Chapter 11: Dead or Alive

"Hurry up and run," I told the dark elf commander and her subordinates, who were stunned by the exchange between Tsukishima and myself.

"You know one of Evelyn's Chosen? She knows you?"

"We're old enemies." I closed my eyes briefly, bitterly recalling her betrayal along with Minamoto Kureha. "I have a score to settle with her."

"Score to settle? You're just trash. Die!"

Tsukishima Tomoyo blasted my Dark Barrier with another of her corruptive energies. Another explosion flared up in the clearing, but had little effect.

"Hurry up and leave," I told the dazed demons, who were still rooted in a stupor. "I can't hold her off forever."

"Are you kidding me?" the leader snapped. "How do I now you aren't planning to trick us? Acting like enemies in front of us to prove your loyalty, but you're actually secretly collaborating with her so that you can infiltrate us!"

It seemed that my Machiavellian Charisma wasn't working. Even with the 50% bonus, its level wasn't high enough to convince the dark elf commander to obey me. So there were restrictions, after all. It wasn't as simple as me getting cheat abilities.

I was worried about how that would translate into a battle between myself and the more experienced Tsukishima, but I decided to gamble everything on it.

"If you want to remain behind and get caught in the crossfire, be my guest," I replied with a shrug. "But I'm not going to waste energy or time protecting you guys."

"Whoa!"

"Let's go!"

The demonic subordinates were not as stubborn as their commander, and were already fleeing when another blast from Tsukishima flared against my barrier. Once they were out of harm's way, I dismissed the barrier.

"Ah!"

The commander was forced to leap away when Tsukishima's spell lanced toward her. As for me, I dove in the opposite direction, rolling on the floor and closing in the distance.

"You think I'll let you? Shadow Bind!"

Slamming the blunt end of her magical staff against the ground, Tsukishima unleased dozens of shadowy tendrils from the ground, the shadows snaking upward to ensnare me. Drawing my sword, I sliced through them.

"What…? How is he slicing through my Shadow Bind?"

Tsukishima's eyes widened momentarily as she watched me cleave through her network of shadows. Relying on Dark Weapon Mastery to dictate my movements, I subconsciously weaved through the shadows and closed in on my opponent. Gritting her teeth, Tsukishima raised her staff and hurled a bolt of corrosive energy at me.

I was too close to dodge so I merely cut through the bolt with my sword. Tsukishima burst out laughing when she saw that.

"How naïve. My Dark Decay spell will destroy whatever it comes into contact with. Even your weapon!"

I said nothing and continued charging ahead. Tsukishima blinked in disbelief when I slashed at her and instinctively raised her staff to parry the blow. I pressed on, driving her back, then spun away when the tip of her staff glowed to blast me at pointblank range, and kicked her in the midriff. Tsukishima staggered backward, but with a howl, she cracked her staff against the ground and bathed me in a wave of dark energy.

"Fetid Field!"

I stumbled backward, trying to cut through the black wave with my sword, but Tsukishima sent another bolt of energy right into my gut, sending me hurtling several meters backward. I crashed into a tree, the impact uprooting it and causing it to fall on top of me in a shower of splinters.

"Ugh…"

"How are you still alive?" Tsukishima demanded as she studied me keenly. Despite receiving her spells directly, there was no sign of decay or corruption. I had only suffered physical injuries at best. Even my sword was still in one piece.

"Because you're weak?" I offered. Tsukishima scowled and took another step forward, her staff glowing ominously.

"Just die already!"

She blasted me with another bolt of her Dark Decay, but I merely deflected it with my sword. The dark elf commander, who lingered close by, jumped when the deflected beam struck the ground near her, causing the grass to blacken and wilt immediately.

"How…?"

Both girls were staring at me skeptically now, bewildered over my apparent immunity to Tsukishima's spells and curses. I wiped the blood from my mouth and shrugged.

"I wonder. Like I said, maybe you're too weak."

In reality, I knew the reason. My Lord of Darkness special ability, which increased my resistance to dark-type spells by 200%. With such an overpowered buff, the effects of Tsukishima's corrosive spells were drastically reduced.

