As the werewolf howled, the glass windows of the palace broke but were instantaneously restored. Then from below the staircase or behind it, a sabretooth chimera emerged from the shadows with 3 heads of a sabretooth and a tail with the head of a snake. Unlike conventional chimeras with wings, this one was different. It had 2 more hands emerging from its back as if to hold something.
I knew I could fight both of these guys but not while protecting Joyle and chreshield. Then suddenly a low frequency whistle blew across the palace and the blood swords I had made started to break down. To not waste it, I redirected it with great effort back to the battery because the whistle was disrupting my senses but not just mine, it seemed to have a greater effect on the werewolf and chimera. Then suddenly a man in his 20s, with a beard with hair all over his face as if he hadn't shaved. His dress was raggedy and torn at places yet his eyes screamed with vigor. He pulled us behind a pillar where a set of staircases led to an underground system of tunnels. The intricacy of these paths was almost marvelous if not for the unbearable stench lingering around.
We followed him down, as he said "there were people other than me here? I never knew that. But for now, follow me because its not safe yet."
I stopped everyone "wait who are you and why should we follow you anyway?" his face made the expression of 'are you an idiot' but he said "I'm Woden, the last Pancratian alive. Everyone else is dead. It's been exactly 16 years since I last saw someone other than me on this land and I was close to thinking I was gonna die before losing my damn virginity".
That was a weird thing to be worried about but the battlefield always held surprises. "Those damn things on the surface are strong. They're servants of the necromancer residing inside those castle walls ever since the attack of the dragon. All my friends, family, my mother and father, everything was razed by that fucking dragon but it died after that necromancer appeared here."
"Even though the dragon was killed, it came at a price. Everyone except me were used as a sacrifice to do so."
I could feel his fear and anger rising so I said "well, lead the way. You seem to know these paths like the back of your hand and it might be better to catch rest before the sun dies down. And I need more information to progress further."
He gave me a sarcastic smile and said "follow me then, I'll take you to my special hideout." And we did so. The sewers were riddled with traps. Why would the sewers even need traps I wondered and that question was answered. The undead roamed not just the surface but also underground and these traps kept them at bay. Necromancers gained power under the moonlight through their connection to the other side. But something kept bugging at me, that werewolf and chimera held a familiar energy trail.
Then after a bundle of traps and skipping some stones, we finally reached a huge cave enough for a family of 5 to live. There were 5 rooms with 3 leading to bedrooms and 1 being the kitchen while the last one was a smithy which was by far the oddest thing in the room excluding the room itself being underground.
The Pancratian were by far the most skeptic of the forge and most never even carried weapons fighting mostly with their fist excepts those with weapons gifted by the dragons or other divine beings. These people had a long-born rivalry against the blacksmith's kingdom of dwarves 'deuce X machina'. The kingdom used to be elusive and made the some of the best weapons in athanasia.
He first led us to our rooms, me and Joyle decided to stay on the uppermost room whereas chreshield took the one away from the smithy. Woden went to his room and then came back with a bunch of metallic items and threw them in the forge.
Then he came back and said "get some rest and then when this clock rings three times come to this hall as I've got a lot to talk about". He went away skipping and talking to himself into the forge.
I found that weird yet I couldn't keep that weird feeling away that I'd met the chimera and werewolf before on the battlefield. I used my eon energy to check out my brain nerves about the time I met the pancratia on the battle field yet it seems to have been edited.
Something felt wrong but I put Joyle to bed after singing her a lullaby I had to extract from Fallenhyde's memory. Then I sat on the sofa which was also made from metal but unlike the bed this didn't have anything soft to cushion it. I held out the memory crystal which was remade it its pure form by Burnhaven.
I didn't know if this was the right time to do it but any form of memory I had lost and any information was crucial to me.
I put the crystal in my mouth and bit it, it was crunchy like a cracker and tasteless like rocks. Then suddenly a rush came to my brain as I fainted.
Wait I hadn't fainted, these were glimpses of a memory I was unfamiliar with. First, I saw a lady in a patient's clothes feeding a baby with a bottle of a milk. Then as she looked up, she saw me. I asked her who she was and all she said was "oh". She knew who I was and so did I yet I couldn't make out her name.
Then suddenly it pushed me aside where I saw my brother Roy, he was writhing with pain on the ground as his fiancée or my sister-in-law to be stood there laughing with a wide grin across her face, when a man came in and kissed her as they made love on the bed while my brother screamed out in pain. I could only make out a single name 'warden'.
That was the name of a family tasked with protecting the king yet I knew what I was going on here. My brother was betrayed by the warden and his fiancée. I should've felt anger yet I felt pity instead.
Then I got pulled aside again and this time, I saw my brother chained up in a containment cell. Then the doors opened as she came in, he woke up and tried to bite her like a rabid dog, his eyes showed no life. Then she caught him by the throat as he had no energy to fight her after being starved. She took a small glowing orb and then plunged it into his heart with blood flowing down her hands as she whispered in his ear "wake up my dear". His hands and legs were spread apart as something broke through his back, wings I'd say but I was pulled aside again.
This time what I saw wasn't a memory but Joyle's face instead. She seemed older than she is now. A teenage Joyle yet her face screamed anger. I didn't know what this was, a premonition or a memory. The world was ablaze quite literally. Some places were frozen and others were broken to pieces by huge pieces of metal. Another piece of land seemed to have been overflowing with mana beasts of different kinds, while another area had beast men from the great beast clan pillaging the land. It seemed ominous yet nearby.
Then I fainted once more but this time I got no memory flashbacks or future backs things.