System's POV

Chapter 429: Thirteen’s Strongest Ally

Several weeks before the Allied Forces launched an operation to reclaim the Northern Regions…

After Thirteen had talked to the Centipede King and formed an alliance with it, he also visited another King of the Rigel Continent, which was Death Lord Erasmus.

Through Zed's and Evuvug's story, he had gotten familiar with the Death Lord and thought that there was a possibility to come to a compromise with him.

The teenage boy understood that the Centipede King wasn't the most trustworthy of monsters, given that it readily betrayed Evuvug so that it could raise its ranks.

From the start, he and Jalrog both knew that their alliance was only a way to achieve their goals.

Once these goals had been met, the agreement they had could easily be broken.

Thirteen didn't want to put all of his eggs in one basket, so he reached out to the Death Lord under the cover of darkness.

"I didn't expect that I would be having a guest tonight," Erasmus said as he glanced at the Magma Bal-Boa who had risen up from the ground. "Which Faction do you belong to?"

Rocky growled a bit and answered "no one," which made the Death Lord look at it with amusement.

Although the Magma Bal-Boa was a Rank 7 Monster, it posed no threat to him whatsoever, so he didn't make any move to attack it.

"So, why did you come here?" Erasmus inquired. "Do you wish to become my subordinate?"

Rocky shook its head before opening its mouth.

"I have come to speak with you, Lord Erasmus."

A robotic voice answered.

Thirteen, who was covered from head to foot with metallic armor, emerged from Rocky's mouth.

Erasmus tried to gauge the stranger's strength, but no matter how much it tried to appraise him, it could feel nothing.

"Who are you?" Erasmus asked.

"You may call me Thirteen," Thirteen replied.

Suddenly, the Death Lord's deathly aura exploded from its body, making Rocky shudder.

Thirteen, thoroughly protected by his armor, was unaffected by it. However, he ordered Rocky to escape as soon as he gave the signal to dig underground.

"You want me to call you Thirteen?" Erasmus asked in a teasing tone. "It seems that you are trying to make me angry. Stop hiding behind that suit of armor. If you do not obey, I will cut you down before this monster can even escape."

As if to prove that he wasn't lying, a bone prison emerged from the ground, trapping Rocky inside of it.

"Do not test my patience," Erasmus said as he held his Death Scythe, which had started to glow bright red. "You only have one chance to live, so don't waste it."

Sensing that the Death Lord seemed unaffected by Metatron's Aura that had temporarily coated his armor, the teenage boy weighed his options.

A few seconds later, a sigh escaped his lips before he deactivated his armor and appeared in front of the Death Lord, unprotected.

Seeing the true face, as well as the race of the person talking to him, an amused chuckle escaped the Death Lord's lips.

"A child?" Erasmus chuckled before snapping his fingers to destroy the bone prison that had trapped Rocky in a cage. "This is no place for a Rookie. Go back to where you came from while I'm still being nice."

Thirteen stared long and hard at the Death Lord before deciding to take a gamble.

"Earlier, you reacted when I told you that my name is Thirteen," Thirteen said. "Why?"

"It's because that name belonged to a friend," Erasmus replied. "You're lucky, child. You were this close to being sliced in half earlier."

Thirteen felt his heart beating wildly inside his chest as he carefully looked at the Death Lord who was casually sitting on a throne made up of bones.

"Valefor's Mane, Paimon's Crown, Warhorse Orobas, Mephistopheles Sword, Hagenti's Wings…" Thirteen's voice almost sounded hoarse as he recognized the Cursed Artifacts that the Death Lord possessed. "Don't tell me…"

Erasmus, who initially intended to ignore the boy, suddenly raised his hand.

Before Rocky could even react, his Master was already in the Death Lord's grasp.

"How did you know?" Erasmus's eyes that were glowing like red embers stared at the boy who was only centimeters away from his face. "Who are you?"

"Thirteen," Thirteen said as his vision started to blur due to tears that suddenly appeared in his eyes. "Is that you, Cassiel? Are you really Cassiel?"

The teenage boy wasn't someone who would cry easily.

Even if he were to be tortured and beaten up, not a single tear would come out from his eyes.

