Chapter 141

Lykan

The Great Hunt

The village was odd to say the least. People seemed both supernaturally powered by the overflowing waves of qi, while at the same time they seemed almost powerless. It seemed as if the entire village was a giant qi siphon build with people who gathered and collected qi to send it inward.

The people were starving, that much was clear. Whatever, or more likely whomever had befallen the village had done so in a way that was guaranteed to starve the vital nutrients of the local inhabitants. The more Lykan watched, the more he saw the trails of qi slowly dwindle away. He watched as large stones were planted and then later harvested from the once lush fields that surrounded the village. Each new stone was placed in the center of a particularly healthy patch of crops. Then from other fields that had rotting crops, villagers could be seen grabbing glowing stones from the center.

Mindless. That was the word that Lykan would use to describe the people of the villages. Mindless, or rather they lost the individual spark of humanity that existed within everyone. Instead, all he could see was one powerful mind connected to each individual human. The sheer power required for such a feat astounded Lykan. Even as he was, he knew his own mind could not manage such a complex task. Not only did the being at the heart of this, take over the minds of dozens of villagers. But they had done so in such a way that still left the bodies able to give and receive commands. They appeared to be simple commands, and commands that the people would normally follow. The brainwashed people would trudge to and fro along the nearly deserted streets. Each step made them look like they were sleep walking.

He had heard tales as a child. Tales of plagues that burnt away most portions of the brain. Leech-rot, at least that is what the stories he had read called such a devouring plague. Seeing these people now, it was clear that they had something similar. But this was no normal plague, of that he was certain.

For one there was a strong connection of qi that threaded every living person, if living is what these husks of people could be called, to a central point at the heart of the village.

Worse there seemed to be basic qi wards around designed to detect the presence of intruders. Around such qi wards, he saw everything from family pets, to stray wolves, and larger creatures. Of note the animals and creatures that found their way to these wards all had weird puncture wounds along their bodies.

The puncture wounds were caused by sharp thin teeth, though the placement of the fangs indicated that they were not created by a human jaw. At least not a human mouth Lykan had ever witnessed, maybe an orc, but even then, the fangs should have come from the bottom, not the top. The whole thing was odd.

Lykan knew there was more here but needed to understand the threat. Then if he thought it was too much he would go back to Brenna. As it was, he was certain he had killed most of the mindless minions that had originally followed him and Brenna as they made their escape.

There was a deeper understanding about this village, one that caused a shiver to run down Lykan’s spine as he made the revelation. Seeing this village, seeing the corrupting power qi had on the seemingly peaceful village, he realized the danger that was in store for the world if he failed. The fact that what was happening here was not being caused by a Titan, Lykan was certain.

The fact that what was happening here didn’t come from a recently opened dungeon? That was something that Lykan himself was not quite certain of. He knew there were still thousands of dungeons worldwide. He wondered if something else had come out recently. Or had a dragon or other monster that had already escaped been able to further adapt their capabilities. He had even seen those odd territorial qi bats flapping around. They had a qi resonance that seemed like what he was seeing here, but the power on display in this village was far stronger than anything those minor pests exhibited before he ran into Nayali.

Then another question hit him, with so many of those monsters in her forest. Or at least a forest that was clearly under her and the Great Forest spirit’s protection, had she made a deal with them? It was clear that the Great Forest Spirit was not part of the pantheon of gods for a reason, that for some reason the great forest stayed behind. Originally, he had thought it a matter of the Great Forest Spirit wishing to stay behind to help out the planet more directly, but after seeing the way her base of operations was set up over top of a dungeon. That caused a lot of concern to rise.

He knew he would soon need to visit his old home. The home that had taken him in when he had nothing. Yet, now when he returned, he had more questions. The forest elves had at one time been the most powerful creatures on the planet, seen as a symbol of justice and light. But they were struck down, slowly one by one. Had it been that the other Gods were jealous? Or was it just the fact that the Elves went too far in their quests for power. So many things needed to be answered. With Brenna by his side, he was certain she would come at the findings with a clear rational mind that would be unbiased. Currently Lykan felt he was not in the right mind to make any true decisions on how his old home should be run. He also expected some form of tension, once he ran into Octavia, though he hoped he would be able to avoid any unnecessary troubles.

