The Greece Antagonist

Southern Britannia.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two blurred figures chased and fled like a passing gale, crossing the wasteland, penetrating the dense forest, spanning the mountain gorges, startling countless birds and beasts along the way.

After an unknown duration of stalemate, the pursuer first extended an olive branch:

"How about we call a truce?"

"Sure."

The fugitive readily agreed.

However, instead of slowing down, both parties moved even faster.

"We said truce, so why are you still running?"

"If it's a truce, why is the concentration of magic factors around you still increasing?"

"Well, it's because you're secretly chanting in Elf Language!"

"Aren't you drawing Runes behind my back?"

The teacher and student duo in mid-air looked at each other with a smile, embarrassed yet polite.

Since mutually agreeing to learn in actual combat by casting curses and dispelling spells, Luo En and Vivian, with their own hidden agendas, have been engaging in round after round of competition.

Initially, both sides had their wins and losses.

Vivian found joy in not only learning something but also in teasing her teacher a little.

But as time went on, her victories dwindled, and eventually, she almost became a guinea pig for her teacher's various experimental spells.

The root cause was that her teacher seemed very knowledgeable, mastering various systems of curses, always able to create all kinds of surprising curses and restrictions.

— For example, Beastification, Petrification, Loss Of Speech, Collapse Upon Touch, Forced Prohibition… and more.

On the contrary, even though Vivian was an expert in Ogan Tree Runes and Elf Spells, her methods were limited. After repeated casting, her existing spells were thoroughly understood and deconstructed by her teacher.

As the scales tipped, Vivian naturally couldn't outplay her teacher anymore.

And for games, having both wins and losses can motivate continued play.

Getting hammered right from the start is a masochist's pastime; she had no interest in that.

After suffering for some time, Vivian decisively called a halt to the curse and dispel teaching game.

However, starting a game is easy; stopping it is hard.

Luo En was trying to force out Vivian's combat skills and hidden methods through various extreme pressures, wary of a future "backstab" from this good student, so he wouldn't agree to stop.

Seeing her request was futile, Vivian quickly turned to flee, with Luo En chasing after her.

Thus, the teacher and student crossed over half of the Cornwall region.

"This is pretty boring."

"I think so too."

"Why don't we stop?"

"Count to three, together."

"Okay!"

Luo En nodded confidently, secretly lifting his hand as he mouthed the numbers,

"3!"

"Buzz!"

At the same time, a dazzling purple-red magic beam streaked through the air, colliding directly with the cursed bullet Luo En threw.

Accompanied by a violent explosion, the teacher and student looked at each other awkwardly.

Another collision...

This old trickster indeed never speaks a word of truth!

While mentally condemning her teacher Merlin's unscrupulous behavior, Vivian had a quick-witted idea and, taking advantage of the explosion's aftermath, transformed into drifting petals, scattering down toward the small town below with the breeze.

The curse and dispel game required a relatively quiet environment, and once in the town, with many eyes around, even if her teacher got itchy hands, he couldn't act recklessly in public.

Otherwise, she might try shouting "Beast!" in public.

However, as soon as Vivian landed, the mischievous smile on her face froze.

Though it was daytime, it was eerily quiet here.

The whole town seemed dead.

Is something wrong?

Landing slightly later in the town, Luo En also sensed something amiss and exchanged a glance with Vivian. Together, they pushed open the door of a residence and went inside.

In the furnace, only the gray and white embers of firewood remained, with some warmth still at the bottom of the pot.

A family of three slumped across the dining table, motionless. Plates with half-eaten boiled vegetables, thick soup, and bread remained on the table.

Luo En stepped forward, lifted the three, and after a careful inspection, frowned deeply.

Heartbeat stopped, pupils dilated, and the bodies had slightly stiffened. There was no saving them.

"Let's check other places!"

Vivian nodded and quickly pushed open the doors of several other houses.

The result was surprisingly consistent.

The townsfolk lay sprawled on the ground, lifeless, having died in an eerie manner within their own homes.

"The bonfire is still warm, the food untouched. Judging by the scene, it happened last night. There are no signs of resistance; they seem to have been killed in an instant..."

Luo En's brow furrowed, perplexed.

Too strange.

What could have possibly slaughtered an entire town of over a thousand people overnight, silently?

"It's the Wild Hunt..."

Vivian stood up from beside a corpse, her fingers pinching a wisp of grey mist,

"Those creatures that crawled up from the earth invaded the town and stole the souls of the living."

Hearing this, Luo En was puzzled:

"These departed souls run rampant; don't the Danu Gods care?"

