Fwish! Fwish!
The sound cut through the silence like a blade through cloth.
The earth cracked open, shadows swirling as Alex’s dark aura seeped deep into the soil.
Moments later, five skeletal figures began to rise from the depths, tall, ominous, and completely devoid of any sign of life.
[+5 Undead Reapers, -15,000,000 Mana]
The [Undead Reapers] emerged with a slow, almost ritualistic grace.
Each stood nearly three meters tall, cloaked in robes of shadowy cloth that drifted unnaturally, as though moved by a breeze that didn’t exist.
Their skeletal faces remained mostly concealed beneath their tattered hoods, but faint white lights flickered in their empty sockets, watching, waiting.
They hovered above the ground, never once touching it.
Their presence felt unnatural, weightless yet impossibly heavy at the same time.
In both bony hands, each one gripped a scythe, massive, curved weapons made of some dark, ethereal metal that glowed faintly with deep violet light.
It pulsed slowly, like a heartbeat, radiating power and tension.
The kind of tension that made the battlefield itself hold its breath.
Alex didn’t waste mana on his weaker summons like the [Undead Skeletons], or even the [Undead Lord] yet.
There was no point.
He could already tell that Lich’s undead army might’ve been vast in number, but in terms of raw power, it was nowhere close.
He was about to prove that.
“You think numbers will save you?” Alex muttered, more to himself than to his enemies.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Across from him, the Lich extended both skeletal arms toward his own horde.
“My undead,” the Lich bellowed, his voice echoing across the field like a broken bell.
“Spread your aura and destroy them, overwhelm them with your numbers, there are too many of us, they cannot handle all of you!”
But instead of answering with words, Alex simply offered a slight smile.
“Reapers,” he said quietly, “you know what to do.”
The five undead reapers instantly moved.
Each lifted their scythes high into the air.
The violet glow along the blades sharpened in intensity, growing darker and more focused.
For a moment, it felt like even time had slowed, then the world erupted.
“RAIN OF DARK SPEARS!”
In perfect synchronization, the [Undead Reapers] activated their skill.
The skies blackened, and then, like a reversed lightning storm, hundreds, no, thousands of dark spears rained from above.
Each one was razor-sharp, condensed with high-density dark magic.
They fell in chaotic precision, fast enough to break the sound barrier, sharp enough to slice clean through bone, and heavy enough to leave shockwaves when they struck the ground.
The skeleton army below had no chance.
Entire squads of Lich’s undead were shredded in an instant, their bones scattering like leaves in a storm.
The lucky ones were impaled and shattered.
The rest were caught in the cascading explosions that followed each spear’s impact, black bursts of compressed energy shaking the earth.
The chaos was overwhelming.
Nocteron and Lich themselves were struck too, caught in the downpour of destruction.
Their bodies jerked as multiple spears tore through them, and then crumpled to the ground like broken puppets.
“…Huh.” Kaelios let out a breath, “Okay, I’ll admit, that was strong.”
Alex didn’t answer. Something felt off.
Even though Nocteron and Lich had been shredded by the spears and their explosion trails, Alex’s instincts screamed that the battle wasn’t over.
He didn’t relax, he couldn’t.
His gaze turned serious as dark mist began to rise from where their bodies had fallen.
A thick, shadowy fog rolled out slowly, like a sentient wave, walling off the area in a cloak of darkness.
“He wasn’t lying,” Alex said at last, “That thing about having millions of lives, it’s probably true.”
Kaelios turned to look at him.
“Now you believe him? You seemed confident just a moment ago.”
“I remembered something,” Alex replied, eyes still locked on the dark mist, “Us. You and me. We’ve died so many times because we can revive. And they died way too easily. That’s not confidence, that’s a trick. A setup. They let themselves be taken out because they knew they could just come back.”
“…Makes sense,” Kaelios muttered, frowning.
The mist began to disperse slowly, revealing the ground once more.
The field was littered with shattered bones, tens of thousands of them.
But one by one, they began to dissolve into dark particles, pulled back into the soil like ink into water.
And then it happened.
The bodies of both Nocteron and Lich, still riddled with holes and clearly destroyed, twitched.
They began to move.
