Fulhala Village is located on the top of a mountain and is not a prosperous village.
It was precisely because of its primitiveness, harsh environment and ease in training warriors that it was chosen as the place for the Svablod sect to build its temple.
After being attacked by the Skellige people, the village of Fulhala has now become a complete ruin. There are no intact walls in the village, only ruins.
Against the gray-black sky, the shadow of the ruined village was covering the dusk. The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the barren ground, rendering it in the hard cracks. The only thing that made people feel vitality and life was the sound of the wind that fell silently between the cliffs.
However, in the eyes of the demon hunter, this desolate ruin showed something else.
Three pairs of amber eyes and one pair of dark gold eyes sparkled.
All pheromones in the surrounding environment are transformed into visible visual factors through synaesthesia and presented to everyone.
It was clearly just a ruin, but Lan and his party seemed to see people passing by frequently—
"It smells like bad beer, half-cooked barbecue, and bad breath." Kolgrim kicked at the pile of bonfires that were now only fragments. "It should be a homeless person looking for shelter."
"There's a pine scent, malt bread, and the dry firewood on the ground has traces of being chopped by an axe." Cohen touched a step that was obviously cleaner than the surroundings. "It's the mountain people who passed by here to rest."
"But these are not our goals," Lan concluded, shaking his head.
Lann's discoveries were few and far between. When it came to these reconnaissance methods, he was really not as good as these old demon hunters who had been accustomed to hunting alone for decades.
"Ged, did you find anything?"
Lan's voice went out, but there was no response.
From a distance, he saw the bear-like man and the white wolf huddled together, looking at a dark patch of ground.
Seeing that they seemed to have discovered something, Lan also moved over.
"This is blood." Geralt pointed at the black marks on the ground. "It's been a few days. There must have been more than one person here at the time. A fight broke out."
Following Geralt's explanation, Gerd picked up a piece of cloth from the ground. "This is wolf-tanned leather. It's very tough, and even hard to cut with a knife. Although it's not as good as specially processed leather armor, it's not something that can be torn apart easily."
Lan took it thoughtfully, and looked around with his dark golden eyes: "But it does look torn apart, and if it is really that strong, there is only one explanation-"
"It's a wild beast, or a monster with sharp claws like a ghoul."
Gerd took a deep breath, looked at the red information factors of varying shades around him, and added: "But there is no body odor of any beasts around - unless this is a beast that pays special attention to cleanliness, do you have any idea?"
The answer is obvious.
Lann showed an excited look and said decisively: "Vilka Berserker!"
When Lann tried to stop the giant bears at the banquet, he had a feeling that the giant bears transformed from berserkers were much cleaner than real wild bears.
After all, no matter how unkempt a person is, he is still sloppier than a beast that has no concept of "washing up". This is the biggest difference between a berserker and a real wild bear.
And Gerd, who personally killed a giant bear on the scene at that time, obviously understood this.
He quickly looked around for any useful information.
"There was more than one person at the scene. A small battle broke out here. But the traces of the battle were very restrained, with only a small amount... well, a medium amount of blood."
Gede analyzed, "No one died, at least not here on the spot. Based on the traces here, perhaps we can find the people who were fighting against the Velka Berserker at that time."
This analysis makes a lot of sense.
The demon hunters immediately gathered together and began to record the pheromones nearby.
"There are signs of someone escaping here." Kolgrim suddenly made a new discovery and pointed in a direction, "Over there!"
The ground was covered with a thick layer of dust, but Lan's lion eyes could see dots of dark red light faintly marking a path on the ground.
A long time has passed and the trace is about to disappear, but there is no mistake - it is a trace of blood.
A vague figure suddenly appeared in front of Lann:
[He was a mountain dweller. He and his companions came here for unknown reasons, and unexpectedly encountered the berserkers of Vilka.
The human body turned into a giant bear in front of him, causing chaos. He was injured in the panic, so he abandoned his companions and fled, hoping to find some shelter in the ruins...]
Lan followed the transparent figure all the way forward until he saw him disappear into a building.
In front of you is the temple in the center of the village, built by the Vilkans for the evil god Svablo.
