Chapter 403

Rumble!

Raon increased the Ring of Fire's output to the maximum while looking at the rain of spells and the Sword of Purgatory approaching his neck.

Because the resonance happened in an extreme situation, time felt like it was flowing even more slowly than usual.

'I knew it.'

Raon had noticed when he entered the Land of Death, where the three pillars were located.

The energy of death was on a whole different level compared to the other locations, and countless magic arrays were hidden everywhere—including the sky and ground.

'It's only natural.'

The archlich had been observing the people while commanding the undead army ever since the siege, and there was no way he wouldn't have made preparations against them.

That much preparation was obvious since he was trying to kill the warriors who managed to charge their way to the pillars.

'Among them, I seem to be the one he wants to kill the most.'

Even though only one person had entered his range, he activated the magic circles and even revealed the advanced death knight hiding under the energy of death. Raon could feel his determination to kill him before starting the war.

'But you aren't the only ones who are prepared.'

Since Raon was already aware of the fact that the archlich had been observing the battlefield all along, he knew that it was going to happen.

Raon rolled his lips into a smile while looking at the approaching Sword of Purgatory and spells.

'Wrath, let's trade already…'

Don't wanna.

'Huh? What?'

The King of Essence said that he doesn't want to.

He unexpectedly shook his head in denial even though he'd told him that he'd recover the aura and stamina and even lend his coldness and wrath.

Raon swallowed nervously while looking at the approaching Sword of Purgatory.

'Why are you saying this now?! You promised to trade!'

The King of Essence thought about it and came to the conclusion that you are the only one who benefits here.

Wrath closed his eyes, saying that it was disadvantageous for him no matter how he thought about it. His curved lips suggested that he knew that he had the upper hand in the situation.

However, he seemed to be willing to negotiate, because he transferred his strange power to make the time flow even more slowly while they could think at the same speed.

'Ugh…'

Raon's heart tightened because he didn't expect that to happen.

'I'll take more wrath from you. Deal?'

Wrath had been shoving his wrath into Raon in order to take over his body, but it wasn't always bad for him.

Since Raon learned how to use the wrath from him, it had its pros and cons.

...

Wrath pouted instead of responding.

'That wasn't it?'

Raon thought Wrath was obviously trying to give him more wrath, but he wasn't saying anything.

'We have no time to waste. We are going to die if you don't say it already, and you won't be able to gain anyth—'

Wrath suddenly licked his lips.

'Wait, don't tell me…'

Raon frowned as he watched Wrath lick his lips.

'I'll eat all of the delicious foods until we return to the house instead of just after the war.'

Hmm…

'I'm also going to eat the new bead ice cream that Runaan mentioned!'

Call!

'You damn glutton!'

Raon couldn't hold back his insult because of how he tried to negotiate in that emergency.

Wrath didn't seem to be aware, but the result of the negotiation wasn't going to be in his favor.

The King of Essence shall make sure to give you what you want.

Along with Wrath's excited voice, vitality returned to Raon's body, which felt as heavy as wet cotton. Heat and coldness emerged endlessly inside his empty energy center.

The coldness was especially huge, enough to overflow from his huge energy center.

Raon lowered his center of gravity and thrust the Blade of Requiem.

Whaap!

The extreme coldness and the wrath of the demon king were dwelling inside the yellow ghastly energy. Deadly light radiated from the red blade wrapped in the alien power.

Cring!

He made the ghastly energy, coldness, and wrath he could feel from his left hand at the same time. The Blade of Requiem's intense vibration felt like it was about to break, and the coldness bursting out seemed capable of freezing the entire world.

Swaaa!

The Silver White Aurora emerged through the Blade of Requiem, and the spells falling from the sky and the death knight's hellfire froze at the same time.

"Kuh…"

Raon bit his lip while looking at the frozen world.

'This isn't easy…'

He felt nauseous and tired. He wanted to collapse right away.

