Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 2066 2038. The Pot and its Contents

The internal structure of Shadow City is complex and winding.

The castle, built on the edge of a cliff, has many parts that are suspended in mid-air without any railings. If you take a wrong step, you could fall right off the cliff.

After Leilana intervened, the Golden Hippo did not cause any trouble for Lan En and his group.

The group was able to enter the castle directly.

Along the way, in the shadowy corners of the castle, one could see soldiers dressed just like the ones who had camped along the roadside earlier. These were the largest number of rank-and-file soldiers in the Holy War Army.

Further inside the castle, firelight and braziers appeared, barely dispelling some of the darkness and chill.

Black knights also began leading holy war soldiers on patrols.

It seems that even within this vast Shadow City, the Holy War Army's actual control is shrinking day by day.

After seeing Leilana enter with a group of people, the people they encountered on the way were visibly surprised.

Because their lives in the Shadowlands are so monotonous, any changes now are very noticeable.

“Lady Leilana,” a black knight said as they passed, “if you continue onward, please do not take the road through the parish.”

"what happens?"

“We flooded the area.”

"What?" The Twin Moon Knight paused, turning to look at the Black Knight. "Who ordered you to do this?"

Leilana's voice was calm and steady, but Lan En behind her saw that her hand was slightly raised, as if it could touch the hilt of the sword at her waist at any moment.

The Shadowlands are fraught with danger, and the Holy War Army is in chaos. The knights, who should be shining and majestic, are all wearing helmets that conceal their faces, so in the shadows, no one knows what anyone else is thinking.

The Black Knight answered honestly: "It was decided by Knight Gaius and Lord Messermo together. Knight Gaius himself went to guard the lower level. As for the time... you haven't been to Shadow City for a long time. That thing down there is going berserk."

Leilana looked at him, subtly scrutinizing him from head to toe before nodding slightly to indicate that she understood.

Knowing that a large area of ​​Shadow City had been flooded did not elicit any obvious emotional reaction from Leilana.

It seems she also knew that the area that the Jihad Army could maintain control over was getting smaller and smaller.

Moreover, Shadow City is located at the foot of the Shadow Tree and was captured by the Holy War Army. Whatever dangerous things are inside are not under the control of the Holy War Army.

In the empty yet vast castle, most of the time only the sound of steel footsteps on the ground could be heard.

Lann and Margarita originally thought that the higher up the castle went, the smaller the area of ​​each floor would be, and that there would be more people and more gorgeous decorations.

This is a common phenomenon in the vast majority of castles.

But when Leilana led them through a door to the upper floor, the scene before them was unexpected.

"Is this...the library?" Melina asked softly, her right eye scanning her surroundings.

Lann's movements were similar to hers, except that in the Witcher's view, Torina floated into the doorway before them and began to wander in mid-air.

Before me was a huge, multi-tiered, columned corridor filled with bookshelves. I couldn't see what was on the upper level, but I imagined it was also a huge number of bookshelves.

Only a small portion of those bookshelves contained normal books; the majority were thick, large, carved stone slabs.

The stack of stone slabs makes one question the competence of the library administrators.

Why not copy and save something that takes up so much space and contains so little information?

However, Lann was not so quick to criticize the library administrator's ideas, because he had seen these stone slabs before—in Rodel's palace, in the Queen's bedroom.

Behind Queen Marika’s simple stone bed was a curtain, and behind the curtain were stone slabs that seemed to be piled up to the ceiling.

The things that Queen Marika kept and read in her bedroom must be something that most people couldn't copy, right?
Furthermore, does this also suggest that... the Queen's library came from Shadowlands?
In this multi-layered columnar corridor space, the most eye-catching thing is what is suspended in mid-air in the middle of the column.

It was the body of several giant creatures, some resembling lions, others like bound humanoids, but they all had many horns on their bodies, all kinds of horns.

“This isn’t a library,” Leilana said softly as they walked in. “Or rather, this isn’t just a place to store books. This is a repository of species.”

The Witcher frowned: "You... are you going to kill all the Horned People and then leave some as keepsakes?"

He already found the piercing torture that Messermo practiced on a large scale somewhat disgusting. Now, seeing this kind of species preservation repository that treated people like specimens, his brows furrowed even more.

In Lann's mind, there was no problem with punishing evil.

However, Messermo's holy army targeted the entire Horned race, which was far too broad a scope.

However, after hearing Lann's words, Leilana was neither surprised nor angry.

She simply stopped and turned to the Witcher, saying, "It is human nature to harm one's own kind... The Tower People are no exception."

The Horned People are also known as the Tower People, both because towers hold significant importance in their culture and because their greatest masterpiece, the Divine Gate that allows the souls of gods to ascend to divine status, is essentially part of a spiral tower.

What's important is not so much the door itself, but the entire tower that supports it.

