The lake water was back to its clear form. However, the lake bank was basically a slaughter house. Splattered, dark blood stained the stones, soil, and sparse vegetation.
Bodies of the grotesque Zombie Frog-men piled like discarded rags. Limbs were twisted at unnatural angles.
The air hung heavy with the metallic tang of blood. And the lingering, disgusting smell of the rotten flesh. It was a mess. Crude and revolting.
"We should move." Reina stated. Her voice was calm. Devoid of revulsion. She had seen worse.
Jack nodded. His eyes were scanning the landscape. No more movement. No more threats. At least for now. He rode on his Lightning Hoverbike. Reina mounted behind him. Her arms finding their familiar place around his waist.
The surviving expedition members... Dr. Crafton, Chloe Chase, Leon Drake, Tomme Laycard, Jeanne Laycard, Baroness Artheim, and the three logistic members: Bell, Ned, and Moby... They stood amidst the carnage. Uncomfortable. They watched Jack and Reina with a mixture of awe, gratitude, and curiosity.
"Our camp is on the far side of the like." Jack announced. His voice carrying clearly in the quiet. "It's safer there. And more convenient."
He didn't wait for a response. The hoverbike hummed to life. Lifting smoothly into the air. He set a steady pace across the vast expanse of Lake Trishade. Leaving the messy place and its dead behind.
The others were hesitated for a moment. But, they started packing their meager surviving gear. Their own tents were ruined. Torn apart by the Zombie Frog-men. They had no choice but to follow.
It was almost two hours later when they reached Jack and Reina's camp. It was a well-chosen spot. Sheltered and comfortable. Almost directly on the opposite side of the lake.
Far enough to be safe. Close enough to observe. A small, efficient campfire had already been established by Reina while Jack had been making sure the area was secure.
Its warm glow cast long, dancing shadows. Chasing away some of the encroaching darkness and the chill that settled over the lake at night.
The expedition members looked like ghosts themselves. Their faces were still etched with the horror of what they had witnessed.
They moved with a dazed slowness. Setting up their remaining tents. Or simply collapsing onto the ground near the warmth of the fire.
Fortunately, most of them were hardy men accustomed to the wilderness. They managed to salvage enough supplies. To make a rudimentary meal of dried rations and hot, bitter tea.
Jack and Reina sat side-by-side on a fallen log. Nursing their own mugs. The firelight flickered across Jack's rugged features. Reina sat gracefully beside him. Composed. Her dark hair was a silken curtain around her shoulders.
She was not actually disguising herself in essence. But her aura and appearance was vastly different from the flamboyant, dangerous Queen Mirage. Her face looked softer. Less domineering.
She now looked like Jack Night's devoted wife. Not a notorious member of a shadowy organization. This, combined with Jack's current human form, ensured their true identities remained hidden.
No one recognized them. Not even Dr. Crafton, Leon Drake, or Chloe Chase, who had encountered them twice in Tideless Island.
"So..." Dr. Crafton began. Breaking the long silence with his raspy voice. He rubbed his temples. As if trying to physically dislodge the night's memories. "You two… you were also camping here?"
Jack met his gaze. Offering a tired, but pleasant, smile. "That's right. I'm Jack Night, and this is my wife, Reina. We're from Lonestone City. Came out here for a bit of a vacation. Peace and quiet, you know."
He paused. Taking a slow sip of his tea. "Didn't quite get what we bargained for, did we?"
Reina inclined her head. A subtle agreement. "Like you, we are… transcendent. So we can usually handle dangers." She added. "But we hardly anticipated being drawn into such an ordeal. It was quite unexpected."
Leon Drake pushed a hand through his perpetually disheveled hair. "Unexpected is an understatement. We… we were an archaeological expedition. From Lonestone City too. Here to study Danochande, the Underlake Temple."
He paused and quickly continued. "One of us, Dr. Kingsley found something in the temple when we were diving. A mechanism. He deactivated it. That's when… well, that's when everything went to hell."
Jack listened, his expression neutral, but his mind sharp. He already guessed all that, of course. Having observed the unfolding disaster. But playing the role required him to appear ignorant. Genuinely shocked.
"A mechanism?" Jack prompted. Feigning curiosity. "One that released the ugly claw? So, the temple wasn't just a ruin, then? Was it a prison?"
Tomme Laycard nodded grimly. "It appears so. A very potent one. That should be a Nagaean Temple. We believe it predates most surviving civilizations."
"Nagaean?" Reina mused. She also pretended. But a flicker of genuine interest seemed to appear in her eyes. "From the myths? The serpent-folk?"
Jeanne Laycard, Tomme's wife and fellow scholar, corrected. "Well, the legends of naga, half human half serpent did originate from their ancient civilization. But the Nagaeans should be humans."
"They had been extinct." She continued. "But, they were said to possess powerful magic and incredible architectural prowess. This temple, with its unique structure and advanced mechanisms, certainly seems to fit the descriptions."
"And that… thing." Baroness Artheim spoke for the first time. Her aristocratic voice trembling slightly. "The huge one. What was it? It wasn't a mere beast, was it?"
"Well, the flying lady called it the Claw of Ink Dragon, didn't she?" Jack supplied information. Once again feigning ignorance.
"She really called it that? Really?" Dr. Crafton immediately looked at Jack with great enthusiasm. "Claw of Ink Dragon?"
