The stench of blood was very faint and had been masked by the chaotic environment in the forest. Hao Ren believed that if it were not for his demigod physique that could ignore the interference of the chaotic environment on the mortal's perception, he would not have smelled it.
Veronica and her companions did not notice the stench in the air.
The princess and the knights were just happy. After trekking in the dangerous land of Chaos for so long, the sudden sight of the Light of Order was a great encouragement. The knights were also human, and they would feel tired and frustrated. They had persevered until now because of their strong faith. Now, the glimmer in the depths of the forest gave the tired warriors new strength: they were approaching the outpost of Taros.
For those who trekked in the realm of Chaos, seeing such an outpost was like returning home, a sign of the world of Order.
But Hao Ren had to pour cold water on them. "Something is not right ahead."
"What's wrong?" Veronica was excited, but she did not lose her composure and judgment. She immediately controlled her mind when she heard the ancient guardian. "What do you see?"
She knew that the ancient guardian had a special power that allowed her to perceive more things in the realm of Chaos than ordinary people, so she did not doubt it at all.
"There's a stench of blood," Hao Ren said simply. "It's coming from the outpost."
Veronica's eyebrows immediately knitted together. "How is that possible? The furnace in the outpost should still be burning, and the Servants of Chaos would never be able to break in. If it's the Festered, they would be no match for the guards at the outpost."
Veronica's confidence was reasonable. The Servants of Chaos could never materialize in the area illuminated by the Light of Order. This was an irrefutable truth in Collow. Although the Festered could force their way into the Light of Order, it was like a moth flying into a flame. They may be a great threat to the civilians, but they were no match for the elite veterans in the outpost. So there was a common sense: in the frontline, as long as the furnace in the outpost was still burning, the outpost was safe. No matter how fierce the battle outside was, the monsters could not break the enchantment of the goddess.
Therefore, she immediately made another guess. "Maybe there was a battle near the outpost."
Hao Ren shook his head slightly and did not say anything, but he knew that Veronica's guess was not very reliable.
Because in the realm of Chaos, everything disintegrated at an alarming speed, especially things related to life. Without the protection of the holy relics of Order, the corpses of the fallen soldiers would usually be eroded into magical elements within ten minutes. That was why battles in the realm of Chaos usually didn't require the cleanup of the battlefield — before the second troop arrived, everything would vanish into thin air.
If there had been a battle outside the outpost, the smell of blood would not have lingered.
Hao Ren was not the only one who could think of this. Veronica probably could as well, but Her Royal Highness might not be willing to think so. She would rather believe that there was a fierce battle outside the outpost than believe that a kingdom's outpost had fallen.
But Hao Ren's warning worked. Veronica ordered everyone to be alert and armed. The old knight Morian led the way, and the small team slowly approached the furnace outpost deep in the forest.
After passing through the ancient trees and bushes, the furnace outpost gradually appeared in front of everyone. This outpost was a very small stronghold. It had a circle of stone and thick wooden walls. The walls did not actually protect the monsters in the Chaos. It was mainly used to block the occasional Festered, so it was not very tall. There were some faintly glowing runes on the walls, but those runes did not seem to be operating. Inside the walls, there were three tall wooden watchtowers. Standing on the watchtowers, they should be able to monitor the movements in all corners of the area. Other than that, there were only a few two-story wooden buildings in the outpost, which should be facilities such as barracks and warehouses.
A not-so-bright beam of light shot out from the center of the outpost into the sky. It was the light from the furnace. It was located at the heart of the outpost, and it was what all the facilities here relied on to stand tall in the Chaos. The kingdom had spent a lot of money to maintain these outposts, and more than 80% of the investment was to maintain the miniature furnace. In this place that was far away from Order, the furnace needed to rely on precious magic fuel and holy items to continue burning, which wasn't easy to obtain.
As soon as she saw the outpost, Veronica's heart sank. She knew that Hao Ren was right: something had happened to the outpost.
