—TL—
—END—
Typically speaking, zombies were existences that didn’t have much intellect, if any, the zombie subordinates that Bella had were some of the rare exceptions. Currently, however, the 5 meter tall zombie that Bella and her party had encircled was another big exception. The giant zombie was completely covered in a thick and powerful armour that deflected the attacks of Bella and co, sending only sparks flying.
Bella’s party had used the same tactic as they had during their fight against the [Earth Bear] last time, using the party’s knights to surround the zombie while the other melee classes darted around looking for openings and the ranged members stood back and maintained a continuous stream of attacks. This was a tactic that tested the resilience and durability of a party’s knights as well as if the attacks of the other members behind them were strong enough. A mistake on either side could lead to the annihilation of the entire party.
This knights surrounding the giant zombie this time were Bella, Dolores, Eleanor, and Irene, with Dolores directly in front of the zombie. Back when she was still one of the demon empire’s princesses, she already had the ability to go face-to-face with a human dragon knight, albeit a low-tier one, there was no problem with letting her take on the role of the meat shield this time round. Bella and Eleanor were on the flanks and because of the fact that Irene had not yet completely absorbed the dark power that Bella ‘bestowed’ upon her, she was assigned to the comparatively safer rear.
Roland’s role was to protect the damage dealing members in the backline, standing in between the four knights and the rearguard, taking precautions against the off chance of the zombie breaking through the encirclement and charging towards the party’s backline.
Lisha was the party’s main source of damage this time, as she was the only knight here capable of using magic that could damage the giant zombie. Because this zombie was a creature of darkness, the typical dark magic abilities that the three newbie demon kings Bella, Dolores, and Eleanor were throwing at it didn’t have much effect. Unless the three of them were to summon their demon kings’ exclusive equipment and utilize their powers, only then would their dark magic would be able to significantly damage the giant zombie. Due to their surroundings however, Bella and the others didn’t want to transform unless absolutely necessary, meaning that they had to leave the task of dealing damage to the 【Magic Dragon Knight】, Lisha and co.
There were four beauties in charge of dealing damage in this encounter, 【Magic Dragon Knight】Lisha who was flinging magic from the middle of the party, the archer Annie who was making swift and accurate shots from the rear, the assassin Lola who was weaving around the four knights looking for any opportunity to strike. The final member of the offensive team was the princess of the demon world, Hadias, who was circling the giant from above, responsible for looking for and reporting weaknesses and blind spots to Annie and Lola, as well as forcing the giant zombie to keep its head down.
Far behind the knights, Angel clasped her hands together, as if in prayer. She was currently reciting the first stance of the ‘Ghostly Requiem’, 《Peaceful Night》, evicting the nearby malicious spirits. Mia was responsible for placing buffs on the other members of the party as the zombies here weren’t affected at all my her curses and hexes.
Something that surprised both Mia and Angel was that all of the dark power increasing magics that Mia used didn’t have any side effects on Lisha, instead returning the same signal of being a ‘friendly’ that Kriss had given off. After discovering this, the two lolis weren’t as angry at Lisha as they were before after Lisha had given Bella’s party quite the beating back at the Anola Clark Strip.
Noesha’s job was comparatively less stressful, apart from keeping the large majority of the infected away using spatial magic, she was also responsible for creating various teleportation formations behind the others.
While simple, Noesha’s job could be considered the most important, as she was responsible for the safety of the entire party. After all, it was up to Noesha whether or not everyone would be able to escape in time, if for whatever reason they wouldn’t be able to defeat the giant zombie. A good escape route was vital for any operation.
The party’s newcomer, the unholy maiden Liz, had the easiest task. Even though she was a member of the Church of Darkness, but her class was indeed a cleric. Clerics that used dark-type magic weren’t unheard of within the 5 great human empires, just much rarer than their light magic using peers.
Because the job of applying buffs on the party had been taken by Mia, all Liz had to do was cast necromancy on the normal infected that were knocked down by Bella and the others. Under the influence of the virus, if an infected was knocked down and left alone for a period of time, they would rise again and return to the ranks of those throwing themselves at Bella’s party. But theoretically, if one were to cast necromancy magic on them before they rose again, they could be controlled like normal summoned zombies.
This was an idea that Bella had thought of and after Liz put it into practice, discovered that it did indeed work. Not far away from her, there were already quite a few infected that she had ‘resurrected’ and formed a special sort of ‘wall’, pushing the infected zombies further and further away as the infected zombies didn’t seem to attack other zombies, standing idle and staring blankly as their peers gradually edged them away from Bella and the others..
The giant zombie at the center of the encirclement swung its thick arms fearlessly at the knights that had boxed it in, the power behind each swing would force a knight back several steps. The assassin Lola took advantage of the giant zombie’s wide openings during its attacks to attack its joints with the god-tier dagger ‘Song of Light’.
