Chapter 27: The New Adversary

Right at the training facility, I'm currently engaging on a sparring match with Juha once more. Our bodies moved in great speed. Our blows would echo as we continue to rain assault on each other.

"You're getting better, my king"

"Thank you"

She went for a chop at my neck but I avoided her attack and tried to deliver an uppercut to her chin. Her left hand caught my fist, easily stopping my attack. We are now at a stalemate.

I inhaled and fired my black breath right at her face. She ducked and hit me with a backflip kick right at my chin. I was launched up high in the air but she's not done yet. She move her hands in circular motion and fired a big chunk of ice right at me. The ice is easily the same size as Whity so I have no choice but cross my arm in a blocking position. I was hit directly and crashed at the ceiling. The massive ice then dropped down along with me to the ground. The ice shattered upon impact while I hit the ground with a thud. My strength is at a low now. We have been sparring for three hours now. It's a hassle but it further increase my prowess as a fighter so I didn't mind it that much. My fighting style are now further polished but I can't still beat Juha. All I ever did is force her to increase the intensity of her assault.

Nice. Because it means that I master my techniques further. My use of the black breath was further mastered as well.

"That's it for today, my king. Just lay down and rest for awhile."

I did just that. It will probably take me a few hours before I can get up again. As I have nothing better to do, I didn't realize that Juha lay there next beside me. I only took notice of her when I spotted her silky black hair at the right side of my chest. Any other day, I would have complained her tendency to cling at me but I'm too weak to scold her. I will let her hold me for now.

"Hey Juha, I have always wondered for a while now. Why do you always wear that mask? I have never seen your face without it."

I felt her slightly flinch at my question. She seems anxious but she held it in and tilted her head to look at me.

"...ah. Such a question. I'm not sure I can answer that, my king."

Her voice still laced with playfulness. If I didn't notice her flinch earlier, I might have overlook her seductive gesture right now. This action made me curious though. What happened to her to make her cover her face?

Should I ask? Hmm... No, not now. Maybe one day but not now. It may bring back painful memories for her.

"I understand, don't worry about it. You can tell if you think you're ready."

"Thank you. Now, what's your plan for the day, my king?"

"Hmm. Honestly, the same as usual. Train, work on my current project, rest, repeat."

"Really? It's been two months now since I joined and all I ever saw you do is train and work? Even if you rest for awhile, you just resume your work afterwards. You're like a robot. Have you ever taken at least a day off."

"Hey, respect my work I put in. For the record, I'm like this to prepare myself. To prepare ourselves for our future adversaries on the way."

"I'm not saying that you should stop. It's just that I want you to rest a little. You know have fun with me- I mean, have fun with Whity."

As if on cue, Whity suddenly raised his head on his slumber and stared at us.

"Arf?"

"No, no, just sleep right there buddy."

"Arf!"

And he resume his slumber. I stare at Juha once more. She got a point though, I've been working nonstop since this place was built. Every day I work myself to the bone and for that, I have improved leaps and bounds and some of my projects are progressing nicely. Although, I guess it doesn't hurt to relax every once in a while.

"Fine but what am I gonna do?"

"Okay, first let's go to my bedroom."

"No."

"Oh come on. Fine."

...

On a certain cave, there are multiple zombies kneeling in position. All of their heads touched the ground and muttered prayers that can be heard as gibberish for any person to hear. All of them surrounds an alter that's coated in blood.

Standing at the altar as a grotesque being. It's body is fat, massive, and full of warts. The skin is pale as a corpse and the arms are longer than its body. The being is currently busy hacking up the bloody corpse of a young girl. The arms, legs, and the head are barely recognizable at thud point. Droplets of saliva went to the mutilated corpse and soon the monster opened its mouth then starts eating the body.

"Hmmmm~"

It hums in pleasure. The jagged teeth pierced the meat, ripping it off from the body. It ate like an animal. It had no control, all it ever thought is devouring the flesh of the poor unfortunate girl.

Once he is done eating, a small white miasma starts to came out of its body.

"Ahahahaha. Yes! It's starting!"

It's arms and legs started to bend shape. It's body is undergoing a change, a transformation. The long arms had shortened, the massive body had shrunken, the face that would surely brought fear to Amy unfortunate soul that would bare witness it. The being had evolved.

Once the evolution is done, all the surrounding zombies had stopped their prayers. They raised their heads and stared at their leader.

The being is no longer the monster he once was in appearance. Now what stood at the altar is a man in a muscular figure. The skin is now a healthy brown, the hair is long enough to reach his back, and the face it showed is one that women may consider their preference by a large degree. He stands naked at them all, towering them like a king.

A female zombie came right beside him and bowed her head as a sign of great devotion.

"King Graha, I congratulate you on your successful ascension."

The now identified King Graha let out a deep chuckle.

"Hmm. Much appreciated. Now, what is it?"

"One of ours has reported that Labak has fallen. His nest was also taken over."

"Labak? Hmm. His power is no joke when I met him once. He was referred as the lightning sentient by many. To think that he would fall speaks volumes of the power his adversary held. Who killed him?"

"Unfortunately, they are unable to identify Labak's opponent. A possibility is that it may be another sentient. A newly turned if I may add."

"Oh? How interesting. Another one of us. What happened to Labak's nest?"

"It was conquered as I said earlier. Various changes are implemented however, we can only see the massive wall covering it. One of us tried to enter but was quickly killed by a flying machine?"

"Machine? Not an undead? Curious. Is there anything else?"

"...The White Face was spotted near the conquered nest, my king."

King Graha narrowed his eyes at this.

"Go on."

"We are unable to find out her r-reasons, my king. The moment some of the Kara came close to her, they got immediately incased in ice."

"That filthy parasite. It seems she had found a new target."

"What shall we do, my king."

"For now, we prepare. Gather them all and call for him. He might wanna hear this."

"Very well."

...

Juha and I spent a whole day walking around. Not my idea of a fun time but eh, I just go with flow. We talk around as we go. Mostly the topic is all about worlk, training, and some useless things. Whity felt a little left out so he joined us. We eventually returned to my house. Whity went to sleep in his quarters, Juha seems a little tired as well so she retired for the night. I didn't went to my room though. I'm currently in my laboratory for work. I took out the sentium element and put it on a steel handler. I turned my computer and began my analysis. Now that I have this element, time to make a blue print for my newest armor. What I'm planning for this one is to make myself fully incase in it. All parts of my body will be covered. Nothing will be able to bypass this. Sand, water, air, you name it. I will make this armor my best one yet. I dropped my pen and looked at my design. The armor has multiple spikes on the shoulder, it has six triangle shaped laser shooters on the front. It will only be holes in there to not make me look like a female cow. Thrusters will be added to my feet to allow me to fly, man there are so much more I want to this one. My ultimate defense.

As I revel this moment on, I can't help feel that there is some kind of an omen here.