"Devoured?" Wolf frowned at the word. "What do you mean by devoured?"
"I… I don't understand, either. I've never seen anything like it!" The student looked down—his mind replayed the scene he had briefly seen before turning tail and running. "All I saw was Rampard being devoured by darkness, leaving only his head, and that Lesser Angel crouching in front of him."
"Achlys, Hecate, or maybe Nemesis..." Wolf contemplated.
Unlike the other student who went through formal acceptance into the academy, which also involved documenting their Patron God—the Lesser Angel, Kai, does not. Everyone assumed that he was weak, so sooner or later, he'd die.
No need to document a dead man.
Now that he turns out to be somewhat capable, they need to know his Patron God first.
"A Supernal of Achlys or Hecate, but Hecate is the most likely," Wolf thought aloud.
"No—not Hecate. Rakha, a Supernal of Melinoe, was hostile towards Kai. Hecate and Melinoe are of the same domain, or incised at the very least," Matilda added, recalling that Rakha isn't really fond of Kai. "Achlys is probably the safest assumption."
Slowly, Wolf turned towards her.
His predator eyes shone with a crimson light and made his gaze more dangerous.
"You said that you'd handle this. That... he won't be a problem," He approached Matilda with slow steps. His stature was wide, and he was also a few inches taller than she. Intimidating. "Are you really on our side, Matilda?"
He said her name as if he was unsure if it was even her real name.
Matilda came from the Eventide Academy, a different academy than theirs, so she could easily lie about everything, and none of them could verify it. And that origin placed her on a fragile floor that could crumble on her at any moment.
"I've sold out my team's location. What more proof do you want?" Matilda asked back.
Despite the situation, she managed to remain calm.
But it's hard to maintain that stoicism when the three man-sized black dogs stood up.
All began to circle her, snarling, baring their sharp canines that could easily rend flesh.
"I have had eyes on me twenty-four seven. You can ask them if I have made any attempt to contact my remaining classmates," She felt the need to defend herself more. This could end badly for her. "I'm fully Team Coeus."
"Is that so?" Wolf stopped right before her.
His chin was at the level of her forehead.
Matilda gasped when, in a snap, Wolf grabbed her by the neck and pressed two fingers right on her arteries. "Nevertheless," His whisper was a dragging, low growl that came from the throat, "Hecate is a sadistic Goddess. Her Supernals are hostile towards each other, much less to the Supernals of Gods who were close to her. Go on, explain to me why you said what you said."
Even though she wanted to answer, it was hard to even let out a voice.
She wasn't really good at remembering the divine bloodlines, so it was an honest mistake.
"It—It's my mistake," She answered through a strained throat. "I'm not good at this."
Being in this position scraped her ego a little bit.
Matilda headbutted Cerberus right on the nose and then pushed him back with her hands.
She coughed several times as she recovered from the choke.
All three black dogs wanted to pounce on her, but Wolf raised his hand, stopping them.
"Feisty," Wolf chuckled. He pressed one thumb against one side of his nose and snorted out the blood. "In Cloud Alpha, your academy scored the lowest in the entry written test. So, I'll believe you. It's an honest mistake, I get it."
"It's good that you understa—"
"But," Wolf intervened before she could even finish her sentence. "You said 'Kai' didn't you?" His lips curved into a threatening smile. "Why the hell are you referring to filth with its name? Don't think I hadn't noticed that."
Matilda clenched her jaw.
She wanted to say something, but Wolf had already turned away.
"Go and bring the Lesser Angel's head for the team," He said with an irrefutable tone. "Do that, and you'll stay in our team. If not, then you'll be food to Lion."
Matilda turned and walked away.
Right now, she's at the mercy of Team Coeus. Not to mention, because of her mistake in calling Kai by his name, she is now eligible to be punished by the academy if reported. It's not a big deal if she's in the academy, but being punished here might mean death for her.
She can't afford that.
All she could do was obey.
…
Kai and the others went east for almost two days before finally coming to a stop.
It was a hazardous sprint through the evergreen, but they needed to be quick since they didn't have much time. Right now, they need to secure an advantage or else their window to secure the win would slip away from their fingers.
Team Coeus and Team Hyperion are fighting against one another.
Neither has much manpower to search for the Awakened Monster.
Kai's team had been slaughtered near the beginning, but that came with an advantage. No one was paying attention to them now. Which meant they could focus entirely on finding the Awakened Monster.
Dorian has an acute sense of smell.
He could smell blood and peculiar mana from over a mile away.
It was nothing compared to the established Supernals, but more than enough to roughly locate the area where the Awakened Monster resides. They didn't know what kind of monster they were going to face, but the terrain offered clues.
A snake, a spider, or a big cat.
A Monster or Star Beast refers to creatures that came from the Blue Void that have mana.
In an ascending manner, depending on the mana they contained, they were separated into five different classes, mainly Pest, Scourge, Calamity, Doom, and Apocalypse. Each class has sub-variations, but they are still the generally accepted ranks.
