Chapter 13: Soulless Bodies
“Seriously, what in the hell are these things?” Ewan said, peering down the gigantic hole. He looked exhausted.
Ruri looked down at the people squirming to get out and a shiver of fear ran through her. As deep as it was, she was still nervous they might come back up.
Celestine and some of the others mentioned that they couldn’t stand to look at them, so they kept watch over things from a short distance away.
“So, hey, are these the ‘revived’ villagers?” Ruri asked.
“I’m going to assume so,” Ewan replied. “Joshua is out searching the village to see if there’s anyone else around, but besides these things, there doesn’t seem to be any normal people here.”
“The rumors said they ‘came back to life.’ But seeing as how they were running around alive even with their heads cut off, they’re pretty much zombies, wouldn’t you say? They aren’t capable of speech, and it doesn’t seem like they can communicate via thoughts either,” Ruri concluded.
“Looks like asking them for info is out of the question,” said Ewan, figuring it impossible to ask for anything out of the mob other than their default bizarre screeches.
“Then whoever saw these people weren’t assaulted?” Ruri questioned. “The witnesses were looters trying to pillage from the empty village. Makes sense they never bothered to enter the village once they realized it was still populated, don’t you think?”
If they had gone in, they would have been trapped by the barrier and the mob of people would have attacked them. The rumors wouldn’t have been able to spread.
“Still, I have the feeling they were only targeting me back there, but maybe it’s just my imagination?”
Even as they crawled around in the hole, the groaning mass of people kept their eyes set on Ruri. In spite of the large number of people around her, they charged straight at her as if she was the only thing any of them could see.
“You didn’t do anything, right?”
“I didn’t do anything! You should know; I was with you the whole time,” Ruri replied.
“Hmm, then it wasn’t Beloved related,” Ewan said, pondering aloud. He noted that Celestine, who had been right beside Ruri the whole time, wasn’t attacked.
There had to be something separating Ruri from the others...
Ewan stared at Ruri, thinking of what could set her apart, until his eyes landed on the wounds on her palms and knees, the ones she received when they first entered the village. That was when a preposterous theory crossed his mind. As absurd as it was, he pulled out his sword to test it out. He slid his blade across the palm of his hand. Blood gushed from his freshly carved wound.
This gash was nothing more than a scratch to a dragonkin with fast healing like Ewan, but the sight of him slicing open his hand for seemingly no reason still made Ruri jump in surprise. “Wait, Ewan! What are you doing?!”
“Testing something,” Ewan explained.
Once the crimson blood started to drip in trickles from his hand, the mass of people in the hole down below, who had been focusing solely on Ruri, let out their bizarre cries and began frantically pawing toward Ewan instead.
“I knew it,” Ewan said.
Although he had confirmed his suspicion, Ruri cocked her head in confusion. “You knew what exactly?”
“These things react to blood. You got those scrapes, right? That’s why they were only ganging up on you.”
“But why?”
“How should I know?” Ewan retorted.
“Was the barrier around the village to keep these people from leaving?”
“I’d assume so, but I don’t know who was penning them up here or why they were doing it. Maybe the Church of God’s Light? Or maybe someone totally different...”
There was also the mystery as to how the people ended up like this in the first place. It was hard to consider these droning masses who attacked at the sight of blood to be normal humans.
“It’s safe to assume these are...people, right?” asked Ruri.
Ewan shifted his brows, not saying a word in reply.
It was extremely hard to call them “people.” Their malnourished bodies and skin lacked any moisture. They were like a wilted tree, and their eyes resembled that of a dead fish. If someone were to tell Ruri they were magic beasts, she would believe it. Still, that didn’t change how they looked like people.
“No, those are not people. In fact, calling them living beings would be too far-fetched,” Kotaro proclaimed.
They all looked down at the squirming people in the hole with somewhat grim expressions.
“Kotaro, what do you mean by that?” Ruri asked.
“All living beings in this world possess souls—people, magic beasts, and spirits alike. When that being dies, the soul exits the body and enters the next step of the cycle of reincarnation. However, all that’s down there are bodies—soulless bodies, bodies that no longer house spirits of their own. Saying they’re ‘alive’ would be a misnomer.”
“So, does that mean these people died and only their bodies revived?”
“I would say less ‘revived’ and more that some unknown factor is helping these corpses move on their own.”
“Wait, then they are zombies.”
“That would mean the stories we heard in other villages—the ones of people being revived...”
“You should consider them the same. No resurrections, just moving corpses.”
Given the testimony from the other villagers, the Church of God’s Light’s leader was the one resurrecting people. It was probably safe to assume that the leader in question was the one moving the corpses here as well.
“Assuming the leader is behind this, how is he moving these corpses in the first place?” questioned Ruri.
“I’m afraid that’s a question not even I can answer,” Kotaro said, his tail drooping as if he regretted not knowing the reason behind all of this. Ruri assured him it was all right by petting his furry head.
