Free Web Novel"Who?"
The Bountiful mage turned his head and saw the crimson gleam at Orianna's fingertips.
"Take a deep breath. It's normal for it to hurt. It won't hurt for long."
By the time he realized what was happening, his neck had already been pierced by Blood Moon Condensed Light.
He clutched his neck as blood gushed out endlessly. He could no longer speak, only quietly waiting for his life to drain away.
If he had truly chosen death over surrender, Loren would have found a way to save him. But unfortunately, not only had he surrendered, he had also tried to bring others to deal with Loren.
"Who are you?"
Orianna's actions put the robed figures on high alert. Though they didn't know exactly who she was, they were well aware she was an enemy.
"Let me see your faces."
Orianna didn't bother answering their questions. She simply snapped her fingers with a dramatic flair, and the next moment, the hoods over their heads exploded outright, revealing their true faces.
The principle was simple—she had sneakily punched each of them once earlier, then stored the damage using the Justice Card.
All Loren had done was release the damage inflicted on their hoods in a single instant, creating this effect.
Even though Orianna had demonstrated such power, they refused to yield, still bracing themselves for a fight.
Loren wasn't surprised by this. He figured they were probably all cursed—the moment they dared to reveal anything, they'd drop dead.
Better to die fighting Loren than to die from the curse.
So Loren chose to keep probing.
"You're all from the Plague Church, aren't you?"
This was practically out in the open by now, so they showed little shock, their expressions barely changing. Loren had to switch tactics.
"Are you researching some kind of virus that can transform people into undead? A previous test subject leaked by accident, and to play it safe, you decided to silence everyone while testing your virus at the same time, right?"
Even after he said that, their expressions remained unchanged. They were far better at this than Melody and her Merfolk crew.
By now, someone had already begun chanting magic, preparing to fight back.
"Overestimating yourselves."
Orianna snapped her fingers again. The head of the robed figure who had been chanting instantly exploded. The next moment, his body was dissolved into dust by Return to Earth.
This was another benefit of Return to Earth—it effectively prevented Deathrattle from triggering. It was quite effective against Plague Believers who carried Deathrattle.
Orianna's methods intimidated the others. Out of fear of her, they stopped thinking about attacking.
But out of fear of the curse, they still refused to speak.
Since he couldn't get any useful information out of them, Loren gave up. Just as he was about to dispose of them, the train suddenly hit a downhill slope. Without a driver, it began accelerating wildly.
The tracks let out a piercing screech, and the carriage started shaking violently. The train was about to derail. Even Orianna lost her balance for a moment, stumbling.
At the same time, this gave the remaining two robed figures an opening. They simultaneously lunged toward different windows, moving in perfect sync—it really was a good escape plan.
If even one of them got away, they could bring valuable information back.
But Orianna's abilities surpassed their understanding. Before they could smash through the glass, their heads exploded at the same time. Before the brain matter could even spray, their bodies were dissolved by Return to Earth.
From start to finish, they had no chance to fight back.
...
Loren hacked a hole through the carriage with several strikes of his blade. The train was completely out of control; it was no longer safe to ride.
The train was moving fast. Jumping off like this would definitely cause injury. While witches had sturdier physiques than normal people, even so, Loren didn't want to take the risk.
He drew Requiem again and severed the connection between the carriage and the locomotive. The locomotive instantly broke away, racing ahead.
Without the locomotive, even on a downhill slope, the carriage didn't slow down much.
At the same time, without the locomotive, the carriage shook even more violently.
"You all wait here. I'll send each of you down one by one."
With that, Loren tucked Lilith and Scarlett—the two weakest—under his arms, leaped out of the carriage, and sprouted wings from his back. He flapped them rapidly, slowing his descent. Only when his speed reached a safe range did he let them down.
The train was fast; in just that short time, it had traveled far.
But since Loren dared to do this, he had absolute confidence.
Wind exploded beneath his feet. Scarlett only saw a flash of lightning, and Loren had already caught up to the train, re-entering the carriage.
"Next."
Loren wasted no time. He grabbed Paqina and Mirrorheart under his arms and repeated the process, safely sending them down as well.
In such an urgent moment, Paqina didn't bother asking how Loren had grown wings. She had seen enough strange things today—one more didn't matter.
After repeating this several times, everyone had safely left the train. As long as one's stats were high enough, situations like this hardly counted as a crisis.
After Loren had saved everyone, Orianna also jumped out from the rear carriage. She had found a burlap sack, stuffed full of things. Blood was seeping through the sack, and everyone could roughly guess what was inside.
The runaway train sped off into the distance. Loren didn't rush to take the next step. The priority was to regroup. The train was fast, and each time Loren saved someone, a considerable amount of time had passed between trips.
"Master... you scared me to death... sob sob sob..."
The moment she saw Loren again, Scarlett rushed over and hugged him. Before she could wipe her snot on Loren, he blocked her face with a handkerchief.
At the same time, Loren glanced at the legs exposed beneath Scarlett's dress. They were trembling uncontrollably.
"At least you didn't lose control this time. Otherwise, changing clothes in this wilderness would've been a real pain."
"Is that all I'm good for in your eyes... not losing control counts as a success..."
"Yep."
Loren didn't give Scarlett any face and admitted it outright.
Anyway, Scarlett was as thick-skinned as a dead pig unafraid of boiling water—she didn't care about saving face.
"Sob sob sob..."
Scarlett started crying again, until Loren punched her on the head, and she instantly shut up.
"Master Mentor, these bags wouldn't contain..."
"Yep, they're zombies. More precisely, zombie heads."
Loren opened the sack to show everyone. Inside were all zombie heads.
"Urgh..."
Paqina gagged, held back her nausea, and began examining the situation. She was gradually getting used to it.
"Zombies die when their heads are blown off, so I speculated the key point is in their heads. To research a countermeasure, I brought these heads back.
"Moreover, these zombies might very well be providing faith to the God of Plague."
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