I became a god through archaeology in the Wizarding World.

The Tower of the Dead, top floor.

A massive magical shield shimmered in the night sky, and each strike of the magic cannon created ripples on the shield, causing the entire tower to tremble.

Mortimer stood beside the alchemical pool, watching the churning dark green liquid within, a morbid fanaticism on his face.

"Bomb it up, bomb it all up!"

He opened his arms as if embracing the destruction: "Your artillery fire will only accelerate the spread of the spores. Fear, despair, death... these are the best nourishment."

Behind him, several necromancer apprentices were nervously pouring buckets of unknown black powder into the pool.

"Mentor, the defensive barrier's energy reserves are less than 30% remaining."

An apprentice, his voice trembling with tears, reported to the leader: "If the magic cannon continues to bombard, the barrier will shatter in two hours at most."

Two hours? That's enough.

Mortimer turned around, his eyes, burning with ghostly flames, revealing a chilling calmness.

"The carnage spores are just an appetizer. The real feast needs a special ingredient."

He walked to a corner of the laboratory, where there was an iron cage bound by heavy chains.

The cage didn't contain any ferocious beast, but rather a little girl who was only seven or eight years old.

She huddled in the corner, her eyes vacant, and faint green spots had appeared on her skin.

"A pure, desperate soul, contaminated with a high concentration of corpse poison..."

Mortimer stretched out his withered fingers, tracing runes in the air through the railing: "As long as I use her as the core and throw her into the alchemical pool, I can catalyze the Corpse Mother. At that time, all the corpses in the royal capital will rise up and become my army. And this army will be the sharp blade that opens the kingdom's gates and welcomes the storm..."

"Rhodes...do you think you'll be safe just by hiding?"

Mortimer looked out the window toward the history department building, a cruel smile playing on his lips: "Once my army of the undead has engulfed this city, I will drag you out of your rat hole and use your soul to light the soul lamp."

......

Meanwhile, on the main road of the capital.

Rhodes, Sieg, and Professor Isaac were moving quickly along a purification passage that had been temporarily cleared.

This place was once the most bustling commercial street in the capital, but now it has become a battlefield.

The shops along the roadside had their doors tightly shut and their windows boarded up.

The streets were covered in dark red bloodstains and green slime.

Every few dozen meters, you can see a pile of burnt ashes, which are the bodies of infected people that were disposed of on the spot by the military police.

The air was filled with a suffocating stench, a mixture of the acrid smell of burning corpses and the sweet, fishy smell unique to spores.

"vomit……"

Professor Isaac finally couldn't hold it in any longer and began to dry heave against the wall.

"Don't stop, Professor."

Rod pulled the professor up: "The longer you inhale this air, the greater the risk of infection. Put your mask on properly."

He looked to the other side of the street.

There was a bakery there that used to be very successful.

At this moment, a swollen corpse lies at the entrance of the shop.

The corpse's abdomen had exploded, and green intestines were spilling out onto the ground. Several mutated rats were greedily gnawing on the poisonous flesh.

Beside the corpse, several freshly baked loaves of bread lay scattered, now stained an eerie green.

"This is the Corpse-Abusing Spore..."

Rhodes's gaze lingered on the corpse for two seconds.

As a doctor, he immediately recognized the horror of this plague.

It's not just about killing people; it's about using corpses as a medium for transmission.

Each dead body is a time bomb, and each explosion spreads the spores to even more distant places.

If this exponentially spreading mode of transmission is not cut off at its source, the entire capital's hundreds of thousands of inhabitants will be wiped out within three days.

"Mortimer is crazier than I imagined."

Rod muttered to himself.

He originally thought Mortimer just wanted to use the plague to create chaos and force all parties to compromise.

But he underestimated the destructive power and madness of a third-ringed archmage.

Sig stopped in his tracks.

He looked ahead, where the only way to the palace square was.

By this time, a small mountain of corpses had been piled up there.

Those were hundreds of infected corpses that hadn't yet been burned; they were piled up haphazardly, their green limbs intertwined.

On top of the pile of corpses, several priests of the Church of Morning Star, dressed in white robes, were desperately sprinkling holy water in an attempt to suppress the bodies that were about to explode.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! It's going to explode!"

A pastor suddenly shouted in terror.

"boom!!"

A violent explosion occurred at the bottom of the pile of corpses.

Green flesh and blood fell like raindrops, and several priests who were nearby were instantly covered in venom, letting out shrill screams.

Sig frowned.

He turned to look at Rod and made a gesture: take a detour.

Rhodes nodded, but he didn't move immediately.

His gaze was fixed on the pile of corpses from the explosion, and the "Species Atlas" in his mind suddenly flickered very faintly.

It wasn't because a new species had been discovered, but because of that familiar and nauseating magical fluctuation.

Amidst the splattered green flesh and blood, Rhodes spotted an extremely fine black thread, almost imperceptible unless one looked closely.

That's neither a blood vessel nor a parasite.

That was... some kind of magical network similar to plant roots.

"Plant-based... Necromancer-based... Bioalchemy..."

A flash of inspiration struck Rhodes.

Mortimer's Corpse Spores are not just necromancy; they incorporate the growth characteristics of plants!

This means that these spores have roots.

The plague can be stopped if the mother entity is found, or if their magical connection to the mother entity is severed.

And this matrix is ​​very likely located inside the Necropolis.

"Rhodes?" Professor Isaac tugged at his sleeve. "We should go."

Rhodes snapped out of his daze and looked away.

"Let's go."

He lowered the brim of his hat, concealing the deep chill in his eyes.

The situation is completely out of control.

He originally only wanted to use Mortimer to restrain all parties and buy himself time to excavate the ruins.

But now, Mortimer has overturned the chessboard and wants to bury everyone.

If the capital is destroyed, his plans will also fall through.

Whether the king will die is unknown, but the professor and those ordinary people will die, and he will lose all his resources and protection.

"It seems I should prepare a return gift for this necromancer."

Rhodes touched the black chip in his pocket that he had brought from underground and that had lost its central control.

The three of them bypassed the chaotic square and hurried toward the majestic walls of the royal palace.

The night grew deeper, but the fires in the capital city turned the sky a fiery red.