256 Burning Heaven Makes a Move (1/2)

”Did someone say, ghouls?”

The notion of ghosts filled the entire army with dread, but when the words ”the corpses are moving” were uttered, the fear in their hearts was diminished by half.

Reanimated corpses were something they could at least fight against with their firearms. Nevertheless, a minority of the soldiers still got spooked by the corpses coming back to life.

Sniff… hmm?

”There's a strange smell in the air.”

A new pungent flavoring was added to the rich and heavy scent of blood that pervaded the area. A quick look around, and the soldiers spotted a wet patch on another shivering soldier's crotch area.

”What the hell, brother? C'mon, man. Did you really just piss yourself?”

”Not cool, man, not cool.”

”Damn, son. Haven't seen an adult man piss himself before. How old are you?”

All sorts of attention and questions were directed at the soldier, much to his embarrassment as the wet soldiers blushed with shame, but one cannot blame him for this. He was one of the surrendered soldiers from the Valaran Kingdom.

The common people of the Valaran Kingdom had never been in contact with Extreme Misty Forest and was not familiar with it.

Before the wet Valaran soldier could answer, a loud authoritative voice rang in his ears.

”Silence! Retreat into formation immediately and prepare for battle! Underestimate these ghouls and you'll be sorry.”

The soldiers were all spread around the several mountains of corpses, but once the order was issued, they immediately retreated with all-time seriousness.

Elizabeth floated in the air and looked on calmly as the commanders issued orders for defensive formations.

Time passes and the mountains of corpses began to wiggle more strongly. Soon, corpses began tumbling down from the top one after the other before they stood up with growling noises.

By this point, the soldiers were all in positions. The vanguard had their firearms locked and loaded. Little fear could be seen on their serious faces as they realized none of the undead ghouls had intact bodies.

Some were missing a limb or two and some were crawling on the ground with just their upper bodies.

…As for the headless corpses on the ground, they had not moved a single inch and remained motionless since the start.

It was not long before a round of fire initiated the battle between ghouls and men.

Elizabeth did not participate but spectated from above. A battle of this level did not require her personal intervention.

Rather, it was a good tempering experience for the Crawford soldiers and a chance for the surrendered soldiers of Valaran and Durham to earn merits to redeem themselves.

Even so, ghouls with incomplete bodies were the least of the Queen's worries. Even the Transcendent corpse of the Grand Elder of the Illusory Butterfly Sect did not concern her. It was one of the many headless corpses. There was no chance of it reviving as an undead ghoul through vengeful spirit possession. Undead

What did concern her was what killed them all.

The strings of webs were one of the distinctive traits of spiders, but she recalled that the spiders had all been eradicated back during Capital Crisis.

Upon further thought, she shook her head.

No one could guarantee that the spiders had all been eradicated when the underground was uncharted territory and infinitely vast as the continent itself.

There were far, far too many passageways to explore the entire first floor. They had only occupied the main cave that was almost as big as the Capital itself while leasing out a few passageways and underground plots to some interested nobles. The rest of the passageways were sealed off.

Even then, the spider queen had been killed back then.

What else could have been strong enough to slay a Transcendent and slaughter the entire army? Furthermore, it wasn't interesting in eating the corpses and left it as is.

Elizabeth had no idea what it could be, but Extreme Misty Forest had always been an unsettling place of uncertainties. It was not wise to overstay their welcome.

It could become dangerous if the thing that slaughtered everyone came back for them.

Once Elizabeth's thought arrived at this point, she was firm to leave once the ghouls were eliminated.

Fortunately, nothing unexpected occurred during the battle. The newly risen undead ghouls had not had any time to grow before they were slaughtered swiftly under the suppression of firepower.

Their missing limbs further made it difficult to maneuver properly.

Apart from their numbers, which was already less than the mixed army to begin with, the soldiers did not face much pressure when they engaged in close combat after raining bullets on the ghouls.

After the last ghoul had its head chopped off, Elizabeth did not want to linger in the forest any longer.

”Fall back into formation. We are leaving.”

In any case, whatever they set out to do, someone or something had settled it for them. There were still problems to resolve back in the kingdom.

”Yes, Your Majesty.”

The soldiers with absolute obedience.

None of the soldiers wanted to stick around in such a haunted place either.

…