It was also the strongest building in the entire village, built by the strongest warriors using the strongest stones from the mountains, and that was why it was able to barely preserve its outline under the attack of the Skellige people, unlike other buildings in the village, which only had two or three walls left.
The target everyone is looking for is inside.
Just as Gerd was about to rush inside, he was suddenly grabbed by Lan.
"What's wrong?"
"For some reason, I am particularly sensitive to the existence of demons." Lann drew out the Sword of the Lady of the Lake with his right hand and made a seal with his left hand. "I have a companion from the Cat School who has similar abilities. I can introduce him to you later."
"You mean... there are demons in there?"
Upon hearing this, Gede immediately stopped and looked inside through the hole in the temple wall.
It was almost nightfall, and the only remaining light was barely enough for people to see the irregular stones scattered around the temple. The dilapidated stone pillars stood in place, but the roof they were needed to support had collapsed long ago.
In most places there is no light, only eerie darkness.
This really looks like a place where you might encounter evil spirits around the corner.
Lann squatted slightly, and was about to cast a sigil that would be enough to cover the entire temple; the demon hunters behind him also drew out various silver swords, preparing to smear their swords with the [Ghost Oil] that was specifically designed to restrain these imaginary monsters.
However, at this moment, the black magic scimitar behind Lann suddenly lit up.
The soul in the painting, wearing a plain Gothic black dress, appeared in the dilapidated village on the top of the mountain. She folded her hands in front of her belly, her face covered with a black veil, and her temperament was empty.
And her gentle voice seemed to be emitting a subtle fragrance: "Let me do it."
As soon as she finished speaking, bright emerald flames enveloped her body; the next second, something seemed to light up inside the ruined temple.
Behind Lan, Ged was stunned.
The bear-faction demon hunter covered his trembling badge, looked at the black magic scimitar behind Lann, then looked at the ruins of the temple, and didn't know where to point his hands.
"Just now... was that a demon spirit? No, it seems very different. No matter what kind of demon spirit it is, it won't be so beautiful."
"That's not a demon spirit." Lann pointed out the mistake in Gede's language seriously, "It's a 'soul', a beautiful existence that remains in the world due to a strong emotional connection. Don't compare her with the name of that demon."
Gede shrank his fingers: "Why are you so angry... I know it."
…
Lane was not worried about Alice's fighting ability at all.
Among all the current followers, Alice has the highest comprehensive basic attributes. She even possesses a large number of advanced skills, as well as the talent [Chun] that Lann still doesn't know how to use.
Especially now that the enemies inside are still demon spirits, Alice, who is the unique [Soul in the Painting], has to deal with them, and the suppression effect should not be too obvious.
However, even though Lan had already overestimated Alice in his heart, when he entered the temple, the scene inside still surprised him.
…
If someone could find a way to bury a flame inside nephrite, the light that would come out would be exactly like the light inside the temple right now.
Alice stood in the center of the temple hall, emitting a warm emerald light; four ghosts crawled at her feet, and lanterns burning with ghostly green flames were thrown aside by them.
At this moment, Lann could still vaguely sense the emotions from those evil spirits: there was fear, reverence, and a hint of unattainable longing and shame.
Alice faced these spirits with a dignified expression on her face, until she saw Lann come in, then she smiled faintly.
The emerald glow in the room also became softer.
She pointed to the demon with its head buried the lowest and said, "It is the islander you are looking for who was attacked by the giant bear - or rather, it 'used to be an islander'."
Lann looked around quickly. There were several skeletons in the corners of the temple. The freshest one matched the pheromone he remembered in his witcher senses.
That's it.
Alice continued, "Its memory is very vague. It only remembers coming to Fulhala Village with its companions. As for why and how it came, it can't remember anything."
"The clearest memory I have is of a giant bear. He then hurriedly ran here, hoping to hide temporarily, but was killed by the evil spirits here."
In addition to this demon spirit, there are four other demon spirits crawling beside Alice. Their colors are darker and they are obviously older.
They should be some priests who died in the attack of the Skellige people. Because of their resentment, they turned into evil spirits.
The islanders that Lan and his men were looking for apparently joined them after their death.
"This information is not enough for us to find the Wilka people." Lan pointed at the old spirits, "Since they used to be people from the temple, can we ask them? Maybe they can give us some more information?"
