Chapter 230: Chapter 225 Nightmare Chapter 230: Chapter 225 Nightmare “Sister, I’m scared.” In the dimly lit tunnel, a seven or eight year old boy in elaborate robes clung tightly to the hem of a young woman’s long dress, his face filled with terror and sadness.

“Don’t be frightened, don’t be frightened, your sister will protect you.” The young woman, gripping a short staff in her hand, quickly lowered her head at her younger brother’s cry, forcing a stiff smile on her face.

“Not only will I protect you, but these brave warriors will also protect you.” The young woman in a white noble’s dress crouched down, gazing at her younger brother’s childish face, and pointed at the twenty or so guards before and behind her, clad in fine steel armor, with swords in one hand and shields in the other.

“I don’t want their protection, I want Father to protect me.” At his sister’s comforting words, tears welled up in the boy’s eyes and fell. He hurled himself into his sister’s embrace, sobbing softly: “Sister, can you tell me, when can Father come back?”

“…” Feeling her brother’s muffled sobs in her embrace, the young woman’s eyes turned red instantly. “Father has gone to protect the people of Ansel, he can’t come back for now.”

“I want Father.” The eight-year-old boy sobbed softly. Having received a full noble education from a young age, his intelligence was on par with some peasant teenagers in their mid-teens.

Therefore, given his current situation, the boy knew that this was no place for him to vent his negative emotions unrestrainedly. He knew he had to control his emotions.

When he followed his sister under the protection of their clan’s knights into their prepared escape tunnel beneath their family’s castle, and saw the tunnel almost filled with undead skeletons, he knew that their situation was dire, and it was no time for him to throw tantrums or be wilful.

The boy remembered what had happened not long ago—he was sitting in his room, answering questions from his private tutor, while his father watched him with a smile. But for some reason, the atmosphere suddenly grew oppressive, making him feel as if he was suffocating, like when he nearly drowned at five years old.

He watched his elderly tutor clutch his chest and collapse to the ground, his face deathly pale. At the same time, he heard a deafening explosion, followed by faint roars and screams from outside the window.

He also saw his father, who stood beside him, burst into a radiant red combative aura that instantly drove away the cold sensation enveloping him.

Just as he was about to hurl himself into his father’s arms, his father took hold of him with a stern face and handed him to his sister who ran in with a frightened look.

In the next moment, cradled in his sister’s arms, he saw his father unsheathe his sword, put on his armor, and take to the sky. Before he left, he heard his father say one last thing to his sister,
“Orlina, take your younger brother and run. Do everything you can to get to Ezreal City, and seek the protection of Marquis Lude.”

The boy realized that this might well be the last time he would ever see his father, for he had never seen his father so serious, so solemn before.

…”Miss, what should we do now?” A guard, with a terrified expression on his face, looked at the brother and sister he was protecting and asked in a low voice.

“As per my father’s final command, we are to do everything we can to get to the land of Ezreal and seek the protection of Marquis Lude,” replied Orlina, her face resolute.

“But, Miss, as you know, all the teleportation arrays in the castle are no longer functional, and the three escape tunnels beneath the castle are crammed full of skeletons. We have no way of getting to Ezreal City.”

“There is one more way.” A determined look appeared on Orlina’s face. “We will make our way on the ground.”

“But, Miss, the whole of Ansel City is swarming with the undead now. The risk of getting you two out would be too great. We can’t guarantee that you will be unharmed.”

“I’m a Silver Second Rank mage, I don’t need your protection,” said Orlina, with a stern look on her face. “All you need to do is to protect my younger brother.”

“Sister, can’t we stay inside the castle?” The child who was held in the young woman’s flat arms raised his head and timidly spoke up.

“No,” Orlina shook her head decisively. “We can’t stay in the castle.”

“Why can’t we hold out in the castle?” A young looking guard asked with a puzzled expression. “Miss, as the young master said, we can hunker down in the castle, activate the defensive array, and wait for rescuers to arrive. Those low-level skeletons in Ansel City will absolutely be unable to shake the castle’s defenses, and we will be safe.”

“That safety is but temporary. If we don’t run now, we’ll end up just like those skeletons in the end.

Do you know why the corpses buried in the cemetery have come back to life, why the bones buried deep in the earth have become undead and crawled out?”

“Why?” The young guard asked blankly, not understanding why their peaceful and beautiful world had turned out this way.

“It’s because a high-level necromantic spell, the Undead Cataclysm, has been cast over the entire city,” said Orlina, her face turning pale. The more she knew, the more fear she felt. “That’s why the dead have been resurrected.”

“The range and duration of the Undead Cataclysm depend on the caster’s understanding of the spell and their power level. And the one who cast the Undead Cataclysm on our Ansel City is most likely a Legendary Necromancer.”

“A Legend? How could it be possible?”

“Yes, how could it be possible? If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe that a Legendary Mage could have descended on Ansel City either.”

Orlina recalled the horrifying scenes before the catastrophe that almost suffocated her.

At that time, Orlina was leisurely reading a magic book, swinging on a swing in the castle garden. But when she felt a chilling energy sweep over the ground beneath her feet.

The noble young girl stared in disbelief as skeletal hands, one after the other, reached out from the mud beneath the colorful flowers in front of her. One by one, low-level skeleton soldiers with mutilated bodies emerged, creating a profoundly shocking scene.

Of course, it was merely unsettling, not shocking. What happened next would be forever etched in the young girl’s memory and could potentially haunt her for the rest of her life.

A huge skeletal hand, similar to the skeletons that had emerged from the ground, abruptly appeared above the temple district in Ansel City. It then descended upon all the temples, carrying with it a terrifying aura of death and curse, and flattened the entire temple district in a single slap…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read