11 The Events at Yrsogam

It had been a few days since the hunter and the mercenaries arrived at the small town of Yrsogam. To be precise, it was the morning of the fourth day since Gayle had joined the travelling band of mercenaries. They had arrived at Yrsogam late in the evening of the day after he had first met them. It shouldn't have taken them that long, but Des' fractured ribs had made it impossible to move any quicker. Since then, they had all been occupying a small wooden hut right next to the mayor's home, which incidentally functioned as the town's makeshift infirmary.

Gayle walked out of the hut and inspected the dozen or so homes which made up that town with well-hidden disdain. The Sun still hadn't fully risen and the Morning Bell had yet to signal the start of a new day so the muddy streets were empty of all life. And still, one could see that to use the term 'poor' to describe Yrsogam was to give it a compliment. The wooden huts which people there called homes were either broken down or poorly constructed. When it rained, they would flood. Naosh knew what happened when it stormed. Yrsogamites lived simple lives, either harvesting their small fields for food or going to the nearby river to occasionally fish. Trade was virtually non-existent unless a travelling merchant got lost and ended there by accident.

The hunter paced himself carefully and expanded his senses to cover the area of the village. At first he had been sceptical of Ichabod's pressing worries, but the moment Yrsogam appeared in his field of vision he knew the innkeeper's concerns to be true. The shithole of a town was covered in an invisible miasma of dark energy. It was everywhere. Where it came from, however, was a question Gayle wanted answered the sooner the better. But no matter how hard he tried to pinpoint its source, he was unable to, even after several days. This could only mean one of two things: either an extremely powerful being was raising its power or an incredible object had been unearthed. He had his suspicions, but he dared not make any assumptions.

Unwilling to let himself feel despair, Gayle left the small village and made his way to a large field far enough that he wouldn't be disturbed by prying eyes. Behind the cover of a hill, he found a shallow stream that only reached his knees and he waded his way into its centre carrying only his unsheathed sword; leaving his cloak and belongings under the cover of a tree. The stream was a great place practice swordsmanship, and Gayle did just that.

The heavy blade rose and fell at Gayle's command in intricate, seemingly random, patterns. He practiced feints and complex pirouettes that tested his footwork to the extreme. Soon his muscles burned from the exercise but he didn't stop even after a long time of swinging the sword despite the thick sweat dripping into his eyes. He had entered a profound state of meditation. There was only him and the sword. The rest of the world disappeared from his eyes as he let his body move by itself.

Before he realised it, the Sun rose to its zenith beating down harshly on his uncovered skin. His stomach rumbled and his throat was dry. Content with his training, Gayle sat down in the shadow of the tree he left his things under and gorged on the food he'd brought along with him. He followed it by having some lukewarm beer which made him frown; maybe he should have let it cool in the stream when he arrived.

"You can come out now." He said into the distance. Immediately, a short woman with hair the colour of a raven's wing walked out from behind a nearby set of rocks. Gayle had long sensed her presence but decided not to comment on it. "You must be starving."

The women nodded and eagerly approached Gayle, eyeing his food with evident desire. The hunter remained expressionless as he observed her clumsily limp over. When he'd found her, she had been heavily injured, on the brink of death. She was the minstrel that Naliam and his men had attacked a few days earlier. They had left her mangled and broken. Had it not been for his proficient medical skills, it was certain she would have died. As matters stood, he was still unable to heal both her knee and broken spirit. In fact, it was because of these that he had allowed her to trail behind him since then. Otherwise he would have long sent her away. As matters stood, she was unable to journey by herself.

"Adras, I've told you time and time again that you should stay further away. It's relatively safe in this area, no beasts roam around these parts." He told her for what seemed the umpteenth time. She ignored him. Had it been two days earlier, he would have insisted. But he quickly learned that Adras wouldn't obey him on this matter.

"You've been practicing again."

"I must, otherwise my blade will dull and my blows will be useless." Said Gayle as he handed her a marinated piece of meat.

"You're excellent." Adras took the meat carefully, almost terrified of feeling the hunter's hand against her own. "I've never seen anyone move like you. At times it's like the speed of thought, others it's slow. But even when it's slow, the tip of your sword arches as if it was cutting space itself."

"Don't speak of things you don't understand."

"Won't you please teach me?"

Gayle sighed and didn't reply. It wasn't the first time Adras had asked him that and he had grown tired of continually turning her down. Part of him understood where her eagerness came from. But the other, greater, part of his soul knew what her fate would be if she became his disciple. It had been many years since he had vowed never to impart his skills.

"A sword is a tool to kill." He spoke slowly and sombrely. "The first ever instrument designed exclusively to take a man's life. It's not good for hunting, or cutting trees, or even for chopping vegetables. When you wield a sword, your hands are destined for blood; either yours or someone else's. No matter how much you dream of carrying it for the sake of protecting yourself or your loved ones, the sword is a devilish instrument of murder."

"But you're a hunter!"

"Yes, but I am an exception. The only one of us to wield a sword, in fact. Most of us carry axes, or spears, or halberds. I even know a few who choose to use large war hammers. But I alone carry a sword." His expression became unfathomable as he stared into his reflection on the blade of his sword. "And I chose the sword because I was once like you. Many years ago, in an era long gone, I was betrayed by everyone I once held dear. The sword was the only thing that didn't betray me; thus I could never bring myself to betray it."

Adras was surprised at how talkative the hunter was behaving. He had probably told her more about himself now than in the last few days put together. She wanted to ask more, but something in Gayle's eyes dissuaded her. Instead she started humming a tune. She did that whenever she could, it helped her feel better even though she herself believed she would never truly recuperate from her emotional scars.

Gayle listened attentively to her tune. He wasn't one for music. His sense of musical rhythm, or lack thereof, was notorious among those who knew him. And yet he still listened to Adras with avid interest. There was something in her melancholic tune that struck a chord somewhere deep within him.

They both stayed there for a while, until Gayle realised that the Sun was lower than he had originally thought. Warning her, as always, to remain unseen, he left. As he walked away, his heart felt heavier than when he'd arrived. This troubled him greatly and so he forced the thought deep into the recesses of his mind.

Soon he arrived at the border of Yrsogam just as the Sun was setting and exclaimed in shock. The heavy atmosphere of darkness and evil had become much denser since his departure. So much so that it even caused him to tremble slightly in fear. Gayle focused his senses into discovering the origin of the phenomenon but was only able to ascertain a certain direction where the dark energies seemed denser. The entity responsible was formidable. Powerful enough to make him doubt his own chances of victory.

The sound of hurried footsteps broke his efforts at sensing the energies. Des was quickly running towards him with a panicked expression. Between hurried breaths he explained that Alastor had performed an obscure ritual and had detected something only to suffer a backlash and was currently injured. Gayle frowned and instructed the mercenary to lead the way back.

Alastor was convulsing on top of a torn mattress upon Gayle's arrival. He was surrounded by the concerned looks of the rest of the entourage. Upon noticing Gayle's arrival, they moved to the side and allowed him passage to the cleric.

Gayle crouched beside Alastor and began inspecting him using both his inner energy and spiritual sense by holding his wrist. A solemn expression emerged on his face. Alastor's Qi channels were clogged with dark energy that had invaded his body and his meridians were completely crippled. Not even a Divine could save his life now. This was tremendously worrisome as he knew that Alastor was a peak Nascent realm martial artist -only a step away from the Earth realm- and anything that could put him in this state just from observing it was something incredibly dangerous.

"When did he become like this?" Inquired Gayle.

"About an hour ago. He cast a tracking formation and shortly afterwards he began screaming like… this." Sombrely explained Naliam. "Is he going to be alright?" He wasn't worried about the cleric's wellbeing; instead, he feared what the consequences would be if Alastor failed to return. The Church would undoubtedly seek him out for an explanation.

