In the northern part of the empire, in a remote village, the townspeople moved their twisted bodies numbly as usual and started the day's work.
Working hard, feeding livestock, carrying goods...
The village was an extremely busy scene, but everyone's movements seemed a bit stiff.
A middle-aged man who looked like a blacksmith swung the hammer in his hand numbly, hitting the red sword body one after another.
The body that was leaning forward suddenly shook, but the round head broke off and fell onto the hot sword. However, the blacksmith didn't notice it at all and continued to hammer, hammering the flesh, blood and brain into the red iron. In the sword.
Until noon, this peaceful village welcomed a group of uninvited guests.
Ivina led a group of God's Punishment Army knights into the village, but the moment she entered, the girl already noticed something was wrong.
The village looks desolate and dilapidated. Many houses have collapsed and the roads are muddy. It can be seen from many traces that this place has been baptized by war not long ago.
However, the townspeople of this village did not repair these dilapidated places. When they saw their arrival, they did not avoid them like ordinary poor people, and continued to work on their own.
A knight of the God's Punishment Army suddenly grabbed a man who was passing by. When he saw the man's dull expression, dull eyes, and the obvious marks of being pierced by a sharp blade on his chest, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.
"They have been dead for at least five days!" the God's Punishment Knight said solemnly.
"It's half a month!" Ivina corrected, judging from the traces of war.
As she spoke, Ivina took out the instrument for sensing magic with a solemn expression. The pointer rotated in a circle, and finally pointed to a mansion in the village.
The twenty or so knights who entered the village took out the blades from their waists.
"Is he the church lackey again? He is really haunted!"
Cold curses soon came from the mansion, and the words were full of disdain.
Immediately afterwards, an old and withered face appeared in everyone's sight. The old man in black robe had gray hair and skin as dry as tree bark. The whole person looked like a skeleton.
"[Corpseer] Wally!" Ivina's thoughts changed slightly, and she quickly recognized him, because the information about the other party was recorded on the reward list of the Sinners Chapter of the Bible!
The reward is fifteen thousand imperial gold coins!
"I hate the title of corpse stealer!" The black-robed wizard frowned in dissatisfaction.
These corpses are all creations of war. Without him, they would just be abandoned in the wilderness, gnawed by wild beasts, and eventually no bones would be left. What a waste!
But it's different in their own hands, they can create greater value!
Thinking of this, the wizard named Wally opened his hands, his face showing excitement and enthusiasm.
"Look, how great the new type of ghoul I have developed is! How much food has been produced and how many tools have been built in these half a month. They don't need to eat or rest, they only know how to obey orders..."
"Perfect... This is simply the most perfect existence!" the corpse thief said in a high tone. "Let the dead be responsible for the work and the living be responsible for enjoying. Is there a better world than this?"
The black-robed wizard finally found a few people to talk to, and he talked endlessly about his great research. It took him several years and countless experiments to finally awaken the previous memories of these corpses and let them spontaneously The beginning of farming and iron smelting...
Next, he will teach these ghouls more things and let them do more work!
Ivina and others looked at the rotting, festering, and stinking corpses in the village, their expressions became more and more angry, they clenched the swords in their hands, and interrupted the body snatchers.
"Stop your nonsense and be judged, sinner!"
Hearing the name "Sinner", [Corpseer] Wally's expression became very boring. "It seems that none of you can understand how great my research is!"
"In that case, then you should stay and do your part for my new career!" The corpse thief said with a sneer, and then masses of black mist emerged from his body.
"Realm of the Dead!"
After those ghouls with dull faces and sluggish movements came into contact with the black mist, their eyes suddenly turned red, and their bodies twisted and expanded into ghouls with ferocious muscles.
"Field? Is it a great wizard?!" The faces of the Divine Punishment Knights present suddenly changed, and they shouted in panic. This was completely inconsistent with the three-ring wizard written in the intelligence!
Although there seems to be only one ring difference between the third ring and the fourth ring, their combat power is vastly different!
"Fight!" There was no fear on Ivina's face. She took the lead and rushed forward. The sword blade in her hand slashed out and cut an attacking corpse into two pieces in an instant.
"Corpse Explosion Technique!" The black-robed wizard smiled gloomily, stretched out his hand, and the separated body of the corpse exploded immediately. The blood mist contained corpse poison and plague, even if it had taken [Divine Grace] Potion] Divine Punishment Knight couldn't take it down either.
However, Ivina had already disappeared under the blood mist with extraordinary speed.
…
After half an hour of fighting, most of the more than thirty Divine Punishment Knights were dead, and Ivina also had several scars filled with black mist on her body.
And the head of the corpse stealer [Wally] has been nailed to the slender blade.
With the death of the caster, all the ghouls in the village lost their support and fell to the ground. The exhausted Ivina breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks to you this time, Ivina!" A Divine Punishment Knight looked frightened. If the girl's desperate fighting style hadn't confused the body snatchers and gave them the opportunity to attack in close combat, then everyone would have Die here and become a corpse.
"It's a pity, they still..." Elena glanced at the corpses of her colleagues around her and sighed.
"When dealing with these wizards, casualties are always inevitable!" the God's Punishment Knight said with anger and helplessness.
In fact, it was extremely lucky to be able to kill a great wizard with less than twenty casualties of the Divine Punishment Knights.
At least they protected more empire citizens from being harmed by the other side!
Elena nodded, forced herself to hold on, and together with the remaining colleagues, gathered these corpses together and burned them all to prevent the possible spread of the plague.
Melodious hymns soon sounded in the village.
"May your souls avoid falling into purgatory, and may you ascend to heaven and enjoy eternal joy..."
Ivina prayed in a low voice, looking at the rising fire, she couldn't help but recall the past.
More than two years ago, in Harbor Town, it was this kind of fire that made her wake up, break away from her family, and see a wider world.
As someone said, the world is too big to be imagined, and a small baronetship is nothing at all.
That dome-like title once blocked all her vision, but now she only needs one word to decide the life or death of a baron...
The original vision, obsession and hatred seemed extremely ridiculous now.
But...why do you want to become a wizard?
(End of chapter)
