Chapter 223 - Cap 222: Farus

Some of my group and I are hearing about the problems that have been going on for years in the mountain range, from what I've heard so far it sounds like some kind of internal warfare between the races that live there, but from what Jana has told us there seems to be more thing behind it. 

"What happened two years ago?"  (I) 

I could see fear and despair in this ghoul's eyes, she seems to have been distracted by some memory from the past. 

"Two years ago a being came out of the caves, a powerful Necromancer, he was a hybrid of Ghoul and Orc, his name was Farus."  (Jana) 

"When he appeared the wars stopped and the three races gathered with him as the leader, the three strongest leaders of each race became his generals, he gathered all three races in one place and began to build a fortress."  (Jana) 

"We realized that this whole situation must have been caused by him, but it was too late, in addition to the three races under his control, he also had an army of Undead that was made up of warriors who died in wars."  (Jana) 

"That bastard used my father..." (Jana) 

"Jana!"  (Dora) 

"..." (Jana) 

"Sorry I got a little lost in my anger."  (Jana) 

"Was your father one of those who died in the wars?"  (Ivan) 

"Yes, I looked for his body when the battle was over, but I found out that the village leader at that time took all the bodies away saying they had to be destroyed, but clearly that's not what happened."  (Jana) 

"It seems this Necromancer caused the wars to build his own army of the Undead, but I don't understand how he influenced the village leaders of the three races."  (Diana) 

"We came to the same conclusion, we tried to figure out how he did these things, but all we found was that it appears to be a power that he possesses, it also seems to take a long time to have an effect."  (Jana) 

"I take it he didn't build a fortress to live happily with his subordinates, did he?"  (I) 

"After the fortress was half-built he began sending his troops across the mountain range to fight and enslave the other races that lived there."  (Jana) 

"We knew that one hour would come to us, so we sent people everywhere and gathered as much as possible in our village, we wanted to build our own army to fight Farus."  (Jana) 

"But from his face, it looks like it didn't work."  (Vanessa) 

"..." (Jana) 

Tears start to well up in Jana's eyes and Dora sat on her shoulder and hugged her neck to comfort her. 

"In the beginning our numbers were similar, the battles were long and difficult, but there was still a balance."  (Jana) 

"I see, you have forgotten the true power of a Necromancer."  (Ivan) 

"Yes, we underestimate him."  (Jana) 

I didn't understand at first what Jana and Ivan were saying, but soon I did, I remembered games from my ancient world and the power the Necromancers have, they use Undead, so he must have revived his own dead troops and the enemy troops also like the Undead making their army bigger and bigger. 

"With each battle, our disadvantage increases as the Faros Undead army just got bigger and bigger."  (Jana) 

"Our luck is that he hadn't discovered our village yet, the village mages keep a powerful concealment magic active day and night, it consumes all our mana, but it was the only way to do things."  (Jana) 

"Even though we were hiding we still had to keep an eye on Farus's movements, he made his warriors enter Dungeons day and night to force them to evolve."  (Jana) 

"The weak died in the Dungeons having their bodies pulled out and becoming Undead, the strong grew stronger and the weak became Undead, the power of their army just grew more and more, we got desperate, we knew that it was only a matter of time before he found us as he also sent troops searching the mountain range, we couldn't hide forever."  (Jana) 

"The Fairies and Spirits who had no contracts with anyone had to leave the mountain range, Farus was somehow spreading miasma all over the place which only strengthened his army more and more."  (Dora) 

"Couldn't you ask for help to a Realm or warn the Adventurers' Guild? Why to look only for me?"  (I) 

"That would be useless for them."  (Diana) 

"The Guild would gather a subjugation force, but it would take time, plus they wouldn't help the people of Jana's village, most likely they would also be wiped out as a supposed second monster army."  (Diana) 

"No Kingdom would help either, in fact, the smarter ones would pretend to help Jana's village, but they would exterminate them first and get rid of the bodies, all just so the Necromancer couldn't increase his army anymore."  (Ivan) 

"..." (I) 

"Why do you think they would do something so terrible? It seems to me that the Ghouls are a Demi race."  (I) 

"You're right, Ghouls can be considered Demis, but they will always be treated like monsters in most Realms, not just them, but other races like Ogres, Orcs, Lamias, etc."  (Ivan) 

