The leading civil servant vigilantly gripped the staff in his hand and winked at his brothers beside him. They crouched and slowly approached.
When I took a few steps closer, the stench was so strong that it almost suffocated me.
One of them plucked up the courage and reached out to push the man. As soon as his fingers touched the man's shoulder, there was a "crash" and the man fell to the side like a broken puppet, revealing a face that had long been rotten and crawling with maggots. The fear he had in his life seemed to still remain in his empty eye sockets. Everyone took a few steps back in horror and some of them could not help but bend over and vomit.
"What...what the hell is this!" The women in the team were so scared that their voices changed, their legs went weak and they almost collapsed to the ground.
The leader tried hard to suppress the churning in his stomach and quickly scanned the surroundings. At this moment, the fog covering the village became thicker and thicker, as if it was going to completely swallow up these uninvited guests. There was deathly silence all around, and only the stench of decay permeated and fermented in the air, as if telling the unknown tragic past of this village.
"Something's wrong!" The civil servant in charge of patrolling the surrounding area immediately pushed open the door of a nearby building. In an instant, a disgusting stench hit them in the face, and what came into view were rotten and blackened corpses piled up in the house. Some had twisted limbs, and some had hideous faces. The foul smell was coming from these lifeless corpses.
"Dead! All dead!" Everyone's eyes widened in horror, their voices trembling, looking at each other, their eyes full of fear and confusion, "How did they die?"
They searched the village for clues but found nothing.
Little did they know that the rest of the villages within the jurisdiction of the Arcane City were in the same tragic state, as if they had been mercilessly swept away by the god of death. However, these civil servants of the Arcane City were so busy and confused that they did not notice anything unusual about themselves. At this moment, black spots gradually appeared on their bodies, like the mark of the devil, quietly spreading.
In the Arcane City, the once bustling markets and busy streets now looked like a ghost town. Groups of residents fell down without warning, and groans of pain were heard one after another. These residents developed large, black, painful tumors on their bodies, which oozed blood and pus and emitted a disgusting odor.
The sick people all had high fevers and were in a state of mental confusion, talking nonsense or struggling frantically. The calls of their family members and the pastor's comfort were completely useless.
Inside the city hall, the orderliness of the past is long gone, replaced by chaos and anxiety.
Electrolux sat behind his desk, his brows furrowed, his eyes bloodshot, and he had no time to pay attention to the mountain of documents in front of him.
The running civil servant stumbled to Alex and reported in a hoarse and tearful voice: "Sir, the strange disease in the Arcane City has become more serious! Almost all the villagers in the jurisdiction have died. We are powerless to stop it, and now there are not enough people to treat the patients. The people of the Church of Light have helped, but neither their healing potions nor the holy light can completely cure this strange disease. They can only delay the time of death."
Before the man could finish his words, his body fell straight down like a kite with a broken string.
Electrolux stood up suddenly, rushed to his side, and tore off his clothes with trembling hands. In an instant, the shocking black spots came into view, spreading on his skin at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Damn it! What the hell is going on!" Alex roared and slammed his fist on the table, scattering the documents on the table all over the floor.
Bang!
The door of the mayor's office was pushed open, and Merlin walked in quickly with a gloomy face. His eyes were cold and resolute, and he exuded an unquestionable majesty.
He glanced at Electrolux and the unconscious patient, then said decisively to the people behind him: "Hurry up and take this man away for treatment." His voice was low but powerful, and there was no room for delay.
Alex looked at Merlin as if he had seen a life-saving straw, but his eyes were still full of helplessness.
Merlin didn't hesitate at all and said immediately: "From now on, the Arcane City will enter the first level of alert."
Alex came back to his senses and asked anxiously: "Merlin, what is going on? Is there an enemy invading the Arcane City? Black magicians? The Ancient God Cult? Or...?"
His voice trembled slightly, and all kinds of terrible possibilities kept emerging in his mind.
Merlin's expression became more serious, and he slowly said, "Maybe the group of people you mentioned are all like this. There is definitely someone behind this. Our biggest enemy now is - the plague!"
He paused slightly, looked through the glass of his office at the dead silent city outside, and thought to himself: This plague spreading in the Arcane City is so much like the Black Death on Blue Star.
In the long history of Blue Planet, the Black Death was once an extremely horrific disaster. It was like a raging beast, ruthlessly devouring the lives of countless people.
It was a highly contagious disease caused by the plague bacteria, which was transmitted to humans through flea bites on rats. The sick person will initially experience symptoms such as high fever, chills, and headache. Then the lymph nodes throughout the body will begin to swell and become extremely painful, forming the so-called "plague nodules". Once these nodules rupture, pus and blood will flow out, emitting a disgusting odor.
The disease progresses rapidly, and patients often become physically exhausted and die within a short period of time.
At that time, the entire European continent fell into endless panic. Cities became dead towns, villages were deserted and dilapidated, the population dropped sharply, and social order was almost collapsed.
The plague that the Arcane City is facing at this moment is strikingly similar to the Black Death on Blue Star, but it is also even more bizarre.
Unlike the Blue Star, the Black Death in this world seems to carry a strange magical power, and this power is the root cause of the plague.
It is not just a simple disease, but more like a death curse controlled by evil forces. It spreads silently among the people, breaking through conventional treatment methods and leaving the sacred power of the Church of Light helpless.
Merlin opened the door of the mayor's office, took a deep breath facing the office hall outside, and began to decisively issue one order after another: "The City Hall immediately activates the emergency response mechanism. All public officials stop all non-emergency matters at hand and devote themselves to anti-epidemic actions. Organize a special person to be responsible for counting the number of patients and distribution areas, and report the latest data to me every hour. It must be accurate. We can't grope blindly in the dark. Data is our eyes."
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