The woman, lying face down in a pool of blood, looked quite thin, but it took a long time for the two men to turn her over.

Her expression froze in a moment of fear as Ed had seen it before, as if it wasn't her willingness to summon the undead, or something terrible had happened in between.

Ed moved his feet, and the runes on the ground had been trampled into a mess. He reached out and froze and shrank back when he touched the corpse's clothes.

"I think you should search her and maybe find some clues. He kindly suggested to the paladin.

“...... Why didn't you search for it?" Eric was visibly reluctant.

"Because it's a test for you!!!" Ed said loudly to hide his weakness.

Eric crouched down with a frown.

"But...... This is a bit of ...... Lady. "That doesn't seem to be a good ......."

Ed's eyes widened in disbelief: "—'This is a lady'...... She stabbed you, you split her head in half, and now you're going to care, 'Is this a lady?!Are you serious?!

With a look of death on his face, Eric reached into the woman's arms.

They found a pile of small bits and pieces: an empty silver flask, a small black bag containing a few white bone beads, which Ed shook his hand to scatter the beads to the ground at the thought of the possibility that they were made of human bones, and then silently picked them up under Eric's gaze, and a charcoal pen, a handful of tasteless herbs, and a few beautiful feathers...... It doesn't look like anything of value.

"Look at this. Eric pulled out a small holster and threw it at him.

Ed unfolded his holster, revealing only a note rolled inside.

"It's a map. Ed said, recognising the scribbled lines, "Hmm...... is a map of the city. ”

The map is not elaborate, but it is very detailed, and almost every street, every platform, is marked with any important buildings.

"How could they have surveyed the entire city and not been discovered by the elves?" said Ed aloud.

"Maybe your elven friends aren't as good as you think. Eric said.

Ed glared at him. It would have been sarcastic if it came out of Fili's mouth, but Eric was just honest about the matter, and he had nothing to say.

"Maybe the team sent by Risek to check if the city is safe also has their men......" His gaze wandered across the map, and several places were marked, one was the cemetery they were in, another cemetery on the east side of the city, and one was the rear of the hall on the inside of the square, with a simple line connecting the three places to mark the nearest road.

"This should be where they are ready to summon the undead. Eric pointed to the two cemeteries, "We should probably go to the cemetery to the east again, maybe another necromancer is there...... But how did they get out of the hall, didn't you say the doors were sealed?"

"We're out. "Either they know something we don't know, or someone opens the door for them." Hey, they're mages, maybe they don't need any doors to get out of there. ”

Eric shook his head, "Necromancers don't have that kind of spell. Even if they were once mages, after studying necromancy, the gods of magic would take back their powers. ”

"Really, but I knew there was a necromancer, and she struck me with lightning......" His voice suddenly weakened.

There's one thing that's not quite right on the map - there used to be a huge statue in the middle of the square, but now only the pedestal remains. He had seen part of its wreckage on the edge of the square. The Anktans say that when they arrived, the statue had fallen to the ground, broken into several pieces, and they didn't even know where it had gone, but on the map, in the center of the square, a little man with a sword with poor brushwork, for some unknown purpose, added a somewhat funny, and somewhat weird smiling expression to the little man.

"This isn't a recent map!" Ed cried, "someone...... Maybe it's those necromancers, they've been here before!"

He should have noticed that the edges of the map had yellowed, apparently drawn a long time ago, and only the markings were new.

"It's not surprising. I've heard that in the mountains of the north, necromancers have been searching for the remains of various cities and battlefields. Eric looked at the map, trying to remember, "But elves are not suitable for them to summon......" He paused, looked at the empty graves around him, and said no more.

"The Paladins' experience or record doesn't work very well here, does it?" said Ed. He was no longer in the mood to gloat, and the situation was just as bad for him. Does Filly know this? What about Norvi, are the girls safe now?......

"Anything else?" he digressed from the unsettling subject.

