After confirming the eggs, Leon left the breeding chamber. He looked at the mass of corpses, and the first thing that he thought of was how disgusting it would be to let dozens of corpses rot like this. He had no problem with that on the surface because he was sure that they would be eaten by the centipedes, but the centipedes could not enter the millipede nest, and he would not allow them to. So, there was only one other way to handle this matter.
He would expand his monster army!
“Come forth!” Leon’s voice resounded through the cavern that thrummed with mana. His mana was further reinforced by the rich ambient mana that was present around him and within the mana crystals in the walls.
A dark purple cloud of mana manifested in the air, and in the next moment, the many corpses that littered the ground were suddenly set ablaze!
There was no crisp burning sound, or pungent odor, but in just a few moments, all the bodies were burnt into nothing, leaving behind pitch black figures in the form of Undead Millipedes of various different castes.
Leon looked around at his expanded army, but was stunned when he saw that the body of the Ghost Millipede Queen had still remained.
“Why is this still here?” Leon spoke to himself and approached the body of the millipede queen. He placed a hand on her cold carapace. A semi-transparent screen popped up in front of him when he made contact with her.
[This creature can not be resurrected.]
The message was short and precise, leaving no explanation. Leon scratched his head in confusion, but there was nothing he could do about it. The system was basically what controlled the things in this world, from what he understood, so if it said he could not make the millipede queen his minion, then there was no point.
He gave the carapace of the queen a couple more pats, and then something strange happened. Right underneath his palm, the body of the dead millipede queen began to turn into dark purple ash that gathered into a heap on the ground of the cavern, right before everyone’s eyes!
“What just happened?!” Leon staggered back in shock, looking strangely at his hand. He had not done anything to the corpse, so why had it suddenly turned to ashes? “Nedra?” He called for his Companion Spirit hurriedly.
“Yes, Leon?” Nedra came over quickly. Leon quickly explained what had happened to the Undead Millipede Queen, but she also had no clue what had happened.
“Strange… In all my time following my former master, I had never seen such a thing happen before.” She confessed as one of her antennae scratched the top of her head in thought.
Leon sighed as he thought about it. There was nothing he could do about this matter now, so he just decided to throw it to the back of his mind.
“Well, whatever, I guess. Let’s just head back to the surface. When is the next batch of eggs going to hatch?” He asked as he started leading the army through the tunnels and in the direction of the exit. He also recalled the hundred and fifty summons that he could store into his body, leaving the rest to move about as they followed him. He would think of what to do with the rest of them later.
The group made their way back above ground. The absence of any millipedes on the way made the trip short and without any distractions or hindrances. Before long, they found themselves before the hole that led into the cathedral.
“Elena, we are back.” Leon announced as he stepped into the cathedral. He looked around, and was greeted to a desolate and empty hall. With a sigh passing through his empty ribcage, he turned around to look at Nedra, and he could feel the ‘I told you so’ look that she seemed to be giving him.
“Yeah, yeah, you were right.” Leon sighed and threw up his hands when he felt Nedra’s stare. Her antennae vibrated as she laughed.
Some time ago, when Leon had brought up the idea of Elena waiting in the cathedral while the descended to the Obsidian Pool, Nedra had told him that she would probably run off, and now, it seemed that her prediction had come true. Elena was nowhere to be found!
“You guys, run off and check if she is still around somewhere in the millipedes’ part of the town.” Leon ordered the mass of Undead Millipedes that could not be stored within him. He had just found a good job for them.
Soundlessly, the dozens of millipedes scattered off and split themselves to search the ruins of the town. With their superior numbers, it would not take too long before they found something, and when they did, they would telepathically alert Leon to share whatever they found with him.
Leon sighed again and raised his blunt and beaten sword to his eye level. The rough surface was not clear, but he could still see the rough outline of his dark skull reflecting on its surface.
“Am I just that ugly that I scared her off?” He sighed dejectedly and shook his head before walking over to the stone that he had been using to sharpen his sword. The sword had taken a beating during this last fight of theirs. Even with his weapon reinforcement skill, it had still gotten damaged during the fight with the queen. Indeed, she was worthy of that title, a strong foe.
Skrriiii!!
Skrriiii!!
The sounds of Leon scraping his sword over the stone echoed through the large cathedral hall, along with the endless sighs that escaped his mouth.