It was previously possible to use the Silver White Aurora thanks to Wrath's help, but using it on his own was still too difficult for him.

Creak.

The creaking sound of the death knight's body inside the ice could be heard. He was even stronger than he expected, as he could still move after Wrath's skill was used on him.

Cring!

Raon endured the throbbing pain in his heart and incorporated Heavenly Drive, which was in his right hand, with the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation's heat.

Crack!

The line of fire surged over the crimson blade to destroy the advanced death knight's frozen body.

Whaam!

The huge pillar of ice created through the Silver White Aurora was destroyed by the Crimson Slash and fell into pieces.

"What the hell is that…?"

Habun's castellan, Milland, dropped his jaw while looking at the ice wall created by Raon.

"I-it looks like magic, but it isn't. It's actually a phenomenon…"

Morell's widened eyes looked like they were about to pop out as he described the absurdity that just happened in front of him.

"Did he change his swordsmanship?"

"I think he just got better in the meantime."

The third prince and Borini Kitten swallowed nervously at the Crimson Slash that severed the death knight in a single strike instead of the Silver White Aurora.

"This should be called a circus at this point."

The Warring Steel division leader, Trevin, shook his head while sighing.

"Is he even human?"

"He's even more terrifying than the undead at this point…"

"I'm going to be a good boy in front of him."

The Light Wind squad was also murmuring in amazement as they witnessed the impossible scene.

"H-how is this happening?!"

The archlich stepped backward while looking at Raon, who managed to block hundreds of spells and the death knight's sword with a single move.

'This can't be happening… How did he suddenly recover his aura?'

He was aware that the young Zieghart was capable of creating that wall of ice, but he'd judged that it was impossible with his remaining aura and stamina.

However, a tremendous amount of aura that shouldn't have existed exploded from his energy center right before the sword and spells reached him, creating a wall of ice that should've been impossible.

'What the hell…?'

He couldn't understand the situation no matter how hard he thought about it.

However, rather than unraveling the secret, he had to focus on overcoming the crisis at hand. The young Zieghart wasn't his only enemy, after all.

'What should I do?'

Re-summoning the death knight wasn't a difficult task, but he couldn't find the method to kill all the humans in front of him.

While the archlich pulled the strings of death to revive the death knight, the young Zieghart shook his hand behind him.

"It's done. Come inside now."

The humans who'd been waiting from behind slowly stepped inside the Land of Death, following his signal.

'This is my chance!'

The humans shouldn't have been aware, but the magic circles that he'd prepared could be used continuously instead of having a single use.

He expected that even the young Zieghart in front of him wouldn't be able to create the wall of ice consecutively. That was why he thought he could inflict a critical amount of damage by activating the magic circles after his enemies entered the area.

The humans stepped into the Land of Death without hesitation and started to wipe out the non-frozen undead.

'Now is my chance!'

The moment the last person stepped inside, the archlich activated his magic circles once again.

He was about to resume the death knight's revival after firing the attack spells, but his movement came to a halt.

'Huh…?'

He couldn't activate the magic circles. No, the activation wasn't even the problem, since the magic circles were melting even though they should've lasted for at least a month.

"Wh-what?! What's happening to the magic circles?!"

He even stopped the death knight's revival in his panic, and the young Zieghart's voice could be heard.

"What's wrong? You can't activate the magic circles?"

He smiled cheerfully while twirling the dagger he'd used to create the wall of ice around his finger.

"Don't tell me, you used that dagger…"

The archlich had seen that ominous dagger destroy the spells and magic circles many times in the past, but he never imagined that he could nullify all of the magic circles in the area.

"Who the hell are you?! What's wrong with you?!"

"I wonder."

Raon smiled faintly while looking at the archlich's trembling chin. He seemed to be panicking, since his green flaming eyes were trembling so hard that they looked like they were about to be extinguished.

'It worked.'

Even the Blade of Requiem couldn't destroy the huge number of magic circles at the same time.

