Cyril and Kyra arrived at Westhaven riding on the outside of a carriage owned by the Silkweaver family. Both Bart Soulsong and Victoria Merchantile were there to see their child off. Kyra had a large chest along with her while Cyril had a large bag.
Although they did not need to bring anything as they had all their possessions in their bag of holding, they thought it prudent to pretend to bring their belongings to keep up the pretense. So her chest and his large bag was filled with extra clothes that they may or may not use.
Kyra had more than 5,000 gold coins in her ring, more than enough for 10 years of living expenses, if she needs it. Cyril had 500 gold coins in his ring. This should be enough for several years living expenses, if he didn't splurge like a king.
His family was financially comfortable, but nowhere near as rich as the Silkweaver, or even more so, the Mercantile family.
Kyra was wearing undergarments crafted from their best silks. They were light, thin but able to withstand cuts and stabs from swords and arrows. This was the prize silks of the family and were only sold to royalty. She wore them comfortably under her clothes, which resembled a dress, but allowed her movement.
As they arrived, they saw Captain Williard, who was talking to the guards that were to accompany the students to StarRock. Gildor from StarRock was there as well, as were two other women dressed in similar looking robes. Cyril assumed they were fellow teachers from StarRock.
They bid their parents goodbye and loaded their luggage onto a large luggage wagon. They then boarded a huge carriage that could fit 20 people, and was pulled by 30 large horses.
As they boarded they recognized several students who tested the same day they tested, as well as several other unfamiliar faces. It appeared the carriage went from town to town collecting all the students who passed the test, so these faces were from different town.
They departed and went towards the next town Freeport which was 150 miles away, where they picked up several more students. Behind the carriage was a huge luggage wagon for their luggage, pulled by 10 large horses and the whole entourage was escorted by 10 guards on horses.
As the carriage fit 20 people, the seats were arranged in seats of 4. The 3 teachers sat in front, while Cyril and Kyra sat by themselves right at the back.
At Freeport, a small fire weaver with bright red hair and a flowing red dress and bare feet sat next to Kyra and introduced herself as Violet. She seemed a little odd. She found everything extremely fascinating and loved asking questions about the most mundane things.
Cyril looked at her for a long time and gasped with surprise. "Can it be that she's a a fire elemental gained sentience or something similar? How can someone have such a strong fire aura?" he thought.
He approached and asked her questions about fire, and they began an animated conversation. Every time he asked her something, she would demonstrate something about fire in her hands. Cyril would watch and his understanding of fire grew. She even showed how lightning could also be formed using fire weaving. Cyril was amazed that lightning could be used this way.
As they approached the next town which was 200 miles from Freeport, suddenly the atmosphere became eerily quiet. There wasn't any birds chirping, and even the horses were spooked.
The town they were reaching is called Cemeteria, named so simply because it
had the most number of cemeteries in the region and is among the most ancient towns in the region.
A guard rode out to a farmer standing not too far from the road to ask what was going on. As he did so, Cyril suddenly recognized magic in the air. "This is death magic!" exclaimed Cyril out loud. How could he not recognize it? After all, his daughter was the Goddess of Death.
The farmer suddenly grabbed hold of the guard and pulled him off his horse and started biting him on his neck. As the guard screamed, several guards charged and promptly beheaded the farmer.
One of the guards got down to help his fellow guard. As he did that, Cyril opened the carriage door and yelled "Don't!". But it was too late, as the fallen guard suddenly grabbed his fellow guard and bit him as well.
"Zombies! Move!" yelled Cyril at the driver of the carriage. "What? What are zombies?" answered the driver. "Undead!" explained Cyril in a hurry.
The driver immediately drove the carriage forwards, with the other guards following close by. Thinking they should turn back, Cyril looked behind but saw that the luggage wagon was already being attacked by several other zombies, and the driver of the wagon was already bitten blocking the road.
They drove through the town as more and more zombies started running at them from all sides. Not only zombies, but skeletons were rising from the graves of all the many cemeteries in town.
The guards were falling one by one as they were pulled off their horses. The two female teachers started shooting wind blades and ice daggers out the windows. Gildor joined in and shot rocks at the undead. However, even impaled by ice daggers, or hit by rocks, or decapitated by wind blades, the zombies and skeletons kept coming. They were not affected at all by missing limbs or being cut or stabbed.
"Protect the inside of the carriage!" Cyril instructed Kyra while he leapt out onto the roof of the carriage.
He started shooting shooting wind blades at the undead all around them. Although the undead feel no pain, limbs were dropping off their bodies. Violet joined Cyril on the roof and started shooting pillars of flame setting the whole town on fire as they passed through.
Cyril suddenly looked ahead using his divine sense. "There's the source of this necromancy" he thought as he identified a large building up ahead. He could sense a group of necromancers in a magic circle drawn in blood on the floor.
They were also surrounded by zombies but the zombies could not enter the magic circle. The necromancers looked scared as they were trapped in their own circle of protection with no escape.
Necromancy is the practice of death magic and usually involves evil practices such as human sacrifice and conjuring the undead. Necromancers are rare as practice of necromancy is banned and is punishable by death. Furthermore, usage of necromancy usually backfires, and it appears this is one such example.
Cyril looked at the circle with his godly senses and saw a dead naked woman in the middle on what appears to be an alter. Impaled into the chest of the dead woman is a dagger with a mysterious gem in its hilt. "There's the cause of the problem" thought Cyril.
He used wind to propel him into the air in the direction of the building, and sliced a hole through the walls using wind. He landed in front of the necromancers.
With a wave of his hand he created a strong gust of wind and brushed all the undead as well as the necromancers aside, out of the circle, without caring what happens to the necromancers.
He then walked up to the alter and removed the dagger from the chest of the dead woman.
He tried to destroy the gem and the dagger with his wind blades, but discovered that the dagger was a magical item, a high level item that prevented even him from destroying it with his powers.
As he held it, knowledge of the law of death entered his mind. His understanding went beyond the mere levels of necromancy, and he felt a deeper level of understanding of the law his daughter Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death, controls.
He suddenly thought of something, and took out a bag of holding that freezes time inside it. He deposited the dagger inside it, and immediately all the zombies and skeletons fell like puppets that had their strings cut.
He threw his freezing bag of holding inside is ring and looked around. The zombies had already killed the necromancers, so he went outside to catch up with the carriage.
The carriage had slowed down when they noticed that the undead were no longer a threat and Cyril, using wind to assist him, caught up. "What happened?" asked the teachers.
"Necromancers. They're dead now" Cyril answered, and everyone assumed that was the end of that. Cyril did not want to reveal anything about the dagger he found.
The whole town was dead. As they couldn't do anything more in the town, they decided that although it was getting dark, they would go to the next town to make a report.
They lost 5 guards, and only 5 remained. They also lost all the horses and driver for the luggage wagon. They had no choice but to continue their journey forward.
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