After confirming that there was no scent of monsters in the church, everyone's tense nerves relaxed a little. Red looked around the gray building and said solemnly, "Search separately, in pairs, and be sure to keep at least one group of companions within sight. If you find anything, call the police immediately."
The warlocks dispersed in twos and threes. Cahir and another young warlock walked to the side corridor and inspected the stone wall under the stained glass window; Ailiya stayed in the middle hall with an older sorceress, looking at the dusty benches and candlesticks; Red himself moved slowly along the base of the wall, running his fingertips across the gaps in the stone bricks to detect whether there were secret doors or inscriptions.
Yennefer naturally walked to Yavi.
Yavi was standing in the aisle in the center of the church, Witcher Senses opened with all its strength. The cat's pupils shrank slightly, and its ears caught every sound - the footsteps of the warlocks, the rustling of dust falling, the whining sound of the wind pouring in from the crack of the door, the distant sound. There was a tiny sound of broken wooden beams in the ruins of the village. The air was filled with the dry smell of old dust, the sweetness of rotting vines, and the unique aftertaste of frankincense from the Melitele temple. There was no smell of monsters, no traces of toxins, and no fluctuations of curses.
Nothing.
There was something wrong with this in itself. Yavi frowned, but made no sound. Time passed quietly during the search. The warlocks walked from one corner to another, looked through every row of benches, checked every wall, and even pried off a few loose floor tiles, but found nothing. The church was just like other buildings in the village, empty, leaving only dust and silence. After nearly an hour, everyone's patience began to be exhausted.
Just when Yavi turned his attention to the rose window behind the pulpit, Ailiya's voice came from behind - the young sorceress had walked to the pulpit at some point and was approaching the priest's body cautiously. She did not avoid it like the others, but leaned down slightly, her purple eyes scanning back and forth on the priest's withered face, as if she wanted to see some clues from the gray-white face.
Yavi originally did not pay attention to Ailiya. He has repeatedly explored that direction with his senses three times, and the result is the same every time - the corpse is a corpse, it has been dead for a long time, and there is no magic left.
Until a scream came from behind.
"Ah--!!!"
Ailiya's voice was sharp and frightening, tearing apart the silence of the church. Yavi's body reacted faster than his consciousness - the moment Moonlight Cursed Blade was unsheathed, the silver-white sword blade had already drawn an icy arc in the morning light. As he turned around, his steps had started, heading straight towards the pulpit.
The sight in front of him made his pupils shrink suddenly.
The body - stood up.
The priest's body was propped up from the lecture table in an extremely twisted and unnatural posture, as if a pair of invisible hands were lifting him from above. His head lost the support of his cervical spine and hung weakly on the side of his shoulder. His gray-white face was pressed against his collarbone, but his cloudy eyeballs were trembling violently in their sockets., as if desperately searching for some target in the chaos. The arms hung feebly on both sides of the body, swinging like a pendulum as the torso swayed. The two legs tremblingly supported the withered body, and the knees were bent at nearly thirty degrees in reverse, but they still moved forward tenaciously, step by step.
With every step he took, his bones made a heart-wrenching creaking sound.
Everyone in the church froze. Ailiya's face was pale, her lips were bloodless, and she was retreating step by step, the soles of her boots scraping against the ground. She didn't even have the courage to cast a spell - she was afraid that a little magic wave would disturb the walking dead in front of her.
But the priest suddenly stopped.
The cloudy eyeballs stopped trembling and locked onto Ailiya.
The next second--
It moved.
The speed is so fast that it doesn't look like a rotting corpse! The gray-white afterimage is wrapped in a strong smell of dust, and like a long-dormant predator, it suddenly pounces towards Ailiya! Its open mouth It has no teeth, but it makes a low, hoarse neigh! Ailiya's pupils shrank suddenly, and his hands instinctively raised to form a seal, but his fingers were trembling out of fear and couldn't control it - it was too late!
Bang--!!!
A dull roar exploded in the church! The light blue Aard Sign shock wave was like an invisible battering ram, slamming into the side of the priest! The body flying in mid-air was violently knocked out and hit the stone pillar on the side. The crisp sound of broken bones was clearly audible, and then it collapsed to the ground like a bag of mud.
Yavi's figure has already blocked in front of Ailiya. His left hand still maintains the posture of pushing out Signs, and his right hand Moonlight Cursed Blade points diagonally to the ground. The tip of the sword trembled slightly. Yennefer followed closely, with purple magic light condensing on his fingertips. Red and the other warlocks also quickly gathered around, each assuming a fighting stance, and surrounded the pulpit.
"Don't move." Yavi's voice was as calm as ice.
His Witcher Senses was like the most sophisticated detector, locked firmly on the body lying on the ground. If it could make a sudden attack like the one just now, it would be able to stand up again. Yavi's muscles were tense to the extreme, and he had already rehearsed seven or eight response plans in his mind--
However, the smoke cleared and the dust settled.
The priest's body did not rise.
It just lay paralyzed on the ground, like a real corpse that had been dead for a long time. The limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, the head was tilted to one side, and the cloudy eyeballs were half sunk in the sockets, completely losing the weird light just now. Like a puddle of mud.
Yavi waited for more than ten breaths, and only after confirming that the corpse had no magic power fluctuations, no signs of life, or even any abnormalities, he slowly took a step forward.
