34 - Chapter 34

“So, the Red Vulture has become younger?” Burris asked.

Roth pushed aside the weeds and branches in front and Burris followed behind him with a sphere of light. A few minutes ago, at Roth’s suggestion, the two of them left the wooden house and walked deeper into the forest.

“Yes, he seems to be eighteen or nineteen years old.” Roth said. “I chatted with a few knights on the way here. The Red Vulture they met was a middle-aged man, thin and ugly, much older than his peers. It is said that the top of his head is completely bald, and there is a ring of red hair stubbornly growing on the edge of the ‘Bald Area’…”

“Bald Area…?” Burris’s mouth twitched.

“Oh, this is something I invented, referring to the occupied area of passive progressive baldness; voluntary shaved baldness does not count. For example, when you were in your eighties, your baldness area surpassed many old men…”

“My lord, we are talking about the Red Vulture…” Burris touched the top of his head affectionately. The thick and soft hair really made him feel safe.

This time, Roth did not insist on digressing. “Yes, about the Red Vulture… I just talked with Prince Lanto, and then I heard the siblings describe their experience. What they encountered should be the Red Vulture himself, it’s not a relative or offspring. It was the elements of the other world that changed him, turning him back into the state of the past.”

Burris sighed. “Just like you did to me… After all, there is no such power in the world.”

Roth said: “So, the source of this dense fog and infernal elements is not the Red Vulture, but something else. Tarina’s loss of control, the Red Vulture’s power fluctuations and his appearance changes are all related to that thing.”

“Do you know what it is?” Burris asked.

“I have a guess, but it’s not necessarily right, we can be sure when we find it.” Roth stopped and closed his eyes for a while every time he walked, as if he was locating the target. What I can confirm for now is that what appears here is not the thin spot I thought, but an ancient creature composed of infernal elements. Don’t worry, it’s not a demon and it won’t engage in massacres. The only thing to worry about is that the power of this thing overflows everywhere, which has a great impact on human warlocks, and this impact will continue to expand.”

Burris speculated: “Infernal creatures…I understand. Experienced warlocks are immune to magical disturbances, but only limited to disturbing elements that exist in this world; now that the infernal elements appear, the Red Vulture and Tarina are both affected by Forced Influence. The Red Vulture knows the basis for casting spells, so he can slowly coexist with the power of Hell and even take the opportunity to become stronger, but Tarina had not awakened, so she was devastated and became more and more sick…”

“Yes, that princess was probably the same.” Roth said. “Her brother is a warlock, but she never learned to cast spells. This shows that her sorceress ability was really weak, and under normal circumstances, it may never wake up. Later, she suddenly suffered from ‘forced influence’ because of infernal elements rather than ordinary magical disturbances.”

“That said, this force has been in the Moonset Mountains for a long time… The princess passed away many years ago.”

“Exactly. The Red Vulture’s insanity was also related to this. The people of Silver Falcon didn’t like him, so everyone thought that he was just crazy, and no one thought there were other dangers hidden behind him.”

“We have to find that ‘thing’ quickly.” Burris said. “If this goes on, those corpses and the Red Vultures may turn into something else…”

Roth walked ahead, carrying Burris on his back and showing a proud smile – worthy of being my mage, who can understand the point of the matter without me saying more.

“Yes, we have to hurry up…” He stood still again and closed his eyes to locate the target. “The Red Vulture has gained the ability to manipulate corpses because of the infernal elements, but then thinking about it… I’m not sure what he wants to do. It was nothing more than revenge on Prince Lanto and revenge on Silver Falcon. Anyway, he just wanted to do something big, but he is not the true master of that power after all. These evoked corpses are not so well controlled, they are also absorbing the elements in the mist and are constantly mutating… Eventually, they will become true infernal creatures. When that time comes, they will be no longer ‘dead’, and your necromancer’s manipulation skills will no longer work.”

The King was right. Necromancy and infernal magic could control corpses. Sometimes, the effects of both are similar, but after all, they are completely different powers. According to records, infernal magic transforms the dead into another kind of life.

In ancient times, the monarchs of Hell used to treat other creatures like this: first kill enemies in war, then transform them, turning them into monsters and demons that truly belong to Hell. As a result, the number of demons increased, pouring into the human world and the divine realm like a mountain torrent. In the end, the gods had to cut off the connection between these planes and let them be exiled and isolated from each other forever…

At that time, human civilization was still quite young, and magic had not yet formed a system. Otherwise, perhaps strong necromancers could try to compete with demons for corpses…

The ancient King of Hell could control this ‘new life’, but the Red Vulture, who is a human, obviously cannot.

The infernal elements affect him the same way as corpses, and if this continue to develop, he is likely to die because he can’t bear the disturbances. Because he absorbed a lot of infernal elements during his life, he will awaken into a body full of power after death and become a monster that no one can predict… If the corpses are also transformed, then infernal creatures will return to the world, causing an instinctive massacre in Silver Falcon…

Burris thought, if that’s the point, maybe I can control the Red Vulture’s body first after his death… No, with my current spellcasting ability, I probably can’t… and I can’t count on Heisong.

However, Heisong could do one thing: as a last resort, control all the newly dead bodies in Silver Falcon, gain control early, and prevent them from being occupied by infernal elements.

Looking at the back of the Skeleton King in front of him, Burris came up with another thought: Why be so pessimistic? There is a demigod on our side!

