The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 353

Chapter 353
Amber Wind
“All mortals are stars—”
The moment Eivass unconsciously uttered these words, the ground of Eagle Cape Village began to shake.
The tremors were remarkably clear and sudden, catching almost everyone present off guard.
“An earthquake?” Haina blurted out. “How is that possible?”
“No, it’s not an earthquake,” Lily, still in her wolf form, spoke human words. “I didn’t sense any dangerous premonitions.”
The talent of Path Adaptation allowed one to foresee natural disasters. Whether it was a tsunami or an earthquake, one could have a premonition before the calamity struck, similar to the sensitivity of small animals.
After about three or four more seconds, the trembling finally stopped.
Immediately after, a powerful death aura, dim yellow in color, surged from the distant horizon like a tide.
It was like a sandstorm, forcing people to cover their faces. Eivass’s hair was even blown about by it.
As the death aura seeped into his body, Eivass immediately felt a strong discomfort.
It was a sensation akin to being bedridden for a long time, where any slight movement would cause the heart to pound violently – a feeling of weakness, accompanied by a bone-chilling cold, seeped into his organs, making him tremble uncontrollably.
A somber mood followed, driving one to overthink, recalling deceased loved ones, and contemplating their own death.
Lily also felt an equal discomfort.
Perhaps due to the weakness of her wolf form’s life force, her reaction was even more severe. The grey wolf was buffeted by the death aura, stumbling backward repeatedly, like a dog blown over by a strong wind, almost tumbling away completely. She only felt slightly better after reverting to her original form.
Only Haina remained calm, though she still furrowed her brow slightly due to the discomfort.
Seeing that the tidal wave of death aura seemed unlikely to end anytime soon, Eivass immediately took out his mirror and switched back to his main body.
He raised his right hand high and chanted the names of the Pillar Gods: “I beseech the Candlemaster, the God of Holy Number Three, the God of Sin Thorns Binding the Body, the God of Burning the Body to Repel Darkness—
“Grant me the light of protection!”
As Eivass prayed, a holy and fierce radiance bloomed from his right hand.
The pure white radiance spread out, forming an irregular sphere within the dim tide of death aura, enveloping the few of them. Eivass, lacking an Episcopal Crown, and without the aid of sacred artifacts, watched as the radiance constantly shifted its shape under the assault of the death aura, appearing precarious.
However, the sensation of feeling cold like one has a bad cold, shivering uncontrollably, receded. A warm power rose from their hearts, dispelling the dark thoughts along with it.
“Here, take it back!”
Haina was the first to react, handing the Holy Sword in her hand to Eivass.
Eivass took the Holy Sword with his left hand and passed it to his right hand.
As expected, when his right hand firmly grasped the Holy Sword, the radiance stabilized immediately.
Not only that, but it even began to expand outwards steadily—like a motorcycle speeding through a rainy night, an arc-shaped shield unfurled in front of them, pushing against the seemingly endless tide of death aura. The intense friction generated radiance that made Eivass in front glow brightly, his entire form becoming blurred.
After about ten minutes of this continuous assault, the death aura gradually weakened and eventually disappeared.
Eivass, confirming that the radiance emanating from the Holy Sword in his hand was no longer obstructed, slowly lowered the sword. The light extinguished with it.
“This…!” Haina exclaimed in astonishment.
It wasn’t surprising that she was so shocked.
If Eivass and Lily weren’t naturally reserved, they would likely have exclaimed in surprise as well.
A dim yellow shell, of unknown origin, now covered the entire Eagle Cape Village.
Whether it was the land, the forests, the buildings, or the river… everything seemed to have been scoured by the death aura and dyed, coated with a thin shell.
Even the night sky had turned dim yellow—not because it was twilight, but because the night sky had been frozen.
Looking up, one could even see the twinkling stars.
They had even stopped twinkling and had instead become beams of faint light seeping through narrow cracks. It was as if the sky had cracked open, and light was leaking through the fissures. In the storm, the raindrops were stretched into thin lines, like tear drops suspended by threads, frozen in the dim yellow night sky.
The entire world had fallen into absolute stillness.
It was as if the entire Eagle Cape Village had been encased in amber by the wind that had blown through.
Eivass cautiously reached out to touch a raindrop suspended in mid-air. Upon contact with Eivass, it melted directly, turning into an ordinary raindrop.
“…Haina.”
“Hmm?”
“Punch the ground.”
Eivass commanded.
Haina, hearing this, did not ask why but cautiously confirmed, “With how much force?”
“Enough to make a dent is fine,” Eivass replied.
Haina did not hesitate and punched the ground.
“—Ah!” Haina immediately cried out in pain, bending over and clutching her knuckles.
Eivass leaned in, holding Haina’s right hand and projecting his consciousness to assess her injury. Under that full-force blow, her finger bones had cracked slightly but were not fractured.
Under normal circumstances, such a punch would have shattered the earth, and she would have been completely unharmed.
Eivass first touched her chest with his glowing right hand, using the Illuminate Spell to instantly heal her injuries.
He frowned slightly, feeling a sense of unease about this sudden anomaly. “The ground has been solidified.”
After being healed, Haina, while rubbing her knuckles, looked in the direction from which the death aura had come. “It seemed to come from the swamp.”
“No rush.”
His mana had been depleted from card-making, and now a portion of it had been burned to resist the death aura. Eivass’s mana was completely exhausted. Fortunately, as he was not in combat, he could still activate the Praying Spell to recover his mana.
“Wait for me a moment, I need to pray first.”
Eivass took out a red candle from Sherlock’s ritual bag.
The Prince of Giants’ profession was Archmage, and it was highly likely he wasn’t completely dead. After all, he was a survivor in the game who had made it to the current version… even his Demonology mentor at Star Antinomy had entered the game, and he was still alive.
This was why Eivass hadn’t rushed to finish off the Prince of Giants when the King of the Wild Hunt was close to defeating him, to snatch the experience.
Because, based on Eivass’s understanding of such a resilient opponent, he definitely wouldn’t die this time.
Archmages possessed a series of escape methods such as decoys, feigned death, resurrection, and reincarnation. According to Eivass’s memory, the leader of Noble Red had died three times in total, and on the third occasion, he had reincarnated into a small black goat. This was also his last form.
Given this old turtle’s caution, he would likely set his resurrection point far away. This meant that the opponent would not be able to return to the scene immediately – which was why Eivass dared to leave Sherlock, who lacked combat abilities, alone to search the corpse.
Because the Prince of Giants definitely wouldn’t know that the King of the Wild Hunt here was Helchin.
It was information Eivass himself didn’t know before, so the Prince of Giants likely didn’t either. And if he had known, he certainly wouldn’t have been so bold as to come here.
This was the leader of the rebels, who had been executed on a large scale by the Giants for the first time. On the Giants’ blacklist, he would probably rival Arthur and Lancelot in notoriety. It was obvious he must have a deep-seated hatred for the Giants… therefore, he likely wouldn’t have prepared for the possibility of dying this time, meaning he must have had some good items on him.
First, there would certainly be some equipment. Eivass could likely use accessories from the Cursed Ritual Mage series. And even without the human materials, he should still have some other rare ritual materials.
—Even if they couldn’t “run back for the corpse” to retrieve it, Sherlock had to strip him clean!
However, the current situation left Eivass somewhat perplexed.
They had barely done anything here, and suddenly there was an earthquake? And such a significant anomaly occurred…
Could the Prince of Giants’ “resurrection” ability have clashed with the amber power here?
It couldn’t possibly be that sealing the Punisher Demon had triggered some special mechanism, right?
But to be cautious, Eivass decided to replenish his mana first before going to investigate.