Cataphracts, surviving in a world full of mods

They quickly cleaned away the bone fragments still covered in hair and flesh, and even washed the wounds with the medicine they carried with them, before finally stopping and gathering around the long-dormant corpse.

"...I've been in this line of work for 12 years, and this is the first time I've encountered something like this."

The captain, who was in the lead, sighed slightly, then reached out his sharp blade and turned over the mangled, dismembered pile of flesh on the ground. The severed, grayish-white tentacles were particularly eye-catching.

“That’s right, who would have thought that someone’s head would explode on its own… I almost thought that something strange was filled in his head… I guess I’m not wrong.”

“I bet a lot of people would rather encounter a vicious criminal than something like this… This thing is really too weird, it reminds me of the legends from my hometown.”

"Are you sure you've cleaned it up properly? Don't let those damn bugs get away."

"No problem, don't worry. I specifically chopped it off its head. This worm has been minced into a pulp."

………………

"Alright, enough with the nonsense. This body needs to be taken back. You bunch of scared girls went a bit too far. I wonder if it's even useful after being destroyed like this..."

"Captain, you can't blame us! Who wouldn't be scared when they first see something like this? We managed to react in time and keep it here. Otherwise, I can't even imagine what the consequences would have been if it had escaped."

…………

Some of the frightened horses were calmed down, and a carriage with a black iron cage drove up to the side. The jailers found some old, yellowed sheets in the room, wrapped up all the odds and ends on the ground, and then threw the large bundle into the carriage.

In addition, they carefully searched the surrounding area for bone fragments and scraps of flesh, carefully packing up anything they could pick up to ensure there were no leftovers.

This carriage was supposed to be carrying living people, but now it has become a mangled corpse, and it is unknown how much the weight has changed.

With a crack of the whip, the silent horse trotted its hooves out of the village, proceeding slowly along the road under the moonlight, and soon disappeared below the distant horizon. All the houses remained utterly silent, as if the village had become a ghost town.

After a long while, even the startled insects began to chirp again, and a slender figure silently appeared in the woods…

Chapter 205 Rebirth (3)

The differences between people are always very obvious. Even in the same village, some people live a very prosperous life with fertile land, while others barely make ends meet with just two acres of meager land, living in leaky and dilapidated houses, wearing tattered clothes, and living a miserable life day by day.

Casaa was such a down-on-his-luck man, and his downfall was entirely his own fault. His father was a veteran who had retired from the army. After years of military service, he had accumulated a lot of wealth and built up a considerable fortune. At that time, his family was one of the wealthiest families in the entire village. They owned fertile and contiguous land, half of which was prime riverbank land.

However, his father, who had suffered numerous hidden injuries from years of fighting, passed away a few years after acquiring this family fortune. His mother also died of illness three years later, and his younger sister had long since married a strong and honest young man from another village. This vast family fortune then fell into his hands.

With such a wealthy family background, even if he were foolish and incompetent, even if he couldn't bring glory to the family, he could still live a life of plenty. But he was lazy and addicted to gambling, and he squandered his money like water. Soon he had to sell his house and land. In the end, no one was willing to marry him, and he was left with only a dilapidated thatched hut and two small plots of land, barely making ends meet.

Even at this point, he still didn't change his lazy nature. He was unwilling to endure hardship or toil, and as long as he could get enough food to survive, he was unwilling to move. He often complained and blamed others, and stole chickens and dogs in the village. He was considered one of the most despised members of the village.

Even his neighbors on both sides had many conflicts with him and rarely interacted with him, causing his small yard around his house to become overgrown with weeds and desolate, resembling a cemetery.

It was late at night, and the autumn air was quite chilly. Casaa was fast asleep, wrapped in a tattered quilt with cotton wadding sticking out everywhere, snoring loudly with a heavy nasal tone.

His skinny dog ​​was lying in its straw kennel. Although it couldn't even catch a rabbit, it was alert enough to at least take some precautions.

In addition, there was nothing of value in the house. The tables, chairs and benches were so broken that they could only be used for chopping wood and making firewood. So he just gave up and left the house in ruins. The door was just a fence made of tree branches, which couldn't even keep out the wind.

