The Gaze of the Sacred Stars
The party moved silently toward their destination. The deeper they ventured into the forest, the more it exhaled a gloomy, oppressive aura. Even the shafts of light filtering through the dense canopy lost their strength, painting the surroundings in shades of dull ash. Ksenia suddenly came to a halt and raised her hand, signaling everyone to stop. "Wait. I smell blood." At her words, the air instantly grew heavy.
Hayeon swallowed hard. Ksenia's sense of smell was as sharp as that of a trained beast of prey.
The moment they reached a small clearing where the trees parted, a horrific sight unfolded before them. Three corpses of adventurers, their armor shredded and their bodies covered in gruesome wounds, lay scattered across the ground. Their leather armor had not been cleaved by an orc's axe or torn by a monster's fangs; rather, it had been hideously crushed and mangled. The sheer terror of death was frozen onto their faces, and the surrounding air was thick with the metallic tang of blood and a sickening, rancid stench.
"This is..." Ksenia's face hardened. Lilia snapped her fingers to sense the surrounding mana, while Gold Sun immediately stepped in front of Hayeon, taking a defensive stance.
"This wasn't done by Orcs. These wounds are..." Ksenia's eyes flashed sharply. Before she could even finish her sentence, a woman's desperate, blood-curdling shriek tore through the silence of the forest.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
The party's eyes locked onto the direction of the scream at the same time. With a single exchange of glances, Ksenia and Lilia confirmed their plan and began to glide forward soundlessly.
The place they reached was another small clearing. The scene before them was nothing short of a living hell. From a massive, gelatinous mass that reeked of a sticky, foul odor, dozens of writhing tentacles extended, binding and violating two female adventurers. Their armor had been torn to shreds, and the tentacles wrapped tightly around their bodies, boring deep into their pussies. One woman was pinned face down on the ground, her legs pried wide open by two thick tentacles. Other tentacles were violently thrusting into her anus and pussy, while another forced her mouth open, rummaging deep inside her throat.
"Mgh... mmph...! Ahhh... nngh! Ah! Ah!"
The situation of the other woman collapsed on the ground was even more horrific. Her pussy and anus were already stuffed full of tentacles, and her belly was bloated like a pregnant woman's as the squirming appendages relentlessly jackhammered inside her.
"Haa... haa... No...! Stop...! Ah! I'm cumming...! Please...! I'm cumming again...! Ahhn!"
Having lost all strength to resist, they could only let out bizarre groans that mixed agony with unwanted, overwhelming pleasure.
"No... no..." Hayeon's pupils dilated with sheer terror. A horrific memory she wanted to forget—one she thought she had forgotten—surged back to life. The grotesque tentacles of Luo that had assaulted her in that dark alleyway. Hayeon couldn't breathe, her entire body trembling like a leaf in the wind.
Gold Sun immediately noticed that something was terribly wrong with Hayeon. Looking at her deathly pale face and terror-stricken eyes, he caught a glimpse of the deep abyss of trauma she carried. The usual playfulness vanished from his face, replaced by a cold, simmering rage. He stepped directly in front of Hayeon, blocking the gruesome sight from her view. At the same time, he positioned his body to shield her face from Ksenia's line of sight, casting a brief, sharp glance to redirect Ksenia's attention.
Ksenia assumed Hayeon was simply trembling out of shock from the gruesome scene. "How dare you...!" A tempest of murderous intent erupted from her body. Charging forward like a bolt of lightning, she swung her sword. In a single, devastating strike where Ksenia's blade cleaved, the tentacle monster was sliced into dozens of pieces, scattering across the ground before it could even let out a shriek.
Just then, three figures leaped out in surprise from the shadow of the trees behind the monster. They were clad in black robes, exuding a sinister, gloomy aura.
"The Gaze of the Sacred Stars!" Ksenia spat, her voice dripping with pure hatred.
"Don't let them get away!" Lilia shouted. At the same time, a massive fireball materialized at her fingertips and engulfed one of the fleeing figures.
"Aaargh!" The robed figure enveloped in flames disintegrated into scattering ash.
"Capture just one alive! You can kill the rest!" Following Lilia's shout, Ksenia charged fiercely toward the remaining two.
Gold Sun pulled the shivering, terror-stricken Hayeon tightly into his embrace. His firm, warm chest and his strong, masculine scent washed over her. Hayeon felt the exact same sense of security she had experienced when he first rescued her from the tentacle monster.
