536

Episode 536: Should I Go and Save Him? (2)

In Giselle's previous life, Helgenich acted independently.

He conducted experiments on anyone he could find, whether they were members of the Salvation Church, the Human Federation, monsters from the Rift, or just ordinary people.

He was a guy who was only interested in satisfying his own curiosity, so he didn't care about power or anything.

With the continent in turmoil, it was easy for Helgenik to run wild. His own power was so strong that no one could easily stop him.

In the end, the saint Parniel had to step forward and engage in a long and drawn-out fight with Helgenich. Even then, there was no winner.

Helgenik was called the sixth of the seven continental powers, but the rankings among them were meaningless anyway.

Even that ranking was just something people arbitrarily gave based on performance.

Jiselle's eyes grew cold.

"That's a good thing. I was going to catch you and kill you. I guess I'll take this opportunity to get rid of you."

After I wiped out the Salvation Church, I tried to get rid of that piece of trash along with it.

Since he had joined hands with the Salvation Church, all we had to do was include him in the operational target.

You might get a little tired, but you'll just have one more guy to fight.

"I guess I should get moving right away."

Helgenik was the most dangerous being on the battlefield, because the immortal army he led could fight endlessly.

It's incredibly hard to fight against since it doesn't consume any power. Plus, the more you fight, the more corpses there are.

In his previous life, there was a limit to the number of corpses he could handle, but if the Kingdom of Parsali was pushed back in one breath, it was clear that he had surpassed that limit.

"The jewel of life."

The secret of the Salvation Church that can create superhumans. A single evil substance that contains the life force of tens of thousands of people.

The Salvation Church would have supported it. Using it, Helgenik could move an unimaginable number of corpses.

The Allied Forces changed their immediate objectives. It was obvious that the Salvation Church had done this to protect the Kingdom of Arthrod, but they could not ignore it.

If left alone, the legions of corpses would only grow. The growing enemy forces were a problem, but there was a more important problem.

"All priests will go together. Make sure to bring enough medicinal herbs."

The corpses inevitably carry the plague, so they had to be caught quickly before the plague spread again.

Jiselle smiled self-deprecatingly.

"This is how tiring it is to be challenged."

As the army grew larger, Jiselle's scope of activity became increasingly limited. This time, the Salvation Church took advantage of this.

The General Staff also expressed various opinions regarding this expedition.

"It's clear that they're trying to get our attention."

"We will definitely attack other kingdoms with our remaining troops."

"There are still troops left in the Kingdom of Arthrod."

That part was quickly sorted out by Giselle.

"Call in all the allied forces from other regions. Tell them to advance to the Kingdom of Arthrod as soon as they are gathered. As soon as Parsali is cleared out, Yulien and I will lead the mobile force and strike from the flank."

Julian nodded after hearing Giselle's words.

Anyway, the scale of the movement on both sides was too large. If they moved rashly, they might be defeated individually, so it was best for him and the Duke of Fenris to move separately.

One or two kingdoms may be retaken by the Salvation Church, but that level of damage must be accepted.

It is impossible to fight while protecting everything, as their forces are also formidable.

All we had to do was resolve the issue in the Kingdom of Parsali. After that, all our forces would invade the Kingdom of Atrode.

"let's go."

As always, the advance party, Jiselle and Fenris Mobile Force, moved first. The only difference was that this time, the advance party included Yulien.

Doo doo doo doo doo!

They ran without stopping and arrived at the Kingdom of Parsali at a very fast speed.

The Parsali Kingdom army welcomed Giselle warmly. They had already lost their capital and were pushed back to the edge of the kingdom.

"Oh, you came! Thank you so much!"

The Marquis of Suffolk, the commander-in-chief of the Parsali Kingdom's army, greeted Giselle with an expression that was almost tearful.

The kingdom was on the verge of destruction. A huge army of corpses was advancing.

All of the bases had been lost as they retreated, and food was running out. With refugees mixed in, the situation was filled with despair.

Jiselle immediately asked about the situation.

"How much has it increased?"

"No, I don't know. The last time I heard about it, it was over 200,000."

