NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 334 – Painful Memories
Now, having seen the fancy houses, extravagant art, and the breathtaking view from the viewing platform the group approaches the final place marked for their trip right as the sun is about to set. It isn’t central to anything, in fact, the final point is out of the way and very much off the beaten path. Still, the place has great importance for their final place to visit is the memorial to remember what defeating the swarm bears cost. From what Gregor had told them, it was crafted by true masters and yet the founder had purposefully hid it away.
Though at first glimpse, they wonder how even with being out of the way it wasn’t more of an attraction. Surrounded and hidden by a collection of two-story buildings the group first catches sight of the memorial halfway through the only path, a cramped zigzag alleyway. They turn the corner and there it is, a massive display of artistic talent and practiced craftsmanship.
The first they notice is the nine pillars rising up to just below the surrounding buildings. Each one a vibrant purple stone carved to mimic the nine bamboo stalks raised up by the founder. A short way down from the top is a crystal dome acting as the ceiling with each facet placed exactly right to make it appear as if the sky was filled with shifting clouds. Sparks of light occasionally catching here and there to simulate the appearance of thunder crawling across the underside of said clouds.
Closer up the ceiling takes on an even more impressive significance as the group realizes that it wasn’t like stained glass, a bunch of plates fit together. The huge dome about the size of a city block is a single chunk of crystal and the ceiling isn’t just quartz or some other common gem. Rather, Courtney is able to recognize it as a form of elementally aligned sapphire. Rare not only for the size but the fact that to gain an alignment with a mix of elements such that it replicates a storm would require the original ore to have been open to the sky.
Sure, it also needed to be either high enough to be the main target of lightning strikes or in a place where such storms are common. But that doesn’t change the fact that the ore would have been out in the open for thousands of years. Suffice it to say the crystal wasn’t from the area and would have cost a kingdom’s bounty to acquire.
And the closer look also reveals further detail to the pillars. Those appear to cheat a little by using material from the same sort of bamboo as the actual things. While a very rare material, it would be a lot easier to get a few stalks of the stuff when you own nine fully grown stalks. They didn’t cheat, though.
Each of the pillars is a carved replica of the nine bamboo stalks on the day of the founder’s victory. Every single leaf right down to the vein patterns is carved into the wood. If this was normal wood, the fact they managed to do that without them snapping off at a slight breeze would be amazing. With this wood, though, the amazing part is that they even managed to carve it in the first place.
Even young shoots of the stuff would require someone of six breaks swinging an ax with most of their power to chop it down. For a person to be able to carve such small details into it? Some mix of godly tools, monstrous skills, and titanic strength all backed up by a hand so steady an earthquake wouldn’t shake it and the patience of an immortal. Then they walked into the memorial proper.
It was hard to see as of course there was a bit of an illusion effect in place. But the second they passed between the pillars it was like a curtain being pulled back. And what a scene. Jason sighed, Courtney’s face hardened, and Rosha covered her mouth. It was a recreation of the battlefield, a battlefield that covered much of the area their kingdom now claimed.
At the center of it all was the broken remains of a mountain that must have been more cave than stone, and all around it the bodies of bears that going by the scale must have been thrice the size of a house. But what truly grabbed their attention was a giant collection of bears that appeared to have been sewn together.
Like some kind of undead abomination that had been stitched together, and yet some primal reaction told the three that this was a living being that had melded together through some natural yet at the same time unnatural process. Like a rat king, but on a scale so large and horrifying it defies understanding.
Rosha is forced to look away by some primal urge and so is the first to notice the true extent of the carnage. While the bears’ size had caught their attention first, they weren’t the only bodies lying around. For each bear, there are at least a few humanoid bodies around it. The death total involved is horrifying in the scope and scale.
While none of them can be certain, Jason at least gets the feeling from the memorial that none of the fallen had been below level 100. If he is right, that means this isn’t just an army but a gathering of the truly powerful. All dead, all fallen to threat that they likely only acted as a short-lived meatwall while the founder fought the warped body horror display at the center of it all.
As they stand there, more reveals itself to them. If they focus on one body or another, an illusion with their name pops up. Pay too much attention to one scene or another and it will be overlaid with a short description of how that fight went and each one was just as depressing as the last. No expense was spared on this memorial.
The group stands there as it all crashes down on them. They can finally claim to have seen a true artifact in NeoRealm but even Jason, who had seen horrors in his last life, wasn’t able to process it yet.
