of his mind as Ethan and Rune continued toward the next village, the forest around them growing quieter with every passing minute. Soon, only the sound of their footsteps remained, swallowed by the darkness stretching endlessly ahead.

It wasn’t long before Rune came to another abrupt stop.

Rune’s ears stood rigid, his body tense as he stared into the darkness ahead. At almost the same moment, Ethan caught it as well.

Blood.

Not the faint traces they had been following throughout the night, but a thick metallic scent so overwhelming that it drowned out every other smell carried by the wind. It was fresh enough to linger heavily in the air, carried deep into the surrounding forest.

Ethan’s expression changed.

Ethan and Rune immediately broke into a sprint toward the source of the smell. The scent grew stronger as they arrived.

Moments later, the outline of Greenwich Village emerged from the darkness.

Ethan slowed to a stop.

A heavy silence hung over the entire settlement.

Homes had been reduced to blackened ruins, their wooden frames still smoldering beneath drifting ash. The streets were littered with bodies, while others remained where they had fallen inside collapsed homes or against shattered walls. Every corpse had been hollowed out, nothing left but dry skin over bone — as though something had reached in and torn apart every trace of vitality straight from their bodies.

There had to be well over a hundred of them.

It was absolute carnage.

For a long moment, Ethan simply stood there, his eyes moving slowly across the ruined village.

Every settlement before this had been surgical. A handful taken, the rest left untouched. Greenwich Village was something else entirely.

Every single person was dead.

Why...?

If those people had been abducted for experiments, there was no reason to slaughter an entire village afterward. Dead bodies were useless for most of the their research. They preferred living subjects, and the way the completely drained every single corspe is unusual. Either they are running out of time or...

...their objective behind this is something different from their usual course.

The thought lingered only for a moment before Ethan forced himself to calm down.

His gaze swept across another withered corpse before finally settling on the countless bodies scattered throughout the village.

"...It’s those bastards for sure."

"The Eclipse Conclave of the Four Great Evils." There was no trace of doubt in his voice, every instinct he possessed and his experience with them screamed it was them.

Only one of the Four Great Evils committed atrocities like these without hesitation. Fanatics who viewed human lives as nothing more than ants for their twisted experiments.

"They crossed the line the moment they emerged..."

Ethan’s eyes gradually turned cold, his fingers tightening on the hilt of the black blade resting at his waist.

"...Bastards." A trace of killing intent leaked from Ethan as he thought of them.

For several seconds, neither Ethan nor Rune moved.

Only the crackling of burning timber disturbed the stillness.

His eyes eventually settled on several overlapping footprints leading back toward the eastern forest.

Someone had passed through here only hours earlier...

Ethan crouched, brushing his fingers lightly across one of the impressions before following the trail with his eyes.

It continued east.

Straight toward the heart of the forest.

His expression gradually became resolute.

"So that’s where you went..."

Without another word, Ethan and Rune slipped silently into the darkness, following the fresh trail left behind by the Eclipse Conclave.

The trial led deeper into the forest as moonlight gradually disappeared beneath the dense canopy, leaving only a few rays filtering through the branches above...

Ethan hurried his pace...as he came across more footprints remained clearly visible in the damp earth, occassionally dissappearing beneath patches of fallen leaves.

Rune moved several steps ahead, his nose working close to the ground as he tracked the lingering scent. Every now and then he would pause for a second before moving forward. Ethan continued to use the Night Sovereign Art...after several minutes rune suddenly paused, his ears twithched, he came back to ethan and nudged his legs again, Ethan immediately understood and crouched behind him...

He expanded his senses when he heard a few voices just few hundred meters to his right, he slowly moved forward and carefully parted the surrounding bushes when several figures emerged beneath the moonlight.

Each wore long black robes that concealed their appearance beneath deep hoods, there was the unmistakeable sign of the Eclipse symbol etched on the robes visible through the moonlight glow, they are moving through the forest. Behind them walked nearly sixty captives, their hands bound tightly behind their backs with a rope.

Some struggled to remain standing, others were exhausted and were dragged forward, most of them carried several injuries across their bodies.

He could hear a black robed figure speaking...

"It’s going to start soon, we need to hurry or else master will get angry." The man said to the other hooded figure as he qucikly pushed a child who was struggling to stand.

The child struggled breifly before being forced back to his feet.

Ethan quietly followed them for another hour when the forest gradually began replacing the dense woodland, while enormous boulders covered the mountaiside ahead.

The procession continued uphill until an enormous cliff came into view.

Thick vines concealed much of the rocky surface, making it appear no different from the countless mountains scattered throughout the Northern Frontier.

Then few of the hooded figures stepped forward.

They placed their palms against the cliff.

A deep rumbling echoed through the mountainside as an enormous boulder slowly shifted aside, revealing a dark cave hidden behind it.

One after another, the captives were forced inside.

Ethan remained hidden among the trees, his eyes never leaving the entrance.

So this is where they’ve been bringing everyone...

Whatever these bastards are doing...

It was happening inside that cave.