Mystery: The Return of the Stars

At night, a bonfire was lit on the open space beside the lake.

There were seven or eight small wooden sticks on the edge of the bonfire, with fish of different sizes skewered on them.

Maric glanced at the charred fish skewers in his hand, and glanced at Hasta opposite.

I always felt that this scene was a bit absurd and unreal.

Hasta Campbell, a young and handsome baron, the last heir of the Campbell family, should have been an aristocrat known for his elegance.

But now, his behavior of fishing in the water and grilling fish on the fire is more skilled than the skills he has honed in his years of living in the open air.

Is this his nature liberated from nature?

Facing Maric's scrutiny, Hasta took a bite of the fish with a natural expression, frowned slightly and said, "It's a pity that there is no seasoning here."

The fish was a bit fishy, ​​it was definitely not because his grilling skills were too poor, but because there was no seasoning to enhance the taste.

Speaking of which, he hadn't felt the taste of spiciness for a long time, and grilled fish was better when it was a little spicy.

"Have you been suppressed for too long?"

As Maric spoke, he secretly threw the charred fish in his hand into the fire.

"To be precise, I want to try something new."

"...You nobles are really idle."

"Yes, most nobles are idle. They don't need to consider material needs, so they have a lot of leisure time."

"Is this also the reason why you want to set foot in the extraordinary world?"

Hasta did not continue to discuss these worthless topics with Maric, and soon led the topic to Miss Sharon.

He was very interested in Miss Sharon's past life. He had heard Maric's version of the adventure story, and wanted to hear Miss Sharon's version of the adventure.

It's just that Miss Sharon is obviously not a person who likes to talk and introduce herself.

"Sharon is different from me. She has been like this since she was a child. She is quiet and doesn't like to talk. She hates noise. Apart from liking beautiful skirts, it is difficult to find other girlish aspects in her."

"Her teacher is a very capable person. Sharon learns and grows very quickly. If it weren't for that accident, her life would be much more exciting and stable than it is now. She wouldn't have to risk coming to Backlund to live in seclusion."

"She has never complained about the hardships of life. No matter how the world changes or how dangerous it is, she always follows the principles she adheres to in her heart and moves forward all the way."

Hasta listened silently and asked curiously: "Didn't Miss Sharon do anything naughty or outrageous before?"

"Of course, when she was a child..."

When Maric came to the key point, he stopped in a hurry and coughed lightly, saying: "I was still young at that time, and I don't remember some things clearly."

He felt that if he dared to reveal the embarrassing things Sharon did when she was a child in front of Hastur, he would definitely be beaten.

"Marichi, sharing is a good quality."

"I'm sorry, my quality has always been at a low point."

"There are only two of us here, do we need to care about these things?"

"Haha, do I look stupid?"

"Ah."

Seeing that he couldn't convince Marichi, Hasta didn't ask any more questions.

The two chatted for a while, and Marichi went back to stay with his zombie team. Hasta flattened the grass and wanted to get a blanket to spread on it, but later gave up the idea.

If you want to play a barbarian, you have to be thorough.

You can't become a barbarian if you live a too civilized lifestyle.

Late at night, a light mist came, and the whole air was a little chilly.

Hasta, who was lying in the open space near the campfire, woke up from his sleep and listened for a while. He did hear the whistle from Marichi's mouth.

Are the people of the Spiritual Cult so idle?

Do they come to this deep mountain forest to hold a dance party in the middle of the night every day?

Or are they holding some ceremony, and it has reached a critical moment?

"Want to go and have a look together?"

Hasta was interrupted by Maric's sudden voice. He got up from the ground and looked at Maric who was walking with the zombie team.

"Didn't you say that the whistle would cause the zombies to mutate?"

"Don't worry, I will keep them away from here. Just you and I will go and have a look."

"Okay, I'll go with you."

Hasta agreed to Maric's invitation. He was also interested in what the Spiritual Cult was going to do.

"I'll deal with it first. You wait here for me."

Maric led the zombie team away from here and tried to suppress the changes that might occur in them, and then came back to meet Hasta.

The two of them walked carefully along the source of the whistle in the moonlight.

After walking for about twenty minutes, they saw a ball of fire from the depths of the dense forest.

Even under the cover of the dense forest, the fire was very dazzling.

If there was really a ceremony, it must be on a large scale.

Hasta and Maric looked at each other and knew that they had to be more careful on the road ahead.

