Thick, long pillars lined the room.
On the throne sat the Elder Lich. He was draped in a robe and was exuding arrogance in his posture.
“So, you’ve finally made it all the way here.”
Surrounding him were over a hundred skeleton soldiers, standing in neat rows and columns.
They were of a different caliber from the rabble seen in the forest.
All of them were clad in gleaming plate armor, their stances sharp and disciplined like real soldiers.
Rox transformed the weapon in his hand into a mace.
“I’ve come to shatter your ambition, Elder Lich.”
His usual frivolity was completely gone.
This was a revenge for his master. And for himself.
The time had come to avenge his ruined village and his murdered parents.
Though it was a direly serious situation… I glanced to the side without thinking and stumbled back in shock.
“Sir Crowin, you could fly?!”
The Dullahan’s head was floating in midair.
It looked like a magic trick, but this was a fantasy world.
He had used levitation magic.
“Only for a moment. I barely have any mana left in my current state.”
Crowin said this and then turned his gaze toward the Elder Lich.
“It seems you’re trying to open the Gate to the Underworld, but that is a foolish act. No matter what schemes you devise, the day you rule the human world will never come.”
Behind the skeleton soldiers, a huge magic circle had been drawn.
At its center lay the Dullahan’s torso which was bound tightly in chains.
The magic being absorbed from there spread into five streams, activating several other smaller magic circles.
A complex and difficult high-level spell was in the process of being cast.
“Even if you spout nonsense, I won’t return your body. Just sit back and watch as your own flesh becomes a sacrifice. Not that you can suck your thumb in despair. You don’t even have hands! Hahahaha!”
His hearty laughter echoed through the hall.
A distasteful voice paired with a lowbrow joke.
He was the one who had betrayed his own master. From beginning to end, there was nothing likable about him.
“Sir Crowin, someone like that won’t listen to reason. We just have to beat him to a pulp.”
“Seems that way.”
A hundred against two.
If they were just skeletons, they could be taken down. But conserving stamina would be crucial.
That guy specialized in summoning even among Elder Liches.
There was no guarantee that what we saw was all there was.
Being in enemy territory, strategy was everything.
“Destroy them.”
At the Elder Lich’s command, the skeletons all moved at once.
With the clash of iron and bone, they charged in from all sides.
“We have to watch each other’s backs!”
I shouted to Rox.
No matter how skilled a fighter he was, no one could handle ten enemies coming at once.
There were only two of us.
To face the relentless wave of skeletons, we had to stand back-to-back and protect each other.
“Were these things made from the corpses of swordsmen?!”
One of the skeletons blocked Rox’s mace with a sword.
The gap in skill was significant, so the skeleton was eventually smashed to pieces, but it hadn’t gone down as easily as the ones we’d seen before.
We continued to fight back-to-back, but the flow of the battle wasn’t in our favor.
“When I give the signal, fall back for a moment!”
It was time to use the power of the magic sword.
I had wanted to conserve it longer, but getting crushed by a swarm of small fry wasn’t an option.
“Now!”
The moment Rox pulled back, I threw every bomb I had.
Boom!
The shockwave spread, and dust rained down from the ceiling.
I took out twenty of them in one go.
Taking advantage of the broken formation, I activated the aura of Shadow Fang.
Skeletons vanished one after another, armor and all, the moment they were touched.
Half the army was gone. But that wasn’t all.
The barrier that had stood between me and the Elder Lich was now gone.
If I was going to strike the king, this was the moment.
I rushed toward the throne without hesitation, but—
“How laughable!”
The Elder Lich extended his hand.
From the magic circle on the floor, five skeletons rose.
They wore heavy armor that looked tough enough to deflect cannon fire.
These weren’t ordinary grunts. They were undead made from the corpses of knights: Death Knights.
Meeting Lady Rosaria really was a stroke of luck.
The aura’s output had weakened, and those things even had resistance to magic.
Cutting them down with a sword would be a real struggle.
But I had tools imbued with holy magic.
Ssssshh!
When the bottle of holy water shattered, smoke began to rise from the Death Knights’ bodies.
Though undead, it writhed in pain, unable to come to its senses.
I tried to charge in during that moment, but the Elder Lich was a step ahead.
I felt a menacing presence behind me.
