?
'There are signs of battle, but the resistance wasn't that much. It seems the invaders had a huge advantage over strength.'
'The village put up a resistance, but they were not successful. This can be seen from the broken weapons right there.'
'Hmm….. The way these weapons were handled, there were some people proficient with hunting, it seems. But for the combat against other humans, they still fell in short. As expected for a village that was living in seclusion, they mustn't have been expecting fellow humans to attack them out of nowhere.'
'But, they were still crafty, huh? The way they set up some traps here and there.'
I walked all over the city while observing the scene to obtain some clues about what had happened there.
'The opening strike was a fire? There are burn marks at the entrance of the village.'
'And then, the villagers must have tried to fend off the fire by using water magic, but their proficiency was a lot lower than it should have been. No, it is wrong. The strength of the fire magic user was a lot higher.'
Touching the burn marks and feeling the coil there, I mumbled.
"It looks like the strength of the spell is around 3-star. The user seems to be pretty proficient too."
After that, I reached a corpse that was lying on the ground.
'Its chest is pierced. From the radius of the hole, it should be a spear. However, the reason he died was not because his chest was pierced. He died because his insides are burned….'
'Fire-attributed artifact? It should be.'
And there I saw a huge boulder on top of a roof.
'Earth magic? This is around a three-star rank as well. But, this one's control was a lot worse than the one before; they shouldn't be the same person.'
The way the two attacks were handled was a lot different.
'A clean cut on the neck. Hmm? Fingers are missing?'
Seeing the cut shown there, I thought.
'A sword user. And it is a huge sword. It should be a Claymore or greatsword.'
Some of the corpses have such wounds on their bodies.
'Some people put up a resistance and tried to fight. However, after some point, the signs of fighting were stopped. When the intruders reached the middle of the village, the fight was already over.'
'At that point, the will of villagers to resist should have been broken. If that's the case, they should be overwhelmed by something.'
'And there are those deep wounds of the blood being sucked as well.'
'The information over the Scarlet Jackals is matching for the starters. The spear marks and fire magic should be the work of Arthur Logan.'
'And there are these lost fingers with sword marks and earth magic. It should be the work of Finn Logan since it was said in the file that he liked to collect the fingers of his victims.'
'But there is something more here.'
'What are the rest of the members of the group? It was said that the group contained around twenty people. But I don't see any other. Something is not right about this.'
'There is also the thing that was mentioned by Nihil, and those blood marks….'
'This can only mean one thing.'
'A cursed weapon.'
Cursed Weapons.
Or, in other words, weapons with evil spirits inside.
It is a term that was widely used in the game, and there were several options where the player could use those types of weapons for him/herself.
Of course, in return, the player would be labeled as evil, and the reputation would fall to the bottom.
In any case, the moment I heard what Nihil was saying, I remembered something in the game.
'If it was a cursed weapon, then it makes sense now that I see it. But, still, this amount of blood is a bit too much. Is the spirit inside trying to free itself?'
Most of the time, the weapons with spirits would bear themselves, as in the case of Nihil. At least if we think of Nihil as a normal spirit which I am pretty sure she is not….
However, as the case for cursed weapons, the spirits of the weapons would mostly be the souls of demons that were sealed inside the weapons.
That is the reason why using cursed weapons is strictly forbidden.
Because even though those weapons are powerful, there is always the risk of someone taking possession of your body, as in the case of Otakemaru, and directing your mind until it frees itself.
'The amount of blood suggests that the trial is conducted, but it has failed. That means we it was searching for something. Maybe it had already taken control over the body of the host and now trying to summon itself. That makes sense.'
'If that is the case, it was no wonder there weren't any other members of the group. They should be the victims of the cursed weapon as well?'
'But, then the question arises. If the cursed weapon had already got a hold of the host's mind, then how come three of the brothers were alive? At most, one of them would be alive….'
'Maybe, they made a deal with the spirit inside the weapon? Might be the case.'
'Then, I must just hunt it. If the Nihil will somehow get stronger if she absorbs it, then it won't be a loss at all. There is also the possibility of it getting in my way in the future.'
Thinking that, the course of action was set.
'I have learned everything I could from here anyway.'
"Hope you would have a good afterlife…."
Slightly mumbling like that, I put the gaslight that I had collected while searching around the village.
/FLICK/
'With that, the beasts won't eat you, at least.'
And flicked my hand, igniting the corpses I had gathered in the middle of the village.
/SWOOSH/ /SWOOSH/ /CRACKLE/
And just like that, the villagers started burning.
'I wasted at most one hour here, so their traces should still be there. Let's hunt now, shall we.'
With that thought, I started riding while looking for traces with my [All Seeing Eye].
******
This chapter is updat𝓮d by fre(e)webnov(l).com