Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 15 The Living and the Dead
The reason why William had a deep impression of this spell was because Neh liked to use this spell to preserve the corpses he served. Especially in an emergency, when he had to use corpses locally, he would use this spell to temporarily delay the decay of the corpses.
In this case, it is understandable that the forty-three undead souls did not decay for such a long time.
"But... is it really like that?"
Ebony asked William in a low voice with some disbelief.
No matter how you look at it, the young man in front of you doesn't have the slightest sign of decay. Even if the decay of a corpse can be delayed, his face still shows all the intelligence of a living person - his eyes are smart and full of vitality, without any of the slowness and sluggishness of the dead.
In this world, there are indeed cases where the dead think they are still alive due to the influence of necromancy. Rather, based on the nature of necromancy as memory, if it is not controlled by the caster, the awakened dead will inevitably repeat their actions in life.
But memories will be forgotten, just as a body will rot.
No matter how complete the memory is, it can never be more vivid than the present experience.
Wu Mu still remembered that after saving these people, he had discussed with them many times about resisting the Duke of Holy Tree and carried out various preparations. Even if they were really undead who were repeating their past memories, based on his contact with them for more than half a year, he should be able to find clues from them.
No matter how you think about it, it should n't be like this.
William was also very confused about Ebony's question.
The forty-three people, including the young man in front of him, were undoubtedly dead souls, and William had confirmed this through [Dead Soul Detection]. If he wanted to interfere with his detection, he would need to use a divine-level illusion to have some possibility - in other words, it was basically impossible. There shouldn't be anything in this city that could do this; even if there was, what was the point of going to so much trouble to make people mistake a group of living people for dead souls?
However, it is really unlikely that Ebony has worked with a group of undead for such a long time and still failed to find any clues... Even if William thinks that the guy named Ebony next to him is not a smart person, he definitely cannot be so stupid.
"Master Ebony? Aren't you going in?"
The forest elf boy saw the two people standing there in daze and asked with some confusion.
Ebony came back to his senses and turned around to see William's reaction. At this moment, the other party's voice echoed in his mind again.
+Just act like usual, don't show any abnormality+
Hearing this, Wu Mu nodded imperceptibly, then looked at the young man and said:
"Okay, I'll be right here. I was in a hurry today, so I didn't bring any supplies..."
As they spoke, Ebony and William followed the young man and went deeper into the root space.
The distance was not far, and after turning a few corners, they arrived at the gathering place of the rebels "rescued" by Ebony.
In the middle of the gathering place is a lamp holder the size of a hot air balloon, with a group of buzzing lamp insects flying inside.
This large lamp base provides a cool light source like moonlight, and runes are engraved on the lamp base to adjust the intensity of the light. On the one hand, it provides basic lighting for the gathering place, and on the other hand, it synchronizes the alternation of day and night on the ground through the change of light brightness.
Outside the lamp stand, pointed tents made of animal bones and fur were arranged in several rows, staggered to form an open space with the lamp stand as the core. In the open space, forest elves in groups of three or two were either practicing with bone weapons or carving magic props under the light.
To be honest, this place looks more like the impression that the forest elves gave William in the past than the Holy Tree City outside.
Seeing Ebony coming, many forest elves either stood up or bowed their heads to salute him.
Of course, after seeing William behind him, all of them frowned without exception. It seems that the people here are not very welcoming to humans.
Ebony simply waved in return, then walked straight to a forest elf who was about the same size as himself. He looked at him seriously and said:
"Solo, please gather everyone here. I have something to discuss with everyone."
The forest elf named Solo did not reply. His eyes had been fixed on William behind Ebony from the beginning. His eyes were full of violent and fierce light. It was not until Ebony reminded him several times with a heavier tone that he seemed to come to his senses and said:
"Mr. Ebony, according to what you said before, could this be the person who can liberate the forest elves in the omen revealed by the 'Great Mother' as you mentioned before?"
