Castrelle knelt before the Titan Centipede, digging his fingers into its flesh behind the carapace. It took a bit of force, but with the help of the rusted ancient jian, he carved a sizeable chunk of flesh from the monster.
He stared at the flesh, blood dripping down his arm, the nerves causing the crimson mass to twitch and contract intellectively. It was still lukewarm. His mind was still racing with thoughts, there was no room in his head for hesitation to emerge.
Castrelle took a bite from the flesh, vile, rotten flavours washing over his tongue. He felt a mixture of cold, anguishing pain and warm pleasure surge through his body as if he were being cut to pieces but also embraced at the same time.
It was assimilation, the process of consuming monster or Demon meat in order to grow stronger.
A window appeared in front of Castrelle as he continued to eat the meat.
[Assimilation]
[Echelon: Alpha]
[293 Monsters, 14 Demons.]
An 'echelon' was equivalent to a Reaper's rank, their innate power. The next echelon was equivalent to five Reapers of the previous echelon. As the only person to reach the Beta echelon, it went to show just how many creatures Looking Glass had killed.
Castrelle bent over, hacking and gagging as he swallowed back a large portion of the Titan Centipede flesh. Even though he had gone through the process of assimilation over three hundred times, the horrid taste was something he could never get used to.
Monster and Demon flesh could be cooked, gaining some interesting and even likeable flavours in the process. However, cooked meat lost the essence that was absorbed in the assimilation process, rendering it useless. Still, that did not mean that Reapers would never cook monster and Demon meat.
It was enjoyable to some, and due to a couple of Reapers that had been blessed with cooking-related fortes, it was the case that it could be made to taste well enough. Animals were abundant in the Titanic forest, however. There was no reason to eat Monster meat as a means of survival in Camp Deralise. It was only on scouting missions to previously undiscovered areas that a Reaper would usually find themselves hunting monsters or Demons in order to sate their appetite, where animals may be scarce away from the forest.
After the pain had abated, Castrelle sat in silence, catching his breath. Sweat collected on his brow, his tense muscles gradually relaxing. Each assimilation attempt had grown more and more painful as the count had added up.
Assimilation was explained by Looking Glass as such: The life essence of the slain Monster or Demon would be absorbed into the body of the one attempting to assimilate it. That was why they were called 'Reapers'. Their entire existence was built around killing and 'reaping'. That life essence would build up within their bodies, raw strength churning and begging for release.
When it finally reached the pinnacle, of which one would absolutely be able to tell, the Reaper would feel like they were about to explode at any moment, an agony that needed to be quenched.
At that critical moment, they would need to achieve something extraordinary.
When Looking Glass had reached that initial Zenith of the Alpha Echelon, it had been the first time a Lower Demon had been defeated.
Looking Glass had done it all on his lonesome, his bloodlust for Demons an uncontrollable motivator. He had ignored the limits of his own humanity, becoming a beast in front of his comrades. A Demon that should have been defeated by at least four people only took him.
At that time, they had witnessed the first Rebirth of a Reaper.
While the west side of Limbo was where the quarry was, and the south was where the Titanic Forest sat, the north and east were not often travelled. There were many ruin remnants outside the infinite plains there, and they were rife with crazed demons like that.
Those ruins were often the target of scouting missions from Reaper teams and volunteers.
Only a year had passed since the arrival of the first Reaper in Hell, and they still hadn't been able to find a way into Tenebris. They had to try every avenue.
They had even tried going past the boundaries of Limbo. However, no matter how long they travelled in any direction, they would always end up back at their initial point. Limbo was a looping zone, inescapable.
Castrelle stood up and wiped the blood off of the ancient sword, tucking it under his belt.
He continued walking down the crumbling quarry bridge until he reached the other edge of the ravine. He noted that the quarry continued deeper, a cavern extending far past the area of operations.
However, his intentions were never to continue deeper. His area of interest lay far below.
Castrelle walked over to one of the suspended elevator platforms hung by pulleys. There was a large iron lever on its side, and guardrails protected one from falling to their deaths far below.
Standing atop the wooden platform, he started rotating the lever to the side. It required immense force, each ounce of strength wrestling against ages of rust and decay. Slowly, the gears began to turn, and bit by bit, the pulleys began to rotate, lowering the wooden platform down towards the ravine floor.
