Chapter 558: Trekking Toward Armageddon

Chapter 558 – Trekking Toward the End of Days

(Trekking Toward Armageddon.

The ranger who was born from the Evergreen Mountains often said so, and when he set up camp before sunset every day, he would always look at the crimson color that came across from the sky and sigh so, in his own words, this was a “quite romantic expression”-it was the greatest bravery and the most extreme romance in this world when the end of the world was approaching. In his own words, it was “rather romantic”-the greatest bravery and the ultimate romance in the world when the end was near.

However, neither bravery nor romance can stop death, and the Ranger fell in the last kilometer before the crossroads, a vicious arrow piercing his chest, the most ironic way to die – a master of the bow dying by the bow and arrow.

The psychic took care of the sneak attackers, two corpses that were already in tatters, they ambushed the road and launched their insidious attack as the party approached, the undead traits of no breath or heartbeat eluded the ranger’s scouting, and the wind covered the stench emanating from their bodies, creating yet another unfortunate accident, just like every parting along the way.

The cloaked warrior came to the edge of the encampment and sat down on a dry stump, lifting his head to look out silently into the dusk.

The unsettling crimson streaked across the sky, crashing into the direction of the setting sun like a blood trail about to tear the world apart, as if there was blood gushing in the crimson, and as if there were countless ghostly phantoms beyond the reach of mortal minds hidden and brewing, gazing coldly at a world that was rapidly slipping into defeat.

Footsteps came from the side, and the psychic took a seat on the ground beside him, gazing out silently with the warrior at the streak of blood in the dusk.

The silence lasted for some time before a low voice came from the warrior’s helmet, “Those two attackers during the day ……”

“It was the hunter siblings …… who died initially,” came the psychic’s voice from his black cloth hood, sounding as grim as the dead, “They gave chase, and the dead don’t need to rest, so they were faster than us .”

“We laid them to rest in the forest outside the Kingdom Gate with our own hands, and you performed the requiem ritual – why would the dead that you’ve appeased rise up?”

“There’s been a lot of crawling up along the way, see that deep red in the sky? The direction in which the red light first fell …… it has widened a whole lot more than it did when the prophet made his prediction, and that’s a wound that’s cut open our world, and the ground beneath our feet and the sky above our heads are rotting and decaying faster and faster because of that wound …….

“The process of transition between life and death is beginning to gradually differ from what I understand.”

The psychic spoke quietly, lacking emotion as usual, with only cold, sad “statements of fact” in his words.

Not everyone could accept his way of speaking, and if the Knight of the Shield was still there, he would have already begun his long lecture and exhortation by now.

However, when the warrior looked back, there was only the lone figure of the Templar sitting by the campfire, and in the shadows of the firelight huddled the short and thin figure of the Flame Warlock, there was no one else in the camp. The shield-bearing knight who had always gone toe-to-toe with the psionicist and loved to lecture his teammates was gone – he had fallen in the wilderness outside of Sandstone Castle, and the cause of his death was still unknown.

“After that, there may be others ‘catching up’,” the psychic seemed uncomfortable by the silence of the moment as well, and after a few seconds of silence, he changed the subject in a raw manner, “The odds are that one of them will be someone from a previous team. ”

“Why? Just because that pair of hunter siblings caught up with them during the day today?”

“Because they remembered the mission to trek toward Armageddon – but no longer remembered us, the people,” the psychic whispered, “and we didn’t properly dispose of their bodies before the effects of that red light expanded .”

The warrior was silent for a moment, “What would …… have to be done to dispose of them properly?”

“Incinerate, burn them thoroughly with the fire of the evil souls, then smash all the larger bones, soak the skulls in acid if you can, and bury them deep.”

“Good.”

The next day, the psychic died.

He was found collapsed at the edge of the camp, his heart stolen by some force in the darkness, leaving only a lurid hollow in his chest, yet bizarrely, he left an odd smile before he died, as if …… it was because he was able to get rid of this heavy mission in advance and felt grateful.

Together with the Templars and Flame Warlocks, the warriors held a “funeral” for the psychic – they burned his body completely with the fire of the evil spirit, smashed all the bones they could find, and then soaked the pieces of his skull in an earthenware jar filled with acid and buried them at the campsite. the place where the camp was set up.

