Maxi felt his skin crawl.
Frozen in place, she tried to make sense of the horrifying sight before her.
Nearly half of the wall surrounding the village was in ruins, and dying flames still flickered among the charred debris.
Without thinking, she spurred her horse towards the village, only to be blocked by Ulyseon.
"There is still smoke, my lady!
The attack was probably recent.
The enemy may be lurking nearby."
“B-But… if the attack was recent… there could be survivors.”
A sudden gust made Maxi back his horse.
His stomach turned as the acrid smell of smoke filled his lungs.
Above the ash-black village, pure white snow swirled along with winds that seemed to blow stronger.
Kuahel Leon trotted his warhorse forward, breaking his silent examination of the nightmarish scene.
He seemed surprisingly calm.
"Vinther, search the area.
The enemy may have hidden nearby.
Cedric, you will come with me.
As Lady Calypse pointed out, there may be survivors."
Kuahel glanced at Maxi before turning to Calto.
“How many of you can use tracking spells?”
“That would be all our wind and earth mages,” Calto replied, his voice grave.
Before the commander could even request it, Calto walked over to a small, fat mage named Nevin.
"Take Sigrew's mages to help with reconnaissance.
The others will follow Sir Kuahel to the village."
“We must send a messenger to the nearest city immediately,” Ulyseon interjected.
"If they managed to level a village that size, we're probably dealing with a large horde of monsters.
We should request reinforcements."
Kuahel Leon stared at Ulyseon with an ice-cold gaze, irritated that someone other than the Pope had the nerve to give him orders.
He frowned, but soon relented.
"Harman!
Take Luke and Abett with you.
Go west, inform Viscount Sevron about what happened and ask him for help.
Warn the villages on the way to prepare for a possible attack as well."
“Yes, Commander!”
The dark-skinned knight left like the wind alongside two others.
Maxi wondered if it was wise to only send a group of three.
She watched them leave, a look of concern on her face, as Kuahel Leon began to descend the hill with the remaining Temple knights.
The mages quickly followed them towards the devastated village.
“Stay close to me, my lady,” said Ulyseon, keeping a watchful eye around them.
Maxi nodded and tried to ride as close to him as possible.
At the same time, she summoned her mana in case she needed to cast a barrier at any time.
The Temple Knights climbed over the debris of the fallen wall first and entered the village.
A mixture of fear and nervousness took over Maxi, making her forget about the cold.
As she led Rem through the blackened land, she cautiously swept her eyes across the houses reduced to rubble.
There was an arched stone entrance ahead, miraculously intact.
They passed beneath it and found themselves in a desolate street filled with burning wood.
As they rode, she realized with horror that the dark mounds scattered across the village were the charred remains of its inhabitants.
Forcing herself to suppress the urge to scream, she stopped Rem.
The horrible sight made his stomach turn.
“Could you use a tracking spell to look for survivors?” Kuahel Leon asked in an oddly calm voice.
When Maxi met his gaze, the detachment in his eyes seemed to calm his raging emotions.
She braced herself, trying to stop her legs from shaking, and dismounted.
"A-Anette...
you look for the west.
I'll take the east."
“Right.”
“I'm going to cover the area around that church,” Armin said brusquely before walking towards the wreckage of a building with only one wall standing.
Tugging on Rem's reins, Maxi cautiously advanced through the still-smoldering wreckage.
When he reached a suitable location, he began the tracking spell.
It was a spell that essentially worked as a temporary contract between the caster and a gnome, an earth spirit.
This would allow the caster to obtain information within a set distance.As soon as a gnome accepted his request, his mana path connected to the mana flowing beneath the ground.
She felt her senses sharpen.
Veins of mana spread out like a tightly knit web, allowing it to sense almost everything that touched the ground.
However, no matter how hard he looked, he could not find any trace of human life.
Maxi reluctantly stopped the spell.
“T-There are no survivors… in this area.”
