"This place has as many monsters as the number of people she has devoured, the flesh in put back together to form abhorrent creatures, animated by the broken minds of the victims, they are soulless, they only know hunger, they do not suffer from their conditions, there is nothing here to save apart from yourself" spoke the old man from the darkness of the basement, Nilrem lit the place up.
The grandfather was sitting in a coner, surrounded by the cobwebs and dust of the forsaken room.
"Don't you want to get out as well?" asked Nilrem, keeping a close eye on the man.
"Me? No... No, There is no point, I can't change her mind, I can only help her from here" the old said sinisterly before standing up, a mace in his hands.
"Come on, you'll die for sure if you try anything-" Nilrem tried to dissuade the man but he stepped forward, lifting the mace up with deceiving speed.
In the next moment however, it fell right back down with a loud clang, his forehead bloodied as a gaping whole was left in its stead.
Without a word, Nilrem looked around but there was nothing left to see, it was but a basement, it might have significance to Gluttony and her grandfather but that was it.
Had he not known, Nilrem never would have suspected that it was where the cardinal sin had first seen the light of day.
He walked back up the stairs and carefully opened the door, making sure that no craving ones were still around, he noticed the axe laying on the ground, he hadn't even thought about it when he was being attacked, prioritising magic was a habit of every mage.
He picked it back up for later usage and noticed something else that had been thrown to the ground when the monster had charged through the wall and vented its anger around.
It was a small drawing, certainly drawn by a professional of the old man and the then still human Gluttony, those weren't common, he must have paid quite a lot for this, the grandfather certainly seemed attached to his grandaughter, even now, he was willing to help her.
'This must be what they call a familial bond' he thought without any expression on his face before suddenly frowning.
He could understand why the old man had been doing this, if it was for the magus or Aeraliun, Nilrem would be willing to close his eyes on anything.
As if waiting for a cue, the sound of a boom sounded across the blood sea, Nilrem covered his ears reflexively but the sound was quickly over.
He put the drawing in his pocket as he looked for the source of it and his gaze was soon up toward the dark sky.
Falling through the air, was the entirety of the academy grounds and everything linked to it, alongside a good chunk of the earth around it as well.
The whole thing crashed into the blood sea, sending an enormous wave outward before it started floating like all the other buildings, Nilrem was frozen at the sight of it.
Everything had been devoured and it could only mean that the magus was truly dead, Nilrem had still cultivated a small seed of hope, even after he had concluded on the obvious but now it was set in stone.
The great magus's tower was there as well, the mana in the air grew even denser than before.
Nilrem was too shocked to notice the figure creeping from the basement's door behind him.
Still gripping the mace with his deathly grasp, the old man swung it with one arm at the side of the young mage's head.
The mace was violently pushed back before it could impact as it struck against a barrier.
With a quick spell, the old man was flung back by a gust of wind, Nilrem took a good look at him.
'The system confirmed his death and I didn't notice anything happening with my XP, is he an undead now?' He wondered, the grandfather didn't seem to have grown any additional mouths or anything else.
"You'll have me damned, did you raised yourself an undead through sheer will or something?" asked Nilrem but the old man had nothing to say and simply went back in to attack again.
Sending forth one vertical slash and two horizontal slashes of wind, slicing the body of the old man into six distinct pieces, finally putting him down for good.
Just to be certain, he lit the corpse and house on fire before leaving, it would serve as a distraction as well as he headed straight for the academy.
He doubted he could find a way out in a freshly consumed building but using the height of the academy, he would be able to perhaps spot something.
Climbing on the dirt and grass, he found himself before the gates of the academy, due to th strange way things floated there, the academy looked somewhat different, as if it was wavy and flowing.
He was about to step through but rushed for cover rapidly as he saw something inside, thanks to the wide open doors.
'It got there before me...' he thought, the fused abomination that had attacked him was right there, it looked around for a few moments before walking away.
He quietly went in, keeping an eye on the creature's back but it would be hard to do so, the whole place was infested with craving ones, most of them wearing academy clothes and being almost recognisable.
They had already morphed however, their mouths had shifted into dreadful maws already, they were covered in blood, they had been quick to grab snacks laying in the blood sea it appeared.
Regardless of their numbers, Nilrem sneaked in and took out those that were in the way, always making sure to not take the attention of the larger one, he didn't know how resilient he was and didn't want to risk attacking it, trying so would most likely take the attention of many others in a wide radius as well.
The few moving blurry spots also indicated that some of those invisible ones where around as well.
The back and forth inside the academy was doomed to be arduous.