stjorthotic Chapter 129 The Mysterious Village
Chapter 129 The Mysterious Village
Chapter 129 The Mysterious Village
"There's no one left."
Outside the Sussas-style village, Kane and his two companions gazed at the village entrance. He frowned, but felt little regret.
Now that the mercenaries have chosen to part ways with him, he has no reason to protect them anymore.
The skinny mercenary frowned, dismounted, and squatted down, staring at the cart tracks on the ground. "Judging from the tracks, they must have entered the village."
Kane nodded.
Although the Susas ballista on the wooden cart was not as thick and heavy as the Nord crossbow, it was still quite heavy, and the wheel tracks it left were very clear.
But once the tire tracks entered the village, they gradually faded away—there was only one possibility.
He looked up into the village, his expression grave, then turned to Risa and asked, "Can you sense anything?"
Risa shook her head, her brows furrowed: "To kill a squad of professional mercenaries, I can do it in my dreams if they are fast asleep at night."
But to make them disappear so cleanly, without leaving a trace, is not so easy.
She looked at Kane, her tone becoming more serious, "Most likely, only those special things can do that."
Kane nodded.
Risa is a sleep demon, considered one of the weaker dream demons.
But she was, after all, a demon, and her knowledge far surpassed his, who had only read "The Ritual of the Abyss Worship".
He is even more knowledgeable than many scholars and spellcasters who study demons in the material plane.
The special thing she mentioned was a demon. If it could make her so wary, then the other party must be extraordinary.
After listening to their conversation, the skinny mercenary looked at Risa with astonishment in his eyes.
He had assumed that this ordinary-looking half-elf civilian was just a temporary figurehead for the boss, but he never expected her to say that she could kill an entire mercenary squad, and the boss did not refute her.
His lips twitched, and a sense of apprehension suddenly arose in his heart. However, he couldn't care less about being surprised at the moment and looked at Kane, asking, "Boss, what about them—"
The "they" he referred to were the fate of that group of mercenaries.
Kane shook his head.
In his view, if attacked by demons, those mercenaries would have no chance of survival.
But setting fire to the village to force out the enemy inside would be too inhumane—after all, there might still be prisoners alive.
After a moment's thought, Kane said to the two men, "You two retreat further away and wait for me outside the village with my horse."
He then looked at Risa and said in a deep voice, "If you dare to run away, your entire salary for this month will be deducted."
Risa frowned and retorted stubbornly, "Who cares about your little bit of money?"
While saying this, his eyes unconsciously drifted elsewhere.
Kane found it somewhat amusing. Dream demons are easily influenced by people's dreams, and this Sleep Demon had probably woven too many get-rich-quick dreams for people in Twin Harbor, even corrupting its very nature.
Although she still values the soul and the body, her greedy nature is rare among demons; such a temperament is probably only found in dragons.
However, this is actually a good thing; the more weaknesses a person has, the easier it is to exploit them.
Kane then instructed the skinny mercenary, "Keep a close eye on her and don't let her get away." With that, he started walking towards the village.
The skinny mercenary's hands trembled uncontrollably as he listened.
Send him to keep an eye on a ruthless character who could easily wipe out a whole squad of mercenaries? Risa merely glanced at him indifferently and curled the corners of her lips into a smile.
Kane ignored the thoughts of the two behind him and walked straight into the village, his mind preoccupied with figuring out the demon's intentions.
In his view, if the demon was after Risa, he wouldn't care about the mercenary group at all; he would either chase the three of them to Twin Harbor or ambush them on the way.
But instead of attacking, it attacked the mercenary team that was lagging behind. Why was that?
Could it be the force behind the Bloodline Purification Society? But could they be colluding with the Demon Cult?
Kane's mind raced with various possibilities, but he didn't stop walking, continuing deeper into the village.
The village was small, with only a dozen or so Sussac-style houses, but the ground was unusually clean, except for some sparse...
Broken straw, nothing else.
When he reached the middle of the village, he suddenly stopped and kicked open a door.
Inside the room, a thin, half-elf in a robe was trembling as he looked at him, calling out timidly, "Master—"
Kane looked at the half-elf, his brow furrowed. "Where are they?"
"They—they've all melted away." The half-elf looked up, his face contorted with terror, repeating the words over and over.
They've all melted.
"Melting?" Kane frowned, his first thought being the Balrog.
But after a moment's thought, he immediately rejected the idea.
A powerful Balor Flame Demon could even destroy the kingdom of Susas where he resides.
The current material plane simply does not have enough ether to create either professionals capable of fighting against such a demon, nor does it possess the conditions for such a demon to descend.
"Come with me and take a look," Kane said in a deep voice, staring at the thin half-elf.
The skinny half-elf trembled for a long time, then gritted his teeth and replied, "Okay."
The two left the house and went to check each room in turn.
After inspecting the last room, Kane's brow furrowed even more—though some messy traces could be seen on the floor, the fireplace still held the warmth of a fire.
But the prisoners were gone, the people were gone, and even the wooden cart carrying the ballista had vanished without a trace.
Ballista —
Kane's eyes flickered slightly as he quickly calculated in his mind, already forming a guess.
He didn't say anything, but as he reached the well, he suddenly sighed softly, "Aren't you going to come out and make a move?"
The skinny half-elf looked terrified: "Boss, what are you talking about?"
"The entire mercenary team died, and you're the only one who survived. That's too much of a coincidence."
Kane stared intently at him.
The skinny half-elf stumbled back two steps, hurriedly explaining, "Boss, you're overthinking it."
"Perhaps," Kane said calmly, his gaze still fixed on him. "Then swear by the River Styx that you only survived by chance, and I will believe you."
He had a pretty good idea that the half-elf was suspicious, but he had no concrete evidence. So the best way was to have him swear an oath on the River Styx.
Kane's attention was entirely focused on the thin half-elf, and he didn't notice that a blade suddenly emerged from the crack in the bricks of the well behind him.
The blade twisted and extended at an eerie angle, its surface gleaming with a cold, sharp light, carrying a sticky, fishy smell, as it silently pierced his back.
Just as the blade was about to pierce Kane's back, he suddenly lunged to the right and swung the knife backhand with his left hand.
With a crisp clang, the scimitar barely blocked the blade, and the point of impact sent up fine wax shavings, accompanied by a sizzling melting sound.
But in the blink of an eye, the blade vanished into thin air.
Kane turned his head sharply, his gaze fixed on the thin half-elf.
At this moment, he wore a strange smile, showing no trace of his previous timidity and weakness.
His cheeks were an unnatural pale white, covered with a faint waxy sheen, and only his eyes were hidden in shadow, devoid of any human warmth.
An almost inaudible strange sound escaped from his throat, accompanied by the sound of sticky wax dripping down.
"The Molten Wax Demon".
Kane stared at the half-elf before him and muttered the words slowly and deliberately.