Chapter 704: [Bonus - ] Far from Sane

Chapter 704: [Bonus Chapter] Far from Sane

"We can’t really tell you more about it..." Lysa paused, arranging her thoughts.

"The area is too dark, and we didn’t dare get close enough to verify what it was," she continued. "But we sensed something was wrong long before we reached the zone."

Her eyes drifted to the shattered corpses of the three Fallen, and her fingers tightened around her staff.

"You should know, these were not the first Fallen we encountered."

The others nodded in agreement.

The Hunter lowered his head.

The Lancer’s jaw tightened, and the Healer let out a slow, unsteady breath.

"We tried to avoid them and continue the exploration," Lysa said quietly. "But the deeper we went, the more dangerous and stronger they became."

Thoren listened without any change in his expression as his eyes stayed calm and steady.

Inside, his thoughts were moving.

After what he had experienced in the Weeping Ossuary, he would be a fool to believe there was nothing more dangerous deeper in this dark plain.

A ruin that had nearly buried him alive, a Mother that had crushed his strongest undead, and the Fallen that had come after.

All of it might be only the edge of something far larger.

Perhaps the Weeping Ossuary had been the least dangerous of the places hidden in this darkness.

Who knew?

"We saw dozens of Fallen," Lysa said, her voice dropping lower. "It was as if they were gathered around something. The grating of their chains was so terrifying that it made us shiver, even from far away."

The Hunter swallowed hard. Brandt looked down at his axe, and his thumb moved restlessly across the handle.

"More importantly," Lysa went on, "we felt the Fallen might not be the most dangerous thing out there. We felt there was something worse in the core zone."

She raised her head, and a thin spark of determination flickered through the exhaustion in her eyes.

"Our exploration wasn’t meaningless though. Before we retreated, we discovered a structure..."

"Hmm?"

Thoren’s eyes sharpened.

The word settled in his mind and refused to leave. A structure, deep in the dark plain, past dozens of Fallen.

Instantly, a quiet yet keen sense of intrigue awakened within him, drawing his attention fully to Lysa for the first time since their talk began.

"Yes," Brandt said, finishing her statement.

His voice was low and heavy. "We saw something like a structure. But what it was, we don’t know. We were too scared to get close to the zone."

"So, you don’t know what you saw?" Thoren asked.

"Yes..." Brandt and the others nodded in agreement.

None of them tried to hide their embarrassment.

They were Pathfinders, people whose job was to walk into the unknown and bring back answers but this time, they came back with nothing but speculations.

However, thinking about how dangerous and terrifying the Fallen were, their tactical retreat was understanding.

Perhaps, their discovery was not nothing after all.

"Even though we don’t know what the structure was, the presence of the Fallen was enough to tell us what we needed to know," Lysa said calmly.

She planted her staff against the gravel and tried to stand. Her legs trembled the moment she put weight on them.

She gritted her teeth and pushed again, one hand pressed against her thigh, and rose slowly to her feet, swaying like a reed in the wind.

Sweat still clung to her forehead.

"That’s right," Brandt continued. "The presence of these strange Fallen made us confident that something worth exploring lies in that zone."

He ran his hand through his hair and let out a long sigh.

"Unfortunately, our party is not the one to do it."

He shook his head.

"Enough of that," Lysa said seriously. "We should be grateful that we’re alive. That is enough."

Everyone nodded.

It was the truth, and they all knew it.

Without Thoren’s undead, they would have long since fallen into the claws of the Fallen. Their bodies would have been dragged across the stone, and no one in the camp would have ever known what happened to them.

The thought sat quietly in each of their minds, and the gratitude they felt for the silver-haired young man grew heavier.

Right now, they could not wait to return to the camp and have a proper rest. They wanted warm food, a roof overhead, and a bed that did not sit on cold stone.

The hundred kilometers that stretched between them and Scarwind Camp seemed endless, but at least they knew the way.

"So, Thoren," Lysa said, turning to look at him with curiosity. "What do you want to do?"

It was not only her.

Everyone still alive turned their eyes to him.

The Berserker, the Lancer, the Hunter and the Healer all waited in silence. Whatever he asked, they would not be able to refuse.

Thoren did not change his expression.

He felt their gazes settle on him, and he met them calmly, as though he were being asked what he wanted for dinner.

"First," he said, "can you show me a way back to the camp, or give me a map?"

He paused, and his eyes slid past them into the dark, toward the far edge of the plain.

"And second..."

His voice stayed level.

"Can you point me in the direction of where you found the Fallen and the structure?"

For a moment, the entire group fell into a stunned, absolute silence.

It was as though the wind itself had died down, leaving only the sound of their own shallow breathing. They stared at him, motionless, as if none of them had heard his words correctly.

His first request for a map or directions back to Scarwind Camp was entirely reasonable, a simple necessity that any rational person would ask for.

But his second request caused their hearts to jump and skip a violent beat.

To knowingly ask for the path leading straight into the heart of a zone crawling with dozens of Fallen was nothing short of madness.

The Healer stares intently at Thoren as if trying to peel away the impassive mask from his face and peer directly into his mind.

She searched for any flicker of hesitation, doubt, or a hidden joke, but all she found was an unshakeable, eerie calmness.

More importantly, she saw an absolute confidence etched deep within his deep blue eyes, a resolve so cold and steady that it chilled her far more than the icy air of the dark plain.

"Are you serious?" The Healer couldn’t help but ask.

"I wouldn’t joke with something like that?" Thoren responded without looking at her.

"Guy, I’ll advise you not to throw your life away." Brandt said seriously. "Come back with us to the camp. There you can decide what you’re going to do next."

Everyone nodded with his suggestion.

That was the right thing to do for any sane person. Unfortunately, Thoren was far from an ordinary human and more importantly, he was far from being sane.

"Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing." His tone was calm and casual as always.

***

[AN: This Chapter is for all my privilege readers. Thank you for your usual support. It means a lot to me. Love you all.]