"This is due to several factors, the Demis are monsters that have humanoid forms and can acquire jobs, these are the main factors."  (Vanessa) 

"But there are other factors that also matter for society as a whole, such as eating habits, culture, and personality."  (Vanessa) 

"Do you know the Ghouls' favorite food, Dad?"  (Vanessa) 

"No."  (I) 

"Their favorite food is human flesh, so they are treated like monsters."  (Vanessa) 

"It may be the best meat in terms of flavor for my race, but it's not like we go around killing and eating other people."  (Jana) 

"I know that I'm not in a position to say anything either since I'm a Vampire and I drink other people's blood, but it's because of the kind of food we eat that human societies don't accept us, that will never change."  (Vanessa) 

"I can understand that, no one will want to be around someone who likes to eat their race."  (I) 

"I don't know why you care, humans are always eating monster meat too."  (Dora) 

"But it is for these reasons that I cannot ask any Guild or Kingdom for help."  (Jana) 

"The only one I can ask for help is you."  (Jana) 

"..." (I) 

"That got problematic..." (I) 

As I think about what I should do, I suddenly hear Layla talking mentally to me. 

"(It would be good if you agree to help, master.)" (Layla) 

"(But that can be dangerous.)" (I) 

"(We can't let an Evil Necromancer loose, plus he might end up attacking this city in the future.)" (Layla) 

"(I like this town, but I won't die to protect it, if I have to I can run away taking you all with me.)" (I) 

"(You're considering it as impossible to beat this Necromancer, but the Necromancer himself doesn't seem to be that strong.)" (Layla) 

"..." (I) 

I hate to admit it, but what Layla said is true, from what Jana and Dora have said so far, this Necromancer doesn't fight directly, he uses schemes to achieve his goals, the biggest problem to face is his Undead, but my group has many people who have Affinity with the Light element and there is also Vanessa who has Sacred energy, we also have a lot of experience in fighting Undead thanks to the fights we had at Dungeon Corpse. 

"First of all, I would like to know if Farus has ever shown that he has the power to fight alone, do you know anything?"  (I) 

"He never fights alone, in fact, he never fought in any battle, he stays in the back and waits for the moment when everyone gets tired or low on energy to turn the corpses of those who died into Undead."  (Jana) 

"Once my mother said that Necromancers rarely learn some form of close-range fighting, that's because they have little vitality in their bodies, my mother also said that their bodies are weaker than normal."  (Diana) 

"But to compensate for these weaknesses Necromancers have a lot of mana and Intelligence, their spells mostly have to do with summoning, controlling and strengthening the dead, in addition, some of them may have powers of curse, disease or poison depending on their elemental affinity. "  (Diana) 

"Do you know what element this Farus has Affinity, Jana?"  (I) 

"This we know, he has affinities with the shadow and fire element."  (Jana) 

"So his way of attacking must be with fire and curse, he's similar to Érica."  (Diana) 

"... ... ..." (I) 

"I can see from your face that you have doubts about helping Jana's village, Father."  (Vanessa) 

"I don't want to put any of you at risk, but I'm also concerned about letting someone else build an army of the Undead."  (I) 

"I think it would be better to stop this Necromancer while we still can, letting this go on will be risky."  (Vanessa) 

"If you decide to help, they must take into account that neither the Adventurers' Guild nor any Kingdom will help."  (Ivan) 

"I don't understand why you all talk like fighting is the only option, wouldn't it be easier to just help Jana's village flee somewhere else and leave the Necromancer problem to someone else?"  (I) 

"That would be impossible, the only place on this continent where a village the size of mine can live in peace is in the mountain range."  (Jana) 

"She's right, any other place would be discovered sooner or later, so her village would be treated like an army of monsters."  (Ivan) 

"It would also be bad to leave it to other people, it would end up being left to the Church of Light to deal with, the extremist faction would use it to increase their influence, I've seen this happen before, they show themselves as saviors, but they can be worse than that. this Necromancer."  (Vanessa) 

"This could be really bad if the Church of Light finds out about this Necromancer they can use this opportunity to lure him to this town."  (I) 

"Yes, we don't know the exact reason why they want to destroy this city, but I imagine they wouldn't leave any opportunity to eliminate this city and appear as saviors after the city is destroyed."  (Diana) 

"Why does it have to be so complicated...." (I)