The Great Southern Cemetery for Warriors was a well-known, albeit mostly abandoned, site that carried a great piece of the Western Continent's History.
This cemetery was built during the war between the two continents and was the resting place of more than ten thousand warriors that died during the conflict and the around one thousand warriors that died after the war, either by suicide, resistance, or other causes.
The reason it is mostly abandoned is because of Eastern oppression. After winning the war, for the respect they had for the deceased, they allowed them to be buried and be sent with a ceremony, however, the family of the deceased was not allowed to visit them. And after four hundred years, it is doubtful if there was even someone willing to visit them.
So the place was mostly empty.
Mostly because it was now a great destination for grave robbers. The governmental forces of the Western Continent were not as powerful as one would think, they were mostly controlled by the Eastern Continent, and most of the power of the West was in the clans that were spread around the continent, like the Nell clan.
Neither the East nor the clans were worried about what would happen to this cemetery. After all, there were no eastern warriors in said graveyard, and there was no clan member buried there either.
This meant that there was a place with tens of thousands of graves belonging to the warriors of the war, those that used magic to fight. What kind of thing could one learn and loot in such a grave?
And this place was Nio's current destination. Using the broken communicator as an excuse, he started going in the direction of the graveyard in order to reunite with a fellow Stygian clan member to report, or so was his excuse.
Nio was fairly interested in the magic of the old western people.
More specifically, on how it affected their body, if that could give any new gains, he would definitely not refuse.
The graveyard had been constructed at the side of a mountain.
At the moment, Nio was at the entrance, ready to go in and explore the ancient graves of the western continent's warriors. Still, being in a graveyard at night reminded him of some dares that used to be thrown around during his early teenage years back in his past life.
Perhaps it is because he was stronger, or simply older, that he didn't find it as scary as before, not that it would've stopped him back then.
The gates were completely open, probably forced that way by other grave robbers or beasts that were following smaller pray?
He just walked right in.
The graveyard was quite well organized. Tombs neatly aligned in lines, going up the mountain, allowing any visitor to get a glimpse of every single one of those graves.
It was honestly kind of overwhelming. So many people lost their lives, and here they were now, their resting places desecrated by the very people they fought for.
Nio was not naive enough to think that everyone can survive in a war. He was deeply aware of the pain and suffering that happened on the battlefield.
He might not be able to understand it because he hadn't experienced it, but he was aware of the pain it caused.
Looking at such a sight, it didn't strike him well that they ended up like this.
Not that it would stop him from also desecrating the place, or rather desecrating it more than it already was.
He, too, had reasons to fight. And at least for him they weren't smaller or less important than protecting a whole continent.
So he once again walked forward, for a while not even sure where to start.
He decided to firstly search for any clue that allowed him to determine any differences between the ranks of the dead.
As this place was a Military Memorial Grave, every single grave had the name, rank, age, and front of the deceased.
Like the one right beside Nio.
Frederick Nell
Major General
Deceased at 52 years of age and 36 years of service
Southern Invasion Corps
He died to allow his fellow clan members and soldiers to retreat back to the continent. Buried here as wished by the deceased.
It was pretty weird that someone from the Nell family was in such a forgotten place, but he was not forgotten. Nio had read about him before.
He was an outcast and the first-ever member of the Nell family to advocate for the freedom of the members of the Stygian Clan.
In his words that were quoted in several books.
"A soldier is a soldier. And if they are my soldiers, they are even more important than other soldiers."
How the hell was this information spread to the Stygian clan members? It wasn't.
It was more of something that Nio had discovered during times of boredom while going from one mission to another. To a Stygian, such information was prohibited, but to a normal citizen? Why would it?
That was how he was able to learn about him. Some rumors say that he was not killed in battle but rather in an assassination when retreating from the battle that he fought in, which, it was claimed, was responsible for his death.
Nio didn't think it was impossible. According to the records, he was a sibling of the current Family Head. It wasn't so farfetched to think that he had something to do with the major general's death.
But, well, the point was that it was pretty easy to identify which grave was the resting place of a high-ranking official.
So, Nio started taking note of which graves were in the military hierarchy, and if they had already been looted.
In the end, most of them had already been looted, except for one.
The grave was surrounded by a heavy stench of blood. On the ground, several remains of skeleton pieces were scattered or ground into dust.
On the grave it read:
Here lie the bodies of the Great Shield Family, who died during the battle of Navurnia.
The last of their family, the last of the soldiers to die, always the last to retreat.
Harvert Shield IV, Last Head of the Family, Marchal
Edward Shield, Brother of the Head, General
Samuel N. Shield, Son of Harvert Shield IV, Unranked, The Strongest Mage in the World.
The grave was at the very end of the graveyard, clearly the center figure of the whole cemetery.
It was in the middle of two statues that depicted knights. Both of them wore dark armor and wielded a gigantic black blade, so broad one would argue that it was unusable. One of the knights was missing their head and part of their shoulder.
'Those statues aren't going to move, are they?'
They probably would. After all, there has to be something that caused the death and scattering of all these corpses, right?
Nio cautiously looked at them, as if trying to ascertain how much of a threat they were. The broken statue seemed to have already suffered quite some damage, even if it starts moving, it should be easy to dispose of. Now, the other one, Nio, was not as sure.
At least he knew what to expect at the very least.
He stepped forward. Sharingan active, body reinforced, breathing stable, and hand on the hilt of his sword. He was prepared to act at any given moment.
As soon as he approached, he noticed a new set of lines of words in the grave that he had failed to see before.
A Warrior missed by those under his command
A Brother, Husband and Son to be proud of.
Too much power for a jokester, no one is as dangerous as a prankster with too much power. Be careful from above.
'Above?'
As soon as he finished reading, his bloodline started screaming at him about something changing behind him. He quickly understood what was changing when he almost snapped his neck looking back.
One of the statues was melting into the ground, fast. And at the same time, he felt another change above him.
He quickly looked up to see the figure of a huge black knight emerging from thin air, a great sword, definitely bigger than the one that had been shown outside, its tip pointed right at him.
Nio reacted quickly, jumping back at the highest speed he could manage, barely dodging the first strike from the statue.
The shockwave that came after helped him to create even more distance as he watched carefully what the black knight would do next.
It slowly stood up, raised its sword, and placed it on its shoulders.
It was taller and overall bigger than the original statues. In its helmet, the clear glow of red eyes shone with great killing intent.
"So you were the one responsible for all this mess, huh?"
This was definitely going to be a massive headache.
"Let's get this over with."
*****
Author's Note: One more chapter, seriously I need to get better at scheduling my writing habits, please enjoy.
Please Check Out my other Novel: Unsealed Demonic Dragon Goes to the Academy