The party members quickly dismounted and ran towards the scene when they saw a monster that spewed fire from its four-split face and Ruon who shattered the monster’s face.
Kyle, who arrived first, frowned as he looked down at the fallen monster.
“What is this thing?”
“It’s a ragdoll corpse. Judging by the skill, it’s Hella’s work. That crazy bitch… Did she really lose her mind?”
Igor muttered with a sour face at Tarwen’s cold voice.
“She did a monstrous deed. Did she know we were coming here, and did Yoram set this up beforehand?”
Tarwen shook her head slightly at the question.
“No, Yoram doesn’t mess with the slums. The ones who hit rock bottom have some value to him. He doesn’t need to treat them as disposable pieces that he can use and throw away. That was the unwritten rule… But Hella broke it.”
She continued to speak as she glared at the desolate village.
“Why would she wait for us in the slums, risking her neck, when she could have prepared everything with Yoram? It doesn’t look like a meticulous plan of Fleur. It’s clear that Hella acted on her own.”
Ruon brushed off the blood on his hand with an indifferent expression and retorted.
“It’s better this way. I would have had a hard time holding back if she just sent corpses from afar again.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he walked briskly towards the village, and the party members who were used to his decisive steps naturally followed him.
“You guys wait here!”
The horses obediently blinked their eyes and stayed in place at the shout of the dwarf druid, but Nightmare rolled his eyes and came closer.
Strabo laughed out loud.
“Yeah! You’re the exception!”
With that, the party, including the black horse, entered the lifeless village.
The atmosphere of the village, which looked gloomy from afar, was even more dismal up close.
The buildings that were crammed together were all so shoddy that it seemed impossible to live a normal life in them, and the ground was littered with leftover food scraps.
It looked more like a shantytown where vagrants gathered than a proper village.
Then Tarwen opened her mouth. Her voice was small, but the village was so quiet that everyone could hear her clearly.
“This is where the lowest of the low lived in the slums. They were oppressed and exploited, barely clinging to their lives.”
Kyle kicked a shriveled apple and replied.
“But there’s no one here now.”
As they walked further inside, the scenery of the village changed drastically.
The structures that barely had a shape were replaced by decent buildings that looked suitable for human habitation, and among them, there were some shops with signs that looked like inns or general stores.
But there was still no one.
As the party crossed the eerie village and stepped into an open space that looked like a square, a sudden gust of wind blew between the buildings.
Dirt dust swirled and scattered wildly, and Tarwen wetted her cloak and shouted.
“Ti-Brintas!”
A flash of light came from her fingertips, and the wind that surrounded the party and slowly closed in stopped in its tracks. As if it was blocked by an invisible wall.
But Ruon, who had a superhuman sense, immediately realized that she didn’t just create a shield, but made another wind that rotated in the opposite direction to cancel out the incoming gust.
Tarwen won the power struggle that lasted for a while. As the light that started from her fingertips spread to her whole hand, the condensed air pushed outward and swept the surroundings with a tremendous roar.
Kwang-!
The nearby building windows shattered all at once, and the flying gravel stuck densely between the building walls. The whirlwind that turned the vicinity into a wasteland lost its strength and disappeared as if it had no interest in the spectacle it created.
Clap-clap-clap-
Someone’s clapping sound was heard in the noisy square. Someone came with a smile from the opposite side of the street.
It was a woman with long hair that fell calmly to her waist and sharp eyes that contrasted with it.
“It’s amazing that you still have the leeway to counter the spell. To have that much stamina even after implanting such a magic circle in your body… You’re not just a promising candidate that Fleur brought personally. Right?”
Tarwen furrowed her brows at the face of the other person who licked her thick lips with a bright red tongue.
As she pursed her lips with a mixture of disgust and anger, a dagger that cut through the air faster than that pierced the woman’s throat deeply.
“Enough is enough.”
Ruon muttered to himself and reached out to the corpse that fell without even a scream. As if there was an invisible string, he lightly caught the returning dagger and shrugged his shoulders at the fairy who stared at him.
“I’m sick of seeing you blabbering with someone else’s body.”
Then the fallen corpse began to creak and rise up.
Yeah, it’s not surprising anymore.
The woman who supported her half-torn neck with her palm scanned the faces of the party with her eyes that flickered with madness.
She giggled and said.
“There are a lot of unfamiliar faces. Tarwen, are these the ones you seduced with your half-breed face? I don’t think I have enough bodies for this. I wonder if I can open my eyes in the morning, I’m so tired.”
Tarwen raised her middle finger and retorted.
“Shut up, Hella. You’ll be the first witch to die in Yoram today. I’ll make you pay for coming here alone without fear.”
The woman, Hella, burst into laughter when she heard that. Ruon couldn’t understand how she could make any sound, since her throat and vocal cords had been severed.
She stopped laughing and said,
“You’re the stupid one. You ran away like a scared rat, but you came back on your own. Why? Did you get some confidence because the demon slayer is by your side?”
She smirked wickedly as she saw Tarwen’s expression change.
