Chapter 582: Three Bodies on a Mountain

"Shut up, and stop complaining. We took the job, and it has to be done. So we're doing it."

A second man farther back muttered under his breath, loud enough for the others to hear, his voice flowing with weary resignation.

"But seriously, this is a job for knights or trained soldiers with proper equipment. Adventurers are free birds, free spirits. We fight and explore, we take real and exciting contracts. Not these petty, cheap patrols on a boring mountain, wasting our precious time. I bet we won't... find... anything…... interesting…..."

He stopped short and froze mid-stride, boots planted on the loose stone of the trail, his body going rigid as if struck by a sudden paralysis.

"What the hell, Pouni!" the woman yelled, spinning to face him when she realized the footsteps behind her had ceased, her voice cutting through the thin mountain air.

Her tone carried the sharp edge of someone already running late, someone whose patience had been worn thin by the climb and the delay. "I have to meet up with someone after this, someone important! I'll marry you if I get to fifty without finding a good husband, so don't you dare make me late!"

"Uhm, sibling marriage is banned in Thaad, sis," the first man interjected, the words automatic and slightly amused despite the climb, his voice carrying a note of teasing familiarity.

"Shut up, pervert! I was joking, obviously!" She lashed the words at him with a glare, then pointed a finger between the two of them, her arm rigid with accusation. "But if I miss this date, you both will pay by joining me to become celibate servants of the goddess, sworn to chastity for the rest of your lives!"

"Sis… bro…" Pouni's voice came out low and careful, barely above a whisper.

He had not moved from his frozen position. His eyes remained fixed on a distant point higher up the slope, his face pale and drawn.

"What?!" she snapped, turning fully toward him now, her frustration giving way to confusion at his tone.

"Are those… people not Octavius and his friends?" He raised one arm and pointed toward a particular high outcrop of rock some distance away, where a small cluster of scavenging creatures had already begun to gather, their dark forms circling and descending.

The woman's head whipped around, her gaze following his pointing finger. For a second she only stared, her mind refusing to process what her eyes were seeing. Then her eyes widened, her pupils dilating with shock and horror.

"Oh my goddess, no…"

All three of them broke into a run at once, boots slipping on gravel, breath sharp in the thin mountain air, their hearts pounding with dread.

The short distance closed quickly, their legs carrying them up the slope with desperate speed.

When they reached the site the second man doubled over and began to vomit hard, the sound wet and repeated, his body convulsing with nausea.

The other two managed to keep their feet, but neither could look at the scene for more than a few seconds at a time, their eyes darting away and back again.

The three bodies lay close together on the open stone, sprawled in positions of violent death.

Every surface of skin that remained visible had turned a uniform, lifeless grey, the color of ash and decay.

Thick patches of pale moss and fibrous white growth already covered large portions of their limbs and torsos, the plant-like matter spreading even as the scavengers worked, consuming what remained.

Small bird-monsters hopped and tore at exposed sections of arm and side, beaks pulling free strips of tissue that came away too easily, their sharp cries echoing across the rocks.

One of the corpses lay face-down in a dark, dried pool that had spread beneath her head, the blood long since congealed. Another had collapsed on his back, mouth still open, the strange foliage climbing his neck and jaw.

Octavius remained partially upright only because an arrow had driven through his left forearm and deep into the rock behind him, pinning the limb in place.

The flesh around the wound had already begun to slough, peeling away in grey sheets.

The woman closed both hands into tight fists, her knuckles white with tension.

A single tear tracked down one cheek before she wiped it away with the back of her wrist, the motion angry rather than soft, a gesture of frustration rather than grief.

"Contact the guild, Jo, send word immediately," she ordered, voice low and hard, carrying the weight of authority. "I think 'the rat' struck again. And at one of our own, one of our fellow adventurers… I think it's high time we got serious about catching this villain, before more bodies pile up."

Pouni stood a step farther back, eyes averted from the worst of the damage, his face pale and drawn.

"But sis… maybe they were attacked by a monster, some beast of the mountain?"

"There are no monsters like that on this mountain, and that's the point!" She turned her back on the bodies, jaw clenched so tightly the muscles stood out along her neck. "Whatever killed them was strong enough to drive that arrow so deep into the rock. And it seems to be a precise shot, therefore, a deliberate act. Eve wouldn't have shot her own brother and childhood friend, would she? Not when she also has a hole in her head. Clearly, the arrow found her too."

Jo finished the last heave of his stomach, wiped his mouth with a shaking hand, and activated his adventurer's identification disk to send the emergency report, the soft light pulsing in his palm with a floral image.

When the soft confirmation light faded he risked one more glance at the corpses and immediately regretted it. The skin on Octavius's exposed arm was peeling away in grey sheets, revealing the muscle beneath.

"Octavius was a fool, a stubborn one… but he didn't deserve to die. Not like this." He swallowed hard against another wave of nausea. "Eve and Janin were good people with good hearts. This is horrible."

Pouni looked around the surrounding rocks and sparse trees, shoulders tight with unease, his eyes scanning for any sign of danger. "Let us get out of here for now. This place might still be dangerous, and the killer might be nearby. Let's come back with our leaders, Kapil and Siberia, if we have to."

The woman gave a short, sharp nod of agreement. Jo pushed himself upright, his legs unsteady. None of them spoke again as they turned away from the site, their footsteps heavy on the stone.

Each of them cast one final, unwilling glance at the three grey, moss-covered forms before starting back down the trail, the scavenger birds already hopping closer in their absence, returning to their gruesome feast.