I immediately twisted my body and dodged to the side.
Fwoooosh!
A jet-black breath attack poured down on the spot where I had just been standing.
“A dragon!?”
At some point, a huge skeleton dragon had been summoned in the center of the hall.
Commonly known as a Bone Dragon.
It was the highest-tier monster a necromancer could summon.
Dodging the continuous breath attacks, I threw myself toward Rox.
“The skeletons merged and turned into that thing!”
Rox transformed the mace he was holding into a shield and blocked the breath.
Using the thick pillars as cover, we dashed around like we were playing tag.
“Looks like it already drained a good amount of Crowin’s magical power.”
It must’ve been summoned by sacrificing the Dullahan’s vast magical power.
Even if it was all bones, a dragon was still a dragon.
It was a powerful foe that most adventuring parties wouldn’t even dream of fighting.
“Theo, what would a hero’s party do in a situation like this!?”
“Run. Without even looking back.”
Being strong didn’t make them top-tier.
Knowing when to hit and when to retreat. That’s what made them elite.
Of course, if we had prepared in advance, we might pull off a counterattack, but otherwise, escaping was the right move.
Fwoooosh!
The Bone Dragon unleashed its breath attack without pause.
If you touched that jet-black gas, your flesh would rot away or you’d fall under a curse.
We had to decide quickly whether to keep fighting or not.
“You’re not giving up on revenge, are you?”
“Of course not! A dragon’s just a slightly oversized lizard!”
He hadn’t lost his spirit.
That was an admirable mindset.
In that case, as the reinforcements, I had to answer that determination.
“The Bone Dragon’s weak spot is its forehead. If you pour holy water on it, we’ve got a shot.”
Since it wasn’t a living creature, it needed a separate space to store energy.
The forehead, one of the densest parts of the bone.
If we drenched the crystal embedded there with water imbued with holy magic, we could take it down.
“I’ll have to get close since I’ve got the shield.”
Rox pulled out a vial of holy water.
“One won’t be enough. You’ll need to pour all of it.”
“Got it. Just draw its attention for a bit!”
“Leave it to me.”
We might’ve been a poorly balanced party with two warriors, but at least this kind of role division was doable.
The Bone Dragon relentlessly went for the kill.
This time, I chose not to dodge but to take it head-on.
I unleashed the aura of Shadow Fang.
“Urgh…!”
Its breath attack was neutralized by the black aura.
A prolonged battle would put me at a disadvantage, but I could at least create an opening.
With agile movements, Rox leaped onto the Bone Dragon’s tail.
He climbed up the spine to the neck area and made a powerful jump.
“Take this!”
As he shed his coat, the glass vial hooked onto the inner lining caught the light.
Rox slammed it straight into the Bone Dragon’s forehead.
The vial shattered, and holy water splashed everywhere.
– Keeeeeeeeeeing!
The Bone Dragon let out a grotesque roar, as if in agony.
It worked.
It had worked… but it wasn’t quite enough.
“Theo, what happened!?”
The Bone Dragon was still alive.
A fierce red glow flared deep within its eye sockets.
It began thrashing about, as if refusing to forgive the one who had attacked it.
Its tail smashed pillars, and it fired off breath attacks wildly.
“It’s definitely effective! There just wasn’t enough of it!”
“How much more do we need?”
“I think about the same amount as before should do it…”
I’d been trying physical attacks for a while now, but they weren’t doing much.
I had used up too much aura blocking the breath to rely on the magic sword’s power.
The only thing we could count on now was the holy water.
But out of the twelve vials, five had already been used on the Death Knights.
Would the remaining seven be enough…?
“I’ll try to make it work somehow!”
I’d thought we’d packed plenty, but here we were.
Nothing ever went smoothly in this world.
***
Rosaria was exploring the City of the Dead with Canon.
She walked down the corridor in a tense way, half-expecting a skeleton to jump out at any moment.
“This looks like… a golem.”
A spacious room.
A pile of stones formed in an oddly unnatural way, as if the wall hadn’t collapsed naturally.
Canon studied them carefully.
“Judging by the cross-sections, they were broken recently. I think Sir Theo passed through here.”
Her gaze shifted toward the stone door ahead.
The door was slightly ajar, as if someone had opened it.
A cool breeze flowed through the gap.
