Chapter 225: Nightmare

"Sister, I'm scared." In a dimly lit underground passage, a seven or eight-year-old boy in a complexly styled robe clung to the corner of a young girl's long dress, his face full of panic and sadness.

"Don't be afraid, I'll protect you," the girl, tightly holding a short wand, immediately looked down and forced a stiff smile upon hearing her brother's call.

"Not only will I protect you, but these brave warriors will too." The girl in a white noble dress squatted down, gazing at her brother's youthful face, and pointed to the twenty or so guards in steel armor, sword in one hand and shield in the other, surrounding them.

"I don't want them to protect me, I want daddy to protect me." The child, tears falling, threw himself into his sister's arms, sobbing softly, "Sister, can you tell me when daddy will come back?"

"..." The girl felt her brother's suppressed sobs in her arms, her eyes reddening instantly, "Father has gone to protect the people of Ansel, he can't come back for now."

"I want daddy." The eight-year-old child sobbed softly, having received a complete noble education since memory, his intellect was comparable to some fifteen or sixteen-year-old commoners.

Thus, knowing the situation from his current location, the child understood it wasn't the place for unrestrained negative emotions; he knew he had to control himself.

Following his sister and family knights into the prepared escape tunnel beneath their castle and seeing it almost filled with undead skeletons, the child realized their situation was dire. It wasn't the time for tantrums or whims.

He remembered what had happened not long ago – sitting in his room, answering his private tutor's questions, with his father watching with a smile. But suddenly, the air became oppressive, making him uncomfortable, like when he nearly drowned at five.

He saw his white-haired tutor clutching his chest, collapsing pale-faced. At the same time, he heard deafening explosions and faint roars and screams outside.

He also saw his father, in that moment, erupt in dazzling red fighting spirit, instantly dispelling the chilling sensation enveloping him.

Just as he wanted to rush into his father's arms, his father grabbed him, sternly handing him to his sister who came running in panic.

Next, lying in his sister's arms, he watched his father, sword drawn and armored, soaring into the sky. Before leaving, he heard his father's last words to his sister,

"Orlina, take your brother and run, do everything to reach Asriel City, seek protection from Duke Lude."

The child knew that might be the last time he saw his father, as he had never seen him so serious, so solemn.

..."Miss, what should we do now?" A guard, fear on his face, looked at the siblings he was protecting and asked in a low voice.

"Follow my father's last order, do everything to reach Asriel territory, seek protection from Duke Lude," Orlina answered determinedly.

"But, Miss, as you know, all the teleportation circles in the castle are unusable, and the three escape tunnels beneath are filled with skeletons. We have no way to reach Asriel City."

"There's one more way." Orlina's face showed a decisive look, "Walk directly on the surface."

"But, Miss, Ansel City is overrun with undead. The risk is too great to get you out safely; we can't guarantee no harm will come to you."

"I'm a Silver Rank II mage; I don't need your protection." Orlina stated firmly. "You just need to protect my brother."

"Sister, can't we stay in the castle?" The child, nestled in his sister's embrace, timidly looked up and asked.

"No," Orlina shook her head without hesitation, "We can't stay in the castle."

"Why can't we stay in the castle?" A young-looking guard asked, puzzled, "Miss, as the young master said, staying in the castle, activating the defensive array, and waiting for rescue should be safe. The low-rank undead skeletons outside can't breach the castle's defenses. We'll be safe."

"Safety is only temporary. If we don't run now, our fate will be the same as those skeletons.

Why do you think the corpses buried in the cemetery and the bones deep underground became undead and crawled out?"

"Why?" The young guard asked blankly, not understanding why their peaceful and beautiful life had turned like this.

"Because an entity cast a top-tier necromancy spell covering the entire city, the undead plague. That's why the dead have risen."

"The scope and duration of the undead plague depend on the caster's spellcasting understanding and power level. And the one who cast it on our Ansel City is likely a legendary necromancer."

"Legendary? How is that possible?"

"Yes, how is that possible? I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

Orlina remembered the horrifying scenes before the disaster that nearly suffocated her.

She was leisurely swinging in the castle garden, holding a spellbook, when she felt a chilling wave sweep over the ground beneath her feet.

The noble girl watched in horror as one after another skeletal hand emerged from the colorful flowerbed's soil, followed by mutilated low-rank skeleton soldiers, forming a shocking scene.

Of course, it was just frightening, not shocking. What happened next would forever haunt her, possibly becoming her lifelong nightmare.

A huge skeletal hand, like the skeletons crawling from the ground, suddenly appeared above Ansel City's temple district. Then, with terrifying death energy and curses, it slapped down on all the temples.

Amid the archbishop's scolding and the paladins' roars, the skeletal hand flattened the temple district...

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