That didn't mean I was completely immune to it, though. I could feel pain shooting across my body as the eldritch energies ate their way through my system. I could suppress them and heal myself after a while, but under constant bombardment, I would eventually succumb to the accumulated weight of Tsukishima's curses despite my unnaturally high resistance to her affinity. I needed to think of a way to beat her before that. In a battle of attrition, Tsukishima would surely have the upper hand.

However, she didn't need to know that.

I charged forward with my sword, slashing at Tsukishima as best as I could. She parried it with her staff, and then twirled it with surprising skill, sweeping the end at me and tripping me up. I was forced to jump over her staff, but she then abruptly changed the direction of her attack and thrust the blunt end of her staff at me. I knocked it away with the hilt of my sword, but she spun it around and cracked it against my head.

"Gah!"

I staggered, but managed to recover just in time to block the next attack. However, despite being a girl, Tsukishima was clearly physically stronger than I was. Perhaps it was all the training she received, or some form of magical enhancement. Whatever the case, I realized that I couldn't beat her in a contest of brute strength.

"Huff!"

Tsukishima blasted me with another Fetid Field spell again before spinning around and cracking her staff against my skull. I barely managed to block the long, thick weapon with my sword, but its blade snapped.

"…!"

"Hah! Finally! I told you that your sword will eventually be destroyed by my spell!"

Crowing, Tsukishima struck me with her staff. Despite crossing my arms and blocking the blow, the raw power behind Tsukishima's struck hurled me across the clearing and sent me crashing into the woods, near the dark elf's position.

"Ugh…"

Groaning, I lay in the small crater that I had smashed into, wincing from the tremendous pain that threatened to drown my consciousness in a crimson haze. I tried to stand, but I found that my arms were broken. Tsukishima's blow had shattered the bones on my arms, and by God, did it hurt like hell. I almost blacked out from the pain, falling back onto the ground.

"Hey! Are you all right?"

"Y…yeah." I glanced at her with a frown. "You're still here? Aren't you afraid of getting caught up in our fight?"

"You seem confident," the dark elf countered. "Why? The opponent is a Chosen of the goddess of humans, Evelyn, you know? And you're getting beaten up so one-sidedly! That's enough, you've proven your loyalty. It's time to retreat to safety!"

"Tsukishima will catch up with us," I replied wearily. "There's no way we can outrun her. I've to defeat her here and now."

"Where are you getting all that confidence from?" the commander watched me curiously, her fingers tightening around her staff. "You…don't seem to be one of us."

"I'm not. But I'm not one of them either." My arms had finally straightened up, and I flinched as the Regeneration kicked in, piecing the fragments of my broken bones together and knitting torn flesh and muscle. The dark elf gazed at the astonishing sight, dumbfounded.

"High-speed regeneration?"

"I told you I'm an undead." Testing my arms warily, I confirmed that they were restored before I hopped back to my feet. "Don't worry. I'll show you that I can defeat a hero."

"Heh…if you really can pull that off, I'll want to watch it to the end." The commander stared at me, steely resolve hardening in her eyes. "It's worth the risk."

I didn't need her to explain the reason. Any demon who could defeat a hero would spark hope in the defeated demon's army and prove that they were capable of mounting a comeback despite the fall of their lord. He would be a symbol, a hero for the demons who would carry the burden of the entire race on his back.

I didn't want such a role, but if it would gain me an army and a large number of allies, then I would do whatever it took.

"What are you guys talking about here?"

Tsukishima Tomoyo strolled through the woods. Raising her staff, she fired another bolt of corrosive energy at me, but I merely slapped it away with my bare hands. My skin singed a little, but didn't decay like the grass and trees around me. Tsukishima narrowed her eyes as she stopped to study me. Holding her staff with both hands, she prepared to attack.

"I don't know how you're resisting my curses, but it seems that physical attacks are still effective against you. Well, it'll be great to bludgeon trash like you to death."

"You really enjoy thrashing trash, don't you?" I remarked wryly.

