Seeing the armored blue demon emerge from the house, Zhang Shan crossed his arms while evaluating it. Caron hid behind Titiana as Carnalia shouted.
"Ebraska! I'll kill you!!!"
As she said this she lowered her body a bit to run forward and ready an attack. Her claws appeared and her wings spread out.
Seeing this The Vassal Ebraske grinned and said "You'll never leave this place alive!"
After he spoke those words, His demonic armored soldiers appeared from hiding with weapons on their hands as they started growling and jeering at the four unlucky demons.
"Krrryahhhh!!!"
"Graaaarrr!!!!!"
Ebraska flexed his arms as he held his large axe and held it over his shoulder with both hands, he grinned as he looked at Carnalia as if looking at a dead woman walking and started to run towards Carnalia.
Carnalia on the other hand sprung forward to lunge at Ebraska.
*BBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM*
*SPPPLLLLEEEERRRGGHHHHHSSSKKKK*
Zhang Shan:"..."
Titiana and Caron:"..."
Demonic armored soldiers:"..."
"W-what h-happened?..." Carnalia was now a few meters away from where she was originally poised to strike, as she was now directly a few feet away from where Vassal Ebraska was running the opposite from.
Everyone was speechless as to what occured.
The armored soldiers saw Carnalia disappear and so did their master Vassal Ebraska right after she vanished.
However when the winged woman re-appeared, she was covered in bluish blood from head to toe, while their master was...
Well, their master did re-appear though, its only that when he did, he was technically scattered all over the place as chunks of meat, paste and internal organs.
Zhang Shan spoke to Titiana "How could that happen?"
In reality as soon as Carnalia poised to strike, Zhang Shan's view already adjusted. He saw in super-slow-motion, how Carnalia lunged forward with pure anger and force.
However, mid-jump, Carnalia noticed that she was going too fast and tried to stop helplessly even creating skid marks with her clawed feet on the ground.
In his super-slow-motion view, Zhang Shan just saw the armored demon Ebraska grinning ear to ear, posed in a running motion like a mannequin on display, not even realizing what was happening.
It was so slow for him that Zhang Shan even had the time to move to the left side of the two parties to get a better view. He was even thinking of sitting down and writing circles on the ground at this current speed, but again, chose not to due to it being inappropriate.
When Carnalia, who was trying to stop herself from moving too fast ended slamming the body of Ebraska, the view was very... artistic... in Zhang Shan's standards that is.
In Zhang Shan's view, Vassal Ebraska suddenly looked like he was bouncy like rubber while he was being flattened by Carnalia's ever moving momentum, his whole body turned out like lumps of rippling flesh before exploding like a watermelon that got hit by a moving truck.
After which Zhang Shan returned back to his position, while all this time, Titiana was following him with her eyes, curious on what he was intending to do. In actuality, Titiana can move in almost the same speed as Zhang Shan but she chose tojust stand by with Caron.
When Zhang Shan asked her what happened, she answered.
"I think, Vassal Ebraska is in line with a Level 20-25 unique variant mob... So, when he got hit with the speed of a level 80-85... That's what happened..." shrugging her shoulders as if saying, it is to be expected as-a-matter-of-fact.
"D-did I j-just a-accidentally k-kill him by running him over?" Carnalia asked as she looked at the three.
They responded by nodding slowly three times in confirmation.
Carnalia:"..."
As the discussion was happening, the armored demon soldiers started to panic and ran away.
Zhang Shan and Titiana didn't even bother with them at all, they are more concerned with Carnalia and her current state of mind.
Zhang Shan asked "Are you okay?"
"I d-don't know... I feel suddenly empty Milord..." she answered while standing there stupefied by what transpired as she started crying again.
Titiana moved to her and hugged her as she said "It's okay..."
"W-when I was t-tied and bleeding in this village, all I ever wanted was to take vengeance... but seeing how easy I was able to do it... I'm not sure what to feel any more..." She said as she gradually composed herself and started wiping her tears.
Titiana told her "Come, let's find you water to wash off the blood while its still warm."
"Uhn" Carnalia nodded as she stopped wiping her tears and allowed Titiana to guide her, together with Caron.
