Mountain's Entrance

Seeing the state of the body something swelled up inside me- a horrid and disgusting feeling. Back when we were still in the old world I grew up with the internet and every once in a while I stumbled upon absolutely gruesome videos and pictures of bodies.

I remember quite distinctly one friend I had who showed me videos of animal deaths in school. A train running over a deer to be precise. He had some how found the video funny, laughing as it completely disappeared over a few seconds.

At first I had thought that the video was fake, but he said otherwise and slowing it down I knew he was right. I felt disgusted at the act gore publicly shown and how such a video of death could made him laugh.

Since then I found out that as long as you dig underneath the surface such videos and displays were commonplace. I felt lucky I hadn't seen such atrocities until that point. From that point on my thoughts and mentality about death had changed without me even knowing it apparently.

Small wounds and blood no longer caused such a havoc in my mind as I thought of how worse it could have been. The body that lied motionless against the barricade was one such example.

Seeing him made me think of those I had killed when I first arrived. They had died yet for some reason I hadn't felt any emotion towards them, only thinking of them as a way to blend in.

That man I shot in the forest was the first person I ever killed yet I didn't have a shred of remorse nor hesitation. Those from the grey hound sect was more personal and physical as I clashed with them in melee combat.

Why did I feel nothing for them, yet this lone man in front of me was slowly pushing me off the edge. It must of been their condition afterwards. Those from before seeped blood yet their wounds were hidden beneath their clothes. I never looked too deeply at their wounds to see how much damage I've really done to them.

This man though, his wounds weren't hidden, they were clear and in plain sight for all to see. The clothes he has are torn in multiple places with a wound at the epicenter of those tears.

The man's left forearm was missing nowhere to be found and bones were sticking out clearly seen from his upper arm, the top half of his upper arm's flesh still attached to the arm. Blood still dripped slowly onto the ground next to him.

His other arm tightly grasped onto the hilt of a broken sword on his chest. Small fragments of his blade lingered around his corpse.

A huge part of his right thigh was cut around say four to five millimeters deep and eight centimeters long. From his groin diagonally down outwards.

His head and chest somehow managed to avoid those massive wounds, but his entire body was riddled with small wounds.

I could no longer look at the corpse in the corner and turned away. I could feel it on my face that I had a shocked expression spread across it. From this I started thinking about the people I've already killed.

(My god... When did I become like this? Why didn't I feel anything from the man I shot.) I brought up both my hands and just started staring into my palms.

(Am I a monster? No, of course not. But when did I become so desensitized to this? That even killing another of my own race caused not even a second thought. I suppose it did help me through those times, though I kinda have to thank that psychopathic side that came out when ever we were attacked.)

"Don't worry. I'm here for you, you're not alone." Yao Ya came up to my right side as always leaning her head against my shoulder, and also started lightly patting my back.

At this moment one of the other members of the group seemed to see us standing over here and walked over.

"Hey, what are you three doing over here..." The room wasn't that large so he made it over soon, seeing the body as well.

"H-Hey! I-Is this normal as well?" The man who came over spun around, asking toward the experienced members.

Our corner was the new focus of attention as everyone else looked over in curiosity at what it could be. When one of the more experienced members came over I looked over at him as well wondering what the answer would be.

When he looked over the barricade his body seemed to stiffened as his face froze. Seeing his reaction the other experienced members came over to check it out as well. They all had similar reactions to the first, after a few more agonizing moments of silence the first one turned back towards everyone who awaited their answer.

"... Everyone be on your guard! The man hasn't died too long ago! The thing that killed him might still be around. We don't know how strong it is yet though so everyone will go in groups no less than three if we split up.

For now We should all stay together for as long as possible. We have never experienced a realm where these events haven't long passed." The voice of the man was serious compared to his slightly carefree attitude from before.

The crowd of people were able to control themselves hearing that a dead body lied on the other side of the barricade, at the very least they didn't start panicking. It was a good sign, but would they be able to compose themselves later on?

To be honest I'm surprised that no one has yet to freak out over it, but they also haven't seen the body which might of helped their composure.

He readied his weapon he had brought with him as the others followed. Others did the same and took out their own weapons.

Another member asked from the crowd "Um- how many realms have you been on anyway?"

"Uh... We've all only been in one other realm exploration, but that's still more than any of you have." One from the experienced group replied.

At long last our group finally started to search the place. Our group began carefully opening the doors up here before any of us started to delve deeper into the mountain. We would do it together apparently. I entered the room that opened on the right of the short corridor with a sizable amount of the group around.

The room was mostly empty except for a few furnishings that were scattered around the room. Shards of wood, stone, and cloth were all around the floor of the room.

There were a couple blood splatters, but no body was found around the room that the blood could of come from. It turned out that the other door of the same side also led into the same room just a little farther away.

Once we felt like we had searched the room thoroughly enough we exited back into the hallway. A few moments later those that went into the room opposite ours came back out as well.

One of the people who were in my room earlier spoke up "All we had was broken furniture and some blood stains, no body was found. What about you guys?"

They look a little shook, like they had just seen something horrible or something scaring.

There was a moment of silence between them before one of the experienced members in their group answered. "We found another body in the room. He seemed to die from a huge slash wound on his chest. There was a trail of blood that he left around before he ended."

The experienced members from before all held solemn expressions before they took the lead in going down the final path untaken, the stairs. The final unseen path that led deeper down into the mountain structure.