"Shut up!" Tsukishima screamed and flung herself at me. I dove to the side and hit the ground, rolling, even as her staff left craters in the ground. Yanking her staff up, Tsukishima swung the deadly weapon in my direction, attempting to club me to death. I jumped back, the tip of her staff just narrowly grazing my chest.

"Your staff is understaffed."

"I told you to shut up! You think you're funny?"

Not at all amused by my jokes, Tsukishima unleased another spell. I shielded myself with my arms, expecting them to be another bolt of Dark Decay or Fetid Field, but this time it was a barrage of shadowy phantoms that curled into the shape of blades.

"Spectral Swords!"

"Argh!"

I cried out as the shadowy blades twisted and lashed out in flexible, twisting patterns, snaking out to slash me in several different places. My blood splattered the grass and ground and I felt to my knees, only for another blade to cut me in the neck.

"Gah!"

I tried to evade the onslaught of Spectral Swords, but there were far too many of them. They sliced and diced me, cutting me in several places. While I struggled to escape the deadly network of slashing specters, Tomoyo closed in and struck me with her staff. I could barely bring my arms up in time to block the blow before I was hurled across the clearing.

"Damn it…"

I lay on the ground, wheezing. Blood dripped from multiple wounds, but they were slowly closing up, the flesh knitting together and stopping the bleeding. My arms, numbed from the parry, were slowly recovering.

But that wasn't enough. That wasn't enough at all.

Slowly rising to my feet, I found myself knee-deep in the dead. The victims of Tsukishima's spell from earlier lay strewn around me, their corpses lying, twisted in unnatural angles. Their eyes stared upward hollowly at the skies, and their mouths were frozen in rage and despair. I closed my eyes, but I could still see them in my mind, demanding vengeance on the one who slew them.

"I see. So you want revenge too, huh?"

I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. Yeah, I wasn't the only one who wanted revenge. I wasn't the only one who was killed by my classmates. They had slaughtered and killed so many demons, slew their king, and almost driven them to annihilation. They had committed so many atrocities against the demons that almost the entire race was braying for their blood.

"Don't worry. I'll give it to you. I'll allow you guys to have your revenge."

"What are you laughing about? Have you finally gone mad?"

Tsukishima snarled as she approached me, her staff pointed toward me. Eldritch energies crackled at the end, getting ready to fire.

"I only have one condition. Lend me your power."

"Are you talking in your sleep? Die! Just like the pathetic scum you are!" Tsukishima mocked me. "Dying with all those monsters…that is indeed the most fitting end for trash like you!"

She unleashed a bolt of corrosive energy in my direction, but this was much larger than the ones before. Like a demonic fireball, the black nova slammed into my position and exploded, engulfing the entire area in arcane flames.

"Stupid trash. You should never have fought back and made idiotic jokes. Trash like you should accept their role and let themselves get bullied. I never understood why you decide to rebel against your fated role, but…for disrupting the status quo, you'll have to pay the price with your life."

"And who gets to decide whose fated role is whose, who gets to bully, and who gets bullied? You? Kobayashi?"

Tsukishima's eyes widened when she heard my voice drifting out from the flames. As the smoke cleared, she caught sight of me standing unscathed in a crater, all the corpses that had piled up around me were no longer strewn across the ground in untidy heaps. They had unsteadily risen to their feet and formed neat rows beside me.

Reanimation. I had reanimated the dead and bestowed upon them unnatural life. Or in simpler terms, I had turned the corpses into zombies.

"You…what the hell are you?"

I didn't reply. I had no obligation to. That said, the commander of the small demon squadron stood to the side, her hands covering her mouth.

"Lich…you really are a lich!"

I told you I would prove it to you somehow.

"You've gone and done it," I declared, wiping the blood from my mouth. "Killing a bunch of innocent demon soldiers. Thanks to that, they have quite the grudge against you." Smiling, I turned to my newly resurrected army of zombies before pointing in Tsukishima's direction. "I promised you revenge, guys. You can go have it."

With a groan, the zombies began shambling toward Tsukishima. Even though they were freshly dead, the zombies were in advanced states of decay, their skin rotting off and their flesh putrefying, because of Tsukishima's corrosive spells. Thanks to that, they looked like actual zombies, their putrid flesh in varying colors, and their figures coming in all shapes and sizes.

