"Do any of you know what led to the destruction of Cordu Village?"
Such was the question that pressed with heaviest weight upon Adam's mind. It had gnawed at him since the moment he first beheld the desolate remnants of that once-cherished settlement, and the grotesqueries he had encountered during his solitary exploration. It was a question long incubated by dread.
Valentine was the first to release a weary breath and speak."Over the past year," he began, "a disquieting pattern has emerged—numerous disappearances scattered across the Feynapotter Kingdom's Grabaka Province, the Dariege region, and the Lenburg Republic's Upper Hel State."
Ryan and Leah offered no contradiction. Their silence, grave and knowing, affirmed Valentine's words. Adam, however, found himself besieged by the litany of distant lands and grim occurrences. Each name seemed a new branch in an ever-darkening forest of mystery.
Valentine proceeded, his voice lowered as though the very air might betray them:"Several Beyonders—operatives and wanderers alike—vanished without sanction or trace. And strangely, these disappearances appear intertwined with the movements of shepherds who travel across those three regions."
Adam leaned forward, determined to display his attentiveness."Those three regions that you mentioned—those are where the vanishings occurred, correct? People simply… disappeared without warning?"
"Yes," Leah replied gently, a faint smile passing across her lips. She continued, "Yet among all three locations, Cordu became our principal concern."
Adam's breath caught. Cordu—a land he had seen reduced to thorn-choked ruin and presided over by a melting abomination atop a crimson mountain—had apparently once flourished with shepherds, livestock, and fertile greenery. The revelation stood in stark, cruel contrast to what his own eyes had witnessed.
"But how," Adam asked, confusion clouding his features, "do disappearances in far-off places connect to Cordu's devastation?"
The question rang plainly, his suspicion undisguised.
Ryan offered a patient nod."I am certain you wonder how all this bears relevance to Cordu Village."
Adam gave a firm answer. "Yes. How do they connect exactly?"
Ryan's expression hardened as though the memory itself were a burden."Because Cordu was full of shepherds—and strange, unearthly anomalies began occurring there long before its ruin."
"Then…" Adam's voice faltered as he pieced the fragments into place. "The barren land I saw—that wasteland—was once a thriving pasture?"
"It was indeed," Valentine answered with a sigh heavy with disdain. "But the atrocity committed by some among the villagers… was vile beyond forgiveness."
Adam felt a chill prickle at his skin. Whatever had transpired, it had left the land scarred in both earth and memory.
Ryan resumed as the tale deepened."The Cordu disaster can be divided into two manifestations: the reality—the physical ruin—and the dreamscape—a realm of warped consciousness."
Dreamscape.
The word struck Adam like an arrow. He could not suppress the sudden recollection: those fleeting yet tormenting flashes that had assaulted his mind upon awakening. The headache. The disorientation. The sense of having brushed against something not of this world.
"In reality," Ryan continued gravely, "Cordu was destroyed by a large-scale but ultimately unsuccessful sacrificial ritual—one meant to summon an evil god. Only a small number survived."
They didn't bother to tell Adam the specific people that played a role in the descent of the evil God . They didn't even know much about the ruins or the dreamscape and they didn't want to tell him something that they weren't sure of.
Adam's eyes widened with shock when he heard Ryan's words. He had known a higher power had meddled in the village's fate the moment he glimpsed the monstrous giant formed of twisted flesh and oozing blood atop the mountain. Now he knew the truth. The mountain had been the altar.
He decided then to reveal what he had seen."When I was exploring the ruins, I… saw a towering giant at the blood-red peak. Its body seemed forged from flesh and blood, and it was melting in the sunlight."
The trio stared at him with astonishment bordering on alarm.For a mere human to gaze upon an evil god's malformed remnant without succumbing to immediate madness or spiritual collapse was a rarity bordering on impossibility.
Though explanations drifted through their minds—perhaps the failed ritual had weakened the being, or perhaps Adam had looked only briefly—the suspicion lingered that Adam was no ordinary wanderer.
Before the silence could grow oppressive, a plump and cheerful woman in a maid's attire approached with a food tray balanced expertly on her hip.
"Would you like to buy something?" she asked kindly, directing her attention—quite understandably—to Adam, who looked the youngest and hungriest of the four.
Right on cue, Adam's stomach rumbled in mortifying betrayal.
Valentine chuckled softly and purchased a small assortment of food.Adam's face brightened instantly; he had eaten nothing since awakening, and their journey by train would span twenty long hours.
Once the food was served, Adam murmured his thanks. The four companions then settled into a tranquil, much-needed silence as they ate.