From Witcher to Lord of the Empire.

Chapter 227 Alice's Unique Ability
Fuerhala Village is located on the top of the mountain, so it is not a prosperous village at all.

It is precisely because of its primitiveness, harsh environment, and easy training of warriors that it was chosen as the site for the Swablo sect to build a temple.

And after being attacked by the Skelliges here, the village of Fulhala is now completely turned into ruins. There is no complete wall in the village, only ruins.

Against the gray-black sky, the shadows of ruined villages are setting off the dusk.The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the barren ground and is rendered in the hard cover. The only thing that makes people feel vitality and life is the sound of the wind falling silently between the cliffs.

However, in the eyes of the witcher, this desolate ruin showed something else.

Three pairs of amber eyes and one pair of dark gold eyes shone brightly.

All the pheromones in the surrounding environment are transformed into visible visual factors through synaesthesia, which are presented in front of everyone.

It was obviously just a ruin, but Lan En and his party seemed to see the crowd passing by frequently——

"The smell of bad beer, undercooked barbecue, and bad breath." Colgrim kicked a pile of bonfires that had only been left in fragments. "It should be some homeless man looking for shelter."

"The scent of pine wood, malt bread, and dry firewood on the ground have traces of ax chopping." Cohen touched a step that was obviously cleaner than the surrounding ones. "It's the mountain people passing by here to rest."

"But these are not our goals." Lann concluded by shaking his head.

Lann found very little. When it comes to these investigative methods, he is really not as good as these old witchers who have been used to hunting alone for decades.

"Ged, have you found anything?"

Lane's voice spread, but there was no response.

In the distance, he saw the bear-like man and the white wolf getting together, looking at a dark ground.

Seeing that they seemed to have discovered something, Lan also joined in.

"This is blood." Geralt pointed to the black marks on the ground. "It's been a few days. There should be more than one person here, and a fight broke out."

Responding to Geralt's explanation, Gerd picked up a piece of clothing from the ground: "This is a leather jacket tanned from wolf leather. It is very tough, and even it takes a lot of effort to cut it with a knife. Although it is not as good as specially processed leather armor, but It’s not something that can be easily torn apart.”

Lann took it thoughtfully, looking around with dark golden eyes: "But it does look torn apart, and if it's really that strong, there is only one explanation—"

"It's a beast, or a monster with sharp claws like a ghoul."

Gerd took a deep breath, looked at the different shades of red information factors around him, and added: "But there is no beast smell around - unless it is a beast that pays special attention to cleanliness, have you thought of anything?"

The answer is obvious.

Lan showed an excited expression, and said firmly, "Velka Berserker!"

When Lann stopped those giant bears at the banquet, he felt that the giant bears transformed by those berserkers were much cleaner than the real wild bears.

After all, no matter how slovenly a person is, he is also a sloppy beast who has no concept of "washing".This is the biggest difference between a Berserker and a real wild bear.

And Ged, who personally fought and killed a giant bear at the scene, was obviously also a person who knew this.

He quickly looked around for traces, looking for useful information.

"There was more than one person at the scene, and a small battle broke out here. But the traces of the battle were very restrained, with only a small amount...well, a moderate amount of blood."

Gerd analyzed, "No one died, at least not here on the spot. According to the traces here, maybe we can find the person who was fighting the Velka Berserker at that time."

This analysis makes sense.

The demon hunters immediately gathered around and began to record the pheromones nearby.

"There are traces of someone escaping here." Colgrim suddenly made a new discovery, pointing in a direction, "There!"

The ground was covered with a thick layer of dust, but Lann's lion pupils could see dark red spots marking a path on the ground.

After a long time, the trace will disappear, but it can't be wrong-it is a trace of blood.

A vague figure appeared in front of Lann's eyes in a trance:
【He is a mountain dweller, and he came here with his companions for some unknown reason, but unexpectedly encountered Wilka's berserker.

The human body turned into a giant bear in front of him, causing a commotion immediately.He was injured in the panic, so he left his companions and fled here, hoping to find some shelter in this ruined wall...]

Lan followed the transparent figure all the way until he watched him disappear into a building.

In front of you is the temple in the center of the village, the temple built by the Vilkas for the evil god Svalblo.