"So what?"

Despite the terrifying sight approaching her, Tsukishima remained defiant. Holding her staff, she pointed it at them.

"They're just zombies. They're easy to kill."

With a Fetid Field, she blasted scores of zombies apart. But more kept on coming, shambling toward her. Tsukishima gritted her teeth and scorched more zombies apart with her spells, but they kept on coming. What they lacked in strength and durability, they more than made up in numbers.

"…"

The dark elf commander had fallen into silence, completely overwhelmed by the terrifying spectacle. Her expression was filled with disgust, revulsion and sorrow, and she turned away with tears in her eyes, unable to bear the sight of her former men ambling forward as mindless undead, shadows of their original selves.

"I'm sorry," I told her. "But that was necessary. That's the only way I can win."

"No. I understand."

The dark elf commander was clenching her fists, but despite bravely looking at me and nodding in understanding, I could see that her hands were trembling violently.

"This was why I told you to go," I muttered. The dark elf heard that, but she shook her head.

"Thank you. I appreciate your sentiments…but I have to see this. These are my men. I will watch over them to the very end, whether they're dead or alive. All I ask is…" she glared at me, refusing to waver. "…that you release them from this…this contract once this battle is over."

"I could only revive them because I agreed to give them a chance at revenge," I replied. "Once they've defeated the enemy in front of them, that pact is fulfilled. They will no longer have any reason to remain on this world. They will pass on."

The commander nodded shortly, her teeth gritted. "Thank you."

"Hah! What revenge are you talking about?"

With a swipe of her staff, Tsukishima sent a horde of zombies flying.

"You think you can defeat me with a horde of zombies? Do you know who you're dealing with? I'm one of the legendary heroes! Enemies of such a level will never be able to scratch me!"

She blasted another pack of zombies to smithereens with her spells, but the horde that she knocked down with her staff were already rising back up and crawling toward her. Disgusted, she cracked the skull of one of them before twirling her staff and keeping them at bay. Even as a dark mage, Tsukishima's melee skills were formidable.

"She's right. There's no way they can defeat a hero, no matter how many of them there are."

The commander's voice was quivering as she witnessed her former subordinates beaten, blown apart and destroyed by the "hero".

"Zombies are just fodder. You think such weak monsters can defeat me?" Tsukishima was laughing and she knocked another bunch of them away with her staff and bathed a trio in corrupting flames. "If this is the best you can do, you're dead."

"That's not your trump card, is it?" the commander asked worriedly. I merely smiled.

"Relax. This is my trump card."

Stepping forward, I raised my hand. Closing my eyes, I gathered all my magical energy into my right hand, which began to glow golden.

"Rise."

At my command, the entire area around me glowed, awash with golden magical energy. Behind me, a gigantic gravestone the shape of a crucifix burst out of the ground, towering over me at over eight meters. A golden symbol glowed eerily in the cross-junction, illuminating the gray, stony surface of the tomb marker.

"What is this?"

It wasn't just behind me. Tsukishima was forced to jump away as a gravestone burst out from beneath her feet. Everywhere around us, countless gravestones emerged from the ground, tearing the earth apart and rising toward the skies. Even the dark elf commander had to evade with a similar tombstone erupted near her position.

"Thousand Astral Graves," I replied, completing the incantation. "1,008 tombstones will rise from the ground."

"What ability is this?!"

"My lord…this looks amazing!"

From a distance, the fleeing survivors of the dark elf's platoon stopped to admire the impressive view. Several of them had to evade the gravestones that burst out of the ground they were standing on. I stood where I was, the sole figure unaffected by the eruption of so many tombstones.

Wreathed amidst a golden aura, I stood defiantly as countless tombstones, of varying shapes and heights, towered over the battlefield, casting the entire place in shadow. Just as well, for the sun had finally decided to set, leaving my golden magic as the only source of illumination. Each tombstone sported different symbols of various designs and patterns. Stars, eyes, triangles, blades – there were twelve different patterns for the glowing, golden symbols.

As the maelstrom of golden energy raged around me, I smiled.

"This is my battlefield."