No matter which direction you look, there is a suffocating milky white mist, and the cold air invades the skin, making people shiver involuntarily.

Ed didn't know where he was, didn't know where he was going, and was confused, but couldn't stop.

He wasn't alone. But the people around him were faint and vague, and he seemed to know them, but he didn't seem to know them.

They walked dazed in the endless fog, without saying a word to each other. Along the way, countless vague statues towered into the sky, like the remains of ancient giants, huge, indifferent and hideous.

Then, one by one, they silently disappeared into the fog. When the fog finally lifted, there was only Ed himself left in the boundless wilderness, the pale bones under his feet, reflecting the cold moonlight.

He looked up at the sky, and in the unfathomable darkness, a huge golden eye was staring coldly at him.

In a chill to the bone, Ed shivered and woke up.

For a moment he thought he was in Christesburg, in his own bedroom, having just woken up from a nightmare, but the stone ceiling that caught his eye was a vague pattern he had never seen before......

A face full of concern came to his eyes.

"Ed!" said the familiar and unfamiliar young man's face with sincere delight, "You're awake!"

Ed blinked slowly, memories flooding into his mind for a moment.

He jerked up, nearly hitting Eric's head solidly.

"Undead!" he cried, "Hoan......"

"Hoan is fine. Eric patted him on the back, gentle and clumsy, as if he were a baby who had just been milked and needed to burp, "He's next door, maybe awake." ”

"What about the undead?" Ed's voice was astringent.

"That's Bernard. Eric said, looking uneasy and proud, "Fili cut off his head. ”

Ed's eyes glazed over, and he fell limply back onto the skin that could barely be called a bed.

"Are you cold?" asked Eric with concern, "are you shivering...... I'll go get some firewood and bring you something to eat, you'll be hungry." ”

Ed struggled to squeeze out a smile and nodded, watching Eric leave.

He didn't want this "brother" who took care of him considerately to know that he was not shaking because of the cold...... It's because of fear.

My heart was beating suddenly, and I couldn't calm down. His mind was full of the terrible face in the darkness, and the more he tried to forget, the clearer it became.

But that's probably ...... Succeed?

He didn't want to say that he would rather fail, but if he knew that he would face such a horrific scene, and maybe even cost Huo An and himself his own lives, he would definitely think about it again.

It was Norway who discovered Bernard's disappearance.

The splicing elves can't keep an eye on everyone, and can only focus on the leaders of the faithful, Harriat and Risek, and Philly's suspicion, Nigel Estes. But with the exception of two of them, who had stalked the more suspicious-looking Filly and Ed, none of them seemed to have any problems.

They weren't the only ones who haunted the night, but the few who were just trying to sneak something of value from the ruins of an elven city, or sneak a tryst through the darkness. Perhaps there was nothing to be gained in the city that had been silent for thousands of years, and those people quickly gave up.

Norway couldn't leave the city, but he remembered the faces of everyone who entered it. When Kharyat first summoned everyone because of the destruction of the temple's foundations, the elf discovered that several of the faces he remembered had disappeared. After asking Fili if anyone had ever left, and how many had remained outside the city to guard the foundations, he was determined that at least three people had gone missing, one of whom was Bernard, who worked with Zeng Ed.

"I'm sorry, I should have found out earlier. "But ......"

He was speechless, as if bothered by something, and Ed didn't think it was the elf's fault. He felt that he had been observing everyone very carefully, but he had not even noticed that the people around him had disappeared for several days. In contrast, he felt that he was the one who should say sorry...... No, it's supposed to be Fili Zeri!

The bastard paladin didn't apologize in the slightest. He claimed that he didn't remember people's faces very well, let alone suddenly faced a large number of people he didn't know at all.

"Different people have different strengths, and it's the right thing to do. ”

He even said it seriously.

Ed really has nothing to say about this kind of guy who is thicker than himself.

If more people go missing, sooner or later people will find out, but by then it may be too late.

"We should take the initiative!" Ed decided.

They've been here long enough, what if Iss does fly back to some unknown island in the icy sea to sleep......?

Ed patted his chest, realizing that there was another possibility—he might well have died on the road before he could find Is.

There is no way to become a great legend like this!.

When Eric returned with food in one hand and a rough wool blanket under the other, Ed was still staring blankly at the ceiling, boredly trying to discern what the pattern, eroded by time, was.

He didn't feel hungry at all, but he was weak and in a trance, but he couldn't sleep again anyway.