It is also the strongest building in the entire village, and it was repaired by the strongest warriors carrying the strongest stones in the mountains. That's why it was able to barely preserve its outline under the attack of the Skelliges.Unlike other buildings in the village, there are only two or three walls left at most.

The goal that everyone is looking for is inside.

Gerd was about to rush in, but was suddenly grabbed by Lane.

"what happened?"

"For some reason, I'm particularly sensitive to the existence of demon spirits." Lann pulled out the Lake Maiden Sword with his right hand, and made a sign gesture with his left hand, "I have a companion of the cat faction who has a similar ability, and I can introduce it to you later. you know."

"You mean... there are demon spirits inside?"

Ged immediately stopped when he heard the words, and looked inside along the hole in the wall of the temple.

At this time, the sky was about to fall into the night, and the only remaining light could barely make people see the irregular stones scattered around in the temple. The dilapidated stone pillars stood in place, but the roof that needed it to support had already collapsed.

There is no light in more places, and only the gloomy darkness can be seen.

This really looks like a venue where you will encounter demon spirits around the corner.

Lane squatted down slightly, and was about to cast a seal enough to envelop the entire temple; the demon hunters behind him also pulled out all kinds of silver swords, preparing to smear their long swords with [ghost oil] specially used to restrain these illusory monsters. 】.

However, at this moment, the black magic scimitar behind Lann suddenly lit up.

The soul in the painting, wearing a plain gothic black dress, shows her figure in this dilapidated village on the top of the mountain. She folds her hands in front of her lower abdomen, her face is covered with a black veil, and her temperament is empty.

And her gentle voice seemed to exude a fragrance: "Let me come."

After the words fell, bright emerald flames wrapped her body; the next second, something seemed to light up in the dilapidated temple.

Behind Lan, Gerd was dumbfounded.

The bear demon hunter clutched his trembling badge, looked at the black magic scimitar behind Lann, and then at the ruins of the temple, not knowing where to point.

"Just now... that is a demon spirit? No, it seems very different. No matter what kind of demon spirit it is, it will not be so good-looking."

"That's not a demon spirit." Lann pointed out the mistake in Ged's language very seriously, "it's a 'spirit', a beautiful existence left in the world by a strong emotional connection, don't compare her with the name of that monster .”

Gerd shrank his fingers: "Why are you so angry... I just know it."

……

Lane wasn't worried about Alice's combat effectiveness at all.

Among all the current followers, Alice's comprehensive basic attributes are the highest, and she even has a lot of advanced skills, as well as the talent that Lann doesn't know how to use [Tsubaki] so far.

Especially now that the enemies inside are still demon spirits, Alice, who is the unique [Spirit in the Painting], should deal with them, and the suppression effect should not be too obvious.

However, even though Lan had already overestimated Alice in his heart, when he entered the temple, the scene inside still surprised him.

……

If someone figured out a way to bury the flame in the nephrite, the light emitted must be what it looks like in the temple now.

Alice stood in the center of the hall of the temple, exuding a warm emerald light all over her body; four ghosts crawled at her feet, and the lanterns burning with dark green flames were all thrown aside by them.

At this moment, Lan En could still vaguely perceive the emotions from those evil spirits: there was fear, reverence, and a trace of longing and shame that were out of reach.

Facing these demon spirits, Alice kept a dignified expression on her face, and she didn't show a faint smile until she saw Lann come in.

The emerald light in the room is also softer.

She pointed to the one with its head buried the lowest and said, "It's the islander you're looking for who was attacked by a giant bear—or in other words, it 'used to be an islander'."

Lann quickly looked around. There were several skeletons in the corner of the temple, and the freshest one matched the pheromones he remembered in his witcher senses.

It is it.

Alice continued: "Its memory is very vague. It only remembers coming to the village of Falhala with its companions. As for why and how it came, I can't remember it all."

"The clearest memory is only a giant bear. Then he ran here in a hurry, hoping to hide temporarily, but was killed by the demon spirit here."

In addition to this demon spirit, there are four demon spirits crawling beside Alice. Their colors are deeper and they are obviously older.

They should be certain priests who died in the attack of the Skelliges. Because of their resentment, they turned into demon spirits.

The islanders Lane and the others were looking for apparently joined them after their death.

"This kind of information is not enough for us to find the Velca people." Lan pointed to the old demon spirits, "Since they were all from the temple before, can we ask them? Maybe it is more enough Give us some information?"

