“Why are there no bodies?
Were they taken away?” Caelan stood in the blood-soaked center of Tata Village, his mind racing.
“But why take the bodies?
What use could anyone possibly have for a bunch of civilian corpses?” A sudden, chilling sense of déjà vu washed over him.
He felt like he had encountered a similar situation before.
“Where…
where did I see this…?” His eyes widened as the memory hit him.
“F*ck!!” He gripped his hair, cursing his own forgetfulness.
“How did I not remember that earlier?!” It was the very first S-Class quest he had ever taken.
The bandit stronghold at Mount Bullhead.
The mutated bandit leader, Kira.
The scrawny brother who had sacrificed corpses to a dark entity.
“The report said all these border villages were wiped out over the last two days,” Caelan muttered, his eyes narrowing into cold slits.
“There’s no way they could transport thousands of corpses over long distances without being noticed.
Their hideout has to be somewhere nearby.” He closed his eyes and unleashed his Observation Haki to its absolute maximum range, blanketing the entire region for miles in every direction.
“Not there…
not there…
no…” His Haki swept across mountains, forests, and valleys, until finally— “Found them!” Fwip!
Caelan vanished in a streak of golden light.
Meanwhile, deep within a hidden canyon.
Dozens of black-robed cultists were steering a massive convoy of horse-drawn carriages.
Every single carriage was piled high with pale, lifeless corpses.
The entire canyon reeked of thick, suffocating blood and rotting flesh.
One by one, the carriages rolled into the gaping maw of a massive, heavily fortified cavern.
Inside the cavern.
“Your Holiness,” a black-robed cultist bowed deeply before an opulent throne.
Sitting on the throne, the cult leader—the ‘Pope’—spoke in a calm, chillingly smooth voice.
“How is the collection proceeding?” “Reporting to Your Holiness, everything is proceeding perfectly on schedule.” The cultist hesitated for a moment.
“However…
this subordinate has a concern, if I may speak?” “Speak.” “Your Holiness, performing a massacre on this scale…
surely the Light Guilds have already caught wind of the destroyed villages by now.
It is only a matter of time before they track us down.” The cultist lowered his head further.
“This subordinate fears they might interfere with your grand design.” The Pope’s lips curled into a sinister smile.
“Everything is well within my grasp.
You only need to focus on your duties.
Understand?” “Y-yes.
This subordinate spoke out of turn.” “The serum has already entered its final, most critical stage,” the Pope continued, his eyes gleaming with fanatical madness.
“With the corpses of these tens of thousands of villagers, our grand ascension will finally be complete!
When that time comes, this entire continent will bow to us!
Humanity will transcend into higher-dimensional beings!!
Hahaha!” Outside the cavern.
Caelan stood high on the canyon ridge, his cold eyes watching the endless line of corpse-filled carriages rolling into the cave.
Sweeping his Haki over the wagons, he gritted his teeth.
None of these bodies belonged to the people of Tata Village.
“You absolute scum.” Fwip!
Caelan materialized right in front of the cavern entrance.
KABOOM—!!!
He didn’t aim at the carriages.
He fired a warning blast directly into the cavern wall.
The deafening explosion sent the cultists outside into a panic.
The horses whinnied in terror, thrashing wildly and overturning several carriages.
Dozens of black-robed guards swarmed out of the cavern, instantly erecting a massive, glowing magical barrier across the entrance to protect the interior.
Caelan walked forward, his footsteps echoing ominously across the chaotic canyon.
The captain of the guards spotted him immediately.
“Kill that intruder!” Dozens of mages raised their staffs simultaneously.
Magic Circles of various elements—fire, water, earth, and wind—flared to life, condensing into elemental spears that launched directly at Caelan.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The relentless barrage of Magic crashed down on Caelan’s position like a torrential downpour, kicking up a massive, blinding cloud of dust and smoke.
The captain raised his hand, signaling his men to cease fire.
He narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the settling dust.
Fwip!
A faint glimmer of golden light pierced the smoke.
Before the captain could even process what it was, the laser beam instantly shattered the magical barrier and punched a clean hole straight through his skull.
He dropped to the ground, dead before he even felt the pain.
The surrounding cultists froze in sheer horror, staring at their captain’s lifeless body.
As the smoke slowly cleared, the silhouette of the young Mage emerged, completely unscathed.