If it was any normal evil beings or monsters, these attacks on its vitals would cripple their arms completely. This zombie’s joints, however, seemed to be harder than steel plate, remaining undamaged from Lola’s attacks, making the assassin question her own power for a while.
Bella and the other knights were fighting cautiously as this zombies defences could already compare with the hardest enemy that they had faced yet, the monster [Fierce Dragon]. That [Fierce Dragon] had been imbued with a Creator’s power during that fight, which was the only reason why it was so tough, but Bella couldn’t sense any Creator’s power on this zombie, meaning that it had been fighting against them using only its innate strength and defence. Compared to this zombie, the [Fierce Dragon] that Bella and the others had defeated previously was just a cheating piece of trash.
【Corpse Demon】 Jerome was also questioning itself right now, during its time patrolling the area, Jerome had already annihilated several A-class mercenary companies by itself. Jerome hadn’t expected to run into such tough opponents here, even though the female knights were forced back several steps each time it attacked, but the power behind its swings was unimaginable, Jerome didn’t remember any human being able to take the brunt of its power directly and remain uninjured. One should know that the power behind Jerome’s strikes would be able to bisect the C-class monster [Earth Bear] with ease.
“Does this damn thing have invincibility cheats on or something, how the hell is a demon king supposed to survive in this world?”
Neither Lisha’s magic spells, Annie’s arrows, nor Lola’s precise attacks had any effect on this giant zombie. Bella right now really wanted to file a complaint to the Creators, demanding to know which one of them had created this bastard and how the hell anyone was supposed to kill it.
Because they were currently fighting in the town of Sakerid, the tight roads and paths made it troublesome for Bella to summon the Dark Sanctuary’s 6 void monarchs, due to their giant size that would most likely destroy the town’s paths and alleys, making it that much harder for Bella to reach the Dak tavern to save Kriss and the others later.
___
In the central area of Sakerid, 【Tenebrous Demon God】 Elise was sprawled down on the ground with dark red blood splattered all around her. Not farm from her, the Betrayed had already been blasted into numerous pieces and seemed to be finally dead.
It didn’t take long however, for the scattered body parts to come back together and begin to repair themselves at a rate visible to the naked eye. Elise knew that it wouldn’t be long before this monstrosity was able to get back on its feet and continue fighting.
“*cough**cough*… This damn bastard… seems to be able to revive… infinitely, now I… understand how that Troublemaker had lost. I should retreat for now, I can’t die here, I haven’t even found Samantha-nee yet.”
Elise propped herself back up and looked with a bit of regret at the almost completely repaired body of the Betrayed. She could have summoned the true form of the 【Tenebrous Demon God】, but the only way that a demon god’s true form could enter this dimension was through the rift back in the Alfred continent. She had snuck her way here without the knowledge of the Worldbreaker’s chief this time, and it just happened that their chief was currently in the Alfred continent, and she definitely wouldn’t let Elise’s true body through.
“Heklis, Malthus, what took you two so long! Where are the live sacrifices? What, they were stolen? I… why are you two still standing around… hurry and help me! I’m disappointed in you two, failing in such a simple task.”
Behind Elise, the two void monarchs that were defeated by their peers from the Dark Sanctuary had finally returned to their master. Both of their bodies had shrunk to only around one meter in height, looking like a taller flower and a larger ant. The two void monarchs started to help Elise clear the blood trails from the surroundings.
A Betrayed would be able to follow the scent of blood to hunt down their targets until either one of them died, which was why Elise needed the two void monarchs to help her clear the blood trails that she had left behind.
Elise also took the vial that she had found on the Betrayed’s body, cleaning the blood on it as well, doing a favour to the Troublemaker that she hadn’t seen yet. The Troublemaker probably wasn’t in a much better state than Elise, losing such an important thing to the Betrayed.
___
Outside of the Weir Church, Bella’s party finally found a way to break through 【Corpse Demon】 Jerome’s defenses. There was no such thing as true invincibility in the universe, and after some time, Bella’s party discovered that even though Jerome’s defense was indeed extremely strong, stopping even Lisha’s ‘fake’ light-type magic, Jerome’s defenses couldn’t stand up to precise attacks on the same spot no matter how thick and durable his skin was.
Using the principle of ‘constant effort brings success’, the assassin Lola and the archer Annie were able to continuously attack the exact same spot on 【Corpse Demon】 Jerome’s wrist over fifty times, they had finally succeeded in breaking through its skin that had previously seemed impregnable.
While Jerome’s arm had not yet retracted after an attack, Lola had dashed up to it and forcefully tore a gash along the 【Corpse Demon】’s wrist. Seeing an open wound, Annie’s arrows and Lisha’s magic began flying towards it. The wounded Jerome couldn’t remain calm anymore and raised its other arm to try and block these attacks.
