"It"s getting stronger…."
The stench that rode with the wind became more apparent. The source was located to the west.
"?"
Reina still hadn"t detected it and wore a confused expression.
It wasn"t that her senses were dull. She was one of the greatest geniuses in history, reaching the realm of experts who were able to use sword energy, before she was even 20. She would no doubt be able to enter the royal knights with ease.
However, Abel"s senses were even greater than hers.
This was thanks to his white mana. As he had learned ancient detection magic, his senses had been amplified manifold.
He was especially sensitive to black mana, which was the polar opposite of his mana.
"It"s coming from… over there? Let"s have a look."
Abel spoke while pointing west. He was 100% curious now.
"No! Don"t do anything dangerous and let"s be on our way."
Reina had one mission, which was to guard Abel. It was natural for her to stop Abel from doing anything rash.
"It"s still as bright as day… and if there"s anything dangerous, you can just protect me."
"That"s true, but…."
Reina was tempted after Abel said that. She was proud of the subtle nod to her skills.
"Let"s just have a look at what it is."
"Fine, then…"
Reina seemed to have become curious as well and started following ABel.
"Urgh…!"
After a while, she was able to smell the stink as well.
Abel started off with curiosity, but was wondering if he should turn around with the smell becoming worse.
Caw, caw.
Just at that moment, a murder of crows flew past his head. They were headed to the same direction Abel was headed in.
"This feels rather ominous…"
His intuition screamed that it was a bad idea to proceed.
Abel eventually decided to turn back the way they came.
"Should we just go ba… Whoa! Sh*t. What the f*ck is that!"
Just as he was about to turn around, he became shocked by the horrifying scene in front of him.
There was a small village in the distance. In one part of the village, corpses were piled into a miniature mountains next to piles of wood, as though they had been about to burn them.
The crows from before were circling on top of the pile. From their perspective, this was practically a buffet.
"Dammit, that ruined my eyes. Let"s go!"
What did he expect… He turned around violently.
The ident.i.ty of the stench was a pile of corpses.
"Wait! There"s a person over there!"
Reina said while pointing at the center of the village.
Abel turned around when Reina said that. He could see a girl who was dragging out a corpse from a shack in the village.
She was wearing a white one-piece dress that flapped in the wind, had grey hair, and was wearing a cloth mask. The snow-white fabric had become stained all over, and there was a lot of sweat on her forehead from dragging several corpses.
"Should we help? She looks like she"s having it hard."
Nope. If he did and got into trouble….
He had seen a news article back on Earth.
Youngster~ that van over there looks like my son"s car, but this old lady can"t see clearly because my eyes aren"t too good, could you help me out? – an old lady had asked this to a young man, and he decided to help out. Only to be kidnapped by the van, and had his organs sold. The world was a cruel place.
Moreover, that girl was carrying corpses!
However…
"What are you doing and not helping her? Her clothes seem like she"s from the Gaia Church! Follow me."
Swoosh.
Reina ran down without hesitation. And she was the one who told him not to do anything dangerous…
"Hey… At least walk there! My legs are hurting!"
Having no choice, Abel followed suit.
Fwoosh-
When they arrived at the village, a desolate wind greeted them first. From how they couldn"t feel any presence of life, it was likely that the entire village had perished.
Eventually, Abel and Reina arrived at the front of the mountain of bodies. They were able to see that the corpses were not normal. It was as though they were infected with some skin disease as they had green spots all over their bodies.
"Urgh! Huuu…"
Abel was at a loss what to do after seeing so many corpses for the first time in his life. He barely held himself from vomiting. This was practically a set from a gore movie.
Although Reina was acting tough on the outside, her hands were shaking as well. According to what she knew, the Gaia Church was a holy existence that did good for the people. This was why she had come here to help out the girl… but after seeing the pile of bodies, she had the urge to turn tail.
When they approached even closer, they couldn"t bear the smell and pinched their noses tight, frowning.
They saw a girl who was arduously dragging a corpse from far away. Reina approached her.
"You are from the Gaia Church, right? We were pa.s.sing by this place, but just what is happening here?"
Reina spoke to the girl.
"Ah! It"s better if you stay away! There"s an epidemic!"
The girl let go of the corpse in surprise and gestured for Reina to step back.
"Whoa? An epidemic? Oh, sh*t! Detoxification!"
Hearing her words, Abel immediately cast a detoxification spell.
The mountain of corpses was on fire. Along with the smell of sizzling meat, there was thick black smoke with an acrid stench. This black smoke was caused by incomplete combustion.
"Did you move all of those by yourself?"
Reina asked the girl.
"I had two attendants with me, but those two got infected as well…."
Drip.
The girl seemed to be very emotional and started crying midway through her sentence.
From her words, she was one of the candidates for the holy maiden at the church, and was dispatched here to cure the epidemic around this region as well as finding the cure. However, the entire village was wiped out nary a week after she had arrived.
"They sent a tiny group of 3 people to a dangerous place like this? And a young girl at that? Dang, such a cheap religion…"
Abel was rough with his words as he didn"t understand what was happening.
