Chapter 1143: An Avenger Reborn

Avenger disappeared, filling the air with a gloomy mood.

We landed a short distance from the crater where the fort once stood, and no one could speak. It wasn’t only Fran and Urushi, Maleficent and Persona looked rather sad too.

Maleficent was acting particularly strange. He had his usual smile on the surface… but he gave me a very depressed impression.

That said, it seems I won’t get the time to dig any deeper. A pack of undead popped up to surround us.

「Undead!」

『Wickerman must still be alive!』

Like I suspected, he must have evacuated before the torrent of divine flames. But where is he now? It felt like the undead were intended to slow us down rather than finish us off.

While we were busy dealing with the undead, a red laser came flying at Maleficent.

「Where did that come from…?!」

『Over there!』

Damn, so Roaneth survived too. I guess he’s not dumb enough to burn to death in his own flames! We saw him firing at us from a short distance away.

Maleficent just barely managed to put up a barrier in the nick of time. However, I doubt he can repeat that many times in his current exhausted state. Roaneth’s lasers became much weaker after he used Divine Flame Excitation, but they were still plenty deadly.

『Fran! I’ll teleport us!』

「Nn!」

The divine energy covering the region had dissipated, restoring our access to teleportation. We managed to reach Roaneth instantly and deliver a slash.

However, he blocked our hit with the relic again. The red knight could still move despite taking all that damage earlier, and after unleashing so much divine energy.

「TCH! YOU DAMN BRAT!」

「!」

『What the hell?』

Did he heal the injury we gave him?

Roaneth’s voice sounded strangely high-pitched. Meanwhile, the cut on his neck was already closed, though it had turned a discolored reddish-black.

What’s weird was the wavelength of his mana. He was both human and inhuman.

Only after an appraisal did I understand what was going on. Roaneth’s race was now displayed as “Demi-Undead (Mutating)”. He must be undergoing the process of transforming into a complete undead.

Moreover, this didn’t seem to be some kind of forced experiment, he clearly accepted the transformation willingly. To think anyone would willingly turn undead while alive.

I assume some magical formula was installed into his body, in order to allow him to fight after death. Perhaps Wickerman assisted him with that.

「DIE! DIE DIE DIE!」

Roaneth repeatedly pulled the trigger of the relic, but the performance seemed off. The blast of flame came out a bit delayed, and their speed and power had fallen like 50%.

Does the gun’s performance correspond to the wielder’s condition or something? Well, I suppose it’s firing magic rather than actual bullets, so that makes sense if true.

「SHIT! THIS UNDEAD BODY DOESN’T HAVE WIELDER PERMISSIONS…!」

『This is our chance, Fran!』

「Nn! Hah!」

「DAMN BRAT! GET THE FUCK BACK!」

Whoa, what?! He managed to block a three-hit combo from Fran! We may be a bit slower now due to our fatigue, but Roaneth needed his flame transformation to avoid that previously.

Yet now he blocked it without taking any damage. I checked his appraisal again, and saw that his stats had grown much higher. Also, the reddish-black portions of his skin seem to have expanded too.

It seems he’s getting stronger as his mutation progresses. Wickerman, the necromancer behind this turn of events, must be channeling mana into him. Gaining an undead body also means he can no longer feel fatigue.

On the other hand, Fran’s exhaustion was slowing her down. Not enough to fall behind Roaneth, but we lacked the ability to deal a decisive blow. Should we use Sword God Transformation or Potential Release?

That’s when I realized a third option. Well, not that I came up with it… Someone had told me.

I explained the plan to Fran and Urushi, then set up all the preparations.

『Alright, we’re ready! Fran!』

「Nn!」

「STOP TRYING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN, YOU MORON!」

Fran jumped forward with a slash as Urushi leapt at Roaneth from the shadows. However, our opponent saw this surprise attack coming.

Just as he had down once before on the roof of the fort, Roaneth evaded the attack from his shadow by turning into flames. Only this time, it didn’t end there.

「Fuhahaha! Witness my revival! God, priestess, you have my eternal gratitude!」

「W-WHAT!?!」

Avenger, who was supposed to have been dead, jumped out of Urushi’s shadow.

The ghoul had been ranting in my head for the past couple minutes. I couldn’t understand anything he said in that state, but there was clearly some sort of necromantic presence trying to make an appeal. Then, the Evil God Fragment hopped on the bandwagon and started transmitting something too.

Thus, I upped the level of my Necromancy skill and secretly summoned Avenger in Urushi’s shadow. Like I thought, Roaneth couldn’t detect Avenger so easily, since undead don’t radiate body heat!

I can only summon Avenger for a few minutes since he’s a high-ranking ghoul, but that’s more than enough for a surprise attack. At first, I was only hoping to poison Roaneth and wear him down, but Avenger went on and on about how he could pin the red knight down. I decided to give him a shot, and then…

Surprisingly, Avenger managed to get through Roaneth’s flame form with his sharp claws. All thanks to the massive amount of evil energy the Evil God Fragment apparently shared with him.

Roaneth’s flame form became unstable, eventually wearing off completely.

『Now!』

「YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!」

「My priestess is no bitch!」

Dammit Avenger, just shut up already!