Bab 24: A Wolf Cub
About 3k word chapter for the missed chapter yesterday.
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"There's no time to waste, we must crush this Domain before there are more casualties from the Stormterror attacks, although it was severely wounded, we never know when he might recover. We need to act fast." Kaeya stated while remaining cautious at each step he took to avoid traps or hidden enemies inside of the temple.
As they moved further into the Domain, the group kept wondering just how many more Hilichurls there could be.
They had already killed seventeen thus far, but there was still no sign of any stronger monsters which lead Kaeya to believe there might be something more ominous at the end of the Domain.
Ever forward they pressed on, dispatching a couple of Hilichurl archers along the way.
They soon came upon a section of the Domain which must have been the dumping grounds for the unwanted materials.
Several bones, chunks of rotten meat, and basic Hilichurl weapons like clubs were laid around the area.
Kaeya examined the pile of bones and concluded the bones weren't human.
"Luckily, it seems like it's just some wild boars, it looks like there were no human casualties...for now," Kaeya called out.
Yomite noted the last part of his sentence but didn't comment on it.
Unfortunately, Domains like these aren't accessible to everyone as they were closed down due to the danger that accompanies them, but young adventurers always ignored regulations and wandered off into danger while chasing after their made-up adventures.
All for the thrill of defeating enemies and finding treasures they said, only to wind up dead in a dark place, becoming food for monsters and fertilizers for the ground.
Proceeding through the domain, once again, silence loomed over the trio.
It's not that they didn't have anything to talk about, but Kaeya noticed yet another group of Hilichurls this time, a few of pyro slimes were with them.
In the middle of the enemy camp, stood a mechanical device which was presumably the key to opening the path in front of them, so conflict was necessary.
It indeed looked like the only way to proceed was to defeat the enemies and unlock the contraption.
'Oh so this is how slimes look in this world. Cute.' Yomite thought as he was already thinking of multiple ways he could use them.
"Let's go."
Kaeya and their group ambushed the Hilichurls, instantly decapitating them in a well coordinated group attack, even Kaeya had to admit was perfect, and rushed toward the remaining enemies. The slimes.
Yomite raised his heavy weapon above his head and swung it down, expecting for it to bounce away and to immediately dodge if the attack was parried toward him, but to his surprise, the sword entered the jelly without much resistance and ended the life of the slime in one hit.
The pyro slime slowly heated up, expanding and Yomite could tell it was about to explode, taking a step back to a safe distance.
'What the hell? Weren't slimes supposed to be resistant against physical attacks and only be killed by magic or if you managed to locate a core inside of them? What is up with this?' He couldn't say he was disappointed as the fight had gone smoothly and they all cleared up the room in a matter of seconds, but unexpected things like this sure left him questioning his knowledge of rpg games and novels.
'They weren't special slimes like slime kings, mutated slimes nor demon slimes, so their resistance might have been weaker but still...in some books even basic slimes were completely immune to physical attacks...much less slime mutations...'
Ignoring the thought, he watched as Kaeya stepped forward and touched the device in the middle of the room.
The walls next to them started slowly folding and moving in different shapes, opening up a path for them in a form of a gate.
They didn't even require a key and all they needed to do was to just press the button.
Upon entering through the gate, they cautiously moved forward until they came to a section that descended, from a hidden vantage point.
They peered over to the side to see what was below them.
"Looks like we are almost out folks! I am such a great leader. This was easier than expe—..."
Hearing that Kaeya stopped his boasting, Yomite and Hu Tao knew something bad had happened, and immediately questioned what he saw.
"...What happened?"
"..."
"Kaeya?"
"...There is an another...dumping ground..." He muttered with a frown.
The group had encountered yet another dumping ground, but this time, it was different and completely out of the expectations for him.
Intestines ripped apart all around, dyeing the ground in the color of blood, teeth and bones of all shapes, from ribs to the remains of what appeared to be spine.
This was where the happy thoughts died off and teasings had stopped. Everything went downhill.
Kaeya sighed as he knelt down and observed the remains. Upon further inspection, he concluded that this time they were unfortunately all human.
"Shit..." He searched around the piles of bone remains and found a few Guild tags among them.
"AR rank 2, 3, and 4...They were beginners and too low leveled for this Domain...Why would they enter..."
He checked the weapons on the ground but found nothing of use among them.
You didn't need a Vision to become an adventurer, but it was your saving grace in most situations.