“Did you think I didn’t know? You’re such a pathetic girl… You won’t be the one dying today-”
A shower of light, like a meteor shower, swallowed Hella’s body and cut off her words. When the explosions subsided, all that was left of Hella was a lump of flesh that had lost its human shape.
Ruon muttered as he put the arrow back in his quiver.
“That’s better.”
Then Tarwen, who had been staring at the mangled corpse, narrowed her eyes.
“Something’s wrong.”
She looked around and repeated,
“Something’s wrong.”
Strabo’s eyes widened at her uneasy tone.
“What’s wrong? What’s the problem?”
“Hella is dead.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“That corpse is not a fake.”
Igor stepped forward and asked,
“Are you saying that the witch who died there is the real one?”
“Yes. I thought she had transferred her consciousness to a dead body… But she didn’t.”
Ruon said.
“She doesn’t seem dead, though.”
His reason was simple. He didn’t get any experience points. Of course, Tarwen didn’t know that, so she nodded and continued.
“You’re right. That was an empty shell. That’s why it was indistinguishable from a corpse. She had separated her soul from the beginning. Then where did her soul go? Why did she give up her body…”
She was babbling to herself when she suddenly shuddered. A small word escaped from her slowly opening lips.
“Fusion?”
That’s when it happened. A thunderous sound pierced their ears. It sounded like hundreds of riders galloping on horses. Strabo lifted his head and muttered.
“What’s that? It’s dark, but why is there sudden thunder…”
Before he could finish, a white lightning bolt zigzagged across the sky and flew towards them. It was not a natural lightning. If it was, even Ruon would have been unable to see and react to it.
He was the only one among the group who saw the light beam that smashed a two-story building and came flying. He displayed an amazing concentration and slowed down time artificially.
In the split seconds that followed, Ruon hesitated.
The long, twisted light beam had hundreds of thin branches that aimed at the whole group. He had only two choices.
Cut or dodge.
He didn’t need to consider the latter, so he lifted his rune sword with one hand and slashed at the lightning that came close. At the same time, time returned to its normal speed.
───!
The tremendous aftermath of the collision of forces pushed them all back several steps. Kyle, who had drawn his spell breaker a bit late (actually very quickly), shouted at the blurry shadow in the smoke.
“Ruon-!”
But he couldn’t check on his friend’s condition. Something was crawling out of the dirt pile on the ground.
Squeak-ee-ak!
The undead that sprang up from all sides looked like the residents of the slum, judging by their ragged clothes.
Kyle swung his aming sword at the monsters stained with hatred for the living. His sword blade, filled with his holy power, started to glow faintly and cut off the heads and torsos of the living corpses.
Then a corpse with half of its face melted tried to stab Kyle’s nape with a dagger in its hand.
It was a pretty good surprise attack for a monster that had lost its reason, but Kyle had already sensed its presence and rotated his right foot outward, punching its cheek with his clenched fist.
His punch was not as destructive as Ruon’s, but his iron gauntlet was enough to break the monster’s jaw.
After that, he sensed that if he knocked down the heavy-armored monster, he would gain the upper hand, so the corpses rushed at him at the same time, but Kyle used his shield to effectively deflect their force and cut off the necks of the ones who lost their balance.
He stood tall after defeating a considerable number of monsters without a scratch. He deserved the title of Tivella’s champion.
Then a strange voice came.
“Tarwen brought some tough guys. Tivella’s priest, dwarf druid… And you’re a paladin, huh? How annoying.”
He turned his head to the direction of the voice and saw a man in a sleek black armor with sharp eyes.
Kyle twirled his aming sword in his hand and said,
“Who are you? Are you with the witch Hella?”
“Partner?”
The man smiled faintly.
“You’re wrong. I am Hella.”
“Are you kidding me? Then I’m Ruon. You bastard.”
The man muttered as he drew his long sword with both hands, aiming at Kyle who spat out a coarse curse after a long time.
“It seems that my decision not to mix my soul with Imrek’s was valid. I was planning to use all the ones I haven’t tamed properly this time…”
He immediately closed the distance to Kyle with a steady pace and added coldly.
“Nice to meet you. I was a paladin like you in my lifetime. And now I’m a hellraiser.”
***
Ruon was charging forward with all his might. He heard terrible screams from behind, but he didn’t look back. That place was his comrades’ battlefield now.
As he retraced the road that was destroyed by the lightning that flew in a straight line, he saw a large wooden building in the distance. And a huge figure standing in front of it.
He couldn’t see his face because he wore a helmet deep on his head, but the red eyes that burned fiercely beyond it seemed to burn his opponent with his gaze alone.
The giant, who moved smoothly despite his bulky body, dropped his massive hammer on the ground with a thud and opened his mouth slowly.
“The meeting of the hero who killed the great demon and the thunder king… It’s thrilling to recreate a scene that transcends the ages.”
Ruon, who heard the sound of the giant’s hammer rumbling, looked at him with calm eyes and said.
“First the barbarian warrior, and now Imrek?”
