Chapter 342: Meeting
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
Her scarlet mage robes were embroidered with precious and expensive magical runes. Her vine mage staff was engraved with a red dragon crystal that jumped up and down as if it were a living heart. Archmage “Christina” wasn’t very famous, but she seemed to wear the evidence of either her power level or that she was really rich.
And after she showed off impressive fire magic abilities in numerous team missions, she was chosen as one of the representatives for the neutral unaffiliated adventurers and became one of the adventurer leaders for this battle.
Her fiery red hair and s.e.xy mature woman’s body accentuated her beautiful face and helped give her the nickname of “Fire Witch.” She even had several loyal followers.
But, today, she was in quite a terrible mood, especially after she heard a certain piece of news.
“Have you heard? I hear that someone from the Calamity Rankings is here.”
When this news started spreading, she thought at first that she had been exposed. And when the news that people were looking for a spy started spreading, she broke into a cold sweat.
Yep, that’s because not only was she a member of the Calamity Rankings, but she was also the undead’s spy.
Her real ident.i.ty was…
“Molly?”
Yep, she was Molly, the previous Dragon Queen Molly, who was now a spy working for the undead.
The majority of the dragons currently residing in the mortal plane lived by themselves. For example, Little Red when she was back in the Underground had her own dragon nest and territory, along with manticores and other magical creatures as subordinates. It could be said that every single adult dragon with its own territory was like a domain lord. All they had to do was to enjoy their subordinates’ wors.h.i.+p as the subordinates brought food for them. They simply needed to sleep on top of their treasure h.o.a.rds and enjoy their lives.
And it just happened to be that dragons were able to grow in power even while they were sleeping. The older they got, the more powerful they became. This was why other mortal species envied them, and also why the giants looked down upon the dragons. The giants always called them big lizards that didn’t know how to do anything but hibernate.
Molly, who no longer had a Dragon City, was just like an immemorial red dragon that had lost her territory. She could only rely on herself. Having only recently arrived aboveground, she didn’t know anything about how things worked here. She didn’t even dare to fight other dragons for their territory as she was afraid that stories about her would spread to the surface Dragon Cities and then people would gang up on and chase after her.
Since she lost her Underground Dragon City and no longer had any subordinates or dragon underlings, the ambitious Molly decided to lay low for a while and first establish her own dragon nest before obtaining territory. Yet hiring powerful subordinates required treasure, and fixing a dragon nest required money. Still, an immemorial dragon like her without a treasure h.o.a.rd that was suitable for her status? Every other dragon would laugh at her.
“…Dragons never lack money as other countries’ treasuries are their treasuries.”
And so, she went around aboveground and attacked cities in order to acc.u.mulate wealth, all to reestablish her own faction and make a new dragon nest.
In order to earn money, she was even willing to hire herself out as a mercenary. Not only did this help make her terrible reputation known far and wide, she even got onto the Calamity Rankings because of it: ranked 99, Red Armageddon.
An immemorial dragon who was willing to be hired as a mercenary and even sometimes turned on her employers? This was obviously a shame upon all dragons, one they found difficult to withstand. And Molly seemed to know this as well. In order to avoid any “hunting” of her by the surface dragons, she wandered around everywhere and never stayed in one location for long. Or perhaps it should be said that she roamed around, committing crimes everywhere. But when she arrived in the Bardi Empire’s capital, she never expected the capital city to be on the highest level of alert. After she escaped from the dragon knights there, she was blocked by the Undead Emperors.
And so, she discovered that she was forced to a brink. Worrying that she would be forced to transform into a bone dragon, and with n.o.body else she could possibly ask for help, she recalled her own daughter and sent a letter pleading for help. However, she was still caught by Aso and the other undead.
When she found that her opponents were multiple Undead Emperors, she shamelessly surrendered, similar to how she surrendered ever so quickly to the Demon Earl in the past. As long as she didn’t have to become a bone dragon, anything was fine.
From a certain standpoint, Molly, who possessed zero sense of honor, was indeed a shame upon all dragons.
“As long as you work for our cause, all these items that are useless apart from being s.h.i.+ny can be yours.”
To the Undead Emperors, the treasure they acc.u.mulated over the years was nothing more than s.h.i.+ny rocks. Even if they were rich, there was very little they could buy. Using their treasure to bribe a SemiG.o.d like Molly into working for them was quite profitable. And that was how the undead’s generous payments helped Molly unhesitatingly surrender and become their most loyal servant.
And, right now, it was supposed to be time for her to open the castle gates of Oak Town for the undead. But the moment she arrived at the gates, someone called out her real name.
“Molly? Former Dragon Queen Molly?”
“Ein Mezus?”
The black-haired female ranger lowered her head and looked at the red-headed female mage before her. Little Red doubted her own eyes. She was supposed to be one of my secret aces who would guard Oak Town’s castle gates, but she never expected that she would meet the purpose for her excursion—finding Molly—right here.
“Watch the castle gates. I’m absolutely certain that there’s still a spy in Oak Town. This is a critical time. n.o.body is allowed near the castle gates without express orders. Anyone that approaches without permission, capture and interrogate them.”
My words were still in her ears, and Little Red was highly familiar with Molly’s personality. She instantly figured out what Molly was doing, and her astonishment became humiliation and anger… With such a mother, she really felt it was embarra.s.sing. She came all the way here to save her mother, but Molly ended up as the undead’s spy. Little Red’s anger knew no bounds.
