Bab 83: The Necromancer and the Priestess (17)
Both Yin Mei and Kai were standing on the side, watching their parties set up. There was silence between them, before Yin Mei asked, "Why aren't you helping out?"
"I can say the same of you," Kai answered after a moments surprise that she had spoken out.
"The kids wouldn't let me do it even if I offered," she answered. That's right, it wasn't that she didn't want to do anything! It was just that the last time she tried, the party members all got their panties in a twist making her stop. Sigh, even though with her master cleaning skill level, she would probably be able to get everything done faster, but since they insisted with those expressions like it was a matter of life or death for them, then she could only sit things out from then on.
"The kids?" Kai looked at the girl. She didn't look that old, maybe in her early 20s at the most. So why would she call her party members, who appeared of around the same age as her, as kids?
Yin Mei didn't realize anything was weird, just nodding. "Don't take what Arthur said to heart. When I picked up those kids, they were all in... not so good situations. For them, the church in their eyes isn't anything good. Neither the goddess nor the church did anything for them." Yin Mei said. "Not that either of the two had the obligation to... but, as a result, they don't have a very good opinion of the church. I don't know if you could understand, since your situation was the opposite though..." She murmured that last line, and Kai looked to her with an odd expression.
She spoke as if she knew what had happened. But how was that possible? They had never met before... But now that he thought about it, this girl acted slightly as if she was familiar with him. It was just a vague feeling, that he couldn't really put his finger on until now.
He closed his eyes, deciding it must just be his imagination. She was probably just assuming it, since he worked for the church as a knight, right? After all, most knights had experienced a similar situation to his... "I never took any offense in the first place. It is the fault of the church that we were unable to inspire trust in the people, and rescue those that needed rescuing."
"Ha. If you believe so," Yin Mei said with a sharp bark of laughter. "The goddess is quite cruel, to burden you all with such a heavy mission." Kai was about to protest, but Yin Mei had already gone over to her party, a gentle smile on her face as she spoke with some of the members.
It was slightly different from the cold and polite smile that she had had on before.
Kai was curious... Was she included among those that the church had been unable to help?
That night was uneasy for both groups. The priests had set up barriers around the abandoned church that they were using as a shelter. Though initially Arthur didn't want to be in the same building as the members of the church, in the end, it would be more convenient as they would be under the same barrier. As for the members of the church, they wouldn't fight for the place when there was enough space for all of them plus some.
Yin Mei didn't sleep that night, sitting on a portion of crumbled wall and looking out into the darkness. A couple of balls of light floated beside her, to chase away the shadows. There was no moon or stars that could be seen, just formless shapes, black on black.
Yin Mei wasn't scared of the dark, but on a night like this, it took on an eerie air. She felt like something was about to happen. What did people call this? The calm before the storm?
"You're not sleeping?" Suddenly, Kai's voice came from behind her. He had just got up for second watch. He looked at the balls of light floating around her and commented, "So you were a light mage?"
Light mage. This affinity was fairly rare, so anyone who was found with a light affinity was often immediately drafted into the church. The only ones who didn't were those who had the wealth and power to reject the invitation, and even then, that was rather rare.
"No," Yin Mei answered without looking back, and took out a scroll with a spell circle drawn onto it. "It's a disposable spell that can be invoked by anyone with the mana. Lasts a few hours. Our guild developed this fairly recently." She injected mana into the scroll, and it burned up, another ball of light popping out into existence to join its brothers and sisters.
She wasn't lying. Yin Mei had the knowledge of different worlds, and most of all, all those stories from her original world in her head. She had used different concepts in those to create new magics, like the information magic, the summoning magic, and the disposable scroll. Of course, she had also used it to create the guild.
She had already prepared a lot of things so that her identity wouldn't be found out. After all, things would get messy if people figured out her true identity.
"Oh," Kai said, nodding. He was slightly interested, thinking that this concept was interesting. There was no incantation, the casting was instantaneous, and most of all, it would allow mages to use spells that were not of their own affinity. Maybe he could later ask if the church would be able to purchase some from the guild after they had left Gloom Forest.
There was silence between them, when suddenly, both Yin Mei and Kai's eyes became sharp as they straightened up, snapping to attention. Their gaze bored into the darkness of the night. "Undead," Yin Mei said, and Kai nodded. As people who had light affinity, they were especially sensitive to the aura of the undead.
Kai immediately went to wake the people, and Yin Mei's eyes darkened as she muttered something to herself, but she didn't make a move.
"Leader! How many of them are there?" Lana asked, walking up with Lang, who had his bow out and ready, his blue eyes cautiously surveying the landscape.
"I have eyes on twenty... twenty-five." Lang reported.
"They're coming from... the center of the city?" Yin Mei said. The number continued to grow, as if they were infinitely spawning from the center location. "... We'll have to destroy the spawn point?" Yin Mei murmured to herself. Although this wasn't a game, she felt that this was probably what they would need to do.
