The Gamer's POV-Chapter 207: Home of the Hollow Ones [23]
"What?"
Cedric’s eyes widened and he nearly stumbled when he heard that.
"They’re coming for me?" he asked, but just as he did, Uriel slowed because she could no longer see and her world went completely dark. Not only that, a piercing headache suddenly began to pound against her skull.
"Are you okay, Uriel?" Leon asked in panic as he held her by the shoulders to steady her before she could collapse onto the uneven path.
She steadied her footing, and after gaining back a shred of her composure, Uriel resumed running, now being led forward by the firm grip Leon kept on her arm.
"Yes." She muttered, although it was unclear if she was responding to Leon or Cedric.
Cedric, who seemed completely focused on the implications of her warning, urgently pressed for more.
"Why? Why are they following the scent of the decay?" He asked with a desperation that mirrored the frantic pace of their retreat.
Uriel winced as the headache intensified when she thought about it. Then she replied in a voice that showed that she was confused as well. "The leader of the Lord’s. He’s the one that sent them to hunt down the decay."
Upon hearing that, it felt like something cracked within Cedric.
’Huh? I don’t understand. How would the hollow ones know even know the scent of the decay to begin with?’
His mind began to race as he ran alongside his party members who were all now even more confused and terrified.
’It doesn’t make any...’
His thoughts suddenly tripped over themselves as something clicked.
’Wait.’
A memory flashed in Cedric’s mind in that instant. It was the memory of the time Lee Lim copied his flames of decay after invading his dream at the Grail river.
’No way... could it be? Did he come to give them the scent of my decay?’
Upon realizing that that was what happened, Cedric felt his dread intensify.
Still running as fast as he could, he looked back towards the direction of the city. He could hear the thuds of the pursuit growing louder now, signaling that the hollow ones were almost upon the city walls.
Cedric swallowed and looked back towards the others.
’They want me,’ he pondered as he looked forward at the path they were running to. ’Which means... no matter how far we go, they’ll chase us until they get me.’
With that thought, his expression grew bitter and his features hardened as the reality of his situation settled in.
He didn’t realize when he slowed down until he eventually halted.
When the others noticed this, Leon was the first to yell. "What are you doing, Cedric? Come on, we need to hurry!"
Cedric repeated his thought at that moment, "They are after me."
"Yes. That’s why we need to move faster!" Leon barked, his voice strained with the effort of both running and shouting. He doubled back, grabbed Cedric’s sleeve and tried to yank him forward, but Cedric remained as heavy as lead.
"Don’t you get it, Leon?!" Cedric wrenched his hand back. "We can’t outrun them, they are tracking my scent! As long as I’m with you, I’m just bringing the slaughter to all of you as well!"
"That’s enough, Cedric!" Leon, who wasn’t aware that Cedric could bring himself back to life too, seemed hellbent on not letting his friend stay behind. "We are not leaving you behind to be some kind of martyr. Now shut up and run before I have to carry you myself!"
"Get out of here, Leon!" Cedric yelled, then turned to the group. "You guys should keep moving!" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
The others who had stopped all had the same conflicted expression. While the members of Cedric’s party were hesitant, with eyes already beginning to blur by tears, the members of Aurora’s party immediately fled... except her.
"Go! I’m going to be fine. I’ll catch up with you guys later," Cedric insisted. He glanced back briefly, then looked back at the others and yelled again. "Go!"
Aurora grabbed Leon’s arm tightly, and as she began to pull him away, she yelled, "We need to keep moving, Leon! If we stay here, we all die for nothing!"
"Let’s go, Leon." Uriel finally spoke with a shaky, fragile breath, snapping Leon out of it.
Evelyn dragged Audrey, who was sobbing as she stumbled along, and as the party members hesitantly began to retreat, Dion clicked his tongue and cursed in frustration, then shouted back, "Promise you’ll come back to us, man."
Cedric didn’t say anything and instead forced a tired, melancholy smile. He watched the party run as fast as they could until they were nothing more than small, fading shadows.
Eventually, he sighed, turned around, and muttered bitterly, "Ah... this sucks."
Despite trying to sound nonchalant, his voice betrayed the fear that was slowly clawing its way up his throat. It was one thing to know he could come back to life, but it was another thing entirely to face the agony of the "ending" itself.
At the moment, the sounds of the galloping grew even louder now.
"What is this, Aika?" He muttered as he began walking back towards the city. "How is it that we always end up in these kinds of messes? It’s like we have a magnet for the worst possible luck."
He paused and turned to look at Aika when she did not answer him after a few seconds. Her expression was completely vacant, and as usual, it was hard for him to tell if there was a thought behind those eyes.
Eventually, he looked away from her, then looked up and sighed. "I’m beginning to think that I’m the main character, and not that brat."
He let out a small laugh, and then, he suddenly found the absurdity of it all funny, and he began to laugh a bit more.
After a few seconds, though, he stopped, exhaled, and extended his hand to Aika. "Come on, I don’t want them to see you."
Aika stared at his hand, then took it and shifted into a katana in his grip. He had barely gripped it, when the first line of riders crested the ridge, silhouetted against the pale moon as they poured over the hill.
The leader suddenly pulled the reins and the horse came to a halt. Then he raised a hand stopping the others. The rest of the riders poured beside him, skidding into a jagged line that stretched across the path.
Cedric tightened his fingers around the hilt of the katana as he watched the leader sniff twice, before speaking in a hollow voice.
[The scent of the decay.]
***
’Did this many have to come for just me?’ Cedric mused grimly as he stared at the number of hollow ones in front of him. His hands gripped his katana really tightly, and was ready to draw it at any moment.
’How strong do they think I am to be this wary?’
At that moment, the male flanking the leader, turn to the leader and spoke.
"Is this the being with the decay, father?"
The leader did not respond and was quiet for a moment, studying Cedric. He tilted his head, and an expression of what looked like disappointment crossed his face.
Slowly, he raised his hand and tapped his chest right where his weakness was. Then he tapped his forehead, before raising his hand slightly to the side.
Cedric could not understand this gesture, but to him, it looked and felt like some kind of greeting. He didn’t react and just watched the creature in the same tense manner.
The leader brought his hand down, then began in a deep, reverberating voice that sounded regretful. "It’s a shame. I really had hope for a moment."
Cedric’s eyes widened, because all of a sudden, this creature was speaking kaldor, which was the language spoken universally across the empires.
’How can it speak Kaldor?’ Cedric thought in disbelief at what was currently happening.
The leader had paused and everyone was quiet with all their eyes fixed on Cedric.
After a few seconds, the leader gestured to himself again, then continued.
"My name is Argentos. Leader of the pillars of The Hortus Conclusus."
’Hortus Conclausus? What is that?’ Cedric had never heard those words before. He knew that the hollow ones were otherwise known as the protectors of the first ring, but that was all he knew about them.
While he was still pondering that, he noticed that Argentos kept looking at his katana.
"A fine weapon you have there," Argentos commented after looking at it for a moment. "Not a lot of us used katanas. And we were not a people who used magic, other than the gifts we were blessed with, like tracking and anti-magic. So she’s not one of us, that I’m sure of. Which makes things a lot easier."
