An hour and a half before the chaos of the battle, Kael had snuck into the bandit hideout.
Upon entering, his sensed movement from one side of the cave, so he went to the other direction, going deeper and deeper into the hideout.
Moving silently through the tents and into the hastenedly made corridors of the cave carved into a hill, he pressed his back to the cold walls, his blade at the ready.
"Something's off here," Neo said.
Kael didn't need her to elaborate. He felt it too—the oppressive atmosphere, the faint stench of burnt flesh and the metallic hum of fragments. This wasn't just a hideout; it was something bigger.
He paused at the entrance to a room lit up by an oil lamp.
Peering inside, he saw a table covered in scattered maps and papers. Strange symbols were scrawled across some of them, alongside a sketch of Raven Town, the town he had just found today.
'Looks like their planning room,' Kael thought to himself... and to Neo. The thought of someone else reading his thoughts did not settle well with him. And a girl too.
"Stop thinking of such things and search the area," Neo urged, her voice unusually commanding.
Kael slipped inside moving cautiously. The room was a mess but organized enough to reveal its purpose. Shelves lined the walls, filled with fragments and vials of strange liquids.
He scanned the table, his eyes darting over the documents. Most of the maps were focused on Raven Town and its surrounding areas.
Notes written in rough handwriting detailed patrol schedules, supply routes, and weak points in the town's defenses.
"They've been watching this place for months," Kael muttered.
But as he flipped through the papers, something caught his eye. A set of documents bound with a thick leather strap. Unlike the rest, these were neat, well maintained, and marked with a strange insignia: a black circle with an ominous skull in-between, surrounded by jagged lines radiating outward.
"Void Bandits #4," Neo read, her voice showing unease.
"Void Bandits?" Kael repeated, while frowning.
"They're not just bandits," Neo replied. "This is part of something much bigger."
Kael's grip tightened on the papers as he read through them. His stomach churned with each sentence, his anger building with every word.
The Void Bandits weren't just raiding towns for supplies, raping the woman of villages and towns or selling captives as slaves. They had a far more sinister purpose.
The papers detailed horrifying experiments conducted on their prisoners—tests involving corrupted fragments.
Their goal was clear: to learn how the corruption spreads, how to control it, and how to turn it into a weapon they control.
Kael's hands trembled as he flipped through sketches and diagrams of human figures twisted into grotesque forms.
Some had extra limbs, others were covered in oozing miasma-like flesh, and all bore the unmistakable signs of corruption.
"They're creating controllable hordes of corrupted," Neo said grimly. "This isn't just greed. It's a evil attempt to harness the darkest parts of fragment power."
Kael felt his chest tighten, his breath coming in short bursts. He imagined the screams of those who had been subjected to these experiments, the pain they must have endured.
Then he saw it—an entry that froze him in place: Test Site #12 – Village of Riverstone.
His village.
Kael's vision blurred with rage as he read the details. The attack on Riverstone hadn't been some random incident.
The Void Bandits had targeted his home as part of their twisted experiments, using the villagers as fodder for their corrupted creations.
"This… this is because of them," Kael growled, his voice shaking. "My father… everyone…"
Neo's spoke in a supportive voice. "Focus, Kael. You can't change the past, but you can stop them now."
Kael forced himself to breathe, trying to cool his anger a little. He continued searching the room, determined to find anything that could help him bring these monsters down.
In the corner of the room, he found a set of locked chests. Using a nearby crowbar, Kael pried one open. Inside were small vials filled with a viscous black liquid that seemed to boil and ooze, as though alive.
"What is this?" Kael asked, holding one up to the light.
"It's the blood of the corrupted," Neo said, her tone filled with disgust. "They' must be trying to experiment with it and make corrupted of their choice."
Kael's grip on the vial tightened. He wanted to smash it then and there, to destroy every trace of their work. But he knew he couldn't. He needed proof—evidence of what the Void Bandits were doing.
He placed the vial back and moved to the next chest. Inside, he found a pile of torn clothing, trinkets, and other personal items, likely taken from the bandits' victims.
His stomach turned as he spotted a small wooden carving, the kind a child might make.
Kael swallowed hard, forcing himself to move on.
The final chest held a journal, its pages filled with records of the bandits' operations. Kael scanned the entries, his heart sinking with each word he read.
"They're planning to take over Raven Town," Neo said as Kael reached the most recent pages. "They're going to demand a ransom from the noble responsible for the town, and when they get it, they'll betray him. The whole town will be turned into a corrupted breeding ground."
Kael's knuckles turned white as he gripped the journal. "Not if I stop them first."
He shifted his gaze to a map pinned to the wall. It showed a detailed layout of Raven Town, with marks indicating key locations—the marketplace, the guard barracks, the noble's estate. But what caught his attention was the large red circle drawn around the outskirts.
"They're targeting the outskirts first," Kael said, his voice low. "They'll weaken the town from the outside going in."
"Then you know what you have to do." Neo said seriously.
Kael nodded. He gathered the most important documents and evidence, tucking them into his pack. He couldn't let the Void Bandits' plans succeed.
As he turned to leave, a faint sound reached his ears, the creak of a door opening down the hall.
"They're coming," Neo warned.
Kael extinguished the lamp and silently slipped out of the room. He had what he needed, but now he had to get out without being caught.
The corridors seemed narrower now. Voices echoed from deeper within the hideout, the bandits' tones were agitated.
"They know you're here," Neo said.
Kael ducked into a small, hollow opening by the wall as a group of bandits passed by, their weapons drawn. He held his breath, his heart pounding loudly.
"Spread out!" one of them barked. "He's close!"
Kael waited until their footsteps faded before slipping out. His mind raced as he retraced his steps toward the exit. He had to warn the town, to stop the bandits before they could carry out their plans.
But as he neared the entrance, a low growl stopped him in his tracks. He turned around slowly, his eyes widening as a hulking figure stepped into the dim light.
It was one of the corrupted, a human twisted beyond recognition. Its body was huge, limbs were uneven and abnormally long, its skin filled with several black veins.
Its eyes glowed a blackish red, empty of anything resembling humanity.
Kael's grip on his blade tightened.
"Neo," he muttered.
"Don't let it touch you," she warned. "It's strong, but with no one controlling it, it's mindless. Use that against it."
The corrupted lunged, its movements unnaturally fast. Kael dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding its claws as they sliced through the air where he'd just been standing.
He countered with a slash of his blade, the edge biting into the creature's side. Black blood sprayed from the wound, but the corrupted barely seemed to notice.
Kael's fragment flared, its energy surging as he struck again, this time aiming for the creature's legs.
The corrupted staggered, loosing it's balance just long enough for Kael to deliver a finishing blow to its neck, where the fragment was.
The creature collapsed with a hiss, its body twitching before going still.
Kael wiped the blood from his blade, while heavily breathing. "If they've already started using these things…"
"They have more," Neo said grimly. "And they'll use them on Raven Town if you don't stop them."
Kael nodded, his determination burning brighter than ever. He had the information he needed, and now, he had to act.
Without another word, he quickly left the area, headed for the forest that had began growing in the cave, near the exit.
But exiting the hideout would not be so easy as bandits had been stationed everywhere, searching for the intruders.
Sensing something Kael crouched low, his eyes scanning the forest ahead. Neo's voice cut through the silence.
"There's movement up ahead. About five bodies patrolling."
...