Pitch-black arms bleeding dark red miasma protruded out of various points of the cavern, the ceiling, the ground, and the depth of the tunnels, each one far from the group but clearly in sight.
They just appeared out of nowhere without the beast itself appearing.
What the hell does it want, is it going to attack?! I don't know why, but it acts illogically, he was just playing with us but killed most of Cole's team, it let us flee but only for us to regroup. Why? Why the hell does it act like this? It's highly intelligent but none of its actions make sense.
Like all the others, Ciel instantly tensed up and became on guard as the Calamity conjured even more of its arms.
Ciel gritted his teeth, he was never so desperate for a weapon in his life while the others raised theirs.
With a dry throat and a skull-splitting headache, anxiety gnawing at him, he waited—for anything. But the hands stayed still.
Then came a single caw, similar to the sound a normal craw made, lacking the usual twisted malice of the craw.
One by one, the pitch-black hands began to wave in eerie unison, their red-bleeding miasma painting the room crimson.
Toren and Gavin were the first to activate their power, Toren summoned his strings while Gavin summoned a scorching heat out of nowhere.
As the group got ready to fend off the beast, its caws slowly subsided as the calamity backed away from the burial site.
And just like that, the arms vanished—along with the crow's presence, fading into silence.
It's mocking us, it has to. It's trying to make us act irrationally. Assessing the situation swiftly, Ciel's mind began to race on their most important question, how to escape the mountain.
From the murals, they already learned a lot of important information, they were bound to learn something else.
Not minding the rest of the group, Ciel made his way to the murals, he only looked at the portion of it last time. This time he was ready to find out more about it.
His head felt like it could split open any minute from the overuse of Unravel, but if he wished to survive he had to rely more on it.
Walking up to the destroyed mural, Ciel put his hands on it while struggling to activate Unravel.
This power is good for finding things and tracking down even a calamity… god I hope this works.
He felt the Unravel point him towards something, but he didn't show it on his face. It was directly behind him.
The stone tomb.
Walking up to the stone tomb, he studied the stone coffin, it was tall and heavily decorated with a text on the bottom carved into the stone.
I can't read it… damn it, I can understand the speech of this world but otherwise, I'm illiterate…
"Priest in White, guardian of Astoria village, may you find your peace in the arms of the Lady of Radiance, your chains no longer bind you." Read out loud Toren who crouched down beside Ciel, looking at the stone tomb.
Thank you, my dear weed-headed friend. Ciel held back the urge to heave a sigh of relief.
Toren walked away from the front of the stone tomb and walked to the back, with a complicated expression, his back turned to Ciel, "How are you holding up?"
Wouldn't you like to know after almost breaking my nose? It still hurts you lawn-faced troglodyte.
"I'm doing fine." He answered politely with a smile.
"The priest of light, a man of god. Holding back the ancient Calamity of Terror, the Mutilated Crow." He read it out loud with a grave expression.
So that's what that thing is called, Mutilated Crow… fitting.
"Mutilated Crow… Priest in White." Quin murmured almost as if to himself while staring at one of the murals.
"We are all spent of Chroma, we rest for a bit before then make a plan accordingly." Instructed Toren leaving no room for Cole to speak up before he sat down on the ground and closed his eyes.
Would you like to expand on that chroma thing? What is that? Ceil cursed Toren to himself sourly, then he himself laid down on the ground leaning against the wall and prepared to close his eyes to rest.
His muscles still ached—so did the rest of his body. His cheek, his side, and his palm were all cut, though the bleeding had stopped some time ago.
If I die of an infection after all of this I could probably laugh about that.
No one said a single word, everyone was exhausted, bruised, and battered, bleeding from various wounds.
Damian was the one who suffered the most, the man who was more like an iron giant laid on the ground, Ciel was unsure if he was still alive. Right beside him, there were two red sticks of dynamite.
Ciel just watched with a numb mind, he could barely formulate his thoughts because of the sheer exhaustion, but something caught his eye.
