Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1302: Rescue Squad

"I thought we\'d be doing a lot of the fighting. How about we just turn back and join the rescued commonfolk in your estate, Val?" said Maxim. She agreed with Vali\'s assessment, not that a ton of analysis was required to measure its validity.

Ferex\'s strength was abundantly clear.

The wolven Apostle had whipped out his hand just now, and a hundred Cavern were fallen from the sky, dead.

Apparently, Ferex was striking at the soul of these creatures, not bothering with their bodies at all, which was why his dispatching of them looked so simple.

The army of experts following behind Vali and Maxim was particularly amazed. They had cheered when Ferex had slaughtered the first swarm of Cavern that had headed straight for them. They hadn\'t counted on even Vali and Maxim being able to handle the thousand and some Cavern easily, and thus, when Ferex killed them all in an instant, they could only be glad that they got to live for another hour before yet another swarm targeted them.

The threat of the Cavern was insurmountable to normal experts.

The Families that were brought under Vali during the Premium Age Royale mostly had Masters as the top combatants. Even if they could handle some of the Cavern one on one, they would easily be overwhelmed if a few more joined the fray.

A force of roughly four hundred Masters was nothing to scoff at though, at least by Aigas\' common standards. This number of experts, following behind Vali and Maxim, had yet to lift a finger in combat this entire journey.

"Festos\' promises are usually trustworthy. Not that I of all people had reason to doubt," Silrat said with a sigh. He was walking beside the pink-haired Maxim. She gave him a strange look and narrowed her eyes.

"I wouldn\'t go that far. Festos promised the world would still be intact after his battle. My doubts peaked when Feinheath shook so hard it looked as though it would be ripped apart," she said with frustrated tone. "He also didn\'t bother to mention he was actually the second coming of Fulgardt. Don\'t give him too much credit. I had gotten the feeling there was something wrong with him, but I just..."

Silrat gave a nervous smile.

"Well, that version of him is gone. Rest assured," he said to Maxim.

"Hmm. I think I\'ll miss that version," Vali said with a smile. "He was rather entertaining." Silrat had rendezvoused with Vali and Maxim as Skullius had asked. He and Ferex had been given something that would help the two verify his identity as Skullius\' messenger. Contrary to what the Hybrid Warmoth had said though, the two ladies hadn\'t had too difficult of a time believing Silrat.

Instead, they had strained Silrat for answers about what had happened to Skullius following his battle. Both women seemed particularly annoyed by the fact that Skullius hadn\'t come to meet them himself.

Even when Silrat explained about what had happened to Skullius - the separation - the two ladies had insisted that they would have liked to hear it from the horse\'s mouth because they were as they put it - first hand victims.

Silrat could scarcely disagree. He apologised on Skullius\' behalf. Deep down though, he thought the Hybrid Warmoth owed him a huge favour. He had never gotten to be Skullius\' wingman before and becoming one now during this apocalyptic crisis was odd.

Silrat had wondered what would happen if Vali and Maxim found out that Skullius was hanging around with another woman right now instead of them.

To Vali\'s comment just now, though, Silrat couldn\'t help but disagree.

"That version of Festos buttered you up and kept you around because you were useful. Trust me, he would have discarded you as soon as he decided he didn\'t need you anymore. He was prepared to sacrifice me and others he had known and cared for just to kill his other self," he said sombrely.

The memory of that fresh in Silrat\'s mind. He had been so scared when the Hybrid Luman had appeared behind him and Theurien in the estate.

Vali kept her smile, but it lost a majority of its enthusiasm.

"That is quite distasteful," she said.

At that moment, Ferex who was ahead of them all came to a stop. They had reached a cliff overlooking one of Pelian\'s biggest cities: Bruine. Quite like Genhuis and Agmold, it held a massive population, or at least it had.

Maxim, Silrat and Vali rushed up to look.

The wide city was ruined. A massive black tower grew outside its walls; it was the same as what had happened to every populated area in Pelian when the Great Trembling began a week ago. Powerful Cavern had come out of these towers to slaughter all livings things in the human nation.

Whatever emerged from the tower outside Bruine had succeeded in wrecking the city. All the grace of such a massive settlement had been lost; buildings were felled and crushed, blood layered over the streets, and giant fissures ran across the city, likely from great but short battles.

"Will we even find survivors here?" Maxim asked, her face scrunched in agitation.

"Only one way to find out," Vali said.

Soon, the group was marching forward. Well, they leaped off the cliff and then marched forth.

Their mission was to find and rescue as many survivors as possible in Pelian. So far, the group had seen a bit of success. They found small groups of commonfolk guarded by Stray and Capital Knights in remote villages and Ferex had picked up the signatures of souls buried deep underground in secret storehouses in other cities.Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn

Vali teleported all the commonfolk to her estate using a Legendary grade artefact she owned and Silrat appealed to the experts they found to join them.

Under the cover of the night, Bruine looked a bit too gloomy. There was no shortage of corpses in the streets and obliterated homes, some displaced by a few blocks, blocked the roads. It was hard to watch for Silrat. The powerlessness of the commonfolk was a bitter pill. When he had been in the Guild\'s Association, preventing sights like these had been his goal. But even the Guild\'s Association couldn\'t have done anything about this. The group passed its branch in this city, clawed through by some immeasurably powerful monstrosity long gone.

As they walked on, using their senses to search for those who might have miraculously survived, Vali suddenly frowned.

There was a relatively intact building to her right made of wood and stone. Its doors were closed, but that didn\'t stop her from sensing the view inside.

Vali walked up to it and opened the doors. She froze.

Maxim reached her and looked inside the building too only to turn away with a grimace.

"Urgh..."

Her reaction drew Silrat. His own reaction was less visceral, but no less emotional. He gaped. A few hundred corpses were hung by their wrists from tie beams above.

Their bodies, flayed completely, their privates burned off and their eyes gouged out, swung in

a dark rhythm. They were arranged in neat rows all through the interior of the building.

Silrat\'s heart rate quickened.

It was a dark sight indeed, but something about the view made it ten times more ominous.

All the bodies belonged to male victims.