On the second floor of the Burning Wood Inn, Renato could not help running his hand over the oak door.
It felt solid and sturdy beneath his palm. The door was made of thick timber, its surface sanded smooth and even, without a single crack at the edges.
Yet last night, a zombie's lunge had easily smashed through this very same sturdy wooden door. Splinters had flown everywhere, the hinges had twisted out of shape, and even half the frame had been torn away.
The more Renato recalled last night's experiences, the more incredible they seemed. It was as though the entire Royal City had suffered ages of erosion in an instant, its buildings aging and everything within it rotting away.
Cracks had covered the walls, houses had swayed and collapsed, and the flagstone roads had fractured and sunk. The entire city had become a ruin.
Not a single resident had escaped, either. All of them had been transformed into undead monsters. From the ruins where the two of them had hidden to the streets and alleys where they had tried to break through, Renato had encountered no living person other than himself and Klauthsura. Everywhere he looked, walking corpses roamed.
If the restored buildings had already left Renato stunned speechless, the undead that had abruptly vanished and then "come back to life" left him at an utter loss as to how to process the reality before him.
According to the common religious knowledge of Ereel, spells involving "resurrection" were not especially widespread, but neither were they rare.
Provided someone was willing to spare no expense and pay several thousand gold coins, and the deceased's body remained intact, high-rank clerics of many deities would not mind performing a resurrection ritual to earn their temple a little "unexpected income."
However, the