Now, three remain.

As the black smoke from the burning skeleton rose, the warrior once again looked out into the distance at the deep red that seemed to be cutting through the entire world, and the Flame Warlock came next to him, and after a long silence, the thin woman finally asked the question that no one had ever dared to ask.

“Are we still going forward?”

The warrior looked back at the Grosca woman with her red hair.

He remembered how she had looked when they first set out – confident, with energy in her eyes and pride in her words, as the Chosen One of Destiny, chosen by the Kingdom and appointed by the Prophet, who believed more than anyone else in her own power and destiny for greatness. Fate.

Now, however, she asked this question.

“Of course we must move forward,” the warrior said in a muffled voice, his heavy faceplate blocking his expression, but only his tone was still firm, “We must save our kingdom from the doom that is spreading.”

“Does trekking towards the end really stop the end itself? Is there really an enemy waiting to be defeated by us at the end of that crimson? Once we defeat it, the problem is solved? Just like the Prophet said?”

“The Prophet has not been wrong.” The warrior said doggedly.

After a moment of confrontation, the Flame Warlock nodded, “I see.”

Three days later, as the party crossed an unnamed grove of trees, the Groska woman collapsed in a clearing by the river.

There were no enemies, no traps, she was incinerated by her own flames – uncontrolled magical energies suddenly surged out of her, instantly tearing her apart and burning her to ashes like countless living evil spirits, her screams short, the agony lasted for perhaps an instant.

The good news was that the out-of-control flames burned so thoroughly that there was no need for additional disposal of her body – not even a single bone fragment larger than a fingernail cap could be found from those ashes.

Now, there were only two people left in the group.

The Templar, who was even more reticent than the dead wizard from before, and who became more and more silent as the journey continued, and the warrior himself, who was perpetually clad in heavy armor.

After entering the barren lands completely, they were still moving in a straight direction, not having to worry about getting lost, as the crimson of doom was always guiding them on their way.

How long would this trek last? Where exactly does it end? And what will be there …… waiting for those trekking toward doom to face their own destiny head on?

In the eyes of the warriors who keep trekking, the world illuminated by the red light is becoming …… a little weirder every day than it was before.

The times at which the sun rose and set changed dramatically, and each day it shifted a little in one direction or another, and now the setting sun was no longer located due west, but had shifted to the north at an angle visible to the naked eye.

The sky was gradually being colored with a strange purple-red color, and occasionally strange lights and shadows could be seen floating in the depths of the clouds, and sometimes it even seemed as if there were living creatures walking through those lights and shadows.

The mountains in the distance look as if they are beginning to distort, and the once straight cliffs now look like damp boards gradually bending and curling down, while the horizon further away is rising upwards, as if the entire earth …… is undergoing a slight deformation.

Or, perhaps, it was the observer’s own eyes that were at fault.

And along with these many strange phenomena visible to the naked eye, changes invisible to the naked eye were also occurring-

The magical energy between heaven and earth was undergoing a strange change, the magic power that was once hard to perceive was now active like a rushing current, the magicians had complained that it was difficult to gather arcane energy in the air outside the civilized world, but now, the early morning wind seemed to be wrapped in a rich magical power – these energies would be stimulated on the surface of the metal armor, producing a The energy sparks on the surface of the metal armor, creating tiny glows and discharges, and when it builds up to a certain level there is a “pop”.

The warrior thought that these changes might be a sign that the journey was coming to an end – they were close enough to where the red light had fallen, and although it still seemed so far away, hope …… seemed to be just around the corner.

Yet before an unnamed river, the Templar stopped. The tall, silent woman removed her helmet and said quite abruptly, “This is as far as it goes.”

The warrior looked calmly at this last traveling companion, “Why?”

“You’re not surprised?”

“I just want to know why.” The warrior said, as always, in a somewhat insistent tone.

The Templar was silent for a moment, removing a broken ruby from his arms and placing it on the grass next to him.

“The kingdom was destroyed,” she said, “Fire and lava rose up from the depths of the earth, covering the entirety of the kingdom within an hour, and the soul of the Prophet held out until the last moment to confirm the end of it all.”

Hearing this terrible news, the warrior nevertheless remained still, gazing calmly into the Templar’s eyes.

