The territory of the Principality of Taran is not large among the hundreds of floating islands of the Western Asian Union, but with the headquarters of the magic association, this small principality occupies a high position not only in the union, but also in the whole Mara continent.
Due to its proximity to Qiandao Bay, Taran's climate is colder than that of other allies because of its northern geographical location. Although the wind in early summer brought the extreme south heat, it still can not change the great temperature difference between day and night in this island country.
The day is just right warm, and at night it becomes bitter cold. In addition, it is a floating continent, which is lower than the temperature on the ground and on the island. It even gives people the illusion of "being in Kara, northern land".
The northern part of the principality is the boundless taiasen forest in Guangmao.
As the main breeding and capture place of war wolves, there are basically no other human settlers in this dangerous area except hunters who hunt wild animals for generations.
A riding Gauss sheep (note) carries a young man running rapidly on a path in the dense forest. He bypassed the hidden traps and mechanisms on the way and went straight to Buhe, a small village on the canopy.
Victor wood has rare black hair and emerald eyes in the north. Although always an unhappy expression makes the whole person seem too cold, it is undeniable that he has a handsome face. If in a prosperous big city, such a face is the ideal lover of many young women. Unfortunately, he was born in a remote mountain village and has been a hunter for generations. His ancestors have never had such an outstanding face.
Since childhood, his appearance and temperament incompatible with his whole body not only brought unnecessary trouble, but also brought him a humiliating title - illegitimate son.
His mother never revealed anything about his father, which made Victor even more disgusted with the biological father he had never met. He was annoyed by his indifference and hated his life.
If it had not been for an accident five years ago, Victor would not have left the hunter village all his life.
The young alchemist who accidentally passed by broke his leg while collecting rare plants. The old man found that he had a gift in magic. After repeated and careful thinking, Victor chose to leave without saying goodbye, leaving only a pocket with 50 silver coins and half of the rough parchment with a short message.
The reluctance to give up the mother was replaced by the hatred abandoned by the father.
The stubborn boy walked out of the closed forest. From then on, he embarked on the arduous road of becoming a mage.
In only five years. With amazing perseverance and talent. It takes him twice as much time to finish his studies as ordinary people. After officially removing his apprenticeship. Victor gave up teaching and asked his mentor to stay again and again. Choose to go to Jingyao, the capital, to continue practicing.
The night before leaving. A letter from Buhe village informed victor. Far away in a small village in the mountains, my mother was seriously ill. He had to revise his itinerary.
If mother dies. These five years of efforts will be in vain.
Choosing to be a mage is not to stand out. Just to get revenge for abandoning my mother and my father.
After five years away, the outline of the village gradually appeared in the sunset. Victor, who had always had a bad relationship with the villagers, didn't say hello to anyone. He tied his horse behind the entrance of the village and ran directly to a tree house at the outermost edge of the village.
The flexible and elastic branch is as soft as memory, dragging it up.
Standing in front of his home after five years of absence, he didn't know how to tell his seriously ill mother the reason for leaving that year.
"Ah..."
The old wooden door of some ages retreated slowly under the touch, and a rotten smell came on my face.
The uneasy expression stiffened for a moment.
"No!"
Victor shouted and rushed into the cabin.
The low room was chaotic and dusty in every corner.
A rotten corpse curled up on the wooden bed near the corner of the wall. From time to time, maggots drill in and out, and the disgusting peristalsis makes people vomit.
The faltering steps stagnated in front of the bed, and the tender eyes in the memory always stare at the South with expectation and sad eyes. Now, only rotten rotten meat is left in the two deep holes.
Five years ago, the parchment that hurriedly wrote the message was pulled in the withered palm and had already changed color and turned yellow.
Mother... "He knelt down beside his relatives who could no longer recognize his face, and Victor burst into tears.
Five years of forbearance and childhood expectations are all fragmented at this moment.
Suddenly, a breath he was familiar with and the smell of decay penetrated into the wing of his nose.
It's kerosene!
For tree houses, extremely flammable grease is very dangerous. Villagers can't and won't bring it in.
While wondering, the letter brought by the old village head suddenly flashed into Victor's mind.
The handwriting is correct. He really belongs to a few old people in the village who do not have prejudice against themselves. It is precisely because of this that he rushed back without hesitation.
According to the degree of decay of the corpse, he died for at least several months. Why did the village keep hiding but choose the night before he wanted to go to Jingyao.
In recent days, the tutor's face, which was always silent, slipped through his heart and surprised victor in a cold sweat. He pulled off the short staff tied around his waist and whispered the mantra.
Soon, a listening spell was completed.
The perception area gradually becomes larger with the light ball in the palm of the hand, spreading from the tree top wooden house filled with sadness and * * to the surrounding.
