A clearing of the throat.r


    A hoarse voice cracked.r


    And then the tune.r


    …r


    “Food itself, is life itself,r


    Feed yourself, don’t eat yourself,r


    Guts may pull, but I’m no fool,r


    Yet here I drool, I drip a pool,r


    <sniff, sniff>…”r


    A brief sob.r


    Then the tune continued.r


    “Drink itself, is life itself,r


    Drink yourself, don’t… No that’s not right…<sniff> I’m so hungry.”r


    The song that had been echoing from beyond where Skullius was currently, suddenly stopped as a voice with a sad tone rang.r


    Skullius stopped his advance through the narrow, dark corridor temporarily.r


    “What is that?” he asked the aged soul within, his question being about what he was hearing and where it wasing from.r


    ‘I don’t know. It’s obviously a song. A terrible one at that, but… Hmm. Just keep moving,’ S responded.r


    The Discount Human wore a look of suspicion before treading tightly through the darkness lit up by azy circr luminescence.r


    Forty minutes of travelling without a sound or a change in what appeared in his senses had stripped him of the edge he had before, but now, the tension had been restored.r


    With a bit more of the mana in the Elimparidis staff being restored, barely 40 points, Skullius had healed some of the damage he had sustained before but the red cracks from overusing [Jaggered Merger] persisted.r


    It really seemed like a hefty price had to be paid for such power that had not helped him much but S assured Skullius that it would probably fade with time.r


    A normal human would have been damaged for life though, especially if their body didn’t have any special properties.r


    Skullius tread further ahead into the darkness when finally, he felt the corridor that had temporarily receded its slope when he had reached that spot with the fake treasures, as S had said, be t as it led to what was definitely the destination that he was striving for.r


    The experience of entering into arger space from a narrow one reminded him of the journey to face the Evenfall cultists, at least where theyout of the venue was concerned.r


    Skullius’ senses spread as soon as he was free from the cramped space.r


    “Anotherrge ce…” Skullius said without much excitement or surprise. Open spaces were bing quite annoying for him for some reason.r


    This time however, he couldn’t say he was annoyed per se, but acutely intrigued.r


    The hard floor made of hard tiling that was rapidly degraded over the years, the colour taking a dive into brownish grey from a healthy  granite’s hue and with deep, lengthy cracks over its mass disyed its sturdiness.r


    Faint groves in aplicated shape could be seen on the floor starting from at least fifty meters away from Skullius, a detail that the Discount Human missed while focusing on everything else in this ce as no mana could be sensed from it.r


    To the side was what Skullius thought was previously argeke as an extensive hole that stretched quite the distance from the centre of this ce and beyond could be seen.r


    The only indication that this was once a water body was a pitifully small puddle of sparkling water that remained in the shallow depth, its visage as it was struck by thezy light that stemmed from the window strategically ced far above to barely show anything around here, mystical to say the least.r


    ‘Well this is problematic,’ S remarked at this specific detail. A puddle remained? How… inconvenient.r


    “What?” Skullius asked.r


    S’s response was sadly, a simple sigh.r


    All this was pretty interesting, but whatid directly in front of Skullius however, jolted the Discount Human’s senses into realising that this was quite an important space.r


    A set of steps rose at the very edge of this enclosed space, leading up to what seemed like an altar, a stage surrounding it in a semi-circr shape, atop it a stone pedestal that attempted to stand out with jewel-like stone ounting for its build.r


    On the wall, acting as a background to the human sized pedestal was an immactely design of twelve eyes – onerge one surrounded by eleven others with their respective colours glowing to give a sense of distinction.r


    Yet, this wasn’t the thickest of it all.r


    Once again, a voice was heard.r


    “Food itself, is life itself,r


    Feed yourself, don’t eat yourself, r


    Here my gut, is now my heart,r


    Fill it up, I want to far-… No that’s not right either…”r


    Skullius’ senses picked up on more than just the voice now.r


    A figurey face down on the stage, on the altar, beside the stone pedestal.r


    A live figure.r


    However, there were multiple others around this individual.r


    Thousands of them.r


    Most of them were dry skeletons that looked aged beyond belief, the rest looking like mummies with greyish hairs over their heads, their expressions showing a sad glimpse of their demise.r


    These were sprawled over the altar and all over the floor up to a hundred meters away from the altar, covering up the likeness of the floor from this point in their piles.r


    These were all corpses, one way or another, but their presence didn’t hinder Skullius from detecting the vibrant air and mana produced by the living being among this unmoving entourage of the dead.r


    When looking at this being among the corpses, one would see very long, dirty lime coloured hair that covered its extremely thin naked figure.r


    As the individualy face down, it was hard to see their face but the misery they had was all but hidden, as this was obviously the source of the atrocious song.r


    “What the heck is that?” Skullius said with a brow raised.r


    ‘Hmm… if I am correct, tomato flinger, then this is the host. The one who received the legacy of the Trodden Rose,’ S exined.r


    “Huh?” Skullius voiced with confusion and doubt .r


    At his reaction, which brought a much needed change in acoustics to this ce which had been silent for quite a while, the naked figureying t on the floor with the only covering to them being the long hair, shook.r


