75 The Necromancer and the Priestess 9 (1/2)

”Ah, it died again,” El muttered, his expression scarily cold and indifferent as he set down the scalpel in his hand, gazing down at the cut open corpse on the table. He took a nearby towel, wiping the blood on his hands as he sat down, leaning back with a weary sigh.

His surroundings were dark, barely lit with a single candle, as his gold eyes glowed in the writhing shadows. Blood pooled on the floor, seeping into his shoes as he seemed absent minded.

He had come here to get his mind off things, but his thoughts couldn't help but run around in a circle before falling back onto Celes.

”Why? Why did she do something like that?” He muttered, head in his hand as he clutched at his hair.

”Quickly,” he stood up, slightly stumbling as he walked toward the door. ”I have to quickly unseal him...” He didn't look back, raising a hand as the swirling shadows seemed to eagerly devour the corpse and blood, leaving nothing behind but the reeking stench of death.

A couple of days after Yu Na had been summoned, Yin Mei had yet to wake up. The Bishop made the decision to send Leon and Yu Na along with a group of elite knights and priests to Gloom Forest.

When they arrived, the forest seemed even more menacing than usual, the air heavy with miasma.

”What in the world is this? The miasma should have been purified pretty recently, so just how in the world is there still so much...!” The priestess, Naenia, exclaimed, covering her mouth in disgust. Just being near such heavy miasma was making the members of the group feel nauseous. The only one who was unaffected was Yu Na.

”It must be the evil creature,” Leon said after a moment's thought. The evil creature was a creature made entirely of miasma. It wasn't so odd if it's existence resulted in this sharp increase in the density of the miasma in the air. It seemed that they would have to quickly take care of it or it would only grow stronger. If the miasma increased anymore, then they would have a large problem on their hands. Aside from the fact that stronger monsters would begin to appear, the likelihood of another evil creature appearing would also become higher.

”Ah! Naenia, can't you sense the high priestess's power?” A priestess said as she turned to look at the one priestess who served the high priestess that had come with them.

Naenia paused, and extended her senses. There really was the sense of the high priestess's power. ”This should be her familiar? That's right! The high priestess had sent that slave girl Rosella into the forest. The familiar must be protecting her.” Naenia said, drawing the attention of the nearby Kai. He was relieved that things were like what Leon had said - the high priestess really did make preparations to protect Rosella.

Although their main mission was to defeat the evil creature, there was no way that they could just leave one of the high priestess's people in the forest to fend for themselves. They quickly met up with Rosella, who had looked like she had gone through hell and back - she was smeared in dirt, blood, and leaves, her white robe now completely unrecognizable and ripped up in various places.

”Rosella!” Kai exclaimed, rushing over to the girl.

Rosella blinked several times in surprise, not having expected this. But now that she thought about it, since the previous expedition group had all died, of course they would have sent new people in to check out the situation right? ”What's going on?” She asked. Seeing that they had actually sent Kai, and another priestess from the inner sanctum that she recognized, the situation should be pretty bad, right? She paused. Didn't she just think it - since the previous group had all died, of course the situation was dire! She felt a little silly.

Kai explained things in a soft voice, while Yu Na looked toward Leon in slight confusion. She didn't know who this girl was, but it looked like that handsome knight had recognized her.

Leon noticed Yu Na's questioning gaze, and replied with a polite tone, ”That girl was sent to Gloom Forest by the high priestess with the expedition group a couple of weeks ago on an errand.”

Yu Na blinked, and looked back at Rosella.

Leon approached Rosella, asking her about the status of the expedition group. ”I don't know if anyone else survived. But... it's likely that not a lot of people did.” Rosella spoke in a soft voice, and the atmosphere of the group grew gloomy as they knew that they had probably arrived too late to save the members of the expedition group. Rosella had the protection of the high priestess with her, but the other members didn't - it was highly unlikely that the others had survived.

Rosella was then approached by a couple of priestesses, who healed her up. Leon decided that they should set up camp for today, of which the girls all agreed - especially since they wanted to get Rosella cleaned up from all the dirt and blood that was covering her.

As they cleaned her up and gave her a new change of clothes, away from the gazes of the men, they explained what had happened while she was gone. Yu Na was not with them, and instead sitting nearby Leon, who was taking the time to teach her a few more spells while he still could.