Still, these were concerns for a later time. Currently his mind needed to be focused on the current problem. What was the purpose of such an operation, one where a monster would come in, take over a village. Corrupt the land, draining all forms of qi from the surrounding countryside. Then have all the harvested qi cores pulled into the center of town. But for what purpose?

There was just so much going on, that made no sense. The fact that the ground where the crystals were harvested from had no qi only caused more concern. On the one hand this might be a viable method to slow down the corrupting of the world, but at what cost? The ground was dead and dying. Even the humans that handled the crystals seemed to have their own life force drained by merely being close to the crystals and their handling of the crystals. Surely no one would willingly handle such a device, which was likely why the being controlling these mindless villagers didn’t stop them to do things like drink or eat. Instead, the villagers just kept moving at slow plodding paces. Moving from one task to the next, with no reward but death awaiting them.

Even death seemed to be handled poorly, as everybody that seemed to be close to death walked to a wide-open pit that looked like it was once used to hold pigs. Now the same pit was being used to hold bodies. The mindless bodies would trudge to an open spot, lie down. Then wait for the spark of life to slowly fade from their body. A spark that was being harvested and collected by yet another crystal that had been planted in the giant pit.

Seeing the operation, and the callous way bodies and lives were being treated Lykan resolved to move forward without warning Brenna of his plans. The thought of another human being killed in such a barbaric way sickened him. In his mind he rationalized that he would do this for anyone. If this type of operation were being conducted by humans against horses or deer, he would stop the humans just as easily as he would stop whoever was doing this. The way life forms were being treated, as if they meant nothing, that was truly revolting.

Following the cords of qi, Lykan made his way ever inward. Following one trail to another. Following how one villager dropped off a carton of harvested qi crystals, to a cart. The cart once filled, pulled the cartons inward.

When he saw the destination for all the qi crystals, he felt stupid for wasting so much time. While he was certain his advance had gone unnoticed. Even the times when he interacted with different barriers, he made sure to gently pull the qi around him. As most of the lines of power were not meant to be used for detection, such options were easy. Still, he remained weary, it was clear that whatever was doing this was a master of mind control.

He also realized that as he could still think and act, his mind would likely act as a beacon. Meaning he needed to shield his own mind from any probes. Every so often he felt the faint brush of cobwebs against his mind. Something that seemed to slither over, then be gone. They were more subtle than the patterns used by the Leviathan. With this, it was clear that whoever was conducting the scan was a master of finding faint qi traces.

While he was certain he hid most of his energy, there was still the off chance that he had been found. Especially with the way the pulses seemed to increase, though this could just be a matter of him getting closer to the source of qi.

As he made his way into town unnoticed. He found that all of the qi crystals were being taken and delivered right to the heart of the city. Right where the mayor’s house was constructed. Though it was clear by the smell and festering of insects that the occupants of the mayor’s house had long since perished.

Even the mindless villagers who unloaded the carts to deliver the qi crystals seemed to have a hard time going through the gathering of flies.

ZZZ.

The buzzing sing sound was intense in some of the areas. At these areas especially Lykan noticed the workers pause, and almost arise from their stupor. Only to take a step back and pulse. Another wave of energy would flash out ensnaring the mind of the person who had regained their momentary freedom, if only for a second. Then they were back, only moving the boxes to a different spot. A spot that let them avoid the flies and dead bodies that had collapsed all around. It seemed that originally the monster running this operation had let the bodies just pile up wherever. It seems the use of the pig pits was a recent addition.

With that Lykan wondered if there was more than one. Opening his senses, he felt for the signatures of nearby qi. As soon as he did, he felt not one but dozens of intense qi signatures. As soon as he felt the dense qi signatures, he realized something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

For starters, it seemed that several the qi signatures were very small and stationary. It took him a moment to realize that they were progeny of some kind. There were two adults and ten, no nine children. The nine children seemed to have a mixture of the two adults. That was when Lykan felt his blood boiling. Whatever these creatures were, they were multiplying. Worse, they and their kids would likely do this, or something just like this to another village in the future.

While the methods used to get rid of qi were impressive, if it meant having monsters that would kill humans indiscriminately, then he felt it was no cure at all.

Not wanting to waste another moment, Lykan moved forward. He had seen enough and was aware of what awaited another innocent village if he let even one of these creatures survive.