Passing through town with six mummified bodies isn't an easy thing to do without being noticed. We could have put it in our inventories but it would have felt disrespectful to them.
It was even harder to cross the gates because the guards stopped us.
"Stop, what’s with those corpses?!" The guard shouted as we got close.
"They are paladins, we want to return them to the church they belong to so they do properly bury it." I tell them.
"Got proof?!" The guard asked me.
"Orion hold him a second." I tell my second in command.
He took the paladin I held as I began to look through the gear the men were wearing and found the shield had the pattern of the shield.
I pulled it out and held it out for them.
Their eyes bulged seeing a paladin's shield with the crest of the church of light.
"Quick go warn the captain about this. You lot, come with me, we will return the body but you need to explain EVERYTHING you saw and what happened to these men." The guard said.
"I feel it's best we tell it directly to the church as it's a problem they are best suited to resolve." I tell the guard. I feel it's more towards, "Keep them restrained while we go and get the reward for reporting this!" I'm no idiot and I won't let a chance to get a high class paladin job just because of some shitty guards.
And so they couldn't really stop me when i said it was a problem the church would be needed to fix. Words like that always involve demons or demon cults. A regular city guard wouldn't do any good in this situation.
As such, we were now walking through the streets with people looking and once we arrived at the large gothic church of light which was made of white granite and marble stone a pair of paladins walked to us.
"Halt! What do you people want?! And why do you carry dead corpses on your back!" The paladin on the left said.
I take a step up.
"I wish to speak with a higher up of the church. These men are paladins from this church and we wish to return them and report what exactly killed them." I said in a firm tone.
"You have proof of this claim?!" The other paladin said with his hand at his sword.
I remove the shield like before and hand it to him. His face became very grim seeing it as I was telling the truth.
"What… killed them?!" He said in a dead deep voice.
"Let us talk inside… there is too much… attention out here." I said looking from the corner of my eye at the crowd of players.
"Yes, come I shall lead you to the high priest himself. The condition of the corpse isn't normal. Call the others and keep the crowd out." The paladin on the left told the other.
He then leads our party inside but the guard is pushed back and instead leaves us going back to his post.
The interior could be compared to an old catholic cathedral with stained glass and archway design giving it the medieval feel.
The paladin led us through many corridors until we reached a large wooden double door.
"Now once you enter drop to one knee and don't look up at the high priest until he has told you to. Place the bodies in front of you on the floor but don't throw them." The paladin instructed and we nodded.
He then turned and knocked on the door.
A resounding boom from each knock could be heard.
"Enter!" An elderly voice came from behind the door as if it was spoken from behind us.
It sent a chill down our spines hearing that but like instructed he looked down at the ground as the doors opened and followed the paladin until he stopped and kneeled and we did the same putting the bodies on the ground as he instructed.
"Your excellency, these men saw our paladins be killed and have come to report what had happened." The paladin says.
"I see… you may all rise." An ancient voice said and we did so but left the bodies. We found in front of us an elder with pure white hair but eyes darker than the abyss.
"Please begin." He said.
And so I began saying how our party entered the rat dungeon and after returning from our rest we found the trail of someone that had passed the location we had been in. We followed it and reached the final room of the floor where we found the paladins fighting. Two had already died but they had killed eight.
The moment I told them that it was a cultist, the calm semblent on the elder's face turned fierce as if a shadow had spread over his face. I continued telling them that at that point the cultist pulled out a scroll and smeared his blood on it and called out a swarm of demon bugs that completely drained every last drop of liquid from the body of the paladins and all the corpses left behind leaving them in this state.
"How did you escape this attack? You said they noticed you?" The high priest said with a fierce look.
"A friend that we split off from after we left the dungeon is a bug breeder. He summoned a type of bug with lightning magic affinity and made a dome around us to protect us from the swarm and spiders to capture and kill the demon flies and turn it into food. He also killed the remaining cultists." I say. I don't know why but i felt if i lied to this man, it wouldn't end with just dying once.
