Chapter 77 Pink Light

Rustle, rustle!

Footsteps hammered through the undergrowth like rain.

Dense branches and leaves whipped against Xia Nan’s body as he ran, leaving faint stings across his exposed skin.

The Halfling trailed half a step behind him.

Ahead, Tim had become completely undead.

His limbs moved with the jerky stiffness of a marionette, nothing like the smooth movements he had possessed while alive.

There was no grace to it.

No technique.

He was simply forcing his body forward with brute strength, each heavy step stamping a deep footprint into the soft earth.

The blazing sunlight overhead only made things worse.

Compared with the night they had fought before, Tim moved as though both legs were trapped underwater.

Slow.

Heavy.

Dragged down.

The gap between him and Xia Nan was visibly shrinking.

Then a flash of silver-white crossed the edge of Xia Nan’s vision.

[That robin again?]

The thought came and went in an instant.

[How many times has this been?]

Since arriving in Kalanfor, Xia Nan had noticed that strange silver-feathered robin no fewer than three times.

It was starting to feel less like coincidence.

As though there were something on Xia Nan himself, something he knew nothing about, that kept drawing the bird back.

Flap.

The sharp beat of wings sounded overhead.

The robin spread its wings to slow itself and landed neatly on a nearby branch.

At almost the same moment, Tim stopped.

Xia Nan immediately reined in his momentum.

He slowed, keeping a cautious distance from the undead ahead.

His fingers tightened around the scorching sword hilt.

Then he noticed the ground.

His pupils contracted.

They had chased Tim into a quiet stretch of woodland on Kalanfor’s outskirts.

It was nowhere near as dense as the Misty Forest, where the trees and fog could swallow every sense of direction, but thick bushes and tall grass still crowded the forest floor.

Anyone moving through the woods had to get close before seeing what lay hidden beneath the vegetation.

Now that Tim had stopped and turned, the bleached bones arranged on the earth in front of him were fully exposed.

A left arm.

A right leg.

A right hand.

A left foot.

They had been placed with deliberate precision.

Like pieces of some cruel ritual.

The bones came from different bodies and varied noticeably in thickness, yet they had been laid out according to the structure of a human skeleton.

Only two crucial pieces were missing.

The skull.

And the spine.

Xia Nan looked past the bones to the muddy soil beneath them.

Faint, obscure markings had been carved into the ground.

His mind immediately raced back through everything that had happened over the past several days.

The missing bones from the victims’ limbs.

The dead pickpocket.

Jeff’s severed left leg.

The short poem in the leather book…

One clue after another snapped together.

Heat rolled from the surface of the wooden sword.

Tiny droplets condensed from the temperature difference, while the air around the blade shimmered and warped.

Xia Nan lifted his head.

His gaze locked onto the undead standing ahead.

Battle intent surged through him.

He was ready.

But…

One second.

Two seconds…

Tim did nothing.

Ever since he stopped, he had remained rooted to the spot.

The tip of his rusted sword pointed at the earth.

His head hung low.

The last faint trace of awareness that had once lingered in his eyes was gone.

Only pale, deathly gray remained.

[What’s going on?]

Xia Nan’s confusion grew.

Still, he did not dare approach.

If this was some kind of trap, rushing in blindly would be exactly what the enemy wanted.

For a moment, the clearing fell into a bizarre silence.

Only the robin perched on the branch nearby seemed relaxed.

It leisurely preened its feathers.

Crack.

A twig snapped.

Then came footsteps.

Unhurried.

Undisguised.

Smooth, shoulder-length golden hair caught the sunlight and scattered it in dazzling flashes.

Branches scraped against metal plate armor with a rustling hiss.

A broad, muscular figure gradually emerged from the mottled shadows beneath the trees.

Ingram.

He was carrying something in one hand.

“Careful!”

Behind Xia Nan, Alton clutched his lute so tightly that his fingers had gone pale.

His light brown eyes were full of vigilance.

He hardly needed to warn Xia Nan.

The instant Xia Nan saw the sheriff, his guard had already gone up.

Because Ingram’s appearance made no sense.

The timing was too perfect.

The location was too perfect.

The guards who had accompanied Xia Nan and Alton were all dead at Tim’s hands.

No one could have reported which direction the chase had gone.

Even if Ingram had somehow guessed correctly and followed the right path by sheer luck, there was no way he could have reached them this quickly.

Unless…

Drip.

A thick metallic smell suddenly entered Xia Nan’s nose.

Blood.

His brow tightened.

As Ingram stepped fully out of the trees, the still-wet bloodstains on his sheriff’s uniform came into view.

Dry white hair was tangled around his fingers.

Scarlet drops swayed at the ends of the strands before falling to the ground.

The face beneath was old and emaciated.

Fear and panic still clung to it.

The eyes were empty.

Ingram was holding the cemetery keeper’s severed head by the hair.

The friendly, approachable expression Xia Nan remembered was gone.

Yet the sheriff did not look deranged.

He did not look excited.

He did not look triumphant.

He simply looked at Xia Nan and Alton.

Calm.

Flat.

Without the slightest ripple of emotion.

He offered no explanation.

He made no grand declaration now that his plan seemed close to succeeding.

He did not say a word.

His deep blue eyes swept across the clearing.

Then, under Xia Nan and Alton’s watchful gazes, Ingram raised one hand.

The movement was almost casual, like someone adjusting a sleeve.

His fingertips reached inside his cuff and pressed against a golden sun emblem.

He pinched it.

Hum…

The bloodstained sleeve tore apart.

Scraps of cloth scattered through the air.

At the same instant, the single-use spell stored within the emblem burst free, using the divine radiance of the Sun God Amaunator as its vessel.

Invisible magical particles responded to an unseen force.

They gathered.

Aligned.

Combined into a precise, ordered pattern.

Like fireflies converging in the dark, they condensed in the blink of an eye.

A pale pink glow appeared.

It flickered almost like a living thing, following its user’s will as it locked onto its targets.

Then the radiance split.

Two wavering spheres of light shot forward like miniature meteors, trailing long tails behind them.

Magic screamed through the air.

They fell.

Too fast.

Xia Nan had been on guard from the moment Ingram appeared.

His muscles were tense.

His stance was deliberately balanced, leaving him able to attack or retreat depending on what happened next.

It did not matter.

The instant that wavering pink light reflected in his pupils…

It was already too late.

Whumm!

The spheres of magic slipped effortlessly into Xia Nan’s body.

Pink radiance spread across him in a rush, as though he had fallen into thick mud.

His heart still beat.

His breathing remained steady.

But his body…

Stopped.

Completely.

As though time itself had frozen around him.

A second-circle spell from the School of Enchantment:

[Hold Person]