Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1445 Migration
After inquiring about the name of the merman leader, the apothecary and Liu received the name "Luoda," the meaning of which they did not know. Although Luoda looked rude, he was actually the most cultured among the mermen. There were only about ten mermen like him who could speak, and he was the only one who could communicate "fluently."

Like other monsters still living in the wasteland, the fish-men's lair is underground, but they clearly didn't dig it themselves; they simply stole it. The apothecary could see some tools, crafted from stone and wood, the wood being made from the mutated plants found here.

"Unbelievable, you guys can actually survive in this godforsaken place..." Liu Yi exclaimed in amazement as she walked. Even she dared not stay in the harsh environment of the wasteland for long. The fact that these fish-men could survive here clearly showed that they had some kind of constitution that could resist the erosion of the wasteland.

What surprised the pharmacist was the traces preserved in the nest, the marks left by people carved in stone on the walls.

"Did you leave this behind?"

“Mother, teach us, smash.” Lorda nodded and said, “Words, value, learning.”

"Pharmacist, according to our detection, there are about four hundred people here. Regardless of who that mother is, we need to thoroughly investigate the origins of these people. Ninety years have passed, and the fates of all the residents of Cardoville have been confirmed. Where did these people come from?"

“Look at the wall, that ‘mother’ probably wrote something down,” the pharmacist pointed.

Lorda led the two women deep into the lair, to an underground area. It was very damp there, with many polished stone utensils placed there, along with water seeping from the cave ceiling.

“You’ll have to drink the water here…” The pharmacist frowned. There was indeed a lack of water on the ground, but the water seeping from the ground mostly carried some virus residue. She couldn’t directly deduce the mutation factors in these people.

Just then, Ledda stopped and pointed his thick arm forward.

"Mother, ahead."

Liu let the ball of light from the Light spell drift forward for a while, and then saw a body embedded in a stone. A translucent stone was set on the surface, but this method could not truly preserve the body, as the woman's body had obvious signs of decay.

Below, a box was placed, with a prominent emblem on it—the emblem of the Burial of the Dead.

"It seems some of the questions have been answered." The pharmacist stopped in her tracks. With family members present, she needed to discreetly avoid them.

Liu stepped forward, asked Lue Da a question, and after receiving a reply that it could be opened, he reached out and opened the box.

These boxes are relic boxes carried by people in the cardinals when they carry out high-risk missions. The former territory of Cardoville, now the wasteland, naturally meets this condition.

“Back then, it wasn’t a small number of people who went missing here among the seven cardinals, after all, we were on the front lines fighting against the Plague Apostles. Hayden had gathered at least thirty Apostles at the time, and even summoned Mariska’s branch, so all the missing members were treated as dead.” Liu took out a leather-covered notebook from the box. “She probably just survived by sheer luck.”

Then, Liu glanced into the box, a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Or rather... these people."

As Mariska's branches exploded from the center of town, the nearest dozen or so people fell directly into the shattered ground. Their bodies were almost instantly ravaged by the plague of the Decaying Lord; some died on the spot, while others, with only parts of their bodies decaying, were not yet dead.

Later, the Church dealt with the branches, but the area where these people were located had been buried deep underground due to the intense magical bombardment. At that time, only three people remained alive. The person who wrote the record was one of them. Her legs were infected with the decaying plague, rendering her unable to move, but she was also the one in the best condition among the three. After realizing that the Church probably wouldn't provide relief to this central area, the three supported each other as they moved through this underground space, trying to get out and then seek help.

This underground space was created by the Plague Apostles. They gathered a large number of plague-infected sacrifices here, offering a large portion of them in order to summon branches. As for the rest, before these ruthless bastards could do anything with them, the apostles were all killed by the church.

Separated by thick layers of earth, and undetectable by common reconnaissance spells, the group was trapped here in fear. The three who rescued them, however, were still carrying some equipment. But after their rescue, they discovered that the people's bodies had undergone unusual changes. Everything they ate and drank was contaminated with plague, yet the plague itself and the toxins in the food had begun to coexist in a strange way after the creator's death. This not only weakened the corrosive effects of the plague but also allowed them to consume things that ordinary people could not eat.

This place has been ravaged by a plague, leaving it barren and devoid of vegetation. Even if some plants do grow, they are strange, fish-scale-like creatures. Yet, these people can dig out the roots that emerge from the cracks in the rocks and eat them.

The bad news was that after walking underground for a long time, they still couldn't find a way out. All three had run out of supplies, and in their weakened state, they were practically unable to go any further. In their final decision, the three left behind the contents of the relic box and then consumed the plague-infested creatures that the others had been eating.

The other two were too severely injured to withstand the toxic effects, and only the recorder barely survived, though not in great condition. The plague in her legs was neutralized, but she didn't recover; instead, large amounts of supernumerary flesh grew. It took her a long time to recover from the shock of her flesh mutation, and then... she began to lead the survivors in searching for a way out.

This search lasted a very long time, so long that these people had formed a settlement, a clan. They lived and multiplied underground, and many of them gradually became abnormal as more and more of their bodies mutated, forgetting many of the behaviors they should have. The recorders could only make them recite the church's sacred texts together to maintain their remaining humanity.

But the rate of loss couldn't keep up with the rate of instruction, and the new generation of children possessed more fish-man characteristics. They were born free from the plague, more adapted to their environment, and stronger. The Recorder could naturally see that these children resembled monsters, but having known them for so long, she couldn't truly treat them as monsters. So, education continued, but unfortunately, while their bodies adapted to the environment, their minds deteriorated significantly. After conquering a group of monsters' lair, the Recorder finally decided to carve what she should teach them into stone. She felt herself growing old; although the plague ultimately didn't take her life, time had already reached her doorstep.

