As Aaron examined the shadow altar, he suddenly seemed to hear some indistinct sound in the distance, though it was far from clear. He gestured for the others to quiet down and listened intently, but all he could hear was the rustle of leaves in the forest breeze. That faint sound from a moment ago was nowhere to be heard.
"Aaron, what did you hear?" Vereesa asked when she saw him listen closely, only to look disappointed in the end.
Aaron shook his head, indicating that he had heard nothing.
"No more clues, cousin?" As a Paladin, Stephen was naturally no good at finding clues in the faintest traces either. After making a show of examining the area for a while, he looked up and asked Nathanos.
Nathanos shook his head, indicating that he had found nothing either. These traces had been left several days ago, after all. Even a ranger skilled at tracking would have trouble finding any useful clues among them.
Aaron was not particularly concerned. These shadow spellcasters, who had fallen so low that only a handful remained, hardly looked like Cho'gall's Twilight's Hammer followers. They seemed more like Natalie's followers instead. From Aaron's vague recollections, these fellows had eventually managed to lose even Xal'atath. They probably would not amount to much.
If he could find them, Aaron certainly would not mind wiping them out ahead of time. But since he could not find them now, he had no intention of investigating further.
"Then let's head back," Nathanos said to the others without insisting. Out of concern for protecting his homeland, he was quite eager to find those fellows, but with no clues to be found, there was little he could do.
"Then I'll destroy this thing." Stephen raised his pitchfork and smashed it into the altar, breaking the shoddily built structure into pieces.
Seeing this, Aaron followed up with a burst of Holy Light, sweeping away all the black smoke lingering over the altar.
Just as they were about to leave, they suddenly heard a harsh, grating threat in their ears. "You still think you can leave? Stay here."
Aaron was the first to pull out his shield and take a defensive stance. His gaze kept sweeping the forest, but he could not find the speaker. Only when Vereesa pointed out the direction did he spot a cloud of black smoke drifting through the gloomy woods.
Four or five figures were faintly visible within the smoke, but they were all wrapped in it, leaving Aaron unable to make out their true appearances. All he could hear was another sinister voice coming from the black mist. "Heretics, offer everything you have to our great true god here."
The moment the voice fell silent, the black smoke churned, and a pitch-black bolt shot out of it, aimed straight at Aaron, the most conspicuous of them.
Watching the Shadow Bolt fly straight at his face, Aaron raised his shield and just managed to deflect it. As though stimulated by the Shadow Bolt, a layer of Holy Light suddenly appeared across the shield's surface, standing out sharply in the dim forest.
"So there's a lackey of the Holy Light among you. We'll start with you, then. Attack!" At the voice's command, the churning black mist rapidly contracted, revealing four figures concealed within, dressed in gray-black robes with their faces hidden beneath their hoods.
The leader held a dagger a little longer than a hand, while the others wielded staves and similar weapons. Once the black mist dispersed, the staves in the hands of the remaining four, apart from the leader, flashed. The four turned into black mist and scattered, surrounding the four in the forest when they reappeared.
"Enough of your cheap tricks!" Vereesa raised her elven longbow and released the string. With a whistling rush, an arrow wreathed in purple light swiftly struck a cloud of black mist that had yet to fully take human form. The fellow screamed and stumbled back several steps, his footing already unsteady.
As Vereesa loosed her shot, Nathanos fired an arrow as well. Unlike Vereesa, who had been born in Quel'Thalas and had some basic knowledge of Arcane power, Nathanos shot nothing more than ordinary arrows. But Nathanos was no pushover either. He specifically timed his shots for crucial moments in their spellcasting, repeatedly interrupting their spells. The spellcasters roared in fury, yet could do nothing about Nathanos and Vereesa as they deftly used the forest's trees to maneuver around them.
"A bunch of useless fools!" Seemingly very dissatisfied with the others' performance, the leader cursed under his breath. A black gleam flashed across the dagger in his hand, and a patch of black mist suddenly appeared on the ground before him. After roiling like boiling water for a while, an exceedingly ugly monster crawled out of it.
The monster looked somewhat human in its general outline, but a closer look revealed two thick tentacles extending from where its arms should have been, while dozens of tiny tentacles grew from its head. At first glance, it looked more like an octopus plastered over a human face.
Then the monster charged at Aaron. The Holy Light on him was the most conspicuous, after all, especially when facing monsters that wielded shadow power.
"Damn, it's these Faceless Ones!" Aaron felt a little flustered as he watched the tentacled monster charge toward him. Steadying himself, he tightened his grip on his shield and met it head-on.
"*Y^%E$!" The tentacled monster kept howling as it waved its tentacles. It was not speaking Common, so Yalu naturally could not understand what it was saying. But as the howls reached Aaron's ears, another voice seemed to ring out in his mind. "My master shall reign over this world!"
"Pah! Three tentacled freaks locked up for tens of thousands of years, and you still dare to talk big?" Although Aaron did not understand why he could make sense of this Faceless One's words, he kept his mouth moving as he swung his longsword and fought the tentacled monster.
"How dare you hold my master in such contempt?" The Faceless One seemed able to understand Aaron without difficulty, and its tentacles began whipping about a little faster.
The tentacled monster's sudden acceleration left Aaron somewhat flustered, but even so, he refused to let up with his words. "Pah! A bunch of leftovers that refuse to die. If your masters have any ability left, why don't they rebuild the Black Empire?!"
"You..." The tentacled monster's mental state seemed rather unstable. Provoked by a few words from Aaron, it swung its tentacles even faster, but lost all coordination. Aaron abruptly stepped back, turned sideways to evade its wildly flailing tentacles, and slashed out with his sword, severing most of one of its large tentacles. The Faceless One immediately let out a piercing scream.
Seeing the severed length of tentacle begin giving off black smoke the moment it hit the ground, Aaron quickly followed up with a burst of Holy Light, reducing it to powder. He was just about to press his advantage when he saw black smoke surge from the tentacled monster's wound, and a new tentacle rapidly grew out within it.
"This is my master's blessing. Come, offer your bodies and minds to my master." With its tentacle fully regenerated, the monster charged at Aaron again, only to discover that he was no longer where he had been. Turning its head, it found that Aaron had used the time while its tentacle regenerated to circle around it and was already lunging at the cultist leader, who stood in place without moving a single step.
"Idiot, I noticed you stopped moving as soon as the Faceless One appeared. You're controlling that thing, aren't you?!" Aaron charged toward the motionless fellow in a few strides, his longsword already cleaving toward his head. Aaron's thinking was simple enough: since this Faceless One had such powerful regeneration, he would just kill its summoner.
Just as Aaron was about to bring his blade down and finish off the fellow holding Xal'atath, he caught an unnatural flash of black light out of the corner of his eye.
Before Aaron could react, black light had already engulfed his vision. In an instant, he could see nothing at all. The voice of the fellow who should have died beneath his sword rang out at just that moment. "Now look who the idiot is. Offer everything you have to my master."