Iberian Peninsula, southern coastline, near Almeria City.

After a long journey, The Azure Longsword had arrived at this port city near the coastline.

Originally built by the people of Carthage from the South Continent, it had once been a famous port of the Solomon Empire during the Fourth Epoch, yet now it had once again fallen into the hands of the Undead Kingdom from the South Continent.

Before they had even approached the city, the group saw a huge column of thick black smoke rising straight up from the center of the city, spreading outwards at the firmament's heights. This was the "Dark Sky" unique to the Undead Kingdom. It was said to not only block the Church Court's "All-Sight" surveillance satellites, but it also effectively shielded all electromagnetic wave propagation, causing most communication devices to fail automatically under the Dark Sky.

For this reason, the Church Court, despite being far away on the Italian peninsula, possessed very little effective intelligence about the southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula that was now occupied by the Undead Army.

According to the southern plan formulated by Eleanor, The Azure Longsword group should have chosen to take the risk of entering the city and gather intelligence about the Andalusia Region. Then, based on this information, they could make a second revision to their plan, which would reduce the risks of subsequent actions.

Near the city gates of Almeria, they saw the relief archway unique to the Undead Empire. Skeletons, Blood Clan, Ghosts, and Corpse Witches, the four major races, were vividly portrayed on the reliefs with their own grotesque and eerie forms.

Two tall Skeleton soldiers stood one on each side of the arch, with blue flames flickering in their hollow eye sockets. Human locals, being people of the flesh, shrank their bodies in fear, forming a long line that slowly proceeded to enter the city, not daring to come too close to the two skeletal figures.

An invisible Banshee was flying back and forth along the queue into the city, continuously passing through the bodies of these humans. With the Banshee's unique ability to sense by possession, she could detect whether the fear in these incoming beings was mixed with any other malicious intent, using this to filter and identify any spies that might be mingled in the crowd.

All of a sudden, she crashed into something hard and was immediately repelled, feeling rather dizzy.

Inside the queue to the city, Eleanor also raised her head and looked in the direction of the Banshee.

Even though the Banshee remained invisible, Eleanor's externally projected Will Fog informed her that something definitely existed there and had just been repelled after bumping into her.

The Banshee, suddenly thwarted, floated up cautiously with a certain malevolent aura and slowly drifted back in front of Eleanor, her hollow pupils staring intently at her deep blue eyes.

Eleanor frowned as she looked ahead, her gaze passing through the invisible Banshee and falling on the ground – though unseen, she was certain that thing stood right in front of her.

Should she reach out and try to touch it?

As she hesitated, a slender arm suddenly reached out from the side and unceremoniously grabbed the invisible Banshee by the throat.

Scram!

The Banshee Queen, possessing Miel, infused her malice into the mind message and swiftly injected it into the body of the invisible Banshee. The other party instantly reacted like a sardine encountering a pike, horrifiedly flying backwards several tens of meters before turning tail and disappearing behind the arch without looking back.

For an undead spirit without a complex Mind Body, the domination of a superior Transcendent over an inferior one was almost impossible to resist. They didn't even possess any awareness of "overthrowing a superior," entirely different from humans used to employing power and scheming.

Skeleton soldiers standing on both sides of the archway suddenly moved their skulls slightly.

They detected the Banshee's frantic flight but, with their incomplete Mind Bodies, they couldn't discern what exactly was happening, so they turned their gaze toward where the anomaly was occurring.

However, Medea quickly shot out two Mind Lines and effortlessly, surreptitiously seized control of the two Skeletons without their master noticing.

"In this city resides an Undead Demigod of the Corpse Witch race," Medea whispered through the Mind Communication Channel. "I've read their soul fires, they were summoned by the Demigod's third disciple to resurrect as Undead Spirits."

"Everyone be careful, Miel keep an eye out for surprises, Medea maintains the manipulation, don't reveal anything unusual," Aske commanded.

Thus, the group continued to blend in with the crowd, and in about ten minutes, they safely passed through the archway between the two controlled Skeleton soldiers.

Inside Almeria City, groups of horse-drawn carriages were parked in rows down the center of the street, blocking the road as if in a traffic jam. Civilians unanimously covered their mouths and noses with scarves, quickly passing by with their heads down on both sides of the street, trying hard not to inhale the pungent odor filling the air.

Each carriage carried wooden coffins, from which the stench seemed almost to blight the skies.

"What's inside those…" Nora asked in a low voice.

"Materials," the Banshee Queen said indifferently, "materials for transformation into the Undead."

Everyone: .........

"In fact, the quality requirements for materials that transform into the Undead are quite strict," the Banshee Queen continued, seemingly unconcerned by the disgust on the girls' faces. "Ordinary human corpses are completely insufficient to sustain the Undead; they must possess a certain level of Extraordinary Power at the very least."

"Generally speaking, corpses with high Physical Power are used to create Skeleton Warriors or Ghouls; those with strong Spiritual Power have their Spiritual Bodies extracted to create Resentful Spirits or Banshees."

"So, the Undead generally don't target ordinary Civilians?" Eleanor asked in astonishment.

"Exactly," the Banshee Queen chuckled. "Or rather, Lv.0 commoners are so unremarkable as materials that they don't even register on their radar. The Undead are usually most fond of the corpses of Transcendents. The stronger the Transcendent in life, the more powerful the Undead they can become after death."

"Next in line are those who have not taken Magic Potions but have absorbed Extraordinary Power in their daily lives, such as accidentally consuming Spiritual Material, or killing creatures with Extraordinary Power. The bodies of these people, although the Extraordinary Power within is not fully assimilated and their Spirituality is quite mixed, outnumber the former by thousands, and thus they make up the main bulk of materials for the Undead Army."

"As for Civilians with nothing, they become worthless after death, but alive, they can create wealth through labor." The Banshee Queen pointed at the frightened, hurried Civilians around them, smiling, "That's why they're all scared to death, afraid the Undead will kill them, but they really have nothing to worry about."

So the Undead actually wouldn't massacre human Civilians on a large scale? Eleanor was slightly stunned, but she quickly recuperated.

Even so, the living should not accept the rule of the dead, not to mention the potential desecration of their own bodies. As long as the War between the Undead Kingdom and the Aragon-Castilla Kingdom continued, the killings and Deaths on this continent would go on.

And this time, I will stop this War… even if it means using war to do it!

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