Ch.4444. Crimson Eyes

After recovering the corpse of the Swamp Dragon (Intermediate).

“…The Prophet is tired of this sticky environment.”

“Then, shall we take a short break once we get out of here?”

“The Prophet agrees.”

Considering Sophia, who simply couldn’t adapt to this humid environment, I decided to leave this swamp as quickly as possible. My party and I hastened our steps to escape this humid, sticky hell.

Once we got out of the southern swamp, I thought we could safely rest by deploying Nature’s Hut with a bit of power.

‘Astra, I need your help.’

[Leave it to me!]

I had Sophia, who appeared to have reached her physical limit, ride on Astra for transportation.

The custom-made saddle for Astra, which cost me quite a bit, would provide Sophia with a relatively comfortable journey.

Having temporarily given Astra, whom I usually rode myself, to Sophia, I was now traveling buried in the fluffy fur of my animal friend, Fenrir Robo, who had just achieved unexpected growth.

Who would have thought that the moment I offered Robo a piece of dragon meat (800g) with the blood (hydra poison) removed as a test treat, he would grow rapidly and reach intermediate level? It was truly something I couldn’t have imagined.

[Fun! Exciting! My body is overflowing with power!]

‘Yes. Now, let’s move forward!’

Anyway, as I smiled while leaning against Robo’s softness as he pranced about excited by his sudden physical growth,

We both frowned at the ominous magical energy that began to be felt from all around—more precisely, from the sky above—as we ran side by side.

“This is…”

“…The Prophet feels unpleasant.”

Contamination. This magical energy was contamination. Not only did it dye the storm clouds that should be floating in the sky red, but it was also polluting the surrounding mystical energy with a slimy, bloody color of death.

In other words, filth that defiles the world. As druids who handle the mysteries of nature, the caster of this large-scale spell was committing an act that we absolutely could not tolerate, as if to provoke us.

And then…

-Swoooooosh!!!!

After a moment, something moist began to fall from the sky with a patter, which soon transformed into a downpour.

Blood—the downpour coming from the blood-stained sky and clouds consisted of crimson droplets.

And not just contaminated blood, but each drop also contained a terrible curse.

Plants touched by the bloody rain began to wither suddenly.

Life gradually faded from the earth, and consequently, the influence of nature’s mysteries also diminished.

“…”

The effects of this blood rain didn’t spare our party either. The blood that touched parts not protected by my wolf skin cloak was slowly draining life force and energy from me as well.

[Great Nature, protect us from our enemies!]

Although Sophia’s quickly chanted protection spell stopped the energy drain midway, given the situation, this blood rain was something we couldn’t ignore.

At first, I thought it was meant to provoke us, but upon reflection, it didn’t seem to be directly targeting us specifically.

After briefly analyzing the magic composing the blood rain, I realized this was more like an automated trap rather than magic reflecting someone’s will.

It likely had a structure that sealed off an area with a barrier when intelligent beings were detected near specific coordinates, then stole life force through “rain.”

“…The Prophet thinks that’s quite reasonable.”

“Yes. It’s probably a trap set near the southern swamp where people could disappear without raising suspicion.”

The barrier that cut off this area from the outside took the form of a red mist.

Its effect was extremely simple for a mist-form barrier—making those inside wander—but… since this mist was made of the same substance as the blood rain, the barrier possessed sufficient lethality.

So to summarize my analysis, this “trap” operates according to a procedure consisting of 3 major steps:

One, when a living being enters the range, it isolates the area with a barrier and pours down life-draining rain.

Two, during this process, creatures caught in the trap have their life force extorted by the blood rain… but some might rarely survive.

And finally three, to hunt those who survive, the owner of this trap has prepared a deeper trap…

“…Is that it over there?”

“…The Prophet feels uneasy.”

That trap, a mansion stained red, now entered my vision.

The mansion, surrounded by brick walls like a castle, might in some sense appear to be an ancient castle… but in reality, it had surprisingly many ornate decorations reminiscent of French absolute monarchy era mansions.

The walls of the castle, made of reddish bricks rather than stone, were covered with ivy vines, and pointed iron bars and statues of hideous beasts were placed throughout.

With the entire space being predominantly red, that mansion—which appeared to be about three stories tall—was truly dizzying and likely the hunting ground for survivors.

It lures people weakened by the blood rain through its appearance as a mansion, and then devours the sufficiently exhausted prey inside.

An extremely classic and simple method… but effective precisely because of that.

That mansion is, metaphorically speaking, the intestines of a living being. If one enters recklessly, they would be unilaterally hunted and digested by various methods prepared by the mastermind behind all this.

Therefore, I had absolutely no intention of entering the mansion, which would predictably be full of various traps and dangerous enemies.

“Logically… there’s no reason to enter such a dangerous place, right?”

“The Prophet affirms that’s correct.”

I might as well sweep it away with overwhelming firepower in one go.

I began to mutter a long incantation to collapse this mansion entirely, along with the mastermind of this “hunting ground.”

[Earth, sing! Sing of rage and fury! Pass judgment upon the evil ones who disturb the great nature!]

The time it took to complete this incantation was about 5 minutes. I poured in half of my remaining magical power, plus magical assistance from Eunrok and Minerva.

The nature magic that caused an earthquake, which had once swept away an entire goblin village during my graduation exam. The result of its recreation in my hands was… though limited in range, it was clearly the reproduction of a natural disaster.

-Kuguuuuuuuuuuung!!!!

The ground shook violently, vibrations shot in one direction, and the ground where the mansion stood literally flipped over.

The earth crumbled and split, the ground collapsed entirely, and as the mansion crumbled, someone’s furious scream spread resoundingly in all directions.

[Uooooooooooh!!!!]

Rage—it was rage. The magical roar of the being, which went beyond the physical voice of a living creature to assert its presence, seemed to trigger something.

From the ruins of the collapsed mansion, bizarre creatures revealed themselves.

Unlike the completely shattered mansion, the gargoyles—structural monsters placed throughout the relatively intact brick walls—jumped down and approached.

Similar to golems but slightly different, these monsters were stone statues about the size of humans, brought to life through magic.

While they had no special abilities, their durability and defense were incredibly solid for stone statues.

In particular, gargoyles were so resistant to purely physical attacks that lower-ranked beings could barely damage them without magical attack methods.

Meanwhile, from between the debris of the collapsed mansion, low-level wraiths—ethereal undead with semi-transparent gray bodies—poured out chaotically, wailing and causing pandemonium.

These beings, presumably the souls of travelers who were caught in the hunting ground while passing by, couldn’t physically interfere at all… but instead attacked with ethereal weapons modeled after their weapons in life.

Their attacks ate away at the target’s life force and mental strength, making these wraiths—numbering just over 600—too significant a variable to ignore.

And finally, there were monsters that appeared by physically destroying the ground where the wraiths emerged.

Patchwork golems… or undead, made by grotesquely stitching together the bodies of at least four, possibly dozens of humans.

Metal plates were welded onto their skin, and arms protruding from various places held weapons—each one had a unique appearance.

Therefore, I was certain. The “materials” making up these patchwork undead were undoubtedly the bodies of victims, and even their souls had been desecrated, reduced to wraith-like entities controlled by the mastermind.

“…Let’s end this.”

“The Prophet… yes, understood.”

Evil that mocks death and ridicules life. With the presence of undead confirmed, I simply could not forgive them.