The sound of footsteps outside the door woke Tika from her dream, and she shuddered into a corner against the wall, feeling her stomach twitch and her hands and feet cold. In fact, she has been nervous for the past few days, and even the slightest movement will be scared.

The girl secretly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, grabbed the stick that was burning the fire and held it tightly in her arms.

I'm still alive, you bastards!!" Tika cried out to herself, of course she wanted to live, but the rest of the village didn't.

They tried to drive her out of the village, but they didn't dare to make contact with her, so they could only stare at her from a distance with disgusted eyes, and the words "get out" were written all over their faces. The uncles and aunts who were kind in the past were as cold as strangers overnight, and even hated like enemies.

If it were possible, the villagers would have stabbed her through the body with a pitchfork and thrown far into the woods, just as they did with a badger stealing food. In fact, the girl had already eavesdropped on such statements behind the door, and she herself had no doubts about it. In the eyes of the villagers, Tika, who was entertaining in the tavern, was not a serious girl, and it was an unnecessary burden to the village, and even if she was removed, she would not have a troubled conscience.

It all started a few days ago, when Potter, who was feeding the nobles horses in the city, snuck back into the village and brought news of a plague outbreak. This former self-proclaimed decent guy has become a frightened old dog, hiding in a tavern and getting drunk and dreaming of death every day.

At first, everyone thought that he was drunk and drunk, and no one took it seriously. But after only three days he became ill, his skin swollen and festering, emitting a stench of decay, gibberish, fever, coughing up blood, and finally he fell unconscious, and died miserably in agony and despair.

For the sake of the copper coins that were left in his pocket, Tika had been taking care of the poor man, and in the end she covered her nose and dragged the fellow to the stable in the backyard.

The cup didn't end there, and before Potter could take his last breath, the old bard, who lived in the tavern, was also in trouble. The old man, as usual, drank the ale and said the right thing, when suddenly his eyes rolled and he fainted. The old man was weak and had not survived a night before he was summoned by God.

The unbelieving boss paid the hired workers double their salaries and then announced a discount on the liquor in an attempt to salvage the tavern's popularity, but the next morning he collapsed at the bar himself.

The once noisy tavern was suddenly turned into a haunted house, and the drunken customers ran away. An invisible shadow hung over the village, making every villager tremble. They were terrified, but bewildered.

No one knows why the plague has struck, and no one knows what to do. When the only priest in the village was infected and died, they didn't even know which deity to pray to.

The hostesses in the tavern died one after another, but Tika was still alive. The girl's parents died unexpectedly when she was a child, and at that time some people privately said that she was a broom star, and now she is left alone, and this rumor has become a foregone conclusion. The panicked villagers prefer to believe this absurd nonsense and turn their fear into malice at the innocent girl.

"What the hell!" Tika cursed in a low crying voice, who would dare to wander outside at such a late hour?

The old people of the village say that death knocks on the doors of the sick at night and takes away their souls. So everyone blocked the door of the house before nightfall, not daring to make a sound, for fear of being approached by death.

The strange crackling sound caught Tika's attention, and she cautiously leaned over to the crack in the window and peeked out into the window, which was bright.

The tavern where the dead had first appeared had been used as a place to park the corpses, but now it was burning in flames, and the bright flames rose into the sky, illuminating half of the sky as if it were day.

Tika vaguely saw the familiar figure with a bow and arrow on his back in the firelight, and couldn't help but exhale, and his whole body relaxed. It was the adopted son of the old bard, the only "great hunter" in the village. He lived in the forest for several years, and only occasionally came back to sell some furs and herbs.

The wilderness of this era is not yet a world where ordinary humans can survive. Outside the village is a vast primeval forest, with only one path leading to the city. There are all kinds of ferocious beasts living in the forest, and if it weren't for the protection of the thin divine light in the village, they would have been swallowed by wild nature long ago.

The Great Hunter, who has the ability to go deep into the forest to hunt, will not add up to more than a palm in all the villages and towns within a radius of several hundred miles, and El is only seventeen years old this year, so it can be said that the future is limitless. In this world, strength represents status, and it is said that even the lord has the intention of marrying his daughter to him.

Of course, the so-called lord lord is just a joke, what kind of territory is such a poor mountain village? Even the viscount of Queensland City, who is famous for his greed for money, is like a piece of land for this kind of poor mountains and bad waters. It doesn't take much to buy a formal letter of appointment from him.

El stared at the black smoke rising from the firelight, and his right hand scratched his chest. The boy's figure is not burly, even thinner than his peers, and his appearance is somewhat delicate, looking more like a girl. But there is a faint calm and fierce aura on him, like a predator in the jungle, which is impossible to despise.

