NOVPUB[Vol. 5] Chapter 242: Withering
“But…”
Just as Mr. Dead Soul could recognize the creature at a glance, Violet, who had traveled widely and enjoyed reading, was also familiar with it.
She glanced at the two venomous fangs on the ground, which had corroded through the tree trunk and fallen due to their toxic effect, as well as the lifeless snake corpse crushed by the dragon girl. She remarked:
“Under normal circumstances, the ?Shadow Emperor Serpent? isn’t exactly tame, but it rarely attacks prey much larger than itself. Its mouth can expand to several times its size for swallowing, but it has limits. Typically, it preys on birds perched in trees or small animals like rabbits and mice…”
“Unless it’s provoked, strongly agitated by the environment or foreign elements, or… under the influence of some other force.”
“You mean…?”
The white fox girl snapped her fingers softly.
The snake’s twisted corpse floated into the air. Although others might not see anything, Violet could perceive a faint thread of crimson energy laced with a violent, ferocious aura rising with the snake’s death and the dissipation of its spirit, gradually fading away.
Without a doubt, this was the source of the serpent’s unusual aggression.
“Heh… It seems something ill-intentioned does indeed lurk within this forest. Stay alert, everyone.”
Though he couldn’t see as clearly as Violet, Mr. Dead Soul nodded grimly, resting his hand lightly on the hilt of one of his seven swords at his waist.
The other members of the ?Reaper’s Scythe? team took on combat-ready stances, and even Miss Theresa, who usually wasn’t viewed as a fighter, nervously reached into her pocket, clutching something hidden in her palm.
Then, the group continued deeper into the forest under the guidance of the white fox girl.
The further they went, the larger and taller the surrounding trees grew. While they didn’t reach the towering heights of the Goddess of Life’s Divine Tree, many were now easily dozens of meters tall, with dense canopies nearly blocking out all light from above, casting everything around in deep shadow.
This forest seemed to be quite ancient.
Several members of the group thought this simultaneously.
“Huh?”
At one point, without needing the white fox girl to speak, Theresa suddenly stopped, wearing a dazed expression similar to when she sensed the warning before the swamp incident, as though hearing an urgent warning beyond human perception.
Violet and the dragon girl also halted, but instead of focusing on the green-haired girl beside them, they looked toward a nearby patch of bushes.
“Miss Dawn, is something wrong…”
“Shh, this is it.” 𝔫𝖔𝖛𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Silencing Mr. Dead Soul with a gesture, the two girls with the sharpest senses exchanged a look. The dragon girl nodded, stepped forward, and reached out to part the bushes.
“Swish~”
Instead of any loud blast or explosion, a sound followed, like the sudden flurry of wings and hum of air as if a large flock of startled birds had taken flight.
Countless dark shadows suddenly surged from behind the bushes, shooting toward the sky!
“!”
Uncertain of what was happening, the four members of the ?Reaper’s Scythe? tensed up instantly, readying themselves for battle. Eudora, still holding onto Violet’s hand, instinctively shrank behind her, startled by the sudden movement.
Meanwhile, a certain green-haired girl, who had only just snapped out of her daze, stood frozen in confusion, seemingly unaware of the situation.
“It appears this wasn’t a trap or ambush, just an accidental encounter…”
Muttering to herself in an incomprehensible tone, Miss White Fox shook her head and moved forward with the little girl, with the rest of the group following close behind.
On the other side of the bushes, the blonde girl was waiting, frowning slightly as she surveyed the scene.
“This is…”
“Oh my god…”
Seeing the scene, everyone displayed expressions of shock or anger.
In the shadowed forest clearing lay over a dozen corpses, each in various positions. Some lying down, others leaning against trees, and a few even pinned to the trunks.
Judging by their attire, they seemed to belong to some kind of village guard with swords, bows, and spears strewn around them, standard weapons in this world, but most had been damaged beyond use in the fierce battle.
The key detail, though, was that these bodies were all of common races, humans or mixed-bloods, typical residents of the Holy Empire. Their appearance was horrifying.
Horrific and strange.
Their skin and faces had collapsed inward, skin clinging to bone, their emaciated bodies resembling malnourished goblins. Some, even in death, stared wide-eyed in terror or anger, and locking eyes with them added an extra shock.
“Have they… been drained of blood?”
With his extensive experience in adventuring, Mr. Dead Soul quickly came to a conclusion.
He cautiously approached the only figure in full armor, who was pinned to a tree by a dagger-like weapon that had pierced his heart. Staying alert for any possible necromantic magic or curses that might animate the corpse, he carefully removed the intricate dagger and laid the emaciated body flat.
After examining the man’s attire and glancing at the broken halberd nearby, the grey-clad swordsman turned to the white fox girl, who was inspecting another body.
“Miss Dawn, this man… is a Holy Empire Knight Templar. Judging by his weapon and armor design, he’s likely a Holy Knight from the Sarnos Province.”
“Hmm.”
Nodding to show she understood, Violet didn’t say much. Using a small branch she’d picked up, she prodded the dry, shriveled neck of a young female ranger with pointed ears, likely a member of a Tree Spirit Tribe.
A massive hole marred one side of her neck, as if gouged out with a chisel, nearly penetrating through to the other side.
It was clear this was no typical sword or spear wound but rather…
The image of the shadow serpent flashed through Violet’s mind as she looked up toward the countless black bats hanging upside-down in the trees above, their blood-red eyes fixed on the group below.
“A bite mark from… some kind of large creature’s fangs?”
Odd. If a creature that size were here, it should have been easy to detect.
Violet had just scanned a 20-30 kilometer radius with her SP scan, and while she spotted a few human groups that might be from nearby villages, she didn’t find anything that could have caused this.
Had it already left, or could it be… some kind of super-species capable of hiding its existence under the power known as divine thought?
Such powerful beings indeed exist.
At least in Sethlin’s descriptions, during the mythological era before the gods were sealed, there were several special species that could evade divine scrutiny due to their extraordinary talents. The most famous representative among them is, of course, the ?World-Eater Serpent?, Jörmungandr.
The “serpent” is an immortal devourer of worlds, but it requires time to grow each time it is reborn. Therefore, it usually avoids the attention of the gods in its early stages, quietly feeding and growing stronger. It’s difficult to find it solely through large-scale divine thought scanning.
Sethlin doesn’t know if those super-species still exist today or if they, like the gods, have left or become extinct. However, one cannot dismiss the possibility that they might be hiding in some corner of this world.
So now, with the SP scan failing, Violet could not completely rule out the threat that some hidden creatures in this primordial forest might pose to their power.
“However… blood-sucking?”
Aside from the earlier hypothesis, there was indeed another place in this forest where creatures could cause similar wounds, which the white fox lady had just clearly “seen.”
Those were also things that exuded a sense of foreboding and strangeness.
But they shouldn’t be able to move over here to attack.
The girl shook her head helplessly, pulling her gaze away from the swarm of bats that seemed to be staring back at her.
…No matter how she looked at it, they just seemed like harmless ordinary bats.