Raon had used the Ring of Fire to find the center of the magic circles, then he destroyed the circles with the Silver White Aurora and the Ghastly Flow of Mana, which ended up being effective.

"This is great stress relief!"

Burren grinned while destroying a spartoi's body.

"Give me your heads, you fucking skeletons!"

Martha was only focused on destroying the heads. She looked like she was venting her accumulated frustration.

"Let's finish this quickly so I can sleep! Sleep! Sleep!"

Runaan cut a dullahan in four different pieces, her purple eyes burning with fighting spirit. She looked like she'd reached her limits.

"We can see the end!"

"They weren't even a big deal!"

"Kill them all!"

It wasn't just the Light Wind squad. The warriors and magicians from the four different factions were also slaughtering the undead while consuming a huge amount of mana since the war was coming to an end.

Since all of them were powerful groups, all of the undead monsters perished in no time except for the archlich.

"That skelly is the only one left now."

Milland stood next to Raon and pointed his sword at the archlich.

"An advanced archlich, what a rare sight. It will be a fun experiment."

A frightening smile appeared on Morell's face as he compressed a firestorm on his hands.

"We have to eliminate him no matter what, as he can control such a powerful army of undead."

Borini Kitten walked up to him, wrapped in his sharp pressure.

"So he's the perpetrator that made us come all the way here. How arrogant."

Trevin glared at the archlich while unleashing the astral energy from his sword.

The tips of the archlich's fingers looked like they were trembling as he faced the powerful pressures from his four enemies.

"What are you going to do now? You are the only one left."

"I'm not the only one."

The archlich raised his hand while grinding his teeth. A huge amount of energy of death rampaged and the death knight and advanced undead that had died a moment ago emerged from underneath the archlich.

"I'm sorry."

The death knight immediately raised his sword and apologized to the archlich.

"You don't have to apologize."

Raon responded instead with a faint smile on his face.

"Your friend is also going to die the same way soon enough."

"Shut up!"

The death knight charged at Raon while grinding his teeth. He was even faster than before, probably because he was using his footwork as fast as possible.

'He's fast, but…I already know his methods.'

Raon extended his right foot to the front and slashed upwards with Heavenly Drive.

Claang!

The brutal strike of the Fangs of Insanity fended off the death knight's Sword of Purgatory.

"What?!"

The death knight's chin trembled in disbelief from how his sword was easily pushed back.

"The death knight that was here before was your mirror image, right?"

"How did you know…?"

"Because you are using exactly the same swordsmanship."

The advanced death knight in front of him was wielding his sword exactly the same way as the death knight that could grow while fighting.

Since even the footwork and swordsmanship were the same, Raon could tell that the one he'd previously encountered was the mirror image, and he managed to fend off the blow without much difficulty.

"Nonsense! You can't possibly understand my sword just from fighting that!"

The death knight charged at Raon once again. His footwork and swordsmanship had changed slightly, but there wasn't a huge difference.

The flow of swordsmanship was learned with body, and it couldn't be changed so easily.

'It's still similar.'

Raon deflected the death knight's Sword of Purgatory with Heavenly Drive, incorporating the flow of the Blizzard Sword Art before he advanced.

Once he reached right in front of the death knight, he unleashed the Sword's Silvery Dream with the Blade of Requiem.

Crack!

The short blade passed like a dream, and the blade of ghastly energy appeared from its shadow to pierce through the death knight's core.

"Ah…"

The death knight dropped his Sword of Purgatory without even realizing what killed him.

"What is…"

"You didn't see that before, right?"

Raon had used countless techniques to kill the undead but he purposefully didn't show the Sword's Silvery Dream.

The death knight turned into ash, his core destroyed by the Sword's Silvery Dream that he'd never seen before.

Even though the land was brimming with the energy of death, he wasn't going to be revived any time soon.

Whaam!

The archlich also fell on the ground from Morell's fire snake while trying to dodge Milland and Borini Kitten's combined attacks.

