Chapter 266 Astral’s Decision
Dendera Fortress had a sleepless night again.
The appearance of the mutants gave everyone the possibility of being attacked, making people have to be on alert. But after not resting or sleeping for two days and two nights in a row, even heroes could not endure it.
However, the attacks of the mutants did not stop because of the arrival of daytime. They were completely different from ordinary undead. The zombies mutated by T-Virus were not afraid of sunlight at all, causing the troops in the fortress to have to fight fires everywhere, even at daybreak, eliminating the zombies that had risen again.
Due to being exhausted, everyone in the entire Dendera fortress had low morale. Moreover, as the number of mutants increased, the small number of patrol units could no longer deal with them. Under these circumstances, the Bracadan troops had no choice but to shrink their defenses and give up some of the outer areas of the fortress.
These outer streets became a dead city, and the remaining zombies wreaked havoc in these areas…
Fortunately, at noon, the light of the spatial teleportation formation lit up. The support from Aglan Fortress finally arrived!
The one leading the team was Archbishop Alaric, who had been staying in Aglan Fortress. Because the messenger had called for the priests to come and help, Alaric could only make the trip. But after knowing that there was still a necromancer like Arantir around the fortress, he appeared very reluctant. He had come under the order of the fake Queen Isabel—firstly to eliminate the demon, and secondly, he wanted to see what was going on with the fallen angel with the demon. Out of fanatical thoughts, he felt that the Bracadans chose to cooperate with the necromancer, which was blasphemy of his faith.
So even though the messenger had urged him repeatedly, he still used the name of gathering troops to delay his arrival until now.
Among the troops that Alaric brought, in addition to a force of more than five hundred priests, there was also a group of twenty angels. So when Astral and the others came to welcome him, although they were dissatisfied with Alaric’s delay, they still suppressed their anger and greeted him with smiles on their faces.
After all, the priests of the kingdom of Erathia practiced light magic. They had unique views on all kinds of dark curses, plagues, and diseases. Astral and the others could not do anything about the evil plague in the fortress, so they could only rely on these priests.
Although Archbishop Alaric was surprised by the miserable condition of Dendera Fortress, he quickly realized his importance. Now, be it the Bracadans or the elves, they all needed to rely on him and his priests, making Alaric could not help but become arrogant. During their conversation, he kept mocking the Bracadans, and he did not even spare the elven rangers led by Gelu. Astral and the others had long heard of his bad temper. He was very irritating when he was in the kingdom of Erathia, and now that they saw it with their own eyes, they wanted to sew this guy’s mouth shut!
But they could only endure…
“Okay!” After finally being satisfied verbally and spiritually, Alaric waved his hand. “First, bring the infected you caught. I’m very busy. I need to settle this quickly and then find that demon!”
Astral and the others were expressionless and too lazy to say anything. They nodded and got people to bring the zombies they caught.
A row of prison carts slowly drove into the square. In the cages were more than ten imprisoned zombies. These were the living infected that they had caught with great difficulty. Most of them were gremlins and mage apprentices, and some of them were nagas and mages. When the prison carts drove into the square, these zombies smelled the scent of living people and frantically reached out between the gaps of the cages. They bit at everyone with their saliva-dripping mouths, but they could not squeeze out, so they became more and more agitated.
Let alone Astral and the others, even Alaric was taken back by the appearances of these zombies. At first glance, he thought that they were some ghouls, but then he realized that they were different.
“Didn’t you say that there were mutants?” Alaric asked curiously. “There’s no specimen of a mutant?”
“No, we can’t catch them alive!” Astral shook his head. “The terrain in the fortress is too complicated. The jumping ability of these mutants is very advantageous in this terrain, and if we set a trap, they’ll see through it… But don’t worry. This is only temporary. After figuring out their movement behavior, we’ll be able to catch them soon. Now, you should try to solve these ordinary ones first.”
Alaric did not say anything else and gestured to his priests. A row of priests walked forward and came to these prison carts.
These priests began to wave the cross necklaces in their hands and chant prayers. Soon, several rays of light fell from the sky and shined onto the zombies in the prison cart. The scene looked magnificent.
“They’re using the Cleansing spell now!” Alaric explained proudly. “If these guys became like this because of a curse, it’ll be immediately dispelled.”
Astral could not help but roll his eyes. He felt that Alaric was simply doing something useless. They had already confirmed that this was a plague, and this guy was still using magic to dispel a curse… But it did not matter. Anyway, these priests had a lot of magic power, so it was good for them to try to find if there was a way to remove it.
