With five days left until A'ina's condition completely deteriorated, they had more than enough time to get back. Presently, they were on horseback heading straight for the forest where Greymont and his pack resided.
They originally intended to use the main road to get back, however they decided to use the shorter way back to return faster. Also, when they attempted to follow the main road, Maeli noticed that the orcs had made a lot of changes to the location of their camps. It was safer to simply travel through the forest which had better cover.
Along the way they had few close calls with a few groups within the forest but luckily they managed to escape every time. Eventually they stopped seeing orcs altogether and had a peaceful journey going forward.
It wasn't until they made it back to the stone forest that they felt a sense of deep unease and horror, for what lay ahead of them was truly unsettling.
Craig dismounted his horse, jumping onto the ground with a dark look on his face. Ahead of him, scattered around the stones were the corpses of practically all the wolves that had been together with Greymont. They were ruthlessly slaughtered without mercy.
The smell of blood and decay filled the air with a nauseating aroma. Flies buzzed all over the place as if it were a hive of bees. The bloodstained splatter on the stones and deep claw marks on the corpses added a tell at how the massacre took place.
Maeli also dismounted from her horse and walked into the slaughtering arena. She tried her best to keep her stomach from ejecting its contents as cold sweat appeared on her forehead. "What happened here?" She tried her best to imagine what took place. Her first assumption was that it was the Red-fang Slaughter Wolf, Rakan.
Craig knelt beside the corpse of a wolf and studied the five deep gashes across its neck. There were no other wounds on its body, at least not on this side. He felt that the attacker had killed its target in a single strike. "These are claw marks. They were all attacked by the same creature." He muttered.
"Do you think it was Rakan who came back for revenge?" Maeli asked looking in his direction. Adding the claw marks and their prior conflict together, he was the most likely culprit. He had motive and reason to return and do something like this.
Craig however, didn't think this was the case. "It shouldn't be him. Look at the size and the spacing of the claw marks. Even when berserk a Red-fang Slaughter Wolf's claws aren't this large. Unless, he somehow evolved further, only then would it make sense."
He used his hunting experience and personal experience with the Red-fang Slaughter Wolf to make this analysis. Also, if it was Rakan that did this then where was Greymont. Why hadn't he been able to stop him? In their last fight he held an absolute advantage, why would another fight turn out like this?
Craig's gut told him that there was a deeper threat behind this than a simple Rakan. With deep apprehension, he moved between the corpses searching for Greymont's body among them. Yet, no matter how hard he looked he he didn't find him. 'Did he escape?' He wondered, considering the possibility that he could have fled for his life.
As he was focusing rather intently on the task of finding Greymont, he suddenly had a strange sensation that was difficult to explain. His intuition told him that there was something some distance to his left. He looked over, at a large L shaped rock near the center and walked over to it. When he arrived next to it, he picked up the faint sound of weak breathing and quickly looked behind.
"Greymont!"
Greymont was lying on his side, hanging on to whatever threads of life he had left. There was a deep claw mark across his waist and a pool of blood underneath his body. The blood had already dried to a certain extent appearing thick and coagulated.
Craig rushed over and knelt down beside him, hovering his hand over his body, unsure of what to do. "What happened here? Who did this to you? Was it Rakan?" He asked consecutively.
In a weak voice, Greymont forced to speak. "Ah, it's... you. Rakan? Ha." He chuckled weakly. "It... Wasn't him. Something... Mu-much worse than he could... ever hope to be." He whizzed as he caught his breath, intending to explain further.
"Stop. Don't speak anymore. We need to close your wound and apply medicine." Craig exclaimed with tension in his voice. Something much worse than a Red-fang Slaughter Wolf? The graveness in Craig's expression deepened in wonder.
Maeli arrived at this point and rushed over with a look of concern on her face. "Greymont? Is he okay?" She asked, gasping when she saw the wound across his waist. It wasn't just deep but also infected, festering with a black substance.
"He needs medical attention. Can you help him with magic?" Craig asked. Although he was skilled in medicine he didn't have any equipment or herbs on him at the the moment and didn't have the time to get anything. Greymont's condition had already reached a critical venture, there wasn't a lot of time before he drew his last breath.
"I can try to clean the wound but I don't have any expertise in healing magic." She replied before kneeling down and placing her hands on his ribcage. She concentrated her mana into her hands and placed it over the wound. "Can you gather herbs to make medicine?" She knew it was a long shot but she still asked.
"It's... too late." Greymont stated weakly. He had already accepted his fate. With how far his condition had deteriorated he was already beyond salvation. He had simply just been waiting to die.
"Save your strength Greymont. Don't speak, just hang in there." It was truly too late to try to gather herbs for medicine, however there was another way. Craig didn't want to use the power of the Divine Lotus as yet but he didn't have a choice at this point. If Maeli saw through his lies after this then he would just tell her the truth and hope it doesn't come back and bite him in the future.
With his hand placed on top of Greymont's upper rib cage, he closed his eyes and focused on the power of the Divine Lotus. Soon he felt a warm sensation in his heart that slowly flowed through his body and into his arms, seeping into Greymont's body.