Ebony nodded.
As the prophecy of the "Big Mother" was too important, Ebony had never told anyone except Solo, who was in charge of security here. Because he knew that even if the secret base was discovered and wiped out by the Duke of the Holy Tree, the man in front of him would never reveal a single thing he knew.
Although everyone present had some grudge against the Duke of Holy Tree, no one could compare to this man.
"But you didn't say it would be a human."
The forest elf named Solo said and spat on the ground, as if he didn't want to say that word.
Ebony continued to nod with a somewhat helpless expression.
Hearing this, Solo pursed his lips, gritted his teeth, and then said through gritted teeth:
"A human being can be the liberator of the forest elves? Are you sure that the revelation you saw from the 'Great Mother' is true? Or were you not sober that day and confused your dream?"
"I am the listener of the 'Big Mother'. If you even want to question this, I suggest you just leave here and fight that woman."
Ebony replied calmly.
Seeing this, the young man who led the way earlier also interrupted and said:
"Brother Solo, this human was also rescued from the Duke by Master Ebony, so he can definitely be trusted! After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
"Rescued?"
This sentence had the opposite effect on Solo. He looked at William fiercely and said:
"Then why do we need a human who is weaker than that bitch? He can't even protect himself..."
"Zolo!"
In response, Ebony raised his voice several degrees, stared and said:
"I will explain the details later. If you don't plan to leave and work on your own now, please go over and gather everyone together now."
Upon hearing this, the forest elf named Solo glared at William a few more times with hatred. After hesitating for a moment, he turned around and left very reluctantly.
After seeing the other party walk away, Wu Mu turned to look at William and said:
"As you said, you deliberately provoked the other party's intense emotions. You see, this kind of intense anger that comes from the depths of the soul cannot be possessed by a dead spirit, right?"
On the way here, William had been communicating with Ebony through the [Soul Voice]. Ebony deliberately did not correct the boy's perception of William in order to irritate Solo and prove this to William.
Only a person with a soul can have the passion for life .
But to this, William replied:
"This proof is too shaky. Why don't you try it as I suggest? Tell them all that they are undead."
The dead thinking they are still alive is not uncommon in history. It is so common that it has become a horror story genre passed down among bards.
William had personally experienced something similar in the past. It was in the year 876 of the Platinum Calendar. At that time, the royal family of the Blackwater Kingdom converted more than a hundred villagers in a village into undead in order to test the feasibility of the Corrupted Moon Undead Tide. It was completed overnight. The next morning, the dead continued to wake up according to their inertia when they were still alive. Then they continued to live peacefully for more than a month like living people, and no one noticed their abnormality.
Finally, a pharmacist who had been working away from home all year round returned home and met his parents who could not make normal sounds because their vocal cords were completely rotten.
When the parents saw their son who had returned home for the rare occasion, they used their trembling hands with exposed knuckles to bring him a turkey crawling with maggots, bread covered with mold, and red wine that had long gone sour as a warm welcome.
The pharmacist was naturally frightened and ran out of the village, running to the nearest Holy Spirit Church for help. However, because the power of the church in the Blackwater Swamp area was declining, the local church commissioned William and his team, who happened to be here, to go to the village to investigate and purify.
William remembered that this was the initial mission to open the "Corrupted Moon of the Undead" branch quest.
When William and his companions arrived at the village, it was no longer the place described by the pharmacist earlier: "Everyone seems to be normal, but there is a weird atmosphere everywhere." Instead, it was completely out of control and had become a slaughterhouse where the undead indiscriminately attacked any living creature.
The cause of all this was the hasty escape of the pharmacist. His behavior caused his parents, who had already become undead, to discover the truth that they were dead, and this served as a fuse, causing the undead in the entire village to completely go out of control.
Therefore, William's plan was to make this matter clear to everyone to see if they would be awakened by it.
"Absolutely not."
However, Ebony shook his head firmly and refused this proposal.