After they used the Cleansing spell, nothing happened. The zombies in the cages were still rattling their teeth loudly and were not affected at all.
Alaric frowned, looked at the half-smile on Astral’s face, and said in annoyance, “Use Cure Disease to dispel it!”
The priests obeyed the command and shined a light on them again.
However, the result shocked them once again. The Cure Disease spell still had no effect against the zombies!
Seeing this scene, Alaric immediately felt flustered, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He roared, “Why is this happening?! Increase your magic power and try again!” But the result did not change in the slightest because of his shouting. Alaric could not stand it anymore, so he decided to do it himself!
It had to be said that as an archbishop, Alaric’s magic power was indeed much stronger than that of ordinary priests. When he used the same Cure Disease spell, the effect was different. Under the strong holy light, anyone could feel the surging power.
But what he did not expect was that the zombie shrouded in his magic suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs. Their flesh started crumbling and falling from their bodies. Even their bones were the same. Finally, under the light of the spell, they turned into a pile of disgusting rotten flesh!
“What… what’s going on?!” Alaric stared dumbfounded at the result that he caused. He could feel that the magic of Cure Disease had taken effect on zombies, but the healing effect he had expected did not happen. Instead, it caused the zombie to die completely.
What Alaric did not know was that this was actually the complete breakdown of the zombie’s genes!
In fact, the spell ‘Cure Disease’ mainly targeted diseases caused by external pathogenic factors. It eliminated the invading pathogens from bodies to obtain a recovery effect. Such a miraculous technique was indeed very useful for many normal diseases.
Logically speaking, the zombies were also a disease caused by the invasion and infection of the T-Virus. But the problem was that the T-Virus was utterly different from other viruses. It would combine with the genes in the bodies of creatures, causing mutations and recombinations of the genes. When creatures could not adapt to this sudden change, they would often turn into terrifying monsters. This was the cause of the zombies. And because the virus had already completely merged with the genes of the creatures, when the Cure Disease wanted to eliminate the virus, it would inevitably cause the zombie’s genes to collapse entirely!
This was research on the scientific side. The magic of the mystical side might not necessarily be able to affect the microscopic world in depth and detail. Alaric’s magic was powerful, but he did not understand the true cause of this disease, and acting recklessly had only caused such a result.
Therefore, when it came to curing the infected, the holy spells of the priests were not very useful. Perhaps if they sought the seers of the Blind Brothers and used the herbal medicines they concocted, it would be more reliable…
Even Astral and the others were stunned by this result. Their original intention was to treat their former comrades with the holy spells of the priests, but if the holy spells could only kill the infected in the end, what was the use of asking the priests to come?! It would be better for them to do it themselves.
All the heroes had gloomy faces and were silent. Even without turning his head, Alaric could sense this. He thought about it and gritted his teeth. He simply gave up his position and wanted the angels to try!
But facing Alaric’s eyes, an angel wearing a hood and a white battle robe floating in the air shook his head slowly. “The souls of these monsters have long passed away. We can’t even resurrect them, much less save them…”
TIL
“Damn it! Damn it! Why is this happening?!” Alaric could not help but lose his temper. “Isn’t holy light omnipotent?! Why can’t we do anything to this plague?!” Looking at Alaric’s loss of composure, Astral, Gelu, and the rest sneered and did not say anything. But the angel seemed to have sensed something. He suddenly opened his wings, soared into the sky, and stabbed the angelic sword in his hand into the air!
Whoosh! The angel’s sword pierced an object, and it slowly appeared in the air.
It was… a Demon Eye!
Although the Demon Eyes created by Roy came from the system, they inevitably carried a slight demon aura because he often used them. Astral and the others could not sense this slight demon aura. But angels, the archenemies of demons, were very sensitive to even the slightest demon aura, so the angel discovered this invisible Demon Eye…
The angel slowly landed. Looking at the thing that clearly had the appearance of a demon’s creation on the sword, Astral and the others immediately became solemn.
“It seems like Arantir was right. All of this is indeed the demon’s scheme. He’s even observing us secretly and has a full view of the situation in the fortress…”
“What do we do now?” Solmyr asked.
Astral pondered for a long time before gritting his teeth and making a decision. “We give up the fortress! The reason why that demon hasn’t appeared is that he is afraid of our fortress. Now, only by giving up the fortress and letting him see hope will he come out and fight us… Maybe only by eliminating him can we stop this plague!”
