Chapter 226: Bursting Pandemic (2/2)

It was difficult for them to face a dragon without preparing themselves mentally—even if it were an undead.

Moreover, they had just finished fighting Nightcry and halfway through their celebratory feast. It just didn’t feel right to rush over to help at once.

“What’s happening?” The Elven Queen asked Marni, who was seated beside herself.

She had joined in the feast out of curiosity and was seated as a guest of honor, and naturally unable to see the Players’ forum page. As such, she didn’t understand why the jovial humans suddenly had serious looks on their faces and the feast had swiftly turned somber, with some even rising to their feet and without so much of a look behind.

“Have we been unwelcoming?” She added gingerly.

“No, we’ve received some news from other believers…”

Marni caught himself at that, uncertain if he should tell the Elven Queen about the post—but he soon remembered that the wood elves appear unconcerned with human affairs or to interfere with them. As such, no matter what he said, the Elven Queen probably wouldn’t leave the forest as the monarch of the wood elves.

Hence, he told her about the gist of the post, and certainly didn’t expect the Elven Queen to frown after thinking about it briefly. “I might be paranoid, but things might not be as simple as it seems. It is best for your fellowship to be cautious…”

“Is there a reason for that?”

Marni could not help feeling delighted—he might be on to something there.

“If your information is right, the first incident occurred three days ago at the Kristoff Mountains, followed by our arcanum seal, and then the undead forces at Sotimi…”

“Do you mean that the incident of the devil is connected to Tunaya?” Marni asked thoughtfully.

The Elven Queen nodded. “If you consider it carefully, the Trinia Forests is a part of the Silver Eagle Duchy’s jurisdiction as well. Although humans wouldn’t venture in here.”

“Could there be a reason behind the order in which those three entities awakened?”

“If I had to put my finger on it, the order is a sequence from ‘strongest to weakest.” Dragons are the most powerful and therefore the earliest to awaken, followed by the devil which is a supernatural species in itself, and then Sotimi’s undead… while there is no mention of what those undead were, it is known that Sotimi was where humans massacred some twenty thousand orks.” The Elven Queen guessed.

“But if I remember correctly, Sotimi is a mass grave which had as many ork corpses as human corpses. Why are you certain that the undead are orks and not humans?” Marni asked, bemused.

“The reason is simple.” The Elven Queen answered with great solemnity, putting weight behind every word. “Dragons, devils, and orks had survived since the First Age. They are amongst the First Eight: eight races made by the Trinity in the moment of Creation. Unlike them, humans are creatures mysteriously born out of nowhere in the Second Age.”

She then paused for a moment, affording Marni, a human of short lifespan time to digest the information that was as ancient as it was mysterious.

“On the other hand,” she continued after a moment, “if that mysterious zombification is really connected to the First Eight, there has to be undead of five other races awakening aside from the three that already did…”