As they go deeper and deeper to the narrow pathway, Lloyd could see strange writings and paintings on the walls. In the first painting they had seen, a group of people was bowing down to entities that shone brightly.
Below it, ancient scripts were written that described the actions of those people. Even though he didn't know how to read them, the soul tree system had a function that allowed them to translate all kinds of languages they could find into the ones they mainly use.
'The people of Vyris have worshipped the gods in the past. The gods loved them so much that they gave their blessings to them and their civilization had flourished greatly.'
On the next one, there were eight people standing before the gods. He read the runes and it said that the gods had bestowed these eight the lineage of gods, which made them a lesser deity in order to lead the humans.
As they moved through the third painting, they saw a familiar-looking weapon and coat along with six other equipment which were the ones forged by a master artificer to aid them on their journey. That weapon and coat was none other than the Dawnbringer's Radiant Cloak and the Dawnbringer's Cinderblade.
The cohort of the champions of the human race was named Dawnbringer, which meant 'the morning star'. They were the hope of humanity blessed by the gods in order to fight the hellspawns born from the malice of the evil god.
It looked like the hellspawns had already existed since the ancient times; ancient if this was actually the world where they lived in. Lloyd had doubts as to whether there was only the real world, or there are others aside from theirs.
He remembered that in the description of the Vase of the Endless Spring, there was something written there that mentioned the higher planes. What kind of plane did it mention? He didn't have knowledge about it and he knew a little bit about the world in the first place. All he ever did was just work hard in order to survive and have something to eat by the end of the day. He swore to himself that he would do more digging of knowledge in the library once he gets out of this messy trial.
They kept on walking and encountered more paintings. However, the scene was quite different. It was also blurred from the aging of the walls after being left unattended for a very long time. The words were unreadable anymore. In the fourth painting, a dark deity was standing before the eight champions and they have fought it, only for them to be wiped out and manipulated by the evil god.
On the fifth one, they returned to Vyris and spread a vile knowledge that had an erased description, which infected the humans without knowing and turned them into practicing the forbidden knowledge.
On the last picture, the God of Flames who was responsible for the land of Vyris, angrily unleashed his flames and burned the humans and the champions who rebelled, cursing them to burn for eternity. They would rise from the pits of the hellish flames when the sun is at its peak, driven mad by intense hunger, thirst, and suffering. They would come back to hell once the sun goes down.
It made his scalp tingle as he was creeped out by the terrible history that he had learned about the origins of the Vyris Deadlands. What on earth did they practice? On the description of the Dawnbringer's Cinderblade, it was only mentioned as an abominable witchcraft, but it didn't seem to be that simple at all.
"I wonder what kind of vile knowledge did the evil god give to these champions?" Klaudia asked with curiosity in her voice. The others weren't too enthusiastic in learning histories, so they just listened while they continued to move forward.
"So, you have read them too, huh? I didn't even know that there was an evil god. I thought all gods were all kind deities." Lloyd replied.
"Kind? I bet you mean they are selfish and ruthless. I mean, with how the humanity almost went extinct, they shouldn't be so kind, right?" Ray said with great disagreement.
"Who knows? Maybe something happened to them which made them unable to help?"
"Look here, Lloyd. What kind of gods are they if they could be hindered by another existence? They were called gods for a reason which is that they are the pinnacle of everything."
Lloyd looked at Ray in a funny way. He was just imitating the way a teacher spoke just now, but for him, he felt like Ray was more of a servant with a blind faith to the god's powers rather than a person who knows it all. He had an urge to snicker, but he didn't want to spoil the good guy's mood. All he could do is just nod and pretend to accept his logic.
"Still, the fact that hellspawns had already existed since a long time ago is shocking. And it was also stated that there were other realms aside from our world." Klaudia once again spoke.
"Yeah. If there were other worlds, then does that mean we were sent to a ruined world by the trials?" Shane had now joined in the conversation.
He paused and then added:
"I remember the professor was looking weird when saw the portal was glowing red during that time at the halls of the academy before we entered the trials."
"That's…" Lloyd hesitated from voicing out what he had noticed that time. But nothing would do good by hiding such things to them. And it also seemed that they had already realized that something was off during the trial ceremony.
He then continued what he had said.
"I have noticed that one too. I heard the monotonous voice saying about a crimson wasteland when the blinding white light had obstructed our vision. Doesn't this world fit the term 'crimson wasteland'? Everything we had encountered were all glowing an eerie, crimson light. I don't even have to mention that empty land that was bathed with magma and dead zombies are rising from its fiery pits."
"You are right." Klaudia agreed with him. Once again, there was silence in the pathway. They ran out of ideas and thinking about those things which were beyond the capability of their mundane brains would only make them go crazy.
Then Lloyd felt something was strange just now. He remembered that Klaudia had used her ability just after they entered the crypt so she shouldn't be able to see right now.
'What on heaven's name?' This question formed inside his mind but he didn't want to force the girl to answer his questions so he just kept it to himself. Maybe he will ask her later about how she managed to see the painting and read the ancient scripts. Nevertheless, he was growing a little wary of her.
After an hour of walking, the narrow pathway had ended and what greeted them was a spacious hall with some ancient things from the civilizations being scattered everywhere, from pens to notes. There were even strange objects that were unfamiliar to them.
"Would you look at that? We have finally reached a big room!" Ray exclaimed.
However, before they could go on to explore this hall they have discovered, Luna made them halt when she suddenly waved her sword in front of them.
