03: A Peril During Evacuation

Alvan and Emelda's hands were intertwined as they left the house and made their way toward the Templar Academy. However, as they advanced towards the elevated plateau, they found themselves surrounded by black vines and tendrils. It was as if Emelda's vines and tendrils were attempting to keep any shadow minions from approaching them.

Initially, when Emelda created those vines and positioned them on their right and left sides to protect themselves from the shadow minions. The shadow minions, without any physical bodies, tend to phase through her barrier. That was when she infused those vines and tendrils with her ethereal energy, successfully blocking the shadow minions from getting close to them. The minions were now at least a foot away from them.

However, on their way to the Templar Academy, they saw most of the villagers lying lifeless on the ground. Their body had changed to a dark purple, and vine-like black veins popped out of their skin as if they were about to burst through. Their eyes were a striking lilac color.

Some of them seemed to still be struggling with the shadow minions, which were corroding their sanity. Their entire bodies were twitching, and their muscles were spasming at intervals. It was truly a gruesome sight to behold.

Up ahead, they could see some of the uninfested villagers on their heels, running towards the elevated plateau. Some individuals who were running will suddenly stop in their tracks after unexpectedly making eye contact with a shadow minion. Then their bodies will twitch uncontrollably until they succumb to the shadow minions.

Mothers got infested, leaving their children, who are not Aetherians, helpless. Consequently, these children will become infested by other shadow minions. Children became infested, and since their mother could not afford to leave them behind, both the mother and her child became corrupted with the shadow plague.

Alvan felt helpless as he watched the villagers dying in front of him. Most of them he knew well; they were mostly good people, but there were also some bad guys. He felt a heavy lump in his throat. But suddenly...

…he sensed something was amiss. Some rustling sounds caught his attention, at first he thought it was shadow minions. But it wasn't because he could distinguish these two sounds distinctly.

One of Alvan's special abilities that made him unique from others was his heightened senses, particularly his sight, smell, and hearing. He has heightened senses of sight, smell, and hearing that are about five times more sensitive than an average human's senses.

He instantly focused on his sight and hearing, only to discover that it was the Templar guards who had arrived to assist the villagers in evacuating back to the basement. After confirming it, he returned his gaze to the ground while moving to the elevated plateau with Emelda, who also had her head fixed on the ground. They dare not look forward, for fear of accidentally meeting the abyssal gaze of the shadow minions.

The guards handed the villagers a rope to hold onto as they covered the villager's heads with a black, thick, and opaque sack. This will help the surviving villagers avoid the risk of being infested until they reach the basement.

However, Alvan rejected the sack and the rope-guiding when the Templar guards offered them to him and Emelda. He was considering a more frightening scenario. What if the guard who will guide them with the rope becomes infested? What would be their fate? So, for him, it is better to guide himself.

Emelda wanted to comply with the guards' help, but she noticed that Alvan wasn't interested in those things. She decided to reject it as well. Alvan would never make a decision that will be detrimental to himself, right? And he must have his reasons. These should be her thoughts. That was how much she trusted that young man.

***

While still on their way to the Templar Academy, they arrived at a place where a few buildings were scattered amidst bamboo trees. Something unexpected began to happen to the lifeless bodies of the villagers who had perished from the shadow plague within this area.

The bodies, each with their vine-like veins, had propped up, pulsating as if something was moving through them. It was just like a peristaltic contraction. Then, their eyes began to glow purplish and in the next instant, they sprang to their feet. Their legs and hands twisted as they began to move strangely, like zombies, releasing a low-frequency shriek.

The height of the shadow plague has manifested. After being infested, one's sanity and soul are consumed by the shadow minions, and then they transform. This time, they resemble walking dead shadow villagers, with their skin a dark purplish color and traces of shadow lingering around them. They have become the "shadow undead."

Picking up on a faint shriek, Alvan stopped in his tracks. 'This sound is entirely different from the whispers of the shadow minions and the guards that came earlier. What else does this plague have in store for us?'

