The city of Cnut, unlike Edna which seemed more like a disorderly settlement around a watchtower, was quite a bit more impressive. And to Ducanor's eyes, it was enormous. Buildings as big as mountains, and roads and streets where five wagons could pass side by side. It was in itself an impressive sight for a peasant like Ducanor.
"Dumbfounded, bumpkin," mocked Benia, who had arrived at his side at some unknown moment.
"A little," Ducanor admitted as he watched the city streets in the distance with fascination, although...
"It feels a bit empty," Ducanor muttered in confusion.
There wasn't exactly a lack of people, but the flow was low. The small dots in the distance moved in an orderly fashion, and it wasn't a shapeless mass like he had usually seen in Edna.
Ulrika, who had appeared at his side, also added: "Don't tease him, Benia. Who was left with her mouth so wide open you could pop an egg in it when we went to Tara for the first time?"
Blushing furiously, Benia grumbled: "Hey, you also let out a cry of surprise when we went to Tara."
"But I don't tease people for being surprised by..." and while the duo argued warmly, Ducanor spotted the familiar figure of Ek Thor in the distance.
Or as he called him inwardly: the grumpy dwarf. Despite his size, he had a good amount of pent-up anger and always replied sharply to whatever was said to him, but despite that, he was quite intelligent in his work and, most surprisingly, he was an alchemist.
"What's going on?" Ducanor asked as he stepped forward, ignoring Benia and Ulrika.
"There's trouble, that's what's going on," Ek Thor replied dryly as he took a breath. His face looked pale and nervous, making Ducanor raise his guard.
At the same time, Benia and Ulrika had already stopped arguing and were looking at Ek Thor warily, taking note of what he was about to say.
"What is it, Ek Thor? Has the city been taken?" Ulrika asked.
"Not exactly," Ek Thor replied in a somber tone. "It's more complicated than that."
"Explain yourself quickly," Benia urged him bluntly.
At her words, Ek Thor seemed annoyed, but still answered with a question. "Have you heard of the Blood Race?"
Ducanor's expression froze slightly as he vaguely remembered his time as a blood wolf. He had heard from Ernzu that the corruption of the lupercos by the Blood Race had transformed them into lycans. The lupercos were a race of mortals with a wolf-like appearance, renowned for their honor and strength, but the blood corruption had transformed the lupercos into monsters.
The lycans: creatures thirsty for blood and mortal flesh that could spread their curse to other mortals through bite or blood. Ducanor hadn't completely purged the curse; it was simply in a state of hibernation. After all, he had never opened his second dantian with the bloodline power of a lycan, which had made the curse recede thanks to his dharmic rune.
Though he always worried that the blood wolf would return. After all, that was him, too.
"Yes," Ulrika replied to his silence.
"Well, it seems a meeting is taking place between the different Blood Temples."
Those words sent a shiver down Ducanor's spine, despite not knowing exactly what it meant.
Seeing his doubt, Ulrika quickly explained: "The Blood Temples are the method the Blood Race uses to call their different branches outside the northern continent. Practically every Blood Temple is controlled by a high-ranking member of the Blood Race. From what I've heard from my master, there are only six temples in the entire eastern continent."
"Yes," Ek Thor replied, "and three of them are currently gathered in the city of Cnut."
"Why?" Benia asked in confusion.
"I don't know, but it seems like a bad idea to enter the city right now. No matter what they are planning, the presence of a Blood Temple in itself is pretty bad."
Ducanor frowned: "Wasn't the lycan cult they destroyed part of the temple? Why would this be different?"
"It's very different, Ducanor," Ulrika commented with an affable smile. "What we destroyed was simply an independent cult created by a member of the Blood Race. The temples function practically as ambassadors of the blood dynasties, and their presence is considerable throughout the continent.
"The sect has tried to eliminate them for centuries but it has been impossible, and their existence has simply been tolerated. But whenever they cross a line, they are hunted down mercilessly, so they usually keep a low profile and simply convert members voluntarily through secret selections."
Hearing Ulrika's explanation, he quickly understood why Intermezzo's case was different; after all, he had kidnapped and enslaved an entire small group of villages in Otranto.
"So, what do we do? Are we going to spy on them?" Benia asked with a confident smile.
This made Ulrika and Ek Thor rub their temples as they looked at Benia with obvious annoyance. Ducanor, however, nodded slightly.
"We must investigate; we can't let this unfold. Maybe it's related to the giant invasion," Ducanor commented.
This made Ulrika's eyes shine with some curiosity as she pondered, while Ek Thor himself frowned.
"I don't recommend this, it's too dangerous. We're not talking about infiltrating a cult, we're talking about a temple. There might be thousands of members in the city; it wouldn't be strange if a mortal lord or more terrifying existences are gathered."
The whole group thought about it and couldn't help but partially agree with Ek Thor. But even so.
"We are Guards. Death is inevitable, but the safety of the continent is the priority," Ulrika said decisively.
