It was another almost full day journey, and several villages along the way were destroyed, and not a single living person was encountered. Stan doesn't want to linger too long, and quickly passes through the empty ruins, the Darktide marching faster than he expected.

In the evening of the next day, a town that was beginning to take shape appeared on the far side of the horizon, still lifeless from a distance. Stan surveys the road around him and decides to bypass it.

Seeing Stan leading the horse out of the road, Nerfi asked, puzzled, "Why don't you go through that town?" ”

Stan shook his head and replied, "It's already in ruins, the road must be blocked by rubble, it's better to go around from the outside, and ......" The knight paused. "The miserable situation inside must be horrible, but you better not see it. ”

"I'm not afraid of that!" said Nerfi stubbornly, "but you have the final say. ”

The two rode unhurriedly along the dirt roads on the outskirts of the town, the low-hanging sunset shining weakly on the earth, and the entire ruins were shrouded in a bleak earthy yellow. Nerfi was still lamenting the sad sight, when suddenly there was a messy popping of wings, and a large flock of crows suddenly flew into the sky, obscuring the town over.

"How...... What's going on? Is there still a dark tide?" Nalfi nervously raised her wand, as if the demon would jump out in the next moment.

"Don't be nervous, it shouldn't be a dark tide. Stan waits for a few seconds before the crow begins to slowly fall again. "It could be the wolf that alarmed these scavengers!"

"Scavenging, do you mean it's all corpses?" said Nerfi, her body shuddering.

"That's right, this town is much bigger than the previous villages, and the dark tide is in a hurry to burn it all, so there must be corpses. Stan sighs and moves on.

Nerfi suddenly felt a sour taste welling up her throat from her stomach, she quickly covered her mouth, swallowed hard, and then immediately picked up the water bladder and took a big sip.

The two of them rounded the town and continued to ride northeast without stopping, and the ruins were quickly left behind. That night, the two found an abandoned farm, which had survived and not been destroyed because it was far from the main road, but the people who lived there were long gone.

Stan decides that this is the end of the day. "I'll be in the capital tomorrow, and I'll have to get enough rest today. ”

Nerfi once again used the magic thread to protect the room, and the night was uneventful, and both of them slept soundly.

Stan wakes Nerfi up at dawn, and the clouds fill the sky with the smell of corruption from the cold wind from the north, which makes Stan feel nervous. He didn't dare to think about it, so he could only bite the bullet and move on.

In the early afternoon, a wall appeared in the eyes of the two men, the white stone wall was covered with black marks, and there was no flag in sight on the watchtower, and there was not a single guard in sight.

However, the dark tide still doesn't appear, which is the worst-case scenario in Stan's mind. The knight froze, feeling dizzy and not knowing what to do next.

"Is it still too late?" Nerfi bit her lip. "Shall we go in, Stan?"

Stan looks at the city wall from afar. "Yes, we have to go in, I'm going to find Clerro, even if it's a corpse. ”

"Isn't it worse in there than the town it was yesterday?" asked Nerfi timidly.

"Perhaps, but this is Gaiman's capital, and you have to go in and see it anyway, just like Asgard once was. Stan clamped his legs and ran towards the wall.

A few dozen yards away from the city walls, you could already see the piles of corpses at the gates, the corpses of soldiers and ghouls in piles on top of each other, blood mixed with black water soaking the surrounding land.

The gate had been scorched, and only a small piece remained hanging from the thick chains. Nalfi pulls up his scarf to cover his nose and mouth, and Stan rolls over and dismounts with a solemn face. "Be careful from here, there may be remnants of the Dark Tide in the city. ”

Nerfi didn't dare to slack off, and quickly dismounted, holding his wand in one hand and leading the horse in the other to follow Stan. The two found a path between the corpses and walked into the city in a zigzag way, apparently cleared by the dark tide after taking the city for the follow-up troops to enter the city.

