Due to the gray moon, this period in the world within the gate knew no distinction between day and night. Even so, once the hour reached what corresponded to "nightfall," Karen arranged watch shifts and ordered everyone to rest.
Karen took the first shift himself. Sitting alone atop a boulder, he rested the Sword of Arius upright at his side.
What a shame. Had Mr. Bede and Piaget come here, the environment would surely have thrilled them and sparked immense creative inspiration.
To his own eyes, however, once the initial novelty wore off, the world had already begun to trend toward dullness and monotony.
It was much like his own palate. On the surface, he was willing to taste anything, but his specific tastes had long since set into deep imprints that could never truly change.
Perhaps, deep in his bones, he lacked that romantic streak common to artists.
He picked up a bamboo shoot and took a bite. Sweet juice flooded his mouth; the intake of sugar brought a subtle pleasure to body and mind.
Karen leaned back slightly, turning his head to look down at the village beneath the slope. Quiet had settled over it, and the lands beyond were steeped in desolation.
Right then, Karen caught a peculiar presence. It originated deep beneath the earth ahead, moving toward him at high speed!
Karen did not move an inch, his breathing cadence not altering in the slightest. He merely rested his fingers quietly on the hilt of his sword.
One thing was certain: he no longer had to hold back with tied hands and feet as he had during the final selection or classes at the training base. With the gate shut, he enjoyed absolute freedom in this realm.
The presence reached fifty meters from him.
Karen calculated the odds of success in his mind. Since the intruder was creeping forward stealthily, there was no question of being outmatched; the essential objective was capturing the target alive.
Fifty meters was not safe enough.
Forty meters...
Thirty meters...
Twenty-five meters...
All right, no need to be too greedy.
Karen made his move.
The luster of Order rippled in his left eye. Clad in the blackened Sea God's Armor and empowered by the Dark Moon Blade, Karen shot forward alongside his sword toward that spot.
*Hum!*
The Sword of Arius plunged into the ground. Both of his eyes instantly turned crimson as the Eyes of the Dark Moon further empowered the Dark Moon Blade. Centered on Karen, a circle ten meters in radius formed. Dazzling beams of red light burst from beneath his feet, and the earth collapsed along with it.
Karen shifted his stance, holding the sword firmly in his right hand while his left swept repeatedly.
Eight Guardian Walls slammed down in an instant to seal the perimeter. Three Order Cages plunged into the pit like fishing nets cast into a river.
Finally, when one of the Order Cages rose, a young girl was trapped within. A single horn projected from her forehead. One hand clenched a dagger, and the other gripped a black poison sac already billowing with toxic fumes.
Numerous puncture wounds pierced her body, and she was already completely unconscious.
The commotion of Karen's strike naturally roused the entire squad. Everyone grabbed their weapons and hurried to assemble.
"Ashley, bind her! Blanche, heal and interrogate her!
"Bart, Mars, escort them back to the meadow. Mars, set up a defensive formation!
"Ventura, charge forward with me!"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Yes, Captain!"
Though they had not yet had time to interrogate the girl, her appearance and actions made it hard not to suspect she was merely a scout. Moving the core of the team away immediately was paramount.
At the same time, to scout ahead and secure their forward vision, Karen chose to push farther out with Ventura.
Neo had taught him that under any circumstances, commanding awareness of the surrounding environment was a team leader's greatest duty toward squad safety.
Ventura's frame swiftly expanded to colossal proportions. He bolted ahead, terrified of falling behind his captain.
Karen kept pace behind Ventura, the Key to the Rubik's Cube spinning rapidly inside his left cuff, calculating the surroundings. He had realized a detail he had previously overlooked: all beings in this world were soul entities, and their methods of concealment differed drastically from those in the world outside the gate.
Soon enough, Karen spotted an irregularity. The shadow cast upon the vegetation by the gray moonlight was skewed.
"Ventura, three o'clock, charge!"
"Yes, Captain!"
With a low roar, Ventura dashed toward that spot with all his might, his massive crystalline body resembling an enormous tank.
When Ventura slammed into the position, something shattered like a mirror, followed by two black vines shooting out to wrap around his shins.
"Fire of Order!"
Ventura was not tripped up by the snare. He channeled the Fire of Order to ignite himself, instantly burning through the two black vines. Noticing the angle his captain was cutting in from behind him, he threw his massive body toward the opposite flank to deflect the threat on that side for Karen.
*Bang!*
A bald man clad in animal skins had just prepared to charge when he saw Ventura crashing straight toward him. A giant fist swung into him, instantly snapping his right arm before Ventura pinned him flat to the ground.
In truth, when Ventura threw himself, the surrounding illusion had not yet fully shattered, so he had had no idea if anyone was even there. But having successfully pinned a target, his colossal frame reacted at once. Spreading his limbs, he pinned the man beneath him, threw his head back, opened his jaws, and bit straight into the bald man's chest.
*Rip!*
With a sharp sound, Ventura tore off a huge chunk of meat, only to spit it out an instant later.
