This battle, the battle between heroes and undead, would determine the fate of the Empire. But there was one discrepancy, a reaper who roamed around the battlefield garbed in black armor.
It neither antagonized the heroes nor the undead. However, it moved across the battlefield more diligently than any other, killing all the scapegoats. These scapegoats were none other than the "undead heroes".
"Here"s where you were, Senior."
[Ah...ahuuah...]
Once it heard his cool voice, the man who was once a hero, but now an elite level 7 undead hero shook. This was the fourth of the six "seniors" that had been mixed into the battlefield.
[Give me an order...]
"Who could order you, you who was once a hero? Please tell me if there"s a b.a.s.t.a.r.d like that out there. Who is it?"
[Ah, uaaaaah...]
Lee Shin Woo"s praise fl.u.s.tered the nameless hero. It was like it was undergoing a program error.
It was originally supposed to kill the heroes amidst the chaos created by the Beast General"s attack and Vulture General"s ambush, or at least severely injure them, but the heroes had killed the Beast General quickly and retreated. In addition, the Vulture General hadn"t even ambushed them; on the contrary, the heroes had ambushed the Vulture General using large-scale spells, causing the general to fall to the ground.
Their plan had gone awry and even their superior, Ethan Cruz was confused as well, so it was only natural that the undead heroes would just stand around awkwardly.
[Give... me an order...!]
"Tch, as I thought, it won"t work."
After Lee Shin Woo mercilessly stuck his sword into the undead hero"s head (who kept idiotically repeating the same thing over and over again), he clicked his tongue.
He tried to bring them over to his side, as he thought his Instigate and Acting skills might have an effect on them, but because their connection with Ethan Cruz remained strong, even though their egos barely remained, Lee Shin Woo couldn"t break his hold.
Although Ethan Cruz was limited to controlling undead heroes, even Lee Shin Woo had to admit that Ethan Cruz"s hold over them was strong.
[Give... me an order...!]
"...Rest in peace, Senior."
[You have acquired 2 secret shop permits and 17,320,180 Perium.]
[You have given peace to a comrade who walked a path he could not return from. You have partially cleared the quest objectives, and have acquired 1 secret shop permit. The maximum level of the Invisible Heart skill has increased by 1.]
"Nice. Now Invisible Heart"s level 143."
Lee Shin Woo, who had given up on convincing it, killed the undead hero and picked up the bone. Of the undead heroes that were under Ethan Cruz"s control, most of them were "trash". Although he immediately used Bone Reinforcement on the recently acquired bone, his stats only increased a small amount and he hadn"t even acquired a skill.
"In other words, Ethan Cruz didn"t get the good ones."
"You sound like the big bad, you know that?"
"Yeah, yeah. I know. Since I"m the Heaven Defying General. And you"re the Heaven Defying General"s horse."
"I"m so happy I feel like I"m going to cry..."
Lee Shin Woo collected the unimportant loot, joked around with Jin, and searched the battlefield for the two remaining undead heroes. But while doing so, Rem relayed a sharp warning.
[Master, Mentes Orun"s mana is emitting a strange wave. I believe he will soon attack Lloyd H.K. Checking for a secret skill activating that would not be noticed by allies.]
"Tch, when it was just getting good... Then again, I knew they"d start about now."
The Vulture General had fallen from the sky, but half of his airborne forces were still intact. The battle had become even more chaotic due to the master-less beasts attacking and the Vulture General"s troops rushing to rescue their general.
If the traitors were looking for an opportunity to attack the heroes, then this would be the best and worse time. If the heroes began to come out ahead, Ethan Cruz wouldn"t have an opportunity to carry out their plan... And naturally, Lee Shin Woo had been preparing for Mentes Orun"s betrayal, ever since he realized that he was moving alongside Lloyd.
"Sseup, I guess it can"t be helped. Let"s finish things up quickly. Rem, give me a signal when it"s time."
[Understood, Master. ...Now.]
Once Rem gave him the signal, Lee Shin Woo activated the trap he"d set up prior. He displayed his control, which had gotten even stronger, through the hidden and connected mana threads!
"You just activated my trap card! Reverse Sword Rain!"
"Ah, so you did give it a name like that... Wait, they"re not even swords! They"re not cards either!"
The name was hilarious, but the result wasn"t. While the battle was going on, Lee Shin Woo had secretly moved eight bone spears (since he didn"t want to be discovered, he used unremarkable level 4 spears) underground, and once given a target, they would burst from the ground and attack simultaneously.
That"s right. These bone spears had been created by the Bone Armory and had been set up before the battle had even begun; he then used Rule of Bone to control them!
"Keoheok!?"