Even though a normal believer of the faith would have treated him as a heretic, the girl calmly continued.
"We haven"t had any providence for the last 3 years… we can"t help it."
"A providence?"
"That is how Lady Gaia decides on the holy maiden. It has been 3 years since the last holy maiden had pa.s.sed on, but she isn"t answering…."
"That"s why they sent such a young girl here… wait."
Abel stopped as though he had felt something.
He felt a weird energy from the burning corpses.
"This… I can feel traces of black mana…"
He could feel the energy of black magics emanating from the burning corpses. This was due to the evaporation of black mana that was in the blood.
"It"s the same feeling that came from Cain"s soul!"
"Area Detection!"
Having felt a strange energy, Abel used a detection spell. He had recovered his mana to some extent as a full day had pa.s.sed since the ruin excavation.
If this was indeed the work of black magic, then someone may be nearby.
Abel closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings. When he expanded the search range, he was able to feel the presence of a person in a faraway forest.
"Found it! A black mage!"
It was a man who was emitting a black aura.
"Reina. There"s a black mage in the forest over there. I think this guy has something to do with this epidemic… I will summon him here so place a sword on his neck immediately."
Abel whispered to Reina with a serious expression.
Nod.
Reina nodded in understanding.
"…s.p.a.ce Switch!"
Swoosh.
"Whoa?"
The summoned black mage lost his footing due to the sudden change in surroundings.
"Move and you will have a hole on your neck."
Gulp.
Seeing a sword held at his neck, the black mage gulped in fear.
"This isn"t an epidemic, is it? This is black magic, no?"
The black mage widened his eyes in shock, while his lips stayed shut.
"I"ll ask you again. Is this black magic or not?"
"……"
The black-clothed man didn"t seem to have any intention of replying.
"Are you going to tell me? Or do you want to burn with those corpses?"
Abel"s voice contained rage.
"I will not answer!"
The black mage would rather have Abel kill him.
There weren"t any sane humans that liked torturing people. However, black mages weren"t "people".
"Wonderful decision."
Abel started tapping on the calculator with the devil"s smile plastered across his face.
Swoosh.
Abel went ahead and put the black mage inside the "Room of Silence". Then he accelerated the time within it.
"Urrgh…."
When he took him out again, the black mage collapsed on the ground and started spasming. From the black mage"s perspective, more than an hour should have pa.s.sed. This was definitely a new world record.
"I"ll ask you again just one more time. Is this black…."
"I, it is!"
Thinking that he may have to return to that horrid s.p.a.ce, the black mage interrupted his words to say that.
"d.a.m.ned lunatics… Why do such a thing?"
Abel clenched his fist in anger. The veins could be seen around his fist.
He was simply unable to understand why they killed the innocent villagers.
"I, I can"t say that! If I do I"ll di… argh!"
Crunch.
The black mage"s body started being twisted in a weird way. This was a silencing curse.
The curse activated just at the thought that he might"ve leaked the secret. He was shriveling up like a drying squid. However, Abel wouldn"t stay still.
"…Soul Extraction!"
He immediately pulled out the black mage"s soul.
Although the black mage"s body stopped functioning, the soul was still very much alive in Abel"s hands.
"If you tell me the truth, I"ll heal your body and put you back in."
The black mage"s soul stared on his body twisted up from mid air. From what he saw of Abel"s peculiar magic, he could potentially fulfil the promise. His body was still more valuable than his faith to his organization.
-I spread the epidemic on orders from up above. I"m just low-ranked and don"t know the details.
"Please ask about the organization called "Dawn"s End"!"
The girl shouted while watching from the sidelines.
"Dawn"s End? You heard that. What"s that about?"
-It"s an occult religion that we made up. The objective is to spread the rumor that there would come a 2nd apocalypse. It"s spreading quickly with the use of brainwashing magic.
"Wow, that"s a pain… why do you go so far to make such a thing?"
-Because our ultimate objective is to recreate the "apocalypse".
What? Recreate the apocalypse? Doesn"t that mean that they would die together as well?
"Why?
-I don"t know about that. I"ve said all I could so let me go!
"In any case, you killed everyone in this village, right? Then you should be punished for it. Repent for all the years that the villagers were unable to live."
After those words, Abel opened Schrodinger"s Prison. He put the soul of the black mage within before leaving him with a parting phrase.
"Once you"ve arrived, there should be a fellow inmate. Try your best to solve the problem on the blackboard together."
Swoosh.
Abel"s mana slaves had increased by one.
"The apocalypse… I hope it doesn"t arrive before I return to Earth…."
This wasn"t something a single individual could do. He thought that he should inform Kyle.
"My word…! I should quickly tell this to the Church!"
Like Abel, the maiden candidate seemed to have been shocked and was jumping around.
"The Church? Where is that?"
"It"s in Gaian City! It"s within the Kreuz capital!"
"We"re headed to the closest city as well, so we"ll take you there. You should take the warp home."
Bow.
"Thank you!"
The girl flashed a bright smile towards Abel in appreciation.
Abel had an inkling that the holy maiden candidates were picked based on their appearance, as this candidate possessed the face straight out of an idol girl group.