The Kind of Evil

"How can anyone live in the north with this kind of weather?" Jacques asked as he sheathed his sword and began to blow warm breath onto his hands underneath the leather gloves. "You northerners are amazing, I have to admit that," he muttered under his breath as he looked around and kicked a pebble onto the invisible barrier.

"I don't think this cold is normal. Sir James and the others start to get affected by the cold," Belvia looked at James and the other northerners in front of her.

"Yes, Lady Belvia is right, this cold isn't normal. It's as if the cold is artificial, something that someone made to weaken us. We might need to rest soon, Count. We need to find a safe place to keep ourselves warm," James said, following Erglade from behind.

Erglade shook his head without saying a word, but then he swirled his right hand, creating a magic barrier around them. He began to coat the barrier with a thin layer of fire, providing warmth for the team. Everyone sighed in relief when the heat began to give relief to their bodies. However, they didn't want him to go to such an extent for them because they knew that they wanted him to be in his prime.

Suddenly, everyone stopped walking and their eyes narrowed because they heard something in the distance. They all heard it and they all looked at each other affirming that they weren't hallucinating. They heard a faint growl in the distance, something that was louder and deeper than any big bear could produce.

"It's coming from over there," Erglade pointed at the northeast. "The lake is close, and whatever that is, it seems it's coming from there," he continued.

Everyone unsheathed their swords and the ones who held a shield went to the sides and back to create a wall for others. They were all on guard as they approached where the growl was coming from. One thing that they found was the fact that there were faint footprints on the ground, the same footprints that they found in the village, the Paladins' and the Templars'.

The closer they were from the lake, the more and the louder the growls were. Somehow they believed those growls were coming from a human's mouth, not from a beast's. But then they were a bit convinced that they were right when they saw traces of pieces of armor on the ground. They saw a pauldron, a gauntlet, and a helmet scattered on the ground.

When they were trying to guess what had happened to the Paladins and the Templars, they heard footsteps coming toward them, the sound of footsteps and feet being dragged. They immediately readied their stances and prepared themselves for whatever was coming toward them.

The first thing they saw was a paladin coming toward them with one arm missing. His skin had turned pale purple, a sign that he was no longer alive. Then more of them appeared, followed by the Templars who were in the same condition.

"What the fuck is this..." Jacques looked at the Paladins and the Templars that were slowly surrounding them. "Are they corpses?" He asked.

"They got turned into undead from witchcraft... dark magic," Erglade answered as he stared at the grayed eyes of the undead. "Witchcraft all the way here in the north? That's unheard of..." he muttered to himself.

However, they realized the numbers of the undead were a lot more than they had expected. There were too many of them, not only the Paladins and Templars, there were a few unnamed knights that had been turned into undead.

"Witchcraft? So these people turned into undead? We should kill them now!" Belvia said as she charged in toward the undead.

Jacques and the others began to join Belvia in getting rid of the undead. James used divine energy to coat his sword, mixing it with Aura. They had never encountered with Undead before, only heard from stories about moving corpses.

"Don't lower your guard! Undead are actually stronger than before they were alive! Don't get fooled by their appearance!" Erglade shouted as he began to turn snowflakes into icicles.

It was as Erglade said, the moment the undead detected a threat, their movements became agile and swift. Their punches and kicks were strong enough to hit through Aura that was coated around the armor. They were indeed strong but looked weak on the outside, and the stronger they were, that meant the master was a powerful witch or warlock.

Belvia and Jacques were far ahead of the others as always since they were confident in their swordsmanship since they were unranked swordmasters. They didn't care about the amount of enemies they were facing as long as they could go all out, they were happy. On the other hand, James and the other northerners maintained their position and formation, slowly but surely eliminating the undead. Antonius showed off his amazing swordsmanship and magic skills, fighting a dozen undead on his own.

Erglade observed the battle, supporting those who were in need of help with his magic. They were outnumbered, but they had more force and strength in each individual, making the battle seem to favor them. However, what was dead couldn't be killed, and the only way to completely erase them was to use Divine energy or fire magic to burn them completely.

Everyone slowly changed their strategy, following Erglade's command, turning the tide by surrounding the undead. The undead were being pushed to the middle, having no way to escape when their master commanded them to.

The moment the undead were pushed to the center, Erglade had prepared a magic formation on the ground. He snapped his finger and turned the whole ground into a flame wall like a stove flame, burning all the undead inside it. Everyone watched as the undead burned and were unable to leave because Erglade placed a barrier that trapped them inside.

"It was... exciting..." Jacques breathed heavily as he listened to the growls of the undead that turned into a high-pitch scream that could tear eardrums.

"Sure," Belvia crossed her arms as she looked around. "But if the undead are here, where's the one who's controlling them? Won't they be so pissed that we killed all their minions?" She looked at Erglade with her brows arched.

Erglade had been thinking about that the moment the appearance of the undead occurred. He knew it was oddly suspicious that the master of the undead hadn't shown themselves. He knew that the undead were a precious army, something that would sacrifice a lot of lives to turn someone into an undead and maintain it.

Before Erglade could open his mouth, they all heard a screech coming from inside the fire wall. They all looked at the black smoke that formed inside the blazing flame, forming into a ball. They were curious what it was until the ball of small burst, putting out the flame in an instant and breaking the magic barrier that Erglade had made. The black smoke entered some of them, including Belvia and Jacques.

"Count! Stay back!" James screamed. "That's demonic energy! Get away from there!" He revealed.

Erglade immediately pushed himself away with wind magic and landed right beside James. He watched as those who had inhaled the black smoke began to collapse as their hands reached their necks as if they were suffocating. He couldn't do anything, and neither could James since his Divine power wasn't powerful enough to get rid of the demonic energy.

"Damn it..." Erglade clenched his fists, not knowing what to do. "What should we do in this situation? Killing them would be hard, and who knows if the demonic energy won't possess the others once we killed them," he muttered to himself.

"And we have nowhere to run but to go deeper into the forest, Count said. We should leave them and find a way to get out of this place. That's the best plan that I have in mind. We can't defeat them, not when the culprit behind this incident hasn't even showed themselves," James looked at Erglade with a stern and serious look on his face. "We are being played at, Count. We have become chess pieces on the board. The only way to win is to play the game carefully," he continued.

Erglade nodded in agreement, thinking the same thing. He then commanded the remaining team members to go deeper into the forest. He turned the snowflakes in the air into ice shards then into ice pillars to trap Belvia and the others who had been exposed by the demonic energy. He clenched his jaw and stared at them for one last time before he followed James and the others.

"Count, we can save them," Antonius said as he ran beside Erglade. "We will save them," he looked over his shoulder with a stern look, noticing that Belvia and the others had slowly gotten back up on their feet.

"I hope so," Erglade muttered as he tried to catch up with James and the others, his expression unreadable.