Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

Chapter 167 Sheriwu

From the bandit camp came screams of panic and killing; his own creations were slaughtering and reaping death within the building. Lyle remained remarkably calm; mercy to the enemy was cruelty to himself.

Kevin's face showed a hint of reluctance, but seeing the indifferent eyes of his two companions, he merely frowned.

The three men's job was now quite easy. They stood guard at the gate, finishing off the badly wounded robbers as they fled.

William could do this with ease. He erected a wall of spikes using earth elementals outside the city gates. Those who panicked and jumped out from behind the wall would be turned into a skewer by gravity. The lucky ones would also receive a fireball from him.

"Thanks to Lyle, all we have to do now is collect their corpses." William didn't hold back in praising his companion. Having once been alone, William had experienced the convenience that necromancy brought him, despite the somewhat bloody process. He was a realist; usability was always his top priority.

He casually patted Lyle, who was controlling the monster, but unexpectedly Lyle coughed up blood.

"This... I did this?"

Lyle paid no attention to William; his eyes were fixed on the earthen wall behind him. "My creation has been destroyed."

"How is this possible! There are such powerful people in a bandit camp!"

"Be prepared, what we're about to face may not be people."

Before the words were finished, the earthen wall at the gate collapsed with a crash, and a burly man carrying a long sword walked out.

He was over two meters tall, his body as massive as a water vat, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with dark brown skin and grotesque veins lurking beneath. A wound the size of a bowl marked his abdomen, a section of white bone anchored to the muscle—the spear of a skeletal spider. His face was contorted, and beneath the skin of his face, a strange blood vessel throbbed. White foam billowed from his mouth as he emitted a beast-like wail. His eyes, white and twitching, stared fixedly at the three figures.

Roar! ! !

The bandit leader charged forward like a mad bull.

The curse of slowness, the curse of weakness. An overwhelmingly powerful physique renders these negative effects negligible, but it has given someone ample time.

Ice Pillar Spell! Ice pillars rose beneath the feet of the three, allowing them to dodge the initial impact. The ice pillars collapsed, and Nia extended her tentacles to grab Lyle and Kevin.

Gentle Breeze! William adjusted his descent position in mid-air, raising his wand high.

A barrage of fireballs!

The fireball struck the bandit leader's back, scorching his skin until it turned black and charred. But beneath the charred layer, bright red flesh began to writhe and regenerate.

"Lyle! What kind of monster is this?!"

"I don't know! But since it's flesh and blood, use ice. Cold can reduce the activity of living organisms!"

William nodded. "Understood. Lend me Kevin for a bit."

"Huh?" Kevin, still in mid-air, hadn't even recovered when Nia's tentacles tossed him into the air. When Kevin landed again, he was standing on an ice pillar, less than ten meters away from the bandit leader.

The bandit leader, seeing Kevin standing close by, charged forward.

With a loud bang, the ice pillar shattered, but perhaps due to insufficient distance, the impact was not strong enough. The broken ice did not turn into powder, but instead became large chunks of ice blades.

The support pillar beneath Kevin's feet shattered, and he fell down along with the icicle. The bandit leader swung his greatsword, but due to the refraction of the ice, he struck only air.

The ice block Kevin was standing on became sharpened by the blade, sliding down the straight blade and piercing straight into the bandit leader's chest.

Blood splattered everywhere. The bandit leader was buried under ice, while Kevin rolled onto the grass due to inertia.

Freeze Spell!

William's wand emitted a chilling aura, and the ice began to solidify, creating an ice prison for the bandit leader.

He was panting heavily, feeling the little magic power left in his body, and the bandit leader turned into an ice sculpture.

William smiled.

"Ice Blast".

The ice prison shattered, and the human figure inside was reduced to ice shards.

……

The bandit camp returned to its original state. A group of cold-blooded bandits patrolled the walls, indifferent to their surroundings.

In the central floor of the camp, William lit the central brazier.

"It's getting late. We need to stay here tonight and not forget what those bandits are guarding against. Even if Lyle resurrects those bandits and disguises them, we must stay alert tonight."

Lyle was stirring the soup pot when Nia threw a clump of yellow slime into it.

"Nia's mucus has an energy-boosting effect, you should all drink some."

Kevin awkwardly finished the soup, looking surprised.

"The taste is surprisingly good!"

All night without incident.

……

"What's that, Kevin?"

The next morning, the three continued on their way and saw the collapsed and tilted Hamletshire boundary marker. On the grass next to the marker, Kevin picked up a red-covered scroll.

"A letter."

To my beloved mother:

When I write this letter, I am already preparing to flee Hamlet.

The Duke of Hamlet is a terrible man. I know you don’t want to hear anything bad about him, but these are my honest thoughts. He spends his days and nights in his room performing mysterious and horrific rituals. The Duke’s house is as somber as he is, though I have never left Hamletshire since the moment you gave birth to me.

Perhaps you will scold me for being so disrespectful to my own father. But His Excellency the Duke has absolutely failed to fulfill the duties of any father. He was neither a good father nor a good husband. He had many children and numerous wives and concubines, and he never cared about us, his mother and me.

You once told me your story: you were the daughter of a wealthy merchant, but a terrible shipwreck swallowed everything except your life. You were willing to give everything you had, including your love, to repay your benefactor, the Duke of Hamlet.

After I was born, you worked as a maid in the manor. Even after a long day, you would still care for me, exhausted. You hoped I would win the Duke's favor.

I did do that until I was fifteen, until the day I stepped into his study out of curiosity. His desk was covered with all sorts of bizarre and grotesque ritual diagrams, some of which gave me the creeps just to touch.

