Chapter 51: Badge of Honor.

"This place is really huge, they even have a big hallway inside of this room. I wonder what's the use of this place?" I ask with amazement evident in my tone.

If this place is really a relic of the distant past, when magic is at its peak of power, then this place might hold a lot of important information that was long gone in our history. Information that we can use to our own advantage.

But it would even be much better if we could find even a piece of a working magic technology in this place. In that way, we can call it a huge harvest.

Since the fall of the Great Gregorian Empire of the northern continent, anything that has a relationship with magic have regressed and has never been recovered since then.

A lot of their miraculous magic technology was lost forever, and even most of the remaining pieces outside the Northern continent had already been scrapped long ago.

A lot of the remaining magic technology of the Gregorian empire outside the Northern continent have already failed, and only a few have remained intact and still working at this point, that were under the care of the three biggest empires.

The countless study that was conducted by many wizards from the three biggest empire regarding its functions and how to reproduce it haven't progressed at all, due to the huge difference between them.

It's like the people from the 18th century studying a piece of technology from the 21st century of the earth. The gap between the Gregorian Empire from the rest of the Vreachland continent is huge and even the combined efforts of the top experts in this three empires are not enough to bridge that gap.

It's just a shame, that such an advanced civilization of wizards have decided to recluse themselves inside their territory for the sole reason of conducting research.

They deemed it unnecessary for other wizards to join their empire as they have a huge difference in terms of everything. It was known by everyone that the Gregorian empire is the most powerful and the most advanced when it comes to everything related to magic.

They are also the ones who build the Great Fortress that intends to block the people from entering their territory from outside the Northern continent but they never know, that it was instead, what saved us from the calamity brought by the invasion of the Demonic Creatures.

Many legends revolve around them, but the most possible reason for the downfall of the Gregorian empire is due to their unending pursuit of knowledge that allows them to open a rift or portal to the other dimension summoning all of this Demonic creature that causes their downfall.

"We don't have enough time to explore this entire area but we can tell that this place is much bigger than we initially thought." Sir Daniel said as we reach another wide metal door with green glowing lines carved into it that converge into the center to form a circle ⭕ where all the glowing green lights met.

This Metal door also opens automatically once we got in front of it showing us the inside of this room.

While the temperature in this place remains at the freezing point but even I can't see any build-up of ice crystals inside of this room. Even the hallway remains relatively clean.

"Woah! this door opened on its own." exclaimed by Michael with amazement as we entered the room.

"This is one of the remaining doors that still have a functioning magic formation on it, and take a look at this lines, they're still glowing. It means that it still has enough power after so many years of neglect, and until now we don't even know where it's coming from." Sir Daniel said as he stares at the door with a crease forming on his forehead.

"The ancients really do know how to build incredible things huh?" I said to them as we walked towards another open chamber.

There, I saw a cave chamber with a size of a basketball ball court with light crystals decorating it's ceiling illuminating the entire room.

There are also some tables made out of metal with a great similarity to stainless steel and some cylindrical glass tanks with corpses of unknown creatures inside of them.

There are also some things here, like a magic machine that we can compare to a scientific lab of modern earth, but most of them have already decayed.

I also saw my father together with sir Hugo as they dutifully inspect the remains of the people from the church who were now all laid down in the center of this room.

All the corpse of this people was found encircling a broken cylindrical glass tank and whatever is inside of it is now missing.

"Father you're here. Have you found out their cause of death?" I said to him eagerly as I approach the broken glass tank.

"Lucas you've arrived, come here quick and take a look at this. Their cause of death is really bizarre." Father said quickly as he leads me to the dried-up corpse of a human.

"What happens to them why do they all laying down in this room encircling this glass tank?" I ask with utter confusion.

"We haven't confirmed it yet, but we all think that whatever creature is inside of this tank, Is also the reason for their death." My father gravely said as he look at the state of the corpses.

"Then that couldn't be good. I could see that there are also some templar knights among this corpse and even they died without a fight." I worriedly said as I take a closer look at one of the remains.

"Master Lucas, look at this." Michael suddenly said in alarm as he uses his sword to turn the head of one of the corpses.

"Did you find something?" I ask as we approach him.

"There's a small hole on the forehead of this corpse. It must be the reason for his death." Michael said as he poke his sword towards the forehead of the corpse opening its empty skull.

"A hole?" My father and Hugo said at the same time as they looked at each other before immediately going back to all the corpses and inspecting all of their foreheads.

"Everyone quickly go and inspects all of them. Try to see if you could find a small hole on their forehead." Father said as he commanded everyone to do the same.

In total there are 30 remains of people in this room, encircling the broken glass tank and all of them can easily be identified as part of the church of Agatha due to the accessories on their hands and neck.

