"So, how did it go?" asked Peg in a curious tone. Jed sighed while massaging his throat and replied, "Bad, bad and good."
Peg noticed the finger marks on Jed's neck and asked frowningly, "…What happened?"
Jed glanced at him for a moment. "… Come with me."
….
"That f*cking a*shole. I knew it!!! Rich men and people from royal families are never to be trusted. The first moment they are some two-goody-shoes and the next, they backstab us in the back. F*ck!F*CK THEM!!"
Jed sighed and replied, "That's not the main problem here, Peg…these guys never intended to destroy the Hell-Pendant. Their objective is something else. But the fact is … that disaster is coming and other than us, no one else knows…. Gosh, I can't stop shaking from this dreadful feeling."
But Peg shook his head and replied, "No, that's not true. Little He Xiaolong still knows it and she might be able to help us."
"She won't." Jed said, "The only thing she can do is predict the future, tell us the location where an event 'might' occur or something like that. Tell me, what and how can she help us in this situation when we already know the damn place of the occurrence. Moreover… this is the first time her information has been incorrect. So …. I'm not too sure …"
"What?!!" Peg cried surprised, "Are you telling me that because of some bullsh*t guys from god-knows-where royalty, you're gonna stop believing your own sister. And don't forget, it was you, who accepted the mission."
Jed rolled his eyes and replied, "P.S., I won't trust her BLINDLY anymore, 'kay. Man, next time I'm gonna do all the research by myself before taking a bada*s quest like this. And oh! She isn't my REAL sister and lastly, the quest has been a lot profitable. When have you seen someone throw 10 Golds at someone like us for no goddamn reason. Now, get ready. We better move out fast and at least try to destroy one of these altars.I guess that will do the work."
"You still going to believe them?" asked Peg. Jed stopped for a while and though to himself, should he?
But he didn't have a choice either. He Xiaolong never mentioned anything about how to destroy these f*cking altars of Hell. He smiled tiredly and replied, "Got no choice. After all, it was me who hurried on the research."
…
Jed returned to the camp and found that all the expeditionary squads were moving out into the forests. Surprised, he asked the Guild-appointed supervisor and was informed that the teams were already set. He was late.
Jed was late to the assignment and thus he was tasked to take the northward-most point, the farthest point from the City and with no teams too. Dejected, Jed and Peg immediately moved out after doing a round-up check on their equipments and apparels.
…
Bzzzbzzzbzzzbzzzbzzzbzzz
Bzzzbzzzbzzz
Bzzzbzzzbzzzbzzz
Piiiipiiiibzzzbzzz
The entire Black Lions' Forest was buzzing with insects and flies and a strange, weird and strong foul smell was spread all over. The smell was at first mild, just like the scent of Earth, but after 25 or so minutes, it became extraordinarily foul and nerve-wrecking. Jed and Peg were forced to stop, take a breather and wrap thick wet cloths around their mouths before being able to continue. The wetness of the cloths prevented the foul smell, but it was still present and ever more so was increasing at a tremendous rate.
After an hour and half, Jed and Peg had nearly covered a distance of 14 km and were at the edge of the Black Lions' Gorge. Up until now, they had to take a large detour because going through the middle portion was too hard, dangerous and was also forbidden by Sean and Herald. They didn't want to clash with these two powerhouses for now. After taking a ten minutes breather and having a light brunch from the leftover dinner, Jed had saved some, they moved on toward the northmost point of the big inverted circle. Everything was going fine for them with the foul smell increasing and the insects buzzing on and on, but right then, they observed a flicker of orange light.
A torch
…
"Look Jed, a torch!!" cried Peg as he noticed a small flicker of orange light. Jed too noticed it and without wasting a single moment, they dashed towards it. A torch in this place can only mean humans, humans from the expeditionary party and since all of them could be potential allies in this quest, he was ready to save some of them. And as he did so, he took out his Wendigo too and loaded it with its 6th bullet.
Ka-chang!
Jed readied his Wendigo and jumped from the forage into the light and was surprised for a moment.
Before him was indeed another squad from the expeditionary party and the party leader was none other than Gross.
Dear old grossy Gross.
And along with him was his little daughter, Chris and a few other adventurers he didn't knew of but they weren't alone. They had a cloud of buzzing insects trying to surround them and a few zombie-like creatures attacking them. A spark ran through Jed's brain and in a jiffy, his Wendigo was pointed at the huge cloud and
Bang!
Sssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
With a large sizzling sound and a bright white light, a seeminglysmall ball of white flare shot into the cloud. The insects were bewildered for a moment but the next moment, they dispersed like flies. Bright light was the natural nemesis of all nocturnal monsters, especially for monsters from Hell and other Demonic creatures. Other than dispersing the insects, the flare also caught the attention of the squad and the zombie-like creatures.
"Jed!!!!" cried Gross in ecstasy but it was soon drowned in the shouts of the zombie-like creature.
Graaa!!
Gaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
Gaguaaaaaaa!!
The three zombie-like creatures, with their dandy humanoid figure, wrinkled-up and melting skin and dark-green eyes, jumped at Jed with their sharp talon like hands but Jed had already predicted it. He immediately pointed his Wendigo at the creatures and—
Ka-chang!
Bang!
Ka-chang!
Bang!
Ka-chang!!