But there were simply individuals who were able to bring out a strong reaction from him, and they were none other than the very people who made him defy his father, the System God.

The Death Lord looked at the teenage boy, whose tears were falling from his face, and narrowed his eyes.

"… Are you really Thirteen?" Erasmus asked icily. "Nevermind. I'll just kill you and personally ask your soul."

Just as he was about to stab the teenage boy with his cursed sword, Mephistopheles, Thirteen's words reached his ears. ????????.???

"I don't have a soul," Thirteen replied. "I never had one. Systems don't have them."

Erasmus paused after hearing the teenage boy's reply.

"When you were sixteen, you got rejected by Sherri." Thirteen smiled faintly as tears continued to fall from his eyes. "She said that she doesn't like to spend the rest of her life with a loser like you.

"A year later, she returned and tried to smooth things over with you after you single-handedly defeated a Rank 5 Sovereign despite being only of the Master Rank.

"You found the Cursed Artifact, Valefor's Mane, when you were searching for a ruin. It has the power to remove your sense of touch. You were very annoyed with it because you can't get your *beep* up because you can't feel any sensation, while you *beep* the brothel girls.

"When you turned eighteen, well… things became messy because you accidentally groped the High Priestess…"

"Okay, you can stop now," Erasmus interjected as he released the boy from his grasp.

But just as Thirteen was about to lose his balance and fall off from the hill made up of bones, a pair of cold hands wrapped themselves around his body and gave him a hug.

Erasmus didn't say anything and simply held the boy whom he could easily crush in his arms.

Thirteen, on the other hand, hugged him back and cried on his chest.

He never thought that he would see one of his Hosts in this manner.

When Cassiel died, Thirteen tried to bring his soul to the Cycle of Reincarnation.

This was the only thing he could do for his hosts to make sure that they would safely cross over to their next life.

But when he was about to do that, his Host's soul suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Thirteen had wanted to look for Cassiel's Soul, but he didn't have the power to do it. In the end, he decided to ask his Father for help, but the System God only said that it was the Will of Fate.

Perhaps, that was also the last nail in the coffin that made Thirteen hate the Goddess of Fate to his very core.

It was what triggered him to rebel, hating how Fate toyed with the lives of mortals, who were only doing their best to live their lives to the fullest.

And now, the soul he hadn't seen for three hundred years was finally in front of him.

But Cassiel was no longer part of the living.

He was now Death Lord Erasmus.

One of the Kings of the Rigel Continent, and he was born for one thing and one thing only.

Revenge.

A soul that had been corrupted and reborn as an Undead Skeleton Warrior, who had killed ceaselessly in order to raise his Rank.

A monster born out of pure hate and malice toward the people who had betrayed his trust.

"Thirteen, let's talk," Erasmus said. "Tell me why you have come to see me."

The teenage boy nodded and told the Death Lord about the reason for his visit.

From beginning to end, Erasmus only listened.

He didn't say anything until his old friend, who had supported and accompanied him until his dying breath, said everything he had to say.

"I will cooperate, but on one condition," Erasmus stated. "Aaron's head. I want it."

"And I shall give it to you," Thirteen replied. "But not now. You also understand, right?"

Erasmus reluctantly nodded his head before resting his hand on the teenage boy's shoulder.

"So, what do you have in mind?" Erasmus asked. "Knowing you, you can easily make a plan, right?"

Thirteen nodded. "With you here, I think I can come up with a good plan. Also, I have a proposal to make."

"I'm all ears." Erasmus smirked. "What are you cooking right now?"

Thirteen smiled faintly. "Something that you will like very much."

A laugh escaped the Death Lord's lips, which spread across his domain.

The Skeleton Warriors under his command all rose up from the ground and formed their ranks, ready to obey their Master's will.

Thirteen glanced at the Undead Army around him and chuckled alongside his Host, who would become his strongest ally, and whom he could trust his back.

A person who would never betray him even if the world turned its back on him.

The two talked till dawn and brainstormed about how they would be able to cooperate with each other without anyone knowing that they had formed an alliance.

An alliance that would not only pave the way for the victory of the Wanderers in the Rigel Continent but also set the foundation of the Revenge that Erasmus had dreamed of for the past three hundred years as an Undead Monster.