He heightened his senses to their maximum before turning around to see what was eerily shrieking. This way, he could easily determine the direction of the shadow minions from their whispers, allowing him to avoid direct eye contact with their eerie purple eyes. What he saw was the true illustration of a nightmare…

The shadow undead, who were once living humans like him, were already advancing towards them. Not to mention, the whispers of the shadow minions seemed to have increased, indicating that more shadow minions have encroached upon their land. That also means the shroud of darkness was also drawing closer to Etheloria.

"Damn it! Those villagers who have been infested are rising and appear to have completely lost control of the shadow minions within their bodies. We need to move fast!" Alvan made sure to shout so that the Templar guards, who were leading the villagers in a rope queue, could hear him clearly.

However, his voice seemed to have alerted the shadow undead, and they all lifted their heads and quickly headed towards the source of the sound that had awakened them.

'Shit… I shouldn't look them in the eyes either, right? I didn't even know if I could get infested by the already infested people.' He cursed inwardly.

Fighting in this situation is the most difficult thing to do. They can't even freely use their eyes.

Nevertheless, Alvan was beginning to feel his powers. It was the ethereal energy within him that could switch on and off whenever they wanted. To put it simply, Alvan cannot choose when to use his magic powers. But, it happened to have sensed the peril and returned to him to be utilized.

"You know what? Evacuate the villagers. I will buy you some time!" He shouted once again.

Seeing the situation they were in, his mother's wish replayed in his mind, and he decided to act now that his ethereal energy seemed to have been activated.

Though, the reason he decided to shout even louder than before was because he noticed that those shadow undead are attracted to sound. He wants them to gather around him.

"I will always stand by whatever decision you make," Emelda reassured him as she turned around to face the swarm of zombie-looking shadow undead coming towards them. The guards had already set off with the villagers, who were running along the rope being dragged by the guards.

"Okay, this is the plan. I will lure them in while you tie them up with your vines. These villagers might be cured later, so we shouldn't kill them because of the shadow plague."

Alvan raised two of his hands and, after gathering his ethereal energy in his palms, he clasped them together. "Gale Whirlpool!"

A strong gust of wind began to swirl in a circular motion, surrounding Alvan. As a result, Emelda moved a few steps away from him, with her black vines poised to play their role.

The loud hush generated by the gale seemed to attract all nine shadow undead that were a few distances away from them. And the shadow minions, which were also hovering in the air around them.

"You don't have to do this alone. My duty is to protect the people as well. You wouldn't mind some extra help, right?" It was one of the Templar guards who spoke behind Alvan.

He was wearing armor and holding a sword in his hand. However, the most noticeable thing about him was the blindfold covering his eyes, and a powerful aura emanated from his body. This man, probably in his late twenties, was not just any Templar guard; he was a high-ranking guard. It was Kael.

Alvan nodded affirmatively without breaking his focus from his task. Right away, before him, those nine shrieking shadow undead walked right into his whirlpool of wind. Immediately, Alvan swiftly stopped the swirling whirlpool and instead created a barrier, enclosing the shadow undead.

This time, he wasn't inside his barrier. All this while, he had his head fixed to the ground, taking advantage of his sensitive ears.

Kael swung his sword, cutting right through the shadow minions that whispered around him. But he had been slashing the air all this time. The shadow minions always seemed to phase through his sword slashes.

Somewhere behind them, Alvan heard the sound of a little girl crying. He didn't know what had happened. That was when an idea came to him.

Perhaps he could still freely look around with the solar telescope he had used earlier. However, this was a gamble. Was he going to use himself as an experiment to test whether using the telescope would be helpful?

Anyway, the little girl's crying escalated. He had no choice now; he must save that girl. He brought out his solar telescope once more and peered through it. A short distance behind them, he could see why the girl was crying. Her mother, whom she was evacuating with, was already twitching, indicating that she had been infested.

Alvan had to save the little girl, who was about twelve years old before she became infested by the hovering shadow minions around her.