Eric fumbled and pulled a ring from the woman's belt. He looked down at it, his face pale and frozen.

“...... This is the priest's ring......"

The rune ring of solid gold is engraved with the mark of the goddess Nyo, and is decorated with a circle of tiny light blue gemstones next to it.

Eric flipped through the ring and found the initials of the wearer's name on the inner ring.

"Danvers......" The young paladin's voice trembled slightly, and Ed looked at him sympathetically, not knowing what to say.

"He said something was wrong with the plague...... He's going to have to call for help...... Eric choked, "that's the last thing I remember...... I may have burned or buried his body with my own hands, but I didn't know who he was......"

Or maybe he's just...... Lost the ring......" Ed's voice grew quieter, and he couldn't even convince himself for this reason.

Eric clutched the ring in his hands and began to pray with sobs. At first his voice was so small that Ed could barely hear it, but gradually, the paladin's voice grew louder:

“...... that we may see ourselves in your eternity. Life flows endlessly, as fine as mist, as macro as rivers and seas, forever in the palm of your hand......"

Ed hadn't heard this prayer, perhaps unique to paladins. Nor did he expect that one day he would be so quiet and focused, listening to a person's prayers almost reverently. As he felt the courage and strength return to the paladin's upright body, Ed realized that the belief in the gods, which he had never really cared about, was perhaps more important than he was willing to admit.

At the end of the prayer, Eric was silent for a moment, then stood firmly.

"Let's go somewhere else. He said.

"Oh...... Of course!" Ed jumped up as if from a dream, feeling a chill on his face. He reached out and wiped it, only to be surprised to find that he didn't know when, he had burst into tears.

The moon appears and disappears in the thin clouds. There is no need for torches, and everything is clearly visible in the snowy city. They hadn't met half a skeleton along the way, but without the grumpy snowy owl to lead the way, Ed always felt panicked.

He even looked at the sky from time to time, hoping that the big white bird would fly back and cooing at them again.

He didn't know if Eric felt the same way he did.

Eric hadn't said a word since leaving the cemetery, and he didn't dare to talk nonsense to the young man who had just recovered from the grief of losing his companion.

At this moment, Eric's tense face and slightly sunken corners of his mouth showed a resolute expression, and he looked more like a paladin than Fili Zeri, who was never serious.

Another cemetery is a journey through the city, and the "Far Northern Light", which was so beautiful in Ed's eyes at first sight, now looks like a dead city.

With exactly...... City of the Dead.

Ed shuddered, his gaze moving to the ground. Piles of skeleton footprints reappeared on the snow.

"That's a lot ......," he muttered.

A lot of skeletons. Will everyone be okay?......

"Eric! Wait!"

When he found another kind of footprint, he habitually grabbed the paladin's belt, "These are human footprints!"

The footprints of the human are evident in the footprints of the skeleton that remains. Trained by the elves, Ed quickly recognized the unusually large footprint in the snow.

"Akan ...... And Naria and Tess...... This is Moqi......" He whispered the names of his friends, and his heart sank a little. He stray from the route marked on the map and ran straight ahead of his footprints, fear gripped his heart.

Eric followed him silently, not stopping him.

A jumble of footprints mingled with another mess of snow, leaving a trail of blood and several fallen skeletons in the center of the street, some with their entire heads shattered, others seemingly almost intact.

"Norvi ......," Ed's hand brushed over the shallow footprints on a waist-high flower bed—elf footprints were always shallow.

"They know what to do with these skeletons. Eric said approvingly, "I think they should be fine." ”

"They're together. Ed said. It calmed him down a bit.

"The best way to keep them safe is to ......"

"Find Hoan...... Another necromancer," Ed took a deep breath, "I know, I'm sorry. He opened the map and quickly found where they were.

"Go this way. He pointed to the path to the southwest, trying not to follow the footprints on the ground.

- Please protect them.

For the first time, he prayed with his heart and did not ask for any practical response.