‘I thought it had been a while since she died, but she seems quite fine.’
Perhaps, it was because of the structure supporting her or the black liquid blanketing her body. Zich looked around the island. ‘The missing persons are here.’
Unlike Sia Rubrent’s corpse, which was specially preserved, other corpses were strewn all over the island messily and appeared above the black substance. They were discarded like pieces of trash, and that was what Condel probably thought of them. Condel glanced at Zich and his companions. His face became twisted with rage at once.
Lyla commented, “He seems to be really welcoming you, Zich.”
“Right? I have done many favors for him. I suppose he is someone who knows how to be grateful.”
From behind, the three people with their eyes fixed on Condel turned to look at Zich simultaneously. Although they had been trained to never take their eyes off their opponent during battle to the point it was instinctive now, they couldn’t help but react to Zich’s complete nonsense. The shadow humans sticking onto Glen began to run towards Zich. At the same time, a couple of more shadows rose out of the black substance.
“Hmph!” Zich snorted and retracted Windur back. Condel was definitely a difficult guy to handle alone, but that was why he brought his companions. This number of shadow humans was nothing to what he could handle.
‘I don’t have to worry about my surroundings here either!’
Zich shuffled his feet. The black substance around him bounced off simultaneously and bits of a tinted black floor came into view. The cavity they were in rang loudly and the floor that Zich stepped on caved in deeply. He transferred strength into his arms as he swung his sword.
Craaaaash!
Two enormous amounts of mana clashed. Furthermore, they were very sharp and hard. A couple of shadow humans were sucked into the attack and were inflicted with great injuries. That was just the beginning though. Windur’s light continued to flash across the area and strike the shadow humans. Snoc raised the earth from his surroundings; he crumbled the shadow humans’ footholds and lifted a whole rock bed up. Still, the most flashy and powerful type of attack was magic.
Craaaash!
Fiery sparks interlaced with each other engulfed the approaching shadow humans in one gulp. Although she couldn’t finish off all the shadow humans at once, they all received great damage. The last attacks flew towards the wavering shadow humans.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
A couple of fireballs flew precisely at them and burned up the rest of the shadow humans. They belonged to Elena and she showed off her natural talent, which she honed through Lyla’s teachings recently.
The shadow humans kneeled and toppled onto the black substance. Their bodies turned black, and like they were melting, they turned back to shadows and were absorbed into the black substance again.
“They are nothing much, actually!” Zich shouted as if he wanted others to hear. Yet, it was too early for him to be so confident.
Sssssssh!
Shadows shot up from the black substance again. They began to take form and soon took on human forms. That wasn’t the surprising part since that was how Zich expected the shadow humans formed. However, when Zich saw the shadow human’s face, he couldn’t help but tilt his head.
“Hey, Lyla. Isn’t that the guy we just killed?”
“Yeah, that’s what I think too.”
An ominous and also annoying thought passed through his mind; soon, Glen’s loud voice reaffirmed this thought. “These guys can’t die in this space! They will come back alive from this black substance!”
“…That’s what he says,” Lyla echoed, and Zich scratched the back of his head. “This is becoming bothersome.”
The shadow humans who came back alive rushed towards them again. Zich swung Windur once more. “Let’s tread forward like this! Let’s go up the island for now!”
Zich and his companions pushed forward step by step. Shadow humans continued to stick to them. Although the shadow humans they couldn’t kill were extremely bothersome, they couldn’t block Zich and his companions from progressing forward.
Condel gritted his teeth from this sight. “Tch!” He clicked his tongue and swung his hand. In that instant, a significant number of the shadow humans attacking Zich and Glen’s companions backed away. This gave the two groups greater ease and helped them climb up the island faster. They naturally moved much closer to Glen.
“Hey, nice to see you, sir. It seems like Glen’s attempted persuasion has failed to reach you,” Zich mocked Condel, or maybe both of them. Glen glared at him, but Zich was already staring at a different place.
“…What does that do?” Zich asked aloud. The shadow humans who had backed away were scattering and heading to one place.
“It looks like they are looking for something,” Lyla commented.
“Hey, Sir Glen, what is that?” Zich asked.
At this point, Lyla had admiration for Zich now. Before they passed through the steel door, Zich and Glen had argued and he even provoked Glen with mocking words a moment ago; yet, now he asked Glen a question calmly like there was nothing wrong. She didn’t know how more brazen-faced Zich could be.
Glen was kind, or supposed to be kind, but even he was infuriated and swung his Tornium while glaring at Zich sharply.
“Why are you asking me, sir?”
“I thought you knew about that guy’s ability. Shouldn’t you know what that is too?”
“Why should I have to teach you that?”
“Are you letting your personal feelings interfere from acting for the public when you are a Great Karuwiman Honorary Knight? How shocking would that be to everyone in the world?” Zich responded. It was difficult to tell whether Zich was trying to convince Glen or insult him. Everyone who heard him thought the latter. Meanwhile, it was true that Zich was digging into Glen’s pivotal weakness.
“…I think he’s probably trying to place the shadows into the corpses because they are much stronger that way.”
“Is that so…?” Zich asked and thought, ‘He wasn’t just discarding the corpses aside like trash.’ It seemed like Condel had a reason for not cleaning them up.
“I don’t think a lot of the corpses would move. For a shadow to be infused into a corpse, the corpse must not have passed a specific length of time after death.” Glen said and then, glanced at Sia Rubrent’s corpse and said, “Well, unless they haven’t received proper care.”
As Glen said, the shadow humans came closer to the corpses rolling on top of the black substance. Then, they kneeled and placed their hands on the corpse. As soon as they touched the corpse, the tips of their fingers turned black; and like raindrops seeping into dry dirt, they began to be absorbed into the corpse.
