newbobooks Chapter 186 The Origin of the Demon Egg, The Demon Villagers
Chapter 186 The Origin of the Demon Egg, The Demon Villagers
Chapter 186 The Origin of the Demon Egg, The Demon Villagers
As night falls, a row of torches illuminates a naturally formed, deep cave at a foot of a precipice right next to the village.
The cave interior shows signs of human intervention everywhere. The central area is a fairly spacious open space, surrounded by scattered wooden houses and various household items.
Led by guard Berest, Chase, Lucy, and the Dark Magician Girl did not enter the village directly, but instead came here.
Hearing the commotion, the villagers who were temporarily staying there came out to see what was happening. The one in the lead was an elderly man with white hair and a cane.
After a brief introduction, Chess learned that the white-haired old man was the village chief and also the person who issued the SS commission.
"Thank you for accepting this request, Mr. Chess from Fairy Tail, and Captain Lucy who is leading the team."
Inside the main cabin, the village chief, having learned of Chase and his companions' identities from Berest, warmly offered them a cup of their specialty tea.
As the "captain," Lucy was the first to accept the tea, and awkwardly said thank you.
Although the client in front of her was much better than the monster she had imagined, the feeling of being treated as the strongest member of the team still made her feel a little guilty and lost her will.
Lucy, radiating an almost imperceptible aura of sorrow, raised her eyes and glared fiercely at Chase:
Damn it, Chess, are you trying to put me in a terrible position? I'm still a newbie who just joined the guild a short time ago!
She had fantasized countless times about this scene of being in the limelight, but when it actually happened, she was not happy about it.
Because they lack the strength—
Chase noticed the resentment in Lucy's eyes. As he accepted the tea offered by the village chief, he smiled and said, "No need to be so polite. Please be direct and tell our Lady Lucy the details of the request."
Upon hearing this, Lucy's expression changed slightly, and the cushion beneath her suddenly felt as hot as if Natsu had hidden inside—if she could, she really wanted to get up and leave right then and there.
"I understand."
The village chief looked up at Lucy, his expression suddenly becoming extremely serious, his cloudy eyes reflecting the gently flickering firelight inside the house.
Lucy immediately sat up straight and pricked up her ears, afraid of missing any details.
Despite the complaints, her attitude towards this first SS commission was still very commendable!
The village chief strained his slightly weary voice and began to recount the specific situation of the village.
This village, located in the forest of Baondali, has a history of nearly four hundred years.
Lost explorers fled in all directions to escape ferocious and brutal monsters, until they arrived at this magical area that the monsters dared not set foot in.
After investigation, the explorers discovered that the reason why no monsters appeared in this area was an egg-shaped fossil.
By touching the egg-shaped fossil, they gained the ability to weaken monsters, which enabled them to survive in the Boendali Forest, establish a village, and gradually develop it to its current size.
This is precisely the fundamental reason why this seemingly poor and backward village can afford a reward of 18 million—powerful monster corpses have a high value on the market.
Under normal circumstances, they would have continued to live this way, generation after generation. However, all the stability and harmony vanished completely three years ago:
Without any warning, the villagers who gained power from the egg-shaped fossil began to show signs of demonization, turning into mindless, bloodthirsty monsters!
After hearing the old village chief's description, Lucy's eyes widened: "Wait, your situation sounds a bit familiar—"
She subconsciously recalled the S-class commission that Natsu had secretly accepted before.
Influenced by the Moon Drops, the Devil Islanders living on Karuna Island initially thought so too!
"Does Lady Lucy know what's going on?" The old village chief seemed unusually excited.
The guard standing behind him, Berest, reacted the same way, his arms hanging at his sides trembling slightly.
Having received so many mages, this was the first time they had ever heard such an answer!
He truly deserves to be called the big shot who leads that Chase.
The way the two looked at Lucy instantly changed—because she looked so weak, they assumed she wasn't that powerful.
Having had a similar experience, Lucy suddenly felt more confident, standing tall and straight, unlike her previous timid demeanor.