When Lloyd was focused on the fallen Vulture General, Mentes Orun attacked him. He caused Lloyd to drop his weapon and when he was about to land a killing blow, eight bone spears pierced his body and stopped him.
"Senior Mentes...?"
Lloyd didn"t know what was going on and looked at Mentes Orun dumbstruck. It was shocking enough that a senior he trusted so much had attacked him, but right after, his senior had pretty much become a skewered eel! It was too much of a surprise.
"What... is this...?"
"Lloyd, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d. You didn"t trust me...! How could you do this to me!?"
"I trusted you. You"re the one who betrayed me! Why did you do this? No, how did you turn out like this...?"
"How despicable... You act so innocently, yet... Guwek!"
The skewered eel... No, Mentes Orun stared at Lloyd, who didn"t know what was going on and spat out curses and blood mixed with pieces of his inner organs. Due to the bone spear that had pierced his head from above, his head was bleeding like a fountain.
It was truly an absurd event. He had waited for Lloyd H.K. to make a critical mistake and had attacked at the perfect moment. So what went wrong!?
"Ah, is that it...? When I was sure that my job was finished, all the tension in my body was released..."
The predator had been idle and had become the prey instead. Mentes Orun recalled that truth and became despondent. Of course, it didn"t matter whether he was careless or not, the result was the same. Moreover, there was no point in wondering about "what ifs" after the fact.
"Lloyd... Lloyddd...!"
"Senior, why did you... Huh?"
Lloyd H.K., who had halfway panicked in front of Mentes, soon found something strange about him. Mentes Orun seemed fine, despite his injuries.
"Senior, how are you still... It can"t be?"
No matter how tough a hero"s body was, a hero couldn"t survive having their heart and brain pierced through and all of their blood being expelled from their body. Though Mentes Orun had been pierced by eight bone spears, he continued to curse at Lloyd.
Was that even possible? Did he have some sort of authority that allowed him to survive with such grievous injuries?
"Guaaaah... Lloyddddddddd!"
"Keuk!?"
He obviously didn"t. Of course, with G.o.d"s power, a skill like that may appear one day, but at the very least, Mentes Orun didn"t have any such skill.
Mentes Orun was just being transformed into an undead through the excessively deep concentration of death energy that permeated the battlefield; the transformation was so natural that he wasn"t even aware of his death. No, his transformation was already complete.
[Kill you... I"ll kill you...!]
"...Ah."
Fortunately, Lloyd realized this fact early on. However, that just made him feel even greater despair. Why was G.o.d only so cruel to him? Not only had he been betrayed by a senior he trusted in, he had to face that same senior who had become an undead!
"Keuheuk... This is... another test."
A tear of blood flowed down Lloyd"s cheek. He grabbed the sword he had lost, stood up, and aimed his sword at Mentes, who was ripping the spears out of his body.
There stood a man who had decided to accept all fear and shoulder all the karma of the world.
"Senior, I"m sorry. I"m so... sorry."
[Lloydddddd!]
He didn"t know why Mentes had attacked him, or who had killed him in the first place. But if he was in pain from becoming an undead, then he would have to give him peace...
Kw.a.n.g!
[Kuhek!]
"...Huh?"
Lloyd didn"t swing his sword, and the moment he was about to monologue, the eight spears blew up simultaneously.
Although they were only level 4 bone spears, if Lee Shin Woo concentrated the mana to its limit, exploded them all at once, and aimed for a specific area, then the explosive power would be considerable. At the very least, it was enough to kill a newly born level 7 undead hero, whose body was shaking and pierced with spears.
"..."
Once the dust cleared, there was nothing remaining in the empty s.p.a.ce. Lloyd just looked on vacantly at the empty s.p.a.ce with an indescribable expression, but looking at it wouldn"t explain the situation.
[You have acquired 2 secret shop permits and 31,842,970 Perium.]
[You have given peace to a comrade who walked a path he could not return from. You have partially cleared the quest objectives, and have acquired 1 secret shop permit. The maximum level of the Invisible Heart skill has increased by 1.]
Lloyd stood still with a stupefied expression, but at that moment, Lee Shin Woo sighed with satisfaction, since he saw the message that appeared before him. After that, Lee Shin Woo collected Mentes Orun"s bone through Rule of Bone.
"Man, I can"t believe I can complete the quest by killing a senior this way."
"You"re eviler than Ethan Cruz."
"I just saved Lloyd. I waited for Senior Mentes to become an undead, and when Lloyd was going to do something pretentious, I exploded the spears."
"That"s what I"m talking about. That"s what"s evil!"
This b.a.s.t.a.r.d was definitely punishing Lloyd for the spar! How could you be so immature!? But when Jin was about to criticize Lee Shin Woo some more, Rem relayed another report.
[Master, I believe Ethan Cruz is attempting to retreat.]