He cautiously approached from the side, with his cat's eyes always locked on the corpse, holding the Quen Sign's starting hand with his left hand, and the sword tip of his right hand was almost touching the ground. He squatted down next to the corpse, and Witcher Senses was operating at full strength - there was no magic left, no trace of curses, no fluctuations of necromancy, not even the slightest abnormal aura. This corpse was a corpse. It had been dead for a long time, and it was completely dead.
As for the sudden explosion just now... he couldn't find any explanation.
"Yavi?" Red's voice came from behind, with suppressed tension.
Yavi was silent for two seconds, stood up, and took a step back. To be on the safe side, he raised his left hand and spread his fingers--
Igni!
A cone-shaped flame spurted out from his palm, accurately covering the priest's body. The shriveled skin and flesh were quickly blackened and carbonized in the flames, and the bones made a crackling sound. Not long after, the body that had been briefly "resurrected" was completely reduced to a ball of ashes, leaving only a black mark on the ground.
Yavi took back his hand and frowned. Everyone looked at each other, and everyone's eyes were filled with confusion and uneasiness.
"What the fuck... is going on?" Red muttered in a low voice, with unconcealable nervousness in his voice.
No one can answer.
Just then--
"Uh... cough... wu..."
A strange, extremely suppressed sound of suffocation came from the back of the crowd. Everyone turned around and saw Cahir, who was standing at the end, suddenly seemed to have his throat strangled by something, and his hands were tightly strangling his neck! His face turned purple in just a few seconds, and the veins on his forehead bulged out like twisted earthworms. Thick drool overflowed from the corners of his mouth uncontrollably, dripping down his chin and onto the robe on his chest.
"Cahir!" Red strode over.
Cahir's body arched into a shrimp shape, convulsing violently. His mouth was wide open, and a roaring retching sound came from his throat, as if something was blocked in his esophagus, and he wanted to spit it out but couldn't. His eyes rolled wildly, the whites of his eyes occupied the entire eye socket, and his pupils shrank into black spots the size of pinheads.
"Help him! Make him spit it out!" Yennefer shouted.
Two warlocks held Cahir's arms, one on the left and the other on the right, trying to push him to the ground. However, Cahir's struggle was extremely violent, and his strength was not like that of a person who was suffocating. His fingers were deeply embedded in the flesh of his neck, leaving bloody traces.
Ugh--
After a dry, tearing retching, Cahir's body suddenly stiffened.
Then, his eyes rolled white.
He fell straight down.
"Cahir!" Red knelt on one knee and pressed his hands on Cahir's chest. Light blue magic power condensed in his palms and penetrated his body. The light flickered on Cahir's body for a few breaths, but Red's face became darker and darker.
He slowly took back his hand and shook his head.
"It can't be found. The body's functions are normal. There are no toxins, no magic erosion, no curses, no..." He bit his lower lip and did not finish.
Yavi squatted down, and Witcher Senses swept over Cahir's whole body. His School of the Wolf badge hung quietly on his chest, without even a slight vibration from the beginning to the end. There was no toxin, no magic, no curse, no abnormality - nothing. But Cahir just fell down, like an empty shell with its soul taken away.
Yavi's brows knitted into a tight knot.
This is wrong. Very wrong.
From the sudden rise of the priest's corpse to the inexplicable fall of Cahir, all of this happened within the monitoring range of Witcher Senses, but he could not sense anything. There was no magic fluctuation, no trace of curses, and no breath of necromancy. His badge did not respond, and his senses gave no warning - this completely went against all the training he had received and all the experience he had accumulated as a demon hunter.
He even doubted himself a little.
"Red." Yavi stood up and said in a low voice, "I suggest you evacuate immediately."
Red glanced at him, was silent for a moment, and then nodded heavily. The commander stood up, glanced at everyone, and his voice returned to his usual decisiveness. "The mission is over! Take Cahir and return to the temporary gathering place! Let's go!"
No one had any objections. Their original mission was to investigate the situation in the village. Now that the surrounding monsters have been eliminated, the village has returned to safety, and the mission goal has been achieved. As for these successive strange things - the priest's sudden rise, Cahir's coma - they need to return to the academy to find answers with more sophisticated equipment and richer resources.
Two warlocks used a simple stretcher to lift the unconscious Cahir, and everyone quickly left the church. The sun shone on everyone, but it could not dispel the haze that shrouded their hearts.
When they returned to the temporary gathering place of the villagers, the villagers had already recovered from the fear of last night's attack. When Red announced that the village had been restored to safety and the monsters had been eliminated, a burst of suppressed cheers broke out from the crowd. The villagers gathered around and expressed their gratitude to the warlocks and Yavi. Some even knelt on the ground and recited the prayer of Melitele in tears.
Red ended the greeting politely and quickly. He told the villagers that the guards would take over the subsequent defense work, and that their team of warlocks needed to return to the academy immediately due to unexpected circumstances. Although the villagers were reluctant to leave, they also expressed their understanding.
After saying goodbye, Red led everyone to the ruins on the edge of the village. Between the ruins, an ancient teleportation array was half-buried under the soil and gravel. Red squatted down and activated the core runes of the array with magic power. A light blue light slowly rose from the ground, outlining complex circular patterns in the ruins, and a hot magical atmosphere filled the air.