"It's okay. It's all over now, Hayeon. You're safe." At his gentle voice, Hayeon let the tension drain from her rigid body and buried her face in his chest.
"...Yes. I'm okay..." Wrapped in the comforting safety of his arms, Hayeon felt a brief wave of embarrassment. "Those things... what on earth are they?"
"The Gaze of the Sacred Stars. They're madmen who worship otherworldly entities called Constellations. A heretical cult trying to destroy the dungeons to unleash those Constellations upon this world." At Gold Sun's explanation, Hayeon nodded. She gently tried to pull back from his embrace.
"Are you... feeling calmer now?" Gold Sun kissed her forehead softly and stroked her disheveled hair. His warmth made her heart flutter, but Hayeon firmly reminded herself internally, I have Ksenia Eonni. Steeling her heart with that thought, Hayeon quietly lifted her head.
Gold Sun approached the two naked, unconscious women and began to check their condition. Hayeon carefully assisted him, examining their state. Fortunately, they were still breathing, but the depth of the wounds and the dark bruises covering their bodies spoke volumes about the sheer agony they had endured.
Her gaze inadvertently drifted down to the lower halves of the two women. A mixture of slime and blood—the vile remnants left behind by the tentacle monster—was slowly trickling down from between their thighs. As the horrific memories threatened to choke her, Hayeon quickly averted her eyes and turned to Gold Sun.
"Earlier... Ksenia Eonni seemed incredibly furious. Did... something happen in the past?"
Gold Sun remained silent for a moment before speaking in a heavy tone. "There's a deep, bitter history between the Gaze of the Sacred Stars, Ksenia, and Lilia. Years ago... their former teammates were slaughtered by those bastards. Ever since then, the two of them have only traveled together."
Hayeon's heart sank at his words. Learning about the deep scars Ksenia and Lilia carried, her mind grew heavy with worry for the two of them.
Meanwhile, deeper in the forest, a fierce pursuit was underway. One of the fleeing cultists, a swordsman pushing through the dense foliage, suddenly spun around and lunged at Ksenia. His eyes were bloodshot with madness, and the tip of his blade aimed straight for Ksenia's heart without a shred of hesitation.
"Die, you foolish heretics!"
But Ksenia merely spat coldly, "Insignificant insect."
Ksenia's sword came down like a flash of lightning. In a single strike, she sliced diagonally through both the opponent's sword and his upper torso. The swordsman collapsed to the ground in two clean pieces, unable to even let out a scream.
The last remaining cultist, a mage, was flailing helplessly, bound within Lilia's magic circle. Ksenia strode over and violently grabbed him by his robe.
"Speak! Where is Apostle Arca Blair?" Ksenia growled, hoisting him up by his collar. But the man only spat blood and saliva, bursting into a manic, deranged laugh.
"Bwahaha! How foolish... Do you really think the likes of you can ever find the Apostle?" A blinding light began to emanate from his entire body. "For the glory... of the Great Constellation!"
BOOM!!! Along with the sudden flash, a violent explosion of mana erupted from his body. Ksenia and Lilia quickly threw themselves behind nearby trees to take cover. Once the blast cleared, nothing remained but a scorched patch of earth and a handful of ash. The man's physical body had vanished without a trace.
"Damn it! We lost the lead." Ksenia punched the ground in frustration. Lilia let out a heavy sigh and muttered a single word. "Let's go back." Their faces were clouded with a complex mix of emotions, heavily shadowed by a lingering, unhealed sorrow.
Ksenia and Lilia returned with hollow expressions. Their hands were empty, and their faces bore the bitter marks of anger and helplessness over the enemy they had failed to capture.
"We lost them. The last one blew himself up..." Ksenia gripped her sword hilt tightly in frustration.
"Damn it! They're always like this. The moment they're about to get caught, they throw away their lives without a second thought." Lilia spat on the ground, cursing.
Gold Sun nodded toward them, then glanced at Hayeon, who was tending to the collapsed women, before speaking. "Let's take care of the survivors first. We can't just leave them here."
They dressed the two unconscious women in their spare clothes and carefully wrapped the three corpses left behind by the battle in cloth. Carrying the cold, stiffening bodies was a grim task, but leaving them in the middle of this forest to become food for wild beasts and monsters was out of the question.
"Let's head to the nearest base, the second-floor outpost." Under Gold Sun's direction, the party began to make their way through the dark forest as night began to fall.