Chapter 159
It felt as if we hadn’t walked far from the village, yet we had already arrived. Just as Sal said, it really was close.
“Wow, it’s even gloomier than I imagined.”
I almost found myself agreeing with Gerard’s small exclamation.
The scenery before my eyes was far more terrible than what I had imagined when we heard the words ‘Land of the Dead’.
On the land enveloped in ash-gray smoke as if there had been a fire, ruins of collapsed buildings were scattered here and there, fitting the name ruins of the fallen kingdom.
Just as the lich had explained, that there had once not even been a trace of living things, it was a landscape as desolate as a desert.
The party tied the horses in front of the barrier and gathered around Elonen.
“I’ll cast the blessing with the longest duration among the ones I have, so please never leave the range of my blessing.”
Elonen took out the holy water he had brought in plenty and sprinkled it on the ground. After drawing a circle, he drew something like a pattern inside it.
Once the party gathered closely inside that circle, Elonen stretched both hands into the air.
“I humbly beseech you, a faithful servant of Your Merciful Lordship Roson asks for your holy blessing. Please look down upon your pitiful people and protect them from wicked beings.”
As soon as his short prayer ended, a faint light spread from the circle on the ground and began surrounding us.
“This light you see right now is the range of my blessing. If you can’t see the light, that means you’re outside the range. If you’re exposed to curse magic for more than a certain amount of time, you’ll be contaminated.”
Elonen reminded us several times, but he still couldn’t set his mind at ease.
Just as Gerard had said, there weren’t many cases where Elonen took the lead like this. So I fully understood why he felt burdened.
“Don’t be too tense. What matters is staying together, so don’t scatter.”
Kyle also warned us not to leave Elonen’s vicinity. The party moved forward with everyone on edge.
The moment I stepped on the boundary line of the barrier Sal had cast for the people, an extreme headache surged in, enough to make the space between my brows throb. But once that headache passed, my consciousness actually became clearer than before.
“That woman came into a place like this alone? She has guts.”
The desolate village was frightening because it seemed more likely that a ghost would jump out than a monster.
“Before I cast the barrier, people used to come and go occasionally. As you know, there are no villages around here, so they had no choice if they wanted to get things. That’s why they have their own passageways too.”
Still, hearing that made me feel relieved. It meant that as long as they didn’t stay long, it was safe enough for ordinary people to come and go.
“That plant looks disgusting.”
But then Kakaros pointed at the plant covering the building as if he found it fascinating.
The dark red vines were large and thick, writhing like snakes. Since it wasn’t a normal sight, it felt somewhat creepy.
“Don’t go near it. It’s a plant-type monster. If you’re wounded by the monster and contaminated, the effect of the blessing will weaken quickly.”
“If I made a curse magic potion with that, it would be extremely effective. It’s such a shame I can’t collect it.”
At Elonen’s advice, Gerard muttered with a regretful expression. To think he was regretting not being able to obtain magic potion ingredients in the middle of this. He really was an unusual guy.
“It’s strangely quiet for a place monsters have been coming and going from.”
“Right. It’s beyond quiet, I don’t even see a single ant. The possibility that the Black Flame Dragon isn’t here has gone up.”
Elonen and Gerard looked around and reached that conclusion. With this, it was proven that the lich’s guess had not been true.
The Black Flame Dragon had not come here. The land was still cursed, and the Blood Demon was still alive.
Now the party had a choice. They could turn back here and hurry to chase other traces of the Black Flame Dragon, or since they had come this far, they could fight the Blood Demon.
“No one’s going to say we should turn back at this point, right?”
Gerard said while lightly shrugging his shoulders. The party exchanged glances with one another, but no one said we should turn back.
When a fight came, they did not avoid it. That was the way the hero’s party had acted all the way here.
