CHAPTER 31: THE MIST

A man with a small bell moved through the village, warning the people about a mist.

Confused, Dante wanted to go to the innkeeper to ask him about this, but before he could move, the innkeeper came into Dante’s room.

"It’s starting." The innkeeper sighed as he closed the window. Then, he drew some runes in the air, causing brown vines to block every gap in the window.

"Ahh... what’s wrong?"

The innkeeper looked at him with a puzzled face, then finally remembered that Dante was a foreigner.

The innkeeper sighed: "A few days ago, a strange green mist covered the entire village. We were confused by the strange color, but we didn’t pay it any mind. Then all of a sudden, we started to hear loud screams and laughs. Some people decided to see what was happening, and they regretted it immediately."

The waitress suddenly appeared and continued: "Corpses! They were walking corpses! I don’t understand it, but the stories talked about corpses walking and attacking everything! The survivors claimed that the mist was attacking villagers to turn them into mindless corpses and absorb their vitality."

"After the night ended, all that we saw was the corpses, drained of all vitality and color, spread across the ground and over the houses. It was truly terrifying, and the survivors were in miserable states."

Dante’s eyes widened. Looking through the window, he saw a green mist approaching them.

"Since then, the green mist would always return in the night and disappear by sunrise, leaving a lot of corpses. We can’t do anything about it, so for now, we just stay in our houses and make sure to close any gaps."

"Wait, what about the baron? What about the kingdom itself? Didn’t you ask for help?" Dante asked curiously.

The innkeeper let out a hollow laugh: "We did. Several times, in fact. But the baron only got himself more guards and ignored us. In his eyes, we are no more than a bunch of animals. Some villagers tried to leave the village directly to ask for help, but we’re still waiting for them until now and they don’t seem to be coming back."

As the innkeeper finished hiding the gaps, he left with the waitress, keeping Dante alone in his room.

’Why isn’t the baron helping his people? I don’t understand...’

Dante didn’t understand a lot of things about politics and corruption, but wasn’t that too much?

There was literally a mist killing people every single day, and he wasn’t doing anything for that?

Suddenly, Dante heard some voices.

"Three bronze coins per person."

"Sir, I have only two."

"No exceptions!"

Leaving his room, Dante saw the innkeeper and the waitress taking money from some poor-looking villagers to let them enter the inn.

Not giving them rooms or food, no—but only letting them enter.

Some other villagers tried to sneak into the inn without paying, but the innkeeper caught them immediately and threw them out.

’Taking advantage of a disaster, huh?’

Dante sighed as he returned to his room and went to the window. Secretly, he opened it only enough to throw a sword and let Fafnir leave without harming the vines.

’Fafnir, see what exactly happens out there.’

Fafnir turned into a physical form, though he was still black without an appearance, and grabbed the sword while nodding his head.

Dante wasn’t a hero, nor was he willing to sacrifice himself. But he wasn’t going to lose anything from sending his shadow out, as Fafnir was technically immortal.

Well, maybe he’d lose the sword, but it wasn’t his sword anyway. He got it from the ancient ruins.

’Move to the village edge. Most homeless people are there.’

Fafnir obeyed without hesitation, hiding in the shadow to avoid being seen.

Eventually, the mist arrived, covering the entire place in green.

"We are doomed!"

"Someone, please let me enter!"

"Ha, haha, hahahaha!"

The homeless villagers panicked instantly, either screaming or trying to enter someone’s house.

As the mist became thicker, Fafnir had to enhance his eyes to see through it.

He found a group of villagers and decided to keep watching them. But suddenly—

Crack!

One of the villagers turned his head 180 degrees, looking at the other villagers with terror and disbelief before falling lifeless.

’How?!’

Dante had been watching this group of villagers the entire time using Fafnir’s eyes, but this was too sudden—He hadn’t noticed anything.

As the villagers were screaming and running, Fafnir went to the corpse to scan it.

It was the corpse of an armless man. Fafnir tried to find anything strange on it, but it seemed completely normal.

It wasn’t a moving corpse nor did it show anything suspicious.

