Chapter 244: Stone Guardians

Hearing Roas mention the 'gateway to the overlords', Aiden, halted in his tracks and turned his attention on him with his eyebrows raised.

"[Orc] Gateway to the overlords? Are you sure? You mean their Grotto?" He asked, with unmasked interest. Although he referred to it differently, he was fairly sure this 'gateway' or 'grotto' was the very same Demon Grotto he was looking for as well.

Seeing his master focusing all of his attention on him, caused Roas to slightly shiver for a moment before he managed to blurt out his answer.

"[Orc] Y-yes, my lord. It's the same. Whilst I do not know for certain where it is located exactly, it should be somewhere at the lower section of the building."

"Hmm…" Turning his attention back towards the humongous structure stretching out in the distance, Aiden went into deep thought. Taking another, scrutinizing look at the gigantic silhouette from top to bottom, he asked after a while.

"[Orc] Does this building go underground as well?"

Hearing his young lord's question, Roas nodded fervently. 

"[Orc] Y-yes, I believe so, my lord. Unfortunately, I was exiled from the tribe before we settled down here and was just used as an expandable scout." He answered with a downhearted expression.

"Huh…" Listening to his explanation, Aiden's interest was piqued. "[Orc] Come to think of it…" He turned his attention back to his servant, as he continued with a friendly smile stretching across his face. "[Orc] So far you didn't tell the reason for your expulsion from the tribe. What did you do that made them replace you, and strip you from your name, title, and honor?"

As he asked, he noticed the increasingly souring, downtrodden look that began to settle on his servant's face. Gently grabbing Roas' left shoulder, he calmly added, seeing the clear difficulty of what his servant was going through. It must be still hard for him to remember back on these dark moments of his life, he was obviously still not over yet, despite the devotion he was showing Aiden.

"[Orc] Roas... " He abruptly awoke his servant from his downhearted reminisce of these dark moments of his past life. "... if it is too difficult, don't worry, you do not need to say a thing. I was just interested, please do not feel obligated to recount these moments of your past."

Seeing the surprised look that slowly began to replace his previous look on Roas's face, Aiden's smile curved slightly higher, kinder. He continued with adding a few extra reassuring words. After all, he wanted to build a true friendship with his first follower and not just your typical master-servant relationship.

"[Orc] Remember, your past deeds no longer matter. As soon as you pledged your allegiance to me, they become irrelevant. I have promised you that we will take down those dark 'demonic' beings as you said and will give your heart and mind some peace. Trust me, I will not fail you, Roas."

Even though he had his strong willpower, hearing the young master repeat the same words that were his mantra and the only strand of hope for these past several years, caused Roas' eyes to turn blurry with all the water that started to gather in them. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to contain them, and several droplets began to escape through the corners of his eyes, sliding in rapid succession down his rejuvenated, youthful face, only to throw themselves in a leap of faith towards the faraway ground.

"[Orc] Y-young m-master! T-thank you!" It took Roas several seconds before he was able to collect his composure enough to be able to respond to Aiden's words. Taking a knee to the ground, and his right fist over his heart, he began pumping his chest as he took a bow and responded with an increasing volume coming from the truest depths of his heart. "[Orc] I will continue to serve you proudly for as long as my life will let me!"

Not wanting to raise any unwanted attention, Aiden quickly grabbed his kneeling servant's shoulder and promptly pulled him back up. 

"[Orc] I am happy to hear that but calm down for now. We do not want to raise attention to us, remember we have several objectives we have to complete! Focus!" He spoke in a hushed, but lecturing tone.

"[Orc] Y-yes! I-I am sorry my lord, I-I… just…" Roas immediately began another about apologizing for his earlier outburst, in a similarly loud tone, only to be silenced by Aiden's index finger sealing his lips.

"[Orc] W-what did I just tell you?!" He lectured with a similar, but a slightly harsher tone, looking at his servant with a berating look.

Seeing Roas's finally acquiesce and simply nod with a startled expression, the friendly smile returned to Aiden's face. Shifting his attention back to the huge structure in the distance, he slowly pulled his finger back from Roas's lips, effectively unsealing them.

"[Orc] Anyway, we wasted enough time standing around here. At the very least we need to get that human prince out of this place before the first rays of the dawn arrive. Come, let's get to that building, I have a feeling we will find him there along with all our other objectives!"

Not waiting for Roas to react, Aiden resumed his slow, but steady pace, approaching the strange, much different structure in the distance.

With Roas quickly following along, they slowly but surely closed by on the humongous structure. As its features slowly became visible under the moonlight leaving the dark shadows, Aiden was once again surprised by what he saw. 

It was obviously a much better craftsmanship than what he has seen from this combative, primitive race so far. The outer layers of the multi-story building were carefully and lavishly decorated, with several motifs adorning the edges all the way as the eye could see. Between the clearly separated floors, there were stone statues of horrific-looking monstrous entities with large wings.

Even though his system scan did not return any obvious threat from these stone guardians, there was still some ominous feel to them. Their delicate craftsmanship, the attention to the smallest detail made an onlooker think that they were not just your average, everyday stone-carved statues, but something more… something sinister.

Even without Roas mentioning it earlier, it was obvious from a first glance that this structure could not have been the work of any Orc craftsman. It was way too different not just in style, but in its attention to detail as well. 

A huge, black double door made out of an unknown material greeted them as they arrived at it. Strangely, and against what Aiden would have expected, there were no orcs stationed in front of the building on guard duty. In fact, there was no sight of anyone, not one living soul as they got in front of the building.

Seeing the confusion in his young master's face, Roas broke the peaceful silence that ensued between them after their talk.

"[Orc] There are no guards stationed here as there is no point. The building is considered sacred, holy ground for the members of the horde, nobody would be foolish enough to misbehave here." Pointing at the stone monster statutes placed around the building, he continued. "[Orc] Also, the building has its own guards. In case of danger, the overlords can awake these stone guardians."

"[Orc] I see…" His earlier thought confirmed, Aiden took another look at the stone monsters that were visible all around the walls, perked at the very corners, looking down at them with their ominous, eerie look on their stone-carved faces. "Do you know how strong these… guardians are? Have you seen them in action?"

Upon hearing the question, Roas firmly shook his head.

"[Orc] No, my lord, I haven't. I was exiled long before this building was created, I only heard the rumors and myths surrounding it. However, from what I heard, these guardians are much stronger than the most powerful orcs in the entire horde, not to mention our tribe. A single guardian could wipe out our entire race in minutes."

The words of his servant caused Aiden to take another, more focused look at one of the seemingly lifeless, stone statues perched just above them, to the left side of the huge, ebony door.

From a first look, they all looked like simple statues, there was no life in them at all. It was hard to believe that these lifeless stone carvings could turn into such fearsome killing machines. Focusing on his inner self, Aiden activated his [Dark Sense] ability and sent out yet another pulse but this time, he poured some of his still almost full reserve of [Soul Power] into it, empowering it in the process.

However, even with doing that, all he got back was that these monstrous figures were just that. Lifeless, stone carvings. Delicate and lavish, but nothing more.

Although he did not doubt Roas' words, it was still strange and hard to believe that these could suddenly turn to life and wreak havoc in mere minutes.

Shaking his head, he cleared his head from these thoughts. Ultimately none of that mattered. He did not need to bother with these guardians, even if they were lifeless or could be turned into living, real monsters. What mattered is to get inside this supposedly sacred place, and find and rescue that adventurous prince...