Chapter 118: A Matter of Mood (9)

"What did you say?"

Isabelle removed her helmet entirely, letting her long silver-blonde hair cascade down. Her hair didn’t quite match the stiff muscles of her hardened face. More than anything, she wore an oddly exhilarated expression—completely unlike someone standing in the middle of a massacre.

"Flee from here immediately. The marquis insisted I deliver this message. The emperor is a fraud. Do not throw away your life in vain," I urged.

"Wh-why... Why would he—?"

Her voice, which had been as sharp as a winter gale when commanding the guards, now sounded entirely different. More importantly, her bewildered reaction caught me off guard.

"Why... me...?"

What is this reaction? Weren’t they supposed to be married or something?

I voiced my question aloud. "Weren’t you and Marquis Leandro close?"

While we exchanged these clumsy suspicions, the sounds of clashing weapons rang all around us. Screams erupted, and bodies crumbled—mostly those of the imperial guards. Individually, the guards were stronger, but they were far too outnumbered.

Isabelle was in a hurry. I was not.

Her face flushed red. "Rubbish! Do not dare speak his name so carelessly!"

She swung her sword at me. Several spears thrust toward her at the same time. Yet, she parried every single attack aimed at stopping her and struck at me with unrelenting force.

Clang!

I didn’t expect her to be this strong...

It was a miracle my sword hadn’t shattered. My grip on the hilt trembled from the impact.

Even as she swung her blade, Isabelle shouted urgently, "What do you know about him? There’s no way he’d fall prey to monsters like you..."

"That’s not true!"

Other Skeletons tried to intervene. I smacked away their weapons with my bare hands, desperately trying to continue the conversation. The nearby Dullahans, upon seeing the black dagger I carried, leaped into different parts of the battlefield. But many of the ordinary undead soldiers didn’t recognize it.

"Marquis Leandro is far from here. He is completely safe. I was merely asked to deliver his message," I said calmly.

"Someone like you? Nonsense!" Isabelle shouted.

"Look around. We are overwhelming you, are we not?"

"And what of it?"

"Even if I left you alone, the emperor would die anyway. Why would I need to lie to you?"

Isabelle lowered her sword slightly, though the chill in her voice remained. "Do you have proof?"

Proof? Does she really need something to confirm that I had spoken with the marquis?

"You... dared to try and deceive me without proof?"

She kicked off the ground. Dirt exploded instantly behind her, her body moving so fast it blurred.

Damn it.

I barely managed to raise my sword in time, but with a loud crack, my sword snapped in half. Taking another step forward, she swung at me again.

Clang!

Steel clashed violently against steel. I staggered back four steps before I could regain my balance.

"For a moment, I was foolish enough to waver. You know nothing of him. He would never send a command without proof."

Is this a failure?

Knocking her unconscious and leaving her somewhere far away would have been ideal, but she wasn’t an opponent I could subdue so easily. I glanced at the sword she held. Not just the tip but the entire blade gleamed with a faint, pale blue aura.

It wasn’t just partially imbued with energy—her entire sword radiated killing intent. Isabelle Simone had decided to hold nothing back. She was intent on seeing this fight through to the end.

"What proof? What kind of proof are you looking for?!"

I tried to coax more information out of her, but Isabelle didn’t waste her breath on answers. She simply attacked. I picked up a fallen sword and exchanged a few blows. I tried to deflect her attacks and buy time but was completely outmatched.

Proof. Proof...

Obtaining proof was impossible. The marquis would never have given me something like that. I hadn’t even considered meeting him. My distracted thoughts threw off my stance, and I instinctively leaped back, retreating over ten meters.

In that brief moment, skeleton knights and undead trolls charged in. Isabelle swung her pale blue sword. Gith-Za-Rai’s soldiers gripping broken weapons were sent flying or sliced apart by her glowing blade.

The more this repeated, the more shattered skeletons littered the ground. But the screams and sounds of flesh being torn behind me were growing quieter. At some point, a strange stillness settled between us. The necromancer’s army had withdrawn, creating an open space.

With no obstacles in her way, Isabelle’s sword came flying straight for my skull.

Rumble!

From the ground, dozens of bone tendrils surged toward her.

Shhk! Shhhk! Shhhkk!

"

Ugh!

"

Her limbs were bound tightly behind her, her entire body wrapped in bone tendrils, and she was hoisted into the air, exhausted. A teasing voice rang from behind me.

"Prophet baby, what are you doing? Am I the one dying, or are you?"

It was Gith-Za-Rai.

Shhk! Shhhkk!

More bone tendrils coiled around the struggling Isabelle. Only a small gap was left for her to breathe—her entire body was completely restrained. Silence fell. I looked around the battlefield.

Is... it over?

Most of the imperial guards had been wiped out. It seemed the two enemy wizards had also been dealt with.

"Already?"

I hadn’t meant to ask, but the words slipped out. Gith-Za-Rai understood. She gave a slight nod.

"Yes."

I looked at her. The necromancer smirked. Blood dripped from the corners of her mouth as if she had just feasted on something.

I asked, "You finished faster than last time. What changed?"

"I fully unleashed my power. There’ll be side effects, but since I’m going to die anyway, why hold back? Just needed a bit of warming up."

The flowing curls of her bone-white hair were now dyed crimson. The way the blood trickled down her elegant curves had a strange beauty to it. Following her gaze, I turned toward the carriage. A slender Dullahan had seized the emperor and dragged him out.

"Master, we’ve secured the target."

"

Oh

, Fenrir! You’re quick, aren’t you?"

The Dullahan, called Fenrir, casually tossed his own head into the air. His head spun a full 360 degrees before falling back into his waiting hand.

Is this some kind of victory ritual?

The necromancer turned her gaze toward the other Dullahans on the battlefield.