"Hmph, if I'm not mistaken, the moon turns purple here every night, right?"
I must say, his confident and energetic demeanor really does have the air of an S-class mage.
pity··
"A purple moon? No, the moon we see has always been perfectly normal."
"That's right, you guys are actually the ones being taken advantage of, huh?!"
The old village chief's question, tinged with doubt, shattered Lucy's confidence.
"Just as you thought, Lady Lucy, their condition is fairly normal."
Seeing that the situation was about to break down, Chase quickly put down his teacup, coughed lightly, and stepped in to defuse the situation. "The fact that they have the ability to judge such a basic thing as moonlight means that they were not affected by that egg-shaped fossil, which caused their mental and memory disorders."
"Only in this way can we ensure that the intelligence information is accurate and not misleading, and smoothly carry out the next investigation work."
People have said that this has been the way it has been for over four hundred years. Those who turned into demons are monsters who have lost their minds. It is obviously completely different from the situation on Karuna Island.
To jump to conclusions based on a slight resemblance—this adopted sister is truly an idiot.
"I see. Indeed, if the information we provided at the beginning was incorrect, then all our investigations would have been in vain."
The old village chief nodded emphatically, his eyes gleaming with even stronger hope.
"Those mages before couldn't even confirm this. As expected of Fairy Tail mages, their professionalism is much better than those guys!" Guard Berest couldn't help but exclaim.
"Ah, aha, that's true. Now I can focus on my work with peace of mind." Lucy forced a smile.
The little chibi voice inside me was going crazy: Don't worry, my foot! How come I didn't know I'd thought of everything so thoroughly?!
Please, Chess, just lay your cards on the table. I'm just a nobody!
Seeing her extremely uncomfortable and awkward expression, the Dark Magician Girl almost couldn't hold back her laughter, and at the same time, she didn't forget to add insult to injury: "So, Lady Lucy, what should we do next?"
Lucy:
"." How can you be like this even with Dark Magician Girl?!
Feeling the expectant gazes of the old village chief and Berest, she blushed, fidgeted uncomfortably, and frantically winked at Chess.
"Lady Lucy, what's wrong with your eyes?" the old village chief asked, looking puzzled.
Chess forced a smile and acted as the translator: "Lady Lucy wants to see the affected villagers."
"I see, I understand now."
"Those who have been completely demonized are all in the village; as for those with milder symptoms—"
The old village chief muttered to himself that the temper of a strong person was truly strange, then turned to look at Berest behind him.
Berest immediately understood, stepped forward, and lifted his fur coat.
Lucy instinctively looked up and was immediately startled, her pupils shrinking.
Because he was in charge of security for the entire village, Berest was in very good physical condition.
However, the surface of the massive muscles on his abdomen and chest was covered with messy and bizarre demonic skin, the dark purple color of which looked particularly eerie in the firelight inside the room!
"Oh, this..." Lucy frowned.
It looks so much like the demons on Karuna Island!
Although Chesgo had just overturned her conclusions about the Moon Drops, she still felt that the anomalies being experienced by the village before her were...
It must have some kind of connection to Karuna Island!
Having made a fool of herself once, Lucy learned her lesson this time and chose to keep quiet and pretend to be an expert.
Chase narrowed his eyes in surprise, carefully examining the demonized parts of Berest's body.
The demons in the Fairy Tail world can be broadly divided into two types. One type is pure-blooded demons, similar to the islanders living on Karuna Island, which are species that naturally arose in the magical world.
Secondly, there is the demon in the book named "Etelias," created by the black mage Zeref.
Compared to the various monsters like Lalabai, Deliora, and the gates of Tartaros, Berest's appearance is clearly closer to that of a pure demon.
Perhaps there really is a connection between the two!
Lucy, who chose to remain silent, never expected that Chase's guess would be the same as hers. Seeing the Fairy Tail team leader looking completely clueless, the old village chief's eyes dimmed instantly, while Berest silently pulled down his fur coat.
