Chapter 783: Griffin Sanctuary
From their backpacks, Amara, Azura, Yara, Antigone, and Sven took out some sample plastic boxes.
They started gathering everything they could find.
A piece of the purple tree trunk, a blade of grass, soil, and leaves—literally anything—and stored them inside their backpacks.
Xerxus had climbed to the top of the tallest trees and tried to look into the horizon, but saw nothing except endless forest that seemed to stretch on forever.
“I think we should go past that mountain!”
He shouted.
There was a mountain in the way that cut off their view of what lay beyond.
“…As expected, no signal.”
Valerian tried to get some signal to his phone by climbing high up the tree, but nothing. The land was blocking any reception.
It was what they expected to happen anyway, so none of them were surprised.
“Are you done gathering?”
Pankratios asked.
“Yes, we can go now.”
Amara said.
They started heading towards the mountain and moved at an immense speed that would leave any ordinary person stunned.
Those below the Martial King realm were carried by others as Martial Grandmasters and below didn’t have as great of a speed.
Kiernan carried Antigone on his back and moved past the trees with immense speed, and they started to see glimpses of the sun setting.
It was turning darker by the minute.
The sky turned dark, and at that moment, they arrived at the mountain, whichloomed ominously in front of them.
They went through a passage between two looming mountains and had to do some climbing, but eventually, they made it through.
They stopped near the mountain, built a camp, and slept for a night.
As soon as the sun was back in the sky, they packed up their belongings and continued on their journey.
“Hey, look!”
While running, Genevieve pointed toward a road—a dirt road—that was going through the forest like an intended path.
That was not all.
There were tire marks.
“…Tire marks?”
Pankratios crouched before the dirt road and could tell that these tire marks were only a few days old.
“Someone’s been here recently.”
“…There is really another civilization?”
Antigone asked excitedly.
It was exciting, but they didn’t want to jump the gun, as it was also extremely worrisome news that bothered them all.
“If there is really another civilization, how come they never tried to contact Martial World?”
Valerian posed a question that was on everyone’s mind.
“…Maybe the civilization is not that developed? These tire marks look like they are from a carriage and not from a car.
“Paradise World was the apex of technology advancement in the past, but that is long gone, and perhaps they were reduced to Old Stone Age technology?”
Amara said.
“…Haven’t you guys felt this?”
Imperius asked and inhaled the fresh air, and everyone else did the same and noticed something extremely amazing.
“The air is rich!”
“…For the air to be this rich, just how powerful are the people here?”
Imperius asked with a frown.
Everyone exchanged worried glances, and they also had another touch.
‘…The expedition parties never returned back to the Martial World for some reason. They all either died in the mist, or there are people in Dead World that didn’t want them to leave.’
“SCREEEEECH!”
In that moment, their hair stood on end, and the sound of wings flapping echoed throughout the air.
It was a loud sound.
They saw a large-winged creature flying overhead, and it went through several trees, destroying them in its path, and landed in the forest.
It turned its head around to look at them.
It was a golden-feathered griffin with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion.
“Magical Beast!”
“Unbelievable, and its strength is Martial Emperor at least!”
With a soft expression, Fen looked at the golden-feathered griffin, and he felt like he was looking at a relative of his.
This was the first time he had ever met another Magical Beast.
The golden-feathered griffin noticed Fen even though no one else could. It just screeched and took flight again.
It started flying away.
“Let’s follow it!”
They chased after it and saw the griffin flying over brooks, trees, and mountains, leading them to a hidden valley.
The griffin flew over a village and landed in a field—there were dozens of other griffins there, sleeping, and they realized they had stumbled upon a secret griffin sanctuary.
Martial Order members hid behind a hill and looked over to the field.
“…Look, those flowers.”
Amara whispered to Kiernan.
There were flowers that had Soul Fragments growing among them, and there were easily a couple hundred of them!
‘Go.’
Kiernan said inside his mind.
It was a command to Fen, and the dark-furred wolf ran down to the field and started feasting on the Soul Fragments.
The golden-feathered griffins glanced at him briefly before returning to sleep as if he were just one of them.
Creak!
In that moment, one of the doors of the village houses opened, and a person stepped out with a water bucket in hand.
The person walked to the well, filled the bucket, and turned to leave, which revealed her face to the members of the Martial Order.
Red skin, black eyes, and long pointed ears.
She looked like an alien from another planet!
“…What the hell is that?”
Sabbath whispered.
They had seen portraits of Paradise World people before, and they all looked like humans of the Martial World.
They had never heard about red-skinned people before!
“Should we go talk to her?”
Antigone asked.
“…We won’t know how she would react. They seem to be a different race altogether, most likely a mutated race that came after the destruction of Paradise World.
“They might seem like an alien race to us, but they will feel the same way if they see us and see how different we look.
“They will panic.”
Pankratios said.
In that moment, a bell echoed in the village, and many red-skinned children headed to a school building with their parents.
“…Class is starting. Hurry up, kids!”
A red-skinned teacher with pointy ears shouted while ringing a bell, and with a smile on her face, she closed the door after every kid entered.
“…It looks like the village people have gathered over in the school building. A couple of us should sneak in and try to find any books, some historic books, to find out more about them.”
Pankratios said.