Anette approached with her horse and said darkly: “It’s the same there.”
Surrounded by hope, Maxi looked at Armin, who was walking down the hill.
He shook his head with a grim expression.
"We searched the entire village, but found no survivors.
The looters also appear to have left."
Armin looked gravely at Calto Serbel and Kuahel Leon.
“What do you plan to do now?”
As the de facto leader of this expedition, the commander of the Temple Knights was the one who responded.
He examined the remains grimly.
"We cannot leave.
We must take measures to purify the dead, or this place will soon be filled with the undead."
“Then we’ll have to camp here tonight,” Calto replied calmly.
Fear clouded Maxi's face.
The thought of spending a cold, dark winter night amidst a horrible pile of burned corpses made her shiver.
Still, she was fully aware that they had no other choice.
The group quickly lit fires throughout the village and began to gather the dead.
Snow was still falling from the sky, and darkness was beginning to take over.
Despite being exhausted from a full day of travel, everyone worked without a moment's rest.
The mages managed to find a church that was still standing and, after sweeping away the ashes, they pitched their tents inside it.
Some even prepared a makeshift stable inside a stone structure next to the church.
Meanwhile, the Temple Knights purified the gathered bodies and buried them once they performed the ritual.
Despite their efforts, the enormous number of victims made it impossible to gather the dead before sunset.
When night finally came, they were forced to stop the purification and gather inside the ruined church to rest.
The knights returning from reconnaissance entered, their faces grim.
“It appears the looters have escaped to the north.”
The wizards who accompanied the knights added: "From the traces we found in the forest, we suspect it was a horde of red goblins.
It is winter, and early.
They probably came to plunder food."
Maxi, who was hunched over by the fire in a stupor of shock and fatigue, muttered, "But… but what about the burned sheep on the east side?
Cows, pigs, and horses, all burned alive too.
If it was food they wanted… why did they do that?"
“The carnage probably drove them into a frenzy,” replied Miriam dismissively.
"Monsters are no better than animals.
You cannot expect logic from them.
They are only capable of destruction, defecation, gluttony and procreation."
Maxi wanted to refute Miriam's statement.
Her experience in war three years ago had taught her how cunning and manipulative the monsters of the Ayin race could be.
However, she was too tired to argue, so she simply pressed her lips together and pulled her blanket over her head in response.
During this entire exchange, Ulyseon was sitting on a nearby railing that gave him a clear view outside.
He addressed Maxi while polishing his sword.
“I will be on guard, my lady, so please try to sleep.”
Maxi didn't protest and lay down in a straw nest.
She was worried that she wouldn't be able to sleep in the middle of what was essentially a giant cemetery.
This worry was quickly overridden by the tiredness that overcame her, and soon she found herself sleeping as soundly as the dead.
There was no telling how long she slept, but eventually she was awakened by a jolt.
When he managed to open his dry eyes, it took a moment for his blurry vision to regain focus.
Ulyseon's pale face came into focus.
Maxi propped herself up on her elbow, a strange feeling of déjà vu washing over her.
Ulyseon shook her by the shoulders.
"Wake up, my lady!
Monsters!
We are surrounded!"
“W-What?”Instantly awake, Maxi got up.
The other mages also stood up, putting on boots and picking up defensive weapons.
Maxi quickly strapped on his protective gear and ran out of the building, only to be met with a chilling sight.
The sea of charred bodies on the land had risen and was now staggering towards them.
Maxi held back a scream.
“Ghouls…”
In just one night, the corpses that they failed to purify had turned into these monsters.
Faced with hundreds of glowing red eyes blinking in the dark, Maxi found herself trembling.
Calto ran to her.
He shouted, "Move the horses!
Launch a barrier immediately!"
Recovering herself, she ran to the makeshift stable and led the horses out.
Sixty knights were already positioned at the base of the hill, mercilessly cutting down the ghouls that approached them like a swarm of ants.