To which Ducanor, despite not being a Guard, nodded and muttered: "Relax, this will be quick, just in and out."
"Yeah, how hard can it be," Benia commented with a smile.
Ek Thor, looking at the trio, couldn't help but have a premonition that everything could go wrong.
Into the Sewers
The city was quiet, so quiet that even a group like Tolrik's would be too conspicuous. So, after sending Ek Thor to notify Tolrik, the three of them—Ducanor, Benia, and Ulrika—entered the city.
The guards at the entrance searched them exhaustively but didn't ask many questions, and they were able to enter after a somewhat long wait.
"Where do we investigate?" Ducanor asked curiously.
"Ek Thor said they are probably gathering in the city's sewers," she replied.
Benia seemed lost in her own thoughts, while Ducanor appeared alert. They were walking since riding horseback would draw too much attention, so they simply moved forward and ventured deeper into the city. And the first thing they followed to investigate this place, in the middle of the sunset, was a small crowd.
A small crowd that made its way into the city's passageways, in single file, moving forward without looking at the road.
"Where are they going?" Ducanor asked in a low voice, looking doubtfully at the strange behavior of those people.
"Let's follow them, maybe there's a riot, or they're hiding from the Blood Temple," Benia commented.
And as they followed them, they sought to understand the plot within the city. Unaware that something sinister was brewing within it, beyond what they could comprehend.
...
Mortals were creatures easy to corrupt; simply satisfy a need, or create a need. It could be the search for happiness, freedom, escaping loneliness, or even love. But the one he liked the most, his favorite, was none other than food.
What person can live without food? Who can bear not eating and enjoying a good meal? It wasn't simply a necessity; it was a pleasure. A good meal could fill the stomach and the heart at the same time.
Among all the pleasures of the flesh, food was probably the one he loved and hated the most at the same time. The pleasure of eating was incomparable, but the pain of hunger and the suffering of mediocre food was torture.
But he fed his animals very well.
...
The sewers were an achievement passed down from the Hegemony to the feys. Ducanor remembered quite clearly how Uisuk praised the architectural and technological achievement that were the sewers established by the Hegemony. And it was probably what he missed most from his life as a noble.
"This smells like shit," Ducanor grunted in annoyance as he walked down the side passages of the sewers, where a huge channel in the middle carried the black water of the city's waste.
"What did you expect? We're in the sewers, that it would smell like flowers?" Benia replied angrily; she didn't seem very happy either about being in this place.
"Hey, don't yell at me, do you want them to hear us?" Ducanor complained.
"You're telling me to shut up... you shut up, your voice sounds like an annoying beep, it can be heard from..."
"Both of you shut up!" Ulrika yelled furiously, making the duo tremble slightly. Surprised, they looked at each other with doubt and annoyance before looking away, diverting their anger.
"What do you think this is, a stroll? We're in unknown territory, plus we lost the trail of the people we were following," Ulrika complained annoyedly.
"We haven't lost them," Ducanor added as he moved towards a gutter; he frowned, touched the stone walls, and frowned again.
"I feel them above," Ducanor muttered as he walked close to the wall, as if sniffing something.
"What are you doing? Are you a bloodhound now?" Benia asked annoyedly. "We should leave, we're not going to find anything for now, but if we have the help of..."
"Found it." Suddenly, as if it were a strange mechanism, Ducanor had pressed a sort of step on the wall, which formed a small staircase upwards where there seemed to be some kind of trapdoor.
"That is..."
"I told you I was good," Ducanor said with an arrogant expression as, without letting Benia complain, he climbed the hand-holds, quickly scaling up to the trapdoor and crossing beyond its threshold.
"Arrogant bastard," Benia grumbled as she followed him.
"But he's right," Ulrika replied with a mischievous smile behind her.
The Catacombs of the Blood Temple
And then they found themselves in unknown territory. They weren't in the sewers, but in a kind of catacombs.
Skulls and bones piled on top of each other and bound with rock and stone formed a sinister chamber where the only source of light was the faint flames of scattered torches. Which only allowed them to see the faint shadows of figures hidden in the darkness.
"Those are people," Benia muttered, dazed.
And then Ulrika understood where the people of the city had gone when they disappeared.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of piled bones and ragged corpses of men and women were scattered throughout the enormous chamber. In the center of it, where the only source of light was clearly visible, there was an altar with candles.
Blackened figures knelt around it, while they devoured bloody meat and a disgusting black mass on the altar, in addition to drinking a kind of black pitch from a chalice.
They stayed quiet, trying to go unnoticed. But then, strangely, the air felt somewhat uncomfortable.
There are no exits, he thought with his heart hanging by a thread. No damn entrances either.
The entrances had disappeared at some unknown moment. Strangely, none of those present seemed worried, as they strangely sank into pleasure.
He felt the atmosphere of the chamber change to a suffocating and destructive one. The bloodbath had begun.