Spark!
A corpse that fully absorbed the shadow human opened its eyes. The corpse’s pale complexion and wide-open eyes were enough to scare anybody staring at it.
Splash!
The corpse began to slowly rise up while splashing the black liquid surrounding it. The corpse’s movements were definitely not human-like; more and more corpses began to rise.
Zich asked again, “Hey, Mr. Zenard. Do those guys not die either?”
“From what I know, I believe so.”
Kuuaaaah! The corpses let out a loud, wild cry, and they began rushing forward like mad animals.
Burst!
The corpses jumped up. Black liquid splashed everywhere around them. They came down on Zich’s companions like a kettle of flying hawks catching their prey. No, to be more accurate, they came crashing down.
Thuuud!
Windur struck one of the corpses. Estellade and Tornium each blocked a corpse too.
‘They’re strong.’ Zich’s hand that was holding onto Windur throbbed. If the corpses continued to attack them without dying, they would become an extremely formidable threat. ‘I guess there’s only one solution.’
Zich raised his head. He saw Condel who was standing in front of Sia Rubrent’s corpse in the middle of the island like a sacred guardian.
‘I need to attack the owner of this ability.’
Glen seemed to have the same thought as Zich—he was also staring at Condel.
Zich said, “We seem to share the same thought.”
“Yes, it seems so.”
Zich stared at his companions. Hans and Snoc faithfully followed his instructions, Lyla was his equal in regards to talent in magic, and despite being trained for a short time, Elena was a genius who specialized in fire magic and was receiving personal training from Lyla.
“Lyla.”
“Don’t worry and go.” Lyla unleashed her magic and pointed her chin towards Condel. “I won’t have problems lasting until that guy over there dies.”
“I got it!” Then, Zich looked at Glen and said, “Are you coming?”
“…Browning!”
“Yep, Glen!”
“Would you be able to stay with these people for a short while and buy us time?”
Lara sliced a shadow dashing towards her. Then, she replied with a smile, “Of course!”
Glen nodded his head and glared at Condel. “Let’s go.”
Glen made a big swing with Tornium and the shadows, shadow humans, and corpses fell slightly back. Of course, all three groups tried to attack Glen again, but a sword blocked them from approaching Glen.
“I’m not going to let anything pass from here on!” Lara fused mana into her sword and repelled their attacks.
Zich shouted to Lyla, “Hey, I’m going!”
“Okay, come back soon!”
After receiving Lyla’s approval, Zich began running. Zich swung Windur and got rid of the enemies that tried to capture him. The enemies chasing after him were swallowed by Estellade’s light.
‘I can’t believe I’m partnering up with this guy. I never thought I’d live to see the day.’ Zich thought this as he stared at Glen’s back.
Zich was currently fighting with the guy that had tried to kill him before. In a way, it was a situation where it would stir up all kinds of complex emotions in a person’s heart. However, Zich’s heart was steady.
‘There’s a high chance that he’s some kind of swindler. Why should I feel such strange emotions towards him?’
Instead, Zich was annoyed that he had to partner up with Glen. ‘How can I partner up with a guy who’s basically on the same level as Hans?’
Rather than being helpful, it would be fortunate if Glen didn’t hinder his fight. However, it couldn’t be helped. Regardless of whether Glen was really a good person or a swindler, he would definitely try to defeat Condel. Since Glen and Lara Browning were not part of his group, he couldn’t order them around either.
However, Zich calmed his heart. ‘Let’s think about this positively.’
Zich thought that Condel probably had something up his sleeves to defend himself.
‘I can just pass him off to Glen.’ While Glen fought with Condel, Zich could target his true goal.
‘They’re coming.’ Condel glared at the two people running towards him with icy eyes. One guy was a complete bastard who spouted all kinds of insults towards him and his lover, and the other guy was a swindler who had tried to trick him. They were both despicable bastards.
‘This is actually for the better. I’m going to kill those two with my own hands!’
He intended to engrave how their skulls looked with his own eyes.
Slide!
A shadow climbed on top of Condel and covered Condel’s body like armor. Condel let out a small smile as enormous power flowed through his body. Glen had run ahead of Zich, so he began fighting with Condel first. He raised Tornium up high and slammed it down towards Condel. Likewise, Condel also raised his hands that were covered by the shadows.
Crash!
A loud sound rang out between them.
“Mr. Siede, don’t commit any more sins! Your goal can’t be accomplished like this!” It seemed as if Glen hadn’t fully given up on persuading Condel as he loudly shouted with a regretful expression on his face. However, Glen’s voice only made Condel angrier. Condel didn’t want to even converse with him anymore.
“Shut up and die!” Condel attacked Glen with his other hand.
Crassssh! Condel’s attack hit the ground as Glen evaded his attack. A large hole appeared on the ground and the surrounding earth cracked. The power was terrifying. However, Glen didn’t back down and rushed towards Condel again. After Glen and Condel exchanged a few more attacks, Zich arrived.
Condel shouted, “Come on! I’ll take both of you on at once!”
Condel faced Glen with one hand, and his other hand was stretched out to attack Zich. Zich increased his distance from Condel and Glen’s fight and after spinning around Condel, he began running again.
“…?”
“…?”
Both Glen and Condel tilted their heads. However, Condel’s complexion paled as he realized where Zich was heading.
“That bastard, is he perhaps…!”
Zich was heading towards Sia Rubrent’s corpse. Zich turned his head back as he ran. Then, he made a bright smile.
“Hey, Condel Siede! You said that you need your wife’s corpse to resurrect her, right?”