Not all of the holy knights were fools.
After receiving Locus's order to clean up the battlefield, some of them entered the stronghold to count their losses.
Even though it seemed like the Dark Beings were so greedy that they didn't even leave a fork for them, they still counted everything here so that they could give an answer when the higher-ups sent someone over.
But in the stronghold, the holy knights quickly realized that something was amiss.
During the count, they discovered that there were bloodstains in many places, and judging from the traces, they seemed to have been left not too long ago.
This meant that someone in the stronghold had been killed. Of course, this wasn't strange. What was strange was that they couldn't find any corpses nearby.
This surprised the holy knights. After a careful search, they finally found the corpses in the basement of the stronghold. But …
A pungent, disgusting smell assaulted their nostrils as they entered the underground tunnel.
Locus knitted his brows and looked at the pitch-black tunnel with the help of the flames.
Under the illumination of the flames, the originally quiet and tidy tunnel had completely changed. Sticky, yellowish mucus-like secretions wrapped around the walls and emitted a pungent smell.
At a glance, the entire underground tunnel was incomparably dark. Even with the illumination of the flames, it still looked lifeless.
The evil and death aura filled the air, forming an inaudible mournful moan.
It's disgusting.
Locus couldn't help but feel nauseous at the sight of the space enveloped in the viscous liquid. But even so, his expression didn't change in the slightest. Instead, he strode in.
This was originally a place for the supply stronghold to store food. The Dark Region wasn't like the surface, where one couldn't hunt for rabbits or wild deer to roast for food.
That was why the church's supplies were all transported from the surface. Of course, Jenn didn't stand on ceremony and took everything he could get, not even leaving a bag of wheat flour.
Naturally, the entire warehouse was also empty … That would be strange!
"What the hell is this?"
Walking into the warehouse and looking at the scene before him, even Locus couldn't help but widen his eyes in shock as he stared at everything inside with an astonished gaze.
In the empty warehouse, dozens of white, egg-like objects stood erect on the ground.
However, unlike ordinary eggs, these weren't real eggs. On the contrary, Locus keenly noticed that there were petal-like openings at the top of these eggs, and the insides were dark and hollow.
It could be seen that something must have been hatching here before, and then burrowed out to become like this.
Not only that, but what attracted Locus the most was the wall in front of him that was covered in a viscous substance. On the wall, soldiers were wrapped in the viscous substance. Their faces were pale, and their eyes and mouths were wide open.
The fear on their faces was frightening, but what pained Locus the most was that he no longer had the chance to save them from their pain. These people were all dead.
"My lord."
Seeing Locus' arrival, the other Paladins in the warehouse hurriedly greeted him. However, their faces were pale as if they had encountered something terrifying.
"What happened?"
Locus asked softly when he saw the scene before him.
Shortly after, a Paladin stepped forward and gave him an answer.
It turned out that after that, the Paladins followed the clues to the underground warehouse and discovered everything before them.
In the beginning, they were more concerned about the deaths of their comrades and didn't care about the eggs standing upright on the ground.
But soon, the eggs that didn't seem to have any movements began to move. They hatched into a bunch of monsters and launched an attack on the Holy Knights!
"Monsters?"
"That's right. It's this thing!"
The Paladin said, picking up a white worm with his sword and placing it in front of Locus. It looked like some kind of creature from the Underdark with a fat, flat body and three pairs of insect-like limbs.
But now, these worms' bodies had been sliced open, and judging from their stiff bodies, they were obviously dead.
"Are these monsters very powerful?"
"Not really, just disgusting … Perhaps you don't know this, Sir, but these worms wanted to hug our faces as soon as they appeared. It was disgusting."
"Are you hurt?"
After hearing his subordinate's answer, Locus immediately asked sternly.
But facing his question, his subordinate shook his head.
"I'm fine, Sir.
It's just that a few of our brothers were careless, but they are fine. They just feel a little disgusted.
But these worms are really strange. As expected of creatures from the Underdark. Just looking at them gives me chills … I don't know where these darn things came from. "
"…"
Perhaps to the Paladin, he was just grumbling a little.