Had it been flesh and blood, far from minding, it would have provoked a deeper savagery within him. But the moment this meat entered his mouth, it tasted overwhelmingly sour and astringent, as if he had swallowed a watermelon-sized lemon stuffed with an ungodly amount of wasabi.
The chunk torn from the bald man's chest rapidly reconstituted, but his body turned noticeably fainter than before, and his resisting strength weakened accordingly. Clearly, he was a special soul entity unique to the world within the gate.
Yet even if biting with his teeth was off the table, Ventura was not without other options.
While his captain always self-deprecatingly claimed to favor brute force, Ventura was the true embodiment of simple and brutal violence.
He raised his head, inhaled deeply, and smashed it straight down against the bald man's head!
*Crack!*
The bald man's head burst like a watermelon smashed against a boulder.
Yet when Ventura lifted his head again, the man's head restored itself, though his body grew even fainter.
Ventura slammed his head down once more!
*Crack!*
The bald man's head shattered again, only to reform once more.
*Crack!*
This time, the head did not reform. His body had reached its breaking point and dispersed directly into nothingness.
The most effective way to deal with soul entities was usually corresponding spells, but if one's physical attributes were high enough, they could completely bridge the gap through sheer force.
Ventura pounded his chest with both fists. Eyes tinged with red, he rose to his feet once more, scanning the perimeter for new targets.
The rampaging behemoth before them bore no resemblance to the well-behaved boy who diligently scrubbed the bathtub for his captain every night.
Karen, upon cutting into the fray, faced a woman with hair reaching down to the ground. The Sword of Arius slashed straight at her.
The woman retreated rapidly. As she fell back, two short-haired women closed in on Karen. Their appearances were nearly identical, the only difference being their reversed accessories; they were evidently twins.
Just as Karen prepared to sweep them away with his sword, a psychic storm burst from their eyes to assail his consciousness. Karen shut his eyes at once.
The woman with ground-length hair closed the distance in a flash, her hair lengthening further into countless black vines that opened like carnivorous blossoms, seeking to engulf Karen in one gulp.
With his eyes still closed, Karen raised his left hand, aiming his palm at the dark hair swirling rapidly toward him.
"Radiant Incineration."
A ball of holy flame flared in Karen's palm and shot straight into the vortex of black hair. The moment it sank in, the long-haired woman froze, and the flared black hair wrapped violently back around her.
Soon, she opened her mouth to say something, but a burst of white flame erupted from her throat. Flames then poured from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, while her long hair caught fire like a stack of dry straw.
Light-attribute power was one of the most effective means against soul entities, especially when she had swallowed it whole without defense—equivalent to an ordinary person chugging a huge jug of lethal poison.
The sight terrified the twin girls. They began retreating in a panic, desperate to flee, but Karen was faster. Catching up, a swing of the Sword of Arius severed one girl at the waist, followed by a flick of the blade that skewered the other.
Karen did not consider himself ruthless. The moment the first scout had appeared clutching a poison sac, their mutual hostility was set in stone.
Had his vigilance not detected her in advance, and had she slipped past the watch to poison everyone while they rested, they might not have died, but they would likely have ended up bound together like livestock to be sold off.
Only a short man remained. He had originally intended to join the fray to help his comrades take Karen down first, but seeing Karen dispatch three of his companions with ruthless efficiency—including the captain of their bounty squad—he was utterly stunned.
Snapping back to his senses, he turned to flee, only to slam face-first into Ventura's hard chest. Ventura opened his arms wide and wrapped him in a bear hug.
*Creak, crunch...*
The sounds of friction and crushing pressure ground on continuously.
Having gained experience, Ventura now understood the most effortless way to deal with soul entities: rather than delivering heavy blows again and again, it was far easier to squeeze them until they burst.
*Pop!*
The man collapsed into nothingness under Ventura's embrace.
Ventura flicked out his tongue and raised both arms. Having killed two enemies in a row, even if they were soul entities, they were still lives; the thrill of the slaughter stimulated his brain, working him into a state of intense excitement.
He had rarely killed anyone before. Prior to entering the selection, he had been a student at a church academy, earning his spot in the selection only because the headmaster appreciated him and recommended him.
Yet a darker side had always lurked deep within the boy's heart. He had suffered terribly from pollution in his childhood, and throughout his upbringing, he had endured immense injustice and discrimination because of it. He had managed to maintain an ordinary demeanor partly due to the stubborn resilience in his bones, but more importantly because he had successfully repressed all his negative emotions into another "self" inside him.
That was his savage, ferocious side.
Karen walked up to Ventura and gazed at him calmly.
Ventura let out a roar at Karen.
Karen continued to look at him quietly.
Gradually, the roar grew weaker, lower, softer, and more timid.
Finally, Ventura reverted to his youthful appearance and scratched his head nervously at Karen.
"Captain, I think I got a little too excited just now."
"Once we get back from this, I'll give you some psychological counseling."