"Even if they did, could they manage it all?"

Vivian replied helplessly, casually explaining to Luo En the reason.

Due to several Great Invasions and incessant wars, countless deities and monsters perished, making the entire Celtic God Era almost a colossal graveyard, with the powerful remains buried everywhere.

Moreover, the lack of a clearly defined Netherworld in the Otherworld of the Celtic God Era undoubtedly increased the difficulty of managing the departed souls.

As a result, the Celtic God Era became a breeding ground for the Wild Hunt. Once the power of death accumulated in the earth veins reached a certain level, a large number of departed souls would awaken, spontaneously forming the Wild Hunt Army and plundering the vitality and souls of the living everywhere.

Facing such periodically erupting calamities, the internally disunited Danu Gods were often powerless, usually opting to mind their own business and only dealing with problems within their territories.

In remote and wild places like Cornwall, no Chief God was willing to help, allowing the departed souls to plunder the vitality and souls of the living until life and death reached equilibrium again, returning underground automatically.

And indeed, this was the case.

Luo En recalled that the King of the Wild Hunt, in different regions, had different persons in charge.

In Ireland, it was Military God Nuada; in Scotland, it was Shadow Country Queen Scatha; in Wales, a demigod named Gwen; and in England, the legendary King Arthur.

But now, King Arthur had not yet been born, so Cornwall in England naturally had no one responsible to take on this duty.

Looking at the town, now a dead city, Vivian was a bit troubled: "What now?"

Luo En sighed, saying, "Let the dead be at rest. Let's deal with the bodies first to prevent an outbreak of disease nearby."

Vivian nodded in agreement, preparing to move the bodies to the square for collective cremation.

However, just as she cast a spell to lift one of the victims, a black flame-like aura suddenly lit up on the corpse, and its bluish-white right arm suddenly went rigid, unexpectedly grabbing at her ankle.

Vivian's face changed, and she immediately shot a purple-red arc from her magic wand, severing the arm reaching for her.

Yet, even fallen to the ground, the arm crawled towards Vivian's feet like an unkillable centipede.

Simultaneously, the male homeowner, missing an arm, slowly climbed from the ground, his eyes fixed white, staring dead at the living in front, and emitted a beast-like growl.

"Get back!"

A golden flame shot forward, grazing Vivian's hair, hitting the one-armed male resident.

Immediately, fierce flames ignited, burning the stiff and eerie figure to ashes.

With the crisis averted, Vivian breathed a sigh of relief.

Luo En stepped inside, frowning, and asked:

"What happened? Weren't they dead?"

"I don't know either. Just now, a dark aura appeared on this corpse, and then he came back to life and attacked me."

Vivian ground her silver teeth unhappily, scattering the pile of ashes with a kick to vent her anger.

Luo En hesitated for a moment, pointing behind him:

"Is the dark aura you mentioned like this one..."

Following his gaze, Vivian saw one after another black pillar of light rising from the square, dozens of 'townsfolk' with bizarre green-black patterns crawling from the heap of bodies, their sinister pale eyes gazing at the two outsiders at the door.

An intense malice surged towards them, filled with the curse of decay upon the living, the dead upon the living.

"Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Meanwhile, beast-like howls echoed, and a similar dark light appeared from various parts of the town.

Next, smoke and dust filled the air, houses collapsed, and figure after figure shrouded in black mist breached the doors, flooding towards the center of the square like a tide.

Revive from Death?

No, these were merely creatures transformed post-mortem by some evil force, craving flesh and vitality!

The master and apprentice exchanged a glance, silently agreed, and simultaneously recited the Divine Word.

With the final syllable falling, two Magic Array Diagrams, one from the sky and one from the ground, covered the entire town. A surge of magic factors flowed into them, converging into meteorite-sized fireballs, crashing onto the ground, leaving no room for the corpses and monsters to move.

Faced with the blazing flames, each figure topped with a dark aura advanced instead of retreating, madly rushing towards the directions emanating light and heat and the breath of the living, like moths to a flame.

Or perhaps, ashes chasing the remaining fire...

The flames burned for several hours, turning the entire town into white ash. All the bodies and monsters were reduced to ashes under the grinding of these two grand ritual spells.

With the sun setting in the west, the master and apprentice stood on the charred ground, offering simple prayers for these unfortunate residents, hoping to soothe their spirits and reduce their resentment.

After doing all this, the two resumed their journey to the Northern Realm.

However, not long after they set off, fierce flames rose from a distant town, and the sounds of screams, cries, roars, and rumblings echoed across the wilderness.