The two of them pushed aside the branches and vines that blocked their way. Maric walked in front, and Hastur followed behind, gradually approaching the source of the fire and the whistle.

After walking a distance, Hastur and Maric vaguely heard the sound coming from the fire.

Words such as Soul Hell, Lord of the Dead, and Happiness in the Afterlife were mentioned many times.

From this information, Hastur could be sure that the organization that was causing trouble tonight was definitely the Spirit Cult, but he couldn't tell which branch it was.

Although the Spiritual Cult believes in death and the God of Death, the true god who stands at the top of the path of the God of Death, they are divided into several factions.

There are the Royal Faction, the Artificial God of Death Faction, the Sleeping Faction, the Underworld Faction and some other small factions.

Each faction has different goals.

The Royal Faction advocates supporting the descendants of the God of Death and has extremely high power in the southern continent; the Artificial God of Death Faction tries to activate the uniqueness and let the God of Death return from the depths of the underworld. It is the most crazy and dangerous faction.

The Sleeping Faction simply believes that after a person dies, the soul will remain in the world. Only by letting the soul rest can they be happy in the afterlife, and the existence that dominates whether the soul rests or not is the God of Death.

This faction is very calm and has good original intentions. It is the easiest to deal with. What it wants and does is more in line with the authority of the Goddess of Night.

The Underworld Faction advocates summoning underworld creatures, which is similar to the branch of the summoning flow.

Hastur doesn't know much about other factions.

"Continue?"

Maric gave Hastur a look.

"Be careful."

Hasta nodded, agreeing to continue to explore.

The two tiptoed and carefully approached a distance.

Through the gaps between the branches and leaves, you can vaguely see a group of people circling around the fire, dancing an uncoordinated sacrificial dance.

Marichi looked solemn, while Hasta looked relaxed.

Even the sacrificial dance was so loose and uneven, it didn't look like the regular army of the Spiritual Cult at first glance, but more like an extra-staff member of the Spiritual Cult.

"Should we leave first and report to the Church of the Night?" Marichi lowered his voice and suggested.

"..."

Hasta looked at Marichi in surprise. Shouldn't he be good at this kind of behavior?

Marichi, a member of a non-orthodox church, now has such a high level of awareness?

"The Church of the Night handles these extraordinary events more seriously." Marichi couldn't understand Hasta's complicated eyes, and lowered his voice and said.

"Don't worry, let's wait and see."

Hasta said, motioning Marichi to continue to open the way forward.

The two of them went a little deeper and were about fifteen meters away from the blazing fire.

They could already see the group of people dancing in circles by the light of the fire.

There were elderly people, middle-aged people who were beginning to lose their hair, young people, children, men and women of all ages.

The light of the fire reflected on their faces, and deep sadness was hidden under their calm and pious expressions.

After dancing, some people could no longer control their sadness and sobbed softly, while others blew brass whistles and sobbed, causing the temperature around them to drop again.

Could they have summoned some spiritual creatures?

How about turning on the spiritual vision?

While Hasta was thinking, Maric on the side had already turned on the spiritual vision. From his not-so-good-looking face, it can be seen that he must have seen incredible spiritual creatures.

"Is there any danger?"

"Not yet." Maric gave his own judgment.

Hasta put aside his worries, gently rubbed his fingers, and turned on the spiritual vision.

The first thing that came into view was a huge, bloated spirit creature.

It looked like a toad, but it had no limbs and could only lie on the ground.

Its head was very big. Compared to it, the bonfire was only a small flame. The group of people dancing in circles were not enough for it to swallow.

It looked very quiet, and only when the whistle sounded did it have a slight change in expression.

In addition to this largest toad-shaped spirit creature, there were several spirit creatures that were a few sizes smaller. They opened their eyes and stared at the brass whistles, whimpering and urging from time to time.

Could these be spirit messengers summoned by the brass whistle?

Could it be that there was not even one person in this group who could see with the spirit?

Hasta was puzzled, but felt that it was not that simple.

That toad-shaped spirit creature was too big, and its performance proved that it had a high level of intelligence.

It should not be a messenger, but a spirit creature that had signed a contract with a person.

Which messenger would make such a big mess? It takes a long time to deliver the message.

Could this be the preaching site of the Spiritual Cult?

As soon as the thought came to Hasta's mind, he heard a middle-aged man in formal clothes and noble clothes at the campfire in front of him, smiling and saying in the direction of him and Maric:

"Two friends from afar, do you want to dance together?"