Of course, because she herself was unable to move freely, she would always send some of the younger generation to dig through the ground to see what was outside, but unfortunately, the outside world was already a wasteland. This recorder had died not long ago, and her last entrustment to the new generation leader was to find the church and follow it, something she absolutely trusted and whose faith she had never wavered in.

The preserved paper was filled with writing, using ink made from the ashes of those monsters burned. She wrote down as much as she could, and after Liu read it, she silently put the box away.

"When I arrive in White Tower Town, I will send this to the Great Cathedral. This record should be remembered. It is both a story of heroes and an omission from the countless crimes of the plague apostles."

“Alright, but… what about Lorda and the others? The Church can definitely handle them, but how is uncertain. Besides, they are a special case, and they might be a target worth keeping an eye on for the Plague Apostles,” the Pharmacist said. “And most importantly, how are they going to follow our convoy? More than four hundred of them, we don’t have that many supplies.”

"...I think we can ask Father Thorne."

Upon hearing Liu's answer, the pharmacist couldn't help but silently mourn for Father Thorne.

=
As expected, when the two brought Ledda to see Father Thorne, the usually shrewd Father Thorne's face visibly twitched a few times.

"Four hundred?"

"More than four hundred," Liu corrected earnestly.

Seeing Father Thorne's worried expression, the apothecary couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Lorda and the others don't need many resources. They can follow us; the environment here won't be a big obstacle for them. But you need to resolve two things. First, you need to persuade our group to accept them. Second, take them through White Tower County—the church there can't handle this kind of thing; we have to go to Violet City."

“This is not an easy task either. Their appearance is too strange. If it were just one or two, it would be fine, but four hundred people, even I wouldn’t let them pass easily,” Father Thorne said.

"If it were easy to solve, I wouldn't have come to you," Liu said with a smile. "Judging from your abilities, this should be a slightly difficult but not insurmountable problem?"

“Hmm… it’s not that it can’t be solved, it just depends on whether our friends who look different from ordinary people are willing to accept another way of speaking.” Father Thorne clapped his hands. “And our group will no longer be called refugees, that needs to be changed.”

“See, I told you the priest was prepared,” Liu said to the pharmacist. “After all, how could he go to Violet City without prior preparation when he was leading a thousand people?”

The pharmacist ignored her.

Father Thorne was indeed prepared. He knew all along that it was impossible for refugees to enter the city, but there was a special rule in the church: the preparation of the army, or rather, the reorganization of the troops.

Among the Empire's renowned knightly titles, the Holy Knight is exclusively reserved for the Church, indicating that the Church possesses its own military force. After all, the actual number of monks in the Burial Grounds is not that large; they are elite and professional warriors against the Plague Lords, and knights are the ones who step in when force is required.

If we break it down further, the church's military forces can also be divided into several different types.

Knights and squires constitute the core of the force, while religious soldiers and ascetics make up the larger group. Generally speaking, the empire would not allow the church's military power to expand too much, and even the latter's numbers would certainly be limited. However, where there's a will, there's a way, and the church, through its influence, devised a method to circumvent imperial regulations: an army preparation plan.

In terms of distance, if a small-scale war breaks out between churches in one location, usually to deal with the plague apostles or some remnants, and after the war, the local environment is no longer suitable for the church to remain, or a long period of reconstruction is required, then the church members will relocate to another location, and the two churches will merge together. At the same time, the military forces will be reorganized. In name, the quotas of the two churches are shared, but once the relocation is made in name, they will not actually be separated again later.

“That’s one method, but… the Empire has requirements for it.” The apothecary said after hearing Father Thorne’s idea. “First, you have to turn these people into real religious soldiers. As a priest, you can naturally issue credentials, and I think you can pass the piety test, but the most important thing is that they are not equipped.”

The emperor's ministers and the church leadership argued for more than two months, and the restrictions on "soldiers" or "armies" could not be fully defined. But at least these people had to look like soldiers. It wasn't enough to just stuff a bunch of peasants with broken sticks and cloth armor. Church soldiers had to be supplied by the church and have standard equipment to be recognized.

Father Thorne pointed directly at Lloyd: "Isn't the standard equipment right here? It was a bit of a problem before, but now we can solve it."

“Oh—” The pharmacist squinted at Father Thorne. As she expected, Father Thorne was indeed not very human when it came to not treating people as human beings.

"It's a pity there are only four hundred, but four hundred men are enough. I never intended to have just one unit; having more different types of soldiers will make it more like a proper army. As for persuading them, that's easy. I'll have Gale do a good job of convincing them... as long as these men aren't truly dangerous." Father Thorne was now showing a calculating expression. "There's no need to make them hide. This time is for our chosen men to get to know them well. As for communication, I'll leave that to the two ladies. As long as they're willing to slightly relinquish some of their dignity and become my army's mounts, many things will be easily resolved..."

Judging from Leddar's happy expression, the pharmacist guessed that they had no idea what dignity was.

At that moment, Vanessa and Veronica also came over. The two had been nearby and probably overheard Father Thorne's plan.

“Father, how about we each choose one? After all, having a proper nun as an example makes it easier to believe!” Vanessa’s words were surprising, causing Father Thorne’s face to twitch again.