Chapter 12: Fragments of memory
The smell of blood keep getting more pungent as they came closer to the source, Arthur gulped and thought to himself
'The intensity of this smell.. it will most likely be a massacre there.. ' Arthur was feeling a bit skittish, even though the system was gradually changing his thought process, his 20th century heart was rightfully nervous.
"This smell... " Tom slowly said while nervousness took over his body, fragments of pictures started flashing over his mind, slowly weaving together to form a piece of memory.
"No! " Tom shouted in fear before speeding up all of a sudden
"Tom! " Arthur shouted to ask what happened but Tom was already too far away.
As Arthur chased Tom, the surrounding landscape kept on changing, trees were uprooted, the ground scorched and destroyed, it was clear that a huge battle had taken place destroying the forest for 100s of meters.
'Where is Tom? was he always this fast? ' Arthur thought while running with his full speed and he soon reached the edge of a small cliff, Looking down from the cliff, he immediately saw something which made his blood run cold .
Black bones, hundreds of black bones protruding tens of meters towards the sky, the entire 50 meters wide area of the forest ground was covered with these towering, ominous black bones but what truly made Arthur's blood run cold was the fact that all of these black bones were impaling multiple human bodies at their tips! The lifeless corpses were hoisted high up in the sky while their blood kept trickling down the black bones making it look like a scene from hell.
"What the hell.. " Arthur mumbled absent mindedly and immediately activated his sharingan "There's no survivor left... Is that Tom!? " seeing a familiar figure, Arthur immediately jump off from the cliff.
Arthur quickly ran through the bone forest but these bones had such an ominous aura that it was slowly overwhelming Arthur's mind .
As Arthur went closer, he started hearing the dead bodies whispering
"Run away! he will kill you! "
"It's too late for him"
"He's already on you! "
"He's watching you"
"Hide! "
" You still have a chance, run away! "
Arthur was shivering non stop but luckily the system came in for rescue *Reading abnormal spikes in brain wavelength, initiating the barrier*
Arthur slowly clam down and all his fear vanished, he stopped shivering and could clearly hear a familiar voice crying.
"NO CARLOS!!! if only I didn't force you to accompany me! " Tom grieved
Arthur slowly came out from the bone forest and he could see Tom crying while holding a body which was decomposing.
"Oh no Carlos!!! " Tom cried in agony, his eyes soulless
"Shit! his mind is crumbling! " Arthur quickly hit the back of Tom's head with his sheath, making Tom passed out. He carried him in his back and quickly ran towards the holy lake.
.....
Tom's dream :
A caravan of 50 men and 20 horse carriages were travelling across a dried river valley , inside one such carriage
" Where am I ? " Tom asked while wiping his tears "Why am I crying? "
A figure of a young man entered Tom's line of sight, he was tall, slender and handsome with his jet black hair and ruby eyes. "You are finally awake? " the young man asked in a gentle voice
"Carlos, have we arrived yet ? " Tom asked,
" And Why am I crying? "
"I don't know brother, maybe you had a bad dream? " Carlos replied with his gentle voice
"Maybe" Tom grinned "But don't you worry little bro, our good days are about to start! as long as we deliver this package of Mr Wu, we will be living in luxury! and you can finally become a well respected scholar! " Tom happily hit Carlos's head.
"Ouch! big brother." Carlos replied helplessly while rubbing his head
"Don't bully your younger brother " a burly middle aged man laughed while patting Carlos's head
"Thank you brother Li" Carlos smiled
"Well.. I didn't mean to hit him that hard " Tom replied while hitting his own head to test the force of his fist.
"Watching you is the same as watching monkeys interact! " Surname Li and Carlos burst out laughing.
"Hey! cut it out " Tom pleaded which caused all the people inside the carriage to further burst out laughing.
"Stay quiet guys! " an old man shouted
which caused the entire crowd to shut up immediately.
"We were just fooling around boss! " a middle aged man with brown hair replied
The old man who was the captian of the group solemnly said "This is no simple mission, the people of the Wu mansion paid a fortune just to deliver this cargo across the Dark Wing Forest..... we will definitely encounter some trouble... "
"Captain, you are being too paranoid, we are travelling with our entire escort agency and we have hired 5 golden core experts as well but most importantly, our leader , the Escort King is leading us! what is there to be afraid of? " answered Li proudly
"It is because we have such force that it is bothering me ! The legendary Escort king himself is participating! don't you guys feel anything fishy at all?! " The captain shouted.
"Captain, we are escort warriors, our livelihood lies in dangerous roads, that's how we feed ourselves, The Escort king himself leading us confirms that the thing we are delivering is of huge importance but to be honest, I am more at ease with our legendary leader leading us " Li replied proudly
"You guys understand nothing at all ! it's because I am a captain that I am more privy to important information than you all !!! " the captain's body was visibly shaking which caused the others to immediately stop what they were doing and looked seriously at their captain.
"I saw what we are carrying.... although it was just a glance... it was releasing such ominous energy... " the captain's teeths started chattering.
"It was wrapped with multiple seals.." the captain kept on shivering.
Suddenly they heard a warning sound from their escort group.
"Someone is blocking our pa-" the voice was cut short and the sound of bone crushing reverberated
"Everyone get in formation !!! " the captain shouted and immediately all of them jumped out of the carriage except Carlos
*Crack*
A ominous looking black bone suddenly sprung up from the ground and impaled the carriage, lifting it up!
"Carlos!!! " Tom shouted
Memory end
....
"Haaaaaah..... Haaaaah" Tom grasped for air
"Are you alright" Arthur asked.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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stone