Alice shook her head: "The demon spirits themselves are produced only after their resentment and hatred have not dissipated. Even if they have any sanity, they will not be too clear. Especially those who have been dead for a long time, they are no different from wild beasts. .”

Alice stretched out her slender and misty fingers, pointing at the demon spirit transformed by the islanders: "It is the only one that can barely communicate with people now."

As if feeling Alice's distress, the demon spirit on the ground suddenly moved.

Immediately afterwards, the dark green flame on its body became more solidified.

Alice raised her jaw slightly, closed her eyes and concentrated, as if she was listening to something.After a long while, he said to Lan En: "It said that it has forgotten everything else, but it can't forget the village where it was born. We can go there to see if its companion escaped successfully at that time, maybe we can find it , so as to understand the details of what happened at that time.”

Lan En showed surprise eyes: "What is the name of that village?"

"Eglo Village."

"What about the exact location?"

Alice closed her eyes.

After the beautiful eyebrows trembled a few times, the soul in the painting said helplessly: "It forgot..."

Ok.

Lann let out a long breath, at least now he has obtained a new clue, which is much better than the state of headless flies before.

Without further ado, he was about to call his companions to leave, but when he turned his head, he saw Alice's hesitant expression, hesitant to speak.

"Lan." Alice bit her lips lightly, "I was wondering, can we help these demon spirits... get rid of it?"

"Ok?"

"I exist because of a special phenomenon called 'Tsubaki' by you demon hunters. It is 'love' that keeps me in love and provides me with strength."

"But even so, I lived in pain during those years when the world in the painting fell asleep." Alice lowered her head, her right hand gathered the clothes on her chest, "And these ordinary demon spirits, relying on 'resentment' ' and 'hate' to sustain...they hurt, I feel it."

"So you want to set them free?"

Lane and the demon hunters exchanged glances, and naturally they would not refuse such a request.

Even if Alice didn't say anything, Cohen himself planned to relieve these demon spirits after the questioning.

They used the demon hunter's senses to search for the dead skeletons of these demon spirits in the temple. Several of them had been broken into pieces at this time, mixed with the gravel and dust on the ground, and it was almost impossible to tell that they were still in human form before.

The four hands made a [Igni Sign] gesture together, aiming at the bones on the ground.

Alice's eyes changed.

Because apart from the demon spirit incarnate of the islanders that Lan and the others were looking for, the old demon spirits that were originally in the temple turned into green flames and disappeared in place with a howl at this moment.

Judging by their posture, they were actually going to attack the demon hunter.

Relying on resentment and hatred to survive is indeed painful for the demon spirits, but the demon spirits who have lost their minds also have the survival instinct of monsters. At this moment, seeing the behavior of the demon hunters trying to destroy themselves, they instinctively reacted.

While struggling with resentment, while maintaining such pain, sinking forever, unable to escape, this is a demon spirit.

Fortunately, all the people present today are demon hunters.

In the eyes of Alice asking for help, Lan made a strange gesture with his left hand, and the magic seal that had been brewing from the beginning was finally cast by him.

【Yarden Seal】!
The entire temple was shrouded in a magic circle surrounded by hourglass runes. The demon spirits, burning with green flames, just appeared in mid-air, and were immediately attached to their bodies by purple brilliance.

What greeted them was the silver sword of the demon hunter who had been prepared for a long time.

A shrill howl resounded in the temple, and was carried to the cliffs and cliffs by the cold wind from the top of the mountain, threatening the mountain people who might appear there.

The four demon hunters slowly retracted their swords. There were only powdered alchemy materials left in front of them. If they were lucky, they could even see small pieces of mutation inducers.

But Lan turned around and looked at the last demon spirit lying on the ground.

Until Lann burned his bones into ashes, it didn't get up, but kept trembling, and the dark green flame on its body flickered on and off.

"It spoke, Lane," Alice said suddenly. "It said: Thank you."

The emerald brilliance was as bright as the sun, projecting from the ruins of the temple that had been empty for a long time.

If the passing mountain people see this scene and light, they don't know what new legends will be extended.

……

After searching the village of Fulhala for the last time with his fellow demon hunters, and after confirming that there were no other clues that had been missed, Lan and the others turned and went down the mountain.

