Chapter 350. Architecture
The crisp noise of human boots crushing dry leaves echoed incessantly in the woods as Charles led his group forward with the Dark Blade in hand.
The Dark Blade tore apart every vine and bush in their way while the crew looked around vigilantly. None spoke a word, afraid that any foreign noise would attract the killing harmony from earlier.
Charles had told the mice to retreat. The mice were supposed to scout the road ahead of the group, but the mice were useless against an invisible, intangible enemy, so Charles had told them to retreat.
Just then, Lily whispered into Charles' ear, "Shouldn't we apologize to those Ropelings later once we're done here? I mean, we attacked them first, so I think we should go over to them and make amends."
"Don't think about useless things; concentrate!" Charles replied.
"But we misunderstood them, so shouldn't we go and apologize to them? I mean, we should at least say sorry, right?" Lily asked.
Amidst Lily's chattering, the group arrived before the ruins of the Foundation.
"Everyone split into multiple groups. Your objective is to find any documents, maps, or anything with recognizable markings."
At Charles' order, the crew dispersed into multiple groups of three to five people and started to explore the ruins.
Charles took Lily with him into a nearby dilapidated two-story house. The interior was as dilapidated as the outside; twisting tree roots had overrun the house and stretched across the dust-covered floor, tangling with everything in its way.
Charles looked around briefly but found zero clues. He didn't find even a single document or any recognizable markings, not to mention maps. Eventually, Charles walked out of the house and found his crew members shaking their heads at him with disappointed looks.
Charles reckoned that the remaining crew members still in the middle of their exploration had to have found zero clues as well. Just as Charles was about to say something, an exceptionally low tune echoed abruptly.
Everyone froze, and the terrified Lily hurriedly hid behind Charles' collar. The music was markedly different from before, as it sounded similar to what one would hear from a guitar.
Charles focused his keen ears on the music and found that it was moving around them. He couldn't see the intangible harmony, but it was definitely nearby.
This time, the music didn't just surround them; it even passed through them. The strange sensation sent an involuntary tremor through everyone.
A few minutes later, the harmony faded into silence as it headed east.
When they could no longer hear it, every single crew member inhaled sharply and started gasping for air as they patted their chests. The encounter just now had been so terrifying that they dared not to breathe, afraid that even the sound of their breathing would attract the ire of the killing harmony.
"That's it! That's the clue we've been looking for! Follow me!" Charles exclaimed all of a sudden and started running toward where the killing harmony had disappeared.
"Captain..." Weister gulped and stammered, "Y-y-you're heading over to—"
The other crew members decisively chased after Charles before Weister could even complete his sentence.
Charles frantically ran after the killing harmony, and he moved swiftly amidst the obstacles before him in the woods. Charles' excellent physique granted him great reflexes and flexibility to dodge and squeeze his way past the narrow gaps between bushes and the woven net of vines.
Charles didn't lose the killing harmony for even a second.
After an unknown amount of time, Charles came to a halt upon arriving at a huge clearing. The dense woods had vanished and had been replaced by three flights of stairs made out of pristine white marble.
The steps looked brand-new as if someone had been cleaning them regularly, and there was a revolving glass door at the end of the staircase. However, no one knew where the door led to.
The canopy of the nearby trees didn't allow Charles to see the true size of the building, but he knew one thing for sure: the building's minimalistic architectural style was the trademark of the Foundation.
Charles didn't approach the building. The killing harmony had disappeared into the building, so it would be extremely dangerous for him to walk into the building haphazardly, not to mention approach it.
Charles started examining the building from a distance. Soon, his exhausted crew eventually caught up to him.
"That building looks clean, Captain. Should I go over and scout it for us?" Dipp volunteered enthusiastically.
Charles shook his head. Approaching the building with no plan in mind was tantamount to suicide. Charles wasn't willing to let any of his crew walk over to the building, but he was willing to let someone observe it from up above.
With that in mind, Charles turned to Audric and said, "Audric, transform into your bat form and observe the building from above on the canopy of the nearby trees.
"Find out the size of the building and what's going on inside of it, but you must land immediately and stop moving once you hear anything strange."
The blind vampire nodded and transformed into a bat before taking to the skies.
Charles frowned. He wasn't sure if he had been hallucinating, but Audric's bat form seemed to be a bit bigger than before.
The crew stared at Audric as he took to the sky.
Charles shot a grappling hook and soon found himself standing on a tree branch with a monoscope in hand. He hadn't seen it down on the ground, but a giant tree was in the middle of the building grounds.
The tree was so big that it covered the entire building.
Just then, Charles abruptly froze. Audric had been flying perfectly, but now, he was panicking. He flapped his wings frantically and rushed to his right.
As the discordant cacophony of tunes grew louder and louder in Charles' ears, Charles became sure of it: Audric had been discovered!
The giant bat moved agilely in the air, seemingly avoiding something.
"Land and stop moving! Why are you running?!" Charles shouted anxiously. The blood dripping down Audric made Charles' heart tighten. He had to do something, or Audric would soon be torn apart in mid-air.
"The explosives! Give them to me, quick!" Charles shouted.
Weister moved quickly and hurled the explosives at Charles.
Charles snatched the explosives the size of grapefruits and shortened their wicks using the Dark Blade. He then ignited them at once and hurled them as far as possible in the opposite direction as Audric.
Boom!
A deafening explosion echoed. A few giant trees were instantly torn apart before crashing to the ground, creating more thunderous booms.
Buzz!
A discordant buzzing filled Charles' ears, and the harmony that had inundated him made him feel as though he was before a magnificent orchestra. The fallen trees in the distance were then shredded into pieces by the killing harmony, and were being torn further into finer pieces.
Charles stood still; he dared not move, afraid that he would suffer the same fate as the fallen trees. Once every single fallen tree had been reduced to mere debris, the harmony in Charles' ears gradually faded away into silence.
A bloody Audric staggered over to Weister. He bit the young man's neck and started sucking the latter's blood as if he had been starving for a long time.
"What were you doing?!" Charles jumped down the tree and asked, "I told you to stop moving if you're discovered! Why were you running?"
Audric retracted his fangs and grumbled, "I also wanted to stop moving, Captain, but as soon as my sound waves touched them, they also emitted sound waves that locked onto me.
"Staying still was no use, as they would have shredded me to pieces, anyway."
Charles frowned at Audric's revelation. Their foes were more bizarre than Charles had expected. They could produce killing harmonies, but Charles didn't expect them to be capable of using sound waves to find and track their targets.
How could they do something similar to Audric when they were without a tangible form?
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