Volume 1: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 3 Liliana
Liliana von Bergmann lay on the dusty ground, staring blankly at the bats flying in the air.
As a student of the Department of Archaeology at Offa University in Blackwater Province, if she had arrived here in a more respectable manner today, she would have excitedly danced in this hall.
A well-preserved ruin from the Kos Dynasty, it is hard to imagine how many lost documents can be excavated from it. If she can show the academic community what she has found here, she may even be promoted to the position of associate professor in the college's archaeology department.
But the mentality is completely different for this relic that has been brought in as food reserve by the demons.
Two demons with deformed limbs, huge heads and skinny torsos were chewing meat with sticky sounds; she tried not to think about what kind of meat it was; while they were talking about what to do with her next.
"So when can this woman finally start eating?"
"Why is eating the only thing on your mind? This is the only one left. Once we eat it, it will be gone. We still have to stay here for a while."
"Then it's okay to try a few bites first, as long as it's not fatal."
"Are you an idiot? The first bite is always for the hungry lady Camilla. Can it still be a sacrifice if you've already bitten it?"
"It's impossible to keep a living person with you all the time, right? What if she encounters some danger here and we don't have time to notice her and she runs away? Wouldn't that leak out our arrangements here?"
"Hmm... that's the point. Let's make it into food reserves like before. Bringing a living person around is indeed a hidden danger. Go and draw the runes for the ritual first."
The conversation between the demons left Liliana with only despair in her heart.
At this moment, she was paralyzed, and even if she wanted to beg for mercy, she would be unable to speak because of her tongue-tiedness. In this situation, she could do nothing but silently pray to the Seven Holy Spirits for a miracle to happen.
One of the demons appeared in Liliana's sight, its skin was covered with mold, and there were traces of corruption and ulceration everywhere. It opened its mouth, which took up half of its face, and stretched out its long forked tongue to lick her cheek.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid... Your soul will soon be able to reach the Moon Realm and reunite with your friends. There you can ask them if they felt any pain before they died, and how it compared to yours."
The demon pointed a ceremonial serrated dagger at the leftover bones on the ground and said in a joking voice.
They were her companions who had explored the ruins with her. They were attacked and killed by the two demons shortly after they entered the ruins.
Dad, Mom...save me...
Looking at the dagger approaching her, Liliana closed her eyes in despair.
“Tick, tick, tick…”
It was at this moment that a slight but very clear sound of footsteps came from the corridor outside the front door.
The hall suddenly fell into deathly silence.
Liliana opened her eyes in confusion. At this moment, the demon holding a dagger was half-kneeling beside her and exchanging glances with the demon who was drawing something on the ground with a charcoal pencil.
It placed its slender fingers next to its mouthparts, which could hardly be called a mouth, and made a "silence" gesture. Then it gently inserted the dagger back into its belt and slowly pulled out a dagger coated with green venom.
The other demon gently placed the charcoal pencil on the ground, then whispered something. A ball of fire quickly gathered on its palm and soon turned into a spinning fireball.
The footsteps were getting closer and closer. The two demons stared at the corner outside the door, not daring to make a sound.
Liliana tried desperately to make some noise to alert the person outside the door, but unfortunately the effect of the paralysis spell was still significant and she couldn't even move a finger.
As the footsteps came to the corner in front of the entrance, the demon who was casting the spell raised his hand and the fireball in his hand was shot out quickly.
“Bang!”
There was a flash of intense fire, and the explosion was so loud that the entire hall seemed to be shaking.
The slight hope that Liliana had just ignited to escape was extinguished.
The two demons looked at the raging flames outside the door, and their originally vigilant attitude relaxed a little.
This was the end of Liliana's common sense in life for the past sixteen years, and then something unexpected happened. From Liliana's perspective, it can only be described as incredible.
Without any warning, a silver-white magic circle appeared under the feet of the two sub-demons. A strong whirlwind instantly swept up the dust in the entire room and blew the two sub-demons into the air.
It was at the moment when they floated in the air that two sharp ice spikes extended obliquely from the originally empty ground and accurately pierced through the two demons in the air.
It all happened so suddenly that Liliana didn't realize what had happened until the bodies of the two demons began to turn into black salt crystals and dissipated.
A heavy sound of footsteps came from the opposite direction of the previous explosion, and she turned her eyes to look over.
Then she saw the man.
