NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve: Betrayal and Slaughter
It had been several days since Miss Vilyric and her attendant departed from the gloomy forest town. The duo trekked through mountains and rivers, focused on a particular direction, specifically choosing paths that seemed abnormal. However…
“Ah… so boring, Xiao Guang! Why is it so peaceful? Not even a single bandit on the road! Is the law and order in this other world really that good?”
The Black-haired Girl squatted on the ground, holding her holy staff, looking utterly despondent. Half of her pristine white robes were smeared with mud, yet they showed no signs of dirt—self-cleaning, a basic ability of an artifact.
“Um…”
Seeing her master like this, the Little Dragon Daughter scratched her head awkwardly. Even she couldn’t make enemies come knocking on their door for a beating… quite the opposite, actually.
In truth, they had encountered a number of hostile creatures along the way due to deliberately looking for trouble, but in Vilyric’s eyes, they hardly counted as interesting.
How should she put it? They were simply too weak—weak enough that even the Priestess couldn’t be bothered with them. The strongest encounter had been that black tiger on the first day.
For example… skeleton soldiers with levels under 5, which an ordinary person could probably smash with a stick; wraiths who were all fluff, actually just blowing hot air without a single ray of sunlight—just all sorts of nonsense.
Come on, Miss Vilyric plays with Holy Light; how could she be frightened by such things?
“Seriously, if I had known, I might as well have let Uncle Lester take us to West Sea City for a stroll. At least then we wouldn’t have to camp out in the wild…”
“Master, if you’re looking for a nearby big city, I can turn into my true form for you to ride…” Xiao Guang suggested with anticipation, but unfortunately, she was cut off by her master.
“No way!”
Vilyric crossed her arms with a determined look. “Adventuring means taking firm steps on the ground to see different scenery! Flying around is like using cheats to rush through the main story, and I can’t accept that!”
“Um, okay then…”
Xiao Guang nodded in disappointment. She didn’t really understand what cheats or the main story were, but she could somewhat grasp Vilyric’s meaning.
Since her master wanted to walk slowly, they would do just that! As long as she could follow her master, the Little Dragon Daughter didn’t mind where they went.
“Alright, let’s get moving! I hope we can find a city to rest in today.”
“Yes, Master need not worry… huh?”
Xiao Guang suddenly furrowed her brows midway through her sentence. Vilyric, sensing something, turned her gaze to a certain direction.
There, on the road down the mountain.
“Master, there’s a strong smell of blood coming this way.”
Vilyric’s spirits lifted as she laughed with excitement. “Yes, it seems we’ve finally come across something interesting! Let’s go join the fun!”
The path from the mountain road to the main road was not short, and if they walked slowly, the situation would probably settle before they arrived. So, Vilyric decided to fly—now that’s called flexibility on principle.
“Divine Wings!”
With a soft chant, a pair of substantial, pure white wings extended from Vilyric’s back, spanning several meters wide. With a flap, the girl soared into the sky, racing down the mountain, and Xiao Guang summoned her dragon wings to follow closely behind.
Before they arrived, the sounds of battle echoed fiercely—a true bloody melee beneath them. However, upon arrival, Miss Vilyric looked completely bewildered.
“Wait, aren’t they from the same group? What are they doing? Quarreling among themselves?”
“Wait, Master, look! Some of them have identifiers tied to their arms.”
Xiao Guang was absolutely correct. Among the soldiers clad in silver chainmail, more than two-thirds had conspicuously tied red ribbons in visible spots—clearly a symbol of identity to distinguish friend from foe.
Moreover, Vilyric also noticed a greater number on the ribboned side attacking while the others formed a defensive stance, desperately holding out. But due to their numbers, it appeared they had been ambushed, and the situation was dire.
“Hmm… why does it feel like I always stumble upon firefighting scenes?”
“Master, look over there.”
Following Xiao Guang’s pointing, Vilyric soon realized that the disadvantaged soldiers seemed to have surrounded a carriage in the center, clearly trying to protect something—or someone—inside. However, due to the overwhelming enemy numbers, they failed to break free after several attempts, resulting in heavy losses.
“Silver armor… I remember Lester saying that only royal直属 factions in the United Kingdom are permitted to wear that color of armor. Is someone important from the royal family inside?”
“Master, should we intervene? The battle should conclude soon.”
“Well, about that…”
Vilyric contemplated the chaotic melee below. This situation was somewhat better than when they rescued Lester and the others before; although the inside soldiers were at a disadvantage, they hadn’t completely collapsed and still had fighting strength.
If this battle continued, even if the red-bannered troops managed to wipe them out, it would likely come at a great cost…
Strangely, if this was a rebellion or something, why choose such a time—during the day, on the main road? With so many infiltrated, shouldn’t they have had a better opportunity?
There was only one explanation—they were in a hurry.
Perhaps… something was forcing them to take action—it felt off; this matter didn’t seem as simple as it appeared.
“Let’s not rush. We’ll keep watching.”
“Yes, Master.”
Xiao Guang didn’t care one bit; after all, she had no feelings for human lives. Even if many died, it merely meant the extinction of ants. If her master wasn’t interested, she wouldn’t have bothered coming here for a glance.
As time passed, both sides suffered heavily from the brutal combat. The attackers desperately tried to breach defenses to reach the carriage, while the defenders were determined to hold their ground at all costs. The stench of blood thickened on the main road. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before passing merchant caravans and townsfolk were drawn in.
As if realizing this, the commander hidden within the red-bannered troops couldn’t hold back. Following a certain signal, five or six soldiers who hadn’t joined the battle suddenly pulled out a few pitch-black staves from a nearby cart, raised them, and emitted eerie black-gray light from their tips.
“Just as I thought, something’s off.”
Vilyric lightly caressed the luminous gem atop her Eternal Staff. Although she didn’t have a deep understanding of many powers in this world, it was indisputable those individuals were casting some kind of magic.
The gray-black light coalesced in the air, only to burst out the next moment, transforming into streaks of light that infused the bodies of the fallen soldiers. In the next instant, corpses that had already lost their life suddenly began to groggily rise!
“Necromancy…?”
In [Phantom World], there were indeed skills to manipulate corpses and the dead, but they required numerous dark and necromancy-related skills as prerequisites. In this game, there was no such thing as “classes”; the thing that defined a player’s role were only skill trees, race, and distribution of points.
For example, Vilyric focused primarily on light-type magic, with skills for healing, enhancement, defense, and barriers. Due to certain racial reasons, she inherently felt disgusted by methods that commanded the dead and desecrated the deceased.
Even if the situation didn’t develop as she anticipated, Vilyric would ultimately intervene to send those guys packing.
The rise of the undead tipped the scales, and the already disadvantaged defenders found it nearly impossible to withstand this sudden surge of power, and added to the fear brought by this bizarre situation, their defenses instantly collapsed. The red-bannered troops seized this opportunity to finally breach the inner defense, rushing towards their target.
With a swipe, what seemed to be a leader brought down his blade, splitting the carriage in two before the surrounding guards could rush to assist!
Including the people inside…
Of course, that was only assuming there were actually people inside the carriage.