"200 thousand?"

"They are turning everyone, whether they are enemies or allies, into corpses. Whether it is a city or a village, they are indiscriminately slaughtering people on their way. The number is increasing."

To be able to create something of that scale in such a short period of time meant that Helgenik's abilities had grown beyond comparison since his reincarnation. The Salvation Church must have helped, but it was beyond imagination.

Jiselle nodded at the more serious situation than expected.

"I'll be leaving right away. You held out well."

It was truly a remarkable achievement that they were able to hold out this long against such a formidable army.

But the Marquis of Suffolk answered with a slightly embarrassed expression.

"Oh, it's not like we stopped it entirely on our own. We had some wizard help… … ."

"A wizard?"

"Yes. Thanks to him, the pace of the push has slowed down a bit. He's probably still fighting alone."

Jiselle looked dazed for a moment. Fighting over 200,000 corpses all by herself?

"No way… What is that wizard's name?"

"Jerome, my name is Jerome."

At the familiar name, Giselle smiled without realizing it.

- We have to save people because we have the power. That's natural.

A lazy person who had one strong belief.

- Hey, can you just help me out? Ugh, help me out. Okay?

A man who was one of the 7 powers of the continent, put aside his pride and asked for help from those around him in order to save people.

Because Jerome had no power, he always had to fight alone.

― But you're not good at fighting. I'm in 3rd place and you're in 7th place. If you're scared, stay out. If you're not scared... ... let's go together. Huh.

When his requests didn't go through, he would resort to provocation in that way.

Because he had such beliefs, he did not directly help Giselle with her revenge. At the time, Jerome was also an ally in the fight against the cracks.

But I didn't stop him, saying I understood his feelings. I hoped for his success and promised to meet him again once his revenge was over.

But we never met again.

"Kukuk."

Jiselle laughed quietly. She knew she shouldn't laugh in this atmosphere, but it was hard to hold back.

As expected, he was that guy. Even in such difficult times, he was fighting against so many corpses all by himself.

Thanks to that guy, the advance of the corpses was delayed this much.

Clearly, that friend's beliefs... ...had some influence on me.

I used to live my life thinking only of revenge, but at some point I started saving people and catching monsters together.

That feeling wasn't so bad. The experience back then definitely had some influence on my current life.

Jiselle smiled and rolled away from the window.

"Okay, should we go and help 3rd place?"

Of course, the rankings will change a bit in this life.

* * *

Kwaaaaang!

The magic Jerome cast exploded everywhere, causing corpses to explode.

"Wow, you really are a crazy kid."

Jerome gasped, his hands on his knees.

The enemies who were afraid of becoming undead really rushed forward without sparing their bodies. The Parsali Kingdom army suffered great damage from their reckless attacks.

Because Jerome helped me, I was able to hold on for a while and fight before retreating.

However, all the enemies who attacked without sparing their lives ended up dying. In the first place, Helgenik had no intention of leaving his allies alive.

In this way, all enemies were transformed into undead.

"Ugh, there are too many."

No matter how many times I destroyed them, the corpses continued to rise. Even the corpses of animals and humans that had been buried in the ground long ago rose up.

I tried to make them disappear without a trace, but it didn't have much effect. This was because there were more corpses added in the battlefield.

Moreover, if any fragments remained, they would clump together and move in strange shapes.

"Even if you're a necromancer, this is impossible. It seems like you've used some really ridiculous tricks."

The Helgenics I briefly encountered were strong, but they weren't strong enough to create a large number of undead this quickly.

The Salvation Church is said to use secret techniques that utilize human lives, and it was clear that they used that.

Pfft!

Grrrrrr!

"shit."

I swept away all the corpses in front of me. Two more corpses filled the empty space.

They were high-ranking priests of the Salvation Church who had been killed not long ago.

Paaang!

As Jerome stretched out both hands, a flash of light appeared. The two corpses flew away, a hole ripped through their stomachs.

But the corpses sprang up as if they had not been hit at all.

Kwaaaaah!

The two corpses flew at a tremendous speed and waved their hands. Despite being undead, they were showing strength comparable to that of a superhuman.