"Damn it." Yomite bit his lip. He had no connection to those that have fallen, yet once again, a sense of reality hit him deep in the guts.
The adventurers were prepared to die, yet looking at the scene, Yomite felt nauseous.
There were mostly bones but there was still half of the body of a person remaining, and it was slowly decaying.
The body's skull, limbs, and most of the intestines were missing. Near this body were smaller bones, very little meat stuck to the blackened bones, indicating they had been roasted, possibly while alive.
If he were ever to die In action, he begged for a quick death, being beheaded or something, and nothing like this person before him had experienced.
'Being roasted alive...'
It sent shivers down his spine.
He gave a slight bow towards the bodies of the fallen and noticed Hu Tao was standing there, without blinking.
"What is it, Hu Tao?" he asked, wondering if it was someone who died that she knew.
Hu Tao sent a wry smile his way and replied, "I really hate Domains, do you know that?"
"Why is that?"
"They are still here."
"Huh?"
"All of the people that have died here before, are still here, trapped in this Domain." She spoke, her hands trembling. "Hundreds if not thousands of people, are forever locked in here, unable to pass on..."
Yomite came to a realization. 'The ghosts...' He looked around, knowing he was unable to see anything.
He really wondered how the world looked like in her flower-shaped pupils. Maybe he would be able to understand her more that way.
"One day... I will enter all Domains one by one to purify you all..." She started doing handsigns, as if preparing for some kind of ritual and pulled out a few black talismans from her robe.
"What are you planning on doing?" Yomite asked. He was sure that before, when she met him, she used a different color of talismans so he wondered what she would do now.
"...There is this thing called Forceful Passing. Easily to guess from the name, you forcefully make a soul pass onto the other side. It is a forbidden technique we shouldn't be using, as it goes against our principles, but these people deserve it. Their pain is too much. Usually when people die, their soul takes place of a form from their appearance, but sometimes there is an anomaly and they end up in pitiful states."
"With no hands or arms, unable to move in their ghostlike form. Exactly like those three adventurers laying there, their souls were not formed well and now they are feeling the exact same pain as when they were dying and I can't leave them like this." No longer listening to anything else, she put three talismans on the pile of bones and focused on the ritual.
Yomite observed her serious features and felt that he was once again, completely confused about what was going through her head.
At one point she disliked people, then it felt like she didn't understand human emotions and now, he could see her wanting to seriously help the souls of the dead.
From this weird mix of personality traits he concluded, that she distrusted people as they probably mistreated her in the past, but she cared about her job and genuinely wanted to help people pass on in peace.
At least that was the story he understood so far from the rumours he heard from guards and small talks he had with her.
Kaeya walked towards him, interrupting his thoughts, "This ruin used to be a temple devoted to the Wolf of the North. Now, the priests are gone, and the temple has been seized by monsters. However, they say that the spirit of the Wolf still watches over the endless fields of Mondstadt from someplace else." He muttered while sliding his palm across the cryptic walls full of ancient symbols, trying to ignore the remains of the people who fell here.
Such was the life of an adventurer. Unexpected could happen at any time, whether you liked it or not.
They waited about an hour and a half for the ritual to finish, much to the protest of Kaeya who kept on mumbling about the time that was slipping through their hands.
Having finished what she wanted Hu Tao nodded with a smile and swore to return here later to free all of the souls from here.
Without a moment of hesitation, they delved deeper into the crypt.
About ten minutes of walking through empty ruins, Kaeya suddenly spoke, "Wait," He whispered as he leaned his ear near a wall, taking in the distant sounds. "I hear Hilichurls from up ahead, and something else…something growling, possibly a monster."
The duo nodded and Yomite was starting to feel like Kaeya was a superman at this point. There was nothing he couldn't do. Although it was only reserved to fighting and battle experience, it was still very impressive.
The way he fought was that of an experienced veteran and Yomite was thinking he would ask him for an advice or tips on holding sword or maybe proper sword techniques he could utilize.
They went deeper into the crypt and it didn't take long for them to find the source.
Inside of the crypt were three Hilichurls and a chained wolf growling at each other.
The Hilichurls cackled with clubs in their hands as the beast in front of them snarled.
The wolf with white and blue fur and blue eyes was shackled to the ground with manacles around each limb to keep it from moving any closer.
As Yomite looked at the animal, in the darkness these wolf's eyes seemed to glow, and in that instant, he could feel an unbearable amount of hatred coming from him.