Generally speaking, this dilapidated place is unlikely to attract any malicious people. After all, there's nothing here but junk. Casaa has always slept like this without any problems. Of course, no thief has ever taken pity on him and thrown him anything...

But today, something is not quite right.

First, the skinny dog ​​outside the door suddenly widened its eyes in terror, its thin body trembled violently, let out a few mournful howls, turned and ran, but after only two steps it convulsed and rolled to the ground, and soon died.

Casaya mumbled a couple of things inside, then went back to sleep without noticing anything. Until a tall, thin figure, like a stick insect, appeared in front of his door, silently picked up the ridiculous twig door and threw it aside, then bent down and went inside.

Looking like a skeleton covered with a layer of withered yellow skin, this eerie man crawled into the room and slowly walked up to Casaa. His thin, long waist slowly bent down, and his finger moved towards the unshaven, grime-covered face.

A tiny creature, about the size of a melon seed, was wriggling between the withered fingers, its short tentacles eagerly reaching towards the man's face...

When the thing landed on his face, Casaa finally woke up with a start, letting out a confused and panicked cry, and reaching out to grab his face—he thought it was a rat or some large insect, which was a common occurrence in the house.

But he never got the chance to shout a second time... The withered hand possessed terrifying strength, easily pinning him to the bed like a mouse, rendering him completely immobile. He could only desperately open his bloodshot eyes to watch the strange little thing crawl into his nostril.

His nose twitched slightly, then there was no other sound, but the terrible pain and the strange intrusive feeling gradually spread to his forehead, and soon became unbearable, making him tremble like a fish pulled ashore, his eyes rolling back.

Copious amounts of white foam and snot gushed from his face. The foul-smelling yellow liquid soaked the sheets and drenched his clothes, while large patches of cold sweat, like blood seeping from peeled skin, rapidly soaked everything around him…

In this torment worse than death, Casaa soon became still and collapsed in his dirty, black and yellow bedding.

The tall, thin figure looked at the scene before him with satisfaction, then turned and left without a second thought, leaving the shabby room behind, leaving the oblivious Casaa lying on the bed, soiled with excrement and urine.

The insect eggs will hatch in three days, and this marginalized person living in the corner will wake up forgetting what happened, only wondering why his dog suddenly died...

Three days later, he would create a great spectacle here, attracting the attention of those henchmen—and in those three days, he would be able to leave the most dangerous place.

Of course, to be on the safe side, he would do it again... in a town near the west, where no one cared about the beggars, that would be the best opportunity.

----------------------

This was the first time Thesolius had stepped into the Chegevne prison. After all, this place was a taboo even for high-ranking officials and nobles, a constant reminder that they would suffer the same fate if they lost power or made mistakes.

Contrary to his expectations, the place was not damp or dark; instead, it exuded a strange dryness. Even the dust on the ground was fine and dry, and the air currents stirred up by walking on it were enough to scatter it everywhere.

Escape plans that work in other prisons are nothing but laughable fantasies here—each cell is a space carved out of solid blue rock, formed as one piece, with no other exit except for a sturdy iron door, like a deep tunnel extending into the depths of the mountain, with three layers of solid rock cells on both sides of the tunnel.

The exquisite craftsmanship of the imperial artisans was on full display here. Each iron door was reinforced with thick iron bars several feet long embedded in the ground, and every joint was extra reinforced, making this place a veritable fortress of bronze and iron. Without a special key, it would be difficult to break it open even with a sledgehammer and chisel.

An astonishing number of black-clad jailers roamed the area like black dogs around a grave, ready to snatch up their prey, who had nowhere left to run, and devour them alive... and in fact, that's exactly what they were doing.

As you walk along this long corridor, four branches appear on each side, resulting in a total of eight new passages. Six of these passages extend deep into the mountainside and are used to imprison the most vicious criminals.

The remaining two are filled with agonizing wails and screams all day long. A dazzling array of exquisitely designed and intricately crafted instruments of torture inflict extreme pain and torment on the sinners, forcing them to atone for their crimes or utter something of value.

The most complex and cruel design was the tiny holes hidden in the thick stone walls. These holes allowed for air circulation and also allowed the screams from the interrogation room to be clearly heard in every cell, making every prisoner tremble with fear and dread.

The enormous lamps, fueled by the grease of sinners, burned fiercely at the intersection of these passageways. They appeared to be just flames of varying sizes, yet they illuminated a great distance, ensuring that no shadow lingered there.

