Ready for the worst, the cohort summoned their weapons and slowly moved down the wide road that lead to the bottom of the quarry. From reaching the foothills of the Hollow Mountains till now, they had not met a single Nightmare Creature... but that was not a reason to lower their guard.
Walking on the ancient path, all of them couldn't help but steal glances at the corpse of the giant stone demon, as though expecting it to come back to life and attack them at any moment.
If living on the Forgotten Shore had taught him anything, it was to always expect the worst.
Some time later, Effie spoke:
"See those deep fractures on the floor of the quarry? I think that this thing had burrowed from below. So watch your step."
Remembering his encounter with the Rolling Stone, Sunny looked down with a sour expression. That clumsy creature was more funny than dangerous, but only because its teeth were vastly outclassed by the Puppeteer's Shroud. If something with more bite were to ambush them from below, who knew what was going to happen?
With a simple thought, Sunny summoned the Stone Saint and ordered her to keep close. The taciturn monster stared at the tall peaks of the Hollow Mountains for a few moments, as though subtly affected by the sight of them. Then, she lowered her head and silently followed his command.
After tense and exhausting half an hour of descending into the deep pit, the cohort finally got close to the remains of the giant stone insect. Cautiously stopping a few dozen meters away from it, they hesitated, not sure how to proceed.
Finally, Nephis sighed and walked forward, approaching the shattered body of the dead demon. If that was what it had been… or was.
As their leader came close enough to the carcass to touch it with her hand, all of them held their breaths.
A few seconds went by, then a few more. Nothing jumped at Changing Star from below the stones. The giant creature had not moved, nor had it shown any signs of coming back to life. The demon just lay there, its body shattered and broken, terrifying even in death.
And it indeed was truly, really dead.
Glancing at the indifferent Saint, Sunny let out a sigh of relief.
Even though he was prepared for a tough battle, he hoped that this time, they would be able to avoid it. The members of the cohort had yet to fully recover from the harrowing journey atop the walking colossus, so they weren't in the best of shapes.
Well, at least Sunny was not, partially because he had refused Neph's offer to vanquish his wounds with her purifying flame. They were healing fast thanks to the Blood Weave and the five hundred shadow fragment… almost… that he had accumulated, but his body was yet to fully recover.
Turning her head, Nephis looked at them and said:
"Come closer."
Encouraged by her words, the members of the cohort finally put their caution to rest and walked over to the dead creature.
Of course, they were still prepared to instantly react in case something unexpected happened.
The six of them spent a few minutes studying the remains to determine whether the terrible creature was killed by a human or something of its own kind.
Sunny glanced at the tall mountains and spent a few seconds watching as the white mist rolled down from their peaks, flowing down the jagged slopes like a waterfall made of clouds.
'...How beautiful.'
With a sigh, he turned away from the wall of mist that was still some distance away from the valley where the quarry was situated and concentrated on the corpse of the stone demon.
Whatever had killed it was not something Sunny would wish to meet in a battle. The flesh of the creature was, indeed, made of stone. That had not stopped the fearsome attackers, however. The carapace of the giant granite abomination was shattered in many places, and melted in others.
…But mostly, it was cut and pierced.
Apart from a few enormous wounds, there were numerous smaller ones, many of them looking as though they could have come from a sword, an axe, or a spear. And yet, he wasn't sure. Sunny was not really an expert in such things.
However, he was an expert in all things having to do with greed and avarice.
Instead of focusing on the nature of the damage done to the giant abomination, Sunny walked around and found its abdomen, which was damaged especially severely. With a reluctant sigh, he climbed atop the stone corpse… and then inside of it.
The other members of the cohort stared at him with expressions ranging from surprise to revulsion.
A couple of minutes later, Sunny climbed out of the dead demon and shook off stone dust from his armor and hair. Then, he glanced at his companions and frowned.
"What?"
Kai stared at him with a complicated expression, and then asked:
"Sunny? Ah, do you want to tell us something?"
Sunny gave him a nod and grinned.
"I do, actually. This thing was indeed killed by a human."
The charming archer raised an eyebrow and asked in a dubious tone:
"Really? How do you know?"
Sunny jumped down and shrugged.
"The Soul Shards are missing."
A few moments later, an expression of understanding appeared on Kai's face.
Indeed, most Nightmare Creatures had no use for the soul shards. Just like humans, who directly absorbed soul essence after killing one of their own kind, they fed from the kill itself as opposed to the act of retrieving and crushing the remnants of broken soul cores.
…If they weren't bizarre terrors like the Soul Devourer, of course. But the chances of encountering another one of those here were rather low.
It was reasonable to assume that the soul shards were removed by humans.
His discovery was solid enough proof of the fact that it was indeed the First Lord's cohort that had battled and slain the terrifying creature.
They had really found the signs of the lost expedition.
But there was another proof for this conclusion, this one irrefutable.
Nephis, who had wandered away from the remains of the demon at some point, suddenly called them over.
The members of the cohort glanced at each other, then slowly approached her, trying to understand what was it that she had found.
Changing Star was standing near one of the piles of rocks that were littering the ground around the body of the dead creature, looking at it with a solemn expression. Most of them came from its shattered carapace, while some were created because the floor of the quarry was broken apart and churned during the ferocious battle.
Why was Nephis so interested in that one in particular?
Looking closer, Sunny suddenly realized that this pile of rocks was different from all others. It was lower, roughly oval in shape, its contour too perfect to be the result of a pure coincidence.
It seemed as though each rock was painstakingly placed here by a human hand, perhaps in hopes to make the pile as orderly and sturdy as possible.
Suddenly, a cold shiver ran down Sunny's spine. He finally realized what he was looking at.
This was not really a pile of rocks.
It was a grave.