"I see, I heard a report of a Traveller that had one of these insects. I had suspected he was a cultist because of this ability but as you described just now, he fought against them and used insects that cultists aren't able to possess. So... where did this man say he was going?" The priest asked.
"He did not say..." I replied but a sudden calm expression that made me cold inside appeared on the elder's face.
"It is not good to lie, where did he go?" He asked again.
"I am sorry but he really didn't tell us where he was going, he left the town as soon as we left the dungeon." I reply, having a bad feeling.
"I see, i would ask that you return the paladin armor you removed before coming here." The priest asked and removed the armor from our inventory and put it next to their bodies.
The priest then did a hand gesture and the room was filled with a glowing aura yet the armor and body had a black haze on it.
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"Guess the part about the demon bugs was true enough." He said.
"Wh-what is this..." I asked, shocked and a bit fearful.
"The corpses were injected with poison but a truly malevolent one that after a period of time the body will rise from the undead as a unique undead created from victims of demon bugs. Then turn into demons that can open a portal to the isolated dimension of the bugs that killed it and release them in the area it is present in." The priest says and taking several steps back with the paladin behind him he turned towards us and with a hand gesture a large glowing light appeared under us.
"I thank you for your services in warning us about the cultists, but because of how useless you were in not making the man known as Droso come with you so that we could make use of his powers we unfortunately have to get rid of useless people like you." He said as the light grew brighter.
It felt like my very soul was starting to crumble.
Warning!!! Event that would cause death perceived!!! EJECTING PLAYER!!
The next moment I found myself on my bed covered in sweat while my heart was beating at full speed.
On the glasses I saw a message.
We are sorry to say but the NPC High Priest Velmont has used the spell, Holy Judgement.
The spell completely destroys the soul and it is something we are unable to remove and its danger towards the player.
We protected your mind and ejected you but your character has been permanently deleted. You can make a new one in 3 hours and we will give you a bonus for suffering a near death experience we couldn't remove.
My heart was slowly getting under control as I read the text. The three hours are probably to allow my mind to calm down.
I remove the glasses with a yank and sit up breathing ragged breaths. I rest my head in my hands and breathe deep breaths. I feel the bed move as my wife gets up noticing my state.
"Did something happen?" Her soft gentle voice said in my ear.
"Yeah… the high priest of one of the churches nearly fucking killed me. I need to cool off and call the boys and see how they are doing." I tell her.
I then feel her soft silky hands touch my own hands and lifting my head I can see her hands holding my shaking ones.
"Calm down a bit. Lay on the bed while I get you some pills to calm down a bit." She tells me in a sweet tone.
"Get me my phone as well. I want to check on the others." I ask her. She nods and kisses me.
After she gets my phone she leaves and goes get the pills. I look at the time and see it hasn't been even 30 minutes since I logged in.
Turning on the phone I selected all the men who were with me. This is the convenient group call which has been available for decades now.
After a moment they each pick up.
"So… how do you boys feel?" I asked.
"Like shit!"
"Scared as hell!"
"Like I need to beat something up."
And so on.
They all reacted differently but all of them meant the same thing. "I'm scared as hell."
"No one return to the game. Get lots of rest, tomorrow I will schedule a physiatrist test for all of us. This could lead to lots of problems in the future so let's deal with it now." I tell them in as firm a tone as possible the close the call. I then connect the phone to the usb on the VR glasses and access the friends list that is still there. Droso's number was there and so I called him.
It took a moment as he needed to enter standby which is like logging out but not exiting the virtual reality.
*Click*
"Hi Gelot… so how bad did it go?" He said as his voice got through.
"So you more or less guessed something would happen?" I asked.
"Yes, I told you as well that telling you which way I was going would cause trouble for you." He replied.
"Yeah... well not knowing it also caused us to almost die for real." I replied bluntly.
"W-what?!?!?!" He shouts in shock. I could only sigh in relief that he was actually worried. "WHAT HAPPENED!?"
