Chapter 58: I Must Sentence You to Death, by Law

“Don’t kill me! Please!”

The undead mage was now soaked in his own blood, a stark contrast to his prior arrogance.

His leg was shattered, bone fragments jutting out, with blood flowing unceasingly from the wound. His already sparse facial hair was now caked together by the blood, painting an image of utter misery. If not for his mana reserves, he would have already fainted from the pain.

“I’ll give you whatever you want,” he stammered, struggling to distance himself from the aura of Nina’s light. 

As she slowly advanced, her silver moonlight drove away the necrotic energy enveloping him, eliciting tortured screams.

Nina paused a few steps from him, silently observing him for a few moments. With a swift motion of her sword, the undead mage let out another agonized scream. Both his arms were severed at the shoulders.

At that instant, Wu Qingsong handed Liuli to a wolfman warrior and hurriedly made his way to Nina.

“Don’t kill me! For the love of God, don’t kill me,” the necromancer wailed pitifully, writhing in a pool of his own blood.

The spectacle was brutally unsettling, but Wu Qingsong found it hard to muster any sympathy. Considering the innocent villagers who had been ruthlessly murdered and zombified, and the brave warriors who had lost their lives here, he thought the mage got what was coming to him.

Had the tables been turned, what atrocities would this mage have inflicted upon them? Would begging for their lives have made a difference? And more chillingly, if they had lost, the neighboring villages would have undoubtedly turned into living nightmares.

At that moment, Nina cast a sphere of silver moonlight at him. The undead mage screamed once more, this time like a pig being slaughtered. But as the necrotic energy within him was completely cleansed, his wounds began to heal, and the bleeding ceased.

Wu Qingsong understood that Nina was keen to determine the necromancer’s identity and background. To play it safe, he took it upon himself to conduct a meticulous search of the man from head to toe. What he discovered was an elegant sapphire pendant adorning his chest, a piece that seemed wholly inconsistent with the mage’s current state. In addition, he removed an obsidian-faced ring from the mage’s finger. The ring had an antiquated design, its band intricately etched with elaborate script and decorated with a jackal’s skull motif.

In the mage’s possession, he also found a tattered document written on what appeared to be expensive parchment. Wu Qingsong carefully unfolded it, revealing that it had multiple sections missing, as though it were pages torn from a book. One page depicted a disturbing scene of a heart being surgically removed and replaced with something else, while another featured various drawings of skulls.

“What’s your name? Where are you from?” Wu Qingsong took a position between Nina and the undead mage, both as a protective measure and to continue the interrogation. His tone was measured, almost cordial.

The ‘good cop, bad cop’ tactic is a staple in interrogations, and it becomes all the more crucial in a world marred by violence.

“Don’t kill me,” the necromancer implored.

“If you say silent, how can I possibly advocate for you?” Wu Qingsong replied softly, letting out a slight sigh. “You don’t seem to be a genuine undead mage, do you?”

“I’m not an undead mage at all.” The words seemed to give the man before him a glimmer of hope. “I’m just a wretched slave. Please believe me, I had nothing to do with what happened. I was controlled by those things. They deceived me, I don’t even know what I’ve done.”

“What exactly is happening here?” Wu Qingsong looked back at Nina for a moment before posing his question.

“My name is Hubert. I’m merely a mining slave in Tannar! I swear it!” the undead mage said, shaking his head frantically.

“Examine his chest,” Nina instructed.

Wu Qingsong drew back the man’s robe to reveal a portion of the chest that had less hair. There, he found a grotesque red scar, likely inflicted by a branding iron. Although it looked like it had been there for quite some time, its appearance was still startling.

“Go on,” Nina prompted.

“About six months ago, our mine had a devastating cave-in,” the jackal man began. “Several of us were trapped at the end of a tunnel. We dared not dig through the fallen, loose rocks for fear of triggering an even worse collapse, so we had to think of an alternative. At that point, Lans discovered a new fissure created by the cave-in. We squeezed through it and walked into a tunnel that appeared to have been excavated ages ago.”

Tannar was located at the northern base of the Tecks Mountains and was renowned for its copper mines. Some of the oldest mines in the area dated back nearly a millennium. After hundreds of years of digging, the labyrinth of mine tunnels had reportedly become more complicated than a rat’s warren. Given the lax safety standards of this world, such disasters were unfortunately not uncommon. Indeed, many captured or enslaved wolfmen were sold to work in these mines each year, replenishing the labor force lost for various reasons.

“What happened next?” Wu Qingsong asked.

“We pressed on and eventually stumbled upon a mummified corpse. That’s where we found these items,” the jackalman explained, eager to defend himself.