"Kuh…"

The archlich's hand was trembling as he groaned. He seemed to have taken some damage even though he shouldn't feel any pain.

"Y-you bastards!"

The archlich broke out of the fire snake and tried to activate his black magic, but Raon used the Supreme Harmony Steps to approach him.

'He's definitely going to dodge if I attack him normally.'

Even though the archlich was a mage, he couldn't be underestimated considering what he'd done so far. It was necessary to use powerful techniques even though he didn't have much time.

"Kuh!"

The archlich raised his hand while looking at Raon. A dark purple light flashed from his gray finger bone.

Cring!

Raon drew a wave with Heavenly Drive. The white shadow emerging from the blade gently embraced the archlich's flash.

Whir!

At the same time, crimson sword resonance burst from the Blade of Requiem, rushing from the left side. Blood Rain. The archlich had already seen it before, but he had never heard the wail of the deceased that stopped his movement.

'And one more step from here.'

Raon stepped forward with his left foot and cut into a cross shape with the White Shadow Slash, which managed to absorb the black magic, and the Blade of Requiem, which just scattered the rain of blood.

"Kuh…"

The archlich tried to move while looking at the two swords' approach, but the wail of the Blood Rain didn't release his limbs.

Crack!

Once Heavenly Drive and the Blade of Requiem reached him, the archlich's body was split into four pieces.

Whaam!

Milland and Borini Kitten's astral energies assaulted the archlich's severed body, and Morell's firestorm created an explosion.

Whaap!

The archlich disappeared under the ground that was brimming with the energy of death without even leaving a single piece of bone behind.

He was going to be revived eventually since his soul crystal wasn't destroyed, but it was bound to take a tremendous amount of time.

"Whoaaa!"

"It's over!"

"We finally killed them all!"

"Sniff! I can finally sleep!"

Since the Light Wind squad had been fighting for six days straight, they cheered in delight at the fact that they could finally rest.

Raon narrowed his eyes while looking at the land where the archlich had perished.

'This is a bit strange.'

The battle wasn't actually that hard even though the energy of death from the archlich and the death knight was extremely terrifying.

Even if he considered that he managed to destroy the archlich's plans and the fact that he had powerful helpers, he still felt like the battle should've been harder. He had a bad feeling about it.

"Castellan."

Raon turned around and walked up to Milland.

"Didn't you find this too eas—?"

Raon was about to tell him about what he'd just thought.

"You realized it so quickly."

The Land of Death wavered once again as the frightening voice could be heard. Unlike what happened so far, the energy of death itself was moving throughout the land.

Swoosh!

Dark hands surfaced from the ground and bound everyone's hands and feet.

"Gasp!"

"Wh-what?! What is this?!"

"Bl-black hands?"

"Is the lich still alive?"

The warriors and magicians attacked the black hands with their aura blades and magic but the hands didn't disappear.

"Oh no…"

"Ev-even astral energy can't destroy it!"

Milland and Borini Kitten were looking at the black hands with trembling eyes because they couldn't even remove them with astral energy.

"This isn't magic!"

"Why can't I cut this?!"

Even Morell's fire magic and Trevin's astral energy, which was at the highest level of Master, were unable to destroy the black hands.

"I-it's absorbing our mana!"

"Unleash your aura! Stop your energy from leaving you!"

Just like the third prince and Milland said, the black hands were also absorbing their stamina and mana on top of stopping their movements.

"Damn it!"

Raon struck the black hand holding his wrist with the Blade of Requiem. Even though he was using the Ghastly Flow of Mana, the black hand didn't disappear.

'This isn't a spell.'

The hand wasn't made with magic. It was a phenomenon created from energy, just like the Silver White Aurora.

"Kuh…"

"We are going to lose all our vitality and become zombies at this rate!"

"We have to move no matter what!"

"I want to, but what can we do?"

People were panicking and struggling, and a small resonance occurred from the land where the three pillars were located.

