Coming to his senses, Kealos slowly opened his eyes as he looked around his surroundings. He checked his body and environment one more time while confirming his current situation.
He didn't know how long he had rested for but Kealos felt deeply refreshed. His mind felt clear while his body was almost completely free of wounds and injuries; only scars and other damage that couldn't be healed remained.
Once again observing his surroundings, he found abnormalities that he didn't find before. This room that he was in was abnormally big, bigger than the house that he and Troy lived in.
With that, although all furniture and decorations were all destroyed and a battle seemed to have been fought here, there were no signs of bodies or blood from anyone else other than Kealos himself.
It was like he fought a battle and his opponent disappeared into thin air, leaving him heavily damaged and extremely weak. Slowly getting up, he felt a sense of emptiness wash over him. It wasn't like his body being tired but more like a part of himself felt empty.
'Is this a side effect of the abnormal recovery rate that this body has?'
Although it was hard to get used to, Kealos gritted his teeth and walked to the nearby door. Hesitating, Kealos slowly opened the door as he peered into the hallway that lay behind. Similar to the room he had been in, the hall was extremely damaged. The entire building he was in seemed to be made of a dark stone yet cracks and marks appeared everywhere.
Traces of battle had remained in the hallway; burn marks and sword slashes littered the walls, blood splattered everywhere but Kealos saw no signs of any bodies.
But strangely enough candles still illuminated the halls, seemingly untouched. An uneasy feeling washed over him as he slowly stepped into the hall. Each step made an echoing noise as he slowly trod the stained floor.
He explored the area that he was currently in, finding no other rooms than the one he was in when he had first woken up. Eventually he found stairs leading to another floor but felt hesitant at descending the stairs.
With no other ideas left and alongside his curiosity, he went down the steps. But to his surprise, almost the same exact scene appeared in front of him. Blood and damages from battles lingered in the small hallway but this time the only thing that appeared different was multiple rooms.
In the new floor, Kealos found a total of five rooms. Each of these rooms was similar to the original room he had woken up in, battered and damaged beyond repair, but the only difference was that the size was significantly smaller.
But to his surprise, he found a couple of windows that were scattered throughout this floor. Peering outside, he felt a small sense of fear as he saw a massive city outside the window that was completely destroyed. The small buildings and houses were all shattered into bits and pieces and once again he saw a massive stain of red covering the ground.
With his new possessed body, he found his physical capabilities elevated to the extreme; he could clearly see the scenes in the city as it left a shiver down his spine. The city was the biggest he had ever seen before in his life. it extended hundreds, if not thousands, of miles into the horizon yet he couldn't find a shred of life.
He saw pools of blood, rotting trees, weapons, and armor, but as he scanned the scene, he felt his body shake as he couldn't find the one thing he was looking for.
'I can't find any corpses. Where did they go and what could they possibly want with them?'
Panicking, Kealos's thoughts ran rapidly while he muttered to himself, sounding like a madman.
"Something feels wrong; something can't be right. It should be impossible of a city of this caliber to be wiped out likd this…"
A deep sense of fear ran through Kealos' mind, a feeling of fear that he had never experienced before. So strong it made his body tremble and so raw that it cut through his soul and made him feel dizzy.
Averting the gaze away from the window, he leaned against a wall as he tried to regain composure. Taking in deep breaths one after the other, Kealos eventually regained clarity as he stood back up straight.
Cold sweat ran through every part of his body as his mind flashed with countless thoughts while trying to process all of the information he had gathered. Preparing himself, he looked back through the window to look at details he had missed.
From what he saw, he was in the middle of a massive city that was now desolate. From an elevated view, he seemed to be in a castle made of hard stone that was damaged. The sky was blue, the clouds glistened in joy, and the sun gleamed brightly above, yet beneath it this calm view lay a scene of chaos. Slowly the sun was starting to set, streaking rays of orange through the sky that was beautiful.
