After dumping the corpse, one of the men walked up the tower. He was leisurely strolling up without a care in the world.
Meanwhile, the necromancer on the far side of the island smiled. He had brainwashed the person walking up the tower.
"He he he… let's see how you deal with this." The necromancer said.
Though he can't control the person entirely, he has given the man a mission that will put Zephyr in a difficult spot. He wanted to see how Zephyr would respond to the situation.
"Adversity reveals the true character of a man. Zephyr, let's see if you are as good as they say you are." He turned slightly to the side and looked at the swordsman.
The swordsman shrugged his shoulders, but still showed interest in what was happening.
—
A few seconds later, the man reached the top of the tower. The footsteps he made woke up Zephyr from his meditation.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the stairs leading up to the top of the lighthouse.
Immediately, he saw a man standing there, leisurely gazing at him.
The careless hollow look of the man made Zephyr frown.
'Isn't he one of the men who fell into a coma after entering the dark fog. So, why is he here?'
Zephyr frowned.
He could sense something odd about the person's gaze. It was not filled with fear or respect, but with a sense of total disregard.
It was unlike any villager he had met.
Still, Zephyr waited for the person to speak.
However, the man didn't make a sound after arriving. Other than occasionally looking down the tower, he didn't even move.
This annoyed Zephyr.
"What is it?" He asked after a few seconds.
However, no reply came back his way.
"Hey…what is it?" Zephyr asked again while standing up.
Seeing him stand up, the man looked down over the ledge of the lighthouse again. Then, he turned back and grinned.
The smile made Zephyr's senses tingle.
He paused.
The villager was behaving unnaturally. It was as if…
Zephyr touched the machete strapped to his side. He had been keeping the weapon since his lethal encounter with the ghoul.
Holding the handle of the machete with his right hand, he looked up at the man and asked.
"Who are you?"
This time, he changed the question slightly.
This made the man's lips curl up. Like a robot playing a recorded voice, he spoke.
"It took you a while, didn't it?" The man smiled pleasantly.
He was speaking the message the necromancer had embedded into him.
"The necromancer?" He lifted the machete and pointed at the person.
"The one and the only."
The man leaned against the blackstone railing on the edge of the tower.
"Did you control the ghoul too?"
"Of course I did."
Zephyr was not shocked. The ghoul was showing an intelligence exceeding its class.
"What are you trying to do?" Taking a moment to think, Zephyr asked.
He wanted to know why the necromancer was controlling the man. And why was he revealing his identity to him?
"You will know soon enough." The man smiled. "I have prepared a gift for you, young mage." He added and turned to look down.
Zephyr didn't know what the man was going to do. But he was prepared to defend against any attacks.
However, breaking all his expectations, the man climbed over the railing separating him from the ground.
A single misstep could make him plummet to the ground.
Watching it, Zephyr felt his heart leap out of his chest.
'Don't…' Zephyr wanted to stop the man.
But before he could say anything, the man turned around and smiled, stepping off the lighthouse.
*Swishhh*
Like a fast-moving projectile, he accelerated downwards.
Zephyr finally gathered some energy to move.
As he ran forward to the edge, he heard a blood-curdling scream.
The man was screaming as loud as he could.
But even the scream didn't last long.
The lighthouse was only a few dozen meters high. It didn't take long for the man to reach the ground.
*THUD*
With a barely audible sound, the man smashed into the ground. Abruptly, his scream was cut off.
By the time Zephyr reached the edge to look down, he was already dead.
'Fuck.'
Zephyr cursed and leaned in to take a look.
Below, on the ground, he saw the corpse of the man. There seems to be something similar next to it. He could barely see it through the fog. And a few meters away from the corpse, he saw many men holding up torches.
Even as the rain drizzled, the torch burned fiercely, illuminating the ground.
"What the hell is going on?" Zephyr muttered.
His heart was beating loudly as the entire situation played out.
As he was standing there confused, the sound of wailing came from the group of villagers. Dozens of people were rushing towards the corpses.
Most of them were men, some were women, and a few were children. All of them rushed forward, crying.
Zephyr could barely hear them. But he could feel the sadness in their voices.
Then, he suddenly realised what was happening.
He was looking down at the ground. And the men were looking up at him.
They sensed each other's presence.
It didn't take much time for him to realise he was being plotted against.
'Damn it. Anyway you look, I seem like the culprit.'
'The damned necromancer wants to blame me for murder.'
'With the emotions clouding their mind, the furious villagers would obviously mistake me for the culprit. They wouldn't even wait to hear my explanation.'
Zephyr clutched the machete like a sword tightly.
He realised he was in a messed-up situation, one of the worst of his life.
'Damn it.' He cursed again. 'Was this the damned gift?'
Zephyr pulled himself away from the edge of the tower.
He didn't have much time to think or act.
'If that's how you want to play it, let's do it.' Zephyr mumbled and dashed towards the light crystal nearby.
The ambient light around him was decreasing quickly. In a few minutes, it would darken to a level that would trigger the activation rune of the rotary mechanism and the crystal light.
'I have absorbed all the mana I can and formed approximately eight hundred cores. The rest of the mana is light and fire-flavoured.'
'I need to activate it now.'
Zephyr took out the runic paper with a metal melting spell drawn on it. Then he slapped it onto the base of the crystal light.
He didn't know if another opportunity like this would come his way.
'I have no time to waste. I hope this works.' He said while activating the runic paper.
Immediately, a few hundred cores of mana seeped into the runes. Then it flowed into the large metal base.
Zephyr took back his hand and promptly dashed down the stairs.
He had no thought of watching the lighthouse go down in flames.
Meanwhile, a group of people flooded into the base of the lighthouse. They stood there with fury burning in their eyes.
"We should kill him." One of the messengers who ventured into the dark fog said.
"Didn't I say he was working with the necromancer? Now do you believe me? The chief and Ed died because of our hesitation." Another messenger said.
"Yes. We should kill him." The messengers who were brainwashed by the necromancer added fuel to the villagers' burning rage.