Chapter 51: Badge of Honor.

"This place is really huge they even have a huge hallway inside of this place I wonder what's the used of this place?" I ask with amazement.

If this place is really a relic of the lost era when magic is at it's peak of power, then this place might hold a lot of information that was already forgotten by everyone.

Information that we can used to our own advantage.

It would even be much better if we could find a working magic craft in this place that alone can be called a huge harvest.

Since the fall of the Great Gregorian Empire of the northern continent everything that has a relationship with magic have regressed and has never recovered since then.

A lot of their miraculous magic craft technology was lost forever and even the few remaining piece outside the Northern continent has already been scrap long time ago.

A lot of their remaining magic technology outside the Northern continent have already failed and only few remains working to this day that was under the careful care of the 3 empire. Each one of them still have some of the high tiered magic craft hidden in there treasury.

Countless research was also conducted by the best wizards of the 3 empire in the hopes that they can unlock the secret of this magic craft but everyone of them failed to replicate it.

However, it doesn't meant that their research is already useless since they still managed to get some inspiration from this magic artifact that they successfully applied on their own creation  allowing them to have some breakthrough in artifact crafting.

It can be compared from people of 18th century studying a technology from the 21st century of earth. The gap between the two is huge but it doesn't meant that they won't learn anything from this, they might not able to replicate it but some would still be able to discern how it works.

It's just a shamed that such an advance civilization of wizards have decided to isolate themselves for the sole reason of research. The lost of Great Gregorian Empire has a huge impact ok the entirety of Vreachland continent.

They deemed it unnecessary for other people to join their empire as they have a huge difference in terms of everything it was known by everyone that the Gregorian empire is the most powerful and the most advanced when it comes to everything related to magic.

They are also the one who renovated the Great Fortress so that they can control the flow of people entering their empire but they never know that it was this fortress that saved the rest of the continent from the calamity brought by the invasion of the Demonic Creatures.

Many stories revolves around the Gregorian empire but the most possible reason for their downfall is due to their unending pursue of knowledge. That allows them to open a rift or portal to the other dimension summoning all of this Demonic Creatures that causes their doom.

"We don't enough time to explore this entire cave but we can tell that this place is much bigger than we initially thought." Sir Daniel said as we reach another wide metal door with green glowing lines carved into it that converge into the center of the door to form a circle ⭕ where all the glowing green lights met.

This door also opens automatically once we got in front of it startling both Michael and me from its sudden movement.

Although the temperature on this place is at freezing point, you won't see any build up of ice inside of this room and even the hallways remain relatively clean.

"Woah this door open on its own." exclaimed by Michael with amazement as we entered the room.

"This is one of the remaining door that still have a functioning magic formation on it, and look at this lines they're still glowing. It means that it still has enough power after so many years of neglect and we don't even know where it's coming from." Sir Daniel said while staring at the metal door with crease forming on his forehead.

"The ancients really do know how to build incredible things huh?" I said to them as we all walked towards another open chamber.

Inside of this room is a cave chamber with a size of a basketball ball court with light crystals decorating it's ceiling illuminating the entire room.

There are also some tables made out of metal with a great similarity to stainless steel and some cylindrical glass tanks with unknown corpse inside of it.

There are also some things here like a machine that we can compare to a scientific lab of modern earth except they look a little weird but most of them have already decayed. They must have used this machine for studying those creatures inside the glass cylinder.

I also saw my father together with sir Hugo as they dutifully inspected the remains of the people from the church who now all laid down in the center of this room.

All the corpse of this people was found encircling a broken cylindrical glass tank and whatever is inside of it is now missing.

"Father your here, have you found out there caused of death?" I said to him as I approach the broken glass tank.

"Lucas you've arrived, come here quick and take a look at this. There caused of death is really bizarre." Father said quickly as he leads me to the dried up corpse of this people.

"What happen to them?"

"Were still not clear but all we know is that they must have died quickly." Hugo answered as he pick up a corpse that shows a terrified expression on its dried skin.

"That's a little bit concerning but why are they all lying down in this place surrounding this glass tank?" I ask with utter confusion.

"We haven't confirmed it yet but we all think that what ever creature is inside of this tank, Is also the reason for their death." My father gravely said as he look at the state of the corpses.

"How is that even possible they should been dead for a long time" Michael explain in shock upon hearing my father's suggestion.

"If it's true then that couldn't be good I can see that there are also some templar knights among this corpse and even they died without a fight." I worriedly said as I take a closer look to one of the remains.

"Master Lucas, look at this." Michael suddenly said in alarm as he uses his sword to turn the head of one of the corpse.

"Did you find something?"

"There's a small hole on the forehead of this corpse, it must be the reason for his death." Michael said as he poke his sword towards the forehead of the corpse opening its empty skull.

"A small hole?" My father and Hugo said at the same time as they looked at each other before immediately going back to the corpse and inspecting all of their forehead.