The stench of rotting corpses swells Stan's head, and Nellfi takes a breath of relief, and the two of them quickly pass through the gate and over the pile of corpses before daring to pause.

Stan looks back the way he came. "When I was in Asgard before, the corpses were frozen because of the cold weather, so they didn't decompose and they didn't smell like this, but this place is in the south, even if the weather is abnormal, it's still not cold enough. ”

Nerfi doesn't want to look back, instead just looking at Stan's side face. "Where are we going now?"

"That's right, go to the castle. Stan holds his sword in his right hand and walks towards the center of the city.

The streets were lined with soldiers who had died in battle, and there were a considerable number of ghouls lying beside the corpses, and the stumps of demons could always be found in some of the places where the corpses of the soldiers were piled up. Houses were still burning in the distance, and the smell of burnt smell was blowing through the streets.

Stan walks down the street and turns the corner to another street, where the sight is the same, which makes him suspicious. "Why do you only see the corpses of soldiers and ghouls, and none of the others see them, it stands to reason that this is the capital, so many houses, there should be a lot of people. ”

"Have they all been transformed into ghouls by the Darktide?" said Nerfi, feeling incredulous.

"Not really, and if that's the case, why doesn't the Dark Tide transform these soldiers? Stan shook his head, unable to come to any conclusion, and moved on.

In front of the castle gates, more corpses were crowded there, and the corpses were so well equipped that they were all knights of the guard guarding the lord. Falling with them were ghouls with bows and arrows all over their bodies, as well as several demons. The demons were either beheaded or half of their faces cut off, and it was too difficult to kill them.

Stan straps his mount to the fence of the fence and steps over the pile of corpses towards the castle. Nerfi was reluctant to step on the corpse, but there was no way out at the gate, so she had to follow Stan step by step.

To Stan's surprise, there is not much sign of fighting in the castle hallway, and the two make a beeline to the hall door, only to find that the final battle had been concentrated here.

At the entrance of the hall lay the corpses of two demons, each with a bow and arrow stuck in their faces, and the corpses of dozens of knights and ghouls lay in the middle of it. Around the throne, several knights and the corpse of the demon were entangled, and the demon's sword pierced through the knight's body, but the knight did not let go of the hand holding the demon until he died. Behind them, a middle-aged knight with curly brown hair and a beard collapsed to his throne, his eyes wide open and a look of anger on his face. A broad sword pierced his body, connecting him to the throne.

Stan slowly walks to the throne and stands silent in front of the dead lord, who after a few seconds he looks up and closes his eyes. "This must be Querero, who fought to the end, and glory was with him. ”

Nerfi bows her head in silence as well, but the corpse-filled hall makes her uncomfortable, and she walks over to Stan. "We've found Clerro, can we leave now, Stan?"

Stan took one last look at the lord's corpse and was about to turn around when a strange feeling came over him, and he quickly looked at the lord's hanging right hand, where there was no sword, and there was no ground nearby. "Is it ......" Stan muttered to himself, slowly picking up the scabbard that hung from the lord's waist, the knight's eyes widened as he pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment from the scabbard.

"It's ...... Nerfi poked her head out to look at the words on the parchment, and like Stan holding the paper, Nerfi's eyes grew larger as she read. "How could it be...... ...... like this"

Stan holds the parchment, unable to calm down for a long time, anger and sadness written on his face at the same time. "Damn Dark Lord, I must destroy him!"

"Let's get out of here first. Nerfi was even more nervous, all kinds of bizarre situations coupled with the suicide note of the lord she had just seen made her eager to leave this already destroyed city, this dead city.

"Let's go, go to Fadar!" Stan put away the parchment and took one last look at the lord's corpse, ready to leave.

Nerfi couldn't wait to walk towards the door before stepping over the demon corpse in the doorway into the gloomy hallway, when suddenly a tattered pale face appeared out of thin air a few steps in front of her. "Ahh

"Nerfi!" Stan yelled, rushing out the door.