Having gained a slight understanding, Chase didn't wait for Lucy any longer and asked in a deep voice, "We now understand the specifics, so what exactly is the content of your request?"
"Investigate the egg-shaped fossil, the reason for the strange occurrence of the demon egg, and resolve it so that the village can return to normal life."
The old village chief himself had lost count of how many times he had said this.
"First, we need to go check out that egg-shaped fossil," the dark magic girl said, tilting her head as she thought for a moment.
"Regarding this, although you are probably the strongest mages to have arrived here so far, it is necessary to remind you of something."
As a guard, Berest was well aware of the situation in the village. He said with a serious expression, "The magicians who went into the village to investigate before will have their magic power inexplicably weakened. The closer they get to the area where the magic egg is located, the more severe the weakening will be."
"Besides that, there are also villagers who have been completely demonized. Having lost their minds, their aggression is even stronger than the monsters in the forest. We must be extra careful and ensure they are not harmed!"
The matter of the demonized villagers had already been mentioned when the village chief explained the origin of the demon egg.
They, or more accurately, they are what we call "them" now, will not leave the village on their own initiative, but will launch indiscriminate attacks on any humans who intrude, posing a very high risk.
That's how the Four-Headed Hounds got their injuries, which is the root cause of why even with Pacas leading the team, they still couldn't complete the mission.
With the magic power weakened, reaching the demon villager area without harming them is extremely difficult!
They were forced to declare the commission a failure before they even saw what the magic egg looked like.
From this, we can roughly deduce that the reduction in magic power caused by the magic egg is at least to the extent that an S-rank mage from an ordinary guild would find difficult to withstand!
Just hearing Berest's description made Lucy feel a chill run down her spine, and she imagined a terrifying scene of a blood-red demon attacking her.
In contrast, Chase, who had seen all sorts of big scenes, appeared much calmer, his eyes sparkling with anticipation for the upcoming journey to the demon village.
Seeing that it was getting late, and wanting to see how well Lucy could accomplish in this SS commission, he wasn't in a hurry and planned to rest for the night before setting off. Just as Chase was about to ask if there were any vacant rooms, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the door of the cabin.
Upon hearing the voice and seeing the person's appearance, Chase's gaze sharpened, and his previously calm expression underwent a subtle change.
Lucy was also drawn by the noise and looked up at the doorway.
It was a girl dressed in a red and yellow outfit, somewhat like a tribal shaman's uniform, with a stone pendant around her neck that looked like it had been split in two.
Beneath her short brown hair were a pair of slightly melancholic eyes.
"You're back, Eclair," the old village chief said, revealing her identity.
Eclair, a character who appears in the Fairy Tail movie "Phoenix Priestess", gained eternal life by drinking the blood of the legendary phoenix and lived alone for over 400 years.
When Chase heard the name of the Forest of Paul Dalli, he did think that he might encounter Eclair, but he did not expect it to be under these circumstances.
so·.
Is the strangeness of this village also related to Eclair and the so-called "phoenix"?
Chase pondered to himself.
Eclair did not respond to the village chief immediately. Instead, she frowned and looked at Chess and the other two with disgust.
When she met Lucy's clear eyes, her expression changed slightly, but then immediately returned to normal.
"Village chief, why haven't you stopped that commission yet?"
Acrea withdrew her gaze, walked up to the village chief and Berest, completely ignoring Chess and the other two, and said, "Those people have already proven that they have no ability to solve problems."
"Mr. Chase and Lady Lucy are stronger than any other mage before them, perhaps—"
Before the old village chief could finish speaking, Eclair interrupted him: "The power of mages only brings misfortune. Haven't you noticed that since these mages appeared, the effects of the magic eggs have been spreading faster and faster? Even we've had to move away from the village!"
"But Eclair, we have even less of a way to handle this on our own," Berest sighed heavily.
If this matter were really so easy to resolve, why would they go to such great lengths to seek an SS-level commission from the council?
"I'll definitely find a solution, in my own way!"
After leaving those words, Eclair turned and left without looking back.