258 The Living and the Dead
William couldn’t shake off the lingering feeling of the spell Nehe used to preserve corpses. It was a spell the latter relied on heavily, especially in emergency situations when he needed to use corpses on the spot. It temporarily delayed the decay of the corpses, making them look almost alive.
This way, it made sense that the 43 undead hadn’t rotted despite all this while.
“But… is that really the case?” Ebony asked William in disbelief.
He stared at the youth in front of him, searching for any sign of decay. But there was none to be found. The kid’s face was full of life, his eyes sparkling with energy. No trace of the sluggishness you’d expect from the undead.
In this world, there were those who thought they were still alive because of the influence of undead magic. But the truth was, memories were all that remained. Without the control of the caster, the awakened undead would simply repeat their actions from when they were alive.
But memories fade, just like corpses rot.
No matter how complete they were, they couldn’t compare to the present.
Ebony couldn’t help but think back to the time when he had saved these people. He had talked to them about resisting the Holy Tree Duke, and they had made preparations together. Even if they were undead repeating their memories, he should have noticed something in the half a year they had spent together.
But that didn’t seem to be the case.
William, too, was puzzled by Ebony’s questions.
William knew with certainty that the 43 people, including the young man in front of him, were undoubtedly undead. He had confirmed this through his Undead Detection. To interfere with his detection, one would have to use an illusion at the Divine Realm level, which was basically impossible. There shouldn’t be anyone in this city capable of such a feat. Even if there was, why would someone go through so much trouble to make a group of living people appear as the undead?
But Ebony, who had been working with a group of undead for so long, should have known something was off… Even though William didn’t think Ebony was particularly smart, he couldn’t be that stupid.
“Master Ebony? Aren’t you coming in?”
the young Forest Elf asked, confused, as he saw the two men standing in a daze.
Ebony snapped out of his trance and turned to see William’s reaction. Just then, a voice echoed in his mind: Just act normal. Don’t act strange.
Ebony nodded subtly and looked at the youth.
“Yes, I’m coming. I was in a hurry today and didn’t bring any supplies…”
As he spoke, Ebony and William followed the youth deeper into the root space.
The journey wasn’t far. After a few turns, they arrived at the gathering place of the rebels Ebony had ‘rescued.’
In the center of the gathering place stood a lamp stand the size of a hot air balloon, buzzing with lamp worms flying inside.
This massive light source provided a cold, moonlit glow, engraved with runes that regulated its strength. It served as both the basic illumination for the gathering place and as a means to synchronize day and night on the ground through changes in the light.
Outside the lamp stand, pointed tents made of animal bones and fur were arranged in rows, forming an empty space with the lamp stand at its center. In this open area, Forest Elves in groups of two or three sparred with bone weapons or carved magic tools under the light.
To be honest, this place looked more like William’s impression of Forest Elves from the past than the present-day Holy Tree City.
As Ebony arrived, many Forest Elves stood or lowered their heads in respect.
However, upon seeing William behind him, they all frowned in unison, clearly not welcoming of humans.
Ebony waved in return and approached a Forest Elf of similar size. He said solemnly.
“Solo, please gather everyone. I have something to discuss with everyone.”
The Forest Elf named Solo didn’t reply, his eyes fixed on William from the start. His pupils were filled with a tyrannical ferocity. Only when Ebony emphasized his tone did Solo come back to his senses.
“Mr. Ebony, according to what you said, isn’t this the person who can liberate the Forest Elves from the omen revealed by the Matriarch?”
Ebony nodded.
The Matriarch’s prophecy was too important to share with anyone other than Solo, who was in charge of security here. He knew that even if this secret base was discovered by the Holy Tree Duke and wiped out, the person in front of him definitely wouldn’t reveal anything he knew.
Although everyone present more or less had a grudge against the Holy Tree Duke, no one could compare to him.
“But you didn’t say that it would be a human.”
Solo spat on the ground as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth.
Ebony nodded helplessly.
Solo clenched his jaw, his lips pursed tightly.
“How can a human be the Forest Elves’ liberator? Are you sure the revelation you saw from Matriarch is true? Or were you not in your right mind that day and confused it with your dreams?”
“I’m the Matriarch’s listener. If you want to doubt this, I suggest you leave this place and fight that woman to the death,” Ebony replied calmly.
The youth who had led the way stepped in, trying to ease the tension.
“Brother Solo, this human was also saved from the duke by Master Ebony. He can definitely be trusted! After all, the enemy of an enemy is a friend.”
“Saved?”
This sentence had the opposite effect on Solo. He turned his fierce gaze to William.
“Then, why do we need a human weaker than that b*tch? He can’t even protect himself…”
“Solo!” Ebony raised his voice, his eyes widening in anger. “I’ll explain the details later. If you don’t plan on leaving and fighting the good fight alone, please gather everyone.”
Solo glared at William for a moment longer before reluctantly turning and leaving.
Once the other party had left, Ebony turned to William and said,
“I did what you said by deliberately provoking his intense emotions. Look, this intense anger that comes from the depths of the soul can’t be something an undead can have, right?”
On the way there, William had been communicating with Ebony through his soul voice. Ebony had deliberately not corrected the youth’s understanding of William to anger Solo and prove to William that only a person with a soul could have the passionate response of life.
William replied, “This proof isn’t reliable. Or should we test them according to my suggestion? Tell them all that they’re undead.”
It wasn’t uncommon for the dead to think they were still alive in history. It had even become horror stories circulated among bards because it was too common.
William had experienced something similar before—in the 876th year of the Platinum Calendar, the royal family of the Blackwater Kingdom had converted over 100 villagers from a village to the undead in order to test the feasibility of the Rotten Moon Undead Tide. It was done overnight. The next morning, the dead woke up according to their usual practices when they were still alive. Then, they continued living peacefully for over a month without anyone noticing their abnormality.
In the end, a pharmacist who worked outside all year round returned home and saw his parents, who couldn’t make normal voices because their vocal cords were completely rotten.
When the parents saw their son, who rarely returned, they used their trembling hands to bring over turkeys covered in maggots, bread covered in mold, and red wine that had long turned sour to welcome him warmly.
The pharmacist was so terrified that he bolted out of the village and sprinted to the nearest Holy Spirits Church in search of help. But with the Church in the Blackwater Swamp being weak, the local cathedral tasked William and his team to investigate and purify the village.
William knew this was the start of the Undead Rotten Moon quest line.
When they arrived at the village, it was nothing like what the pharmacist described as “everyone looks normal, but there’s a strange vibe everywhere.” Instead, it had devolved into a bloodbath where the undead were attacking all living creatures indiscriminately.
The cause of this chaos was the pharmacist’s panicked escape. His actions had led his undead parents to discover the truth of their death, sparking that ignited the entire village’s undead to lose control.
William devised a plan to tell everyone the truth and see if they could be awakened.
“Absolutely not.” Ebony firmly shook his head, rejecting the suggestion.
