Chapter 554: Ring of Darkness, Chasing Embers

Southern Britain.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two blurry figures, one chasing and the other fleeing, were like a passing strong wind, crossing the wilderness, penetrating the dense forest, crossing the mountain stream, and startling countless birds and beasts along the way.

After an unknown amount of time of stalemate, the pursuer took the lead in extending an olive branch:

"How about we take a truce first?"

"OK."

The fugitive agreed readily.

However, the speed of both sides not only did not slow down, but became faster.

"We've already said we're going to cease fire, why are you running?"

"Since we are going to stop fighting, why is the concentration of magic factor around you still increasing?"

"It's because you were secretly chanting fairy language!"

"Aren't you also drawing runes on your back?"

The master and disciple in mid-air looked at each other quietly, revealing an awkward but polite smile.

Since they agreed to learn from each other by casting spells on each other and removing spells from each other, Lorne and Vivian, the half-time master and apprentice with their own ulterior motives, began round after round of competition.

At first, both sides won and lost alternately.

Vivian enjoyed it very much because she not only learned something but also played a little trick on her teacher.

But as time went on, she gradually had more losses than wins, and in the end she almost became a guinea pig for the other party to experiment with different spells.

The reason for this was that his teacher seemed to be very knowledgeable, mastering a variety of spell systems. With all his wonderful ideas, he could always create all kinds of curses and prohibitions that made people's eyes go dark.

——For example, beast transformation, petrification, aphasia, falling down at the touch of a finger, compulsory discipline... etc.

On the contrary, although Vivian herself was an expert in ogam and fairy spells, her methods were limited. After repeated casting of spells, her existing spells had almost been completely understood and cracked by her teacher.

As one gained strength, the other lost. Naturally, Vivian gradually lost to her teacher.

In games, winning and losing can stimulate the motivation to continue playing.

If she came to the table just to be beaten, that was a masochist's fetish, and she had no interest in it.

After being severely beaten, Vivian decisively stopped the teaching game of casting and removing curses.

However, the game is easy to start but hard to end.

Lorne is trying to use all kinds of extreme pressure to force out Vivian's practical level and various hidden methods to prevent this good student from "backstabbing" in the future. How could he agree to stop?

Seeing that her request was in vain, Vivian turned around and ran away, while Lorne chased after her.

So, the master and disciple crossed most of Cornwall.

"That's pretty boring."

“I think so too.”

"Why don't you just stop?"

"Count one, two, three, let's do it together."

"good!"

Luo En nodded confidently, but secretly raised his hand and uttered a number.

“3!”

“Buzz!”

At the same time, a bright purple-red beam of magic power broke through the air and hit the curse bullet thrown by Loen.

Accompanied by a loud explosion, the master and disciple looked at each other awkwardly.

Another car crash...

This old liar really doesn't tell the truth!

While Vivian was denouncing her teacher Merlin's unscrupulous behavior in her heart, she suddenly had an idea. She took advantage of the aftermath of the explosion and transformed herself into flying petals, which were carried by the breeze and scattered towards the town below.

The game of casting and removing spells requires a relatively quiet environment. Once entering a town, there are many people around, and even if the teacher is itching to do something, it is not a good idea to do it in public.

Otherwise, she would try to shout "beast" in public.

However, as soon as Vivian landed, the malicious smile on her face froze.

It's clearly daytime, but it's eerily quiet here.

The whole city seemed dead.

Something happened?

Lorne, who landed in the town a little later, also noticed something was wrong. He looked at Vivian, and together they pushed open the door of a house and walked in.

Only gray embers remained of the firewood in the stove, but the bottom of the pot was still warm.

The family of three were dining at the table, all lying motionless on the table, with half-eaten boiled vegetables, soup and bread on their plates.

Loen stepped forward, helped the three people up, and after checking them carefully, he frowned deeply.

The heart stopped beating, the pupils dilated, and the body showed signs of mild rigor mortis. It was too late to save him.

"Look somewhere else!"

Vivian nodded and quickly opened the doors of several other houses.

The results were surprisingly consistent.

The townspeople were all lying on the ground, without any vital signs, having died in their homes in strange ways.

"The fire was still warm and the food was untouched. Judging from the situation at the scene, it must have happened last night. There was no sign of resistance at all. It seemed as if they were killed in an instant..."

Luo En's brows were furrowed, and he was puzzled.

It's so weird.

How could something so quietly massacre an entire town of over a thousand people in just one night?

"It's the Wild Hunt..."

Vivian stood up from in front of a corpse, pinching a wisp of gray mist with her fingertips.

"Those monsters that crawled out of the ground broke into the town and plundered the souls of the living."

Luo En was a little puzzled when he heard this:

"Don't the Tuatha de Danu care about these undead spirits causing trouble?"

