Chapter 65: Story time

Seraphine continued speaking with the elder Pyroar while Karl, Leon and Mira stood beside her understanding absolutely nothing.

The conversation went on for another minute.

The elder occasionally gestured toward the two corpses in the clearing, then toward the distant direction of the Reaper’s Sanctuary.

Karl eventually cleared his throat.

"Uhm... mind letting us know what’s going on too?"

Seraphine glanced toward him, then said somethoing short to the elder.

The old Pyroar nodded and stepped back to wait with the rest of the tribe.

Seraphine turned toward the three of them.

"They’re not hostile."

Leon glanced at the torn remains nearby.

"That’s nice."

"In fact, it’s basically the opposite."

Seraphine folded her arms.

"These Pyrtherapontes have been waiting for humans to come here for generations."

Karl paused.

"Waiting for humans?"

"Their ancestors left behind an old story about the Sanctuary though most of the details are gone by now, so don’t expect names or anything that useful."

Centuries ago, something had happened around the Reaper’s Sanctuary.

The tribe no longer remembered exactly what began it, but one part had survived through every generation.

A human had been involved, they did not know who that human was, what they had done or even why it had affected the Sanctuary.

Their ancestors had preserved only the connection between humanity and the calamity that followed and with passing of generations a saying spread among them.

"Something begun by a human would eventually be ended by another human."

She gestured toward the surrounding Pyroars.

"They’ve been passing that down for generations. One day, humans were supposed to return and put an end to whatever happened here."

Humans almost never travelled this far into the wilderness.

That alone had been enough for the tribe to connect Karl, Leon and Mira to the saying their ancestors had preserved.

"They’ve even got an old name for you," Seraphine added. "Closest meaning would be something like deliverers... or saviors."

Leon immediately straightened.

"I knew it, I always was the choosen one."

"Took them some time to recognise my greatness but I am not petty enough to take it to heart ."

"We got here because Grandpa bought a Dungeon Token."

Mira nodded.

"Pretty much."

Leon looked between them.

"You two have absolutely no sense of destiny and fate."

Karl ignored him and gestured toward the greenish-grey remains in the clearing.

"What happened to that one?"

Seraphine’s expression became slightly more serious.

"That happens around here sometimes."

The tribe had seen the same transformation for generations.

It began with the body, coloration changed, physical structure became increasingly abnormal, and the creature gradually grew more violent.

Some eventually stopped recognizing their own kind entirely.

Seraphine pointed toward the remains.

"That one used to belong to this tribe."

Then she nodded toward the normal Pyroar corpse it had been eating.

"So did that one."

By the time the tribe had found them, the changed Pyroar had already killed one of its own and begun eating the corpse.

Leon glanced between the two bodies.

"So they weren’t charging us at all."

"No."

Seraphine gave him a brief look.

"They barely cared about you."

Karl moved on.

"What causes it?"

This time Seraphine turned back toward the elder and exchanged a few sentences with him and came with another disappointing answer.

"They don’t know."

Karl sighed.

"Of course."

Centuries had passed since the first transformations began and most of what the Pyroars’ ancestors once knew had disappeared with them.

Only one detail remained consistent.

The changes had begun sometime after the disaster surrounding the Reaper’s Sanctuary.

Karl’s gaze shifted toward the distant city hidden beyond the forest.

"What do they know about the Sanctuary?"

Seraphine had already learned most of that during her earlier conversation.

"The city belonged to the Reapers."

The Pyroars’ ancestors had known of the race living there, but the two groups rarely interfered with each other.

The Pyroars stayed in the surrounding wilderness while the Reapers remained within their own territory.

Then, generations ago the Reapers disappeared.

The tribe did not know whether they had been killed, fled or disappeared through some other means.

By the time those stories reached the current generation, all that remained was the same conclusion.

One day, there had simply been no Reapers left and about since then only did these anomalous problems started.

Karl’s eyes briefly moved toward the dungeon objective.

[Obtain the Reaper’s Order from within the Reaper’s Sanctuary.]

The Order supposedly waited somewhere inside a city whose original inhabitants had already been gone for generations.

Seraphine continued before he could ask anything else.

"The city isn’t empty, though."

Karl turned back toward her.

"The tribe still sees things moving there."

Armored figures, knights mages etc.

Patrols occasionally walked along the walls and through the streets. ℴ

None of the Pyroars knew what those figures actually were, they rarely approached the Sanctuary anymore.

The closer they moved toward the city, the more dangerous the surrounding region became, so most of their knowledge came from watching at a distance.

Seraphine spoke with the elder again for a short while before turning back.

"They’re willing to help us reach it."

The tribe had no intention of accompanying them all the way to the Sanctuary, but the old belief about the returning humans was enough for them to offer what they knew.

The elder explained the safest route through the surrounding region, along with several areas their tribe avoided completely.

There were also parts of the forest where changed creatures appeared more often.

Seraphine translated only what mattered while the Pyroars waited nearby.

Once she finished, Karl had enough information to continue toward the city without wandering blindly through the region.

The tribe had already begun dealing with its own dead and injured.

Karl was about to suggest they leave when he suddenly started at her and questioned.

"Wait."

Seraphine looked toward him.

"How do you even know their language?"

She looked confused.

"When did I say I know their language?"

"I was a Divine Priestess once ."

She gestured casually toward the Pyroars.

"I don’t need to know their language, I just understand what they mean and same with every other creature."

Seraphine was about to turn away when she suddenly paused.

"Oh, yeah there is another important thing, according to them..."