It was extremely rare for the god of undeath to call out directly to talented heroes, form a contract with them, and create high-level undead, as had happened with Mary and Blood. However, due to the pervasive nature of the gods’ protection, it was nothing special for a person who died with lingering regrets to rise again as one of the undead, and it could happen for any number of reasons, including enmity, confusion, or simply death coming too suddenly to realize or accept.
“There’s no need to give the guys back in the village an eyeful of their undead parents, siblings, and children. We should probably finish ’em off quick if we can.”
I nodded in agreement. “I have to return them to samsara before they start wandering and become lost.”
I only needed to locate them, and I could return them to samsara with the god of the flame’s benediction. But I couldn’t do anything about lost souls that I had no way of finding. I had to act before that happened.
“But do we have a chance against the demons in the village?” Menel asked. “If there’s a whole pack of them, and they’ve got beasts as well...”
“Yeah.”
Well... Yeah, I thought. I don’t think that part’s going to be a problem, Menel. After all, I’d been mowing down undead demons day after day under that city of the dead, so by now—
“I’m used to it.”
Chapter 2
The following morning, after spending the night under their hospitality, I was seen off by Tom, John, and the other villagers, and left to take the village back from the demons.
Guided by Menel, I made my way northeast. After a reasonable distance, I met a branch of the wide river, took some stepping stones across it, and moved on through the forest. Treading on dead leaves and clambering over the mossy trunks of fallen trees, I followed after Menel with an appropriate level of caution.
I’d gotten surprisingly used to following his trail. These woods had such bad visibility I was close to losing my bearings, but Menel pressed forward without hesitation. From time to time, he called to the fairies, and the thickets and bushes moved themselves out of his way.
Blood once told me to never get in a fight with an elf in a forest, and now I understood clearly why: the odds were good that you wouldn’t even get a “fight”; you’d just be toyed with and killed.
Taking periodic breaks, we advanced through the forest quite quickly.
“We’ll camp here,” the half-elf said.
The sun had started to set. We’d been told that it was about a day to the neighboring village, so our destination was probably very close.
“‘People of green, grant me a night’s shelter. A bed of grass and roof of trees, and tolerance for a sudden guest.’” He incanted a spell to call the fairies, and the trees around us bent into a dome. Soft grass grew at our feet, and bushes crowded together on the outside to protect us.
“Wh-Whoa, incredible!” It was worthy of being called a tent of trees. As elementalist techniques went, that had to be pretty difficult, didn’t it?
“It’s not that impressive. Go to sleep.”
“Don’t we need someone on watch?”
“We’ll leave that to the fairies dwelling in the trees. If anything happens, they’ll make a fuss and wake us up.”
The amount of effort I’d had to go through to camp up until now seemed ridiculous.
Menel was a skilled hunter and expert elementalist. As an enemy he was frightening, but as an ally, he was a great asset. Now if only he’d open up to me a little more...
“Hmph.” There he went again.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“I’m what you call ill-bred, I guess. I don’t like guys like you who look like they had a cushy upbringing. I’ll repay my debts, and I’ll do my job properly, but that’s as far as it goes.”
So unapproachable, I thought.
“We’ll be at the village tomorrow morning. I’m guiding you and that’s all. I don’t plan on helping you beat up demons.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Menel had a sullen look on his face. We’d had the fortune to meet, and although we’d crossed swords, I wanted us to get along. But I wasn’t having an easy time of it.
A while after we both went silent, Menel was lazily gazing in the direction we’d be heading tomorrow. After seeing the painful look in his eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to intrude and ask about the relationship he’d had with the people of that village.
We lay there in silence on the soft bed of grass, and I slowly fell asleep. The magical awning of greenery felt very comforting.
The following morning, a thick fog filled the frigid air; maybe it was because we were next to a river. The way that milk-white mist drifted slowly between the trees felt as if I had wandered into a place not of this world.
As I walked onwards following Menel’s lead, the foundations of an ancient stone wall came into view.
“A ruin?”
“Yeah. Nearby.”
Due to factors like the availability of water and transport, the places most suitable for establishing a settlement weren’t that much different now than they’d been in the past. And if there was an ancient ruin nearby, it could be taken apart and its stones repurposed. It was an intelligent way of building a village.
Archaeologists from my previous world would probably have deplored dismantling a ruin, but fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), there was no one in this period of history who would bemoan the loss.
We steadily approached the village, keeping ourselves hidden behind the ruin’s old stone walls and crumbling buildings. I could hear several creatures moving.
“They’re about,” Menel said quietly.
I nodded.
“I’ll scout. Wait there,” he said, and moved forward with completely silent footsteps. He had perfected this to a level that would put most experienced scouts to shame.
Blood had taught me the technicals of scouting to a certain extent, but judging by this, yeah, Menel was probably better than I was. As a rule, the trained are better than the untrained in any field. That was just obvious.
Spear in hand, I waited in the shadow of one of the ruin’s walls. After a short while, Menel returned.
“They’re doing some weird ritual in the remains of the temple just outside the village.”
“What’s the temple like? What kind of demons are they?”
“The temple’s something like this.” Menel started drawing the layout on the ground with a stick. “There’s no ceiling anymore, and the walls have collapsed in a bunch of places. They’ve taken up position in the middle here performing their ritual. Two Commanders, faces like lizards. What were they called again...?”
“Vraskuses? With scales and a spiked tail?”
“Yeah, that sounds right.”
I’d fought a vraskus back when I first obtained Pale Moon, the spear I was holding. So, there were two of those, and—
“What else?”
“A few Soldiers roaming outside the temple. I managed to spot one beast inside, but there might have been more.”
“Any details on the beast?”
“Its face looked kind of like a person’s. It had a body like a lion, bat-like wings, and a body as big as a horse.”
“That’s a manticore.”
Beasts with dangerous spiked tails. I’d heard from Blood that they were “a little dangerous”—Blood’s “a little” sometimes being my “reasonably” or “considerably”—so I’d have to brace myself.
Menel was looking at me with a bemused expression.