Old Quin was still in front of a mural, his eyes never left it and he appeared to be in a strange state of mind.
Out of caution, Ciel got up from the ground and walked up to the old man who only took a single glance at him from the corner of his eyes as acknowledgment without saying a single thing.
Mimicking the old man, he stared at the same mural which depicted the mountain with countless believers walking up to the priest in white.
"What do you think is in the coffin?" Asked the old man out of nowhere.
Ciel was surprised that Quin spoke to him, he thought for a moment before saying, "The priest, according to the murals and the carvings of the tomb."
Quin didn't answer to the youth, but his eyes turned solemn.
"What's your name, boy?"
Ciel stood frozen for a moment, taken aback by the sudden shift in Old Quin's demeanor. He didn't understand the change—then again, he barely knew the old man.
"It's Ciel," he finally said, steadying his voice. "Ciel Haydn."
"What a strange name."
What do you want me to say to that you old fogey, take it up with my parents then, not like I don't want to do the same…
"Doesn't it bother you, Ciel?" The old man asked after a longer period of not saying anything.
"What do you mean?" Ciel question back, unsure of what Quin was talking about, he had nothing but things that bothered him since arriving here.
"This terrible noise…" Spoke Quin while rubbing the middle of his temple tiredly.
The moment the old man spoke, Ciel understood instantly. That relentless, echoing drip of water—each drop dulling his senses, numbing his mind more and more.
Does he hear the same dripping sound now? I don't hear it anymore.
"It made me want to bash my head against the wall," Ciel admitted while falling into deep thought.
Every single person in this world has to push through torture like that? But what does it mean, why did it stop when I could make out the words: Unravel? What is this noise exactly? Is it something like a trial?
"Yes… it does do that to us." Old Quin answered back with a hollow and exhausted voice.
As the two spoke, the rest of the group got up, ready to plan their next course of actions while they walked up to Quin and Ciel.
But before anyone could say a word, Cole stopped in his tracks with an unreadable expression and lay down on the ground, pressing his ear against the stone.
"The Mutilated Crow is coming again, we were using for long enough, let's take the freak down."
He tensed up again, the same skull-splitting headache coming in another wave as he rubbed his temple in frustration.
That thing is attacking us again and I don't even have a weapon, what the hell does it want, why did it wave… wave?
While Ciel fell into deep thought, the others conversed with each other while preparing to take down the monster once and for all.
"We are no longer gasping for air, we are regrouped and while it's not a lesser calamity, it was malnourished, otherwise we would have been long dead." Said the woman whose name Ciel did not know.
She picked up his spiked whip while Cole's bow appeared out of nowhere, Toren raised his blade while Gavin and Ciel were left without a weapon.
The former broke his spear against the Mutilated Crow while the latter had no weapon in the first place.
"Gavin, can you open the stone coffin real quick, I believe we will find the perfect weapon inside." Asked Old Quin with a warm smile which made the hair stand up on Ciel's back.
The Crow was waving to us… no, not to us, at least not to all of us. Also that map… Ciel quickly activated Unravel and looked at the map on the ground.
The more he looked at it, the worse he felt—a terrifying chill ran down his spine, and a suffocating pit formed in his stomach that left him paralyzed with fear.
He wanted to look back, but he felt a hand touch his left shoulder—it was ice cold.
"You heard it too… didn't you? But the roars no longer haunt you, and they won't haunt me either." Said Old Quin with a wide smile as he handed a piece of paper to Ciel.
Ciel didn't even unfold the paper before he looked back at the stone tomb. "Gavin, don't open it!" He roared with all his might, but it was too late.
The coffin was open.
The roars of the craw got closer and numerous hands appeared on the walls, but Ciel couldn't be bothered with them, as he looked at the coffin in horror.
It was empty.
Old Quin beamed with joy as he revealed a hauntingly bright smile.
"I had chains, but now I'm free."