Chapter 7
THE HIDAL PLATEAU, due south of the Stalwart Castle.
It took Reyha half a day to sneak into various places in the Holy Precincts and get an idea of the situation.
Diane and the Schultz warriors were shocked by the dark elf’s report.
First of all, all ten or so conjurers, including the magemaster, were daemonists. They weren’t even trying to hide their shining golden eyes, a dead giveaway that they’d fallen under daemonic influence. There was no need to use the Daemon’s Sight. The conjurers were forcing daemonism on all the residents. Luckily, there weren’t many yet who’d been so corrupted that their eyes had turned gold. On the contrary, there were many who opposed daemonism and had been locked up in a dungeon.
“The patriarch was among the prisoners…as well as the firstborn son of the duke of Filsand.”
“Even the patriarch?!” Diane and the others were stunned to learn about her father’s situation. If Elisabel and Geo had been there, they would have been astonished to hear that Balzard, the firstborn son whose death was the root cause of turmoil in the House of Filsand, was actually alive.
“From what we’ve seen in the past, the flesh and bones of nobles make especially good offerings to the daemons. They must have been kept alive for a ceremony.”
The faces of the Schultz warriors grew pale at Lade’s explanation.
“My merciful lord would certainly instruct me not only to save the Schultz people, but Balzard as well. I’ll release the prisoners,” Reyha declared.
“We’ll help, too,” someone said.
“Yes, they’re our people, after all.” In response to Reyha, the Schultz warriors gathered around and started to discuss a plan to save the prisoners.
Then, Diane leaned in to ask Reyha, “What about my ma?! Was my ma captured, too?!”
“The patriarch’s wife, Cher, has become a daemonist, equal in rank with the magemaster. I overheard a conversation in which the magemaster referred to Cher as ‘Daemon Calix.’”
“I-It can’t be!”
Diane was at a loss for words. The warriors were outraged, too. Only Lade and Reyha remained calm.
“A Daemon Calix,” Lade mused. “That’s what they call humans who harbor a strong hatred. They groom them with an intent to have them fornicate with an Unholy Spirit.”
“Unholy Spirit?” Diane had clearly never heard of such a thing. “What happens when they’re joined with the Daemon Calix?”
“Beats me,” said Lade. “We always hunt them down before that happens.”
✦ ✦ ✦
I returned to Bruno Village using Teleport and from there rode the phantom horse through the night, arriving in the Twilight Wastelands by morning. Teleport is a convenient spell that can transport you over long distances in an instant, but the magician has to know the location already. There is also a significant probability that it can fail, so I only use it in emergencies. This was one of those emergencies, so when I was done, I planned to return directly to my guest room at the Stalwart Castle.
I thought the wastelands would be creepier, but I honestly couldn’t really tell the difference between them and ordinary wilderness. I used Analyze, but I didn’t really sense any evil forces. I felt relieved that it wasn’t a case in which the land itself was contaminated by something. In this state, my idea might just work.
In order to check it out further, I wandered around on the phantom horse. I saw promising sights a few times, but none of them were quite right for what I had in mind. I was beginning to think that this might be harder than I thought, but after flying around for a few hours, I got lucky and found the perfect test subject. I immediately flew directly over it on the phantom horse.
Creeeaaak!
Its rusted skeleton echoed in the empty wilderness. There was a pale aura surrounding it. The undead’s body armor and the sword and spear in its hands looked like high-class weapons, so it must have once been a high-ranking soldier of some company or another. Behind him (or at least I think it was a him), there were dozens of lower-ranked soldiers armed with spears and clubs. While they seemed a bit clumsy, they were in a clear formation of two rows.
My goal had been simple: a relatively powerful undead monster who could command lower-ranked undead. Yes, this is ideal.
If you think about it, it’s kind of pitiful, being forced to march on even after death…
It was also pretty wretched of me to use the pitiful walking dead for my own purposes, but I decided to brush that out of my mind, if it meant helping humans who were still living. I’ll arrange a service for you later, so you can move on.
Just as I wondered if they would notice that a living person was flying above their heads, these death soldiers looked up at me. Deep in the dark eye sockets of their skulls were eerie, blinking red dots.
Creeeaaak…
“Be at rest…but stay with me a little longer. As a consequence of this spell…”
A few hours later…
My experiment using the Control Undead spell was a huge success. Phew.