"Hamelain, Andrei, Gilaut. Good work cutting down those old geezers."

"It was thanks to you sealing their magic in advance. We hardly had to do anything."

Her gaze shifted to where two bodies lay with severed heads and impaled hearts. They were wrapped in robes, but their identities were unmistakable. The royal-purple robes, symbols of Azure’s authority, had turned a deep black-red, soaked in blood.

At least... this time, they left behind intact corpses.

The two wizards still emanated a brilliant light. For a moment, I found myself mesmerized by their radiance. That was when—

Shhk!

Gith-Za-Rai’s tendrils extended. The emperor, dragged out and bound, was lifted high into the air.

"We’ll try killing the emperor first... and if nothing happens, then we’ll kill this one afterward. Sounds good?"

The necromancer gestured toward Isabelle Simone, who was tightly bound by Gith-Za-Rai's tendrils. She smiled smoothly as if seeking my agreement.

Clatter.

As if spellbound, I simply nodded. She was showing me respect. There was no room for protest.

"Now, what was it again? A mysterious Ashen Knight appears and kills us all, right?

Kuhahahaha!

"

"

Hahahaha!

"

The five Dullahans laughed along with her.

Gith-Za-Rai gestured toward the battlefield.

Rumble!

Thick, massive bone tendrils rose, their ends shimmering faintly with a purplish glow.

I turned to Gith-Za-Rai and asked, "Last time, you raised the fallen knights. But now...?"

"You said something was going to appear, right? For now, this is more useful for combat. Everyone, Code Zero combat formation."

"As you command."

The Dullahans, who had been laughing with her, immediately began leading the army. Thousands of Skeletons moved in perfect unison.

"A prophet who knows so much... I can’t just ignore you, can I?" Gith-Za-Rai looked at me and continued, "But where exactly will it appear?"

I pointed at the emperor, who was bound and unable to speak.

"If you kill the emperor... it will tear through the void and emerge nearby."

The thousands of undead formed into a pattern, moving in a way that resembled a defensive formation or a massive barrier. Watching them prepare, I suddenly had an absurd worry.

What if it doesn’t show up?

I remembered a certain demon who always used to say that if everything were set up perfectly, nothing would happen.

How awkward would that be for me if the emperor were killed and nothing occurred?

Of course, I wasn’t hoping to meet that knight again.

I had no desire to witness Gith-Za-Rai, the five Dullahans, and thousands of undead being slaughtered in an instant. That was why I had come here in the first place—to prevent that.

"Well, shall we begin?"

The air grew tense. With a single command from the necromancer, thousands of undead tensed as if expecting a colossal enemy to appear.

"It’s starting. Everyone, prepare yourselves."

She raised her hand.

Whoosh!

He’s dead!

Gith-Za-Rai’s tendrils constricted, snapping the emperor’s neck. Blood splattered onto his lavish golden burial robes. The silver-haired, red-eyed emperor died without even uttering a final scream.

Didn’t even get to shout, long live the emperor.

Nothing happened. The surroundings were eerily silent, like the eye of a storm.

"It won’t appear immediately!" I shouted, almost as if making an excuse.

"Yeah, yeah."

Gith-Za-Rai nodded as she collected the emperor’s blood in a transparent coffin. The liquid inside slowly turned violet.

"Identity confirmed..."

So far, everything happened exactly as I had described to her. A tense silence stretched for over ten seconds as everyone focused. Now, the void should begin to tear open...

Woooooong!

"It’s starting!"

Even Isabelle Simone, who had been struggling, suddenly froze. She stared at the bizarrely twisting space ahead.

Wooooooong!

Sensing the energy spilling from the void, Gith-Za-Rai cursed under her breath. "Damn it."

This time, she didn’t conjure tendrils to bind the space or shout for everyone to run. It seemed she already knew—there was no escaping it.

"If you see me again..." Gith-Za-Rai said.

"Say it!" I demanded.

"Tell me not to give up just because I couldn’t find it. Tell me to dream parallel to the Sun of Lindbrum. I’ll understand. Maybe... it’ll even stop."

Lind... what?

I didn’t understand what she meant, but the intent behind it was clear.

A token.

She gave me some proof. Something I could use if I met her in my next life.

The entire pit was engulfed in an overwhelming sense of tension. Even though I couldn’t measure power as precisely as Gith-Za-Rai, I could tell that something monstrous was emerging from the rift in space.

Thud. Thud.

The five Dullahans walked toward the swirling void, swords at the ready.

Thud.

Gith-Za-Rai lowered the still-living Isabelle Simone onto the ground.

I looked at Isabelle. She was pale as death. Though she gasped for air now that her throat was free, she seemed too overwhelmed by the atmosphere to move.

Her eyes met mine, but she did not react. She merely fumbled for a sword and grasped it, then fell silent. Gith-Za-Rai raised her hand. In response, dozens of enormous bone tendrils writhed in the air. She pointed forward with a single finger.

"Charge."

Whoosh!

The colossal bone tendrils surged into the swirling void.

Crunch. Crack. Snap!

But the moment they entered, they were shattered. A dry, snapping sound echoed as the void itself fractured. Blood dripped from the torn space. This was the second time I had witnessed it. A chance to get a clearer look at the Ashen Knight.

I focused every fiber of my being. Something bubbling and writhing swung a massive greatsword. The sheer force of the swing swept through dozens of meters in an instant. The pitch-black smoke cloaking the Dullahans was completely blown away. That bubbling, writhing form swung its greatsword again, trying to cleave everything in two.

Boom.

Gith-Za-Rai gritted her teeth and stomped the ground. The entity hesitated for a moment.

It... stopped?

Something intangible seemed to flow from the thousands of skeletons and Dullahans gathering toward the necromancer. The air vibrated with a deep hum.

A barrier?