A pulse of dark energy surged outward from Nocteron’s chest as his wounds closed, bones fused, and tattered robes began to repair themselves.
Even Lich, though weaker and less fast, began to stir as well, reanimating unnaturally.
[Life Drain: Allows you to drain the life of other beings and store it for yourself. As long as you have life supply, you cannot be killed.]
Nocteron had used this long ago.
That was the reason for his arrogance, he had stored millions of lives within himself.
And now, the passive effect had kicked in.
“He wasn’t bluffing,” Alex muttered, “He’s storing it, actual souls.”
Nocteron slowly stood back up, brushing the dust off his tattered sleeve.
“Two down,” he said casually, voice smooth and maddeningly calm, “millions to go. You can’t win. Not like this.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed.
“Kaelios,” he said suddenly, not taking his eyes off Nocteron, “Can you use [Scales of Destiny]?”
“I can,” Kaelios replied, already tightening his grip on his blade, “But… that’s a heavy cost.”
“We don’t have time to weigh costs,” Alex said, “They have too many lives. Way more than we do. And we don’t know what they’ll pull next.”
While he spoke, his mana finished regenerating.
Alex stretched out his hand, focusing deeply as his aura expanded once more.
He was done holding back.
[+Undead Lord, +200 Undead Skeletons]
His army appeared in full.
With the addition of the [Undead Lord] counting as 300 and the five [Undead Reapers] each counting as 100, he had now hit the hard summon cap of [1,000].
A small army, but incredibly powerful.
“They’ll pay for making me use this much,” Alex said under his breath.
“I don’t really need to summon anything else,” the Lich called to Nocteron, “I’ve brought my second strongest, the Undead Lord… and the Grim Reaper, using my strongest summon isn’t needed.”
[Grim Reaper] was obviously stronger than the [Undead Lord], but Lich didn’t consider it one of his summons.
Meaning he still had one more ace up his sleeve.
“That’ll do,” Nocteron replied with a grin, “We know their abilities. They’re strong, sure. But they can’t stop this.”
Nocteron glanced at his hands, which pulsed with unstable dark light.
Alex noticed.
He didn’t like that look.
“Fall back!” Alex ordered his undead, stepping forward.
He didn’t trust whatever Nocteron was about to unleash.
He didn’t plan to find out the hard way.
And so, Alex unleashed everything he had left, every ranged ability in his arsenal.
Celestial Judgment. Universal Orbs. All-Elements Fox Summons. Flames of Oblivion. Void Blasters.
A maelstrom of divine, elemental, and pure destructive energy surged toward the two enemies.
Twelve holy swords screamed through the air, followed by ten massive universal orbs, eight of which pulsed violently.
Flames of Oblivion burst from beneath the earth, dark orange fire clawing toward the sky, while the five fox summons, though weaker, rushed in, glowing with multi-elemental energy.
Alex’s only unused skill was [Bleeding Dragon Claws], which didn’t need activation, his left arm had already transformed long ago.
This was it.
These weren’t just spells.
They were the culmination of his progress in Universal Descent, the proof of every trial he had faced and survived.
He wasn’t just attacking.
He was declaring war.
“Kill them a million times over!” he shouted.
The sky broke open.
The ground ruptured.
The battlefield became a storm of light and shadow, the air vibrating from the sheer energy being released.
But as the destruction approached, Nocteron calmly stepped in front of Lich, raising one arm to protect him.
Lich had already begun chanting again, dark runes circling his scepter.
“Arise… Undead Lord and Grim Reaper,” he roared.
A surge of purple and black energy erupted from him, too intense for weaker beings to withstand without going blind or unconscious.
The [Undead Lord] would take time to appear.
But the [Grim Reaper]?
That one was instant.
The sky above the battlefield cracked open like glass.
From it, a towering figure descended, skeletal, cloaked in torn black shadows, and holding a scythe larger than a house.
Its eyes were pits of endless death, and its presence brought silence to the battlefield.
Even the air recoiled.
The [Grim Reaper] had returned.
The same death incarnate Lich had once summoned to end the [Chosen Round] in a single instant.
And now, as it hovered above them, the end began once more.
Kaelios moved. Nocteron grinned.
And Alex… prepared to do whatever it took.