Countless negative words can be used here, and this place is enough to become anyone's lifelong nightmare, dragging them into this nightmare whenever they fall asleep in the days to come.

Ordinary people probably wouldn't have the courage to stand here, and those in prison are all heinous criminals with extraordinary strength, which is why they can still maintain their rationality and composure under such circumstances.

This prison has never been so overcrowded. Some prisons even had two people temporarily squeezed in. More and more important criminals are being brought here in a steady stream by black iron wagons. The identities of these criminals are a mixed bag, enough to amaze anyone.

Passing through these solid rock structures—the floors and ceilings of which are made of solid rock—it's hard to imagine the immense manpower and investment required to carve such a building out of a rocky mountain… and this place, where fire is impossible and there is no second exit, became the most despairing place in the entire empire.

On both sides of the two passageways, bloody and cruel tortures were taking place in every room. The accumulated experience and wisdom over the years had made this place full of masters of torment, capable of turning any self-proclaimed tough and daring sinner into a cowardly, fearful, and compliant cooperator who would answer any question.

The person being interrogated in this room is slightly different—he is a city official of some standing, responsible for the daily management and maintenance of a city gate in the western district.

While such a position may not be considered a high-ranking one, it is extremely lucrative. Anyone with a bit of shrewdness can make a considerable profit for themselves within the bounds of the rules. Although they may not live a life of luxury, they can still surpass most people in the city.

Most people who reach this position will be content and wholeheartedly focus on managing this lucrative job. But some people's ambitions don't stop there; they want more...

To ensure the credibility of what was obtained from him, even though he had weakened and yielded to answer every question, the terrible torture continued without pause until the man completely broke down and offered no resistance whatsoever. Only then would his words be believed.

Watching quietly as this once promising official was now reduced to a criminal, tortured beyond recognition, with all his information recorded on parchment and presented to him by a jailer, Tersolius carefully perused the parchment, then snorted coldly, essentially confirming his suspicions.

Criminals who had lost all value were dragged away to be executed. The empire's penal and intelligence systems were operating at full capacity, demonstrating their terrifying efficiency. Countless pieces of information were being extracted from those suspected criminals, sorted, summarized, and analyzed... A certain fog was being peeled away layer by layer, revealing itself to this terrifying empire.

………………

The pile of minced meat in front of you is hardly of any value. If you are not well-educated, you might not even be able to recognize what it originally was. After all, the tangled pieces of clothing, minced meat, tendons, and bone fragments are too abstract to distinguish their original structure.

However, among this pile of minced meat, some pieces were clearly different from the others. The texture of the cut meat also had unique characteristics, making it easy to distinguish them.

The foul smell here is equally alarming. Although it has only been one night, the pile of rubbish in front of us has already started to rot rapidly. Many parts have softened and liquefied, and it looks like it will turn into a puddle of putrid liquid.

In such a terrible environment, Tarina was carefully using silver tweezers and a shovel to separate the two obviously different piles of minced meat, transferring the small, truly valuable portion to the clean marble countertop next to her.

The girl was wearing a special protective suit to prevent dirt from getting on her skin, and even her hair was carefully tied up and tucked into a white cap.

A mountain girl named Yeliya was assisting her. The two worked quickly and efficiently to complete their current task, and then began the more difficult challenge ahead—to piece together the eerie gray-white limbs in the original way to recreate the parasitic creature's former appearance.

If one had no prior knowledge of this creature, accomplishing such a task would be an impossible task. However, Talina has accumulated a considerable amount of experience with this parasite. In this respect, even the most learned masters in the Imperial Academy may not be able to match her. Of course, this new experience is also being disseminated among the scholars of the Empire, but it will take time and a process.

In the end, even the broken shells were carefully pieced back together according to the seams, and the scattered internal organs were placed back into their original positions...

After observing for only a moment, Tarina had already made her own judgment—this was a new mutation, and it was more significant and the changes were more intense.

Chapter 206 Warm-up (1)

Insects are always a headache, let alone these strange and ferocious ones, which are constantly producing new variants that are becoming increasingly bizarre and disgusting, always managing to catch people off guard.

