Chapter 102: The Undead and the Explosion

“Did I lose them?”

I stopped in my tracks, calming my unbalanced breathing, and looked back, only to see a squad of city guards passing by the edge of the pitch-black streets with torches in hand.

“Cold… so cold.”

The early spring night was still chilly; as a gust of cold wind blew past, I shuddered all over, only then realizing that my torn and tattered dress was sticking clammily to my body, drenched in cold sweat.

“Phew… I have to, I have to go back…”

I muttered to myself, my voice sounding weak and erratic in the empty alleyway.

But the moment this thought arose, a deeper sense of bewilderment surged in my heart.

‘Go back? Where can I go back to? That temporary camp at the Governor’s Mansion?’

‘It is indeed the only place I can call a “foothold” in this unfamiliar city right now.’

‘But…’

I looked down at my wretched appearance—tattered clothes, disheveled hair; anyone who saw me would surely be suspicious, right?

Another squad of city guards ran past the main street with chaotic, hurried steps, their armor clanking loudly.

I instinctively shrank my body deeper into the shadows of the corner, holding my breath.

It seemed that the unidentified attack the Governor’s Mansion suffered during the banquet had indeed greatly stimulated the authorities’ tense nerves.

One might still be able to fish in troubled waters in the chaotic Lower City, but this Upper City was likely already heavily guarded, with an inescapable net cast.

Perhaps the fight between Nolan and me just now had already drawn the city guards there.

‘Forget it… but, this is fine too,’ I thought, changing my mind.

‘With such a massive commotion, that guy Nolan probably won’t dare to pursue me openly.’

Seeing the patrolling soldiers move further away, I steadied my mind, planning to head back to the mansion first.

I would rendezvous with Sally and then figure things out.

“But… which direction is the Governor’s Mansion again?”

Just as I was struggling to find my bearings and my mind was a mess, a bustling clamor suddenly erupted on the streets, shattering the silence of the night.

“Oh no! It’s a fire! Quick, put out the fire!”

At some point, the originally slumbering residents had run out of their homes in panic, gathering on the streets and pointing at the distant sky while shouting in alarm.

There was no need for them to point it out; I had already seen it—the sky dyed a terrifying crimson, the soaring flames clearly visible even from this distance.

And that direction was precisely where I had just escaped from, the location of the commercial street in the Upper City, Leyak’s Magic Goods shop!

“What in the world is going on…”

A vague thought surfaced in my mind, making me shudder.

This sudden massive fire was likely inseparable from Nolan and that dead elf…

Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that right after I left there, such a disturbance occurred?

“Alright, that’s that. I can’t get involved anymore.” I shook my head vigorously, as if to shake off those dangerous thoughts. “Nolan is likely lashing out at everyone now, and I can barely protect myself; it’s better to extract myself from this mess early.”

I warned myself in a low voice and, as if having made up my mind, turned around and stepped toward the deeper, darker alleys opposite the firelight.

However, after taking only a few steps, as if pulled by an invisible thread, I stopped inexplicably and couldn’t help but look back again.

The soaring, blazing light could still blur the silhouettes of the buildings even from this distance; an ominous premonition mixed with a fatal curiosity clawed at my heart.

“Just… one look,” I compromised with myself, my voice so soft it was barely audible. “Sneak back and just take one look… it should be fine, right?”

***

“Damn it! What exactly is going on here?!!”

A low growl squeezed through the gaps of Nolan’s teeth as he stared intently at the body that had stood back up—an elf returning from the dead.

But could the state of this thing before him truly still be called “living”?

The fatal wound on the neck was no longer bleeding; the coagulated dark red scab looked exceptionally jarring under the firelight.

Even more bloodcurdling was the hollow windpipe, which, along with the slight heaving of the body, was emitting a wheezing, leaking sound like a dilapidated bellows, inexplicably chilling one to the bone.

