Chapter 609 Abyssal Screehers
Not cracked.
Not shattered.
Exploded.
Grey flesh, black slime and fragments of bone burst outward in every direction, splattering across the surrounding cave walls. The sonic attack died before it could even leave its throat as the now headless body remained standing for one strange second.
Then...
The eight tentacles twitched violently.
One after another they curled inward before finally collapsing beneath the lifeless corpse.
Silence returned to the cave.
Liam looked down at his hand.
His face twisted with obvious disgust.
"...Seriously?"
He slowly turned his wrist over.
Earlier, his hand had already been covered in blood after digging through the Cave Saber Tiger’s mouth to retrieve its beast crystal.
Now...
A thick layer of cold, sticky slime dripped lazily between his fingers.
It clung stubbornly to his skin, stretching into disgusting strands whenever he tried to shake it off.
He frowned.
"I preferred the blood."
As if responding to his complaint...
A faint clink echoed across the stone floor.
A crystal roughly the size of a fist rolled out from the remains of the creature’s destroyed head before stopping near Liam’s boot.
He looked down.
"Well..."
He bent over and casually picked it up.
"...at least you had the decency to save me the trouble."
Unlike the Cave Saber Tigers, whose crystals had been buried deep inside their bodies, this one had been thrown free by the force of the punch.
That was one less slimy mess he needed to deal with.
Tatiana was already standing again.
The blood that had flowed from her ears had completely stopped.
Thanks to her werewolf regeneration, the damaged tissue had already repaired itself. Apart from a few crimson streaks running down her neck, there was little evidence that she had been subjected to the horrifying sonic attack moments earlier.
Mary wasn’t as fortunate.
She remained kneeling on the cold cave floor, one hand supporting herself against the stone while the other still pressed tightly against the side of her head.
Her breathing was uneven.
The world around her continued spinning violently.
Every distant sound echoed painfully inside her skull.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Slowly, she brought both trembling hands together.
Her lips moved almost silently.
A gentle spell.
One meant not for battle...
But for restoration.
"Pax mentis..."
"...Silentium animae..."
A faint white light appeared around her temples before spreading slowly across her head like flowing mist.
The violent ringing gradually faded.
Her breathing steadied.
The dizziness weakened.
The unbearable pressure inside her mind slowly lifted.
Several more seconds passed before she finally dared to open her eyes.
Her vision remained blurred at first.
Shadows slowly became shapes.
Shapes became people.
The first figure she saw standing before her...
Was Liam.
Calmly holding a beast crystal in one hand.
Standing over the defeated corpse of the grotesque creature that had nearly killed all three of them.
"It hurts like hell."
Tatiana immediately crouched beside her.
Her crimson eyes carefully searched Mary’s face for any signs that something was still wrong. The blood around the witch’s ears had already dried, but her complexion remained slightly pale.
"Are you alright now?"
Mary gave a small nod before slowly getting back onto her feet.
"I’ll live."
She looked past Tatiana toward the grotesque creature lying headless across the cave floor.
Its eight tentacles had gone completely limp now, sprawled across the stone like oversized dead snakes. Thick black slime continued to seep from the remains of its neck while the crystals embedded in the cave walls reflected the disgusting liquid with an eerie blue glow.
Mary swallowed quietly.
"If Liam hadn’t been here..."
She didn’t even finish the sentence.
She didn’t need to.
The image replayed vividly inside her mind.
The unbearable shriek.
The pain that had invaded her skull.
The way her body had completely stopped responding for those few precious seconds.
She had been utterly helpless.
The creature itself wasn’t particularly powerful compared to the beasts Liam had fought earlier. If they had met it in an open field without that terrifying sonic attack, she doubted it would have lasted very long against any experienced adventurer.
But that wasn’t how it hunted.
It didn’t need overwhelming strength.
It stunned its prey first.
It broke their concentration.
Destroyed their balance.
Left them unable to defend themselves before quietly finishing the job.
Against an ordinary group of adventurers...
It would’ve been terrifying.
Mary looked at Liam again.
He was already walking away.
The slime covering his hand didn’t even seem to bother him anymore as he casually headed deeper into the tunnel.
He never once looked back to check whether they were following.
Not because he didn’t care.
Because he already knew they would.
"Let’s go."
His calm voice echoed softly through the cave.
"I don’t feel like wasting any more time."
Mary exchanged a glance with Tatiana before both women hurried after him.
Neither wanted to fall behind.
Liam’s pace wasn’t especially fast, but there was a subtle urgency in every step he took.
His expression had grown noticeably colder after the creature attacked Tatiana.
He hadn’t said it aloud...
But both women could tell.
Whoever was responsible for this cave had officially crossed a line.
The tunnel gradually became narrower as they continued forward.
Several minutes passed in complete silence.
The further they ventured underground, the stranger the surroundings became.
The countless skeletons that had lined the cave walls slowly disappeared.
Soon...
There weren’t any at all.
Only rough stone.
The glowing blue crystals also became increasingly rare.
Instead of illuminating the tunnel every few metres, they now appeared only occasionally, forcing the darkness to swallow almost everything around them.
The deeper they walked...
The darker it became.
Eventually the faint glow from the remaining crystals was no longer enough.
