Green Castle Manor (1)

Lola nodded. She did not want to call for backup on her first assignment, either. Besides, she knew how formidable Green was. Even if they ran into a powerful enemy, they probably had little to fear—unless they were unlucky enough to encounter a Transcendent above Formal Rank.

"What do you think that freak wants with so many corpses?" Lola asked. "Some had been buried for years and were already rotting." She still could not make sense of the motive behind the body thefts. If the culprit worshipped some evil god and wanted to make a sacrifice, fresh corpses would be the offering. No one would try to make up the numbers with bodies nearly rotted through. As she spoke, she glanced at Green. Even a Necromancer, who was hardly picky about such things, would have no use for corpses that disgusting, would he?

Green smiled to himself, but he had the same question. If the culprit was a Hex Caster, why steal those corpses?

Unless... that person is about to die! A possibility struck Green. Legend said Hex Casters possessed a secret art: at the point of death, they could make a sacrifice to contact the Hex Source beyond the void and transform themselves into a Curse Priest.

A Curse Priest was somewhat like a Lich. A Lich lodged his soul in a supernatural, uncanny corpse, while a Curse Priest lodged his soul in a body formed from a mass of Voodoo Germs. If Green was right, those old, rotting corpses had been stolen to cultivate vast quantities of Voodoo Germs. Corpses that had been decaying for years worked better for that than fresh ones.

At that thought, Green's mind cleared. Several pieces that had refused to fit before suddenly fell into place.

Now he only needed evidence. Then he