The temperature around Kairils plummeted, and flecks of frost began condensing on his armor.
Following Kairils's gaze,
a vague red figure could indeed be seen standing deep in the woods ahead!
The red-robed figure hid behind a distant tree trunk, watching the column of knights mounted on more than a dozen warhorses from afar.
To the knights of the Righteous Gods who patrolled the edges of the Wasteland year-round, that style of clothing was familiar down to their bones.
An Abyss cultist!
"A cultist scout?!"
Knight Viel had also spotted the red figure and began speculating about his identity.
Meanwhile,
the red figure hiding behind the distant dead tree seemed to realize he had been exposed.
The instant his eyes met Kairils's bone-chilling gaze across the distance,
the red-robed man shuddered violently, as though terrified.
He couldn't even bother concealing himself anymore. He darted out from behind the tree and took off, fleeing madly deeper into the forest!
The way he ran, that panic-stricken figure retreating into the distance-
he looked exactly like a cultist scared out of his wits by the knights of Winterhold!
"Trying to run?!"
"Since you dared show yourself before this captain, your life is mine!"
Kairils snorted coldly.
For a regular knight who considered the heretics of the Abyss his mortal enemies, encountering a suspicious cultist in the wilderness required no interrogation whatsoever!
Kill without mercy-that ironclad rule was etched onto the first page of the knightly code!
"Hyah!!"
Without the slightest hesitation or another wasted word,
Kairils jerked the reins with one hand and clamped his legs against his horse's flanks!
The tall warhorse with blue-and-white markings immediately let out a deafening whinny!
The instant its hooves struck the ground, a visible burst of white, frigid air exploded outward, freezing the mud and rotting