Norton stepped on rotting leaves and petals as he walked toward Holy Lord City.
Without the pouring of fresh petals, the ground of Holy Lord City completely revealed the filth and decay beneath.
With each step Norton took, foul breezes formed by microbial communities sprayed out from the sticky, rotting leaves and petals on the ground, swirling toward people's nostrils.
If one were to inhale this, never mind how disgusting it would be - at the very least, it would cause serious illness.
Weeds had already overgrown the simple shacks built outside Holy Lord City, and the dark brown bloodstains on the walls still hadn't completely faded after all this time. The long period of abandonment had even caused these shacks to take on a withered appearance, with the only relatively positive aspect being the absence of scattered skeletal remains.
His gaze swept around, hardly able to believe this was the same prosperous Holy Lord City he had seen two years ago.
Just seeing this complete desolation created a stark separation from the past.
However, this also meant that Norton apparently couldn't seek the Church's protection within Holy Lord City.
Norton moved through Holy Lord City, breathing in its putrid air, listening to the desperate cries echoing within its bounds.
He had originally intended to seek sanctuary in Holy Lord City, but when he turned to look at the church entrance...Well, completely sealed off! Now forget about sanctuary - he couldn't even see Father Mia!
The werewolf scent in the air was gradually becoming clearer. Clearly, if Norton didn't run now, it would be too late.
Norton drifted away from Holy Lord City like a fluttering, falling leaf.
Time passed slowly, the night receded, and the crescent moon became barely visible.
More than a dozen figures moving on all fours crawled through the forest, charging toward Holy Lord City. After cautiously observing the surroundings, they resolutely rushed into the city.
"Ahhh!!!"
In comparison, other cities were much more normal.
Rino City.
"Black bread, freshly baked black bread!"
"Dock laborers, who wants dock work!"
The bustling appearance of a classic Central European city unfolded before Norton's eyes. Although the pervasive mud hadn't improved, and the mixture of feces and foul odors still drifted through the air, at least this city brimmed with fresh vitality - far more lively than the deathly stillness of Holy Lord City.
Dilapidated wagons loaded with goods stood by the roadside, with newly opened shop owners smiling broadly as they directed workers to unload the tables and chairs needed for their shops.
"Pfft!" A horse's tail flicked slightly, emitting a damp fart from its rear.
The city without sewage systems had serious water accumulation issues - places with many people were muddy throughout, while less populated areas even had stagnant water from previous years.
Laborers in coarse linen clothes stood against walls urinating into the accumulated water below, completely disregarding that this was a busy street.
Two Church Knights in steel armor stood guard diligently at the city gates, while laborers making repairs stood beside the more than ten-meter-high city walls.
"Hey, what kind of creature made these claw marks?"
Several very noticeable scratches marked the city wall, some even deeply embedded into the stone. Looking at the shape of these marks, the laborers could even align their own palms with them.
And these scratches appeared quite fresh, as if made not long ago.
This caused some astonishment and fear among the laborers responsible for repairing the city wall.
This was a stone city wall - even swords and knives would have difficulty making significant marks on it.
What kind of terrifying creature could leave such frightening claw marks on this stone wall?
Moreover, the claw marks extended upward, clearly indicating that this terrifying creature had already scaled the wall and entered the city!
There was some commotion at the city wall.
The city interior remained bustling.
A beggar completely wrapped in rags from head to toe crouched in the muddy street, head bowed low, neither begging nor praying, as if dead - without even the movement of breathing.
This type of appearance was quite common in these times and didn't attract particular attention.
Women of this era often wrapped their heads in cloth, almost identical to this beggar.
The passing crowds paid no mind to the beggar by the street. Generally, by nightfall, Church Knights would come to remove any beggars still collapsed roadside and discard them.
Thus, rotting corpses were seldom seen on the streets.
The rags covered Norton's withered, wrinkled skin, completely concealing his entire body.
Norton's crimson eyes peered through the old, dirty fabric at the Central European streets, observing the vastness within this Church-controlled city.
The abnormal Norton found his first stability in this abnormal world.
He settled inside a clock tower in Rino City.
This clock tower was also Church property, standing over twenty meters tall with a gold-made clock embedded outside. The internal mechanism surprisingly already used a pendulum system, showing that mechanical civilization seemed to be budding within the Papal States.
Every day, white-robed missionaries from the Church would come beneath this clock to correct the time difference. Norton lived at the top of the clock tower, managing to coexist peacefully.
Time passed gradually, with Norton finding places to sit along the streets every day, slowly gaining some understanding of Rino City and the Church itself.