No... no... no
The houses are one by one, and the silence envelops Buhe village. There is no noise and noise that human beings should live in groups.
Since childhood, there was no one in the village. This cognition made the wet face cold.
After five years in the alchemy Institute, he was no longer a simple teenager in Buhe village. Practitioners who study potions and various props are also good at stepping on others to climb up. Now Victor doesn't think that no one in the village is hunting collectively.
Just then, he was worried about his mother's condition and didn't pay much attention. Now in retrospect, there were many things wrong.
There were no patrol posts, and no one even came to ask, when did the defense of Buhe village become so loose? Not even the most basic exploration.
Suddenly, an imperceptible air wave came from above.
Without thinking, Victor released the strong light stored in the staff.
With a soft noise, a dark shadow fell from the ceiling.
Looking at the man in black standing a few steps away, he narrowed his eyes - a guy he had never seen before.
The stranger who entered someone else's house without permission did not speak, but raised the dagger in his right hand to his eyebrows.
"Killer?" illegitimate son and magic genius let Victor make many enemies in the small town where he studied. It's not the first time that he was blocked by hired thugs, but this time he was upgraded to a killer who took people's lives: "which organization does he belong to?"
"Kill me, you will naturally know the answer you want." the voice of the answer was unexpectedly young and still a woman.
A moment of surprise flashed in Victor's eyes, and the black killer moved.
The slender figure is like a sharp arrow off the string, with the sound of the wind.
"Ding!"
The poisonous dagger with green light was blocked by the solid barrier. Victor raised his staff and whispered, "wind blade!"
The invisible spell energy turned into a sharp blade and cut to the close killer. The woman supported the ground with her hands and quickly turned back two circles to avoid the spell close to her body.
Victor is not willing to give the other party a chance to breathe and urge the magic. The wind blade is forced in three directions: left, right and up.
Just as he succeeded in forcing the killer into the dead corner of the tree house, his magic suddenly dried up without warning. Soon, half of the spells accumulated at the top of the staff dissipated into a shadow.
This sudden change not only surprised Victor, but also stunned the killer.
Hurriedly took out a spare spell storage ball from her waist pocket. Before he threw it out, the female killer had disappeared from her sight and integrated with the dark shadow behind her and under her feet.
Doubt and fear exploded in his mind. Before Victor came up with a strategy to deal with it, the cold dagger silently stuck to the side of his neck, and blood gushed out with the dull feeling of tearing.
Soft fell on the dusty wooden floor, turned his eyes and looked to his side, revealing a few strands of hair from the head cover cut by the wind blade, and the silver luster glittered in the dark tree house.
"Ah... Latent skill..." it can hide the body in the shadow. It is one of the most well-known skills of the dark elves.
Victor couldn't figure out when he was in the magic?
After entering the tree house, when climbing the rattan ladder, or... I was recruited in mivila town.
With a hard to hide resentment in his lax eyes, Victor stared at the killer who had just completed the assassination mission.
Frost wolf is a killer organization that has become famous in the Principality of Taran in recent years. Because the members are dark elves, they are easier to identify than the killers of other organizations.
As the third killer organization of Taran, the remuneration for hiring them is frighteningly high. Although he offended many people in the town, he is not worth hiring frost wolf.
Who is it?
At the same time, Victor pulled out an ugly and bitter smile.
Who else will there be.
Who else but that cool father?!
If it had not been for the sudden loss of magic, it would never have been defeated by the young woman.
Again, he put his hand into the small cloth bag tied around his waist. He tried to take out the life-saving transmission scroll from it. The trembling fingers just touched the scroll, and the ruthless foot of the female killer completely cut off hope.
I don't want to die.
At least... You can't die until you finish your revenge.
Although I thought so, death was approaching unstoppably. The last perception of the body is that the jaw is forcibly pulled open, closely followed by the numbness and pain spreading in the mouth.
"Sorry, this request is put forward by the employer, not out of personal preference. Trying to keep the target's body intact is frost wolf's last respect to the dead. After all... Killer is not a proud career."
The soft voice showed that the killer should not have mercy, but Victor had no spare energy to think.
Darkness replaced the last scene in my eyes, and the illusory dark awn floated in the corners of my eyes. Vaguely, you can still see a deep shadow shaking in the shadow of the floor.
Reaping the sickle of death (note)
With the dissipation of the last point of consciousness, his life passed away.
Put the cut tongue into a specially prepared iron box. The killer ignited the grease dumped on the ground, and the flame spread around along the arranged track.
Before long, the wooden house built on the top of the tree collapsed in the fire.
Facing the cold night wind, a fast horse ran out of the silent village and went straight to the south.