Lane and his team moved extremely quickly. They had already completed the entire process of "climbing-searching-fighting-searching-descending" at this time, and the Skellige soldiers who were in charge of finding the clues of the Vilkas were still in the mountains groping among.

I saw the mobile troops stationed at the foot of the mountain from a distance. Lan and the others were about to go back to exchange the information they had obtained with East and the others, but they found that the number of troops at the foot of the mountain had increased at some point.

If you look carefully, you can also find that there are not only soldiers from the East and Kratz families present, but another army appears on the scene. They are holding shields with family crests in different styles.

"Look at that sign... Is it the Drummond family? The leader is... Crazy Lugo?"

Lan En was immediately happy. Does this man still owe him a boxing match?

……

There is a bit of feud between the Drummond family where the lunatic Lugo belongs to and the Clayt family where Kratz belongs.

The cause of the conflict between them is the land dispute.The reason for the incident is actually quite obvious: From the perspective of normal incident development, it must be the Drummond family who came from other places and settled in Great Skellige Island without saying hello.

But they are unreasonable and strong.

So the Clayt family was also very angry.

It's just that for the purpose of uniting the seven Skellige families, even a powerful family like the Clayt family can't rush to fight against "companions", and can only maintain a relatively restrained level of fighting.

In the end, this dispute actually burned for several generations.

And the contradictions intensified.

Just like Kratz at this time.Originally, he was preparing to enter the mountain with people, but after knowing that the lunatic Lugo had actually arrived at the foot of the mountain, he directly handed over the command to his adjutant, and rushed over with three people, and started with the lunatic Lugo. Face to face.

From a distance, Lan could hear the roar of a group of people.

……

"Go away, madman, you dishonorable thief! You are not welcome here!"

Kratz already had the ax in his hand at this time.

"Every inch of Great Skellige belongs to the Drummond family. We are the ones who don't welcome you, Kratz!" Lugo the lunatic growled and drew his weapon, refusing to give in.

On the contrary, the family soldiers behind them were more restrained and just put their hands on the hilt of their swords, not as tense as their two patriarchs.

East looked coldly at Lugo, the lunatic with wide eyes, and said coldly: "There's no need to act, Lugo. You didn't come here just to fight Kratz, you and I Know what time of day it is and what you want to do."

"Have fun, like a real islander."

Crazy Lugo laughed hard, and spat at his feet: "Why did I come here? Everything that happened on Great Skellige can't escape my eyes, especially Kratz's trace."

"East, I respect you because of your past achievements. But past achievements are not enough for me to make concessions to the future."

The lunatic sized up Easter and Kratz with fierce eyes. The coalition forces of these two families were astonishingly powerful, and even he was quite afraid now.

It is estimated that the entire archipelago dared to confront their two families at the same time is this lunatic.

East suddenly asked: "Are you afraid of Nilfgaard? You don't want to make Skellige and the Black Sun Empire enemies in the future?"

"Ha!" Crazy Lugo seemed to have heard something funny, "Isn't it exciting to be able to plunder Nilfgaard? That's an empire that integrated the south! The screams of their citizens must be louder than those of ordinary villages." Fishermen are more pleasing to the ear, and their jewels must shine brighter than the average small country."

This is quite in line with the thinking of a madman.

"But!" Crazy Lugo suddenly emphasized his tone, and he still had something to say, "If such a refreshing raiding team is led by me, wouldn't it be more intoxicating?"

"So you want to be a king." East and the lunatic looked at each other and retorted, "I admit your ability to fight at sea, even I am not sure that I can completely suppress you. But you are not suitable to be a king , you can't run a country. The Skellige is a country, not just a pirate family."

But he didn't expect Lugo, the lunatic, to suddenly become agitated after hearing East's words.

"I'm not qualified to be a king, I'm not suitable to be a king, then you are qualified, are you suitable?" Lugo shouted, "You may have been - 'Knight of the Sea'! I have followed you , support you as king. But you gave up the honor that belongs to you! Run to the north to be the husband of a queen, and give up the sea and the mountains!"

"Bran is your younger brother. I thought he could take on your responsibilities, so I voted for him at the time. But I didn't expect him to be the same as you! He also used the honor of the king like a child's windmill play!"

"I will never trust you guys again. No one else in the Seven Great Families can win my support! The only one who can lead Skellige to the mainland is Lugo Drummond!"

(End of this chapter)