Carnage, no other word described the scene so perfectly. Broken down buildings, destroyed crops, and bits and pieces of farm animals decorated the "Peak".
The peak served as the codename for the town that served as the hub for sky carriages. Originally close to 5,000 residents here. The hustle and bustle of the once lively town were no more. Hiro saw nothing but death and destruction.
Blood drenched the ground so much that it turned crimson. Some of the buildings still emitted smoke and flames. The stench of rotting corpses and smoke enveloped the peak.
"What the hell happened here?" Hiro couldn't help but ask. A tall man with wild red hair, sharp eyes, and a parted pencil mustache walked forward. He commented in an exhausted manner. "That isn't even the worse of it boy. We found the bodies of the town, all of them, and It ain't pretty."
Intrigued by his words, Hiro and Rilu followed the red-haired gentleman, if only to shed light on his last statement. A few minutes later Hiro saw what could be considered the most horrific sight he ever saw.
Initially, he wondered where the bodies of the towns folk had gotten to. He thought that the Manticore perhaps ate them for food or attacked the city for sport. The gruesome display in front of him said otherwise.
A mountain of dead bodies, men and women, young and old. Most of them had shocked expressions, the corpses were mostly intact and exhibited terrible wounds. Their deaths looked extremely painful. The pile was over 300 meters high. And there were close to almost a hundred of them.
"The placements seem odd, they could have just piled them all into one giant mountain, why separate them into hundreds with 200 bodies each?"
Rilu who observed the piles lambasted the inefficiency of the piles. Whether it was to intimidate or shock people a larger pile would work best. Hiro who felt killing intent circling the area knew, whatever the artist to this canvass of death wanted to convey would not risk being misunderstood.
'They seem to be placed not at random but in a specific pattern, I can't make out what it's trying to say though. This is like the stars and the constellations you see on cereal boxes. The dots could be connected by the lines but imagination needed to play a role as well.'
Unwilling to humor him, the red-haired man quickly spoke to Rilu as he prepared to leave with his men. "Rilu, I leave the rapist to you. Kill him if he hinders you. As both of you are severely lacking in experience, guard the carriages. As for the rest of you come with me. Once Alpha returns we hunt!"
Rilu then make a crisp salute as she answered with the utmost respect. "Roger that Commander Frank! Leave the sky carriages and Hiro-sama to me!"
Hiro on the other hand focus on the piles and tried to piece together the puzzle that he saw. 'There has to be something I am missing, Rilu may be on to something. But what? Laying bodies in smaller piles only makes sense when you need to keep things light. Maybe there is something wrong with the ground?'
The transmigrator invoked his skill [Farsight] to check the surroundings. When he saw nothing of note he kept deliberating the possibilities. 'Maybe I just need a new vantage point?' He then moved up to one of the still-standing houses.
Luckily for him, he already grew desensitized to seeing corpses in large numbers. It could be said that hunting goblins completely transformed Hiro into a resident of Valorious.
When the man got to a higher elevation he noticed the way the piles were laid, they were like dots in a line. And when he tried to imagine what they spelled fear gripped his heart.
'No fucking way… this can't be real.' Rilu who finished surveying around saw Hiro up the column of the house and waved. "Hiro-sama! The devoted have left! It's just the two of us to guard the sky carriages. Huh?"
The young history nut noticed the pale face of Hiro and quickly leaped to his side grabbing the column in an act of superhuman strength. "Hiro-sama, are you alright? Your face looks white as a sheet."
"….reru…"
"Ha? Hiro-sama what are you saying?"
Hiro pointed out to the piles his entire body trembling. "The piles…. They spell out Hanareru Mitsurugi…."
Rilu then looked at the piles puzzled. "Hanareru? What does that mean?"
"Leave… The bodies spell 'Leave Mitsurugi' in Japanese."
The young woman froze at the last word of the statement. Both of them remembered her words on their ride coming here.
(Japanese culture was spread by the Emperor and the Saviors. Only those who have direct lines to them or study history would be familiar with Japanese.)
Piling up bodies could be done by monsters with limited intelligence like goblins or orcs. Finding monsters that could understand language on the other hand was already extremely difficult. Now, what would be the implication if the message was written in alphabets known only to royalty or historians?
"…"
Unable to endure the silence, Hiro asked the most pressing question on his mind. "Rilu, who knew we would arrive here today? More specifically that I would be coming with you. My involvement in this hunt had a gag order on it. Neither I nor my wives said anything."
The young woman understood what Hiro was trying to say and responded immediately. "It should be only a select few. The devoted were only notified of the changes last night. Not even the mayor of the town had clearance to know who would be in the hunting teams."
"Then it feels like someone is trying to mess with me. Because over two thousand bodies have been laid out to spell my name. They clearly knew I would arrive, and that I would see this."
Rilu then held up her hand as she closed her eyes. "Hiro-sama please remain silent. We are no longer alone." The moment she spoke her words, a fierce rattling started to resound in the entire area.
The sound was extremely similar to the unique melodies of rattlesnakes back on earth. But how many rattlesnakes would one need to create a disturbance of this magnitude?
Rilu jumped down and armed herself with her ominous-looking scythe. "Gideon!" the next second an overbearing presence manifested beside the young devoted. Even without him seeing it the hairs on Hiro's body stood up, notifying him that the Venator had arrived.
- Alert: Summoned Venator detected. Skill [Sight Beyond Vision] has caused Venator to notice the host. Applying vision to the spirit realm. -
Adjusting his vision. Hiro then noticed the large entity beside Rilu, it had its sword drawn and looked at a specific place on the ground.
"Hiro-sama, stick close to me and Gideon, we will protect you!"
The rattling slowly started to increase in pitch and sound. Like playing mind games, the tension on Rilu and Hiro's bodies slowly started to build as it went on. Finally as if reaching a crescendo it all stopped.
The silence lasted only for a few seconds until the ground under their feet collapsed. Rilu and Hiro fell to the dark depths underground. With them the ones that massacred the entire village.
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