In the beginning, they had been unaware that they had encountered relics of the long-lost Batiz Kingdom, which had once ruled the Batiz Desert and its extensive surroundings. Motivated by sheer survival instinct, they searched the corpse for anything that could help them escape their dangerous situation. They found rings, necklaces, magical tomes, and scrolls. Being illiterate, they failed to recognize the significance of these items. Pages from the magical tome were even ripped out to serve as improvised lighting. It wasn’t until someone put on one of the rings out of curiosity that their circumstances took an unforeseen turn.

“Was it you who put on the ring?”

“No, it wasn’t me. It was Lans,” Hubert, the wolfman, blurted out in a panic.

He explained that Lans, another slave miner, had suddenly turned on the group, ambushing and attacking them. Forced into a deadly struggle within the claustrophobic confines of the cave, only Hubert survived.

Eventually, he found a passage leading to the outside world and successfully made his escape.

However, the ring had taken control of him, filling him with an overwhelming compulsion to act in accordance with its evil will. In a tragic twist, he ended up killing several slave traders who were trying to capture him. Left with no other choice, he fled deep into the mountains, finally taking refuge in his current hideout.

The sinister power of the ring went further, compelling him to seek out corpses to attempt their resurrection, and even worse, forcing him to harm living individuals in nearby villages.

“It was never my intention,” he wailed, overcome with emotion. “I tried to resist this mysterious force, but what could I do? I’m just a slave. I had no means to fight such overwhelming power. Thank you for defeating it, I can’t express how grateful I am. Had it not been for you, I’d still be its pawn.”

Pausing to catch his breath, Hubert continued, “I will find a way to repay you. Moon Maiden, I’ve heard of your noble reputation. You’re not one to kill without reason. I know many wolfkin who work as slave miners. They all view you as their beacon of hope. I’m willing to guide you to them, to liberate them. Truly, Your Highness, they have been my best friends, and they think of me as their brother. I know those locations like the back of my hand. How to approach them undetected, how to escape unscathed. We can free them together. And if you’re interested in harnessing the magic of this ring, I can teach you how to control it. Spare me. I can be of great use to you.”

His final words made Wu Qingsong hesitate for a moment. Just then, Nina lifted her sword.

“No! Please, you can’t do this!” Hubert screamed in terror. “You are the Moon Maiden. Have mercy! I am innocent!”

“In the name of the Silver Moon, I find you guilty and hereby sentence you to death. May our ancestors forgive your transgressions and welcome you into their eternal embrace,” Nina murmured softly. 

With one swift, decisive stroke, she severed his head.

Hubert’s piercing cries were abruptly silenced, and the other wolfmen didn’t even bother to glance in their direction.

The incident prompted Wu Qingsong to draw a shallow breath. On one hand, he was still struggling to accept the raw, unflinching manner in which this world dealt with matters of life and death. On the other, if Hubert’s account had been true, he would bear a striking resemblance to the protagonists of certain fantasy tales.

A lowly origin, a dramatic turn of events, stumbling upon hidden treasures, escape, cultivate the newfound powers. Aside from his cringe-worthy lines and demeanor, Hubert seemed to fit the template of a fantasy hero almost perfectly.

And yet, Nina had just executed him.

“Do you believe him?” Nina turned to Wu Qingsong, her eyes filled with skepticism.

“Absolutely not,” Wu Qingsong shook his head hurriedly.

It was evident that Hubert’s story was full of inconsistencies and glaring flaws. If he had genuinely been under the ring’s evil influence, his narrative and emotional responses would have been entirely different. He should have displayed far more remorse for his actions, or at least greater apprehension about his current predicament, rather than scrambling for ways to exonerate himself.

“The Batiz Kingdom was a formidable nation, founded long ago by a coalition of jackalfolk and desert catkin,” Nina recounted. “According to legend, they harnessed dark forces that could enslave the dead, using this evil power to conquer all surrounding races. But their arrogance and hubris eventually provoked the elves, leading to their utter eradication. That story, however, is ancient history.”

“So, you’re saying that as a jackalman, he must have recognized what he had stumbled upon, killed the others to lay claim to these artifacts, and then leveraged their power to make his escape?” Wu Qingsong asked.

Nina shook her head. “I’m not concerned with those details. What I do know is that he was fully aware of the crimes he had committed on this land. He received the punishment he deserved. As a protector of the kingdom, it’s my duty to seek vengeance for those who lost their lives and ensure he paid the appropriate price.”

“What should we do with these artifacts?” Wu Qingsong asked.

The necklace and the ring were unmistakably potent magical items. It was highly probable that they housed the magical shields and spells that had previously guarded the man, and possibly even the means by which he defeated Liuli. Moreover, the fragmented parchment scrolls appeared to hold instructions for reanimating the dead and crafting zombies.

How should one handle such items?

And what if, just what if, these artifacts genuinely had the capability to corrupt minds and incite malevolence?

“That’s your spoils of war, the choice is yours,” Nina declared before walking away, making her way toward the pack of wolfmen.