Of course, they could also defend their stronghold (the abandoned church) until morning. If it wasn't a person that was summoning the undead, then they would be unable to continue moving. If it was a human, then... someone of El's calibre could keep undead moving for almost an infinite amount of time - even high class undead, since those had an independent power source. As for lower class necromancers, they would probably last a couple of days.
Meanwhile, Yin Mei calculated the amount of time it would take them to reach the center of the city. It would take more effort than just defending the ruined church... But they could probably do it before the sun came up.
The question was whether it was worth it.
"Let's go to the city center." Yin Mei said. She was curious just where these undead were coming from after all. For undead to be spawning at a rate like this, it was definitely abnormal. There must be something that was acting as a catalyst, be it a person or item or whatnot.
"Alright," Lana and Lang immediately nodded, going to inform the rest of the party. They didn't question her, or think about how dangerous it would be. They had all already gone through fire and water together, even taking down a dragon - compared to that, just how dangerous could this be?
The party quickly geared up, grabbing their weapons and putting on their armor with smooth and quick actions. Not even Alex was any different - although he was still considered a rookie, he had to have some amount of skill to have been able to enter the White Bird party.
"Wha- you guys are going to the center of the city?" Kai exclaimed, as Yin Mei politely informed him of their course of action. Although it was unnecessary, she thought that it was better than not saying anything at all.
"Yes. We're going to see what the cause of the undead are. Since they are originating from the city center, we've decided to go there." Yin Mei replied, thanking Ryan as he came up to hand her her sword. She strapped it to her back, so that it was horizontal over her lower waist.
"It's too dangerous!" Kai said, frowning. He didn't like the White Birds that much, but that didn't mean he could let them waltz off to their deaths like this.
"Dangerous? Haha! Who do you think you're talking to?" Yin Mei said, laughing heartily. She and her group gathered up, and she burned a stack of scrolls, tens of light balls popping up and bobbing up and down around the group before they went off into the darkness. Flashes of light, and the sounds of battle could be heard, but even that quickly disappeared under the thick blanket of shadows that cloaked the city.
Kai grit his teeth, before fairly shouting, "We're going after them!"
"But, captain-" A priest started to protest, but was silenced by Kai's stern glare. In the end, the members of the church didn't say anything. Actually, they knew the skill of the White Bird party couldn't be looked down upon, and more people were always welcomed. Compared to defending this location alone, though they had the confidence to do it well, it would still be better to stick with the other group. In that way, they could also lessen their conscience. In the end, the White Bird party consisted of commoners, and it was their duty to protect the common people.
They quickly got ready, grabbing all their things and taking down the barrier, before journeying into the darkness, following the direction that the other group had gone in.
"It's too difficult to see in this darkness!" Lilith complained, as she flicked her hand, summoning several icicles in the air that flew out randomly. She couldn't tell if she had hit anything, but those icicles would freeze the area around them when they hit the ground, so at the least, they should be able to catch some undead and stop them in their tracks.
Lana summoned several balls of fire, which lit up the area along their path as they streaked through the air, illuminating several rotting faces and skulls.
"Gross, gross, gross!" Lana said, making a face as she saw this scene like straight out of a horror movie.
Yin Mei's face was impassive, as she had long grown used to the faces of rotting corpses and undead - man, living in a zombie apocalypse really did wonders to a person's mentality. She used to be disgusted at every little thing, but now she could look at this scene without even blinking a single eye.
"In terms of a scale of one to ten, I would place undead at a three. C*ckroaches would be a seven." Yin Mei said with a thoughtful expression, even as she held her sword up, shooting a spell using the blade like a magic staff, slicing the approaching zombies to pieces.
"How can bugs compare to rotting corpses? Leader, aren't your standards too messed up?" Arthur said, as he threw several blades into the head of the zombie in front of him.
"? My standards are perfectly normal, aren't they?" Yin Mei asked, her expression truly clueless, unable to recognize how she was weird.
"No, no, no, your standards are definitely too strange," Lana said. Though she didn't like bugs either, at least they weren't animated corpses. Look at these things! They had intestines and organs hanging out here and there, and most importantly, smelled disgusting.
"If you say so," Yin Mei said, but still thought that her standards were perfectly normal. The group made good progress, making sure that they never got completely surrounded by a large horde of undead. The further they went, the more undead there were.
Lilith and Lana began using stronger and strong AOE spells, annihilating great numbers of them at once.
Yin Mei didn't, in case it would draw the eyes of the church members, that she could feel were gaining on them. But, she did replenish Lilith's and Lana's mana so that they wouldn't have to use potions.
Yes, as long as Yin Mei was present, no one could die, no one could tire, and no one could run out of mana. In that way, they were similar to the undead - they were soldiers that could continue fighting for as long as necessary.
Several hours later, they finally reached the center of the city, walking up the steps to the shrine that was the source of the undead. A strong death aura hung around it, but it slowly dissipated, and the undead they had been battling all fell away, before scattering to ashes.
"Oh... the sun has risen." Yin Mei said, turning her head to gaze at the rays of light as they spilled over the horizon. "It's a nice dawn."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone