My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 1195 - 1196: Old Man In Field Of Black Ash

He looked at the two children sleeping. He was glad the mountains had not changed them. They still remained pure, even if they were slightly traumatized.

They had come here with clean hands and left with blood on their hands, but they carried no darkness in their hearts.

"They’re far stronger than me."

After thinking for a while, he decided maybe he should contact Abellona. However, getting a signal here was a bit difficult due to the barrier and the area being prone to mana anomalies.

He wondered what she and Terra were doing right now.

*******

Abellona was not doing well. She could tell that her condition was not normal, and she wanted to see a physician. What could possibly make someone in the Sixth Class react like this?

She already knew she wasn’t cursed.

That said, she wanted to focus on the investigation and find Ling. She felt she would stop at a physician when she found one. From what they had learned since she killed Old Black Eye, the caravan leader, they traveled toward Ravenscroft territory and met more and more caravans along the way.

Eventually, the nominal leader of one of the larger caravans was a man called Emil Payda. From what she heard, the caravan had encountered some trouble, but its final destination was far beyond Ravenscroft territory.

They decided to trace its path and hopefully find some clues.

The carriage suddenly stopped on a massive field of ash that seemed to stubbornly remain as if carrying a deep resentment against the very land.

When Abellona stepped onto the ashen field, she crouched down and placed her hand against the ground.

"Do you sense that... there is a will within this?"

At the Sixth Class, she could sense the will and intentions behind attacks. It was just one of those things you could feel when you reached the peak of the world, especially when an attack carried such malice and a very powerful will behind it.

"The map says the village is here," Terra said, looking across the field of ash.

"Was here," Emilia whispered, looking around.

This was all that remained of a village. An entire village reduced to ash.

"What could have provoked such an attack?" Abellona whispered.

"There must have been whole families here, women, children, young and old. Whoever did this had the intention of making it swift," Abellona added as she walked deeper into the field of ash.

"Who goes there? Don’t enter the ash field!"

An old voice called out from the trees not far away.

Abellona took a step and instantly appeared beside the source of the voice, catching an old man who was trying to stand up.

"Don’t go—"

He paused when he saw how she had instantly managed to reach him. He hadn’t even seen her move. It was as if he had simply blinked, and this beautiful young woman was suddenly standing next to him. She gave off no aura, not that he could have survived her aura anyway.

He glanced at her ruby-red eyes and long dark hair. Her skin was beautiful, and no words could properly compare or describe her appearance. He was stunned for a moment at seeing her up close.

Still, he was an old man with one foot in the grave.

"Miss, please don’t go there. The ash is cursed. It will bring you bad luck."

Abellona looked at Terra, who was standing on the ash, then shook her head.

"I don’t feel any curses here. It must be a superstition."

That was not uncommon with small villages and hamlets.

"Did the curse you spoke about do this to the villagers?"

"No one knows. All I know is that I was passing by while gathering wood years ago when a sea of dark, shadow-like flames engulfed the village from the sky. You could see them from miles away. Those who live around here say it was their penance. The whole place is cursed." He spat on the ground.

Abellona was curious now. There was no smoke without fire, and therefore this rumor must have a source.

"What did they do to deserve this?" she asked, looking at the old man.

"They dabbled in dark magic. Forbidden magic with a tamarind tree."

When he said that, Terra narrowed her eyes slightly. Tamarind trees were known to house evil spirits, and they could be used to evoke them.

"This village was full of wicked people. Long ago, they were entrusted to look after some orphans, but they mistreated them and left them to die. After a while, one of the orphans returned and even helped the village, but those people were ungrateful and paranoid. From what I heard, they summoned an evil spirit to kill him by sacrificing children to it."

"After he defeated the evil spirit, this wise and kind young man forgave them, leaving with a traveling caravan that he had come with."

The old man’s face twisted with disgust.

"Not long after he left, fires fell from the sky and destroyed them all. No one was spared. Those of us in the neighboring villages came to investigate a few days later, and the fires were still burning, but there was nothing left to burn."

"It was only after a week that they vanished completely."

"The land never bore fruit and grass never grew. Only the ash remained. Only ash."

Abellona was quiet for a moment. This sounded interesting enough, but the trail must have gone cold. She did not think it was divine punishment. Someone had most likely wiped out the village.

’Black shadow-like flames,’ she thought for a moment, she knew of only one with flames like shadows.

"We have some more questions if you don’t mind," she said slowly.

Emilia walked towards the old man. Her expression was calm, still there was an air of coldness around her that made the old man flinch slightly.

"Tell me about the caravans that pass through here."

"I pray I can answer them." He replied softly, his legs shaking slightly.