And (N)one Shall Remain

“Your Eminence, I can feel traces of the late Brother Artorius in that direction, around three to four day’s travel away in that direction,” reported Sister Nadia, the [Watcher of Departed Souls] from the inquisition just a couple hours after the expedition made camp for the night on their third night of departure from the Rijesca Monastery. Sister Nadia sounded rather surprised, as the expedition had been stationary, which could only mean that whatever carried the traces of the soul that belonged to the late Brother Artorius was moving.

 

“Three to four days away? Are the traces still on the move?” asked Bishop Uther, who clearly also caught on to the implications of Sister Nadia’s words. If whatever carried the traces were moving, that likely meant they weren’t native to the dungeon. Dungeon creatures simply didn’t leave their dungeons, barring a rare case of overflow, which never happened to a well-maintained dungeon. “Can you feel anything else about it?”

 

“It is still very distant, Your Eminence, so I can only get a muddled feel of the traces, I fear,” apologized Sister Nadia as she shook her head in the negative. “All I can feel is that the traces have been moving in a very small range. Perhaps whoever or whatever the traces were on had set up camp as well? Maybe it is our brethren on their way back?”

 

“I guess that remains a possibility,” noted the Bishop as he fell into his thoughts for a moment. It was not impossible for the rest of the first expedition – especially the fourth tiers – to return after taking some casualties due to unexpected difficulties. That said, if they had returned on the day that the soul lantern broke, they should have been much closer already, so the distance didn’t match, unless the group was slowed for some reason.

 

Either way, they were too far away to tell for certain, and since there was no way to communicate over that distance, the Bishop was left with various thoughts that kept him up that night. The anxiety and grief made it difficult for him to rest, and he only managed to get some intermittent bits of sleep while the expedition rested for the night.

 

“Has there been any changes?” asked Bishop Uther to Sister Nadia when he woke up the next morning. The monastery’s expedition woke up around dawn and quickly prepared their breakfast, as they were all disciplined from their life at the monastery itself. Just from such patterns alone, Bishop Uther believed that there might be some conclusions he could make out of the situation with his son’s death and those who had traces of his soul.

 

“They started moving around five minutes ago, Your Eminence, in a westward direction,” stated Sister Nadia as she looked up in surprise from her bowl of gruel. Neither the Temple nor the Monastery advocated the need to give up luxuries or the like, but travel rations were always made more for convenience than anything else, so it was gruel for breakfast unless they were really influential or important. “I suspect that they woke up before dawn, even earlier than we did. I could detect minor movement over a small area for a while, then stillness, before they moved on.”

 

“So they’re either the dungeon expedition on their way back, probably in haste, or possibly someone else,” noted Bishop Uther. The discipline to wake up so early and finish everything that needed to be done in an efficient manner was not something the average person has, and most definitely not something monsters would possess. If the group had been monsters, then they wouldn’t have even stayed and did things for breakfast after waking up, therefore all signs indicated that it was other people who carried the traces of the soul lantern he gave his son.

 

“That is likely the case, Your Eminence. They are traveling westwards at a rather fast pace, so we should run into them within two days at the latest, if they keep up this pace,” said Sister Nadia after some thought. “Will we need to adjust our marching orders in regards to this new information?”

 

“No, have everyone keep moving at our usual pace, but do inform me if the soul traces change their direction of travel, immediately,” said the Bishop as he thought about the matter. “If they changed directions while we were marching, I want you to immediately adjust our march to chase after them, unless they were headed our way.”

 

“Understood, Your Eminence. Your will be done.”

 

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Meanwhile, several days’ worth of travel to the east, Esperanza’s group continued their journey unaware that they had been marked from afar. The group went on a more relaxed – though still a rapid one for most considerations – pace after they cleared out the dungeon, and had just left the dungeon’s area the night before. After a good rest for the night and a quick breakfast they continued their journey west, keeping to the less traveled forested areas as they were wont to do.

 

“That’s strange,” noted Esperanza while they traveled through the forest. For their group, even the depths of a normal forest, which not even experienced hunters would go to due to the dangerous beasts, was of no threat, so it was easy for them to proceed through the region. It slowed down their pace somewhat since they had to deal with the undergrowth, but it was a worthwhile tradeoff considering the group’s nature.

 

“What is it, Exalted One?” asked Ani from nearby. The fourth tier veteran warrior from Agur-Bas was one of the few who could keep up with Esperanza when she went all-out. As such, the two of them along with Dali often scouted ahead of the group to ensure that they wouldn’t be running into unpleasant surprises, while the other scouts like Legisvula watched their sides and back.