"Uh... yeah." Jack confirmed it. "Didn't you hear... Oh wait. You were all in the temple."
"So, that was it." Dr. Crafton nodded. Realizing what had happened. "There was a myth, or legends, that said the Five Nagaean Deities chopped an immortal Ink Dragon into seven pieces. And then, they sealed it in seven temples."
He paused. His gaze drifting upwards. As if searching for an answer in the stars. "This should be the sealing place. It wasn't just a myth, then. Then, she... that lady. She might really be the goddess. Rainsister."
"Rainsister, the Goddess of Knowledge." Chloe added, almost reverently. "One of the Five Nagaean Deities. She truly exist? But, shouldn't god depart when the worshippers were extinct?"
Jack kept his poker face. He knew Rainsister. He knew the reason she was still here. In this world. But, he didn't think it was necessary to share that information..
He simply commented. "Quite lucky she is still around. Fortunate for all of us. We'd all be dead otherwise."
Tomme Laycard looked thoughtful. "This Nagaean Temple. It's quite unusual. Very different from the ruins Jeanne and I have explored in the New Continent."
Jack's interest was genuinely piqued now. The New Continent. Information on it was scarce. Fragmented. And often contradictory here in Elrush Kingdom.
Most information depicted it as a vast, uncharted landmass. Across the Great Ocean. Shrouded in mystery.
He had always imagined it as a wild, untamed frontier. Perhaps similar to the American continent during the exploration age of his past life.
But he was increasingly finding that this world replicated his old one in strange, twisted ways. Never quite exactly.
"The New Continent?" Jack asked. Leaning forward slightly. "There isn't much reliable information about it here in Elrush. What's it like?"
Tomme and Jeanne exchanged a glance. It seemed they were keen to talk about it. Or anything other than the horrors of the past few hours.
"It's... quite different." Jeanne began. Her eyes were distant. Recalling distant shores. "We spent nearly five years there. Mostly in the south-eastern regions."
"Imagine..." Tomme picked up. His voice was gaining a touch of academic enthusiasm. "Mountains that claw at the heavens, covered in bamboo forests, and ancient, twisted pines. Rivers that snake through vast plains, emptying into tumultuous seas."
"The architecture of the ruins we found, the fragments of porcelain pottery, the carved stone figures… they were unlike anything in Ourea or Fareka Continents." Jeanne added.
"True." Tomme agreed. "They are very distinct, with intricate designs. Often depicting snake-like dragons, peacock-like phoenixes, and other mythical beasts."
"And the writing systems." Jeanne added. "When we could find them, they were always complex pictograms. A bit similar to the early scripts of the ancient eastern kingdoms of our Ourean Continent. But far more developed."
Jack listened intently. Snake-like dragons and peacock-like phoenixes… pictograms… bamboo forests. This was not the frontier he had envisioned. But, this sounded disturbingly familiar. Like... Asia.
"But what really sets it apart..." Jeanne continued. Her voice was growing more serious. "... is the sheer scale of the ruins. Cities, once grand and sprawling, now utterly swallowed by the wilderness. Temples carved into mountainsides, entire networks of roads paved with vanished techniques. It's clear that once, a vast and sophisticated civilization thrived there."
"And it's all gone." Tomme added. A note of melancholy in his voice. "There were just ruins there. We found no surviving native populations. No descendants of these ancient people. Nothing."
Jeanne chimed in. "True. It's as if they were utterly wiped out. A great calamity, perhaps. Or a massive plague."
Jack's mind raced. His initial assumption of a raw, untamed land akin to North America during the colonial era was crumbling. What they described sounded less like a discovered colonized land. And more like an archaeological dig across an entire continent.
"No living natives?" Jack pressed. His brow was furrowed. "Only ruins?"
"No living human natives." Tomme confirmed. "Just fierce beasts. Many of which are unique to the New Continent and are incredibly dangerous. We encountered creatures that could reshape earth and stone, flying serpents, and even what some of the pioneers called 'Demon Tigers'."
"Demon Tigers?" Reina repeated. A spark was in her eyes. "Fascinating."
"The towns and settlements you can find there now..." Jeanne explained. "... are all relatively young. Established by pioneers and explorers from the Ourean and Farekan Continents. They've carved out their own niches, often building directly on top of the ancient ruins, or using the materials from them."
"It's a land of opportunity, people say." Tomme elaborated. "Vast resources, fertile lands, and the promise of uncovering ancient secrets. But it's also a land of immense danger. The wilds are untamed, the beasts are strange, and the spirits of the dead... many linger in those ancient places."
Jack processed this. So, it was not a pristine wilderness full of indigenous tribes. But a ghost continent. A land that once hosted advanced civilizations. Now reduced to silent, weathered remnants. Waiting for new, foreign settlers to pick through its bones.
It was a grim picture. Starkly different from his mental image. It sounded like an entire continent had suffered an extinction-level event. Leaving behind only echoes of its grandeur.
His thoughts drifted to legends of his old Earth... Atlantis, Lemuria... but on a continental scale.
And it was not just that. The landscape and cultural remnants seemed to mirror the Asian cultures. Ancient China very likely. The thought was both chilling and incredibly compelling.
The New Continent was not merely new territory to be explored. It was an enormous, open-air museum of a vanished world. And Jack was suddenly very, very interested.