Chapter 128
With a single kick, the carriage wall was cleanly blown open. Maelyn trembled as she stared at the man clad in skeletal armor.
‘Who... what is this guy?’
While she was frozen in fear, the man turned toward Maelyn. Without hesitation, he approached and reached out his arm.
“Kuh!”
She clenched her eyes shut and turned her head away. But then, an arm wrapped around her waist, and both her legs were suddenly lifted off the ground.
It was only after a moment that she realized her body was being carried, tucked under the man’s arm.
‘Ugh! What kind of position is this? It’s so embarrassing!’
She wanted to scream, but the sheer pressure radiating from the man was so immense she couldn’t even open her mouth.
Would it be best not to resist? The man quickly checked to make sure Maelyn was secure at his side, then jumped out of the moving carriage.
“Kyaaaaaaa!”
The rush of speed was overwhelming, and she couldn’t regain her senses. The scenery around her was rapidly receding.
Then, thud, she felt her feet land on the dirt. Maelyn cautiously opened her eyes.
“......!”
Ahead, she saw the old man who had been thrown out of the carriage crawling on the ground. Blood was pouring from his nose and mouth, and one of his legs was twisted at an unnatural angle.
Trembling, he forced himself upright.
“Grrrgh! Damn it! Who the hell are you? Who sent you?!”
“......”
The man didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly lowered Maelyn to the ground. Then he raised the white greatsword in his right hand and tilted his body to the side.
A vicious killing intent surged from his entire body.
‘How dare you......!’
Though he had retired, Javier had once been a necromancer notorious for countless atrocities.
He slammed his staff against the ground with a loud thud, and skeletons poured forth from subspace.
Maelyn, who had been lying on the ground, lifted her head.
They were all medium-class skeletons, each over three meters tall and armed with massive spears, more than twenty in total. He was a necromancer capable of operating at least at a squad level.
‘That perverted old man, he’s no ordinary opponent!’
Shhhhhhrrrrrrk!
A white sword slash cleaved through the air in a straight line.
It felt like a fierce gust of wind had blown, and in the next instant, all the skeletons were sent flying across the ground.
“......Huh?”
An idiotic noise escaped Javier’s lips.
Maelyn also stared at the man in shock.
‘Wh-what did he just do?!’
The man casually rested the greatsword on his shoulder and began walking toward Javier. In a panic, Javier thrust his hand forward.
‘Restoration!’
But the skeletons lying on the ground remained still.
No matter how many times he tried to cast restoration, the result was the same. Only the sound of rattling bones could be heard; none of them rose.
‘The sword must be imbued with a strange black magic. This level of power!’
Sending all his main summons, the Meat Golems, to Magnus had been a mistake. He hadn’t expected a battle to break out here.
There was no choice now. He had to resort to his final measure.
He reached inside his robes and activated the black magic circle drawn on his chest.
“Urgh!”
Javier clutched his throat and staggered, then began vomiting grotesque chunks of flesh.
As if his nutrients were being drained, his body began to wither and shrivel like a mummy, while the flesh he regurgitated absorbed his essence and continued to grow larger.
Maelyn’s face twisted in horror.
‘What the hell was he growing inside himself?!’
Splorch! Crackle—crackcrackcrack!
It was a monstrous lifeform made entirely of what looked like organs. Its body length surpassed three meters, and its limbs bulged grotesquely with bundled tissue.
KWOAAAAARRR!
The grotesque creature let out a hideous roar. Its entire body was dyed in pure black, and sharp bones jutted out from both arms.
“Get back!”
Maelyn shouted.
“That thing’s immobile! There’s no need to fight it directly here—!”
Swish!
The man swung his greatsword.
A white line was drawn diagonally from the monster’s shoulder to its waist, and its upper body slid cleanly off and crashed to the ground.
‘In a single strike?!’
Maelyn’s pupils shook as if hit by an earthquake. The man reversed his grip on the greatsword and lowered his stance.
Swishswishswish!
Left slash, right slash, spinning diagonal slash.
Dozens of fine white lines sliced across the monster’s body.
With grotesque tearing sounds, the creature's body fell apart into countless chunks of flesh that scattered and thudded to the ground.
“Ah......”
Maelyn trembled in awe.
Overwhelming strength.
A grotesque creature crafted by a professional necromancer at the cost of his life was brought down as if it were a mere toy.
‘Just who... is this man?’
He rested the greatsword on his shoulder again and looked at Maelyn.
Her shoulders flinched.
Just seeing that skeletal helmet, just seeing the blue smoke flowing from his eyes, filled her with fear. He exuded the presence of a being beyond human.
As the man approached, Maelyn closed her eyes and sharply turned her head.
‘Ugh, why am I suddenly such a coward?’
Of course, part of it was the pressure he exuded, but it was also because until now, she had always believed her Keyzen uniform was like invincible armor. In the Dark Alliance, just wearing that uniform meant no one dared touch her.
But that illusion had just been shattered by Javier. She had nearly been defiled, nearly sold off as a corpse.
Deathland was a place where common sense didn’t apply. Being a Keyzen student didn’t make one invincible. Who knew what this man might do next? The thought alone was terrifying.