The clear whites of the eyes were now filled with tiny bursting blood vessels, displaying an ominous blood red.

And in the center of that crimson expanse, those pupils were staring blankly and unfocused right at him, carrying some ominous will.

Nolan tentatively took a step forward, trying to control that “elf” whose figure was stiff and movements bizarre.

Bizarre legends from the bards flashed rapidly through his mind—tales of forbidden arts that once prevailed in the continent’s ancient times, an ancient dark magic known as the “Necromantic Rite.”

It was said that the caster vainly attempted to reverse life and death, but what they ultimately obtained was only a terrifying living corpse with no soul, knowing only destruction.

With the rise and expansion of the Radiant Church, such evil magic should have long been completely destroyed, banned, and annihilated in the long river of history.

“Did that strange girl do something to him?” Nolan thought.

“But! How could an elf be connected to the long-lost Necromantic Rite?”

Or perhaps… a chill swept over Nolan’s heart.

Because elves are a long-lived race, their tribes might have preserved these dangerous knowledges and techniques—regardless of whether they were good or evil—that had long been spurned by history in some unknown manner?

“Whether it’s a necromancy or not—his condition is not right. I need to subdue him first!”

Having made up his mind, Nolan hesitated no longer. He raised his hand and grabbed toward the “elf’s” arm, crossing his arms into a cross shape, attempting to lock the opponent with a standard grappling technique.

However, the moment their limbs made contact, Nolan’s entire body stiffened, sensing that something was extremely wrong.

“Cold! So cold!”

It was common sense for a corpse to be stiff and cold, but it definitely shouldn’t be like this!

A bone-chilling, bizarre coldness did not merely stay on the surface of the skin; instead, like a living creature, like ten thousand foraging ice snakes, it darted fiercely into Nolan’s arm through the point of contact and rapidly spread toward his torso!

Nolan’s teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.

“No matter how you look at it, this can’t possibly be anything good, right?”

Nolan hastily let go, trying to push the other party away.

But this time, things did not go as he wished; unlike wrestling with a living person, the dead corpse’s arms felt like iron pincers without a sense of pain or limits.

They didn’t budge an inch; instead, with an unreasonable, brute force, they reversed the hold and deathly clamped onto Nolan’s arms!

In an instant, that fatal sense of coldness surged like a tidal wave, accelerating.

Nolan felt as if the heat and strength from half of his body were being rapidly drained, and his consciousness even began to blur slightly.

‘Tsk… I have no choice!’

Nolan’s lips murmured rapidly, and several brief, forceful incantations burst from between his teeth.

At the same time, his waist and abdomen exerted a sudden force; amid the faint glimmer of the incantation’s light, his restrained arms erupted with astonishing power—

“Get off me!”

With a muffled thud, Nolan’s arms finally regained their freedom; he stumbled forward two steps due to momentum, then without hesitation executed a lateral roll, clumsily but swiftly opening up distance.

When he looked back, still reeling from the shock, the sight that met his eyes instantly made him draw a sharp breath—the scene was simply too gruesome to bear.

Blood had sprayed outward in a radial pattern, and pieces of flesh and tissue of indiscernible shapes were scattered on the ground.

That living-dead elf had slumped to the ground, and its upper body… from the neck down, had been completely torn open, almost ripped in half alive!

Nolan’s heart sank violently; this was absolutely not his intention!

He had only wanted to break free from that deadly restraint; in his estimation, it would at most dislocate the opponent’s joints or tear a muscle.

But this body, which had clearly been a sturdy and agile warrior just a short while ago, had now become as fragile and vulnerable as decayed, dead wood or flimsy paper… which was why it ended up in such a state.

Countless questions and a sense of horror flashed through his mind like lightning.

Nolan merely blinked, trying to see the tragic scene before him clearly.

And in that split second, he saw that the broken body, nearly split in two, was actually swelling and expanding violently at a speed that defied logic—

Boom!

A deafening roar erupted.