The first light of the second day had not yet even reached the horizon.
The sky on Aether bore no resemblance to that on Earth.
Perhaps it was because they had travelled quite a distance from the heart of the warzone, but the crimson sky was now beginning to fade.
The light itself had become visible.
It was as if a vast curtain were slowly parting above the sky, with particles of light taking the place of the stars.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a sight to marvel at.
But no one had time to look up at the sky. These thoughts, these movements, would soon take on a definite and clear form.
"Stop."
As Percival suddenly raised his fist into the air, the entire group came to a halt at once.
Not a single sound was heard.
Dean immediately pressed his fingers against the Pocket Watch in his pocket. He’d wanted to open a shield around himself, just in case.
The fact that even the angels hadn’t noticed anything had worried Dean. After all, it was Percival who had reacted instead of them.
"What’s happened?" he whispered.
Percival dropped to his knees. He had let Dean down onto the ground at that moment. He then ran his fingers over the ground, and immediately afterwards pointed to a few broken woods. They were almost like an axe had cut them.
"New."
At first, Dean hadn’t understood a thing.
But Percival continued his explanation:
"These were cut no more than half an hour ago."
After he said this, one of the angels saw something and pointed it to his friend.
That friend beside them knelt and sniffed the ground.
"The smell of blood. Blood that doesn’t belong to an angel."
Another bent down a few metres further on.
"There are tracks too."
Dean’s brows furrowed. Unable to hold back any longer, he asked, "Ghosts?" The blood of angels and Ghosts was, of course, different.
The angel shook his head.
"No. It looks like human blood. A very clear red."
This remark cast a strange silence over the group.
Dean asked involuntarily.
"Other players? I thought they were all at the barrier."
Percival didn’t reply because he wasn’t sure either. After all, Percival had never been here before. What’s more, until he met Dean, he’d never actually encountered any other players.
Instead, he stood up.
"We need to keep moving. If it’s human blood, I must protect my master," said Percival.
"Don’t break formation," added the leader of the angels.
The group began walking again.
This time, they were moving much more slowly than before. After about fifteen minutes, the trees began to thin out. A small clearing had formed ahead of them. Right in the middle of the clearing stood a wrecked horse-drawn carriage.
Dean’s eyes widened slightly.
The corpses of the creatures that had been pulling the carriage had already begun to rot.
However, the cart itself looked as though it had only just been smashed to pieces.
Scattered around it were boxes, broken barrels, fabric strewn across the ground and... corpses.
Eight in total.
As Dean took a few more steps, he realised these weren’t Ghosts. Their bodies were mangled.
These were real people.
At least, that’s what they looked like.
They were wearing thick travelling clothes. None of them was armoured. They looked like civilians. Dean’s throat tightened.
"These are..." Percival had said. He’d felt as though he had to let out a heavy sigh.
"Zombies..."
Dean hadn’t understood.
"Zombies?" he found himself asking.
"Players travelling between the outlying settlements of Aether. That was most likely their mission."
Dean remained silent for a few seconds.
"What on earth is a zombie doing inside Heaven?" he asked.
Up until now, everyone he’d come across had been either a player, a ghost or an angel.
Just then, one of the angels standing nearby spoke up.
"Young Master Decanus. I’ve found this."
He was holding a long, black arrow. At the tip of the arrow was a dried, black substance.
Percival took the arrow from Dean’s hand, and the moment he did, his expression changed for the first time.
"Black Steel."
Dean, of course, had no idea what this metal was, what Black Steel was.
"What on earth is that?" he asked.
"It’s a metal that causes the body to rot upon contact with blood and turns the body into a zombie upon death," replied the leader of the angels.
"Well, who on earth would use that? That’s a war crime, isn’t it... I thought you had rules," said Dean.
What he said wasn’t illogical.
Even if he didn’t know it, using this metal was indeed a war crime.
In Aether, the bodies of the dead were regarded as things to be treated with respect until they became ghosts.
Had a High God or Goddess witnessed this, the perpetrators would have been annihilated in an instant.
Dean’s question had been answered immediately:
"The Hunters."
Dean’s mind sprang into action.
"The Hunters?" he asked.
Percival nodded.
"Yes. They plunder on the battlefield and hunt down merchants and soldiers who come from the peace zone seeking aid or support. Yet that is not all they do," said the leader of the angels.
"Some protect the cities," said another angel.
"Some trade," said yet another.
"And some..."
Percival pointed the tip of his arrow.
"Kill."
A bad feeling had come over Dean.
The Ghosts were the enemy. Well, not all of them in Aether, but the majority were.
The angels beside him were allies, at least for now.
But the others...
The fact that they were enemy angels made things even more complicated, and now, to top it all, hunters had turned up.
Just then, the angel at the very back of the group suddenly called out to the rest:
"There’s movement..."
An arrow suddenly shot out from between the trees, heading straight for Dean’s head.
Before Dean could even manage to touch the Pocket Watch, it had happened:
"Clang!"
Percival had swung his sword with one hand, cleaving the arrow in two mid-air.
A second later, the sound of ropes being pulled taut could be heard from all sides of this wooded area, which looked rather dense.
Just like dozens of bows being drawn at the same time.
Percival’s vision went dark.
"Ambush."
"Protect Decanus!"
As ten angels formed a circle around Dean at the same time, angels began to emerge slowly from deep within the forest.
Their numbers...
One...
Two...
Five...
Ten...
Twenty...
The expression on Dean’s face slowly changed.
There were far too many enemies... Whereas there were only a little over ten of them. Dean felt as though he had to reach for his spear immediately.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter