Just Ahead

Following the trails of footsteps, leading far deeper into the forest zones than he imagined, "Damn! Are they searching for Tsyun and his family even in the 4th forest zone? The beasts range from Foundation Establishment stages 5-8 here, even I might not be able to deal with them!"

Graw!

Suddenly from behind, a grey panther lunged towards Astrona's back.

Astrona quickly rolled to his right, spinning slightly as he hurled his battle axe into the panther's back, ripping its flesh apart as it broke even its spine. Its body twitched a few times, slowly rising from the ground.

It snarled, twisting its head to face Astrona who was startled by the horrifying sight of its rotten face. Despite its broken spine, the panther continued moving towards him, dragging half of its limp body with it.

"What the hell are you?" Lightning coursed through Astrona's veins as he readied another attack.

"Leave this to me, Astrona!" A familiar voice followed as Elder Quint landed behind the panther.

"Hyah! It's stuck in there alright, arh!" Quint separated the battle axe from the panther, its body falling in two. "Only way to kill these things is to deplete all of their energy, or you can just erase them entirely like this: Freeze!"

As Quint opened his hand, an aura of frost came into being.

Quint wasn't of the Krose bloodline, but like the Krose bloodline which had an affinity with the special element of lightning, his innate elemental affinity was with the special element of ice.

The frost aura surrounded the panther, rapidly crystalizing as the panther found itself encased in ice. "Now, shatter!" Quint yelled, closing his hand into a fist as the encased panther shattered into bits and pieces of rotted flesh.

He tossed the battle axe over, "Here, Astrona. Looks like we'll be fighting alongside each other again, huh? If only it was under better circumstances though."

Astrona nodded, "Yeah, let's get moving. Any idea on where that cult is located? And where's Nero?"

"Nero's already headed into the fifth zone of the forest. Where the strongest of the wild beasts are located; that's where these 'Apotheosis of Lineage' freaks would surely be set up."

The two continued on while numerous roars sounded out in all directions, of both beasts and men.

Today, the forest found itself nourished by the blood of war, while the hazy mist of dense qi in the forest served as the predator's shroud through the night.

A sharp "caw" sounded out, a large bird nose diving through the twisted tree branches towards Astrona.

Astrona's eyes flashed briefly, "Deplete all of their energy? Halving them at the waist doesn't work, but how about like this?"

Lightning pulsated through his veins, shrilling as it wrapped itself around his battle axe before he threw it, halving the bird vertically.

Thunk.

Both sides fell to the ground, unmoving. Suddenly, the mushy insides of the bird started to squiggle in an attempt to reconnect.

"It can... regenerate?" Astrona said in disbelief. He quickly sent forth a mass of lightning energy onto the axe handle, ravaging the bird's remains.

"It should be over now." Astrona grabbed for his axe, gasping as he noticed out of the corner of his eyes—a body.

Not just any body, but one of their own. The corpse was marked with several lacerations, from the peckings of birds to the fleshly tears of ravenous teeth.

"This is... Grand Elder Ahan's son...."

The duo froze, their expressions grim, "Astrona, I worry this is but one of many incidents. You should be able to place a simple formation to protect the body, right? We'll bring him back to the village later."

Quint spoke solemnly, and the duo persevered further on.

Finally, the dup reached the fifth forest zone. Throughout their entire path, they had yet to come across any normal beasts. Perhaps, the unnatural undead creatures had long sent them fleeing instinctively.

Aside from the occasional fights, there were the sporadic corpses of their own with each new tally darkening their wills.

It wasn't long when they stumbled across a body that wasn't from their village, instead being one of the researchers. The man's body was charred black, his bloodshot eyes bulging out of his skull from an intense electrical shock.

Nearby was an injured grand elder, but she was breathing, "Astrona? Quint? Thank God you two are here!" She coughed severely, blood dribbling from her lips and startling the two.

"Fani!" Astrona started, calling forth a healing energy unique to him, "Here, let me help you—"

"Don't worry about me! I'll live, there's just some internal injuries. Kia-Nian was with me, but I sent him after Nero to give him support. They should be just up ahead, go help them!"

The two glanced at each other, nodding resolutely, "Alright. Take care, Fani."

"Of course, likewise you two."

A distance not too far, various charred corpses of actual beasts loitered the ground, a putrid scent tainting the air.

"Least these ones stayed dead." Quint shook his head, an icy energy enveloping all the corpses. "Don't mind me, Astrona. I'm just gonna make sure they stay that way."

All of the corpses were frozen, before breaking into fragments.

"Do your thing." Astrona nodded grimly, taking note of a lightning flash through the trees in the distance.

"We've finally reached the others, let's catch up with them."

The duo pressed on, with an increasing number of dead researchers along the way. All of which were ruthlessly slaughtered, their bodies reeking of the unpleasant smell of burnt flesh.

"Must be Nero's doing. I haven't seen such brutality from him in a long time." Quint remarked.

Astrona nodded, thinking, 'I don't think I've ever seen him this angry, period.'

Just ahead stood two men soaked in blood, a green robed Kia-Nian and Nero, wearing his white and black robe.

There was also a third, though he was being held by his neck in Nero's grasp. It was another researcher, his body thrashing around violently as he tried to break free.

Nero wasn't letting up, a ruthlessness swelling up within him. From his hands, lightning energy rapidly converged into the man's head as he started foaming from the mouth. Quickly, he was fried from the inside and the man stopped resisting, all signs of life fading.

Nero released the lifeless body to the ground, his eyes burning with an unrestrained rage.

Kia-Nian couldn't help but spare a second glance at the man's body, his gaze of pity. He sighed, but considering how screwed the entire situation was, he ultimately refrained from stepping in between him and Nero.

Life was brutal and unforgiving at times. Had their positions been reversed, perhaps their fates would've been unfathomably worse.

"Hey, the two of you finally caught up. I'm sure you've seen the numerous casualties by now. It's about time we put an end to this cult." Nero voiced dimly.

The duo also took notice of his appearance. Aside from the blood soaked robes, his eyes were blood red, veins on the verge of bursting, and his skin was burnt black like the numerous corpses they came across.

Quint started, "Nero, your body—"

He shook his head, "Don't worry. I've overexerted myself a bit, but I can still keep going. Channeling so much lightning energy into my body and combining it with my martial arts, heh, I guess it takes a bit of a toll, huh? Even then, it's not nearly as bad as seeing everyone around me die."

Ahead of the group was a makeshift shack, rustic in appearance, yet it gave off a twisted aura.

"Most of the researchers have already fled, but their leader, Edalas, has stayed behind just up ahead. I can still take out some of those undead beasts, but Quint, I'll have to leave Edalas to you. The two of you are in Core Formation Stage 1; you're the only one who can deal with him."

Quint nodded, taking the lead. Astrona started forward as well.

"No! Astrona, you'll stick with Kia-Nian and I! You're strong, but you're in over your head if you think you can compete with those two." Nero rebuked grimly.

He didn't want to put Astrona down, especially in regards to his cultivation, but he didn't want to see anyone else he cared about die.

Astrona clenched his fists, but he nodded nonetheless. There was no sense in throwing his life away, especially when it wouldn't do any good to solve their current predicament.

As they neared the shack, numerous undead beasts straggled throughout the darkness. As of now, all of the beasts were relatively weak, merely at Foundation Establishment Stage 3.

Despite being so weak, it seemed like they outnumbered those in Krose Village. And not only were their numbers staggering, but their attacks in the forest were just so sudden. Furthermore, their tenacity was beyond anything they've ever seen.

With a simple slice, many had assumed that the beasts were dead just like that, only to be caught off guard by a sudden leap from the "dead" beast.

Astrona had already fought against a dozen or so alongside Quint, his energy waning by now. Those with weaker cultivations would have an even harder time keeping up.