"Everyone quickly go and inspect all of them try to see if you could find a small hole on their forehead." Father said as he commanded every one to do the same.

In total, there is 30 dried up remains of people on this room, encircling the broken glass tank and all of them can easily be identified as part of the church of Agatha due to the accessories they wore on their body.

All of them also have a golden ring with the emblem of an angel with wide open wings and at their neck is a necklace with a pendant of the church of Agatha symbolizing the sun.

And due to the extreme cold temperature of this place no normal soldiers can reach this room. So all of the corpses on this place, must be a transcended people and yet they all died quickly without even having a chance to fight back the creature that killed them.

There is currently 7 people in this room conducting an investigation and all of us are transcended people.

In order for us to freely roam this place we must always activate our aura to resist the extreme cold and thanks to my diligent training and continues cultivation I can now operate my aura for 4 continuous hours to cover my body.

After a detailed inspection we now have confirmed there caused of death, and Hugo is right all of this people died in a quick manner.

The hole on their head doesn't just penetrate their forehead but also the skull at the back of their head. Its like something fast and hard have struck their head bypassing the barrier they have put.

You must know that once a knight covers his body with his aura it also acts like a barrier stopping everything from penetrating it, but all of this people didn't even managed to defend their selves so it must have happen very fast.

And whatever kills them manage to do it smoothly without breaking a sweat.

"How long have they died? It looks weird to me. Their clothes looks fairly new but their corpses looks like they died for a long time." said suddenly by sir Kiel as he inspected one of the clothes of the templar knight.

"Wait, what is this?" He suddenly said in alarm as he got a golden badge from the chest of one the corpse wearing a thick armor.

"What the, isn't that the badge of honor?" said suddenly by Hugo as kiel pulls out the golden badge.

The badge of honor is known as one of the highest medallion that the church of Agatha is willing to award to one of their member for doing extreme and risky mission issued by them.

Since this man have a badge of honor, then he must be the leader of this group.

This corpse must have an incredible strength as no templar knight could get this badge at Intermediate rank so he must be an senior knight, the same rank as sir Hugo.

A/N: Junior, Intermediate, Senior, Grand, Supreme

"It is indeed a badge of honor." answered by sir Kiel with a grave tone on his voice as he worriedly look at the golden badge.

"Even someone as powerful as him died in this place." sir Anton said while grimly staring at the broken glass tank.

"Whatever is inside of this tank, must be a very powerful creatures that can instantly kill an intermediate knight like him." He added before turning his attention towards the dried corpse.

"Wait, there are years written at the back this badge and it says, WHAT?" kiel suddenly shouted as he looked at us with shocked.

"What did you see? what year is it?" I eagerly ask as I stares at him.

"Lord Hubert, the year written on the back of this badge is just 2 years ago." kiel said with a uncertainty as he quickly look at my father.

"What? You mean that they just died recently?" Father suddenly ask with grave concern on his voice.

"But what happen to their body? it looks like a hundred years have passed by before we discovered them." Hugo suddenly ask as he stares at the corpse.

"So that's why their clothes looks new." sir Kiel added as he inspected the other corpses as well.

"It looks like something sucks out all the blood and flesh of their body till they dried up." I said suddenly as it reminds me of a certan movie I saw back on earth about an alien creature sucking out all the blood of human.

"Wait, the hole on their forehead it must have sucked out their brains first." Father suddenly said as he heard my suggestion.

"But why would there be another hole at the back of their head then, what is it for?" Hugo suddenly ask as he kneeled down and removed one of the head of the coprse and closely inspected its skull at the back.

"Wait, I think I found something look at this marks around the hole at the back their head." Hugo said as he shows as the marks he found.

It looks like an imprints of 4 deep marks like a sharp teeth that nailed itself on the skull.

"Wait should it be like a lock or hook?" Michael suddenly suggested.

"A lock?" I said in a puzzled voice.

"Yes, like how arrows keep themselves lock on the flesh of our target no matter what they do." He said enthusiastically as Michael loves hunting in the wild especially in the enchanted forest.

"So you mean that the holes at the back of their head is also caused by that creature making it impossible for them to escape it's grasp?" Father suddenly said to Michael as he look at him seriously.

"Yes Lord Hubert that's what I mean. It looks like this mysterious creature is also fond of hunting." Michael said as he turn his attention towards the skull that was held by Hugo.

A transcended being like us would not immediately die after taking a damage to our brain as our tenacious vitality and power would keep us alive for a while allowing us to escape from danger and recuperate using the magical effects of a potion.

"Look at this 4 deep imprints at the back. It looks like a sharp teeth that embedded itself on the skull making it easier for that creature to pull it's prey on their head." Michael explain as he carefully looked at the other dead body.

"Look, all of them shows broken bones at their neck that's confirming my conclusion that all of them broke it after that creature pulls their head." Michael said excitedly as he easily pulls the skulls of other corpses.

If someone from modern earth would saw this scene I'm sure that they would immediately faint from shock and fear.