But after hearing his words, a glint flashed in Locus' eyes, and he looked at the eggs with some doubt.
That's right, there were more than 50 eggs here. He didn't know what kind of monster could be so powerful to lay so many eggs in such a short period of time.
And from the traces of the previous investigation, from the start of the battle to the end, including the time they took to return, it was at most a few hours. In such a short period of time, not only did they defeat the enemies, but they also searched for resources in the stronghold and placed so many strange worm eggs here … Come to think of it, why did they place the eggs here?
Locus was also puzzled. It wasn't that he didn't know that some people would deliberately place the cubs of powerful magical beasts in the enemy's territory, luring the magical beasts to find their cubs.
In this way, the enemies had no choice but to fight with the magical beasts. After all, they were of different races and languages. If there were a Druid or an Elf, it would be fine. If not, both sides would have to fight without knowing the language … Could it be that the enemies also had the same idea and secretly placed the eggs of the monsters in the Underdark here?
"Did you guys see any other monsters?"
"No, Sir."
"I got it."
After receiving the answer, Locus nodded and quickly gave another order.
"Clean up everything here and turn these evil into ashes!"
"Yes!"
After walking out of the smelly tunnel, Locus shook his head helplessly. The ambush on the supply stronghold made him unable to eat or sleep in peace.
The fact that the enemies could find their way here meant that they might have been under their surveillance since a long time ago. This could be considered a huge impact on the mission of the War God Temple.
I wonder if the people who ambushed the stronghold are related to the evil mentioned in the oracle?
If that's the case …
"Sir … Sir …!"
Just as Locus was deep in thought, he heard the shouts of his subordinates. He sighed helplessly and looked in the direction of the sound.
It seems like I'm really unlucky today. I haven't encountered anything good until now …
"What's wrong now?"
Locus was a little surprised to see his subordinate running to report the news while panting.
Compared to the previous few guys who were crying and shouting with a dejected look, this guy also seemed to be in a hurry, but there was a hint of joy between his brows.
This is really strange. Now that the entire supply stronghold has been destroyed, why is he still so happy?
"It's like this, Sir. We found those murderers!"
"Oh?"
Upon hearing this, Locus was shocked.
"What happened?"
"It's like this …"
Facing Locus's question, the holy knight didn't hesitate and quickly gave an answer.
It turned out that after that, although Locus ordered the others to clean up the battlefield, not all of the holy knights were willing to do as they were told.
Moreover, the Paladins were enraged by the tragic deaths of the guards. In the end, a few young Paladins couldn't take it anymore and decided to sneak around in the direction the guards left to see if they could find any clues.
Hence, under the lead of a colleague who was good at scouting, these holy knights chased after the traces left behind by Jenn and the others.
They weren't fools. They knew that they definitely couldn't defeat the enemies, but if they could find some clues and find out who those people were and where they were hiding, wouldn't it be easier for them to take revenge?
They didn't encounter any obstacles along the way. It was obvious that those people were in a hurry and didn't have time to hide their tracks.
The holy knights chased after them smoothly. But just as they passed through a tunnel, they suddenly encountered a patrol team of gray dwarves.
Upon seeing the holy knights, the gray dwarves brandished their battle axes and attacked them crazily. In an instant, the holy knights were flustered.
However, they were strong, after all, and quickly recovered from the disadvantageous situation and killed a few gray dwarves.
On the other hand, the other gray dwarven warriors turned around and fled.
The holy knights originally planned to chase after the gray dwarves, but they didn't expect a pitch-black, strange, and terrifying monster to suddenly appear at this moment. They had no choice but to stop, which was why they weren't able to kill all the gray dwarves in one fell swoop.
"A pitch-black monster?"
"That's right, Sir.
From the looks of it, it must be the Grey Dwarves and their monsters that attacked our Stronghold. I think we should gather our forces and wipe out these damn Underground Dwarves!!! "
"I got it. Let me think about it …"
Upon hearing the words of his subordinate, Locus nodded reluctantly.
Although it sounded reasonable, Locus felt that something was amiss.
Where did it go wrong?