**Chapter Content**
Far worse than I had imagined. The entire village of Creek was buried under snow. Where the village once stood, all that remained were the crushed remnants of houses and trees swept down by the avalanche.
We should be there by now.
Sean stopped and surveyed the scene before him. If the heavy snow were replaced with mud and rocks, this disaster would be a mudslide.
In all his life, he had never personally witnessed such a catastrophe. The entire village lay crushed beneath the snow!
The escort team behind him was also struck speechless at the sight...
Major disasters rarely occurred in the town of Talamian. The last recorded incident was when a river flooded and ruined the crops, and one child went missing, never to be found. But the situation now... it couldn't be brushed aside as just a matter of one or two people.
"Was what you said earlier—about it not being right—just referring to the snow on the mountain?" Sean suddenly asked Lucille beside him.
The slope near the mountain had already collapsed by more than half... exposing bare earth across the entire mountainside.
"No... I meant the snow on top, but a snowslide this massive shouldn't have been possible," Lucille said, finding it unbelievable. The snow she had seen the day before hadn't been this heavy, yet suddenly there was such an accumulation. It was utterly baffling.
It felt like a small stream suddenly causing a flood—there simply wasn't enough water flow.
Lucille wanted to explain further, but she saw Gwen and Guda from their team running back from ahead.
Gwen was the other girl in the team. Though both were women, Lucille didn't have much interaction with her. She only knew that Gwen came from a city in the west... If she remembered correctly, the western region should be a plateau, and further northwest there were even snow-capped mountains that never melted.
The Amansha people who lived there often hunted for a living—they were natural-born hunters. Gwen, a member of their team, was also a master of traps. Kerry had invited her to the team mainly to decipher the mechanisms in ancient tombs.
As for Guda, he was from the northern region. The north was always home to prosperous cities, including the technological city of Ertinoba, so the tools and machinery used there were very advanced. He had always been the team's mechanical expert, the one who handled all the instruments.
"How is it up ahead?" Sean asked as the two approached.
They exchanged glances and then shook their heads.
"It's too late. Many people are buried under the heavy snow. Those we can see have already frozen to death."
The chances of surviving such a disaster were slim from the start. Sean had known the hope was faint when he decided to come. He had originally come with the mindset of collecting the dead, but he hadn't expected that not even a single miracle would occur.
"Have you found any survivors?"
"Not yet."
Just then, Kerry, the leader of the archaeological team, also walked up.
"Lord Vigor, perhaps... we should split up and search. There might still be a chance."
Sean didn't give the order directly. Instead, he pulled out his small map from his waist pouch. The area near Creek Village had lit up. On the map, besides seeing part of the terrain, several other small gray dots had appeared.
This was the first time he had seen gray dots appear. They should represent the dead—about six or seven dots, meaning that many people had already died.
He looked at the nearest one, just over ten meters away.
All he saw was a mound of snow and branches piled up, with no person in sight. That person must be underneath.
He had only just entered and could already see so many gray dots. By the time he actually reached Creek Village, who knew how many there would be!
Luke had roughly estimated earlier that about thirty people might be trapped in Creek Village. Now it seemed the number might be far more...
"All of you, come here... Do as I say." Sean called everyone around him and began assigning tasks. Even though he could see where the people were buried under the snow, he couldn't just say outright that someone was down there.
He could only directly send the accompanying team to dig at those spots...
"Sir!"
A group gathered around, their faces heavy with sorrow.
"We were ultimately too late. All we can do now is collect the remains of the victims as best we can, and pray that if a miracle happens, we might still save some survivors. Time is of the essence... You few, take your people over there, and you go this way. Bring all the sledges. At the very least, we must return their remains to their families!"
Sean kept sending people to the spots he could see.
The group of over thirty people also pulled more than a dozen sledges. They could probably carry about twenty people, but any more than that would be impossible. They would have to wait for Luke to bring people to clear the road.
For the first time, Sean felt that his ability was causing him distress. He could see clearly, yet he couldn't save everyone!
"Understood, sir."
Everyone's expressions were grim. Sean could even see the status [Heavy!] appearing above their heads.
The escort team began their search according to the positions Sean had assigned, and soon they made discoveries.
"There's someone here! Someone's under here!"
"It seems like there's someone here too... Hurry, bring them up!"
Almost all had suffocated under the heavy snow. Even those buried shallowly couldn't have survived a single night in this weather...
A large number of frozen bodies were dug out of the snow and loaded onto the sledges. Their bodies had already turned purple from the cold. As they were carried out, their faces were etched with fear and unease. It was hard to imagine what scenes they had witnessed before their deaths.
Sean stood in the center of the group, watching everyone work. Occasionally, he would help lift bodies onto the sledges.
"You've done everything you could. Disasters can't be avoided."
Lucille had been by his side the whole time, also helping to melt the thick snow with magic.
"If only I could have seen it in advance!"
"You can't blame yourself for that. No one can predict when a disaster will strike. I've heard that some prophets have the ability to foresee the future, but most of what they say is vague and ambiguous. I don't think it's much use," Lucille said.
Since others didn't know about his ability, Sean couldn't say anything. He just opened the map to check the areas where the shadows had been dispelled this time, hoping to light up the entire map of Creek Village.
But as he did, Sean noticed some other unusual dots.
Huh?
Red dots!
They were actually red dots, and they were located near the hillside.
"Luc... oh, Illya. Have you seen that thing?" He almost called out her name. Sean suddenly pointed toward the far back.
When Lucille turned to look, she also had a surprised expression.
"Snowmen—those are snow giants!"