A man who seemed to have walked out of a legend, exuding the scent of ice and blood.
His face looked a little vicissitudes, his expression was a little gloomy, and his long gray hair was messy. His eyes were shining with silver light due to the overflowing magic power. His cheeks were slightly sunken, his beard was stubbled, and his skin was as pale as if covered with a layer of white frost.
He was wearing a dark bone armor that twisted and tangled like flames, with sharp bone spurs extending from his wrists and elbows, as if they were growing on his body. The entire armor "breathed" cold air as if it had life. Countless runes and totems were carved on the armor, alternating between ice blue and blood red light, which eventually converged on a fist-sized black crystal in the center of the bone armor.
In his hand, he held a staff made of pure frost, with a blood-red orb embedded on top. Flames, lightning, and frost were lingering around the blood-red orb—three powerful spells that had been chanted but not yet activated. The magic contained in them was so powerful that she felt as if her soul was frozen just by looking at it.
The man first looked around, then slowly walked to about three steps away from Liliana.
"Are there... only two of them here?"
The man stared into her eyes and asked.
The voice was low and hoarse, carrying an indescribable majesty.
Perhaps because she was too shocked, Liliana didn't understand what the other person said , she just asked stupidly.
"What two?"
After she opened her mouth, Liliana realized that she could speak normally now, and the paralysis she had been subjected to had been lifted at some point.
"Are these two the only sub-demons here?"
The man asked again.
"Only... only the two of them!"
Liliana quickly replied.
The man looked around the hall again and then spoke to her.
"I have removed the paralysis spell on you, try to see if you can stand up on your own."
Liliana moved her almost numb limbs and tried to stand up, but she had no strength at all.
Before she could say anything, there was a flash of green light, and Liliana felt her limbs slowly begin to regain strength.
“Thank…thank you…”
The man just waved his hand, then walked closer and asked.
"There are some things I need to confirm first. What time is it now?"
"Twilight...Twilight Moon's twenty-fourth, or twenty-fifth? I've been under the control of the paralysis spell for the past few days, so I'm not sure exactly how many days have passed."
"No, I asked what year it was."
This question made Liliana's heart tremble. She wondered if this person was a heretic wizard who had lived in seclusion here for so long that he had forgotten the time?
Yes, this is the only possibility. Otherwise, how could such a powerful wizard be willing to stay in such a remote ruins.
The more Liliana thought about it, the more certain she felt, and then she couldn't help but feel a little scared.
She heard that the heretic wizards could not use the magic of the astral plane because they had abandoned the laws of the stars, so they would extract and torture the souls of others, using the souls' pain and despair as fuel for their spells.
Looking at the other person's eyes that were glowing silver because of the excessive magic power, Liliana lowered her head to avoid the other person's sight, staring at her boots and answered carefully.
"Platinum Calendar Year 1886..."
"hiss……"
Not sure if it was her illusion, Liliana seemed to hear the mage gasp. But when she looked up again, he still had the same gloomy expression as before.
"Any questions?"
"Let's not talk about this for now... Do you know where those two demons came from?"
Liliana replied.
"I'm not sure... They attacked us after my archaeological team entered the ruins. But a few days before that, when we were still in the Mountains of Sorrow, the scouts in the team mentioned that something seemed to be following us, but at that time we all thought it was just a beast like a dire wolf..."
As she spoke, her voice became smaller and smaller.
After listening to her description, the man who was suspected to be a heretic wizard nodded thoughtfully.
"I think I understand. Sorry, I need to know, is there anyone else alive in your archaeological team?"
This question made Liliana's heart sink suddenly, and all the memories of the previous attack came to her mind at once.
…
"There's a sound up there."
"Where did they come from?"
"Will, cover the lady and leave first!"
"Holy Spirit, that was a third-level spell!"
"They can see us, light the torches!"
"run!"
"No, please..."
"Lily, save me...it's eating me..."
…
The voices of everyone in the archaeological team seemed to echo in her ears. Liliana bit her lip and squeezed out two words from the depths of her throat for a long time.
"No."
The emotions that had been temporarily suppressed due to fear and shock exploded at this moment. She covered her face with her hands, and tears kept falling through her fingers.
"They're all dead... They've all been eaten..."
After a long time, probably when she had vented enough of her emotions, the man put a hand on her shoulder.
"Let's go, let's solve the source of this problem first."
