Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 614 - 428: Heart as Tough as Iron (Part 2)

Chapter 614: Chapter 428: Heart as Tough as Iron (Part 2)

According to the intelligence from Emet Selk, the child was a standard bearer of Shaping Spell Talent, flames couldn’t harm him but instead strengthened his power, and in his despair, he finally mutated, killing the villagers using flames as well.

Therefore, equipment with resistance to Spell Formations became the focus for Malin to choose for the girls, as the opponent was a mutated owner of Shaping Spell Talent, it was quite obvious that he was strengthened in the aspect of spellcasting as well.

Thus, firearms with a range beyond that of spells became the best choice.

Malin went to the workshop and got ten rifles, and he, with three girls and a team of six Punishers, was ready.

With the aid of a Punisher familiar with the local terrain, who marked the area on the map, Malin understood the specific location—the incident happened to the north of where Malin’s group had fished out Giselle’s brother in the Black Forest, Creek Village, an enormous place in name, with a population of roughly 200 people. It was the midpoint between Carterburg and the town of Dadani in the North, a lawless area. The villagers were nominally under Dadani town, but they had always paid taxes to Carterburg and enjoyed the assistance from that side. Dadani Town would not likely send anyone to help them, and the mutated child would not run north; he had already mutated, and instincts would not lead him into the wilderness, only toward the forest to hide with his master.

There, he might call upon Chaos, so it was imperative to find him as quickly as possible... before the kid turned into a mere coordinate.

Once prepared, Malin obtained the coordinates of the village from the Punishers, confirmed the wilderness situation through satellite imagery, pulled a teleportation channel, and the exit was at the top of a small hill outside the village. The teleportation channel hugged the turf, surprising the unsuspecting Punishers—blind opening of a teleportation channel with such precision was something only a legendary figure could achieve.

Thus, knowledge really can change everything, pity it’s all thanks to a certain parrot.

The fires in the village had been extinguished, and a team of Church Proxies and Punishers were treating the injured and searching for survivors. When they saw Malin and his group approaching, a responsible young man came over and saluted, "Lord Malin, what brings you here?"

"I have come to hunt the child who has lost his way. Among the survivors, does anyone know which direction the child went in, and where is the execution site?"

The answer was, no one saw. All the villagers at the scene were scattered by the child, and after the kid’s mutation, he scattered half of the village, leaving no one to know where he had gone.

As for the word ’scatter’... that is the standard term for killing with Shaping Spells.

The person in charge had a skinny child lead the way for Malin and his group. He seemed terrified, but after Malin gave him a piece of white bread, the child seemed to gain the energy to walk.

He also mentioned the situation of the two children — about three days prior, the older brother suddenly gained the ability to ignite things, while the younger brother could create water out of thin air.

The younger brother must possess a strong Assistance Magic Talent. Unfortunately, the people in the village didn’t recognize the value, or perhaps they were terrified by the older brother’s Shaping Spell Talent. They captured both brothers and tied them up, heading towards the northern execution site of the village—that place had been used to execute children like them for almost a century, with several being burned to death over the years.

The child also knew the brothers—their father had drowned under mysterious circumstances while digging a ditch for the village years ago. The mother of the two children had remarried since, and they were raised on the charity of the entire village. Regrettably, awakening was not always a good thing. In the city, such children could have a bright future, but in a village like this, they would likely not escape death.

When they arrived at the execution site, Malin gave the child two small bags of white bread, then another bag of flour and a piece of jerky—giving money would confuse the children and their families, as they might struggle to understand what that paper could buy; better to provide tangible goods, as the Punishers also said.

The child alone couldn’t carry all these items; he could only plead pitifully with a Half-human Punisher to watch his things, and then he ran towards the village, presumably to call his family to collect the items.

"Do you see, Your Excellency? Such a child, can you believe he is already twelve years old?" lamented the captain of the Punishers’ squad, standing beside Malin.

"In the city, such a child would be about eight years old or even younger. Long-term lack of nutrition and food has hindered their growth," Malin certainly understood, speaking as he approached the center of the execution site. He saw the white bones of the deceased and the small remains at the foot of the pyre.

"This is the way of survival in the wild, Lord Malin, don’t you find it too cruel?"

"I know, it’s indeed cruel," Malin said while taking out his spellcasting materials. "But if you put yourself in their shoes, is it one child’s death or an entire village’s? Such a choice is agonizing yet necessary at times." Malin wanted to confirm what had happened at the scene, and Echoes of the Past was a good option as the caster could reconstruct everything that had occurred on-site.

The spell formation was complete, and red threads began to appear, intertwining with each other, presenting the final situation in front of Malin.

At the scene, two children were tied to stakes for burning. The elder brother, gifted in the Shaping Spell Talent, was tied to another stake while the younger was being set alight. The elder struggled, cursing and pleading, but the executioners just stood there, watching it all happen.

They first burned the younger brother, and then there was an issue when burning the older one—until at last, he rose to his feet, howling.

Then there was no more ’then,’ as Chaos warped the older brother. The red threads representing the crowd scattered, then caught fire, until the older brother knelt before his younger sibling.

In the last moments of the Echoes of the Past, the older brother began heading south.

"It indeed seems like what we thought," the leader of the Punishers sighed with regret. "He went south, killed, then fled that way."

"Back to the village. We find the second place where he was and confirm his direction, then we start the hunt," Malin said as he walked away, gesturing for the half-human not to forget to bring the child’s belongings with them.

He then casually picked up the nearly 50-pound bag of flour with one hand.

The half-human turned almost green carrying that thing.

.........

The child, having set the village on fire, watched from the road’s edge to the north of the village, then hunched over and headed east.

"Fifteen miles east is the eastern part of the Black Forest, which is home to spirits, a goblin family, and orcs," the youngest Punisher, most familiar with the area, gave his input to Malin.

"Let’s begin the hunt, have the Heavenly Hounds follow first," Malin said, and beckoned to the child who ran over quickly.

"How many people are left in your village?"

"About fifty or so," the child scratched his head and Malin turned to the official who nodded.

"If you’re short on food, you can come to Carterburg. I can arrange work for you," Malin said, patting the child’s head. "Take good care of your younger siblings,"—Malin noticed two children following behind him.

"Lord Malin is truly compassionate," the Church’s Punisher leader observed, joining Malin, couldn’t help but comment.

"I just don’t want these children to starve to death. After all, winters in Carterburg are cold. This small village, having lost many villagers, is doomed to vanish in the snow without help," Malin said, glancing at the roadside—there were marks scorched by flames, it seemed the Heavenly Hounds were on the right path.