I Came Back but the World is Still a Fantasy!?

3-04: The Unreasonable Palm (2/5)

3-04: The Unreasonable Palm (2/5)

She traveled from church to church proselytizing, consoling, and purifying evil.

Unfortunately, for the Undead King, no matter how he traveled to Kulash, he would always get caught by her abnormal sensory ability.

The destruction of several villages in his search of blood, flesh, and sacrifices might have brought her to him, but regardless, it was truly bad luck.

The saints unique eyes that allowed her to see him even from a distance was just too troublesome.

Even when he took the long way to avoid her, the saint and the templars would appear as if they had anticipated his movements.

In the end, the Undead King had no choice but to cross the mountain and go to Resto.

I cant go against that woman the way I am right now! How vexing!

In his frustration, he kicked the skeleton dog that he was patting just awhile ago.

It crashed into the mountain and shattered, but it automatically pieced itself together and recovered to its previous state, then walked back to the Undead King.

Undead such as these could not die through normal means.

They would recover automatically even when physically crushed, and they felt no pain too. Or rather, they couldnt feel at all.

Really, the skeletal body was only used for conveniences sake, but the true vessel was the soul that dwelt within.

The pure soul of darkness sublimated by the many layers of dark arts and sacrifices was the true self of the lich.

And that held true for those slain by his dark arts.

Because of that magic created by the power that resided in the human body proved ineffective against him and his ilk.

There was an absolute difference in the quality of power between the soul and the flesh.

But that was not the case for the Force that the church utilized, especially, the saint.

She was a natural enemy of the Undead King, as the Force possessed a property that purified the souls tainted and mutated by the dark arts.

Should the Undead King be purified, his original human soul will be restored, and because he no longer had his original body, he would be forced to ascend to heaven.

It was one of the few ways to kill an undead.

The Undead King was confident he could break your average templar with one hand, but Saint Cynthia, who has gained renown recently, possessed a Force of a completely different caliber.

One look at her from a distance, and he was filled with dread.

He had no sweat glands, but for a moment he felt as though sweat poured out of him.

Then there were those eyes of hers that could not reflect light but saw straight to the soul, allowing her to distinguish people and objects corrupted by evil.

That was no different from sealing all his moves.

I need a higher power or a power other than my dark arts Oh, you came back.

As he laid bare his anger at the saint and his desire for more power, the night dogs that left came back.

Despite his emotions, the rational part of him didnt forget to order them to scout.

Though they appear to have lost their five senses, the dark arts that maintained their existence allowed them to see, hear, and smell to the same extent as before.

In fact, such senses might have even surpassed their previous senses because they no longer had physical limits.

The Undead King understood the information brought back by the night dog through something akin to a familiars contract, and his jaws rattled as though he were laughing.

I see, so this is the territory of a Tenkorius. Good timing. Ill turn them into one of my undead. No, even better, Ill make them submit and use them to fight against the saint while theyre still alive.

And so he descended the mountain with his army of undead.

There was a nearby lodging town that possessed little in the way of military might, but he didnt want to provoke the Tenkorius by causing a commotion, so he unleashed a darkness to devour the sound and glided along the ground.

Now then, what kind of magic tool or dark arts shall he use to bind the divine beasts?

But then amidst his thoughts, a change occurred.

W-What are these bizarre residues of mana?

He was still only at the foot of the mountain, yet already, he could feel something strange happening.

Despite the dark of the night, those empty eye sockets could see clearly that a portion of the forest had been crushed.

The traces of mana in the area suggested that it was some kind of high-level magic that caused that destruction, but the mana reside was unusually dense.

It was to the point that he could actually reuse it.

Even the best mages could at most reuse 10% of the mana they used, yet at least 30 to 40 percent could be recycled with this.

However, apart from that level of skill, the Undead King could sense that there was an existence here that was not human.

Just what was it that happened here?

As the Undead King approached, the answer to that gradually came to light.

The distance was still too great for a normal pair of eyes to grasp the situation, but as an undead who could see the presence and strength of souls, the answer was all too clear.

There were two creatures, and despite having been turned into corpses, the power within remained blindingly powerful.

There was also another creature with a small but comparable power nearby.

On the land, where traces of battle still remained, were three souls with power that stood out and ten souls that seemed to have a connection to them.

For some reason, they appeared to have fought with the Tenkorius and won a hard-fought battle.

It mattered little to the Undead King whether his objectives were dead or alive.

At most, hed care about the freshness of their corpse.

The Undead King was more than happy to welcome any wounded extras, as they were sure to become useful soldiers to him.

When he saw who those wounded people were, he laughed.

Fu, fu ha ha ha!! So it was the rumored second princess of Earthgant and her maid dolls! Not to mention the strong man from another world! This is it! This is my luckiest day!!

He had happened into the princess of a great magical kingdom and her most powerful force, her famed maids and royal guards, as well as a person from another world.

With them wounded and expended, there could be no better opportunity than this.

If he were to bind their corpse with the magic formula of decay and domination, he would easily be able to acquire the magic knowledge and tools of that country. What good fortune!

It was such good fortune that he felt like clapping with his bony hands.

I see youre already counting your chickens before they hatch.

But a dismayed remark rained on the Undead Kings parade.

For a moment, the Lich Lord couldnt understand who it was that said that.

None of the people the Undead King had recognized said anything.

Nu?

Curious, he turned his attention to the location between the princess and the otherworlder.

Then, for the first time, he noticed the presence of a soul with a faint presence.

It was so faint in fact that it was even smaller than normal souls and seemed as though it could melt into the night.

Given the other people here and the situation, such a soul was simply too ill fit, yet such a soul was neither wounded nor expended, and it acted brazenly as if it ruled this area.

But whatever arrogance such a soul had was quickly put aside by the Undead King.

The powerless commoner could not possibly endure the gaze of a Lich Lord such as he.

He, the dweller of the dark, who has transcended death, would with one gaze bind the soul of a common man, shrink him, and turn him mute.

So there was no need to worry about his reckless remarks or worry about the mysteries surrounding him.

Took your time coming here, didnt you, you bonehead! Thanks to you, I had more work to do!

Huh?