Frostpunk Divine Throne-Chapter 7: Wolves

With the snowshoes, everyone's movements became much faster, but the abominable wind and snow didn't seem to intend to let them off. In the blink of an eye, the sky darkened. The white snowy landscape also disappeared, leaving only an endlessly raging storm howling madly in the dim world.
A black iron glass kerosene lamp hung on the sled's handrail, constantly swaying left and right, providing insignificant light. But it collided with the sled in the wind and snow, making a terrible crashing sound.
Aldridge took it down and held it in his arms to prevent the fragile glass from breaking. Cyren and Matilda untied the carpenter Sam from the sled, and all six people squatted together beside the sled.
In such wind and snow, it was no longer possible to walk. Each step seemed like one would be blown away. They could only sit together in a circle in the dim world, guarding a small lamp and the sled.
Cyren summoned holy fire. Matilda held the cross and led everyone in silent prayer in the darkness.
For a moment, it seemed the world contained only the howling blizzard, but they could hear each other's heartbeats.
On the sled, the alcohol thermometer showed the temperature had reached -12°C. Under blizzard conditions, the perceived temperature came directly to below -20°C, with room to continue falling.
The snowflakes appeared as tiny, dry powder, drifting into noses and mouths covered by coats. Flying everywhere was the white specter of death.
"Aowooo—"
From somewhere unknown came a wolf's howl.
All six people started in alarm, raising their heads to look at each other's faces covered with icicles and frost patterns.
How could there be wolves in this weather?
But they couldn't ignore the possibility of danger. They all stood up and pulled out armor and weapons they'd brought on the sled.
One carriage on the train had been specially used to transport these, but to reduce the load, they had only brought enough for five people.
Cyren tied some plate armor to his body. Runic inscriptions were engraved on those armor pieces forged by hydraulic integral hammering. Buckles made of leather were fastened tightly on his body. Then he drew out a double-barreled shotgun to hold in his hand. A runic short sword and a box of shotgun shells hung on his belt.
This equipment was too heavy, causing him to sink down considerably even while wearing snowshoes.
They vigilantly watched their surroundings, but the dim white snow filling the sky made visibility barely reach one meter.
The wolf howl only sounded that once, then fell into silence. But no one was careless. They even felt those fellows with glowing green eyes were lurking in the wind and snow just one meter away, waiting for them to show a weakness or become exhausted. It seemed that in this blizzard, every place held greedy hunters.
Time passed minute by minute. People's spirits gradually scattered after prolonged concentration. White frost covered the area around Cyren's mouth and nose, but he didn't dare wipe it.
Suddenly, a white shadow flashed past, and a painful wail came from beside the sled, "Ahhh!!!"
It was a guard, the one named Kyle. He had suffered from losing his brother and had been depressed the entire journey. Now he had become the breakthrough point.
Cyren quickly chanted [Halt]. At the same moment, another guard, Logan, pierced through that pure white wolf with his sword.
He panted heavily, "huff, huff," cut off the wolf's head with one stroke, then grabbed Kyle by the collar.
His face was full of fury, as if reproaching Kyle for being distracted. But he only glared at him hatefully, then squatted on the ground to bandage his wound.
Cyren saw it all. He knew Kyle had been absent-minded ever since losing his brother, not saying a word in silent reticence, and would only silently do whatever he was told.
Logan's sword had arrived almost simultaneously with Cyren's, indicating he had been paying attention to Kyle all along.
"This is a vigilant person, but he seems too repressed..." This thought flashed through Cyren's mind, but was soon shattered by a series of wolf howls.
Everyone's expressions instantly became unpleasant.
Cyren quickly chanted holy healing for the wounded Kyle, then aimed at that blurry white shadow and fired suddenly!
"Bang!!" The huge recoil made Cyren, who was touching a gun for the first time, step back. The shotgun blast became a region of death, bursting into large sprays of blood in the air!
The others also fought fiercely. Kyle and Logan fought the wolf pack with swords. Relying on his robust build, Aldridge wore heavy powered armor and directly ignored the wolf pack's gnawing, taking out one wolf with each swing of his hand axe.
Matilda held a pair of revolvers. Although her aim wasn't good enough, her gun-holding and reloading posture was very skilled. Her eyes burned with excited flames. Her dark nun's robe and white headdress rustled in the storm. Her overcoat was covered with the wolf pack's fresh blood, like a little maniac.
A few minutes later, over a dozen wolf corpses lay on the ground. A low wolf howl came from the distance, and the remaining wolves slowly retreated.
Cyren breathed a sigh of relief.
As expected, wild beasts still couldn't harm humans equipped with armor and weapons. People in primitive times could hunt with spears, let alone these fully armed modern people.
"Something's not quite right," Aldridge squatted down. His leather glove reached into the wolf's abdomen, getting covered all over with black-red blood and biological tissue.
Cyren came closer, "What is it?"
The scene was quite disgusting, but Matilda also came over, which surprised Cyren somewhat.
"Normal wolves couldn't possibly be active in this weather, and besides, wolves in Albion went extinct fifty years ago," Aldridge said, his gaze turning toward Sam.
Sam quickly nodded, "Yes, actually wolves haven't been seen for seventy or eighty years. In all my years, I've only heard old people describe wolves."
Aldridge grabbed a few more wolves, "Kaldan white wolves, Rosas forest wolves... all escaped from nearby zoos, wolf species from various places around the world, yet following the command of one alpha wolf."
Cyren's expression wasn't good. Not only that, he also saw ice crystals growing on those wolf corpses, their blood giving off a faint blue glow.
"They've been magically corrupted," Matilda said.
Cyren nodded. "Magical corruption" referred to the mutation of matter in high-energy environments. Generally speaking, animals in high-magic environments like mage towers and holy lands would all be magically corrupted.
He had stayed in Florence for four years. That city was constantly permeated with sacred aura, and could even transform horses into unicorns and kingfishers into sprites. This was also a kind of magical corruption, just one that was artificially controlled and precise.
"From when the wind and snow descended until now... only one day, right?" Cyren murmured to himself. "Although it's only slight mutation, I've never heard of magical corruption in such a short time."
Wanting to rely on an energy field to magically corrupt wild beasts required decades of painstaking work. The unicorn herds in Florence were the Holy See's accumulation over hundreds of years, yet the wolves before them had grown ice crystals on their bodies, changed blood color, and could be active in a blizzard in just one day.
"This wind and snow should be a huge magical field," Aldridge said with a grave expression. "We don't yet know how large it is. If it can cover the whole world... then I can't understand who created it. Perhaps only..."
Cyren understood he wanted to say "God," but saying it would probably be blasphemous, so he didn't finish.
"We must get to Spessay as soon as possible," Cyren said, placing the ice crystals from several corpses onto the sled. "We'll research these matters when we get there."