There was a large clearing next to the stream of water in the centre of the ravine's floor. In that clearing, countless tables and chairs became illuminated by the oil lantern's faint orange glow.
Many had been destroyed, obviously in a panic, but others had been weathered by time. Countless items had been left behind, and food items had calcified in their respective containers.
On one of the many tables that had collapsed to the ground, Castrelle saw a strangely untouched wooden box lying on top. It had ornate red-and-blue markings, with silver metal trim along its edges. Its lock was also silver and had been covered and filled with bright-red wax. Besides that, it was also stained with blood. A lot of blood. It soaked deep into the wood of the box, warping the colour of its finish.
Castrelle ran his fingers over its surface, a splinter embedding itself into the skin of his fingertips. He winced, retracting his hand.
'Is this something that the Demons left behind? Why did they initially abandon this mine? Is it the same reason as to why Gremory went mad? Why is he still here, trying to uncover this place? I initially thought that he was looking for something. Is this what he could have been looking for?'
He called it professional curiosity. He needed justification for shoving it underneath his jacket. But really, he just had a curious urge to take the mysterious box. A historical mystery was definitely something he wanted to solve.
Castrelle had been without entertainment ever since they had been captured by Gremory. That curious part of him born from his prior education urged him to take the box, and so he did.
Then, he proceeded down to the riverside.
'I was initially intrigued by these lights on the surface of the water. They only lit themselves up once I lit the lantern. I wondered, why was this the case?'
He rolled up the legs of his pants, wading into the ice-cold water.
Castrelle grasped at one of the aqueous shimmering lights within the water, pain immediately surging through his palm, the water flowing with a faint crimson colour.
When he recoiled, he immediately looked towards his palm. There were thin opalescent fragments sticking out of his skin, reflecting a bright blue colour as the light of the lantern shone within.
'The crystals from the cavern ceiling? Was that all the lights were? The refractions of the lantern's light? So, when those rock fragments and debris drop from the ceiling, the crystals fall into it... but many crystals can leech toxins into the water. Is that why the flora in the crystal quarry is wilted?'
'From observation, I know that Gremory gathers the water we drink from a source a bit below the excavation site. I always note a peculiar taste…'
Out of curiosity, Castrelle retrieved the fallen crystal fragment, placing it against his tongue without hesitation. His eyes immediately widened.
'This taste! It's so distinct! So peculiar! It's definitely the taste I remember! If the water we drink has the taste of these crystals, it may be the case that the river in the ravine below leads to the source where Gremory retrieves our water! I might be able to get out of here quickly by following that route!'
His eyes widened, immediately coming to a shocking realisation. His thoughts compounded his fears, his heart skipping a beat.
'If this is the drinking water that Gremory has been giving to us, then the toxins may have something to do with our weakening state! We're slowly being poisoned!' His gaze shook, horrified. He placed a hand to his mouth, unable to control his rampaging emotions, falling to his knees in the shallow water, the urge to vomit overtaking his thoughts. Castrelle felt sick, and nauseous.
'If Looking Glass's plan ends up hinging on our cooperation, we won't be able to muster our strength! Moreover, if he takes too long, we may just die of the crystal's toxins!'
Castrelle self-inflicted a blow to his face, forcing himself to snap out of his horrified state.
"No." He whispered. "Nothing is certain. This is just speculation. The sickness and weariness we experience may just be the case that we're overworked. But I can't just withhold this information. I need to get back quickly and inform the others."
'But if that's truly the case, then it's no wonder we were never able to recover our strength fully and fight back against Gremory! If we were all to fight him together at full strength, even without weapons, we would definitely vanquish him! If this water really was poisoning us, it might have been intentional...'
'But that means it can't be the case that Gremory is looking for the Crystal quarry. If he knows that the water contains crystal fragments, then he could logically make the conclusion that the quarry is upstream. So is he really trying to repair Tenebris with unshaped rocks? Am I trying too hard to apply logic to a crazy beast?'
Castrelle let out an audible 'tsk', continuing to wade through the water.
'The future I saw… it took place in the infinite plains. If it's the case that I was present there, it must be that I was rescued, or managed to escape. That means that it can only happen after we free ourselves of this place! It means that we won't die to this poison! I have time!'