There was no light in the outpost. Except for the beam of light from the furnace and some of the runes on the permanent fortifications, all the lights in the outpost had been extinguished. Even the Light of Order of the furnace was particularly dim. The small furnace needed constant maintenance to light up, and the dim light meant that no one had added 'fuel' to the furnace for at least a few days.
The faint smell of blood wafted into her nostrils, and this time even Veronica had noticed it.
The princess drew her sword and used magic to conceal the light on the blade. She ordered the standard-bearer to stay put, and then slowly moved forward.
Hao Ren watched as the princess cautiously came to the outpost gate. He clenched his spear, ready to help at any time.
Soon, Veronica gestured from afar, which meant that the front was safe and there was no presence of Chaos.
"The gate is closed." Hao Ren walked over and pushed the heavy bronze gate of the outpost. "There's no sign of it being breached."
Veronica nodded. "The gate is blocked from the inside, which means that the outpost commander had ordered the entrance and exit to be sealed. Maybe the people inside have noticed something."
"But something still happened." Hao Ren put his hand on the motionless gate. "Can we use some violent means to open the gate?"
Veronica did not react for a moment. "… Huh? Breaking the gate is not a problem, but we need to break it first … "
"Boom!"
After a loud explosion, the metal-clad gate was torn down by Hao Ren's brute force. The entire door frame and the surrounding wall within a two-meter radius were torn down, and Hao Ren threw them into the forest in the distance.
Veronica and the knights were dumbfounded. "Goddess above!" Was he even human?! What did the ancient people eat?
But Hao Ren did not have the time to care about Her Royal Highness's gaze at the unknown lifeform, because he could not help but be stunned when he saw the situation in the outpost.
All the soldiers in the outpost were here. They were lying dead in the open space between the barracks and the outpost tower. The solidified dark blood had stained the ground red, and the thick smell of blood assailed their nostrils. But there was no trace of fighting in the outpost.
The soldiers seemed to have been killed without any resistance.
Veronica also noticed the situation inside, and the princess's face was slightly pale. She walked into the outpost with Hao Ren. When they passed by a soldier of the kingdom, she bent down and turned over the body of the soldier. When the young man in the cloth uniform was turned over, Hao Ren saw the mess on his chest. The situation was hair-raising: the flesh on the young man's chest was almost torn, and his muscles were exposed. The expression on his face was so twisted that it seemed that he had suffered an unimaginable shock before he died.
Veronica lifted the soldier's hand, which was covered in blood. "He scratched himself like this."
Morian squatted down next to her. The old knight's face was solemn. "Look at his expression, it looks like he was scared to death."
"And most of these soldiers are not wearing armor," Veronica said as she looked up ahead. More corpses were spread out in front of her. The corpses were basically in the same state. More than half of them were not wearing armor. The soldiers of the Kingdom of Taros were uniformly equipped with enchanted half-body armor that was easy to put on and off and balanced in terms of offense and defense. They would only wear this armor when they were preparing for battle or when they were on duty. Usually, they wore cloth uniforms. "Many of them suddenly ran out of the barracks when they were resting. Look, some of them are even not wearing shoes."
"They ran out of the barracks, and then they were scared to death outside. They even scratched their chests before they died," Hao Ren said as he shook his head slightly. "It's too weird."
At this time, a knight who was scouting ahead suddenly shouted, "Your Royal Highness! We found the outpost commander! "
The outpost commander was also dead, but the way he died was different from the ordinary soldiers.
The commander died in the open space in front of a small furnace. It seemed that he wanted to protect the place before he died. He was wearing a full set of armor, but there were no scars on the armor. He was holding a commander's standard sword that had been broken, and the ground around him was crisscrossed with sword marks. It seemed that the officer had fought an invisible enemy before he died.
The cause of death was also suicide: he used the broken sword in his hand to slit his throat.
Veronica carefully examined the body of the junior officer and confirmed that the commander had committed suicide in a frenzy. Soon, she found something on the ground next to the body.
"There are words here!" the princess cried.
It was a few lines of last words written in blood. It seemed that the commander had suddenly regained a moment of clarity before he died and struggled to write it. The line of letters was crooked, but it did not affect reading.
"There is something in the dream, it ran out of our hearts …"
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