When Li Wei's feet touched the ground again, the first thing he felt was searing heat.
Flames licked the ground, turning it into a scorching skillet. Everything around him had been charred black, and a stench filled the air. Li Wei frowned. The smell was all too familiar. When he had burned the tree of flesh in the botanical garden, it had given off the same nauseating odor, only stronger.
Those goddamn bastards...
Li Wei silently cursed. All around him lay blackened corpses, burned beyond recognition. He withdrew his gaze, looked toward the fortress headquarters ahead, and gestured to Henry.
"Follow me."
The expeditionary army in the fortress had not been completely wiped out. After destroying those white "snowflakes," Li Wei had spotted a considerable number of white Soul Radiance underground. Clearly, these belonged to the surviving troops. As for where they were hiding, that went without saying-when Li Wei and his companions had attacked this place, the underground tunnels dug by the Kingdom of Kront's army had given them no end of trouble. Now, evidently, the survivors were using them too.
Beyond the fortress gates, everything was in shambles. In the cavern carved out of the cliff, bullet holes covered the walls, and bodies lay strewn across the ground. Li Wei approached one of the corpses, crouched down, and turned it over for a closer look.
It was the corpse of an imperial soldier, yet it hardly looked like one. He was little more than skin and bones, his mouth gaping wide to expose sharp teeth. Octopus-like tentacles protruded from his mouth and hung limply on the ground. His hands were withered and rigid, like the claws of some wild beast.
"Holy Lord above."
Henry sucked in a sharp breath at the sight. Though this was not his first