Karen had truly never noticed this fellow's psychological issues before. He was young now; as he grew older, problems in this area would only worsen, potentially leading him to lose himself entirely.
"All right, thank you, Captain."
Ventura began gathering their belongings. When the souls died, their bodies had vanished, but their clothes and weapons remained on the ground. Ventura scooped them all into his arms.
In this regard, he had already mastered the craft.
With the situation resolved, Karen led Ventura back. The villagers had also been stirred by the commotion at the village entrance earlier. The village elder was leading the villagers in search of the Auspice Lords. Karen showed himself to meet the elder and explained what had occurred.
Glancing at the gear in Ventura's arms, the elder instantly cursed, "Curse them, bounty hunters!"
Through the old man's explanation, Karen finally learned what kind of group they had encountered: a squad of bounty hunters.
Ordinarily, they took on quests in large cities to earn commissions. But whenever the Gate of Samsara opened every ten years, bounty hunter squads immediately fanned out toward altars everywhere.
Beneath every altar lay either a village, a town, or a large city; in short, some clan lived there, depending somewhat on heaven for sustenance.
If Tagima Village was likened to an agency, then the bounty hunter squads were predatory black brokers.
They would either poach clients, snatching the local residents' commissions, or simply kidnap the "Auspice Lords" to sell them off.
What Karen had encountered tonight was clearly the latter. The other side had intended to "hunt" them through an ambush, but unfortunately for them, they had overestimated their strength and were wiped out in a counterattack.
"Will other bounty hunter squads show up?"
This was Karen's primary concern, as he still needed to wait here for at least twelve hours for Muri's squad to rendezvous with him.
"No, my lord. Because our location is remote, and the altar where the other squad of Auspice Lords descended is also close by and remote, very few bounty hunter squads are assigned out here, and their strength is generally weak. I believe this was the only squad that would come to investigate recently."
It was like scratching lottery tickets. Areas with high odds were monopolized by superior, more numerous bounty squads, while areas with abysmal odds—like the desolate altar the elder mentioned, where no Auspice Lord had appeared since his grandfather's generation—drew only small, uncompetitive teams willing to make the trip.
They had probably traveled here with little hope to begin with. Yet the lower their expectations, the more reckless they became the moment they realized from the villagers' bizarre behavior that they had hit the jackpot.
Karen had initially intended to instruct the village elder to rein in the villagers, but realizing they still needed them to dig bamboo shoots, stopping such odd behavior was virtually impossible. He could only drop the matter.
Returning to the edge of the meadow, Mars had already set up the defensive formation.
"Captain, she couldn't be saved," Blanche said with deep remorse.
Ashley pointed at the items on the ground. "Her body dissolved completely upon death, leaving only her clothes."
"Blanche, it's not your fault."
Karen consoled Blanche. It truly was not her doing; the issue lay in him striking too heavily at the outset.
"Bart, go scout the perimeter near the village covertly."
"Yes, Captain."
Bart left the meadow at once and headed down.
Ventura sat down and dumped the scavenged spoils onto the ground.
Ashley and Mars leaned in to inspect and appraise the loot alongside him. The conclusion they finally reached was... these were magical tools crafted from crude materials. While they could be sold for point coupons outside, their value was low; the entire pile was hardly worth snagging two extra cartons of cigarettes from the training base hotel.
Ventura stuffed the items into his pack anyway. He was not afraid of heavy loads, and besides—two cartons of cigarettes was still two cartons!
***
Deep within a mire, a three-headed giant serpent raised its heads toward the southwest.
The three serpent heads opened their jaws, revealing three human heads within.
Two men and one woman. The two male heads were enormous, one bearing a savage expression and the other a crafty gaze. The female head in the center was tiny, almost disproportionately small compared to the heads on either side. Her eyes were closed, completely lifeless. Her features matched Furnites from the mural exactly.
"Brother, do you feel it?"
"I feel it, Brother."
"We've lured them in. We can leave now, heh heh."
"Yes, Brother was farsighted after all. Our efforts to nourish this woman for so long weren't in vain, preserving her last shred of vitality so she wouldn't disperse."
"I knew they would come to fetch her."
"But Brother, once we go out, how will we face the Church of Order?"
"How else? We *are* her. We are all Furnites!"
***
In a magma-filled cavern, a black lion climbed out from the churning lava, shaking its mane as sparks flew in all directions.
It gazed toward the southwest, sinking into deep contemplation.
"I am Gaitanbert... I praise the God of Order..."
*Crack!*
A leather whip suddenly materialized, lashing heavily across the lion's body. The lion curled up instantly, the imposing aura it had displayed moments before vanishing entirely, replaced only by cowering fear.
The figure of a woman appeared in the cavern. Had Karen been present, he would have noticed her striking resemblance to Romir, the Church of Samsara gatekeeper who had once rescued Peide from his hands.
The woman stared at the lion with cold eyes and asked,
"Say it again. Who are you?"
The lion replied at once,
"I am Gaitanbert Simosen... I praise the God of Samsara..."
Chapter 355