The Fifth Time's a Charm

Chapter Seventy-one: Emberclaw

"Shh..there's someone near." Emrys stopped and said.

We all listened and Ymir's ears twitched.

"...It's the Head Priest."

"I knew that fucker would be here." I cursed.

' Celeste-sama...' Hestia sighed.

' Fucker indeed! ' Ares agreed.

' I have to agree with Celeste-sama with this one.' Hades nodded his head.

' You two are no help. ' Hestia huffed.

I smiled at their interaction but focused on keeping quiet and let Ymir track the location of where they were. We had to be careful because they had a good chance of knowing that the Book of Mons would be here.

Especially that Head Priest, he just reeks of trouble. Not to mention that he can open the portal to the Impurities..I can't even begin to imagine what would happen if the string of events were to happen too early when our magic hasn't even reached the age of maturity.

The key for us to survive this would be the male leads. They were the ones who closed off the portal but I can't even remember how they did it..

"Emrys, do you remember how the male leads closed the portal??" I whispered.

"Portal? What portal?" Dimitri asked, also in a whisper.

" *sigh* There you go, not remembering shit again." Lucius sighed.

" At the ending? Hm..I can't remember exactly but all I know is that they used a catalyst. I have a strong feeling that it might be that book." He said.

"Wait..but isn't the game set at the Academy? How would the book be at the Academy? unless you went to a school expedition or something." I wondered.

Ymir then suddenly jolted and went to his knees and Abbadon did the exact same thing. There was only one thing in common with both of them, their sharp sense of hearing.

I quickly put up a soundproof barrier and Emrys went to aid them.

"What did you hear?? We didn't hear anything??" Rizon questioned, concerned.

"It was an obnoxiously high-pitched scream of some sort of thing. My guess is it would have been an Impurity. " Abbadon groaned as he held his ears.

"I have never heard of anything like it before," Ymir revealed.

It could be anything, a high rank? a low ranked? mid-ranked?

There is another thing he mentioned.

There was someone near us. Thankfully, before I placed a soundproof barrier, Emrys had an incognito barrier up. Which meant, the person probably couldn't sense us.

Deciding to move, we carefully proceeded to scout the forest. There were trails of blood on the ground. Some of which, Ymir was able to identify as a magical beast.

There were signs of struggle and what got me the most was the body of someone from their party. I call it a party but most likely, it is called a cult. He had his throat slit and half of his abdomen was missing.

Forrest had the guts to pull his cover and we glanced at his face to see if it was any familiar and unfortunately, I did not recognize any of them.

"This necklace..all of them have it." He said while tugging the necklace out from the neck of the man before walking towards us to show it.

It is true, they all have those rings. By them, those men in hidden cloaks.

"Perhaps.. it's their pendant to their hideout?" Forrest deduced.

"Does anyone have an idea on how to use it?" Emrys asked us.

Suddenly, the man whom we had a feeling was near us appeared. He wasn't alone, chasing him was a large magical beast infected by the miasma that came from the Impurity right behind it that was leaking miasma from its mouth.

The man was also a part of their cult but the men behind him, even the Head Priest just watched him struggle to escape the Imp's clutches, before succumbing and dying to the claws of the magical beast.

The magical beast was an Emberclaw. A monster with five large horns on its head, and a long bony figure turned into something more demonic.

"It seems it wasn't enough." The Head Priest, Sorath scorned.

The henchman from beside him approached the dead man and pressed his pendant and a portal suddenly appeared beside him. It led to a different place that I presume was their hideout or maybe a place they gather.

He threw the body inside and closed it by pressing it in a specific way.

"Come on, let us head over there," Sorath said and they disappeared.

The Emberclaw was sniffing the area, it took him five minutes before it could even leave. It was very persistent, it was definitely disgusting to me but I know they could smell fear so I did my best to stop.

"Well, now we know how that thing works." Dimitri shrugged and chuckled.

"Did you hear anyone inside that portal, Ymir?" Emrys asked.

"I did not, aside from groans that came from the dead bodies." He blurted.

They brushed it off as nothing bad but I thought it was utterly inhumane, disgusting, and unsanitary of doing such things at a food factory.

I had the pendant in my hand, and with that, I pressed it exactly how I saw it.

And just like magic, the portal opened.

We scoped it first to make sure we were sure and when it was, we stood up and checked the area.

I had to cover my nose from the putrid stench emitting from the dead bodies. We were at a death chamber, or a better word...a morgue.

I could already tell that even if we try to save these people, it would deem useless as they are on the brink of hell and the damages have already been done.

The best thing we could do is put them out of their agony.

. . .

Coming out of the chamber, we were led to a long spiral stair. It was horribly built so one could trip and die. It was a huge trap waiting to happen.

It wasn't the brightest idea but, we had to split up. There were many doors that could lead anywhere. The reason why we were here was to gather as much information as we could get from them.

We had to wear the clothes of those dying men. Of course, after cleaning them.

I just built a new one for them but we wore theirs in case there was actually something special about it. When we walked out, there were other men that were part of the cult guarding the doors.

Now, our job to gather information has just gotten even harder than before.

To Be Continued . . .