Under the sudden attack, the prison guards lost their usual composure and acted too quickly and ruthlessly, chopping the insect into pieces. Although they managed to piece it back together, they could not conduct any further investigation and could only obtain some basic information.

After using a special potion to preserve the remaining insect bodies, Tarina temporarily finished her work, hurriedly changed her clothes, and boarded a carriage to head towards the important location she had to visit that day.

The wife who has just given birth will need to be cared for for a period of time. Although Christina will not lack servants to serve her, some things still require the management and advice of professionals.

A tall, fit woman sat on the wooden railing beside the carriage, idly surveying the surrounding scenery. Even on the fast-moving vehicle, she did not sway in the slightest, maintaining her balance firmly. Two battle axes with armor-piercing spikes hung from iron rings at her waist, their blades polished to a gleaming shine, exuding a dangerous aura.

Karila's current job is to be responsible for Talina's safety... which is actually quite boring for her. There are no crazy guys to entertain her. The whole day is peaceful and uneventful, and she feels like her bones are about to rust. Apart from occasionally going to challenge Tersolius to a duel, there is basically nothing fun to do.

Driven by servants, the carriage moved at a suitable pace through the smooth streets and alleys of the empire, arriving at its destination steadily and smoothly. The two immediately alighted and entered the carriage under the watchful eyes of soldiers on both sides.

The weather is very mild today, and the specially designed courtyard allows a cool breeze to pass through, making it comfortable and pleasant even in the hottest summer.

The two consecutive attacks prompted the security measures here to be raised to the highest level, with the number of servants doubling. It goes without saying which servants were included.

At this moment, Christina was sitting in a comfortable high-backed chair—padded with soft lambskin—swaying gently along the chair's curved base in the warm sunlight, making soft humming sounds to the baby in her arms, listening to the little one's babbling and giggling.

Another lively little boy was fast asleep in Dolores' arms. The lady-in-waiting, who was over 50 years old, was clearly more experienced than Christina, who was a first-time mother. She could easily calm the energetic child down and put him into a deep sleep.

The servants were gathered around, taking advantage of the autumn sun to tend to the withered leaves and branches on the grass, clearing away the dead flowers and weeds that were no longer of any use, in preparation for planting new flowers next spring.

Everything here is so harmonious, quiet, and warm. Everything looks so peaceful and joyful, as if the warmth of the light doesn't come from the sun, but from the natural light that shines here.

Red, gold, and black ornamental fish were swimming in the pond next to them. They were also carefully selected by the servants. Not only were they hardy and brightly colored, but they could also be scooped out and put into a pot to enjoy their delicious flesh—of course, no one had done that yet.

Tarina, who rushed over, was immediately welcomed. The Hols girl had now become the savior in the eyes of everyone in the house and was respected everywhere, which made her feel somewhat flattered and flustered.

The servants carefully and respectfully led her to a wide, flat lawn. After settling into a comfortable chair, Talina, still somewhat reserved, began her routine work:

"Madam, how are you feeling today? Is there anything wrong with you?"

Christina smiled and had a servant bring the doctor drinks and snacks, placing them on the folding table before speaking:

"Everything is wonderful. To be precise, I've never been better... I'm so happy right now. There's no one in this country more fortunate than me. I can't think of anything I could want right now... Try this, Talina. It's freshly squeezed grape juice. I had the servants remove the skins and seeds, so it's not bitter at all. I also added honey. You should love it."

Tarina blushed slightly—every time she came here, Christina would immediately bring out drinks and snacks, and each time they were more tempting than the last… making it seem as if Tarina was here just to freeload…

Of course, since the host has already served the food, as a person of good manners, one cannot be negligent, so...

Today's dessert has a soft, flaky crust, filled with sweetened jam, and sprinkled with finely chopped rose petals, creating a rich and satisfying flavor that is sweet but not cloying.

Karila was also treated to the same treatment, a rather unique honor, but she probably didn't care about that at all. She was currently busy tearing apart the crispy fried fish with sauce on her plate, and seemed to really enjoy this kind of food that uses a lot of oil.

While enjoying the food, Tarina asked her patient questions—at least until Christina recovered her health and was able to draw her bow and shoot arrows like before, she was still considered a patient.

As expected, everything was normal. Just to be on the safe side, she even used magic to check it before she was finally relieved.