"Draw your weapons."
Luna suddenly went a little tense as she gripped the Cinderblade hard and looked at a dark corner on the opposite side of the hall from where they were standing, where there were piles of boxes stacked which hid a small space.
Lloyd had an ominous feeling ever since they had entered this hall. It felt like there were prying eyes staring at them and he turned to look at the same corner where Luna was looking. He squinted his eyes and finally saw something moving.
The first thing that was illuminated by the light of the torch they were carrying was the feet of whatever creature it was that was seemingly limping. Soon enough, its appearance was fully seen by them.
A human-like undead that resembled the burning dead outside was slowly moving towards them, growling and mumbling which sounded like something they would only hear from a horror movie. However, this one had more rotten flesh compared to the burning dead and it was oozing disgusting blood over its whole body.
"What the f—" As Ray stared at it, he had a strong urge to curse but he almost puked out from what he saw. It was so disgusting that he could see worms wriggling and eating its flesh. That thing was also holding a dismembered hand which it was slowly eating. The others also paled as they watched the wretched evil thing stop a distance away from them.
"A Plaguebearer." Klaudia said with a frightened voice.
"Here it comes!" Luna's expression became fierce.
The plaguebearer screamed a horrible wailing sound that pierced their eardrums, and launched forward as if it was a normal person who could run fast which greatly shocked them. Luna and the others dodged its assaulting hands that desperately tried to catch them.
She was about to grab the hideous thing and throw the abomination away by using a shoulder throw move when she heard Klaudia shouting at her.
"Whatever you do, do not touch it! You'll get infected with the curse!"
"Damn it!" She cursed but she couldn't stop her body at all.
"No!" Klaudia screamed as she watched Luna's hand slowly closing the distance with the plaguebearer's flesh in despair.
Fortunately, Lloyd was able to act fast and hit the plaguebearer with a flying kick which made it flew a few meters away and crashed into the pile of boxes. He then hurriedly looked at the worn-out boots he wore and found out that the curse couldn't spread through inanimate objects.
He felt a moment of relief and she checked on Luna who was sweating a lot and becoming a lot paler upon thinking that her life would miserably end because of a single mistake.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
'Yeah… I think so." She said and stood up. "Thank you."
She gathered her composure and once again brandished the sword to dissect the horrible abomination. She had to repay it brutally for almost causing her to get inflicted with a curse.
The abomination stood up and once again screamed. This time it didn't rush forward like before. What happened next gave a chill to their spines.
Another plaguebearer had entered the hall, being drawn to the incessant wailings of the former one. That thing was calling for allies! Then they heard the both of them saying something while growling which sounded like human language.
"KILL… KILL… KILL!!!
It seemed like they have retained the slightest bit of human knowledge, but just like the burning dead, they were driven into madness only by the curse of the evil god instead of being burned eternally by the god of flames.
"How do we kill it?" Lloyd asked Klaudia who was shivering from fear. She was being unresponsive as she was greatly shocked by Luna's near-death moments.
"Klaudia!" He screamed her name which jolted her from her terrible fright.
"O-oh, sorry. I'm alright now."
She took deep breaths to calm herself and activated her divine eye once again. She saw two red spots which were found in the heads of the two plaguebearers. She then said quickly.
"Aim for their brains! Their weaknesses are the same as those zombies in horror movies. However, beware of their agile moves and hard skin. It would take more than just a simple slash to severe their heads."
They then rushed forward to deal with the abominations quickly. Luna and Lloyd teamed up together with Klaudia supporting them with her arrows at the back. Shane and Ray, especially Ray who was still disgusted by the plaguebearer and trying hard not to puke, confronted the new arrival while Stanley kept on shooting it with his bullets infused with mana essence.
However, the plaguebearers were harder to deal with compared to the previous hellspawns they have encountered. These things were quite sentient just like the gravebound ghoul. They wondered if all undead are sentient beings, or they just mimic the human actions from their past lives before being corrupted by the curse.
As the bullets and arrows got closer to their heads which would probably drill holes in it, they suddenly raised their hands and deflected all of it with just a single swipe. Their rotten fleshes were unexpectedly sturdy. They were champions, after all, and the arrows and bullets used by Stanley and Klaudia respectively were just rank one weapons.
As the plaguebearers were distracted by the ammunitions flying toward them, Lloyd took the opportunity to deliver a hard slash towards the joints in its shoulder with the intention of severing them to prevent it from blocking attacks.
The blade buried deep into its shoulder but wasn't able to severe it completely. He didn't want to take it out immediately, afraid that he might accidentally touch the rotten flesh, so he screamed at Luna who was behind him, preparing to deliver an attack that was aimed at its head.
"Damn it! You finish it, Luna!"
Luna sliced through its head which flew off and fell to the ground with a thud. The head was still making a horrible wailing sound, seemingly not having any signs of dying, but the body already stopped moving and dropped to the ground.
She then stabbed the Dawnbringer's Cinderblade towards the forehead of the plaguebearer which pierced through effortlessly and delved inside the brain. Black blood splattered and the plaguebearer went silently still. It had died in the hands of Luna.
Shane and the others barely made it through and was able to decapitate the plaguebearer and kill it. Once again, they were so exhausted from the difficult battle where they had miraculously lived.
There were probably only a few in the world who had been able to defeat higher ranked opponents while fighting as a lower ranked aspirant. And they were among those people who had already slain a few higher ranked enemies which would imprint their records as the new famous history of mankind once they go back.