Chapter 176: Red-Eyed Devils
The stone tablets were a chronicle of blood.
They described a civilization fueled by Human Sacrifice. Through blood rituals, individuals obtained various tiers of supernatural power. These empowered warriors would then descend into the "Den" to do battle.
Based on the descriptions, the "Den" was the very central tunnel Ronin's team was preparing to invade.
As for the sacrifices? They came from the "Common Sector"—the residential district with the stone houses, farms, and river. To the ancient rulers, that sector wasn't a village; it was a stable.
And the ones who benefited from the blood? Every single one was described as having Scarlet Eyes.
The Kurta.
In the texts found in the residential areas, these red-eyed elites were referred to by a term Ronin recognized: The Red-Eyed Devils.
It was a brutally accurate title. They were a race of harvesters, treating their fellow humans as livestock to fuel their evolution.
Kurapika was visibly shaken. He couldn't reconcile the gentle people of his memory with these ancient monsters. Even if this was a different branch of the clan, the revelation that the Scarlet Eyes were once synonymous with sacrificial murder was a psychological poison.
Ronin, however, reserved judgment.
He wanted to see the "Den" first. The situation was too bizarre to be explained by simple malice. He also wondered: Why did these people stay underground?
Specifically, the commoners. They had a river. They had light. If they were being raised like cattle, why didn't they follow the water to the surface?
The lack of any records or attempts to escape suggested a terrifying possibility. Either the "Devils" had performed total psychological conditioning over generations, or the world outside was even more horrific than being a sacrifice.
The monsters in the central tunnel operated on a biological clock.
Just past midnight, the next wave surged out.
But the Royal Army was waiting. They poured munitions into the tunnel mouth without regard for cost. The battle raged until 6:00 AM, turning the ruins into a charnel house.
As the sun rose (unseen by those below), the soldiers began the gruesome task of processing the carcasses. Chitin, fangs, and hides were harvested for sale, while the meat was hauled away to be frozen. After expert testing, it would likely hit the black market as "Exotic Gourmet" protein.
Ronin and the subjugation squad didn't wait for the cleanup.
The moment the screaming stopped and the last beast was confirmed dead, they moved to the entrance of the central tunnel.
The team consisted of 17 elite Nen users. Ronin only knew Mashur, Vanessa, and the organizer, Benket.
Benket was a professional. He gave a brief tactical briefing, listed the immediate hazards, and led the way into the throat of the ruins.
The tunnel smelled like a thousand wet dogs and ozone. Ronin tightened his gas mask. The filtered air was stale, but it kept the nausea at bay. For extreme cases, he had oxygen tanks stored in Owl's cloth.
The walls were gouged with claw marks. The deeper they went, the more the silence was broken by the rhythmic, distant roaring of a hungry hive.
Clearly, the "Beast Tide" hadn't emptied the nest.
After a long, cautious trek, the tunnel ended. The team stepped out into a vista that left them breathless.
They were in a Subterranean Jungle.
Luminescent stones embedded in the cavern roof cast a shimmering, ethereal glow over a primeval forest. The colors were vibrant and alien—shifting between neon greens and deep purples.
The roars they had heard in the tunnel were deafening now.
As the squad fanned out, they were immediately met by a pack of tiger-sized predators.
However, these weren't standard tigers. They possessed bio-mechanical traits—segmented legs and chitinous plating along their spines. They looked like a cross between a mammal and a massive centipede.
The beasts lowered their center of gravity, baring rows of jagged teeth. A low, vibrating growl hummed in their throats as they circled the intruders.
Ronin's group had killed hundreds of these during the tide. They didn't even slow down, their eyes scanning past the "cannon fodder" toward the true threats deeper in the woods.
A few hundred meters away, a massive silhouette moved.
It was a giant Scorpion, standing nearly four meters tall. Sensing the breach, the arachnid turned, its massive middle eyes rotating to track them while its three pairs of lateral eyes locked onto the tunnel exit.
The giant's legs chattered against the stone floor as it skittered toward them.
Ronin scanned it for Nen. Clean. It was a biological monster, not a Nen beast. But at that size, its physical stats alone made several of the freelancers look pale.
This was a guardian—a gatekeeper for the hive.
Ronin had never seen a scorpion this large. He wondered if the stinger carried a toxic payload or if it was a pure piercing weapon.
Benket had prepared for this. He didn't signal Ronin to engage. instead, two other members of the squad stepped forward.
One held a specialized spear; the other carried a heavy metallic disc.
The man with the disc moved first. He hurled the object with high-velocity precision.
The disc landed in the giant scorpion's path. Upon impact, a massive green Nen net exploded from the device, blanketing the ground.
Ronin blinked. A trap-based Conjurer?
Despite having eight eyes, the scorpion's vision was poor. It relied on vibration and heat. And like most insects, its cognitive level was low. It walked straight into the green webbing.
The moment the trap triggered, Ronin shifted his focus to the man with the spear. He sensed a gathering of intense, focused aura.
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