"That has to be managed."

Vivian answered helplessly and casually explained the whole story to Lorne.

Due to several [great invasions] and endless wars, countless gods and monsters died. The entire Celtic Age of Gods was almost a huge [cemetery], with the corpses of powerful creatures buried everywhere.

In addition, in the fairyland known as the "other world" in the Celtic Age of Gods, there is a lack of a "hades" with clear functions, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of managing the undead.

Therefore, the Celtic Age of Gods became a breeding ground for the Wild Hunt. Once the power of death in the earth veins accumulated to a certain level, a large number of undead would be awakened, spontaneously forming a Wild Hunt army, plundering the vitality and souls of the living.

Faced with such irregular disasters, the internally divided Tuatha de Danu gods were powerless and often chose to deal with their own problems, leaving only the troubles within their territories.

In a remote and wild place like Cornwall, no main god is willing to help, so they can only let the undead plunder the vitality and souls of the living, restore the balance between life and death, and automatically return underground.

And this is indeed the case.

Loen remembered that the King of the Wild Hunt in Celtic mythology had different people in charge in different regions.

The Irish region is ruled by the god of war Nuada, the Scottish region is ruled by Scathach, the queen of the Kingdom of Shadows, the Welsh region is ruled by a demigod named Gwyn, and the English region is ruled by the legendary King Arthur.

But now, King Arthur has not yet been born, and naturally there is no one responsible for Cornwall, which belongs to England, to take this responsibility.

Looking at the town that had turned into a dead city, Vivian was a little distressed: "What should I do now?"

Luo En sighed and said, "The dead are the most important. Let's deal with the bodies first to prevent the spread of diseases nearby."

Vivian nodded in agreement and prepared to move the bodies to the square for collective burning.

However, just as she cast a spell to lift up a dead person, a black flame-like halo suddenly lit up on the corpse, and the bluish-white arm on the right side suddenly stretched straight and grabbed her ankle unexpectedly.

Vivian's face changed, and a purple-red arc of light shot out from her wand, cutting off the arm that was grabbing her.

But even after it fell to the ground, the arm continued to crawl towards Vivian's feet like a stiff but undead centipede.

At the same time, the male owner of the house who was missing an arm slowly got up from the ground. With only the whites of his eyes left, he stared at the creature in front of him, and a low growl like a wild beast broke out of his mouth.

“Get out of the way!”

A beam of golden flame shot forward, brushed past Vivian's hair, and landed on the armless male resident.

Suddenly, a blazing flame ignited, burning the stiff and strange figure to ashes.

The crisis was resolved and Vivian breathed a sigh of relief.

Lorne walked in, frowned and asked:

"What happened? Aren't they dead?"

"I don't know either. Just now, a dark aura suddenly appeared on the corpse. Then, he came back to life and attacked me."

Vivian gritted her teeth in displeasure and kicked the pool of ashes on the ground to vent her anger.

Luo En hesitated for a moment and pointed behind him:

"Is the dark halo you mentioned this kind of..."

Vivian looked in the direction of the sound and saw black beams of light rising from the square one after another. Dozens of townspeople with strange blue-black lines on their skin climbed out of the pile of corpses, looking at the two outsiders in front of the door with pale and gloomy eyes.

A strong sense of malice came over me, filled with curses from the dead on the living and from the rot on the living.

“Roar, roar, roar!”

At the same time, beast-like roars sounded one after another, and similar black lights came from all over the town.

Immediately afterwards, smoke and dust rose, houses collapsed, and figures shrouded in dark air broke through the doors and gathered towards the center of the square like a tide.

Resurrection from the dead?

No, these are just a group of monsters that were transformed by some evil force after death and are craving for flesh and vitality!

The master and the disciple looked at each other, and without saying anything, they recited the divine words at the same time.

As the last syllable fell, two magic arrays were formed, covering the entire town from the sky and the ground respectively. Massive amounts of magic factors rushed into them, gathering into meteorite-sized fireballs that smashed into the ground one after another, leaving no room for the corpses and monsters in them to move.

Faced with the raging flames, the figures with dark halos on their heads did not retreat but advanced, rushing madly towards the direction of the flames emitting light and heat and the breath of life, like moths flying into a flame.

Or, chasing the embers of a fire...

The flames burned for several hours, and the entire town was burned to ashes. All the corpses and monsters were strangled by the two large ritual spells and turned into ashes.

As the sun sets in the west, the master and disciple stand on the charred earth and pray simply for these unfortunate residents, hoping to soothe their souls and reduce their resentment.

After doing all this, the two of them set out again on the journey to the North.

However, not long after they walked, they heard a blazing fire rising from a town in the distance, and screams, cries, roars, and roars echoed across the wilderness.

(End of this chapter)