    The head of this individual rose as it followed the sound of the voice, its face revealed to be a dehydrated mess that barely showed much flesh but advertised the bone underneath it instead.r


    Dry lips that looked like they could fall off at any moment, a nose deprived of moisture so much that it looked like it would turn into a raisin sooner rather thanter and cracked facial skin used to draw shock, was evident.r


    Tufts of hair covered much of the face but this much could be appraised and grimaced upon.r


    This was a feminine face.r


    Obviously it was, if one took S’s conjecture as true.r


    If this was the host, then it was naturally so.r


    “Thank the Deities!” the female figure said, the effort she put to yell these words being vivid, but the result dismal. “I… I can’t believe it! Someone finally reached this ce!”r


    Skullius waited for the old piece of soul to trante, to which he did but also showing his confusion towards this.r


    ‘It seems she’s been here for a long time. From the way she speaks, it seems that she hasn’t met another person in a while but then… What are all those corpses?’ S said. ‘Some of them are fresh.’r


    “Hmmm… that is strange…” Skullius said.r


    The female figure crawled from the top, her thin body which barely showed any femininity instead embracing the universality of the insides of humanity through bone, scraping against the steps as she pulled her way towards Skullius through the mess around her.r


    “Is this really the one with the legacy?” Skullius asked, unsure of this.r


    S shared the same sentiment.r


    “Mister Sir, Can you please help me get out of here?!” the woman pleaded.r


    ‘Mister sir?’ r


    “I know you have your own mission here but please… spare me some of your strength. I… I willpensate you in the future.”r


    The woman shook quite a bit as a firm determination was brimming within herr


    Determination and desperation.r


    Determiration!r


    After S tranted, Skullius wasn’t all that interested in this.r


    There were too many unknowns and even S was still evaluating the whole thing from his experience.r


    ‘Hmmm. Let’s see. Go to that altar there and see if there’s something you can find,’ S said to Skullius.r


    The Discount Human wasn’t in favour of this, but he was at the mercy of S in terms of information.r


    The Discount Human took steps forward with caution.r


    The being before him grovelling for mercy had a vibrant blue core that seemed like it was condensed to its limit so he wouldn’t get careless but his instinct whispered that she wasn’t a danger to him at all.r


    Was she really the host if she was in such a pathetic state? r


    Didn’t bing a legacy holder guarantee that you’d have a Hidden ss?r


    Oh well.r


    Skullius continued on when…r


    “Mister sir! Don’te any closer, I beg of you! You’ll be killed!” the woman screamed with all she had as a look of dread appeared in her visible eye.r


    She wasn’t oblivious to the state of Skullius; his burnt skin, the cracks over his body and all else  she could see which he had suffered.r


    She desperately wanted this man to help her, but these wounds, in her mind were from his struggling to reach this ce.r


    Beside the self benefit she sought from Skullius, her innate personality drew hints ofpassion.r


    For this man to die just like that after facing such impossible odds to reach here for whatever reason…r


    It would be too cruel.r


    Skullius immediately stopped, but his foot was already hovering over the dry groves woven into an expansive array that partially ate into the extensive crater that he presumed was ake!r


    With merely his foot over it, a change was prompted, a bright light igniting in each of the curves of the groves that made a four-pronged array around the altar, almost covering half of this space!r


    Skullius was quick to react, his attuned body reacting immediately after he noticed this!r


    The terrified tone of the woman as she warned had alerted him quick enough.r


    A terrifying amount of power had been gathering in this brilliant array that had gone past his notice with its previous mana dry state!r


    Fortunately, it died down again as it seemed Skullius had avoided certain death!r


    “Keep going forward, huh?! Are you insane S?!” Skullius bellowed with irritation, having almost been led to death by S’s instruction.r


    ‘How was I supposed to know that would happen?!’ S barked back.r


    The woman who remained unharmed, her body lying on the ground, sighed in relief.r


    She had managed to save this man in the nick of time and-r


    “ARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” a gruelling scream shot out of her mouth, startling Skullius who had begun bickering with S!r


    The woman wriggled as she emitted an inhuman scream, her body beginning to sizzle.r


    “Oh this is just perfect,” Skullius said, evidently realising that this woman was biting the big one from UNCoddled.r


    ‘…’r


    The Discount Human watched the woman melt, only her bones remaining along with a faint echo of her horrible scream afterwards, a pool of human soup oozing toplete the disgusting scene.r


    “Now I just lost a more believable source of information than you,” Skullius grunted.r


    ‘Like I said before, it’s not my fault!’ S hissed.r


    Skullius grumbled while pping his face.r


    “Fine! Where’s the ce I’m looking for then? Let’s get this over with. This is obviously thest ce I can reach right?”r


    ‘Ummm… about that…’ S began, nervously dragging his words while the hot headedness he had disyed a few moments ago ran out a metaphorical window.r


    This was awkward because it wasn’t exactly a hopeless situation, but an uncertainty ridden circumstance.r


    “What?” Skullius asked, fuming.r


    “Aaaaah! I’ve never died like that before! Mistsr sir, what did you do?!” r


    A familiar voice suddenly burst the conversation between S and Skullius, the two turning shocked at the figure among the thousands of corpses, lime coloured hair draped over her body….!r