The Final Protectors

Unknown Decay Part 3

The effects of long-distance teleportation absolutely felt terrible.

Karlos, one arm holding his clothes and the other holding his greatsword, supported himself on the wall for three to four seconds before his vision cleared. He pressed his nauseated stomach and finally admitted that Amy might be right—he might have really inflicted an unseen injury on his digestive system from his long years of undisciplined life, and he hadn’t even noticed it.

The path was dim, with only a dying, blinking streetlamp. Karlos did not know where he was—but from the surrounding topography, this was probably outside the mountain range in the State of Salla.

A gust of cold wind blew over, slipping into the large open collar of his sleepwear. Karlos broke into a shiver and could only slip into the shrubbery by the road, and changed out of the restricting and bad insulation at the fastest speed. Then, with his greatsword in hand, he walked out barefooted.

A small spell diagram appeared on the back of his hand, blinking faint light. It was a trigger-type spell. When Mrs. Shelton left, he strangely felt uneasy, so during their hug, he had placed his hand on her. The condition for the spell trigger was if she was in a  life-threatening situation. No matter when or where she was, the spell will send him to her side.

Regarding this, Karlos was not mentally prepared. He did this just in case, and even thought he had been thinking too much—after all, Mrs. Shelton had retired long ago, and had a very low chance of being roped into the hunters’ battles. But he did not expect that this spell would be activated so fast.

He heard that she was together with Roy and the others. If so, where was Roy? And the investigators sent by the Temple?

Here, night was far chillier than in the State of Salla. Coldness spread from beneath Karlo’s feet. Broken rocks and glass shards scattered loosely on the dark ground, but he was clearly experienced in this matter. Although he did not lower his head, he accurately avoided all of them.

The surroundings were in complete silence. Karlos chanted an incantation, and white, thick fog emerged, spreading through the widespread greenery of the city. A faint stench came his way.

Karlos looked down at the spell mark on the back of his hand. It was still glowing, which means Mrs. Shelton was still alive. If so, what exactly happened to her?

The eerie chill in the forest grew denser. He quietened his breathing as much as possible, white mist immediately forming the moment the breaths left him. Karlos adjusted his wrists, so that his body got into an odd tensed but relaxed state akin to a cheetah about to strike. He followed the stench into the shrubs. All of a sudden, his feet hit something. Karlos lowered his head to find that he had kicked a body. A male, built body, facing the sky. His eyes were gouged, blood trailing out of the corner of his mouth, and his chest seemed to be squashed by something and twisted to a strange angle.

He was clearly dead even without taking a closer look.

Karlos crouched down prudently, tearing the dead’s sleeves to find a cross-shaped emblem at his cuffs—it was the symbol of a hunter in active duty.

Karlos pursed his lips, half-kneeling to search this dead colleague’s body for his emblem. He kept it carefully before he quietly glanced at his ravaged face. After a moment of hesitation, he took off the body’s shoes and put them on before he soundlessly continued on his way.

I will kill it for you, nameless brother—he thought in silence.

The moon was out of sight now too. Next, he found the second victim, and the third…

Each of their eyes were dug out, and they all died of organ rupture. Karlos was certain that this was not just one Decay, and there must be a Drummer.

He continued on this road seemingly to hell, collecting the victims’ emblems as he came across them. With a hand shoved in his coat’s pocket, his fingers knocked against the ice-cold emblems during his steps, the sticky blood staining his skin. He was not cold-heartedly ignoring it all. Such piling bodies of hunters who died in battle was just a sight that Karlos was all too familiar with.

In his long vagabond life, he walked alone ceaselessly in an empty countryside, along the swamps, past these treks of poisonous plants, trudging past the overwhelming miasma and stench of Decays, and calmly walked past these bodies of his comrades.

With a sharp cry, an owl flew from a branch towards the sky. At that moment, Karlos did not even think before he sharply waved a hand. A withered vine abruptly grew up to three to four meters, chasing after the bird like a sharp arrow to pierce right through its heart.

The owl’s body plummeted—at the same time, its pair of eyes fell. They were similar to a human’s but were a bright red.

Karlos squatted and tore off a corner of his shirt. With the cloth, he picked up the wretched eyeball for close scrutiny before he snorted lightly, “I’ve made such a dogshit speed of progress, and it turns out to be a Pearl-hiding Clam[1]?”

This was a rare Decay even in Karlos’s era. They liked to possess humans or animals, and exceedingly few people could see their real form. They ate human eyes, but they had a very particular taste—they only adored “eyes that could see evil”.

Eyes were the windows to one’s soul. Many ancient civilizations believed that eyes had a special power. And for Pearl-hiding Clams, this was absolutely true. Eyes that could see evil emitted a fragrance that infatuated them.