The King has three kinds of powers: divine, necromantic, and infernal. Even if the Red Vulture awakens as an unprecedented monster, perhaps the Skeleton King can deal with it! For example…rush up and kill him with a kiss?

“What’s the matter with you? Are you uncomfortable?” Roth noticed Burris staggering and turned back quickly.

Burris bowed his head guiltily and furrowed his eyebrows: “No, I’m fine…I’m thinking about things. We drove away a lot of corpses just now, where do they want to go…?”

“They have the same purpose as us.” Roth said. “They also want to find the source of power. The closer they are, the more nutrients they can absorb.”

With that, he pointed to the front. Burris drove the small sphere of light to float past, illuminating a group of living corpses in the fog. The corpses found the light and staggered towards them.

“Leave it to me.” Roth stood in front of Burris. “Don’t go near, don’t go forward. I’ll tell you why after a moment.”

“I…”

“You don’t need to cast spells to help me, don’t come close. If you need to… close your eyes.”

Burris stood obediently by an old tree, extremely disturbed. Close his eyes? Is it necessary to close his eyes? What hasn’t a necromancer seen? He also saw the Skeleton King tear a monster apart with his own eyes more than sixty years ago, and he was not scared at all.

A huge corpse rushed forward, and Roth didn’t dodge, letting the corpse strangle him. He slowly grabbed the corpse’s hands, and with a fierce force, he threw the tall corpse into the air. The corpse’s strong arms were torn from his torso.

"

"

As soon as Roth dropped his arms, several more bodies gathered around him. He went straight into their encirclement, grabbed one of the little ones, waved it, tripped the others, and smashed their heads with his iron toed boots.

Some corpses still didn’t give up trying to attack him, and some wanted to bypass him. Roth stopped them one by one, tearing them up and throwing them away… It didn’t take long for the corpses to be scattered all over the ground.

Roth threw a head into the trees in front of him, and judging from the sound, the thing seemed to have fallen into a deep valley.

He turned to Burris and said: “Now you see why I told you to stay away and not go forward? There’s a cliff over there. It’s hard to find even in the daytime, and it’s even more dangerous at night. If you come here, you may roll down by accident. “

Burris walked around the pieces of broken corpses and came to Roth. “They are so broken…too broken. How can we clean this up in the future? After the matter is over, the locals will definitely have to bury them again…”

Roth’s expression was complicated. “You are not scared at all…”

“I saw something more intense more than sixty years ago.”

“Oh! That’s right!” Roth suddenly realized. “Tsk, think about it, even if it hadn’t been more than sixty years ago, I guess you wouldn’t be afraid… You see more disgusting things. Oh, I understand the truth, but I am still a bit reluctant…”

“What are you reluctant about?”

Roth looked down at the mage. “In my heart, there was a fantasy… In the face of danger, I would gently say to you: don’t get close, you can close your eyes if you need to…and then I would show an evil smile and arrogantly rush into the enemy’s encirclement, and I would use a method extremely terrifying to tear them apart… Then I took care of everything and came back to you, but your eyes would show a look of fear! At this time, I would recover a gentle appearance, extended a hand to you, which you subconsciously would avoid, and I would say to you with a bitter smile: don’t be afraid, it’s me, I won’t hurt you…Then I would touch your face, and you looked at me timidly. I would take you in my arms, and continue to comfort you speaking softly in your ear, and stroke your back gently to calm your trembling… “

Burris was stunned, his thoughts seemed to return to an afternoon many years ago:

That day, he saw an exhibitionist in the border town. A man stood on the roof, laughed and took off his pants, posing in various dancing postures, which caused the women on the street to scream…

At this moment, his feelings are almost the same as then: he is not shy, nor afraid of what he sees, he is just very shocked, extremely shocked…Some things, you know you have them, why do you have to expose them?!

Roth waited for a while and found that there was no sign of shyness in the mage’s expression, so he gave up his unrealistic expectation. “All right…I understand, a fantasy is just a fantasy, I can’t force it, can’t I just talk about it? If the long epic of a bard cannot be finished, they will also talk about its general development in the future…”

Burris took out a semi-wet paper handkerchief from his pocket, which exuded a fresh plant scent: “Anyway…you…wipe your hands. I will also wipe my hands after touching the corpses.”

Roth wiped his hands obediently and brought Burris closer to the cliff in front. This kind of forest rift is indeed very dangerous. It is hidden behind shrubs and looks like ordinary forest vegetation from a distance. It is easy for someone to approach without realizing it, and then step into the air.

Burris drove the sphere of light down the cliff, and it didn’t reach the bottom for a long time. He couldn’t see that far; he could only see the light sphere in the darkness getting smaller and smaller.

Roth’s eyesight was so good that it was different from ordinary people: “I believe there are many corpses below…we have to go down too.”

“The source of infernal elements is below?” Burris asked.

“Yes. I feel it.” After speaking, Roth stretched his shoulders, and the pair of dragon wings that could float slowly appeared on his back. He unceremoniously pulled Burris into his arms, and the two stepped out of the edge of the cliff and began to slowly hover down.

Translation notes:

Sorry about the late update, I was busy all week. I was checking the past chapters and realized that maybe I made a mistake writing ‘Hei Song’ instead of ‘Heisong’, so I will be editing that when I have the time. Besides, I was reading the other novel of this author, Book of Hibernation, and they clarified they take the names of divinities and such from after the names of stores and brands, so I think now that Ostarot really should be spelled Otarot, so I need to edit that too. I’m deeply sorry about that 🙁

If you spot any mistake please tell me 🙂