Alice shook her head. "The demons themselves are created by resentment and hatred that have not been dissipated. Even if they have any consciousness, it will not be very clear. Especially for those who have died for a long time, they are actually no different from wild beasts."
Alice stretched out her slender and misty finger and pointed at the demon spirit that the islander had transformed into. "It's the only one that can still barely communicate with humans now."
As if sensing Alice's distress, the demon on the ground suddenly moved.
Then, the dark green flame on its body became more solid.
Alice raised her chin slightly, closed her eyes and concentrated, as if listening to something. After a while, she said to Lan, "It said it forgot everything else, but it couldn't forget the village where it was born. We can go there and take a look. If its companions managed to escape, we might be able to find them and learn more about what happened."
Lann showed a surprised look: "What is the name of the village?"
"Aigro Village."
"What's the exact location?"
Alice closed her eyes.
After his beautiful eyebrows trembled a few times, the soul in the painting said helplessly: "It forgot..."
All right.
Lan let out a long sigh. At least now he had a new clue, which was much better than the previous state of being a headless fly.
Without further ado, he was about to ask his companions to leave, but when he turned around, he saw Alice's hesitant expression, and she seemed to be hesitant to speak.
"Lane." Alice bit her lip lightly, "I was wondering if we could help these demons...get rid of them?"
"Um?"
"I exist because of a special phenomenon that you demon hunters call 'Tsubaki'. What allows me to maintain my emotions and provides me with strength is 'love'."
"But even so, I lived a very painful life during those years when I was dormant in the world of the painting." Alice lowered her head and held the clothes on her chest with her right hand. "And these ordinary demons rely on 'resentment' and 'hatred' to maintain their existence... They are in pain, I can feel it."
"So you want to give them relief?"
Lann and the other demon hunters looked at each other and naturally would not refuse such a request.
Even if Alice didn't say anything, Lan himself planned to let these spirits go after he finished asking questions.
They used their demon hunter senses to search the temple for the skeletons of the dead spirits. Several of them had already turned into fragments, mixed with the gravel and dust on the ground, making it almost impossible to tell that they were once human forms.
Four hands simultaneously formed the [Igni Seal] and aimed at the skeleton on the ground.
Alice's expression changed.
Because in addition to the demon spirit incarnation of the islanders that Lann and others were looking for, the demon spirits that had been in the temple for a long time suddenly roared and turned into green flames and disappeared on the spot.
Judging from their posture, they are actually about to attack the witcher.
It is indeed painful for the demons to survive by relying on resentment and hatred, but the demons that have already lost their minds still have the survival instinct of monsters. When they saw the demon hunters trying to destroy them, they reacted instinctively.
Struggling in resentment while maintaining such pain, sinking into eternal damnation with no escape, this is a demon spirit.
Fortunately, everyone present today is a demon hunter.
As Alice looked at him for help, Lane made a strange gesture with his left hand, and the seal that he had prepared from the beginning was finally cast.
[Seal of Aden]!
The entire temple was shrouded in a magic circle formed by hourglass runes. As soon as the demons appeared in the air with green flames burning in them, they were immediately attached to the bodies by purple light.
What greeted them was the witcher's silver sword that had been prepared in advance.
A shrill howl sounded in the temple, and was carried by the cold wind from the top of the mountain to the cliffs and precipice, terrifying the mountain people who might be there.
The four demon hunters slowly put away their swords. Only powdered alchemical materials were left in front of them. If they were lucky, they could even see small pieces of mutation-inducing agents.
Lann turned around and looked at the last demon spirit crawling on the ground.
Even after Lann burned his skeleton to ashes, it did not get up, but just kept trembling, with the dark green flame on its body flickering.
"It spoke, Lan," Alice said suddenly. "It said: Thank you."
An emerald glow as bright as the sun shone from the ruins of a temple that had been deserted for so long.
If the mountain people passing by saw this scene and light, I wonder what new legends they would come up with.
…
After searching Fulhala village one last time with his fellow demon hunters and making sure there were no other missed clues, Lann and the others turned and went down the mountain.
Lann and his group moved very quickly. They had already completed the entire process of "climbing the mountain - searching - fighting - searching - descending the mountain", while the Skellige soldiers responsible for looking for clues about the Vilkans were still groping in the mountains.