"The high priest cast a judgement spell that attacks the soul. Players included. It was because of the game system that we survived but none of us are thinking of re-entering the game until we have a full check up with mental doctors and see if we didn’t develop problems related to the VR tech." I explained to him.
"That’s fine. I wouldn't expect you to put yourself or your men in harm’s way after something like that. If you guys do come back though, start in the southern region. I am heading that way and from estimates it would take one to two game months for me to reach it and I also need to think of how to cross the desert so it will be a little while before we can see each other." He said.
"So that is where you are going? Not towards the west into the wild forests?" I asked.
"There are only high leveled monsters that way. No point in going there with my current levels. I will spend time training myself and breeding my bugs." He said.
"I see, good luck with that, I’m going to take a rest and let my head calm down.”
"Rest well and good luck with what happened and sorry for putting you through that." He tells me, making a smile spread on my face.
I shut off the phone and look at my lovely wife. In her hands was a cup of water and two pills.
"Was that a friend? Don't remember hearing his voice before?" She said.
"A friend I met in game." I said and took the pills and cup drinking them all quickly and letting out a deep sigh.
"I need to rest for now. May be busy tomorrow." I tell her as I kiss her before letting my body crash on my bed as I let the mental fatigue take over.
***
"They got away, your excellency!" The paladin said in shock.
"Of course they did. They have that blasted divine protection that keeps them from truly dying but I was able to destroy their bodies permanently. They can’t return here or we will simply kill them again." The priest says with a sneer.
"What would you like to do about the man called Droso?" The paladin asked.
"Place a bounty to have him captured and brought here alive. 50 g should be enough. Also has the spy gotten an image of him?" The priest said.
"No your excellency. He has a hard time following the man because he seems to disappear even more so than the normal traveller. He has to track the man, however." The paladin replies.
"Those travellers said he left town as soon as he left the dungeon. In other words he already guessed the outcome or at least that we would do something with these men. If that is the case then send out our scouts through all the roads and find him. He is a 35 year old with a strange Glaive as i heard. Can't be too many men with a two sided Glaive." The priest says and the paladin bows before leaving the room.
After a few hours the bounty was placed.
Traveller Droso
WANTED ALIVE!
He has committed the crime of going against the Church of Light but as a traveller he won't stay dead so we asked that this man is to be brought alive.
His abilities are unknown but he is said to wield a strange Glaive with one side having the blade and the other a blunt iron wood head. He is also known for breeding and using monster bugs so it is advised you beware of this man.
Reward: 50g
The church decree caused all the bounty hunters and aspiring hunters to go into an uproar. A bandit bounty does not surpass 20 silver coins. PK can reach as high as 10 g depending on how many people they have killed. But only a church or noble can give such a high reward for him and the crime ‘going against the church’ can mean anything including simply avoiding them while having something they see value in.
The news spread like a virus on the net and though pro hunters didn't care since they hunted bigger fish it was still interesting to them to see someone like this. To make it better, there was no picture like normal and it was a "wanted Alive" poster that is really uncommon.
As for the man in question, unlike what others would expect, he had stored the Glaive as he guessed it would cause trouble and had a bone spear on his back and he was using his Grand Elder Rabbit set instead of common leather armor since it has a helmet. Not only that, he had guessed that spies would come for him so he tried an idea he had wanted to do for a while.
Connecting with five Royal Guard Vampiric Mosquitoes he had them grab his back and lift him into the air and fly him making it so his tracks ended at one point and would only begin much later on. He only used this at night of course and with the large number of flies he had, he would periodically change them and let the others rest.
The two month guess to reach the southern region isn't wrong. It would take 4 months on a carriage to reach it and 2 weeks going through the desert to reach the capital city that was hidden within a canyon which worked to shield the city from the sand.
And even so Droso who had left behind the city filled with people after him still didn't know about his amazing bounty but it wouldn't take long.
Not long after when he was landing far from a small town that had already received the message via magic messaging.
"Time to supply up and maybe get a map of the entire region."