The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 355: Considering the possibilities

Chapter 355: Considering the possibilities

Hex looked at the others. Some spoke, while others brooded about the attack.

The journey toward the core region continued as soon as Jonathan appeared. Hex hadn’t gotten a chance to speak to Elize since then. And even his talk with Medina was interrupted by Jonathan’s arrival.

But he wasn’t willing to leave the conversation at that point. He detested the existence of the Shadow Serpents or any other form they existed in. And so far, it seemed like Medina truly was the one behind their presence in Wrixia. At least, in their terrifying form.

The captives speculated among themselves the cause and the identity of the attackers as they marched on. Hex’s enhanced hearing picked up several candidates.

Most believed that they belonged to their Sisters from other circles. It was the first time Hex heard that the Witchkin didn’t consist solely of these women and children. Apparently, there were several circles, all with their own goals and agendas, who considered the Witch their role model.

He didn’t learn about every group or every goal they pursued. Only the one this particular circle was close to was spoken off. The Sisterhood, as they called themselves, were a group of warriors who assigned themselves the task of protecting every Witch sympathizer.

Based on their description, the Sisterhood consisted of members excelling in combat. Their group wasn’t large. If Hex averaged all the numbers called among these women, then he estimated the Sisterhood to have around twenty members. But they compensated for their lack of quantity with quality.

Their stages ranged from Refined Knight Stage to Transformation Stage. Although they never mentioned Enlightened Stage, Hex assumed it to be a possibility.

A minority group believed the attackers weren’t related to the Witch. They mentioned the Snakefolk. Hex had heard about that group around the same time he learned about the Shadow Serpents.

The Snakefolk were a group of people or creatures – Hex had not learned about their appearance, style of living, or threat level – who inherited the genes of the Shadow Serpents when the host bodies gave birth. Although he knew that Shadow Serpents procreated through their hosts, Hex didn’t know the difference between conceiving Shadow Serpents and Snakefolk.

’Wherever I arrive, a new set of problems arise. I just wanted to learn more about the World, gather resources to break through, and participate in that tournament. For some reason, all this has turned into a meeting with Mom, learning about Divine Wills, and some ostracized group in the middle of this place.’

Hex shook his head as he sighed. He couldn’t help it. His purpose and the actual experience seemed to diverge everytime. There were many more things to worry about but he tried to keep them in the back of his mind.

’Is this place truly as magical as it seems? Is Wrixia a country, a tree or a being?’

He shook his head again. No. He had to focus on the things he actually required to learn. Luckily, in a way, a part of it coincided with his goals. Meeting Medina wasn’t part of his plans but learning more about her was.

The Divine Wills weren’t something he knew about but in a way it helped learn more about Heavens. So, not a loss. Only, he had still not learned much about the Divine Lord.

His ultimate opponent was Heaven, or at the very least, to break apart Heaven’s Vault to save his master from eternal imprisonment, but he didn’t doubt for a second that the Divine Lord would be one of the biggest obstacles in his path.

...

"The camp is in sight."

A shout came from the front.

Hex looked up. Unlike the others, he could see up ahead. The camp mentioned was the local headquarters of the Guardians.

A few days had passed since the attack. They had marched throughout the day, only stopping at nightfall to rest. For some reason, Hex hadn’t been able to talk with Elize. She seemed occupied with something. She didn’t even pay any heed to the two leaders of the Witchkin. He heard Jonathan grumble more than once about it.

The camp looked like a collection of a few wooden buildings, all rooted to the ground. The camp lay in the middle of an elevated ground, with watchtowers on all four sides. Hex spotted a few figures flying around.

A few of the flying figures assembled at the tower that lay between them and the camp. They had noticed their group by the look of it.

’Another unit like Unit Two?’ Hex wondered. He didn’t ask aloud. The brooding faces of the other Guardians caused no one to even mention the missing unit. Their darkened faces and almost violent attitude intimidated the captive women into the silence. Even the children didn’t cry.

Ever since Jonathan had returned, he hadn’t contacted Hex. That made Hex wary, more than he already had been.

Hex saw Jonathan’s behavior when he had seen the corpses. The sense of loss his being had radiated was akin to someone who lost members of his own family. There was no way he would take a loss like that without retaliating.

’But why is he ignoring me?’ Hex wondered. He didn’t expect Jonathan to come screaming or going berserk but at the very least he had expected the man to react in some way. Perhaps question him to gain a better understanding. To insist on staying around the area to gather clues. Anything.

But not only did he not do any of these things, he even acted like nothing happened. He didn’t mention Unit Two, he didn’t insist on gathering clues or finding a culprit, and as far as Hex had observed, he had not even spoken to the remaining Guardians.

’From his behavior I can only conclude a few things.’ Hex had a few days to consider the problem from different angles.

First, perhaps Jonathan hadn’t sought clues, either because he had already found one, or he didn’t need one. Second, he might have an inkling about the identity of the culprit, he already had a suspect, or – this angle even shocked Hex himself – there were no other culprits.

The last one sounded crazy but Hex refrained from dismissing it. Crazy was a little too common for him.

If he assumed it to be the truth, then it opened a different can of worms altogether. If there were no culprits, aside from the Lava Bat, it could mean two things. One, the Lava Bat was an unfortunate incident, or two, Jonathan himself had released the Lava Bat.

Both alternatives were plausible. Hex couldn’t decide which one was more plausible, though. If the Lava Bat was just an incident, why had none of the members of Unit Two sought back up? And if Jonathan had been the one responsible for the Lava Bat, were the members of Unit Two accomplices? Did something go wrong? And why had Jonathan released the Lava Bat? What was his true purpose?

All these questions swirled in his mind, despite his unwillingness to deal with it. He glanced at Jonathan, who seemed calm and breaking away from the group to brief the incoming unit about their task.

The calm on his face seems to predict an incoming storm.

Hex sighed and turned his head. At the back of the group, he saw Elize. Her glazed eyes indicated she was still lost in her thoughts. Like she had been for a few days. What was she thinking? Did she gain some clue from the little Serpents?

’I hope she snaps out of it. It might be too late if she comes to her senses when the storm hits us in the face,’ Hex wished in his mind.

He didn’t trust her any more than he did Jonathan. But he believed those two to have different goals. If one called upon a storm, the other would counter it, creating a chance for him and the others to remain safe for some time.

He finally glanced at the middle of the group. Medina sat between Jade and the woman she called mother. Like everyone else, they too maintained silence throughout the journey and only whispered now and then to each other.

Throughout the journey, Jade seemed to have recovered quite a lot and mingled more with Medina and her mother. She also stopped eying him as if he was a predator preying on her friend – something Hex was silently grateful for.

They had reached the camp of the Guardians by now.