I discovered a horrifying truth there. The Duke seemed to be researching some terrible cult ritual. The shipwreck that involved you appeared to be part of that ritual. How would you feel if the person you've loved for twenty years happened to be the murderer of your loved one? Please forgive my cowardice; I dared not tell you such a terrible truth. And it was precisely because of my cowardice that the subsequent tragedy occurred.

My poor mother, when will a wolf have mercy on a lamb? When you excitedly told me that on that day the Duke was to meet you in the bay, I knew our doom was coming. I tried to stop you, but your love for the Duke had surpassed the power of words to correct it. At the last moment I wanted to use force, but my nominal brother, and de facto master, Mr. Blaise Hamlet, was playing a game of beating a drowning dog with me.

I desperately clung to the windowsill, watching you leave me and never return.

The Duke had gone mad, or perhaps he had always been mad. First came the travelers, then the townspeople, the servants, the wives and concubines, the children—every day, new people disappeared from Hamlet's mansion.

I must escape.

When I was very young, you told me that when you were pregnant, the brightest star in the sky shone in your dreams. The name of that star became my name.

But, my mother, that was a beautiful mistake. The brightest star in the sky is actually Venus, which appears in the morning.

I will become the brightest star, just as you expect.

I leave my letters in Hamlet, and here with you my past.

I love you.

Sheriwu.

Chapter 168 The Song of Death

“Feeling a little disappointed?” Beatrice clasped her hands behind her back. Blue-green blood dripped from her black nails, flowing down the ripped faces of the merfolk. Her blood-red pupils gleamed in the night, like light shining through a wine glass. She rested her chin on Ariana's slender shoulder, a wicked smile on her face as she looked at the creature before her.

“I never imagined that the real Sirens would be so… ugly.” Beatrice emphasized the word “Sirens,” her playful tone suggesting she wanted to kiss Ariana on the cheek.

Before the two sisters sat a bloated, obese monster, coiled in its damp lair. Her lower limbs resembled a fat, serpentine tail, or perhaps more accurately, an elongated maggot. Dark yellow, sand-like scales covered her back, and her body was smeared with filthy mud. Her humanoid upper body looked comical against her obese lower limbs, and her face resembled that of the ugliest mermaids. A protruding tentacle, the size of a lightbulb fish, hung before her bulging, white eyes, illuminating a gaping maw hidden in the darkness—like a forcibly assembled shark tooth. Fish-men and humanoid sea monsters surrounded her, like stars surrounding the moon.

Ariana looked into those murky, unattractive eyes. This monster was empty inside; an empty soul cannot compose music. It seemed her ideas were going to fail again.

“Let’s leave, Beatrice. There’s no need for us to stay any longer.”

“They don’t seem to be letting us go, dear sister.” Beatrice smiled as she watched the monsters closing in. Blue-green blood was drawn from the corpses at her feet and gathered into a blood sphere in her palm.

Ariana disliked Beatrice's bloodlust and decided to strike first.

"A final, resounding echo." The waved wand summoned a howling ghost, whose roar created a sound wave that sliced ​​the charging murlocs to pieces like an invisible blade.

"Let's go, Beatrice, or you'll start drinking again."

Beatrice clapped her hands dismissively. "Fine, this level of battle isn't worth my celebration with a drink."

The two sisters turned around, preparing to leave.

A melodious and pleasant voice appeared in their ears, like a moon appearing in their hearts. The sweet voice washed away the listeners' fatigue and twisted their will.

The two sisters turned around at the same time and looked at the swollen female demon who had spoken.

“If I’m not mistaken, sister, this reckless siren is bewitching us. Could I interpret this as a provocation against Naslan’s daughter?” Beatrice’s eyes gleamed with malice. “Should I teach her a lesson?”

Ariana recalled the beautiful singing she had just heard, "She seemed to be able to communicate, Beatrice."

"Communication should be based on mutual willingness, sister. I don't think so..."

The sisters' argument wasn't over when the siren began to move. It didn't seem like an attack; she moved very slowly, dragging her bulky body step by step towards Beatrice.

Beatrice brandished her sharp nails, but was ultimately stopped by Ariana.

"elder sister?"

“We step back, Beatrice.”

The siren slowly crept to the outside of her cave, with Ariana's tacit approval. She stood on the beach, the frenzy that had gripped her dark cave vanished. Her hideous head gazed at the sea, and as if remembering something, she turned back to look at the towering building perched on the cliff behind her, its spires reaching into the thick, dark clouds that shrouded Hamlet in gloom.

A ray of moonlight shone on the banshee, and white smoke rose from her plump body. Under the moonlight, she transformed into a different form.

"A human?"

It was a long-haired woman wearing a soaked dress, her hair still mixed with seaweed, her rough skin bearing the marks of time, and a pair of gentle eyes.

She wasn't exactly beautiful, but she had a gentle quality in her eyes, a gentleness that the world had distorted into horror, and which could only be restored to its original state under the moonlight.

The long-haired woman bowed to Ariana and Beatrice, her impeccable manners suggesting she had received a good education.

Her voice was slightly hoarse and trembling, like shivering from the cold.

"I'm so sorry for the harm I've caused you. I often couldn't control myself; there were other crazy voices in my head." As the woman spoke, she clutched her head in pain, and with a muffled groan, a deep red thorn grew from her shoulder blade, ravaging the poor woman's body beyond recognition.

After several deep breaths, the woman finally escaped the tearing pain in her body and regained consciousness.