'I... I misjudged him.'
Shandil regretted the fact that he attempted to see Eren through his lens. He believed that he could take on Eren for quite some time before calling it quits. He knew he couldn't win against him. He was not so weak as to not be able to escape him either.
This was considering Eren and Shandil fought seriously and Eren did not have any trump cards he hadn't used in the battle yet. But Shandil did not think that the butcher was okay with someone else doing his job for him. He had employed Kirin just at the right time to get rid of Shandil when he was at his most vulnerable.
Shandil was just a quasi-C-Rank entity while Kirin had the powers of a Monster Overlord, which made her as powerful as an Expert ranker. The foreign mana invasion initiated by her quickly took over his mana circuits and wreaked havoc inside him. Despite his best efforts, Shandil couldn't launch even a modest retaliation.
Eren appeared in front of Shandil and gripped his neck. He brought him closer and made him look him in the eye before speaking up.
"You should have seen this coming after studying me so much, you know. Why would I keep the fact that I'm the Osan Woods' Butcher hidden all this time and then allow you to ruin everything I worked for just because you told me to? It doesn't even make sense.
Royal scions of Layos are better than the future backbone of this kingdom. But that is only when it comes to the right approach, planning, and battle capabilities.
When it comes to acting like brain-dead idiots who think that everyone should obey them just because they said so, you are all the same. Most of you don't understand that royalty doesn't mean omnipotence."
The light in Shandil's eyes was fading. But he looked at Eren with a gaze coated in injustice. The butcher laughed as he read Shandil's mind in real-time.
"I should listen to you just because you have leverage over me? What if I decide to destroy you along with that leverage? Have you ever thought about that?
Too much royal power has blinded you into believing the world and everyone in it will bend to your will. And maybe that's true for the most part.
But that shit doesn't work for me. Rest assured though. You have a very high potential as a living undead. I'll make sure to do a better job than what I did with Meera."
Shandil closed his eyes as he listened to Eren's words. It sounded like a lullaby to him which was very comforting and thought-provoking. Sandhill's thoughts drifted into an unknown place when Eren finished speaking with him.
Eren injected his wrath mana into Shandil's compromised system as he was slowly losing consciousness. He was still alive despite his heart being pierced. But Eren had managed to make him drift to sleep and prolong his death by reducing his heartbeats. Then Eren snapped his fingers and healed his heart just enough so Shandil wouldn't die.
Eren wanted to create a living undead, just as he had told the guy. Progress in his ranking journey as well as his soul strengthening had allowed him to create another living undead like Meera. And he had the confidence to do an even better job than last time.
Eren couldn't make the guy progress in his ranking journey when he turned him into a living undead. So he was planning to forcefully increase his rank at the cost of his life. He had the necessary potions to do so. When the procedure is completed and the ritual is over, Shandil will turn into a living undead of Expert rank status.
"Lord Husband, should I cull the rest of the rankers as well?"
Kirin looked around while holding the now-sleeping Shandil by his shoulder. She let him drop to the floor when Eren finished injecting him with his wrath mana. He controlled the wrath mana in such a way that it wouldn't turn Shandil into a wrath creature. It would just temper his flesh so that Eren could obtain better results from the living undead ritual.
Eren followed Kirin's gaze and turned around. His summons had stood their ground for the most part. Some rankers, however, had been able to overcome them. It was just that they couldn't run away from their meaningless fights because of the active prism barrier.
Eren nodded his head and then looked at Shandil's fallen body before speaking up.
"Yeah. Go ahead, dear. I'll have to look after my merc."
Eren watched as Kirin disappeared from her position almost instantly. She then appeared right behind a certain ranker before using her fire chains to neutralize him. She started using her elemental attainments to tackle multiple opponents at once.
Ivor was done with half of the rankers he was supposed to finish as well. His pride armor kept him safe while dealing with multiple Adept rankers with the same level of toughness as him if not more.
Adept-ranked entities and beyond were difficult to kill even by rankers of the same rank as them. One needed to have an overwhelming advantage in terms of higher rank or better weapons to initiate a kill. To kill their opponents, one had to possess powerful powers like the Sin Series Abilities.
This was why Eren didn't fight Shandil directly even though he knew he could win. It wasn't about winning or losing the fight. It was about whether Shandil survived the fight or not.
The butcher couldn't finish Shandil quickly even if he tried his best. The elf was too talented to be done in a few minutes. Shandil had a high chance of escaping even the prism barrier they had put up given enough time. After all, Shandil had royal status and would have been given a lot of precautionary items to carry with him.
When Eren checked Shandil's storage space, he found out that his decision was right on the mark. Handil had at least three surefire ways to escape the prism barrier.
'Thanks for being so generous, Mr. Royal Elf. I'll make good use of your stuff.'
The butcher shamelessly claimed Shandil's possessions for himself along with the mask artifact he had. After all, his potential undead didn't need to have worldly possessions weighing him down.
Eren was willing carry Shandil's burden by himself. The butcher was very accommodating in that regard.
