A few hours later, at the Andhghati village’s meeting point, the villagers finally regained their senses.
“W-What happened?” A villager muttered as he placed his hand on his head, trying to remember what happened.
“I don’t know, I remember coming to the meetin-”
“AAGHHhhhhh!!” A woman, who had just gained her consciousness looked below and shouted in fear when she noticed blood all over the ground.
“AAAGHHHHHh!! I-It’s a head! AAGHHHHhh!!” Another woman shrieked in horror when she stepped on something and saw that it was someone’s head.
Every villager went through similar experiences and were scared witless when they noticed the blood and headless dead bodies all over the place.
“NATALIA!! NO!!!!” Suddenly, a middle-aged man noticed that one of the heads lying on the ground was very familiar, and his body shuddered in shock and grief when he noticed it was his wife!
He quickly picked up his wife’s head before he hugged it without bothering with the blood that flowed out of it.
“FATHER!!” Another woman cried in pain when she noticed a headless body wearing familiar-looking clothes before she quickly recognized whose body it was.
Others also noticed the dead bodies of other villagers, some lost their wives, some their husbands, some their child, their mother, father, grandparents…
About a third of the villagers were dead.
“W-What happened here? Why do I not remember anything…?”
The villagers who had not lost any of their family members and were more worried about their safety started discussing.
“I-I do not know… I just remember the meeting…”
“Yes, the village head introduced a man…”
“Wait, where is the village head?”
“H-He’s dead as well…”
Suddenly, a middle-aged man, who was holding his wife’s headless body stood up and muttered.
“Let’s just get away from here first… We need to bury our loved ones so that they can leave in peace…” The man’s eyes glistened with tears before he grabbed his wife’s head and tears trailed down from his eyes.
His body trembled but then he held his wife’s head and body carefully before he walked away…
It seemed like he had lost his soul and had become a mere puppet.
Then, an old man stood up as well before he coughed a few times and agreed.
“Vivek is right, everyone, we cannot stay here, I won’t be insensitive, I know many of you have lost someone important to you today, I lost my son as well. However, we are not exactly safe right now.
Do not let your loved ones’ sacrifices be wasted, we will bury our family members and then meet up and discuss what happened after 4 hours, how does that sound?”
“O-Okay…”
The villagers agreed… Some were scared, and some wanted to bury their family members but no one wanted to stay in this blood place anymore.
The old man who noticed that the villagers had agreed felt a little better in his heart.
Today, he learned something about himself.
He learned that he was a selfish and disgusting person.
When he saw his son’s head lying on the floor, rather than shock, fear, or grief, he felt happy and relieved.
He felt relieved that wasn’t the one who died.
The reason why he mentioned leaving this place and burying their family members wasn’t because he was worried about his dead son. He was already dead, why worry about him?
It was because he felt that they weren’t safe here and wanted to run away.
He then saw Vivek walking away carrying his wife’s body in his arm and his eyes shined in enlightenment.
‘What a smart mind! To run away with burying your family members as an excuse! A great idea indeed. This way, others won’t think that I am too scared or black-hearted. They would even think that I am extremely heartbroken but mature…’
Seeing that the other person also had the same thoughts as him, the old man felt better and started his speech, which gained others’ approval, making him feel even better.
According to him, everyone was just worried about themselves, they were just using their family as an excuse to make it look like they were good people and worried about others…
Of course, no one knows if he was right or not…
The villagers then started carrying their family member’s bodies with trembling hands and walked away.
The few lucky villagers who did not lose anyone in their family hugged everyone in their family tightly before they walked towards their homes to get some rest.
The old man carried his son’s head and body as well, his face was even covered with tears when he walked away… however, his heart was all smiling.
Within just a few minutes, the meeting place turned silent as every villager left.
…
A few minutes later, a figure walked towards the bloody and gory meeting point and it stepped on the place where the 6 cultivators had surrounded Azriel.
The figure then raised its hand and the blood on the ground rose in the air and formed a sphere. The sphere was then split into two uneven parts, the figure waves its hand and the smaller part fell to the ground.
The bigger sphere then moved towards the figure and its crystal blue eyes shined in delight, excitement and… craving…