Not long after, Joshua returned from scoping out the village. “No other people around. Just these guys in the pit.”
“I see... Did you find any clues about the Church of God’s Light?” Ruri asked.
“Nope, not a one,” Joshua replied. “Though, since we know the revival cases in the other villages were the church’s doing, I think they’re the ones who put this village in the sorry shape it’s in right now.”
“Then they were the ones who put up the barrier?”
“Most likely, but it’s still just an informed guess. We have no definite proof.”
They thought they would be able to find clues in this place, but all they found was a pack of zombies. While the discovery was a substantial lead in itself, with nothing concisely connected to the Church of God’s Light to be found, there wasn’t any point in sticking around.
“What should we do now?” asked Ruri.
“Right,” started Joshua, “I say we head back to the castle and report to the Beast King. We’ve pretty much gone around all the villages in the area, so we’re probably not gonna find any more clues pertaining to the Church of God’s Light. It’s best we fill him in on the state of this village, especially with it being this close to the capital.”
Ruri nodded. “What do we do about the zombies, then?”
The people inside the hole were being kept inside the village via that barrier—the same barrier Joshua smashed to pieces. Leaving them wasn’t an option because there was a chance they would escape to the outside. And if these things showed up in one of the other towns or villages, it would be a huge commotion. They would most likely attack any and all wounded people they saw.
“I’d like to take these guys back as evidence, but the question is how?”
They were way too violent to safely bind them up with rope. And even if they contained them, they didn’t have any carriages to transport them out since this situation was so unexpected to begin with.
Joshua contemplated what to do next, his brow furrowed and his arms folded. That was when Ruri nonchalantly informed him, “Well, I have a cage if you want to use that.”
“A cage that’s big enough to stuff all those guys inside of it?” Joshua asked.
“Yup, it’s in my pocket space,” Ruri replied.
“Why do you even have that?”
“Lydia collects any and everything, so there’s pretty much anything you can think of in my pocket space. Plus, even though these people are moving, they’re basically corpses. So it should be fine to put them in someone’s pocket space, right?”
Lydia had warned that any living being that stayed in the pocket space for a prolonged time would start to mentally break down and go insane, but these were simply mindless walking corpses. They couldn’t have a mental breakdown when there was nothing there.
“Ooh, I guess that is one way of doing it, huh?” Joshua remarked.
“Well, let’s get to it, then. I wanna get out of here and fast,” prompted Ewan. He didn’t want to be around the mystery zombies any longer than needed.
Mirroring Ewan’s sentiments, Ruri quickly pulled out a giant cage from her pocket space.
“Hey, you guys. Lend us a hand puttin’ these suckers into the cage,” Joshua requested, calling out to the Nation of the Beast King soldiers standing by Celestine a short distance away. They needed the extra manpower since the Nation of the Dragon King’s troops alone wouldn’t suffice.
As the soldiers came to help, Ruri swapped places and went over to Celestine. Kotaro posted a barrier over both of them since it was still possible the corpses could attack.
Once everyone was in place, Joshua turned to Chi and asked him to raise the hole. The huge depression in the ground started to move, rising until it eventually became one flat surface again. Of course, that also meant the zombies were now free. However, Ewan self-inflicted a wound to lure them toward him so they wouldn’t go anywhere else. The zombies did just that, seemingly reacting to Ewan’s blood, without batting an eye at any of the other uninjured soldiers.
“Aaah...” moaned one zombie.
“Ngaaah...” moaned another.
“C’mon, c’mon. This way, you all.”
While Ewan diverted their attention, the rest of the soldiers nabbed them from behind and steadily wrangled them up.
Ruri and Celestine looked on from afar, grimacing all the while. After all, the scene was just as frightening far away as it was up close. Ruri didn’t want to so much as touch those walking corpses. She felt bad for Joshua and the others who were doing it in her stead, but she just didn’t handle ghosts, zombies, or other things of that nature very well. She had watched horror movies before, but knowing that what happened on the screen stayed on the screen gave her peace of mind. Acting out one of them in real life wasn’t on her to-do list. It didn’t help that she already played damsel-in-distress earlier.
Ruri was dreading going to sleep tonight; she had no doubt that she would be dreaming about zombies chasing her. “Will I even be able to go to sleep...?” she wondered.
“Worry not, Ruri. I will not leave your side,” Kotaro said, chivalrously.
Ruri was touched by his gallant display, and his words even pricked Celestine’s ears.
“Lady Ruri, I have some of my favorite liquor back at the castle—it’s quite delectable. I would love it if we could drink the night away together.”
It seemed that Celestine was also afraid to sleep tonight. They looked at one another and silently joined hands. The two were on the same page without uttering a single word. Any mixed feelings Jade introduced into the equation had been blown out the window by today’s wild turn of events.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login