"So it was an animal making those sounds...Poor wolfie...but what is a wolf doing here? Well it is the temple of the wolf but still." Hu Tao questioned, while being reminded of her own pets back at Liyue. She should go and pay them a visit sometime in the future.
One of the Hilichurls brought its club down upon the head of the wolf, a quick splash of blood hit the floor and dripped from the Hilichurl's club, but the wolf did not fall.
It snarled once again as it attempted to attack its captors, struggling to remove itself, all the while the Hilichurls laughed.
"Poor wolfie." Hu Tao tightened her grip around her polearm.
"Look at the size of it…much larger than a normal wolf, although it still looks to be young, is that a wolf cub?" Yomite drew his claymore from within its scabbard, ready for another battle to save the puppy.
"Kaeya what do we do? I think we should just go and help..." Yomite was a huge animal lover himself, from cats to dogs to hamsters, everything cute that could bring him joy was fine, even a snake or a spider.
That's why he was furious when he saw how they treated the poor wolf. Wolves were like dogs. Although slightly bigger, but still cute and cuddly.
"...Kaeya?"
Without answering, Kaeya jumped down, landing a heroic entrance.
"Sorry little bro. It appears I am a little bit mad so I need to vent my frustrations."
He raised his leg and outstretched it, kicking the closest Hilichurl in the right side of its head with enough force that the small body actually flew a few meters hitting a nearby wall with a loud crunch, breaking its skull.
Not even the mask was able to save it, much less reduce the impact from his kick, it was immediately caved in with its brain.
At the same time as he did so, Hu Tao and Yomite leaped down toward the landing and rushed in with their weapons ready.
The other two Hilichurls immediately turned their attention toward their direction and saw the two warriors charging forward.
The Hilichurls were too slow to react and were easily slaughtered.
Yomite brought his blade in a downward motion, cutting the first Hilichurl into two diagonal pieces with his huge claymore.
Funnily enough, he remembered a quote from his favorite manga,
'His weapon was far too large to be rightfully called a sword, no. It was larger, thicker heavier, and cruder than any normal blade. By all accounts, it was no more than a hulking mass of iron.'
The Hillichurl didn't even understand what happened as it was cut in half, before weakly falling to the side, spilling out it's inside fluids and brain matter.
A cold breeze carrying the stench of blood blew in and made Kaeya's torch flicker, gazing back at the way Yomite fought.
He never understood the big weapons. They had no elegance.
As Yomite ended the fight capable of making people feel nauseous, he stepped over the corpse of a Hilichurl moving towards the last one, but before he could, Hu Tao rushed in and struck the last Hilichurl with the back of her staff, breaking its twisted nose and knocking it to the ground.
Before the Hilichurl could even register the pain from the first hit, Kaeya plunged its sword deep into the back of its head before giving it a violent twist.
"Look how low you've fallen...Disgusting." He muttered as he sheathed his sword back into its scabbard.
The wolf had stopped its growling and snarling the moment the first Hilichurl had been killed as it cautiously watched the human in front of it.
It then turned its head as it heard the sound of the more people coming to join the one in front of him. The moment they cleared out his tormentors, all eyes were focused on him.
It immediately tensed up and readied itself to fight once more.
"Kaeya, what are you doing?"
"I am going to break the chains." Kaeya calmly replied as he sheathed his sword before joining his party.
The blue wolf looked back at the group and instinctively growled as it took a shaky step toward them.
The wolf took another step before fatigue finally set in, and he suddenly collapsed on its side struggling to keep its eyes open.
Blood ran from its wounds from where it had been beaten, stabbed, and cut by the Hilichurls and other monsters.
For weeks, it endured the torture of the Hilichurls all the while, trying to stay alive, not remembering who it was or it's purpose, simply used as a tool to gather magic and energy.
It witnessed the humans who had entered the Domain not long before but were ultimately defeated and consumed by the monsters.
Now, that it had its freedom once again, it could only lay there waiting to die from its wounds.
"It's injured, we need to bring him to Mondstadt at once." Kaeya urged as he put the huge cub into his embrace, looking a bit hilarious, but now was not the time.
"Why are you going so far for a wolf you just met?" Hu Tao inquired.
"I feel something quite peculiar about this pup, and to confirm my suspicion, he needs to be healed. We are bringing him with us to Mondstadt."
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