Seeing the mobile troops stationed at the foot of the mountain from afar, Lann and his men were about to go back to share the intelligence they had obtained with East and his men, but they discovered that the number of troops at the foot of the mountain had increased without them knowing when.
Looking more closely, one can find that there are not only soldiers from the East and Kratz families present, but there is also another troop on the scene, holding shields of different styles engraved with family emblems.
"Look at that mark... Is it the Drummond family? The one leading it is... Madman Lugo?"
Lann was immediately amused. Did this guy still owe him a boxing match?
…
There is a bit of a feud between the Drummond family, to which the madman Lugo belongs, and the Clett family, to which Kratz belongs.
The cause of their conflict was a land dispute, and the cause of the matter was actually very obvious: from the perspective of normal events, the Drummond family, who came from outside and settled on Great Skellig without saying hello, was definitely at fault.
But they just don't have the right reason and are confident.
So the Clayt family was also particularly angry.
However, for the purpose of unity among the seven Skellige families, even a powerful family like the Clet family cannot rashly start a war against their "companions" and can only maintain a relatively restrained level of conflict.
In the end, this dispute lasted for several generations.
And the contradictions are intensifying.
For example, Kratz was preparing to go into the mountain with his men, but after knowing that the madman Lugo had actually reached the foot of the mountain, he directly handed over the command to his adjutant, and rushed over with three people to confront the madman Lugo face to face.
In the distance, Lane could hear the roar of the group.
…
"Get away, lunatic, you honorless thief! You are not welcome here!"
Kratz already had the axe in his hand.
"Every inch of Great Skellig Island belongs to the Drummond family. We are the ones who don't welcome you, Kratz!" The madman Lugo roared and drew his weapon, refusing to give in.
On the contrary, the family soldiers behind them were more restrained, just keeping their hands on the hilts of their swords, and were not as tense as their two family heads.
East looked at the furious madman Lugo coldly and said, "Stop pretending, Lugo. You came all the way here, definitely not just to fight Kratz. You and I both know what time it is now and what you want to do."
"Have fun, like a real islander."
Madman Lugo laughed viciously and spat at his feet: "Why did I come here? Everything that happened on Great Skellige Island could not escape my eyes, especially the traces of Kratz."
"I respect you, Easter, because of your past achievements. But past achievements are not enough to make me give in to the future."
The madman looked at East and Kratz with fierce eyes. The combined power of these two families was so powerful that even he was quite afraid of it now.
This madman is probably the only one in the entire archipelago who dares to confront their two major families at the same time.
Easter suddenly asked, "Are you afraid of Nilfgaard? Don't you want Skellige and the Black Sun Empire to become enemies in the future?"
"Ha!" Madman Lugo seemed to have heard something funny. "It would be exciting to plunder Nilfgaard, wouldn't it? That's an empire that has integrated the south! The screams of their people must be more melodious than those of fishermen in ordinary villages, and their gems must be more dazzling than those of ordinary small countries."
This statement is consistent with the thinking of a madman.
"But!" Madman Lugo suddenly emphasized his tone, and he hadn't finished what he was saying, "If I were to lead such a refreshing raiding team, wouldn't it be even more intoxicating?"
“So you want to be king.” Easter and the madman looked at each other and retorted, “I admit your ability to fight at sea, and even I am not sure that I can completely suppress you. But you are not suitable to be a king, you can’t rule the country. Skellige is a country, not just a pirate family.”
Unexpectedly, after hearing what Easter said, the madman Lugo suddenly became excited.
"I am not qualified to be king, I am not suitable to be king, then you are qualified, are you suitable?" Lugo shouted, "You may have been a 'Sea Knight' in the past! I once followed you and supported you as king. But you gave up your honor! You ran to the north to be the husband of a queen, and gave up the sea and the mountains!"
"Bran is your brother. I thought he could take on your responsibilities, so I voted for him. But I didn't expect that he is the same as you! He also treats the honor of being king as a child's windmill to play with!"
"I will never trust you guys again. No one else among the seven families can gain my support! I am the only one who can lead Skellige into the mainland - Lugo Drummond!"
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