As such, no matter a prostitute or a hunter, it perfectly suited its taste buds… As for that Ms. Laura at the start, perhaps, there was something going on.

“Pearl-hiding Clams and Drummers are truly a perfect combination to invite death.” Karlos sighed, mind swiftly determining the current situation. Looking at this, the hunters’ scent may have attracted those beasts during the investigation—seeing how they had set off as a team and looking at their neatly-worn emblems and weapons as well as how the team was split up in the forest, they were possibly caught in their trap while searching for something.

In Karlos’s over twenty years of life, he had never heard of Drummers and Pearl-hiding Clams having any sort of symbiotic relationship, so why would they move together?

Hairs stood on his back, an instinctive reaction towards danger. Right then, a woman’s heart-wrenching scream came from not afar—that was a scream that only a dying person could make. Karlos’s scalp erupted, and he took off in that direction.

In normal speech, humans’ voices may sound different, but in a scream, such differences become minimal. In that instant, Karlos’s heart leaped to his throat—Was… was that her?

He weaved through the shrubs, his narrow vision immediately opened up. And instantly, Karlos could clearly see an unknown woman hoisted up. Her head hung down, hair covering her entire face while her body was covered in blood.

Karlos’s eyes shrank sharply. No, wait! A Drummer could crumble human hearts in an instant, so how would she have the time to scream?!

In the moment before his foot hit the ground, Karlos soundlessly chanted, and a protective spell shot out from his body. The air faintly fluctuated under the spell. But before it could completely gain shape, the hoisted woman suddenly looked up, opening her blood-red eyes as she beat her chest fiercely with her fists.

Without making any sound, a gigantic energy wave slammed Karlos, instantly shattering the outermost layer of the protective spell. Karlos stumbled back a dozen steps, the greatsword held up in front of him as a shield as his fingers swiftly drew a magic spell in a small area—this was the most time-saving response. But this required him to accurately know the spot the invisible opponent was hitting from by relying solely on how the protective spell was shattered. This meant that if there was the slightest error, he basically could become the next companion of those comrades lying on the ground earlier!

In the next moment, the spells and attacks collided, buzzing so loudly that it hurt his head.

The woman’s body began to convulse as she screamed, her body wilting rapidly as if water was being sucked out of her. Then, like a ragged doll, she hung on the tree without a glimmer of life in the eyes that were filled with blood just earlier—it was a mere corpse that was already thoroughly dead.

It escaped.

Karlos’s chest throbbed in pain from the collision earlier. He coughed and went to rest the woman’s corpse on the ground. Just like that owl, her eyes fell out of the sockets.

So it seemed the hunters were lured by this ploy. Karlos thought, then, what about Mrs. Shelton? Where was she right now?

The fog grew increasingly thicker. The two Decays did not run too far. Karlos knew that they were only loitering around this area in wait for a chance.

Aldo moved to Jel’s place in the morning. Mr. Good had personally driven him there. Aldo elegantly nodded at Jel who was waiting at the entrance. “I apologize for the trouble.”

Jel laughed drily, “Not at all. Karlos isn’t up yet. I’ll show you to your room.”

Aldo hummed in acknowledgement and asked casually, “How is his health? Is he usually low on energy?”

“Oh, no.” At the topic of that person’s exuberant energy and endless curiosity, Jel only laughed wryly, “It’s the opposite. I think he doesn’t believe Healer Berg’s verdict at all, and he does look very healthy too. You could even call him fit as a fiddle.”

Aldo paused, frowning. “Really?”

Karlos was not someone who would sleep in.

“Yes. But for some reason, he didn’t respond even when I told him breakfast was ready today,” Jel said. Then, he quickly added, “Of course, I didn’t tell him that you’re coming, so it’s probably not because…”

Aldo’s steps stopped. “Which room is his?”

Jel pointed. “That one.”

Aldo turned and approached the room. Behind him, Jel said, “Maybe he was too tired from playing with the kids yesterday, or…”

No— Was there anything or any pain that Karlos hadn’t experienced? Playing with two kids for a while would never tire him out. Although he lived a disordered life, he was not someone who would laze around. At least, in all the years Aldo had known him, he had never slept in.

A sudden anxiety struck Aldo. Before Jel even finished his words, he kicked open Karlos’s door.

Jel’s voice halted—the room was empty.

Translator Note:

[1] 藏珠蚌: The name can also be interpreted as “Eyeball-hiding Clam” given their taste preferences. The word “珠” is used in the words for eyeballs (眼珠) and pearls (珍珠), but in standalone usage, it usually refers to pearls or beads.