Titiana led them to a nearby well and helped Carnalia wash the blood on her body.
Zhang Shan on the other hand was asked bhy Titiana to look for clothes that they can wear and change into. Seeing that most of the houses were burned, Zhang Shan went around to rummage a few houses that are still intact.
After a while he came back with clothes for everyone and a few food and items. Since it was already dark, everyone settled in the intact house that Ebraska came out of and discussed what they should do next.
Earlier, Titiana removed the corspes of the girls from the house and place them outside together with their heads as she covered them with a long cloth.
The four sat around a wooden table afterwards and started to eat, while Carlania sat dazed and gazing at her food with her hands firmly settled on her thighs.
"Since the murderer if your parents had died, would you like to go after the Baron too?" Zhang Shan asked to break the ice.
"I don't know Milord, all he ever did was ask for the village to submit to his rule. Other than that there was nothing else he did... I can't decide just yet..." Carnalia said with a blank expression on her face while gazing at nothingness.
"Then perhaps, to occupy your mind while we wait for your decision, as soon as Caron is asleep, we can bury all the dead village people and lay them to rest?" He added.
"Okay... We can do that Milord..." Carnalia nodded.
"Good, then eat up... You need energy for later." Zhang Shan said and as he did, Carnalia nldded as she picked up her food and started eating.
Titiania nodded as she smiled seeing that Carnalia's focus started to go back. As she was about to follow suit on eating, she stopped halfway on stuffing her mouth as she flinched when she realized something from what Zhang Shan had just said and then stomped his foot under the table while looking at his eyes with a "I-know-what-you're-thinking-look".
Zhang Shan was surprised as she did this and yelped in pain as he mouthed with hands raised in surrender "Okay... okay... just burying corpses later..."
Satisfied, Titiana went back to eating.
After the meal, they settled Caron in the bed to sleep and started to move outside to bury the dead deep in the night.
As the three went outside , Carnalia stopped and asked.
"By the way, what is "bury-the-dead"?
Znahnh Shan and Titiana stopped thinking that she might be trying to cheer up by vracking a joke, when they saw the serious inquiring look, they understood that she really doesn't know about it.
Titiana explained, "Human's have a tradition to dig a hole in the ground, place their dead into the pit and cover them back with soil to lay tehm to rest."
Carnalia listened and nodded and then paused.
Her eyes bulged and her expression changed from understanding to extreme surprise and horror.
With both of her hands covering her mouth she backed away a bit as she said "A-are you trying to g-grow them into t-trees of corpses?"
Zhang Shan and Titiana were flabbergasted and amazed at this girls stupidity, then Zhang Shan said. "No... it ks a tradition. They stay dead and then become bones after the soil reclaims their mortal bodies..."
"Oh... I see... we don't really do that here with our dead... " she said.
Curios, Titiana asked, "What do you do to your dead people then?" she realized that they never did find any graves in the vicinity of the village.
"Well, we open the corpses to get their "origin stones, Milady" and then we burn the corpse, the body is just a vessel anyway. The "origin stones" are then placed in clay to be molded after the image of the deceased, in hopes of ressurecting once the Demon Gods Return" she said.
"Origin stones?" Titiana asked confusingly.
"Yes , follow me Milady, with me to take a look.." she walked to one of the corpses of the dead girls and then opened a cut on the chest with her claws and then another slit in the heart, as soon as the heart was exposed, she took out a small stone, the size of a finger nail.
"That's a Crystal Core!" Titiana said as she was surprised by the revelation
"What?" Zhang Shan and Carnalia both asked.
"It's a necessary resource for players" she said to them.
Titiana then explained that players have each of these in their bodies. Carnalia asked if the players are demons too, but Titiana shook her head and said "not really". Although she doesn't exactly know how it works, she said that without the crystal core, the "players avatar" will just be in the state of "hibernation" or "nearly-dead-like-state".
Zhang Shan nodded as he tried to piece things up from what he knew so far and then asked Carnalia.
"Carnalia, in your culture... What exactly is the "origin stone" and what is the "Demon Gods"?"
"Milord, our village believes that all memories and soul are kept by the "origin stone", after death they still carry their memories and soul... The Demon Gods are the creators of our race, one who has created us from their blood and flesh, Their tears were the first origin stones... Upon their return, they will revive all the dead demons and bring them to the Holy Kingdom" Carnalia said.