Slide.
‘That again?!’
Her face turned red.
Once again, the man tucked Maelyn under his arm, crouched down, and leapt into the sky.
Maelyn’s scream echoed like a siren.
Maelyn had no idea what was happening as she was whisked away.
The scenery around them zoomed past. The fierce headwind made it difficult to even open her eyes.
“......?”
Soon, their speed gradually slowed, and the man landed on the ground.
Maelyn quickly opened her eyes and looked around. She didn’t know exactly where they were, but in the distance, there was a path leading to the sewers.
Swish.
The man set her down and gestured.
‘Turn around?’
She didn’t seem to have a choice.
Lying on her stomach, she pushed herself up to her knees and turned around. The man raised his greatsword.
Slice.
The blade slid through the rope. Then he lightly pricked the back of her hand with the tip of the sword, and the magic circle shattered with a clang.
It seemed to have been a curse. As her Core reactivated, darkness began circulating through her body again.
Now freed, Maelyn looked up at the man with a dazed expression.
‘Is he... really just helping me out of pure intention?’
The man turned away without hesitation, his cloak fluttering behind him.
“W-wait a minute!”
Maelyn jumped up and shouted.
“Thank you for saving my life! If it’s alright with you, I’d really like to repay you somehow!”
The man stopped in his tracks, turning only his head to glance back.
Even after seeing him several times, that gaze still made her shrink back, but she mustered her courage and placed a hand over her chest.
“I’m a student of Keyzen, and affiliated with the Ivory Tower. My name is Maelyn Villene. If there’s anything you desire—”
[Return to your friends.]
Maelyn flinched at the unfamiliar voice. It wasn’t human—it was a low, cold tone, unlike any person’s.
[Two of them are lying unconscious in the sewers.]
“Ah......!”
The faces of her team members flashed through her mind.
Were they okay? But... two of them? What about the last one?
[A man was captured just like you.]
He spoke.
[But he escaped on his own and went into the sewers. He should arrive in a few hours.]
Escaping on his own, as if it were nothing.
That guy was Simon.
Just as Maelyn was thinking that, the man began walking again.
Maelyn suddenly felt anxious.
Was he really going to leave just like that? She wanted to know at least something about him—anything.
“Your name!!”
She raised her voice.
“Please, just tell me your name! I’m begging you!”
[...]
The man stopped silently. Then, without turning back, he answered briefly.
[Feon.]
Boom!
He extended his bent knees, and his body soared into the sky. Watching him disappear into the darkness, Maelyn clasped her hands with a flushed face.
‘...We’ll meet again, right?’
Her heart thumped rapidly as she gazed at his fading figure.
Running along the treetops, Simon took off Feer’s skull helmet and slung it over his back. Then he let out a deep, satisfying sigh.
“Whew, I thought I was going to get caught!”
[Kuhuhuhu! Well done, boy!]
It all started like this.
After Prince kidnapped Maelyn, Simon went to interrogate the humans Feer had captured at the mansion.
Getting them to talk wasn’t difficult. With Feer tapping their necks with a knife and creating an atmosphere of fear, they quickly confessed.
They revealed that they were employees working for a retired necromancer named Javier, and that they were running a large-scale corpse delivery business.
When Simon asked if they had seen a female student in a Keyzen uniform, they shook their heads.
However, they added that if such a girl were to fall into Javier’s hands from Prince, she would be loaded onto a carriage and sent to a campsite some distance from there.
The mansion, they said, would soon become a battlefield.
—What do you mean, “become a battlefield”?
At that question, the captives hesitated. Then came a bit of knife dancing from Feer, and trembling, they revealed a hidden truth behind recent events.
Javier was maintaining a cooperative relationship with both of the Deathland’s two major Ancient Undead, Prince and Magnus.
His final goal was to have Magnus eliminate Prince, and then eliminate Magnus himself to claim Prince’s Crown.
Now that he had uncovered the full story, Simon’s top priority was still to rescue the kidnapped Maelyn.
Rather than going straight to the mansion, he figured it would be best to infiltrate during the upcoming war between Prince and Magnus, that would maximize his chances of success.
In the meantime, Simon decided to check out the campsite the captives had mentioned.
He took off his Keyzen uniform and changed into the captives’ clothes, then headed toward Javier’s campsite. On the way, he spotted a carriage heading straight there.
Without hesitation, Simon ambushed it and managed to rescue Maelyn just in the nick of time.
[Kuhuhu! But hey, boy!]
Feer spoke.
[What was that “Feon” you said when the girl asked for your name?]
Simon blushed and cleared his throat.
“Ah, well... I was going to say Feer at first, but I thought that might complicate things. So I just kind of mixed Feer and my name, Simon, together and said Feon.”
[Kuhuhuhu!]
“Enough of that story, let’s get to the mansion already!”
The war between Prince and Magnus, this was a stroke of luck for Simon.
He saw it as a chance to capture the third Ancient Undead, the one who had been uncooperative in joining the Legion.
When Simon looked up, he could see the mansion burning beyond the dense forest.
“Looks like the war’s already begun.”
Superb.