Whispers of the Gods

Chapter 44 Hadgar III

"Didn't you meet him when you came here?" Hadgar said. "The torturer is the shadow. I don't know the name of the shadow, but the shadow is a musor, and the shadow is a champion. Shadow is the master of this dungeon."

He imitated the tone of the man in red and continued to say calmly: "We gave death, we took the eyes, but the shadow captured us, and the shadow wanted to know who we were."

"We heard." The people in red robes nodded, "Before we go back, we still need an answer."

"What answer?" Hadgar asked.

The four men in red robes said in unison: "We listen, and we obey. Those who listen close their eyes, and those who obey pay the price."

"As long as you can save me, you can ask me to say anything, and I am willing to pay any price." Hadgar said urgently.

"Du honcz, du tincz." The four red-robed men muttered.

"du honcz...du tincz." Hadgar imitated their language lamely.

After all, Hadgar was directly covered by the hood.The straps that bound his arms were severed, followed by the shackles around his legs.

"Take it easy," Hadgar gritted his teeth, "I'm hurt."

With support, Hadgar wanted to stand up, but fell to his knees on the ground because of his weakness.The man in the red robe held him by both sides and helped him up again. He limped out of the dungeon without encountering any guards along the way.

He kept counting his steps until they stopped on the increasingly rough road.He could smell the fragrance of the woods, and they probably had left Madkalin City.

It began to drizzle, making the hood even more suffocating.The red-robed man didn't speak the whole time, and Hadgar didn't dare to speak easily. God knows how these freaks will react.

Their footsteps were frighteningly light, no wonder he didn't hear any sound when he was in the dungeon.

The man in the red robe led him down, and he could feel that it was like a spiral staircase.With every step he took, he could feel everything around him getting darker, quieter, and stranger.

Gradually, he could see dim lights around him and hear the crackling of flames.

The air smelled differently, not the freshness of wild woods and meadows, but a sickly smell of dead and rotting trees.

His hood was lifted, and Hadgar quickly looked around with his eyes. It looked like an underground building that had been abandoned for a long time, and the cold stone brick walls were covered with moss.

The spacious space made the place look extraordinarily empty, and the cold air made him shrink up subconsciously and sit on the ground.

Tree roots entangled around the walls, they were all painted red, and under the reflection of the flames, they looked like twisted giant snakes stained with blood.

The floor tiles under his feet appeared to be made of some kind of clay, which appeared dirty due to the presence of water.The clay bricks have cracked due to the years, and the cracks traverse the ground and reach the depths of the building.

Hadgar tried to look up, but no light came down.There is no light source here except torches.

At the end of this underground space is an altar, consisting of a table and a wooden black tent.It was shaped like a small house with candles on it, but Hadgar couldn't see what was inside.

There are more people in red robes here, and only now can he see their faces clearly.They all wore black masks on their faces, not ordinary black, but darkness that could swallow all light.

He couldn't see the protruding features on their faces, and the face of the red-robed man covered by the mask was like a smooth black paper, or like a starless night sky.

There are eyeball pendants hanging around their necks, some have only a few, and some have the entire neck surrounded by eyeballs.Hadgar could vaguely see the daggers hidden at their waists.

What the hell is this place, Hadgar asked himself.In Madkalin City, he had never heard anyone mention that there were people in red robes in this place.

In order for the man in red to take him out of the shadow dungeon, he lied that he killed the beggar.Maybe these red-robed people are the people Sombra is really looking for, so what does the golden eagle have to do with these people?
The red-robed man knelt on the clay ground, as if waiting for something.

No one noticed him and the four red-robed men coming, or they noticed and didn't look back at them.

"Guncz nuakogu zut..." All the people in red robes bent down and prostrated themselves on the ground.

"Guncz nuakogu zut..." Their mouths repeated strange words, like ancient spells uttered by wizards.

Hadgar shuddered, and the murmurs of the red-robed people became faster and faster, with anticipation and awe in their tone.

Suddenly, the people in red robes stopped, and everything around them became silent.He could hear nothing but his own breathing and the sound of blood rushing through his ears.

Silence hung over the place.

Then, the black curtain of the altar was slowly lifted from the inside, and an old man in a dark red robe like dried blood came out.

He has no eyes, to be precise, he has his eyelids open, but no eyeballs.

He didn't use a mask to cover his face like the other red-robed men. He had no hair or beard, and the skin on the top of his head and face was peeled off as rough as bark, and his peeling forehead formed a line with his hooked nose.

His face was pale, his lips shriveled, his eyeballs seemed to be rolling, and Hadgar could see the skin inside his eye sockets.

The old man's deformed chest was disproportionate to the rest of his body, but it didn't seem to affect his walk.

Unlike other people in red robes, he didn't wear an eye pendant around his neck.

"We have heard death, we have heard prayers," said the old man in his hoarse and sharp voice, "we have returned our eyes, we have ushered in new life."

The people in red robes got up from the ground one after another and turned to face Hadgar.

"A newborn child," said the old man.

Hadgar was full of doubts. This old man without eyes should be some kind of leader of them, he thought to himself.

"We ask for the newborn's name." The people in red robes said in unison.

"Hardgar Greyman, from Madkalin." He introduced himself somewhat cautiously.

"We hear you, Hadgar Greyman," said the old man.

He looked at the face of the old man, who showed no expression.

"It's my first time here, who are you?" Hadgar asked.

"We have no names, we listen and we obey," the old man replied.

"I don't understand, whom to listen to, whom to obey?" Hadgar still didn't understand the meaning of the sentence they had been nagging from the beginning.

(End of this chapter)