“…Three. Devoured, perhaps. I don’t even know if that was the [Lord]. So, child. Have you anything to say to me?”

Sasi said nothing at all. She looked up at a figure with white hair. Culin moved. He had to—to—

“Very well.”

The [Necromancer] whispered a spell. Culin saw a flash. His sister stopped moving. The man made a sound.

“Come, child.”

Slowly…Sasi got up and, limping, her ankle twisted, followed the [Necromancer]. Culin sat there. His eyes overflowed. But he dared not say a word. Not for Sasi. Not for his mother. Not for his brave father.

Not a word. The figures passed by his hiding spot. They followed the [Necromancer]. Leaving Afiele.

Heading north, after the Duchess. The dead they left behind. The child the only living being left.

And…the [Singer].

1.15 P

[Singer Level 19!]

Her heart woke her up. The young woman gasped as she heard it beating.

She had felt it stop. The [Necromancer] had cast a spell and she had…

Fallen. Cara woke up on the ground. Alive.

Alone.

Afiele was empty. No animals, no people. Not even the undead roamed the streets. All had gone. Cara got up, too weak to do more than lean against a ruined house whose wall had been caved in by the giant’s passage.

She had seen images of devastation before. But now she walked through it. There should have been bodies. She had seen people dying. People she knew.

But Afiele was barren. Almost barren—Cara saw blood. Torn flesh. She saw a severed arm, hacked away.

“No.”

She recoiled, and then looked around. There had to be someone. Someone had to be—

“…just music.”

Cara wanted to believe the people had escaped. But…as she looked up, towards the hill, she saw the keep.

And she feared.

——

They were dead. Cara walked past the entryway in shock. She stepped past a body with a dirtied apron.

A pile of corpses hacked so badly that even death magic couldn’t bring them back. She saw.

The last living souls in Afiele had died here. In the hallways, fighting for their home. Some of them were…missing. Taken in death. Many had fought so bitterly that they remained, unable to be stolen away.

The most bodies lay in the mess hall. Cara flinched as she saw the slaughter. At least a hundred bodies lay scattered about, cut to pieces. She searched around—and then called out.

“Lord Lantal! Lady Risel! Sasi? Culin?”

She ran for the stairs. Past unmoving shapes.

When she saw the destroyed room and broken door, Cara’s mind went blank. She found…Lady Risel.

Lying there. Someone had cut her head off. A single slash, across the neck. To keep her from coming back.

She looked surprised. A single wound in her chest was all that Cara saw. She lay there, arms neatly folded. The young woman searched around.

“Sasi! Culin! Lord—”