Jed fired two shots, first of which directly entered the wide mouth of one of the zombie-like being. The flare shot burst off in white flames and the other one, fell right infront of the other two, stopping them in their tracks. The zombie which was hit directly in his mouth, screamed for a bit as his head was engulfed in copious amount of salt, gunpowder and flames and sucked all the life juice out of him. His lifeless body fell to one side, alerting the other two that Jed wasn't as ignorant as the other humans they were playing with.
The two Hell Spawns instinctively backed off from the area covered in bright light and headed towards the more darker region. Jed too followed them and closed his distance towards the squad.
The squad looked astonished at Jed the entire moment. Jed neared them and asked Gross, "What the f*ck are you guys doing here?!!"
Gross, who had a look of ecstasy, said "Jed, that was awesome!! What are those shells?! How come have I not heard of them?!!"
Jed rolled his eyes and shouted louder, "STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS AND TELL ME WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!!!!"
"U-uh—that!" Gross pointed foolishly towards the thing which Jed was searching for so long. The Altar of Hell. A smile flashed on his face but then it was soon dissuaded into a more serious expression.
"Why didn't you tell that to me first!!" he spurted and dashed towards it.
The Altar of Hell was a tall altar of about 1m in length and had the same red-green gooey liquid spread equally all over it which the Rank 1 Hell insects secretes. The only difference was that this liquid was nearly solid, with a jelly-like texture. He frowned for a moment but then he inserted his hand into the liquid. The layer of the red-green liquid-turned-jelly was too thick, almost 30cm thick. His hands penetrated 15cm into the red-green jelly but then it stopped completely. Jed had to exert more force to get it out now. Right then, Peg barked and warned him.
"Dude, the three-minute time limit."
"Here!!" Jed immediately threw one of his flare sticks at Peg. Peg, like a pro military dog, caught it with his mouth and rubbed the front part with the rough ground.
Sissssszzzzzllle!!!!
A strong sizzling sound and a bright light, very similar to the flare shell erupted out and brightened the diming light.
"Jed, can you tell me what the hell is going on?!!" cried Gross, fear clearly marked in his voice.
"Doom!" replied Jed and then looked at him angrily, "Don't just stand there, fatty, help me! Argh!!!" Jed pulled his hands to no avail. Gross stammered a bit but then dashed towards Jed to help him. With the help of a professional sumo wrestler, Jed's hand was finally pulled out from the thick jelly liquid. Without snapping it.
"God!!" Jed cried in disgust. He looked at his hand and found it to be covered in the liquid and with small worms and bugs. He checked it more closely and found it to be larvae of these Rank 1 Hell insects. Disgust flared all across his face.
"Peg, we have a situation here. This liquid is the cushion material for the larvae of the Rank 1 Hell insects. This place is the breeding ground of the insects."
"Are you sure?" he asked with a hint of uncertainty, "If that is true, then I think we got a solution to this thick jelly."
Jed smiled miserably and answered, "I think you've the same thing in your mind which I have. Hmm?"
"Salt!"
"Gods be damned! Get the supplies. I have 2kg of rocksalt there."
"Aye! Aye!" Peg cried and dashed towards the supply bag.
Right then, Gross clutched his shoulder and asked, with a serious tone, "Jed, what the hell is going on? How come these insects have become man-eating? Sean and Herald clearly said that they were simple Hell Spawns, mindless and 'fraid of the dark. And what the hell are you talking about Hell Insects?"
Jed rolled his eyes and replied, "Gross, if you can't even deduce this, you shouldn't be an adventurer anymore. It's simple that those guys have lied to us. These insects aren't Hell Spawns. They are Hell Summons."
"WHAT!!!" He cried in surprise. Jed's sentence caught the attention of even the most injured adventurer in the squad. Gross frowned and asked, "A-are you s-saying that these puny l-little insects are H-Hell S-Summons. The sentient ones?"
Jed nodded. "Or else why would they try to surround you instead of going for your flesh. These guys are hella intelligent and FYI, this is the first time I'm facing them, so, even I don't even have an inkling of what they can do or not. Merry, isn't it?!"
"I said so!!" shouted Chris from the side, but her voice was clearly ignored for now.
Gross made an angry face and replied, "This is not funny, Jed."
But Jed didn't even bat an eye. "Can't do anything, Gross. I do my research before coming and not all of them give me satisfactory results. But…" he smiled and continued, "As it happens to be, I do know the way of getting us out of this situation."
"How?!!" cried Gross and all the other squad members excitedly. Jed was surprised for a moment but then he replied, "Just like how Sean said. Break the altar."
"If those guys have lied to us once, why are you still trusting their words?" asked one of the squad members. He looked young and had a look of criticism on his face. Jed sighed and replied, "Because I've no other choice and because that is the only thing mentioned in the books. Now, can you guys please help me with this stuff."
"'Kay!" replied all of them one by one.
…
Peg brought the salt bags after a minute or so and soon, the entire squad started getting ready. All the members, except Chris, took part in separating the jelly. As for Chris, her job was to hold the flare stick sky high with Peg, who had two spare flare sticks in case of emergency.
Gross started the act with inserting both his hands into the thick gooey jelly, followed by the rest of the squad, all of them trying to widen the gap. Their hands were caked with rocksalt and to their relief, it worked. The gooey jelly when it came in contact with the salt, burnt like paper and gave way for a wider gap. Jed followed their hands as he sprinkled salt on them and at the edges.
Sssssiii!!
Riiiipp!!!!!
With a sizzling and ripping sound, the front part of gooey liquid tore apart, letting Jed and his squad see the real face of the altar.
….