The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren led his merry band out of Gelton's meeting room and two monks led them to their rooms. The four ascetics stayed behind. It seemed like what the bishop and marshal wanted to discuss, had something to do with the secrets of the religion. The moment she stepped into the guest room, Becky realised something. "Oh, yeah! Right, I haven't asked about the rewards... Say... they wouldn't conveniently forget about it, right?"     

Hao Ren immediately glared at Becky. "Oh my god, grow up would you? Do you really think a mighty country like Holetta would take away your rewards or something?"     

Becky pouted. "Time is money! I don't have a lot of time here. I have 15 days at most. If someone tells me that I need to report to the Royal City, and what if the reply comes when I'm away, won't that be horrible?"     

Hao Ren facepalmed. "Well... you do have this problem. But, lets take it one step at a time. Say... why do we always see Gelton and Ophra at each other's throats? Does the Royal Army have a tiff with the church's armed wing?"     

Becky waved her hand furiously. "No, no. There's no tiff or anything. You're just imagining things. Both the regular army and the church forces have been working side by side for so long; there's no tiff between the two. But, there is friction on how they go about doing things. The church is focused on conservatism while the army is all about expediency and effectiveness. Lady Ophra is a larger than life personality that has led the army for a couple of centuries. So, each side is pretty stubborn on how they operate. But lets not poke our noses into that. Nothing good will come out of it."     

Hao Ren just gave an emphatic, "Oh." He had no interest in getting involved in political intrigues. That was just beyond him. He was only interested in the secrets hidden in the land. Lily on the other hand, was very excited. "Hey, you're saying that they're discussing how to eliminate the rock monsters? Those things fell from the mountain and they're very big! It's like fighting an endless tide! Do they really intend to do so? The Royal Court didn't say anything about it?"     

"I noticed something along the way," Becky said as she adjusted her equipment. "The Royal City dispatched two groups of troops over here as reinforcements and the nearby orders of knighthood also got here a few days back. So, the military strength in Beinz has increased by three times. But you're right, seems like the Royal Court doesn't have any better ideas either. They can't be moving the whole ridge, right? Until they can figure out how the rock monsters are made, things will stay this way." By then, a worried look had formed across Becky's face. "I hope things don't get worse..."     

This was after all her hometown and in the face of such unusual incidents with monsters popping out all over the place, Becky could not help but worry. Nevertheless, this issue was not for a small player like her to solve.     

At the same time, in Gelton's meeting hall, the atmosphere suddenly took a sour turn.     

"You're saying there are heretics there?!" Big Beardy slammed his hand on Gelton's office table, his face looking grim. "What's the status?"     

"I'm not sure what's with this heretic group." Gelton waved his hand at Big Beardy, motioning for him to calm down. "They only appeared about half a month ago. And we have yet to catch anyone. We only have abandoned sites of foul rituals. There have also been reports of unusual activities in this area. They should be related to the heretics."     

"What kind of unusual activities?" Big Beardy frowned. Only news like this was able to rattle a stoic ascetic like him.     

Ophra sneered, but her voice calm. "Many of our dead are missing. Based on the reports from the front, the missing dead bodies were placed aside due to certain reasons and the moment the guards looked away, they disappeared without a trace."     

"Not only dead soldiers," Gelton's voice was heavy, "civilians as well. Anyone who has died recently, their bodies would go missing mysteriously. The only thing left of the scene would be a little trail of blood. Sometimes there wouldn't even be any. The most obvious case was at the outpost by the lake. The outpost was lost during the initial assault. When the soldiers who had escaped returned to check the place out the next day, all the bodies were missing."     

The ascetics quickly looked at each other and realised that the outpost he mentioned was the one had passed through. Not only that, they had discovered a mysterious tunnel beneath the outpost! The only thing was, they did not find anything there. This made it difficult for Big Beardy to link the tunnel to the lost bodies. He decided that he would bring it up later, asking about something else instead. "What are the common characteristics shared between the bodies?"     

Ophra demurred for a moment. "All recently dead. And using the range's centrepoint as a guide, the areas where the bodies went missing were all on the west side of the mountain. Those who died on the eastside did not suffer such a fate. That aside, there were no eyewitnesses. All the bodies disappeared when no one was looking. I sent men to keep an eye out on and when there was someone watching, the bodies were fine. The moment someone looked away, they disappeared."     

The marshal angrily clenched her fist as she finished. While she was certain she would get to the bottom of things, come hell or high water, the latest incident was almost like a mockery to her. And, that really got on her nerves.     

The ascetics pondered for a moment before asking, "Have you checked the graves?"     

Gelton nodded. "Yes, we did. The keepers checked the graves and found that only the newly dead were missing. The old graves in the cemetary were fine. Only those who were recently buried went missing."     

"So, they 'need' fresh corpses." The female ascetic with a hoarse voice said. Doubt was apparent in her voice, "Necromancer, perhaps?"     

"Unlikely..." Ophra crossed her arms, her voice almost sounded like she was mocking the ascetic. "While necromancers aren't people you'd invite to a ball, they are still a legal school of magic. As long as they follow the proper rules and regulations, they can experiment all they want. The most foolish of necromancers would not take such a risk by raiding the holy grounds for corpses. The disappearances started about half a month back and the number of rock monsters have exploded. I'm more keen to believe that this is the work of heretics seeking some power of old. They better not let me get my hands on them..."     

"Actually, we may have a clue." Big Beardy decided it was time for him to disclose the matter of the tunnel and he stood up. "When we got here, we did pass by the outpost that you mentioned. I'm not sure if you've checked what's underground..."     

"No, we have yet to check there." Gelton shook his head. "But as you know, most other places did not have the same tunnel structure."     

Big Beardy was slightly surprised. "Other places? That means, you have checked underground? So, all the other places don't have any tunnels at all?"     

Ophra shook her head resignedly. "No. The first time a body went missing, we went all out in our search, underground included. But, we did not find any tunnels. We never bothered looking underground after that. Seems like we need to refocus our investigation... Maybe, there is something insidious underground. Bishop Gelton, what do you think.... Bishop Gelton?"     

Gelton was deep in his thoughts when Ophra called him and it took him a while before he responded, "Oh, of course. I will send men to check the place. But, I remembered something else..."     

"Something else?" Ophra frowned.     

Gelton motioned as he spoke, "The heretics seem to have powers beyond our understanding. I believe they have something to do with the unnatural changes on Dragonspine Ridge. I'm starting to think that maybe the evil acolytes of the mage emperors have seeped into this holy ground. Lady Ophra, I cannot leave the diocese, so I hope that you can make the trip to the Royal City for me. Report this to His Holiness the Pope and His Royal Highness. This is not a diocese level crisis anymore. We need help and reinforcements from the highest level."     

Ophra broke into a smile as she heard it. "Seems like you do have some sense of urgency after all."