Averting his gaze away from the window, he thought for a bit before deciding to explore the rest of the castle. He wanted to at least finish exploring the castle before the sun fell and hopefully gain some clues as to how to complete this Chaotic Challange.
As he explored each floor of the castle, everything seemed to be repeating in the same fashion. Each subsequent floor was slightly bigger with more rooms that got smaller and smaller. Each floor seemed to carry traces of battle and it still had no signs of life.
'Blood yet no body, battles yet no clues, just what is happening?'
Eventually he got to the last couple of floors, where everything took a small change. Here, there were many rooms that served different purposes. He found a massive dining room that could most likely fill up with thousands of people and a massive kitchen needed to make food for thousands.
But when he went to the kitchen and looked around, he still found fresh food like vegetables and fruits still lying around. Although they were slightly going brown, they still seemed edible. Out of habit he looked around him before snatching a couple pieces of bread and a canteen of water and quickly headed out of the kitchen.
As he slowly ate the food and kept on exploring, he had countless thoughts as he tried to sort through them.
From what he estimated, the number of people living in this village easily amounted to a couple of million, if not tens of millions. Based on what he had seen, there was no need for removing the bodies since everyone was dead unless they had ulterior motives.
But the biggest he had was, why was this body he was in still alive? If everyone else had seemingly dispersed, then why was this body still left behind with a couple of injuries?
Intrigued by this, Kealos quickly looked around and explored the rest of the castle, which seemed to be very similar to before. Basic living facilities were provided, like bathrooms, yet no signs of life could be seen.
Kealos even found a massive library in this castle, but all contents of the books were blank, as if something was preventing him from learning any information.
With no other ideas, Kealos wanted to see if there were any clues in the city. Before long he found an entrance to get out of the castle but when Kealos tried going through the door, he found he couldn't.
It was like an invisible wall repelled him whenever he tried going close to it. No matter how much strength he used, he couldn't seem to go outside of this mysterious castle.
"If it's stopping me from going outside, then it should mean that in order to complete this Chaotic Challenge, there must be something I need to do here…"
Kealos questioned if he had missed anything before realizing that was a stupid question. Kealos had only vaguely explored the place, looking around but not exploring it intently. But with how big this place was, Kealos doubted he would be able to explore everything even if he were to be given a week to do so.
'There must be an area in this castle I haven't explored yet, but if there isn't, I guess I could go back and search everything…'
Kealos felt doubtful at his thoughts, but there didn't seem to be anything else he could explore. Kealos thought for a bit longer before an idea popped up in his mind.
"Maybe there's a basement?"
Kealos felt doubtful at these thoughts; after all, why would a massive castle like this one need a basement? But since he had no other ideas, he might as well search for one.
Minutes slowly trickled by as Kealos got increasingly frustrated. There were no signs of a basement, or at least he couldn't find any signs.
Letting out a deep sigh, Kealos felt deeply lost at this point and couldn't figure out what he should do next.
"Should I try going back to that massive room I first woke up in?"
Maybe if he went back to the beginning and slowly searched for clues, it would be better than wandering around with no clear lead.
Slowly Kealos made his way up the numerous stairs until he eventually reached the very top of the castle, where the room lay. Entering the room, Kealos was once again greeted by the familiar sight. A wrecked room with signs of battle, like every other room and area he had been in.
Left with no other ideas, Kealos started to go through the destroyed furniture on the ground, hoping to find something that could be of use to him. Time passed on before Kealos felt something beneath a destroyed cabinet. Slowly and carefully pulling it out, he found a small book that was badly damaged.
Brushing off the remaining rubble and dust on the book, Kealos slowly examined the front and back as he saw the book labeled with a single number.
"1?"
This was the first time Kealos had ever seen a book's title as a digit. He was skeptical if there would be words in the book, but he was still curious nonetheless.
Opening the book and to his surprise, there were words in it. What shocked him even further was that the words were in a language that he had never seen before yet he could still understand them. After hesitating for a bit longer, Kealos decided to dive into the book titled "1".