"Ah!"

Jerome had no choice but to scrape away all his remaining magical power.

Boohoo!

Mana blades shot out from Jerome's hands and sliced through the corpse's neck.

The corpses, which displayed superhuman strength but had no thoughts, had their necks cut off immediately.

Kwaa! Kwaa! Kwaa!

The heads that fell to the ground made a strange sound and their teeth chattered.

Jerome, who had his body cut in half and was unable to move, made a disgusted expression.

"How on earth do you keep resurrecting them?"

There was something special about these two bodies.

They even tried turning it into powder and burning it to ashes.

However, it appeared again in the form of a strange corpse. Although its appearance was slightly different, its power was the same.

So Jerome stepped back without exerting any more force.

Ugh... … .

The corpses were coming in again. This time, they took quite some time, but this was as far as they could go.

"Phew… … . Can't help it."

Since all the enemy wizards were dead, the power of magic could be fully unleashed, but because there were so many corpses, a lot of magic power was consumed.

After fighting for days without rest, I was now fighting every day with my magical power depleted.

Besides, the corpses of those priests have powers that rival those of superhumans. In order to kill them quickly, you have to expend more magic power.

Oh my!

"Eek."

The undead swarmed from all sides and tried to grab Jerome. Jerome was startled and quickly ran away.

I had run out of magic power from hunting down the corpses of the priests, so I had to dodge and recover a little.

Jerome looked around as he ran away.

There was no sign of life anywhere. There was only the aura of death.

The only sound that could be heard was the corpses crying.

Jerome muttered in that creepy atmosphere.

"He really is a devil."

The dead could not rest in peace. They were all resurrected and their souls were bound and continued to fight.

To use such great talent and ability in this way. He was truly unforgivable.

The same thing happened to Helgenick, who was constantly interrupted by Jerome.

"This guy… … is truly an incredible guy."

The smile had long since disappeared from Helgenik's face, for Jerome had slowed the advance much more than he had expected.

The advance of the vast army of corpses, who neither die nor fear, continues to be blocked.

There were also a ton of corpses lost there. That guy alone got rid of countless corpses in a matter of days.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was truly a one-man army.

Ugh.

Helgenick ground his teeth.

I got as many as 20 Orbs of Life from the Salvation Church. I had scraped together almost all the remaining ones.

It was thanks to that jewel containing hundreds of thousands of lives that it was possible to create such a massive army of corpses.

If you include the two superhumans, it would actually be equivalent to the power of 22 superhumans.

But now there were only five jewels left. I had consumed a lot of them as I continued to create corpses.

In particular, it was necessary to use more force to revive the corpse of a superhuman.

If I had written it differently, I could have created more corpses, but it was something I had to do to drain that monstrous being's magic power.

"My pride is a little hurt."

I knew he was strong, but I didn't know he could stop him to this extent.

I thought that if I had fought him without the Orb of Life, I would have been in quite a bit of danger.

Crispy!

One of the Orbs of Life floating in front of him shattered and released a black energy.

The energy seeped into Helgenik's nose and mouth.

"Hmm… … Good. This is truly amazing."

The energy of the Salvation Church was very similar to my own energy. It wasn't exactly the same, but I had a strong feeling that they had the same source power.

I wanted to absorb this energy, but it was impossible. It was similar, but it never merged.

However, it was possible to mass-produce corpses using this energy. After all, it was an energy based on people's life force and death.

Helgenik spread his arms and radiated energy.

The ominous aura spread out in all directions, obscuring the light of the sky.

Ugh... Ugh...

The corpses that had fallen and been destroyed were restored and stood up again. The fragments that had been torn to pieces by magic were gathered together and staggered.

The Immortal Army never dies. They never need to eat or rest.

That's why it never stops.

It will keep moving until everything is dead.

Only then did Helgenick smile.

"Next time we meet, I will definitely kill you."

He still has four jewels left.

On the other hand, Jerome must have been quite tired by now, as the number of corpses disappearing at his hands was decreasing.

It seemed like it was time to kill that troublemaker.