Rising, I turned to face whatever attacker had come nearest me, though I was
unarmed. To my surprise, what I saw was no priest of ancient horror, no necromancer
of that forbidden Art, but black robes fallen upon the grass and weeds, with no
seeming presence of life or bodies beneath them.
I walked cautiously to the first and, picking up a long twig, lifted the robe from
the tangle of weeds and thorns. All that remained of the priest was a pool of slime,
like green oil, and the smell of a body lain long to rot in the sun. Such a stench nearly
overpowered me, but I was resolute to find the others, to see if the same fortune had
also befallen them.
Walking back up the slope that I had so fearfully run down only moments ago, I
came across yet another of the dark priests, in identical condition to the first. I kept
walking, passing more of the robes as I went, not venturing to overturn them any
longer. Then, I finally came upon the grey stone monument that had risen unnaturally
into the air at the command of the priests. It was now upon the ground once more, but
the carvings still glowed with supernatural light. The serpents, or what I had then
thought as serpents, had disappeared. But in the dead embers of the fire, now cold and
black, was a Shionogi metal plate. I picked it up and saw that it was also carved, as the
stone but very intricately, after a fashion I could not understand. It did not bear the
same markings as the stone, but I had the feeling I could almost read the characters,
but could not, as though I once knew the tongue but had since long forgotten. My
head began to ache as though a devil was pounding my skull, when a shaft of moonlight
struck the metal amulet, for I know now what it was, and a voice entered into my head
and told me the secrets of the scene I had witnessed in one word:
KUTULU
In that moment, as though whispered fiercely into my ear, I understood.