In the battle of the Vulture Plains, the Titans Empire and the Saturn Empire lost over three million soldiers. Excluding the souls saved through cremation, purification, and redemption, approximately 1.8 million souls fell into darkness during the great catastrophe. These souls gradually perished, were devoured, purified, or banished over the following twenty years.
The Burial Ground of Bones, although the deadliest place on the continent, doesn't have many lethal undead creatures. Only about 100,000 to 500,000 war-undead from the great catastrophe survived. This is still a huge number, but when spread across a vast plain, it seems sparse.
The great catastrophe, also known as the Day of Lost Souls, occurred on the last Sunday following the conclusion of the Vulture Plains battle.
The post-war recovery, filled with blood and tears, was a difficult task. Both the Titans and Saturn Empires searched the blood-soaked plains for remains. The dead needed to return home, where their unyielding spirits could rest in the light, in a place of peace. Only then could they avoid being exploited by some evil necromancer and resurrected as murderous puppets a hundred years later.
However, everything changed with an abnormal energy fluctuation...
This deathly force, emanating from deep within the earth, swiftly enveloped the entire Vulture Plain. All the unburied, uncremated, and unholy warriors' corpses turned into vicious, murderous undead in one night!
They slaughtered every living creature within the Vulture Plain, then fell into endless infighting. From that moment, fog enveloped the Vulture Plain, and death, decay, and corruption completely shrouded the land.
The cause of the great catastrophe remains unknown to this day.
The forces of light sought to understand and avoid it, while the dark hoped to comprehend and control it. Sadly, twenty years later, they've achieved nothing, only adding a few fresh corpses to the Burial Ground of Bones.
In the Burial Ground of Bones, the most numerous dark creatures aren't the undead but their offshoots — ghosts, as ordinary people call them.
Since venturing deeper, Felix and his companions have encountered numerous ghosts. These wrongful spirits, caught between being material and immaterial, are immune to physical damage and are a challenging, though not powerful, adversary.
While troublesome, the souls aren't strong. Their attacks are limited, mostly focusing on mental disturbances. To Felix and his companions, such low-level abilities are easily ignored. During their journey, they faced six major monster attacks in four magical hours, two by ghosts, one by a banshee, and three by wandering warrior spirits.
Seeing the pale figure of the banshee in the mist, Felix was startled, reminded of the temple of the Plague Goddess, a cursed land. Even now, the thought of the inexplicable deaths there, leaving no trace of the souls, filled him with dread.
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The banshee wasn't powerful. To a caster like Felix, with exceptional mental strength, her only skill of illusion was like a child's poor performance — ridiculous and laughable.
**Chapter 70: I Withdraw**
The only troublesome part was that the banshees possessed a sharp anti-magic shield. In an environment rich in negative elements, a banshee held out for a full minute and a half against the middle-aged nun's attacks before finally perishing.
Combat is a high-energy-consuming form of art. In Felix's life, battles lasting over five minutes were extremely rare. In life-and-death struggles, only fools drag things out. Felix believed that anyone wanting to survive would strike with lethal intent, as only a deadly blow could ensure safety.
The undead creatures here were generally strong. Even the skeletal warriors wandering the outskirts had nearly Silver Domain-level strength, a discovery that made Felix feel embarrassed, as his overall strength was only slightly above the Silver Domain.
These skeletal warriors, battle-hardened in life, had grown even stronger after surviving twenty years of undead strife.
Visibility in the mist gradually decreased. By four o'clock in the afternoon, the group made a discovery. They found several bodies, the bodies of priests.
"Belonging to the Holy Affairs Department, they seem to be judges of the Holy Affairs Department," Felix said, bending over to lift the collar of a corpse, and then spoke to the silent middle-aged nun behind him, "They haven't been dead for more than a day. It looks like they also knew about The Left Hand of God."
Each of these corpses had gold-threaded cuffs, indicating, according to the church's hierarchy, a status higher than judges in the Holy Affairs Department. They were not the judges Felix spoke of, but "Iyeta's Minions" — the white-robed adjudicators!
The middle-aged nun had no intention of correcting Felix's mistake. Last night's events had completely disrupted her peace of mind. She needed an answer, an end. She wouldn't tell Felix that she recognized the body on the edge; it was a bishop, a powerful zealot.
"The bodies were bisected!" Felix pointed to the corpse on the edge, dressed in a snow-white priestly robe, though it could also be a bishop.
Felix guessed that the church's dispatched personnel must have been in a panic when they retreated, as they only removed the identity symbols from the bodies and didn't deal with many details.
"If it wasn't an inside attack, then I think the only ones who could bisect a holy priest under the protection of Holy Affairs Department judges in this land are 'the Devil's Servants,' the legendary — death knights!"
Felix couldn't help but smile bitterly. He turned back to look at the middle-aged nun and said, "I have good news and bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?"
The nun didn't speak, just gazing coldly at Felix. She disliked such low-level jokes and even more the childish way of speaking.
The silence was expected by Felix. He was now sure that the nun harbored hostility towards him because of last night's misunderstanding.
Felix had no interest in clearing up this misunderstanding. In his view, such nuns with excessive female hormone secretion were rigid and unreasonable, especially the older ones.
He clapped his hands, then pointed ahead, saying playfully, "The bad news is, unfortunately, I think we've entered a death knight's territory."
"The good news is that we're temporarily safe until the death knight kills all the papal advance team members."
The nun's expression didn't change. She just nodded at Felix and continued forward.
"I'm sorry. I have another piece of bad news for you." Felix stayed put, clutching Mammon’s Redemption, staring at the nun's retreating back, and then said solemnly, "I've decided to withdraw from this adventure. I'm not afraid of death, but I don't like walking into it, especially in a place like this!"