Without a specific idea of what to do, he simply continued to pour energy into Greymont's body hoping for a healing result. He didn't yet know any special method of using the Divine power so he just resorted to the basics.
Maeli was focused on using her magic to purify the wound so she didn't notice Craig's strange behaviour. She also couldn't detect anything because the the energy of the Divine Lotus was undetectable and invisible.
As Craig was pouring energy into Greymont's body he suddenly felt a bit light headed, as if he was about to fall asleep. Then all of a sudden, his mind seemed to collapse as a series of images poured into it. It was like a clap of thunder had rumbled in his head, taking him into another world.
He seemed to have entered Greymont's mind as he witnessed a series of recent memories. Through the eyes of Greymont, he saw a battle taking place between a pack of wolves and some strange hairy beast that was standing on two legs. It looked like a wolf that had undergone a transformation to its body's structure to resemble a man. It had a long canine face, perky ears and a pair of deep blue eyes. It's upper body was broad and well built like a soldier that had underwent intense weight training. Its two thick arms extended to a palm of long sharp claws and its legs were thick and slightly bent.
Craig watched as this creature slaughtered its way through the pack of attacking wolves. Suddenly he let out a deep howl and ran towards the beast and pounced at it, engaging it battle. The two of them entered a heated showdown with the creature holding the upper hand. No matter what kind of attack Craig launched at it, it would either dodge or defend flawlessly. He circled around it continuously looking for openings to attack as the other wolves tried to distract it.
The battle went on like this for some time, wolf after wolf falling to the attacks of the strange creature. "What or who are you?" Craig heard himself shout in Greymont's voice. The creature looked at him for a moment as if it understood him. Its deep blue eyes focused on him with a bit of clarity before growing distant again and the Slaughter continued.
"Damn you!" Craig yelled as his vision grew multicoloured, and his body increased in height. Greymont must have transformed at this point into his berserk from. He pounced onto the creature again, diving toward its leg, injuring it with a deep scratch causing it to falter. Then as he skid to a stop he dived onto its back and sunk his teeth into its neck with a large bite.
The creature let out a deep howl of pain before grabbing onto Craig and ripping him away from its neck. Using its free hand, it sunk its claws deep into his body before throwing him away with great force, smashing him into a rock.
He tried to get back up but cried in pain and remained in place. He could hear the sounds of whimpering coming the creature as it cried in pain from the injuries to its neck and leg. It let out two howls of anguish before the sound of its retreating footsteps could be heard. For whatever reason, probably due to its injury it decided to leave in a hurry.
Craig was unable to stand and walk and could only lift his head to look around at the death and destruction wrought by the creature. All around were the corpses of dead wolves, some whole others ripped apart. His gaze eventually settled on the full bright moon in the sky where his attention seemed to remain for some reason. Then his vision grew darker and darker as he slowly lost consciousness.
Craig suddenly snapped back to reality, inhaling deeply as he tried to stabilise his trembling breath. His entire body was trembling as if he had just seen a terrifying monster, which, of course he had indeed just seen. He fell onto his buttocks in a daze, slowly getting a hold of his bearings.
Maeli was startled by his sudden outburst of odd behaviour. "Hey, are you okay?" She asked, bewildered.
Craig slowly calmed down, regaining control of his emotions and self. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I guess I'm still tired from everything that happened up until now." He got back on his knees, casting her an awkward glance before focusing his gaze on Greymont's wound.
Maeli had already removed majority of the infective tissue, leaving a group of four clean wounds visible. "That's the best I can do with magic. I don't think this will be enough to save his life though. He's lost a lot of blood and his aura is very weak. Without medicine or healing magic he's..." She shook her head without finishing the sentence.
Craig looked at Greymont's body and at the wound. 'Don't tell me it didn't work.' He thought anxiously. 'If so then what the hell was that experience I just had. Those were definitely Greymont's memories I just experienced. But why, how? Is that an ability of the Divine Lotus?' A series of questions flashed through his mind. 'And what was that thing that attacked them? It seemed like a wolf but also a man. A wolfman?' He suddenly held his head in agony as a searing pain cut through his forehead. "Ah, my head is killing me." He cried softly.
"You don't look fine at all." Maeli said to him, looking at his unwell complexion. He looked as if he had suddenly come down with an illness. How could that be when he was just full of energy and vigor. Could Greymont's infection have made him sick? That didn't make any sense when he hadn't even touched it. She didn't understand what was going on.
"The wound?" She Exclaimed as she looked down, preparing to search Greymont's body for anything that could make Craig sick. The four gashes on Greymont's waist were slowly healing at a steady pace. They weren't half as deep as they were a moment ago. "Now that the infection is gone, his healing ability is taking over. Is that really how fast a... Transcendent is able to recover?" She gasped in shock, not knowing that this wasn't Greymont's natural healing ability at all.
Craig let go of his head as the pain eased slightly. Looking at the healing wound he smiled in ecstasy. "It worked."