Chapter 70 Radiance

This was a world where magic and divine magic were real.

In such a world, regenerating a severed limb was not necessarily an impossible miracle.

For spellcasters with enough skill in the right field, it was apparently not even especially difficult.

Some immensely powerful beings, particularly those connected to the domain of death, could supposedly go even further.

They could drag the soul of a dead person back from the Outer Planes, return it to the Material Plane, and make the dead “live” again.

Naturally, there was a condition.

You had to be able to pay the price.

Xia Nan had no idea what level of strength the Sun God’s priest possessed.

All he could do was watch.

Jeff’s mangled stump, severed below the knee, bathed in holy light.

In little more than ten seconds, the wound closed and scabbed over.

But the missing leg did not grow back.

As for why…

Xia Nan could only guess.

Either the gold had not been paid.

Or the priest simply was not strong enough to casually restore a lost limb.

From the man’s perspective, that made sense.

Jeff was an injured stranger.

Even if he happened to be the sheriff’s friend, there was no reason for the priest to spend an excessive amount of power healing him for free.

“Hmm?”

Ingram had been watching closely.

He had clearly expected the holy light to purge the negative energy tangled inside Jeff’s flesh.

The moment the wound closed, the sheriff visibly relaxed.

Then he noticed the priest’s expression.

A faint frown.

Confusion.

Ingram immediately tensed again.

“Sir, is something wrong?”

The end of the staff tapped lightly against the floor.

The priest stared at Jeff.

“What clings to him is not simply undead power.”

His brow tightened.

“There is something else inside him.”

“Something deeper.”

“Darker.”

Ingram’s expression changed at once.

“Then my friend…”

“Do not worry.”

The priest’s voice remained steady.

“He has already bathed in the Lord’s holy light. His life is not in danger.”

“But as for what the lingering negative energy may do to him…”

He paused.

“No one can say.”

Ingram looked down at Jeff, worry plain on his face.

“Is there no way to remove it completely?”

“Find the source.”

The priest’s answer came calmly.

“Find the one whose mind has been taken by the undead.”

“Perhaps then the influence he left behind can be erased.”

Tim’s corpse-like face immediately surfaced in Xia Nan’s mind.

The man he had driven away last night.

[His strength is still within what I can handle.]

Xia Nan considered it.

[But after last night, he probably won’t show himself again anytime soon.]

[Finding him is going to be troublesome.]

His gaze shifted.

Only then did he notice Alton.

The halfling had barely spoken since entering the church.

Now, as he listened to the priest explain Jeff’s condition, confusion was clearly written across his face.

His lips moved.

He seemed about to ask something.

Then he stopped himself and swallowed the words.

“Ugh…”

A low groan suddenly broke the silence.

Everyone turned.

“Jeff!?”

Ingram’s face lit up.

Jeff stirred on the stretcher.

“Where… am I?”

He planted both hands against the floor and instinctively tried to sit up and stand.

Then his body lurched.

Something was wrong.

There was no support beneath his left side.

No strength.

No leg.

Jeff looked down.

His eyes widened.

“My… my leg!?”

His breathing, which had finally calmed under the holy light, immediately turned ragged again.

His pupils contracted.

Color rushed unnaturally into his face.

Then two hands clamped down on his shoulders.

Firm.

Warm.

Ingram crouched directly in front of him.

“Look at me, Jeff.”

The sheriff held his gaze.

“Look at me. Calm down.”

“…”

Jeff had spent half his life on wagons and roads.

He had seen more danger, injury, and death than most ordinary men ever would.

Perhaps, somewhere along the way, he had already accepted that one day he might die on a job far from home.

So when the first shock passed, he adapted faster than anyone expected.

He did not need comforting.

He was already making fun of himself.

“Daisy and the others are always complaining in their letters that I never come home.”

He looked down at the missing leg.

“Guess this solves that problem.”

A crooked smile appeared on his face.

“After all these years, I probably should take a rest.”

Then he laughed.

“Haha. Wonder if everyone will start calling me ‘Lame Jeff’ now.”

Ingram did not laugh.

His face tightened with guilt.

His hands curled into fists.

“It’s my fault.”

“I saw you during the day. If I’d noticed something was wrong then…”

“Hey.”

Jeff cut him off.

He reached up and patted Ingram on the shoulder.

“Don’t.”

“We both know what kind of work this is.”

“For people like us, surviving long enough to retire is already damn good luck.”

Then he seemed to remember something.

“Right. I still need to thank…”

His eyes shifted toward Xia Nan and Alton.

Gratitude was plain on his face.

Xia Nan waved the matter away before Jeff could continue.

He had no interest in turning this into a long exchange of thanks.

“What did it feel like last night?”

Jeff frowned.

“What did it feel like…”

He thought back.

“Like a nightmare, I suppose.”

“But there wasn’t any actual dream.”

“No images.”

“It just felt like my consciousness had been pulled away from my body.”

His expression grew distant.

“I couldn’t sense anything happening outside.”

That was about all he had.

Not particularly useful.

Jeff was only an ordinary person.

When undead power invaded him, he had possessed no ability to resist, much less study what was happening.

Fortunately, the priest’s holy light had already stabilized the worst of his injuries.

And because Jeff was an old friend of the sheriff, the priest made a rare exception and allowed him to remain in the church while he recovered.

The church’s special environment could suppress the negative energy still clinging to his wound.

Under the direction of the church attendants, Xia Nan and Alton helped carry Jeff into a side hall.

Soon, only two people remained in the vast chapel.

Ingram.

And the priest.

Tap.

The quiet sound of the staff striking stone echoed through the empty church.

The priest turned away.

He climbed the steps and slowly returned to the edge of the altar.

“How much longer?”

His voice was still as gentle and calm as before.

Ingram looked away from the doorway through which the others had disappeared.

Then he stepped forward.

One knee bent.

He knelt.

The flanged mace hanging from his waist lightly touched the stone floor.

“Not long.”

“He should be able to complete the ritual before the next full moon.”

The priest said nothing.

He simply looked toward the enormous stained-glass window filling almost the entire wall before him.

A long silence passed.

Then he spoke.

“Once you cross this threshold, go to Mengzhong City.”

His gaze remained fixed on the radiant glass.

“That is the place closest to the Lord.”

Ingram’s head snapped up.

Complicated emotions flashed through his deep blue eyes.

Then he lowered his head again, sharply and without hesitation.

“Yes!”

Silence returned to the church.

A shaft of morning light fell from the vaulted ceiling.

Countless motes of dust drifted through it.

The same light fell across Ingram as he knelt below the altar.

His smooth, medium-length hair hung beside his cheeks.

The lightweight plate armor marking his position as sheriff caught a metallic gleam.

At the inside of his sleeve, the golden sun emblem seemed to shimmer faintly.

He knelt in the light.

Yet with his head lowered, his face remained buried in shadow.

Above him, the kind-faced priest stood upon the steps.

Once more, he closed his eyes.

Behind him, on the vast stained-glass window, the silver-haired figure with the indistinct face still raised the scales and book of law beneath the blazing golden sun.

Radiance poured down.