The Path of Ruin

Chapter 72: Escaping from the Cave

When he saw Amar's hand hovering over the sword at his waist, Kael didn't hesitate, he grabbed both of his daggers and began to twirl his eon through his body.

If even Amar was taking this seriously, he, a weaker person, had to be much more careful.

In this way, they passed through a corridor filled with torches. Then they entered a cave room that seemed to be quite large.

And what they encountered was... something they certainly didn't expect.

'Matthew... is fighting?'

Matthew was on the opposite side of the room, holding a transparent sword that glowed with a blue color. He was covered in blood and his clothes were torn in many places. He looked out of breath as if he had been fighting non-stop for hours. Yet his eyes were still full of life.

He had no intention of dying.

'Are they... creatures?'

There were creatures that looked like monkeys but actively used all four limbs to walk, tailless and quite furry. They all had squinty eyes and dull facial expressions. They reminded Kael of the human-turned-creatures he had seen in the Arcanoa Palace.

'They are quite fast...'

He found it difficult to follow them with his eyes. They didn't look that strong, but their speed was extremely high. So much so that he couldn't help wondering how Matthew was still alive.

She sighed slightly, gripped his daggers tighter, and prepared to help him.

But then Amar grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"Wait here."

He didn't understand why he had to wait... but he did as he was told and broke his stance, even if he didn't let his guard down.

Amar pulled his hand back from Kael's shoulder and unsheathed the sword at his waist.

It was a long sword. Not overly broad, but it seemed to be over a meter long.

But the sword was not the point.

The moment Amar began to move towards Matthew, a flash of brown appeared around him. Vines began to grow out of the ground as his eon slowly wrapped around his body, and not only that, it spread out around him.

The next second... Amar suddenly disappeared and appeared right next to Matthew. Even though Matthew couldn't see him, when he sensed his presence, he involuntarily widened his eyes, turned around, and tried to attack the new 'presence' he sensed...

But he was slow. At least compared to Amar.

So Amar grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him backwards with great force... right at Kael.

Matthew used his center of gravity in the air to straighten his stance, dig his feet into the ground, and slow himself down. Preparing to strike again, he quickly shifted his gaze to the spot where he had just stood... but then he simply froze in place.

"Huh?"

A blank expression crossed his face as he saw the vines grabbing, tearing, and mercilessly killing the creatures he was fighting. But then he saw Amar and his eyes widened.

He quickly turned around. And found Kael staring at him, two daggers in his hands.

"You claimed you weren't a Follower, right...?"

Matthew's lips curled upwards, then he gave a small laugh.

"We all have a few things we're hiding, you know."

He straightened his posture, then tore his eyes away from Kael and back in Amar's direction.

Amar had already finished off all the creatures. Where he was looking now... was the other side of the cave.

Kael turned his eyes there, and then he saw someone he didn't understand how he hadn't noticed until now, just sitting there, kneeling. A woman... was clutching a large piece of vine in front of her.

"Are you the one who drove the townspeople insane and played with the Guardian's health?"

Amar asked coldly as he pointed his sword and the vines around him at the kneeling figure.

"Would you believe me if I said I am not?"

When the figure, a woman by the sound of her voice, answered Amar's question with another one, Amar tightened his grip on his sword and prepared to pounce.

"No."

And then, just like at first, he disappeared.

But the woman in front of him was not much weaker than him.

A purple glow suddenly filled the room. The woman dropped the vine she had been kneeling on just a second before and stood up, then grabbed Amar's sword in the air with her bare hands.

"A pity, then..."

As the fingers holding the sword suddenly changed color like those of a rotting corpse, Amar tried to retreat quickly without changing his expression. At the same time, countless vines were thrown at the figure in front of him... but the woman blocked them all with her seemingly rotten hands.

At first, Kael couldn't understand why the vines didn't try to wrap around the woman when they were blocked. He thought for a brief moment that what Amar had done was a stupid move.

But then he looked over to where Amar was and saw him looking at the sword in his hand. Then he saw how the metal she had touched with her finger had changed color, turning to dust as if it were rotting.

"I have nothing more to do with the vines of your Guardian anymore. Your timing is good. We can fight."

Amar threw his sword aside without any reaction. He was looking at her with a much more serious expression this time.

"You are... not a Follower. You are a Seeker."

"I didn't feel the need to tell you."

Kael stared blankly at the pair in spite of what he had heard.

'Seeker...? What does that even mean?'

"Me too."

The brown glow around Amar suddenly intensified. He fought against it as if waging war against the purple color that filled the entire room. But that wasn't the only change.

Tiny little vines, resembling blood vessels, began to grow over Amar's body. The tips of his fingers turned the dark green color of the vines, the brown in his eyes glowed so fiercely that Kael suddenly realized how much he had underestimated his strength.

Amar... was much stronger than he had thought.

But the woman was no inferior to him.

"We'd better get out of here."

Just before Amar and the woman attacked each other, Kael suddenly turned to Matthew as he heard him talking.

He could understand why he said that. The battle between these two... would probably affect this whole cave.

They could get caught in the middle.

"I think so too..."

He actually wanted to watch the fight. But he was also aware that there was nothing he could do.

Besides... they could do a lot more good if they could get word to the town as fast as possible about what was happening here than just standing here.

Matthew turned around, almost at a run, and made his way back towards the entrance of the cave.

Kael, meanwhile, took one last glance in the direction of Amar and the woman before leaving.

Amar's vines seemed much stronger than before. Likewise, his body seemed to have somehow adjusted to his ability. And... even though Kael didn't fully understand the strength of the woman, she looked quite strong too. She met all of Amar's attacks with her bare hands, even trying to touch him in the gaps she found.

Your journey continues on ???

The fighting ability of the two was almost the same.

'Seeker, huh...'

He turned around, his mind filled with a new thought as he followed Matthew down the torchlit corridor towards the surface of the earth.

Apparently... Bearer and Follower were not the only terms used to designate those with power.

There was still so much he didn't know about the world...

"Watch out!"

Kael snapped awake the moment he heard Matthew's voice. Immediately, he saw one of the creatures that had fought Matthew in the room below just a few minutes ago.

'They're too fast!'

As fast as he could, he threw himself backwards while tilting his head to the side. Thanks to his quick reflexes, he managed to stop the creature's claw from slicing his face, but he couldn't stop his nose from being scratched with a rather deep gash.

Gritting his teeth, he charged one of the daggers he still held with an eon in his arm and hurled it at the creature as it leaped over him.

The creature failed to hit Kael, its excessive speed sending it flying into the wall behind them. It quickly regained its balance and got to its feet, then quickly turned around and prepared to strike again.

But just then it found Kael's dagger on its forehead.

It tried to dodge it with its extreme speed, tilted its head to the side, and twisted its body, but its opponent was not just one person.

It successfully dodged Kael's dagger with only a graze, but the next moment, it found a blue sword, much larger than the dagger, lodged in its abdomen.

The life in his squinted eyes quickly faded, the sword in his belly turned to dust, and the creature's body simply collapsed.

"It must have something to do with her blessing, curse, or path. We may encounter more on the way. Let's be careful."

Kael nodded at Matthew's suggestion. The creatures were, even though the only thing about them was their speed, dangerous.

And with that, the two made it out of the cave.