"Do you also believe in this?" Zhang Shan asked.
"When I was young... yes. And as I grew older, it became more of a story... but.." Carnalia spoke and then paused.
"But?" Titiana was intrigued.
"When, Milord and Milady appeared, I believe that it might really be true..." She said.
"How so?" Zhang Shan asked further.
"the demon gods shall cometh from firmament... their breath shall heal the persecuted... their blood shall cleanse the wicked... from ashes the dead shall last to reign in thy kindom.... these is verse from our holy scripture." she said.
The two listened as she further explained.
"Milord and Milady appeared before us siblings in our trying times, healed our wounds and gave me power. After which, with your blood, I was able to vanquish my nemesis... These is exactly what the verse from the Holy Scripture has mentioned." She rationalized.
"Well, that seems logical and I see why you think that way... except for the latter part..." Titiana nodded in agreement
"I see..." Zhang Shan said as he closed his eyes as if contemplating.
The two looked at him as they wondered what he was going to say.
When they noticed that he just stood there, the two shrugged their shoulders as they started to move to the other bodies and collect their "origin stones" when Zhang Shan opened his eyes and said.
"Wait for a while... I want to try something..." Zhang Shan said as he stopped the two from moving
The women were confused as Zhang Shan went forward and grabbed the "origin stone" from Carnalia's hand and went to the previous corpse.
"Wait... what are you doing?" Carnalia asked as she saw Zhang Shan crouched and placed the stone back to the corpses heart.
"Just wait and see... I'll check if this would work.. If not, she's already dead anyway..." he answered
After putting the "origin stone" back, Zhang Shan enforced his finger nails into a claw and then made a cut on his left arm and left it to bleed. His facial expression did show that he felt pain as he did this but gritted his teeth and fought the impulse to make a sound.
Titiana and Carnalia were surprised with his actions.
"Milord!" Carnalia said.
Zhang Shan signaled them to stay put and gestured that he's fine.
As soon as he bled he closed his eyes and the two noticed that the blood fell to the corpse's chest and crawled into it. Later on it healed the open wound to their astonishment.
But it didn't stop there, the blood continued to move forward and went to the severed head as it continued to combine with the body. Seeing this, Carnalia and Titiana were stunned. They did not expect that Zhang Shan could do this.
After a few breaths,the body and head had been recombined and there were no traces of the wounds. Zhang Shans blood returned back to his arms and his wounds healed.
"All right, the first part is done!" Zhang Shan said as he opened his eyes then he looked at Titiana and said "next up is you... try to blow your breathe into the corpse."
Titiana didn't understand what he mean't and did it anyway. After she did that they waited for a while but nothing happened.
They looked at Zhang Shan who already closed his eyes to think. And as he opened it he said
"Try it again, but this time, close your eyes and think of healing Caron's burned hands."
Titiania seemed to understand his point now and did as she was told.
She closed her eyes, inagined blowing at Caron's burnt hands and blew air into the nose of the dead woman.
As soon as the air entered the dead woman's nose and into her lungs, her coagulated blood became watery again and her heart moved as it started pumping blood. half a breath later, she reinhaled her first breath after being dead.
When she opened her eyes and came into her senses, she saw the three looking at her with a smile.
"Welcome back!" Carnalia said.
"C-carnalia y-you returned!" she said with a horrified and angry look.
"W-wait..." she said, after recalling her memories she said .
"I....d-died...w-why am I s-still a-alive?" she said while stuttering.
Carnalia saw her confusion and explained that Zhang Shan and Titiana ressurected her from death and told her how they did it.
The woman couldn't believe what she was hearing but nodded in understanding as she did remember being beheaded by Ebraska.
She kneeled and thanked Zhang Shan and Titiana then she cried after remembering the harrowing ordeal she experienced.
After the pleasantries and composing herself, she checked herself and then her smile was replaced with a confused face.
After a while she looked at the three and said
"T-these weren't the c-clothes I was wearing earlier..." after which she looked around and pointed to one of the headless corpses beside her.
"I think... t-that's my b-body"....