The tunnel ahead became almost impossible to see.
Mary quietly placed one hand against her chest.
Her lips moved in a soft whisper.
"Lumen Astra."
A tiny sphere of warm golden light slowly floated out from her palm.
It hovered gently above her shoulder like a miniature lantern, filling the tunnel with a comforting glow that immediately pushed back the oppressive darkness surrounding them.
The light wasn’t harsh.
It flickered softly, casting long shadows across the uneven cave walls while making the path ahead clearly visible once again.
Tatiana smiled.
"That spell is useful."
Mary returned the smile.
"It saves me from walking into walls."
The atmosphere lightened slightly.
Only slightly.
No amount of light could completely erase the uncomfortable feeling lingering inside this place.
The cave remained unnaturally quiet.
There were no insects.
No dripping water.
Not even the distant growls of beasts.
Just their footsteps echoing endlessly through the passage.
Liam suddenly slowed.
Then stopped altogether.
His eyes settled on something lying near the edge of the tunnel.
Without saying anything, he crouched.
His fingers reached toward the ground before picking up a small silver necklace coated in a thin layer of dust.
He brushed it clean with his thumb.
"Hm."
He turned it over curiously.
Before he could inspect it further...
Mary gasped.
"Oh my goodness..."
She stepped closer.
"I know that."
Liam looked at her.
"It belongs to Gregor."
Tatiana’s eyes widened instantly.
"Are you serious?"
Mary nodded repeatedly.
"I’ve seen him wearing it countless times."
"He said it was a gift from his younger sister."
Liam quietly looked down at the necklace again.
If Gregor had dropped it...
Then he had definitely passed through here.
Mary pressed both hands together.
"He must be nearby."
Hope immediately returned to her voice.
Tatiana felt exactly the same.
After everything that had happened tonight...
After chasing illusions...
Finding fake corpses...
Losing their horses...
And being attacked inside this cave...
They finally had something real.
A genuine clue.
For the first time in hours, it felt like they were actually getting closer.
But...
Liam wasn’t smiling.
His eyes continued scanning the cave floor.
His expression remained thoughtful.
Tatiana noticed immediately.
"What is it?"
He didn’t answer right away.
Instead, he slowly looked around the entire passage.
Left.
Right.
Behind them.
Ahead.
His eyes carefully studied every inch of the rocky ground.
Then he quietly spoke.
"...There aren’t any footprints."
Mary blinked.
"What?"
Liam continued looking around.
"No footprints."
"No drag marks."
"No signs of anyone walking through here."
He frowned.
"If Gregor was carried this way..."
His gaze slowly narrowed.
"...there should be something."
"The ground is covered in dust."
"It should’ve preserved tracks."
Tatiana and Mary instinctively looked down.
Now that Liam had pointed it out...
He was right.
The cave floor was almost untouched.
Only their own footprints remained visible.
Nothing else.
Liam suddenly stopped speaking.
A single possibility formed inside his mind.
"...Unless..."
He slowly raised his head.
"It can fly."
"Huh?"
Tatiana looked around almost immediately.
Mary did the same.
Both women instinctively searched the ceiling and the darkness ahead, expecting something winged to suddenly appear.
They found nothing.
The tunnel remained empty.
Liam stood up while slipping Gregor’s necklace into his pocket for safekeeping.
He looked toward both women.
"Whoever took Gregor..."
"...can fly."
He spoke with complete certainty now.
"There are no tracks."
"No drag marks."
"And think back."
His eyes settled on Tatiana.
"The illusion."
She blinked.
"The illusion..."
Liam nodded.
"When it dragged Gregor through the forest."
"It wasn’t running."
"It was floating."
Tatiana’s eyes slowly widened.
Mary also froze.
"...You’re right."
Neither of them had realised it at the time.
Everything had happened too quickly.
They had all focused on chasing Gregor.
Not on how he was being moved.
Mary folded her arms.
"That answers one question."
She looked deeper into the tunnel.
"But another still remains."
She looked back at Liam.
"Was it a beast..."
"...or was it human?"
Tatiana immediately shook her head.
"I don’t think it’s human."
Both Liam and Mary turned toward her almost simultaneously.
"What makes you think that?"
Tatiana closed her eyes for a brief moment before taking a slow breath through her nose.
"My sense of smell."
She opened her eyes again.
"Every living thing has its own scent."
"Every individual smells different."
"But humans..."
She smiled faintly.
"...share something."
"They all carry a particular scent beneath their individual smell."
"It’s difficult to explain."
"It’s just..."
"...human."
She looked around the tunnel.
"If another person had passed through here..."
"I would’ve noticed."
Liam quietly listened.
Tatiana continued.
"I just checked."
"The only human scent I can detect..."
"...belongs to Gregor."
Silence settled over the tunnel.
Mary slowly looked around again.
"So everything else..."
Tatiana nodded.
"Belongs to beasts."
Liam’s eyes sharpened.
"...Everything else?"
Tatiana didn’t seem to realise why that wording caught his attention.
She answered naturally.
"Yes."
She sniffed the air once more.
"There are a lot of them."
She slowly frowned.
"I can distinguish..."
"...at least twenty different beasts that have passed through this tunnel..."
She paused for another careful breath.
"...within the last thirty minutes."