And Eric brought back another person.

"How does it feel?" Risek's smile remained warm.

Ed quickly got up.

"I'm fine. He smiled heavily, a little embarrassed, "I'm just taken aback, and I'm not sick." ”

"You're a lucky guy. You and Hoan are both. Risek seemed to have a lingering heart, "That's an undead...... And you don't even have a knife on you. ”

Ed smirked and took the food Eric handed over, but before he could tell what it was, he began to gulp it into his mouth, shrinking his feet unnaturally - he had learned from Nalya to stick an elven dagger in his boot just in case...... Thankfully, they didn't take off his boots when they threw him on the bed, and the dagger wasn't at all like what a "normal hunter family" could have.

"How's Hoan?" he asked, swallowing a large piece of potato, a strange feeling suddenly rising in his heart.

He knew that the room he was in was in the hallways on either side of the back of the hall. All the rooms are doorless and not warm, and most of the people who live here are women, while the men prefer to crowd in the warm halls. Each room could accommodate at least four people to rest, and there was really no need to put him and Huo An in separate rooms.

"He's not awake yet. But I guess he should be like you, just freaked out. Risek smiled, but there was something more in his smile that Ed didn't really like.

When Risek began to ask him about the encounter with the undead last night, Ed was once again sure that it wasn't his delusion.

Risek asks cautiously, but too carefully, less like he is taking care of Ed's fragile nerves after being frightened. Those casual temptations, as if meaninglessly repeating questions, made Ed feel more and more uncomfortable, and finally even his stomach began to twitch.

-- I guess I ate it too fast.

He comforted himself so.

Perhaps noticing Ed's increasingly ugly face, or perhaps having nothing to ask anymore, Risek finally took his leave.

Ed let out a long breath and tossed aside the plate of hard bread he had dug up.

"He doubted me. ”

He said sullenly.

And it's a terrible feeling to be suspicious – especially if it's someone you like.

"What are you talking about? Eric looked at him quizzically, "What can he suspect about you?"

"Suspect I'm a necromancer...... And so on. Ed said uncertainly.

Eric laughed.

Probably thinking that this idea was too ridiculous, he could barely stop laughing, shaking his head and taking away what Ed had left, and rubbing Ed's hair vigorously as he left.

Ed sat in a low mood for a while, and began to wonder if he was too sensitive because of his weak heart. After all, in all seriousness, he is not so innocent.

He got up and walked to the door. Maybe going to see Hoan would make him a little calmer.

But he had barely stepped out of the door when he was stopped.

There were actually two guards by the door. He recognized their faces, but he didn't know their names.

"You can't leave here. The tall guy had a pair of eyes that were too close, and his tone was stiff.

“...... Why?" Ed couldn't help but get a little angry.

"Just to protect you. Another young man hastened to explain, his deliberately enlarged smile showing a bit of nervousness: "You know, those undead...... I've heard that their cries can destroy human souls! Risek says it's best to let you rest in peace for a few days, it's good for you, really. ”

Ed glared at him - who taught him such a clumsy lie, even Hoan couldn't have been deceived by this, right?!

But he obviously couldn't pull out the dagger in his boot and rush out, so he had to retreat into the room and fall back into bed to sulk.

It's all Filly's fault!!

He cursed the hateful paladin for the thousandth time, scolding himself for dragging his companions into this quagmire as soon as his heart softened, rolling around and frustrated.

Norway had warned him of this, but he didn't know it would make him so uncomfortable.

Now he had to wait for Fili Zeri to prove himself to Khaliat and Risek, as he had planned. The status of a paladin is still somewhat useful at such times.

But he waited and waited, and fell asleep and woke up in a daze, but it was not Fili who was waiting.

"Hoan!"

Ed jumped up, threw himself over and gave the pale-faced boy a strong hug, then looked out the door suspiciously, "Will they let you in?"

Huo An pushed him away without a word, grabbed his wrist and pulled him out.

He gripped unusually tightly, his thin fingers making Ed feel as if he had been grabbed by a skeleton......

Ed shuddered, staggering and dazed, expecting the guards at the door to stop them like they had done last time, but when they walked out the door, the two guards looked straight at them as if they hadn't seen them at all.

"Uh...... What's going on?" Ed asked uneasily, "Where are we going?"

"Get out of here!" the young man didn't look back, his hurried voice fluttering in the cold air:

"Or you'll die here!"