11. Towards another hades

The air was thick with the stench of death as I stood before the silent, lifeless body. Joon stood beside me, his eyes darting over the body as he calculated the size and vital parts.

My gaze flicked to his, and I caught a glimpse of unease in his expression. But we both knew what we had to do.

"So, who's doing the butchering?" Joon asked, his voice low and tense.

It was a crude term for such a delicate task, but it was the only way to get what we needed.

We had taken the body out for one reason and one reason only - weapons. We needed its bones, and we needed them badly. In this harsh and monstrous world, we couldn't afford to be caught unprepared.

"I don't think butchering would be the right idea," I said, my voice low and hesitant. "It's gross as it is. Aside from that, it's going to take forever."

As I spoke, I absently caressed my wounds, the pain a constant reminder of the danger that surrounded us. Joon nodded in agreement, his eyes still scanning the body with a mixture of unease and resignation.

Joon looked at me, his expression tense. "So, what do you suggest?"

I paused for a moment, considering our options. "Let's burn it," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Joon said with a tone of mild curiosity, "We don't have fire!"

I groaned, feeling the weight of exhaustion and pain bearing down on me. "We'll make some," I said, my words tinged with desperation.

Joon looked at me sceptically, but I could see the glimmer of hope in his eyes. We both knew that we needed to act quickly before the danger caught up with us. We needed to leave 'Ryenholme' and catch up with Johan.

"But before that-" I glanced around with a frown to continue, "We need to get rid of this pain. I feel like it's increasing over time."

"Yeah, your weed soup or whatever," He smirked as I sat down on the ground, his tone teasing.

"We gotta take the raw leaves, no fire remember?"

The sun was setting, casting the blood-soaked ground in an eerie orange light. The air was thick with the stench of death and destruction, and the only sound was the distant buzz of flies. My hands were busy rubbing two branches of the Auropaver tree, trying to light the fire. At one point, my joints started hurting, "Joon! A little help here?"

"Sure," He moved beside me, rubbing it at a good speed.

"Do you think Benjamin is alive?" he asked his voice surprisingly light given the circumstances.

I looked at him, his expression revealing a weariness that could only come from losing comrades. It was clear that he had gotten used to that now. After losing three friends, he knew what this world is.

For a moment, I wished I had met him earlier. Maybe if I had, I would have been better prepared for the horrors.

But there was no time for regret. I shook my head, "I don't know," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Joon nodded, his face grim. "I hear you," he said. "But we have to keep moving. We can't stay here."

As I stared intently at the sticks, I suddenly spotted a tiny spark flicker to life.

"It's lit!" I exclaimed, unable to contain my excitement. I quickly rummaged through the crumpled leaves and carefully placed them on the growing flame. As the leaves began to smoulder and smoke, Joon laid back, gasping for air.

When the fire was intense, we took a glance at each other and nodded.

Within a minute I covered the body In Auropaver woods and leaves, and Joon spread the fire throughout its whole body and it flared up. It appeared the ogre's blood reacted to the fire.

The stench and smoke were unable to breathe in. Joon and I walked near the camp, further away from the fire.

It looked as if it was long abandoned. As we walked through, the trees closing in around us and blocking out the light unnerved us.

Joon spotted the entrance emitting a nauseating smell of decay. We peered inside at the sight of rotting animal carcasses hung from rusty hooks and a pile of human bones in the back.

A spine-chilling noise came from the darkness.

"What if there are hounds inside?" My voice was barely above a whisper as I stood in a defensive pose. My heart pounded, thinking the worst since we were unarmed.

"I don't think so." He shook his head while scanning inside. "If so, then they would've rushed out when their master was getting slaughtered." Joon's voice had a certainty that made me at ease.

As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, We kept getting deep inside the camp, where I noticed tattered papers scattered on the muddy floor.

Joon and I looked at each other in confusion. I gulped and squatted down to carefully inspect them.

To our amazement, they appeared to contain notes of alchemical formulas. The faded ink and parchment on the heavy and large papers appeared to be their language. We couldn't tell what was written, but the drawing was similar to alchemy.

"I don't understand. What is this?" Joon looked anxious in his disbelief. "They know how to read and write!"

"...I'm surprised as well," I said after hesitating.

A sense of unease settled heavily in my stomach as I realized Something wasn't right. There was nothing like that mentioned in the original story. What did it mean? Was the world changing because I changed the plot?

"Ella!" Joon's voice made me flinch.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a map!" His voice couldn't hide the excitement.

I reached out for it, and there were fraying edges. I scanned the whole map with my widened eyes. It didn't contain the location of the whole 'Baraddurn' but most parts of that. It definitely would come in handy though I knew the way to our next location-'Arindor'

Though the camp was unpleasant, we decided to stay and study them through the night, getting as much sleep as we could on the dusty floor.

By the morning, the body was burnt to ashes, leaving only bones on the ground. And that was what we wanted.

Just in case we needed defence, I sharpened the edges of some bones and left the rest of the shaping for later since we needed to move.

Before the sun was up, we started our journey towards 'Arindor', where my second target was, the male lead of that story-Johan.