A few kilometers from the village of Dreville, a group of adventurers advanced along an ancient stone road.
They had been sent by the Adventurers' Guild after receiving an urgent request from Baron Aritz Erkhan.
In theory, protecting villages and roads was the responsibility of the kingdom's army.
In practice, maintaining enough troops in every corner of the territory was impossible.
That was why the guild existed.
When a region faced monster attacks, disappearances, or any threat beyond the capabilities of the local forces, the rulers turned to adventurers.
This mission seemed simple.
Investigate why several villages near Dreville had been completely abandoned.
However...
Something was wrong.
There were no birds.
No animals.
Not even the wind seemed to pass through that place.
Only the sound of boots striking the old stone road accompanied the group.
Keitaro walked with his hands behind his head, completely relaxed.
An attitude that contrasted sharply with the tension of everyone else.
Suddenly, he pointed toward the road descending toward the village.
—Look, Iris.
A kid with a wolf.
And a girl with a tiger.
Iris followed the direction of his gaze.
In the distance, she spotted two young people accompanied by a massive escort of knights.
The scene felt strangely familiar.
She couldn't help but smile.
—Are you seriously going to say that?
Keitaro tilted his head.
—What?
—Nothing.
I'm just surprised you're criticizing others for having an escort.
You weren't exactly someone easy to find either.
Keitaro placed a hand over his chest dramatically.
—How cruel of you.
I was just a humble adventurer.
Iris let out a laugh.
—Of course.
A humble adventurer who appeared out of nowhere, caused trouble, and ended up dragging me along with him.
Keitaro coughed lightly.
—That sounds worse than it actually was.
—Because that's exactly what happened.
Several adventurers around them burst into laughter.
Keitaro looked away with an awkward smile.
—Although I have to admit... you didn't seem that upset in the end.
Iris smiled mischievously.
—I was just pretending.
I didn't want to hurt your feelings.
Keitaro placed a hand over his chest again.
—That was unnecessarily cruel.
The laughter had barely faded when the group reached the edge of the village.
Then...
Keitaro's expression changed.
The lightness disappeared from his face.
The air around them grew heavy.
And for the first time since they had begun their journey...
No one said a word.
...
Not a single person.
The doors remained open.
Tools were still abandoned beside the fields.
Food remained untouched on several tables.
It was as if the entire village had vanished in a single instant.
Keitaro's smile slowly disappeared.
It wasn't fear.
It was something worse.
An uncomfortable certainty.
This was not an abandoned village.
It was a grave.
Cain stepped forward into the center of the road.
The leader of the Obsidian-ranked group observed the surroundings for several seconds.
Too much silence.
Too much calm.
—The baron's information was correct.
His voice was low.
—The villages really are disappearing.
Then he looked at all the adventurers.
—Search for survivors.
Do not lower your guard.
But remember something...
If you find anything strange...
Do not try to face it alone.
The groups began moving.
The nine Obsidian adventurers remained at the center of the formation.
The Diamond adventurers secured the main streets.
More than twenty Gold-ranked adventurers began searching the houses one by one.
Keitaro walked silently.
His eyes scanned every corner.
Something was wrong.
There were no signs of a struggle.
No blood.
No bodies.
Nothing.
It was as if the village itself had decided to remain empty.
Then...
CRAAASH.
A door exploded from inside a house.
A human body was thrown outward.
A rotting corpse.
Its empty eyes locked onto Iris.
Too fast.
Too close.
But she was already prepared.
Her staff shone.
The water in the air began gathering around her.
Dozens of transparent swords appeared in the air.
—Aquatic Slash.
The blades pierced through the undead.
The body fell apart into pieces.
For an instant...
Everything became silent.
Then another sound came from a nearby house.
A удар.
Then another.
And another.
The doors began opening.
One after another.
From the windows.
From the rooftops.
From beneath the ground.
The dead began to emerge.
One.
Ten.
Fifty.
Hundreds.
In less than a minute...
the entire village was surrounded.
The corpses did not run.
They did not scream.
They did not attack in desperation.
They simply advanced.
As if they already knew escape was impossible.
Cain drew his sword.
—Defensive formation!
The adventurers reacted immediately.
But then...
The atmosphere changed.
The air became heavier.
Everyone's muscles tensed.
Even the most experienced adventurers felt a pressure that made breathing difficult.
This was not ordinary magic.
It was something that did not belong to the world of the living.
Everyone raised their heads.
At the top of the church bell tower...
there was a figure.
A black robe completely covered its body.
It did not move.
It did not appear to be watching them.
It simply stood there.
As if it had been waiting long before they arrived.
Two blue flames burned beneath its hood.
In one hand, it held an old bone staff.
In the other...
a small red orb that pulsed like a beating heart.
Cain stopped breathing for a second.
His hand tightened around his sword.
It couldn't be.
—...
All traces of calm vanished from his face.
—No...
The more experienced adventurers slowly began stepping backward.
One of them whispered:
—Impossible...
Cain raised his voice.
—IT'S A LICH!!
The word fell over the village like a death sentence.
Even the adventurers who had never seen one before understood what it meant.
A monster capable of controlling entire armies of the dead.
A being that had abandoned its humanity in exchange for power.
But then something worse happened.
The Lich slowly raised its head.
And smiled.
An impossible smile on a face where no flesh remained.
The crimson orb on its staff released a pulse.