Behind him, the raging fire in the red sky swallowed up the whole village.
Just as the killer left Buhe village, a shadow darker than the night slowly floated from the gap in the floor of the burning wooden house.
Its smoke like body slowly moved to Victor's body, and thick resentment coiled around the newly dead * * for a long time.
[just choose this guy...]
Like a murmuring secret voice, it can't be heard in the crackling flame.
The dark shadow covered the body, wriggling and twisting, and soon penetrated into the warm limbs.
The wooden house, which had been burning for some time, began to collapse, fell from the top of the high tree and smashed on the wet ground.
A figure rose from the smoky ruins - Victor, who was already dead. The original green eyes glittered with dark red light. Soon, this color that does not belong to human beings disappeared and returned to the original color.
Victor was not resurrected. He was transformed into a soulless puppet corpse by undead magic (note).
The one who performed this spell was an undead, exactly a lich from the shadow world (note).
The poison attached to the dagger corroded the skin of Victor's whole neck into dark black, and sent out bursts of stench.
The Lich stretched out his hand and smelled. Its bloody hand gently drew several arcs in the air, and the terrible wound on its neck immediately stopped festering. Muscles, blood vessels and skin are healing at an amazing rate, and finally there are no scars left.
The fire continued to burn, and one of the wooden houses built on the top of the tree collapsed. The Lich walked rigidly on the uneven ground, and the Lich walked to the only corner with a hissing sound.
After a while, he saw a sheep riding on a stake at the entrance of the village. The big, round lens is full of panic. I don't know whether it is aimed at the fire or at the "master" who is no longer human.
Notice the gray cloth burden on the sheep. As soon as the Lich grabs it in the air, the burden will be carried by it. Touch out a special secret silver badge. On the reverse side, it finds the names written in magic secret language and common language respectively.
[Victor wood... What a surprising coincidence.]
The Lich's name is also called victor. For humans in southern land, this name symbolizes the eldest son and is the first child born in a family or family.
Not long after becoming a undead, the first crisis that all undead creatures will face visited the young Lich.
Nothingness is full of thinking, and all thirst for knowledge seems to fall into hibernation. The new knowledge in books is no longer attractive or interested in creating new spells and potions.
Everything has become meaningless, nihilistic to want to annihilate the soul and die completely.
It happened that the great Lich paglott needed to install a new spy to the material world. Victor thought he might be able to recover his lost thirst for knowledge in the busy human society, so he volunteered to paglott.
After making full preparations, it left the pale city (note), spent more than half a year crossing the shadow world and the star world, and reached the main material world of human survival.
The place where the Lich appeared happened to be the edge of taiasenlin, and human Victor also happened to rush back to Buhe village at this time.
It was attracted by the strong resentment surrounding the young mage and followed him all the way to Buhe village. Before the Lich started, the young man in question was overtaken by the killers lurking in the village. Fortunately, puppet corpses only need fresh corpses. It doesn't matter who killed them.
Although human Victor has magical talent, he doesn't have any adventures. There was neither a contract with the plane creature nor any instrument that could gain additional power. The Lich accepted the young and fresh body without any resistance.
The fire swept through the whole village turned around and found no living person. To be exact... The village has long been uninhabited.
[hum... A fool with magic talent doesn't even know that he has been betrayed.]
The Lich that had been completely integrated with the body stretched out pale fingers, and the fast wind blade took the life of the Gauss sheep in an instant. The blood flows out along the wound. Under the action of magic, the portal summoning array is generated by itself.
[60 South and 25 East.]
The complex positioning spell was quickly completed by other people's memory. The Lich walked into the transmission array with a burden and blood that was not completely dry.
From this moment on, it is Victor wood.
Notes——
Gauss sheep: a branch of the tai'a highland sheep. Because of its docile temperament, it was captured and domesticated by humans and developed into a horse. It is tough and cold resistant and can carry heavy loads. It is very popular among caravans and travelers. The only disadvantage is that the running speed is not as fast as other civilian mounts.
Sickle of Shadow: a kind of undead, an empty body. Often wait beside the dying, ready to seize the soul of the dead at any time.
Shadow world: located in the outer plane, it is filled with a large number of undead creatures, a highly visualized space with only black and white.
Pale City: the largest undead city in the shadow world, with a large number of lichs.
Puppet corpse: no self will, completely controlled by the manipulator. The memory, power and magic of his life are well preserved. Although the original soul has been lost, the * * remains fresh. The body will not rot until the operator gives up or destroys it.
Most lichs disguise themselves in this way, secretly sneak into the human world, steal the secret scriptures of spells, or observe and trade with humans to achieve some evil purpose.