"Hard to say." Lied Gayle, fully able to deduce Naliam's thoughts. "A tracking formation, you say? If that's the case, I may be able to examine it and find out more."

Without giving Naliam the chance to reply, Gayle closed his eyes and cast out his spiritual sense in the hopes of finding traces of Alastor's formation. Sure enough, he was quickly able to detect its traces. Although it had mostly been destroyed, he could still pinpoint the general direction that the formation pointed towards. From its westward orientation towards a nearby mound, Gayle deduced that it led to a cave a few miles away from the village.

Sprinting into action, he unleashed his full speed as he disappeared from the room leaving a few astonished mercenaries behind. Not even Alastor in his prime would have been able to see how Gayle left, much less Naliam and his men.

Gayle sprinted through the fields as he headed towards the cave. At his maximum speed, it only took him a short few minutes to reach its entrance. The cave was like the mouth of an ancient dragon, arrogantly daring any would-be trespassers to venture within its depths. But the feeling of danger it gave Gayle was beyond anything he had ever felt before.

In fact, he could clearly perceive the dark energy emerging from the depths of the cave; even without stressing his senses. Whatever the cave hid, it was above his power to deal with. In addition, he had felt this sort of energy before, many years earlier, when a terrifying being had emerged from the Abyss. However, the energy now was far superior to what he'd felt back then.

Shivering at the thought, Gayle began casting a formation in order to further identify what was in the cave. If it was dangerous, he would immediately flee this place and contact the Empire to send reinforcements. The formation he used was one of the more advanced in his repertoire and, thus, it took him close to an hour to finalise it.

Once it began its effects, the formation projected an image of the very depths of the cave into Gayle's mind. The image attracted all of his attention and thus wasn't aware that, at that very instant, Naliam and his men approached him from behind with wary expressions. They could also feel the aura of danger coming from the cave entrance.

Oblivious to his surroundings, Gayle began inspecting the image in his mind and found that, even with all his cultivation focused on the sole task of observation, there was a small area of the depths of the cave shrouded in blackness.

What this meant, Gayle dared not ponder.

He steeled his resolve and pounced forwards without nary a thought. If what was coming was truly dangerous and he needed to request the aid of Heaven realm warriors, it was critical that he find out as much as he possibly could in order to adequately prepare for it.

Gayle braved the dark energy and pushed towards the depths of the cave at great speed, finally arriving at what seemed to be a ritual chamber. However, the chamber hadn't been used in at least several thousand years, judging from its decrepitness. On another occasion, Gayle would have taken the chance to carefully investigate such a relic, but he ignored the ancient sculptures of divine beings and ornate engravings on the forlorn walls and focused entirely on a single woman resting against an altar with ragged breathing and a newborn babe clutched against her chest.

"Please take care of him, I beg you." She said in a whisper. She was so feeble, and her vitality had all but vanished that were it not for his extremely sharp senses, Gayle wouldn't have heard her plead. "His name is Jack".

With a final breath, the woman's head stooped down and she died quietly; a content expression on her face. As soon as she expired, the malevolent energy dissipated and vanished as if it had never been there in the first place. However, Gayle refused to lower his guard.

He suspected that the creature from the Abyss was lurking nearby and, if that was the case, its recent ascension was the perfect time to destroy it. As such, he spread his senses all over the chamber and examined every nook and cranny. But he found nothing. Nothing, but the baby.

He turned to face it and raised his sword. Although he didn't truly believe the baby was the source of such madness, he didn't want to risk taking any chances. As he was about to lunge forward and strike the baby down, he found himself unable to actually do it, because the baby's gorgeous blue eyes were staring at him with complete innocence, without an ounce of hatred, fear, or negativity. The eyes of a child, newly come to the world, without baring any sin.

It was at that moment that Naliam and his men entered the chamber and spread out evenly. As soon as they caught sight of the baby, they suspected it to bear some relation to their mission. It was for that reason that Gayle turned his blade upon them.

It was for that reason that he pounced and killed them.