As they drew closer, a vast space spread out before them.
“We’re almost there.”
The scenery had changed.
As if agreeing with Rosaria’s words, Canon heightened her guard.
“Stay right behind me.”
She walked through the door with a dagger in each hand.
“This can’t be…”
Rosaria let her voice slip out without realizing it.
A village had been built inside a vast natural cave.
From the architectural style, it was obvious at a glance that it was very old.
“That castle must be where Elder Lich is!”
They had found a place where the master of the dungeon might reside.
Just as they were about to descend the stairs, Canon’s brow twitched.
“Stop.”
“What is it?”
“There are enemies hiding. Zombies.”
Just as she said, a group of zombies slowly emerged in the City of the Dead.
If these creatures were still active…
“Could Sir Theo have been defeated?!”
Rosaria asked anxiously, but Canon remained silent, carefully counting the number of enemies.
There were too many.
Maybe if she were alone….but it looked too dangerous to fight while protecting the young lady.
She was about to turn back, thinking there was no choice but to retreat, when the zombies began behaving strangely.
“Hmm?”
The zombies lined up on both sides as if welcoming the procession of a king.
As if telling them to pass through and head to the castle.
Was it a trap?
If it were, there should have been signs of a battle.
Theo and Rox must have passed through here as well, but there were no traces of blood.
As the young lady’s guard, Canon had to make a decision.
After some deliberation, she finally spoke.
“Follow me carefully.”
***
Even after using all the holy water, it hadn’t worked.
All we had done was provoke the dragon’s wrath.
“You said you’d figure something out!”
“I tried, but it didn’t work. If only we had two more vials of holy water.”
“Ugh, then we’ve got no choice but to beat it down!”
Rox swung his hammer and brought it down on the bone dragon’s leg.
Though its body was massive, it was surprisingly light since it was made of nothing but bones.
The impact made the bone dragon stagger and lose its balance.
The moment its head lowered, I didn’t miss the chance and drove the Shadow Fang into its forehead.
However, it only left a slight scratch; it didn’t shatter the crystal.
“So tough!”
It wasn’t just that our attacks weren’t working.
Even when we managed to break its bones, the bone dragon quickly regenerated.
Since this was the Elder Lich’s home ground, both mana and bones were being supplied endlessly.
That was why holy magic or holy water had been essential.
I was frustrated, but I was just about to accept that we’d have to try again another time when—
“Sir Theo!”
Rosaria burst into the throne room.
“It’s dangerous! Please fall back!”
At the sound of her voice, the bone dragon turned its head.
It opened its mouth wide and breathed out its breath attack, but I rushed forward and blocked it with my magic sword.
Canon quickly evacuated Rosaria to the rear.
“You’re winning, right?!”
“Looks like it, doesn’t it? Honestly, I’m so overwhelmed I’m debating whether to run!”
It was already hard enough to survive. Having to worry about others on top of that was… Wait a second!?
“Lady Rosaria, can you make holy water right now?”
“Holy water?”
“Two vials’ worth would be enough! More would be even better!”
I saw a breakthrough!
But the joy was short-lived.
“I need water!”
We’d hit an unexpected obstacle.
“Can’t you do something with magic?”
“I’ve only practiced holy magic… but I can make ice! It’ll just take some time to melt it!”
“We don’t have time to wait… Rox, what about you?”
“I can’t make water either!”
We had pinned our hopes on a slim chance, but the answer that came back was hopeless.
We were so close. Do we really have to give up now?
“—Urine.”
A deep, calm voice.
Crowin, who had been floating nearby and watching, suddenly spoke up.
“Urine? What about it?”
“Urine is also water. It has impurities, but it should still work as a base for holy water.”
“Well… you’re not wrong.”
The problem was, I had already peed before we came here.
“Rox, can you collect some urine?”
“I don’t think I can. Let’s ask Lady Rosaria!”
“Eh, me!?”
No matter how desperate we were, that was a tough favor to ask.
…Or so I thought,
“I-I’ll give it a try…!”
She shouted with a determined look on her face.
“But where should I put it?”
“Catch this!”
I threw her a skull bowl that had been lying on the ground.
Rosaria barely caught it and blushed.
“Just give me a moment…!”
With that, she dashed behind a broken pillar.
Leave a Reply