“MOLLY!”
She grabbed up a ma.s.sive treant next to her and hurled it towards Molly. This surprise meeting between mother and daughter instantly became a fierce fight amongst family members. Once again, Molly encountered the greatest danger of her life.
******
“When you scheme against others, others are surely scheming against you as well.”
While I was busy messing around in the undead army, there were certain undead observing the situation. Yep, after they reported the information to the higher-ups, there was a certain someone who guessed something.
“Only an Undead Emperor would be able to fool an Undead Lord and cause so many undead to quietly disappear within their own camp without a trace.”
And so, Zero came. She remained hidden in the shadows and simply observed everything that occurred. It appeared that she didn’t have much interest in Oak Town; in fact, she wasn’t even that interested in the Tark Republic. She was only interested in the young Undead Emperor that managed to force Aso to sacrifice himself.
Unlike what everyone thought, the Undead Emperors weren’t unanimous in their desire to return to the mortal plane.
The Tark Republic had already disappeared from the mortal plane for countless millennium. It was only natural that all its Senators had different opinions. Some undead already made the Undead Planes into their new home, while other undead believed that they should let the past remain in the past. Some undead didn’t even remember their original homes, while some were worried about their positions if the Tark Republic was reestablished in the mortal plane.
Some ancient undead didn’t actually wish to return and only gave their support as a cause of their friends.h.i.+p with the other undead; they didn’t plan to partic.i.p.ate personally. And there were also some neutral undead who didn’t care either way, if they returned or not, which was why the undead leaders who invaded this time were only from the Tark Republic reestablishment faction and the neutral faction.
A total of thirteen Undead Emperors had invaded, but they were actually of these two separate factions. Aso was one of the main Undead Emperors in the reestablishment faction, while Zero was one of the main Undead Emperors in the neutral faction.
Most of the time, Zero wasn’t very proactive. The Ice Plane with its incredibly low temperature was highly suitable for her to live in. Joining this major expedition was mostly because of her personal relations.h.i.+p with Aso.
And now, for her deceased friend—or perhaps it would be better to say former lover—she decided to directly come find the main culprit responsible for Aso’s death.
“Perhaps you’ve heard of me, although my original name’s long been forgotten. Everyone calls me Zero.”
The solo traveler before me had no intentions of concealing her true appearance. A silver light coursed through her transparent body, while her incredibly archaic n.o.ble ceremonial clothing combined with a n.o.ble’s hat indicated the generation she was from. The way she slightly bowed and greeted me was also in that same archaic ceremonial style. All in all, this ancient ghost gave me a strong sensation of having arrived in the wrong generation.
“Zero?”
Of course I knew who Zero was. She was the Undead Emperor of the Ice Plane, another Undead Emperor just like me. It was just that I never expected that she would be a female ghost.
It wasn’t that I discriminated against females… fine, I was discriminating against the fact that she was a ghost. Amongst all the types of undead species, ghosts weren’t weak at all, but ghosts had the lowest growth potential out of every single undead species.
Compared to banshees that already had materialized souls, all ghost-type undead were typically just soul shards. They didn’t have any physical bodies to limit them, which was why they were immune to all physical attacks and possessed formidable natural talents in negative energy. However, the flip side of the coin was that without a physical body, it would be far too problematic for them to improve in power past what they started with. Since they didn’t have any physical bodies to protect the soul, they even had weaknesses to light, positive energy, and all sorts of other things.
But n.o.body would dare to underestimate Zero just because she was a ghost. After all, the fact that she was an Undead Emperor explained a lot, even if her soul couldn’t possibly be complete.
Her elegant eyes seemed to be smiling, as if she was appreciative of her junior. This ghost from the Ice Plane lightly clapped her hands.
“…Although I have many things I’d like to say, due to my connection to Aso, please… die for me!”
In just an instant, the entire world changed. This was a Soul World that seemed to almost match reality. Everything before me was nothing but white, while a frigid wind blew snowflakes everywhere. Everything was frozen, and this strong sense of having dropped into another world made me feel… at home? Yep, I felt incredibly comfortable! This field of ice and snow was my home turf as well. I could sense that this world’s natural laws seemed so familiar, just like the snow mountain that the Frigid Nightmares lived in.
Zero’s eyes were staring at me with no malicious intent whatsoever. Yet she clearly desired to have me die right here and now. This Undead Emperor didn’t intend to say any unnecessary words—my death was her only desire.
*Clap!*
Once again, the white ghost Undead Emperor clapped her hands, causing yet another chilly breeze. The temperature dropped even further, enough to make any human an ice sculpture. Zero’s Soul World seemed quite simple, but it was actually highly fatal. Just this simply mega-low temperature was more than enough to kill any life form.
“That’s all?”
The ghost’s expression revealed that she was somewhat disappointed. The final message that Aso had sent before his death indicated that he had a high opinion of this young Roland. If Roland died easily, it would only mean that Aso had been terribly off in his judgment.
Although I’d like to play dead, it was rare that I got to meet an Undead Emperor, especially one who was also an ice magic pract.i.tioner. It would be too much of a waste to miss this opportunity. I would be considered rude if I did not respond in kind.
“Senior, please take a good look at my ice magic.”