A wave of dark mana swept through the streets.
For a moment...
All the corpses stopped moving.
Absolute silence descended.
Until...
BOOM.
The ground trembled.
The doors of the houses began opening on their own.
The earth cracked around the cemetery.
The wells released a black mist.
And from every corner...
But then something worse happened.
The Lich slowly raised its head.
And smiled.
An impossible smile on a face where no flesh remained.
—How strange...
Its voice did not seem to come from a throat.
It was as if the village itself was speaking through it.
—Normally, humans flee before I can see their faces.
The red orb in its hand began to glow.
A pulse of mana spread throughout the village.
Then...
The corpses surrounding them stopped moving.
For a moment, everyone thought they had stopped the attack.
Until they heard a sound.
A heartbeat.
BOOM.
The ground trembled.
From the empty houses.
From the wells.
From the abandoned fields.
From the graves hidden beneath the earth...
Something began to awaken.
The streets filled with cracks.
A black mist began leaking from them, spreading throughout the village like a disease.
And then they appeared.
More corpses.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
They were not simple reanimated bodies.
Each one was wrapped in a layer of dark mana that distorted the air around them.
Some had been farmers.
Others soldiers.
Others adventurers.
Everyone who had disappeared over the past few weeks was there.
Transformed into part of the Lich's army.
Iris felt her blood run cold.
—This can't be...
Cain gritted his teeth.
This was not an ambush.
It was a prepared massacre.
—Everyone into formation!
The order had barely left his lips when the first undead attacked.
A Gold-ranked adventurer launched a fireball.
The spell struck three corpses and reduced them to ashes.
But behind them, twenty more appeared.
—There are too many!
Another adventurer drove his sword into the chest of an undead.
The blade pierced rotten flesh.
But before he could pull it free...
a skeletal hand tore through his armor.
His eyes widened in shock.
—How...?
The corpse lifted him from the ground as if he weighed nothing.
A second later...
his lifeless body fell.
—Damn it!
Two Diamond-ranked adventurers rushed to help him.
They never made it.
A mass of corpses crashed into them.
Their screams lasted only a few seconds before disappearing beneath the tide of the dead.
Fear began spreading.
Because no matter how many they defeated...
For every corpse that fell...
three more rose.
The Lich watched the scene from the bell tower.
Without emotion.
Without haste.
Like a king watching his soldiers carry out an order.
—For years...
Its voice echoed once again.
—Humans have buried their bodies believing that death was the end.
The staff slowly descended.
—How arrogant.
Dark mana exploded throughout the village.
The nearest corpses began to change.
Their bones grew.
Their bodies twisted.
The energy surrounding them increased until it forced even some adventurers to retreat.
Cain felt a weight pressing against his chest.
It was not just an army.
It was an endless source of soldiers.
As long as that monster remained standing...
the battle could not be won.
—Everyone listen.
His voice was firm.
But even he understood the severity of the situation.
—The target is not the dead.
Everyone looked at him.
Cain raised his sword toward the bell tower.
—It's him.
The Lich tilted its head slightly.
As if it had just heard something amusing.
—Oh...
A smile appeared beneath the hood.
—Finally, one of you understands.
The red orb shone with greater intensity.
And every corpse in the village raised its weapon at the same time.
The sound was terrifying.
Hundreds of swords.
Hundreds of bones.
Hundreds of bodies preparing to attack.
The earth trembled beneath their feet.
Keitaro watched in silence.
Until that moment, he had treated the mission as nothing more than a simple request.
An investigation.
Just another job.
But now he understood something.
That village had not been conquered by monsters.
It had been transformed into an altar.
A place where death fed upon death.
Because this was not a battle.
It was a slow attrition.
A war of endurance that the living were destined to lose.
Then...
the sound of hundreds of hooves began echoing in the distance.
Everyone raised their heads.
A massive column of knights advanced along the main road.
Black and silver banners waved above the formation.
—The Douglas House...
Cain murmured.
From afar, several men dressed in black robes watched the approaching army.
One of them slowly lowered his hand.
It was the signal.
At the top of the bell tower, the Lich turned its head toward the newcomers.
It remained motionless for several seconds.
Then...
the red orb stopped glowing.
The undead began to retreat.
They did not run.
They simply...
stopped attacking.
As if someone had extinguished their will.
—Are they... retreating?
an adventurer asked, unable to believe it.
The corpses slowly disappeared among the alleyways, forests, and ruined buildings.
No one dared to pursue them.
Only after the last corpse vanished into the horizon did silence return to the village.
A silence far heavier than before.
Because now they could count the dead.
Keitaro stared at the bodies lying across the streets.
Too many.
Far too many.
Iris slowly walked toward one of the fallen adventurers.
She knelt down.
She gently closed his eyes.
She did not say a single word.
There was no need.
Then Lusian descended from his carriage.
His expression remained calm.
He surveyed the village with a single glance.
Corpses.
The wounded.
Destroyed houses.
Dark mana permeating the air.
He needed nothing else.
—Leonidas.
—Yes, my lord.
—Establish a security perimeter.
I don't want anyone entering or leaving without authorization.
—Understood.
—Albert.
Check the condition of the wounded.
If there are people contaminated by dark mana, separate them immediately.
Albert nodded.
—Understood.
Lusian turned his gaze toward the adventurers.
Many could barely remain standing.
Their mana reserves were almost completely depleted.