He didn't know which god his adoptive father believed in, so he could only pray that the old man's soul would have something to rely on. The last time they left, the two were still arguing, and in the blink of an eye, they were separated by life and death. Thinking of this, his heart was a little gloomy, as soon as the old man was gone, he had no relatives again, the tavern was burning in the flames, and his only dwelling was also burned.

The deceased is gone, and the living still have to work hard to live, El raised his legs and walked towards the lord's house.

In the dark night, there was no sound in the lord's mansion, and the silence was terrifying. El pushed the door lightly, but it was unlocked, and the front of the hall was in shambles.

El frowned, and quickened his pace into the room. It was pitch black, the wind was gusting, and the building was empty, and it seemed that the lord had already fled while it was dark.

Faced with the invisible plague of natural disasters, humans do not know how to deal with it, they can only flee in vain, even they know that fleeing will not solve anything, but fear will eat away at their reason and lead them into madness.

Poor lady, I hope that your fat body is also resistant to disease.

Having prayed in his heart for the eldest lady of the lord's family, the boy shook his head, he knew very well the real reason why the old miser wanted to introduce his daughter to him. In addition to wanting to offset the fifty gold coins he owed him, he also had to take into account the unfathomable amount of food of the eldest lady.

"The lord ran away, the priest died, it's really dead......"

Muttering quietly, the young man turned his head, and deep in a pair of black pupils, two clusters of faint blue shimmer bloomed, and the world in his eyes was as clear as the day.

Looking up, you can see villagers in the distance walking out of their homes with expressions of fear and confusion on their faces. The air was filled with a black mist that could not be detected by the ordinary naked eye, and those mist drifted out of the tavern, and had dissipated a lot after the fire, but there were still some mixed in the air, slowly converging into the bodies of the villagers.

"God willing, El, you're finally back!"

Tika touched a handful of tears, didn't bother to get dressed, wrapped the sheets around her body and ran barefoot, but when she ran in front of the boy, she hesitated and took a few steps back.

Seeing her appear, the villagers who had originally come over also stopped. As a bartender who has the most contact with patients, no one dares to come close to her.

"I've heard what happened, don't worry, Tika, go back and get dressed. El patted the girl on the shoulder, and though he knew it was just meaningless comfort, Tika nodded, because it was what El had said, and he had never deceived her.

There are terrifying legends about the plague that few people know for what it is, and the ignorant usually see the plague as an irresistible scourge, a punishment from the gods. In fact, in such remote areas, the villagers have no means of resistance other than the treatment of the priest.

El walked out of the lord's mansion with a calm face, he was a hunter and not a priest, and even if he could see the spread of the plague, he could not stop it. Burning corpses is only the most basic common sense of epidemic prevention, but it can only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

He took a verdant leaf from his pocket and handed it to Tika, motioning for her to put it in her mouth and chew it slowly. The bitterness of the grass juice twitched Tikana's already freckled face, like a shivering quail. However, as the grass juice was absorbed into her stomach, the black mist that had accumulated in her body could be seen slowly dissipating.

This herb can cure a number of ailments, including relieving the erosion of the plague, but it grows deep in the forest and is not available to the average person to gather. It wasn't enough for him to carry around with him.

When I raised my head, I saw a pair of confused and expectant eyes around me, including old people and children. After the disappearance of the lord, El is the person with the highest status in the village.

Faced with these helpless villagers, El was tempted to leave, as long as he entered the forest, the purifying power of nature was enough to resist the plague. But this is his hometown, the place where he grew up, and he can't just leave it out of duty.

"Everyone, come here! Listen to me!" El shouted, sighing.

"Throw any clothing or household items that have come into contact with the sick person into the fire and burn them!"

"Keep it clean! Don't drink raw water!"

"Men with hunting experience are ready! Tomorrow morning, we will go to the forest to collect medicine!"

The experience of traveling south and north over the years has given El a lot of knowledge, but he is not a professional pastor after all, and these methods are not long-term solutions, so he can only go to the city to see the situation after the situation in the village has stabilized.

At this time, El did not realize what a terrible disaster he was about to face.

Sixteen years before the era, the dark history known as the "Age of the Great Plague" slowly began, and unimaginable natural disasters swept through the entire territory of Canillas, the Nine Kingdoms fell into the shadow of terror, tens of millions of human beings lost their lives, and countless cities were reduced to death and ruins, which disappeared from the map.

And that era of despair is also called the eve of the cataclysm.

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