 

“I keep getting the feeling as if someone or something is observing me since yesterday night,” said Esperanza. “It was really vague last night, so I just thought it might be some curious animal or something similar, but the feeling persists until now and only seems to get stronger, if slowly. Makes me wonder if it might be something else altogether…”

 

“Have you tried hiding yourself, Exalted One?” asked Ani. “If this is indeed some sort of observation or tracking skill, your stealth skill should cancel it out in some manner, at the very least. Of course, if it is actually just some curious beast looking at you from a distance… that would prevent it from looking as well, so it can’t really be used to confirm things.”

 

“Good point, but there’s also no harm trying, I guess,” said Esperanza as her existence seemed to face away underneath [Veil of Entropy]. Esperanza kept it up for a minute or so before she returned to their sight and senses. She shifted back into a more human form and Ani could see the frown on her face, which was unexpected. “No good,” said Esperanza with a shake of her head.

 

“You can still feel something observing you even under the effects of your skill, Exalted One?” asked Ani with some surprise. Esperanza’s skill was one of the strongest stealth skills the veteran warrior had come across in her life, which was the cause of her surprise.

 

“Rather, I managed to pinpoint it a bit more. It was not looking at me, but something around me. I can’t be completely sure, though, the feeling was quite vague, so I couldn’t really nail down what exactly it was looking at,” explained Esperanza with some doubts of her own. “I thought Soul-related classes were rare under the reign of the usurper gods?”

 

“Very rare. I believe Mora said that only members of their clergy, people who are fanatically loyal to them, would even have such classes,” said Ani with a nod. She had talked a lot with Murad and Mora and learned as much as she could from them, in case the information became useful. “At least, that was what their tribe believes to be the truth.”

 

“Whatever this feeling is, it feels more like it was looking directly at the soul, hence my question,” noted Esperanza. “Tell the others that we will speed up our march today. We’ll see whether this feeling changes or not and make our next move based on that.”

 

“Understood, Exalted One.”

 

The group did as Esperanza bid and covered around a quarter more distance than they usually did in a day. By the time they chose to settle down for the night, however, not only had the feeling of being watched not disappear, but it intensified instead. Perhaps people with weaker sense might not even notice it, but for someone like Esperanza whose attributes were easily on par with most fourth tiers, there was simply no way that she would fail to notice such a thing.

 

“It would appear that we’re getting closer to whoever is watching us,” said Esperanza with a shake of her head. “Rather, they might be getting closer to us as well. I can feel the feeling get stronger at a faster pace while we traveled earlier. Does anyone else feel such a thing too? Or is it just me who noticed it so far?” she asked the gathered group when they sat down together for dinner.

 

“Umm… I’m not certain if it’s the same thing, but now that you mentioned it, I do also kind of feel like someone was looking at me, Exalted One,” said Nalihimatu as he raised his hand. “Maybe it is just my imagination, though.”

 

“Did you only notice it lately?” questioned Esperanza back.

 

“Yes, only for like the past two hours or so, Exalted One,” replied Nali shyly. His classes were focused on defense and endurance, but in turn his perception was one of the worst ones of the group, so it made sense that he didn’t notice something Esperanza noticed a long time ago until recently, even if they were both subjected to the same thing.

 

“I see. Anyone else got anything similar to report?” queried Esperanza to the rest of the group, only to be met with shaked heads. “Curious. Why would this skill only watch me and Nali? Did the two of us do anything special of late?”

 

“I’m afraid I couldn’t think of anything in particular, Exalted One,” said Ani apologetically as she too had no idea on the unusual situation.

 

“Let’s try changing our route a bit tomorrow. We’ll head towards the north-west instead of straight west. If whoever is watching is actually chasing after us, we should notice it by tomorrow night,” said Esperanza to the acclamation of the rest of the group.

 

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“They are changing course, Your Eminence,” reported Sister Nadia the next morning. “They are moving towards the north-west now, instead of straight west as before.”

 

“Not our people, then,” stated the Bishop with a frown. “Poligenes and the others would be returning toward the monastery to drop off our people first, even if they took casualties. At the very least they would drop by to report things. These ones are headed towards a completely different direction, so we should consider them as potential enemies. Perhaps the demons managed to infiltrate our land with a strike team… in which case it is our holy duty to purge the very existence of these filthy creatures.”

 

“Wise words, Your Eminence,” said Sisted Nadia in acquiescence to his words. “Shall we set off in pursuit of these unknowns, then?”

 

“Yes, set off immediately, double-time it. We will still rest as usual, though. I want everyone to be in fighting fit when we catch up to whoever these scum are. They likely have the blood of our brothers and sisters on their hands, so it is only just and fair that we return the favor,” said the Bishop vehemently. “Sister Nadia, you are to provide the direction for our march. Lead us to these foul cretins.”

 

“As you command, Your Eminence. It will be my great honor and pleasure to be of service,” replied Sister Nadia. Within the hour, the expedition continued their march, their path altered to cross the path their quarry was taking, and the distance between the two groups shrunk as the day went on…