“They are not innocent good people, Lann.” Beneath the Twin Moon Knight’s helmet, his eyes were cold and rational. “They just happened to be the losers. That’s all.” With that, Leilana suddenly changed direction.

The guards in the species repository are a group of vicious soldiers; these short, diminutive figures are scavengers who often roam around the battlefield ruins in the border region.

However, due to their short stature and ability to hide, they were often assigned as concealed guards.

Leilana would wave as she passed through the gaps between the bookshelves and the shadowy corners, and then the little figures would quietly watch them leave.

Otherwise, these guys would have been screaming and pounced on the intruder.

Leilana's original route was supposed to be going up from the Species Repository, but after she turned, she entered a side door directly on the first floor of the Species Repository.

Once inside, the candlelight was much warmer and brighter, and the wooden floor felt much cozier than the cold stone.

Upon entering, the most eye-catching thing is a huge pottery pot that is three or four meters tall.

The pot was round and plump, but it had long, thin arms and legs made of stone and clay. It sat slumped against the corner of the wall. When it saw people... or rather, when it sensed people coming in, its limbs twitched and thrashed wildly, and frantic, chaotic breathing came from inside the pot.

Margarita wasn't particularly surprised at this point, since she considered this thing to be a kind of golem.

Lan En only glanced at it.

This kind of pot is not uncommon in the Golden Dynasty, but he has only been here for a short time and has only learned about it through books. This is the first time he has seen the real thing.

They can be considered a kind of artificial life form, with simple and honest thoughts. If it weren't for their strange appearance, Lan En would think they were similar to the Palicoes.

Indeed, these pots were very popular, and the Golden Dynasty even enacted a law to protect them by prohibiting poaching.

During the Golden Dynasty, most of the bodies of people after reincarnation were sent to underground cemeteries, placed deep in the roots, so that the nutrients could return to the great tree.

However, warriors with outstanding military achievements and extraordinary strength had another option—they could have their corpses chopped up, crushed, and then put into these large jars as contents.

This is an honor that only warriors can enjoy, and their bodies will inspire the jug itself. This jug that carries the bodies of warriors will be called the Warrior's Jug.

However, even the Warrior Jar is merely more focused on honorable battles and courage than other jars; it is not inherently a ferocious thing.

But on this pot... Lan En felt an indescribable pain and madness.

This is quite different from the warrior's jar at the border.

Messermo... has he even made the process of making the Warrior Jar so cruel?
Lan En frowned in thought, but because Leilana had brought him here so naturally and calmly, he rationally believed that things shouldn't be that simple.

Leilana placed her hand on the large pot, without saying a word, but her movements were gentle.

With just a few light taps, the large pot, which had been making rapid breathing sounds inside its cavity, calmed down considerably.

It seems that Leilana's role is not that of a persecutor, but rather more like a... comforter.

Only when Da Hu's panting subsided slightly did Leilana raise her hand, tilt her head towards the people behind her, and walk deeper into the room.

Further inside is a two-story suspended corridor leading to a large hall, from which you can see the entire hall below.

Upon entering, Margarita covered her mouth and nose, glanced down, and then gagged from deep within her throat.

Without lingering, she covered her mouth and staggered back in the direction she had come from.

But Lan En stepped forward, gripped the railing of the suspended corridor, and looked down calmly, as if he felt that his enhanced eyesight wasn't clear enough.

"These are..." the Witcher asked in a low voice.

Leilana, with her arms crossed, calmly explained, "These are the contents of those pots."

In the hall below, many beds were scattered haphazardly. Empty kettles were also lying haphazardly between the beds and in the corners.

The beds were supposed to be tidy, but they were mostly a mess because of the 'things' lying on them.

Those are... things that can only be described as 'fleshy lumps with legs'.

They all had two long, shapely legs, but their upper bodies, which should have been equally impressive, were huge, deformed lumps of flesh. Only the outlines of the blonde women's upper bodies could be vaguely discerned from the undulations of the flesh.

This piece of meat is neither diseased nor caused by an endogenous pathogen; Lan En can tell that with his knowledge.

These people were all covered in blood, as if they had been skinned alive, their muscles clearly visible. The beds they lay on were soaked with yellow tissue fluid and blood that had seeped out due to the lack of skin.

But what they suffered was far more painful than being skinned alive...

That's because someone deliberately destroyed the immune system and then allowed the infection to spread throughout the body.

That layer of skin wasn't peeled off; it was forcibly infected, festering, and rotting away!

“You don’t understand the Horned People, nor do you know their culture and customs, or what they might do, Lann.”

The Twin Moon Knight's words were as cold as her sword.

"They are shamans, and also rare people. Their current appearance is the original production process of those pots in the borderlands. The pots were created by the Horned People."

(End of this chapter)