“This journey was pointless,” the Templar continued, “from the beginning.”

“The Prophet lied to us.” The warrior said slowly.

“No, the Prophet lied to those who stayed in the kingdom,” the Templar spoke softly, “It was up to those who stayed to believe that the kingdom had sent one of its finest teams to tackle the mutation, just as a hundred years ago, we sealed Erebus, who had awakened from the earth, and just as seven hundred years ago, we ended the Frost Giant’s reign-the world will be saved by warriors, and if one warrior is not enough, then an army of warriors.”

“…… Prophets don’t make mistakes.”

“Yes, like you said, prophets don’t make mistakes – so he was the first to know how the end would come.”

The Templar said, reaching out and pointing to the ground next to him.

“Sit down, we’ve come a long way.”

The warrior, however, made no move.

The Templar was unimpressed that her silence along the way had finally come to an end, and she smiled softly in this last calm twilight, “You, and many of us, understand all of this by the time we are halfway through the journey.”

“Perhaps only the red-haired Grosca woman really believed in that great destiny – she didn’t understand it even slightly until death caught up with her.”

“She might as well not have understood,” the Templar shook his head gently, then was surprised to see the warrior actually take another step forward, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to keep moving forward.”

“Why?”

“Aren’t you curious? After realizing that this expedition is pointless, why do I keep going? Don’t you want to know why?”

The Templar just looked at him quietly.

“I wanted …… to at least figure out what the hell it was,” the warrior said softly as he looked out into the deep red of the dusk, “The kingdom has been destroyed, perhaps the entire civilized world, but I still wanted to go on …… want to know what is gradually killing the sky and the earth.”

The Templar quietly looked at this last traveling companion, she was silent for a long time, and finally sighed long and hard.

“It can’t be walked.”

The warrior looked back, “What?”

“The red light that didn’t fall on the earth.”

Underneath the warrior’s face armor, a surprised expression finally surfaced on his face.

“When the Prophet’s soul broke away from the earth, he held on for a full hour, and in that hour, he saw a wider view from a very high place – our world, a sphere floating in an endless void, and that light . . was more vast than the earth beneath our feet, more distant than the distant sky.”

The Templar said, lifting his hand to pick up the broken ruby on the grass.

“He told me at the end that the theories of the astrologers were correct, and that the stars were related to the earth as the scholars described them, all floating stars in a vast space …… My friend, the crimson you are after is splitting not the earth, but ‘ Everything’.

“The only thing we can’t explain is why we, who are on the earth, can always see that light appearing in a particular orientation-even when the earth beneath our feet is spinning and orbiting like the other stars, the light seems to be imprinted directly in front of our eyes as if it were traveling across the sky from east to west. So much so that we have always thought it fell on the earth ……

“This is the last confusion of the Prophet, and will, perhaps, be the last confusion left to the world.”

The warrior’s body stilled, and for some reason, an inexplicable sense of trembling …… was gradually permeating his entire body.

Just like that, a long, long time ago, in a place far, far away, in the last calm twilight, a man finally understood what the world under his feet looked like.

In time for the end.

“Rest your feet,” the Templar’s voice was soft, and for the first time the woman who always gave the impression of being too tough and cold spoke gently to someone before the ever diffusing and expanding crimson covered the sky, “It’s all over.”

It’s all over.

At the end of it all, something should be done.

The warrior was silent for a moment, then silently drew the longsword at his waist.

He had planned to use this longsword to defeat the powerful enemy where the red light fell, just like those great heroes in the legends.

But now it seemed that this sword was too short, far too short to reach the stars, much less fate.

He, and his civilization, had not had time to make any preparations for destiny – the sudden extinguishing of the light, not knowing where the wind came from.

He raised high the sharp blade, crafted with the finest materials and the highest skill in the kingdom, and then with all the strength he could muster, he hurled it violently into the sky –

At the last instant when the longsword was out of his hand, I don’t know whether it was an illusion or not, but he seemed to hear a voice coming from the wind-

“Who are you? Where do you come from?”

The warrior did not know where the voice came from, nor did he know if it had actually ever appeared; what came to his mind in this brief and eternal moment were the words that a certain traveling companion had once whispered in his ear from time to time-

“We are trekking towards the end.”)
(End of chapter)