Chapter 1246: Shadows In the Forest
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before the alpha raked them in, the imps were a subtype of the abhumans living in the swamp. Roughly the same size as a human child, they were covered in dark-red rumpled skin and had a lizard face. The imps were notorious for their cruelty and violence. Scholars believed that the demon subtype was not actually a demon, but rather a distorted image formed by the infested beasts during the previous tide of Chaos. Others thought that imps were goblins that spun into a separate branch after they got infected by dark magic. But in either case, the world had a common understanding of the imps: those terrible little things were brutal and fearless. They would only submit to absolute power, and many of the imps were funny, but they could not hide their dark nature.
Imps were fearless.
However, such fearless little demons were now screaming and running out of the woods. The two imps were covered in blood as they stumbled back to the camp as if a terrifying enemy was chasing them from behind.
When Lily heard the noise, she immediately rushed over. The two imps were part of a ten-member team of scouts that she had sent to scout out the forest. Judging from the situation, the other eight had probably died.
“What happened?” Lily stood before the two imps.
The two imps shivered, probably feeling the energy of the alpha, or shocked by the Light of Order in Lily’s body and calmed down. They shrilled, using a harsh language that sounded like the tearing of metal. “The other guys are all dead! They are all dead!”
“There was a black thing coming out of the woods!”
“It was not afraid of fire, not afraid of smoke!”
“It went straight through us and drilled into our brains!”
“And they all died!”
“We still saw many other terrible things!”
Imps were a higher-intellect race among the abhumans, which was why Lily had sent them to explore the route ahead. These guys could at least describe what they saw clearer than the bear monsters could. But after hearing the reports of two imps, Lily could not help but blink. “What the hell are you talking about?”
At this time, Calaxus had come up from behind. The high-ranking monk had a pretty good knowledge of the abhumans, and therefore he could understand some of the words of the imps. “Was it the Servants of Chaos?” he frowned.
Lily’s ears flickered. “What is that? The Chaos? It’s that powerful?”
Calaxus rolled his eyes. Had he not been a cultured person with 40 years of experience as a bishop, his eyes would have rolled to the top of his skull. The high-ranking monk sighed, “You are born not to be afraid of the Chaos, but that thing is an absolute disaster for us the mortals. Then again, Alpha, do you know what is going on the mainland?”
“I have no idea,” Lily said with her arms akimbo and a happy face. She did not know why she was happy, but she just felt happy. “I woke up and found myself on the island. How the hell am I supposed to know that has happened?”
Calaxus kept sighing but did not know what to say more.
He revered the Light of Order in the alpha, but he could not see eye to eye with the alpha on her worldview and attitude towards the Chaos, especially the latter. Probably the alpha was born with the powerful energy of the Order; the Chaos, which seemed to refrain from attacking her, could not even come close within a few hundred meters of her. But this ability had led to an interesting side effect:
The dreaded Chaos that the people of Collow were so afraid of became something that the alpha was not able to even touch with her hand—because it had never come close to her.
After the debriefing, Lily had determined that the two hapless imps had run into the monsters in the Chaos.
“As expected, the Chaos was after us,” said Calaxus. “I am surprised that a new wave of chaos comes in the seventh year of the tide of Chaos. The dark side of the Sea of Carnos is swelling from below the world, a new round of storms is landing in southern Ansu. We must have bumped into this early wave. I think the main storm has not yet arrived but will in about three days. But even then, the prelude is dangerous.”
Lily had not grasped what Calaxus said, but she knew things were getting worse.
After entering the forest, they had encounters with many strange phenomena: the trees that withered suddenly, mud that surged, and the skeleton that came alive in the woods. Calaxus said that all these were signs of the coming of the Chaos. And today, the signs had reached a tipping point: the Servants of Chaos had killed some members in the team.
Those killed might be only a few imps, but they were part of the team who had been through life and death together while escaping from the floating island. As the famous King of Dogs of Southern Suburb, Lily felt that she was obliged to protect these younger brothers.
Lily looked at Calaxus. “Uncle, you are an expert, give me a suggestion.”
Calaxus nodded. “We are now right in the line of fire between the Chaos and the Order. As this storm is just emerging, the conflict between the two forces is not yet a full-blown war. The monsters appearing from the Chaos would not attack randomly, but they would concentrate in specific locations. We must avoid the most heavily infested area based on the intelligence the scouts have provided. Our destination is still the nearest wall of the Order, where it is roughly three days from here. If we could speed up our pace, we might be able to shorten the journey to two days.”
Lily thought for a moment and then jumped onto a large boulder suddenly. “Everyone, pay attention! Rest in the camp near the campfire tonight! Get good sleep, and we will leave tomorrow!”
Calaxus nodded slightly upon hearing the order of the alpha. But an ordinary knight of the investigation team asked, “Alpha, shouldn’t we leave immediately? It is a waste of time here.”
“No, we won’t be wasting any time.” Lily stared at the rash chap. “We have been on the road for several days and physically drained. We would have zero strength to fight if we encounter monsters on the way. The risk is much higher than the time spent in the camp. Now since I’m still glowing, get some shut-eye!”
The brash knight, talked down, was rendered speechless. Calaxus patted the young man’s shoulder. “The alpha is right. The worst thing in the realm of Chaos is losing calm and wasting your energy. Go back to rest. The real challenge starts tomorrow.”
The camp quickly quieted down, but huge bonfire was still burning in the middle of the cleared ground, illuminating the surrounding twisted forest. Lily came to her “throne” and sank herself into it, watching the night sky above and quickly falling into a daze.
She was laying on a layer of thick animal fur skin and straw mats, but those things did not seem to help her to sleep.
Her body was glowing too brightly.
Lily flipped around and saw her tail was glowing brightly in the air. But not just the tail, her body was glowing too. At first, the light seemed to be interesting, but now it was preventing her from getting asleep. And more seriously, she still had no idea how to turn it off!
“Only if Mr. Landlord is here.” The husky thought, “He has many ideas; he will know how to turn the light off.”
Lily turned and tossed. Suddenly, she heard a weird noise coming from nearby.
Her ears flickered as she sat up and scanned the surroundings.
The monster wolves, gnolls, bear monsters, imps were sleeping around her, each race in its group, resting around the throne of the alpha. Some of them were snoring, and some were emitting a funny body odor into the air. Those humans were sleeping in the tents near the firefoxes at a corner.
Calaxus had a pocket, which was similar to the dimensional pocket of Mr. Landlord, in which he stored the tents.
Lily’s eyes darted between the beasts and the humans as she heard the elusive weird sound in the camp. It was as if an invisible monster had infiltrated the place, swaggering around looking for its prey.
Suddenly, Lily’s pupils contracted.
She stared dead at the camp of the imps; two shadows were moving.
It was the two scouts who had escaped from the forest.