Thud!

Slow and huge ripples spread from pillars as if the swamp was going to rise again in the Land of Death, and a mysterious man clad in a black robe emerged.

"Ah…"

Raon's fingertips trembled as he looked at the archlich mask that the mysterious man was wearing.

"The Specter?"

It must've been Specter, Eden's officer who supposedly inherited the power of a high-class archlich.

"This is the first time we've faced each other, Raon Zieghart."

With a heavy voice, the Specter slowly floated into the air to look down on them.

"I'm extremely thankful for you bringing all of these people here."

He extended his right hand downwards. A powerful light incomparable to the archlich radiated from the black bead he was holding.

"It was worth experimenting instead of returning right away."

Raon bit his lip while looking at the purple light becoming as colossal as the sun.

'I thought someone must've been behind this, but it was the Specter…Damn it.'

Because Merlin had told him that the Fallen had given up on him temporarily and didn't visit him for a while, he didn't expect Eden to be the perpetrator behind the war.

'No, it was my mistake. I shouldn't have simply believed that Eden wouldn't be here.'

Merlin did mention that the officers received various independent missions.

Since Eden was a group of lunatics, he had to consider the possibility that they would attack on their own accord, regardless of the Fallen.

'However… It's not completely impossible to reverse the situation.'

Raon gathered the wrath from the bottom of his soul and the Ring of Fire at the same time.

Rumble!

The release of power was huge enough to twist his bones and skin, and the black hands holding his limbs shattered into pieces.

Thud!

Raon kicked the clammy ground and jumped towards the Specter.

As Raon aimed to nullify his spell with the White Shadow Slash and cut his neck with the Blade of Requiem, he extended his left hand.

"You'd better stop."

Yua and Yulius appeared from his left hand as he spoke.

They looked like they had lost consciousness, as they were faltering like shirts hanging on a clothesline and their eyes were shut tight.

'Fakes? No, their vitality…'

Raon wanted to believe that they were fakes, but their presences and existences were the real deal. He would've ignored them if they were fakes, but he couldn't attack because they were the real ones.

She's the real Pineapple Girl!

'Damn it!'

There was no mistake since Wrath confirmed it. Raon controlled his aura to the best of his ability to force himself to stop mid-air.

Splash!

Once his feet reached the ground once again, black hands even bigger than before rose up to strongly pull his legs.

"Wise decision."

The Specter's sneer could be heard from his voice.

"Because I personally brought those children from House Arianne."

"But I didn't notice your movements!"

"Because I've been hiding inside the energy of death."

He said that he'd spread the energy of death to the entire land for that purpose.

"Don't be so sad. I'm the one who found them first, not you. You are the one who took them away from me in my point of view."

The Specter smiled while looking at Yua.

"She had even better qualities than I thought. She was corrupted because of you, but don't worry. I'll make it so she can kill thousands of people with a single song soon enough."

He smiled coldly, saying that he was looking forward to it.

"Let's put an end to this."

A powerful light flickered once again from the bead in the Specter's extended hand.

Rumble!

It was releasing a power to crush their bodies with the energy of death that even the White Shadow Slash and the Blade of Requiem's Ghastly Flow of Mana wouldn't be able to stop.

Since Raon used the card to get help from Wrath, he couldn't come up with any way to stop it.

'Should I attack again? But he might use Yulius as a shield. But everyone's going to die if I don't do anything about this…'

His head ached from his thoughts, but he couldn't think of any way to deal with it.

Whir!

Even though he didn't come up with a solution, the Specter's sphere of death was ready to fall.

'There's no other choice. I wanted to save it, but…'

Raon started to gather the divinity that he was planning to hide until the end when a refreshing wind tickled his nose.

No, it wasn't just wind. The sharp and aloof scent of lightning was there as well.

'Could it be…?'

Raon raised his head and saw him right behind the Specter.

The blade of wind and lightning from the red-haired elf severed the Specter's body.