“M-monster!” one of the guards shrieked.
Under that kind of concentrated bombardment, they couldn’t fathom how anyone could walk away without a single scratch.
To their limited understanding, it was physically impossible.
And humans always fear what they cannot comprehend.
Caelan looked at the trembling cultists with absolute, ice-cold apathy.
He raised a single glowing finger.
A tiny spark of light shot directly into the center of the squad.
KABOOM!
The explosion ripped through the cultists.
Screams of agony filled the canyon as severed limbs and broken bodies were thrown violently into the air.
In the blink of an eye, the entire vanguard squad lay writhing in pools of their own blood.
Deep inside the cavern, a panicked guard sprinted into the throne room.
“Your Holiness!
It’s terrible!
A Mage is attacking the entrance!” The Pope shot out of his throne.
“Impossible!
How could the Light Guilds have found us so quickly?!” He gritted his teeth.
“How many did they send?!” “R-reporting to Your Holiness…
it’s just one person.” Hearing this, the Pope’s panicked expression instantly smoothed out.
He had feared a full-scale coalition of Light Guilds had surrounded them.
If it was just one arrogant Mage, there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
Regaining his composure, the Pope sneered.
“Since he has graciously delivered himself to our doorstep, make sure he doesn’t leave.
It’s the perfect opportunity to test the serum on the corpse of a Light Guild Mage.” He waved a hand at a gaunt, sinister-looking Mage standing beside the throne.
“Kress.
Go bring me his corpse.” “As you command, Your Holiness.” Back at the entrance.
Caelan ignored the groaning cultists bleeding out on the dirt.
A sickeningly metallic scent of blood hung heavy in the air.
Instead of rushing straight into the cavern, Caelan moved from carriage to carriage, desperately searching through the piles of corpses.
“Not here…
not here…
this wagon either…” Suddenly, a raspy, mocking voice echoed from the cavern entrance.
“What exactly are you looking for, little boy?” Caelan didn’t even look up.
He continued checking the wagons.
His Observation Haki had already picked up on the newcomer, but the man’s magical signature was so pathetically weak that Caelan had zero interest in acknowledging him.
Finding the villagers was his only priority.
Kress twitched, furious at being completely ignored.
‘Curse these arrogant Light Guild brats!
He dares turn his back on me?!’ He glanced at the surviving guards groaning on the ground and sneered.
“A bunch of useless trash.
You can’t even handle one kid.” Kress raised his hands, his eyes glowing with a sickly green light.
“Dark Magic: Corpse Whisperer!” A massive, pitch-black Magic Circle expanded beneath the bodies of the fallen cultists.
Thick, necrotic smoke billowed out, covering both the dead and the dying.
Instantly, the groaning stopped.
The dark magic forcibly extinguished the remaining life force of the survivors.
A moment later, the corpses slowly staggered to their feet, their eyes completely hollow and dead.
“Go!” Kress commanded.
“Tear that brat to shreds!” Hearing the command, the zombified cultists let out guttural shrieks and charged at Caelan.
Even the ones missing legs dragged themselves across the dirt with horrifying speed.
Caelan checked the final carriage.
Still no sign of the Tata Village residents.
“They aren’t out here,” he muttered darkly.
“Did they already move them inside?” “Rraarrgh!” The screeching zombies lunged at his back.
“So annoying.” Caelan didn’t even turn around.
He raised his hands, golden light flaring.
“Ama no Murakumo.” Swish!
Swish!
Swish!
In a fraction of a second, a blinding flurry of golden slashes crisscrossed the air.
Every single zombie was instantly decapitated, their bodies collapsing back into the dirt permanently.
Before Kress could even process what had just happened, a searing heat materialized directly against his throat.
“Aaaaaahhh!!” Caelan was suddenly standing right in front of him, a blade of solid light pressed against his neck.
“Where are the bodies from Tata Village?” Caelan asked, his voice devoid of any emotion.
Kress was completely paralyzed by fear.
His mind went blank, entirely unable to comprehend the question.
Seeing the man was useless, Caelan didn’t waste another word.
Swish.
With a casual flick of his wrist, the blade of light cleanly severed Kress’s head from his shoulders.
As Kress’s head spun through the air, his final, fading thought was one of sheer confusion.
‘Wait…
why am I…
looking at my own body…?’