Mankind on the surface had seen on TVs the horrors Supernals needed to face on a daily basis, and even the weakest one, a Pest-class Monster, could easily sustain a barrage of bullets. It is horrifying.
An Awakened Monster is similar to a Pest-class, but man-made.
A stronger version of the Mutated Monsters, like the spiders Kai faced in the caves.
Normal people barely stood a chance against Awakened Monsters.
And they would stand no chance against higher-ranked creatures of the Blue Void.
Having the Awakened Monster be a spider would be the toughest one for them because of the terrain, but they didn't need to think about that. They weren't planning to attack the creature, only to use its location to wait for the other teams and ambush them.
"I smelled blood coming from the southeast. Too pungent to be normal." Dorian said. "I'll check it out. It's faster if I'm alone. Both of you wait here."
"Alright," Kai didn't argue. "We're running out of food, so it's perfect. I'll go hunting."
Dorian didn't even wait for him to finish and leave.
It's annoying, but there's no use in getting pissed at him.
"He's been agitated since you've been pushing him to continue for days without rest," Abigail smiled acutely. In her view, Kai was the one being unreasonable. "Don't mind him too much. He'll be fine once he rests a bit."
"I'll go hunting then," Kai drew his black scimitar and sliced the tree trunk beside him, leaving a mark. "Pick any spot within a two-hundred-yard radius of this mark to hide and rest. I'll find you in half an hour max."
"Actually," Abigail caught Kai's arm before he could leave. "Can I come with you?"
Kai and Abigail went hunting.
There are a few choices in the area, starting from rabbits and small birds to the big ones like a wild boar. Since they had been going on for miles, they felt like feasting tonight, so a wild boar was what they targeted.
Like an expert hunter, Kai ducked down and slowly approached an unsuspecting wild boar.
It was separated from the others and had three piglets nearby, so it was distracted.
Many predators in this forest, so it has to keep an eye on its children.
Kai snuck close easily with the Nigh-phantom imprint active. And when he reached striking distance, he exploded forward, scimitar arcing through the air sharply. The blade sliced flesh like slicing through butter, but the boar had a thick layer of fat.
It didn't fall from one strike to its neck.
Instead, it squealed loudly and sprinted away with surprising speed.
But Kai already anticipated this.
"Abigail, get ready!" He signaled.
Abigail, who was hiding behind a tree, waited for the wild boar to get closer.
And when it did, she emerged and swung her steel staff.
Steel crashed against the wild boar's face and sent it flying away.
It sprawled on the ground, making loud, desperate squealing noises as it moved its legs to try and get up, but failed miserably. Abigail's hit must've struck a crucial nerve as it was now lying helplessly, awaiting slaughter.
Kai smiled at the sight.
Though it's only a wild boar, it's bigger than any wild boar I've seen. Almost as big as a small cow. Every animal in this place must be a mutated version of the normal ones.
"Good work," Kai praised as he knelt down to finish the wild boar off.
"Kai," Abigail called, her voice hesitated.
He looked up at her and saw her looking troubled when she should be celebrating.
"Can we hunt another wild boar?" She asked. Her puppy eyes were fixed on the three piglets not too far away. "I don't think I want to kill it."
"Look away, then," Kai shook his head at her softness. "The boar is already crippled. It would be a waste not to kill it."
Once the squeal stopped, Kai drained its blood and then skinned it.
Somewhere along the way, Abigail decided to participate again, wanting to help skin the big wild boar. She was very clumsy and clearly didn't have any experience in skinning a hunted prey like this.
Kai also didn't have much experience, but he had skinned a cow before.
A friend of a friend gave him the chance to do it.
He slowly taught Abigail to skin the thigh, guiding her hand and demonstrating it for her so that she could easily grasp what she needed to do. It was quite a lot of work, but once they feasted the wild boar tonight, it's going to be worth it.
"I'm sorry that it took longer to finish this because of me," Abigail apologized as she sat down.
She leaned back against the tree trunk as she combed back her sweat-slicked blue hair.
"It's fine," Kai brushed it off.
He didn't mind.
"You're surprisingly patient when it comes to this," Abigail commented, looking at him while she rested her cheek against her knees. "Is it because of your sister?" Realizing what she said, she quickly shook her head. "Ah, I didn't mean to bring her up…"
"No, it's fine," Kai offered a weak smile. "And yes, it's probably because of her. Bella… She couldn't accept what happened to her well in the first few months."
"Are you okay…? It must've been really hard for you."
Abigail couldn't imagine what it must've felt like to sacrifice someone she loved.
In her eyes, Kai took it extremely well.
"I'm managing," Kai answered, but his voice was weaker. He couldn't even process what he was feeling when he heard the sound of footsteps. "Sssh…" Kai pressed a finger against his lips when Abigail wanted to say more. "Someone is near, and it's not Dorian."