On their finger is a golden ring with the emblem of an angel with wide-open wings and at their neck is a necklace with a pendant of the church of Agatha symbolizing the sun.

And due to the extreme temperature at this place, no normal soldiers can reach this room so all of the corpses in this place must also be transcended people and yet they all died quickly without even having a chance to fight back.

Overall, there are currently 7 people in this room conducting an investigation and all of us are transcended people who have already become an official knights.

In order for us to freely roam this place, we must always activate our aura to resist the extreme cold, and thanks to my diligent training and continuous cultivation I can now operate my aura for 3 hours to continuously cover my body

After a minute of inspection, all of us have now confirmed their cause of death, and we are astonished at what we find out as all of them died instantly.

The hole doesn't just penetrate their forehead but also the skull at the back of their head. It's like something fast and hard has penetrated it and even with the cover of their aura it still managed to break through.

You must know that once a knight covers his body with his aura it also acts like a barrier stopping everything from penetrating it, but all of them didn't even manage to defend their selves so it must have happened very fast.

And whatever kills them manage to do it smoothly without breaking a sweat.

"How long have they died? It looks weird to me. Their clothes look fairly new, but their corpses look like they died for a long time." said suddenly by sir Kiel as he inspected one of the clothes of the knight templar.

"Wait, what is this?" He suddenly said in alarm as he got a golden badge from the chest of one of the corpse wearing the armor of the templar knight.

"What the, isn't that the badge of honor?" said suddenly by Hugo as Kiel pulls out the golden badge.

The badge of honor is also known as one of the highest medallions that the church of Agatha is willing to award to one of its members for doing extreme and risky missions issued by them.

Since this man have a badge of honor then he must be the leader of this group. Signifying his strength as no templar knight have gotten this badge at senior knight rank so he must be an intermediate knight of the same rank as Hugo.

"It is." answered by sir Kiel with a grave tone in his voice as he worriedly looks at the golden badge.

"Even someone as powerful as him died in this place." sir Anton suddenly said as he stares at the broken glass tank.

"Whatever is inside of this tank must be a very powerful creature that can instantly kill an intermediate knight like him or us." He added before turning his attention towards the dried corpse.

"Wait, there are years written on the back of this badge and it says, WHAT?" Kiel suddenly shouted as he looked at us with shock.

"What did you see? what year is it?" I eagerly ask as I stare at him.

"Lord Hubert, the year written on the back of this badge is just last year." Kiel said with uncertainty as he quickly look at my father.

"What? You mean that they just died recently?" Father suddenly asks with grave concern in his voice.

"But what happen to their body it looks like a hundred years have passed by before we discovered them." Hugo suddenly said as he stares at the corpse.

"I thought that it was due to the cold temperature for why their clothes look fairly new since the coldness in this place would preserve it, but I'm wrong since they all just died recently." sir Kiel added as he inspected the other corpses as well.

"It looks like something sucks out all the blood and flesh of their body till they dried up." I said suddenly as it reminds me of a certain movie I saw back on earth, about an alien creature sucking out all the blood of a human.

"Wait, the hole on their forehead, it must have sucked out their brains first." Father suddenly said as he heard my suggestion.

"But why would there be another hole at the back of their head then, what is it for?" Hugo suddenly ask as he kneeled down and removed one of the heads of the corpse and closely inspected its skull at the back.

"Wait, I think I found something..... look at this marks.... around the hole at the back of their head." Hugo said slowly as he shows us the marks that he found.

It looks like an imprint of 4 deep marks like a sharp tooth that nailed itself to the skull.

"Wait should it be like a lock?" Michael suddenly suggested.

"A lock?" I said in a puzzled voice.

"Yes, like how our arrows keep themselves locked on the flesh of our target no matter what they do." He said enthusiastically as Michael loves hunting in the wild.

"Do you mean that the holes at the back of their head are also caused by that creature, making it impossible for them to escape it's grasp?" Father suddenly said to Michael as he look at him seriously.

"Yes Lord Hubert that's what I mean. It looks like this mysterious creature is also fond of hunting." Michael said as he turn his attention towards the skull that was held by Hugo.

A transcended being like us would not immediately die after taking a damage to our brain as our tenacious vitality and power would keep us alive for a while allowing us to escape from danger and recuperate using the magical effects of a potion.

So what the creature did to this corpses is making sure that they wouldn't be able to escape even after damaging their brain.

"Look at these 4 deep imprints at the back..... it looks like a sharp tooth that would lock itself on the skull, making it possible for that creature to pull its prey by their head." Michael explains as he carefully looked at the other dead body.

"Look, all of them show broken bones at their neck that's confirming my conclusion that all of them have broken their necks after that creature pulls them by their head." Michael said happily as he easily pulls the skulls of other corpses.

If someone from modern earth would see this scene I'm sure that they would immediately faint from shock and fear.