’What was it then? Why did he twist his neck suddenly?’

Well, maybe it had something suspicious, but Dante wasn’t an expert in these things.

Sighing in surrender, Fafnir left the corpse and moved a few steps away.

Crack!

Black flames covered Fafnir’s sword and body as he heard another sound.

Glancing back at the corpse, he noticed its head had returned to normal.

’No, it didn’t return to normal—it twisted again.’

He could see that clearly on its twisted neck.

Dante’s jaw suddenly dropped as the corpse started moving, standing up as if it was still alive.

CRACK!

With another twist of its neck, the corpse was looking directly in Fafnir’s direction, a wide smile—wider than a human should be able to make—was spread across its face.

’What the hell is this?! Use the spiritual eye!’

Fafnir used the Spiritual Eye ability, but... nothing appeared in his sight. The corpse was indeed dead!

Shadow Spell — Fire Bolt!

Without hesitation, Fafnir shot a flaming bolt toward the corpse.

The bolt exploded into the monster’s neck, sending its head flying away. But suddenly, green tendrils burst out of the headless corpse and the flying head.

The flying head fell to the ground and used the tendrils as legs, moving toward Fafnir like a spider. And the headless body made the tendrils take the shape of a mouth and charged toward Fafnir as well.

"HAHA, AHAHA!"

The head started laughing suddenly, opening its mouth even wider.

’More bolts!’

Shadow Spell — Fire Bolt!

Fafnir shot two bolts.

One bolt exploded into the head, and the other hit the body’s stomach. The head exploded immediately, leaving only a round core behind, while the body struggled against the flames until it eventually died.

’Did the mist invade his body?’

The mist seemed to be working like a parasite, invading the people’s bodies, killing them, then controlling the corpses.

And from the innkeeper description, maybe it used them as a source of food before leaving them.

But how did it invade people?

All the villagers were surrounded by the mist, but only one was targeted. Did the mist have limits?

’Is Fafnir okay because he isn’t targeted yet or because he is a shadow?’

Fafnir shrugged as he turned around, but just then...

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

Countless heads turned toward him, looking at him with wide, inhuman smiles.

Fafnir: "...."

’What the hell are you waiting for? RUN! Wait, GO TOWARD THE BARON!’

If that bastard didn’t want to solve the problem, then why not bring it to him?

Fafnir took a few steps back, and the villagers took a few steps toward him.

Suddenly, Fafnir looked to his left, a look of pure terror appeared on him as he drew his sword with shaky hands, ignoring all the corpses.

CRACK!

All the corpses turned their heads toward that direction at the same time, but they didn’t see anything strange or unusual.

Their gaze landed on Fafnir again, he was already running with his fastest speed.

"...."

The most stunned of them all was Dante himself. He didn’t know if he should be more stunned that his shadow used this stupid trick in this serious situation, or the FACT that it WORKED!

’Weren’t these things supposed to be mindless? How did they fall for that?!’

"HEHEHE."

"HAHAHA!"

"AHAHA!"

The corpses started laughing crazily as they ran after him.

They were too many to be defeated with a few bolts, leaving Fafnir with no choice but to keep running. With only half Dante’s stats, and with no wide area spells, he didn’t have a chance against them.

"The monsters!"

"Ughh...!"

They didn’t only attack him, but even some unlucky villagers who weren’t possessed, which filled Dante with frustration.

’Try to avoid people...’

Feeling his master’s intent, Fafnir began to slow down, only enough to be near a few monsters and to drag their attention.

While running, he kept swinging his sword, killing as many as he could, and casting fire bursts under his legs to quickly dodge the sudden attacks.

But all of a sudden, a few corpses bowed down.

’What the...’

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The corpses shot their heads like cannons!

Fafnir tried to dodge, kicking some heads and evading others, but one of the flying heads bit his arm and tore it off.

As a shadow, Fafnir didn’t bleed or feel any real pain, but he was still annoyed as he had to fight with one arm.

After running for some time, eventually, a luxurious house appeared in his sight.