Right at this time, Hadias who had been waiting for an opportunity in the sky above, began a nose-dive towards Jerome. With a brilliant red flash, one of 【Corpse Demon】 Jerome’s arms detached from its body, black blood staining the nearby ground to its right.
It was fortunate that the knight on the right flank, Eleanor, had reacted fast enough and instictivly backed away a few steps, avoiding the awkward situation of being splattered by the filthy black blood. After the black blood hit the ground, Bella and the others could hear sizzling coming from where the blood had came into contact with the earth, sending wisps of dark smoke into the air. The 【Corpse Demon】’s blood was evidently corrosive.]
【Corpse Demon】 Jerome was crippled, and could no longer launch any effective attacks on the knight that surrounded it while keeping itself safe. It didn’t take long for Hadias to relieve Jerome of its other arm. The infected nearby had either been parted by Noehsa’s spatial magic, or had their way blocked by the zombies controlled by Liz, meaning that they had no way of coming to Jerome’s aid.
Finally, after an hour of intense fighting, accompanied by a head that was sent flying, a monstrosity that had terrified this world for ten thousand years finally fell,【Corpse Demon】 Jerome had finally been defeated. Before its death 【Corpse Demon】 Jerome had tried to escape as it had not yet completed its master’s will, but had failed miserably in its crippled state.
“Finally, I thought you were invincible or something! Really… eh, what’s this plate? Is it some sort of treasure?”
Bella had habitually searched Jerome’s body, she had been quite into gaming back on Earth and there didn’t seem to be that many problems with searching a monster’s body after defeating it in another world anyways. Bella didn’t expect to find anything, however, she managed to find a strange plate carved out of bleached bone, engraved with various symbols and characters that she didn’t recognize.
From the moment that it had entered her hand, Bella was able to feel an intense dark aura, and a strong wave of killing intent tried to enter Bella’s body from the bone plate. It was a shame that the killing intent had been forced back almost immediately by Bella’s demon king aura. It would have been a miracle if the killing intent had been successful in entering Bella’s body, because not only did she have the aura of a demon king, she was also more or less a demon god, an existence levels ahead of demon kings.
“It’s an ‘Imprint of Immortality’, Bella… master, this is something that one of the 12 ancient demon kings, the 【Death King】, gave to their eight subordinate demon generals as a proof of their position. I’ve seen this in some of the demon world’s ancient records, I can understand the characters engraved on it.
Only after hearing Hadias’ explanation did Bella know that the giant zombie that they had just slain was 【Corpse Demon】 Jerome, one of the eight generals of the 【Death King】, who had almost destroyed this entire dimension along with the other members of the 12 ancient demon kings. Ten thousand years ago, Jerome was infamous for its terrifying defence and strength, having ripped apart the celestial world’s four-winged angels and human dragon knights with his bare hands, driving fear in the hearts of everyone that fought against the 12 demon kings of old.
There were no accurate depictions of 【Corpse Demon】 Jerome back in the demon world, if it wasn’t for the words written on this ‘Imprint of Immortality’, Hadias wouldn’t have known that the giant zombie that they had just felled was a powerful subordinate of the 12 ancient demon kings. What shocked her more was that apart from her, the other beauties present weren’t surprised at all after taking down a demon king’s powerful subordinate, almost as if Jerome was just an insignificant mob that they had ran into.
“Master, we just killed one of the 12 ancient demon king’s subordinates, the fact that Jerome appeared here means that the 12 demon kings that had disappeared ten thousand years ago have returned. I’m afraid…”
“Why are you panicking, Hadias, you’re making me a little panicky too. What’s there to worry about, it’s just another fight between two dark powers. Anyways, we used the celestial world’s equipment to kill the thing anyways, we can just blame this on the celestial races even though they’re already… nevermind, but yeah we can frame them!”
Bella said domineeringly, she had even seen the creator gods that had created entire dimensions, what was there to fear about 12 antique demon kings? However, the news that the celestial world had already fallen wasn’t something to be mentioned carelessly. It was THE top-class secret of the Church of Light and would definitely spread mass terror in hysteria if it was revealed to the public.
After hearing Bella’s words, the unrest in Hadias’ heart finally dissipated. She had previously thought that Bella, Dolores, and Eleanor were members of the 12 demon kings who had invaded this world ten thousand years ago, but now it seemed that even though both sides were demon kings, they weren’t from the same side. Meaning that the demon kings on Bella’s side only appeared after the 12 ancient demon kings had disappeared into thin air.
“You don’t need to be afraid, Hadias, I’ll protect you. I will assemble 12 demon kings of my own soon enough, those 12 ancient demon kings have had enough of the spotlight, it’s about time that they existed the stage called history. All you need to tell me is whether or not this 【Death King】 is a girl, I’m a bit… you know.”
“…Master… you sure are… fearless… According to the demon world’s records, the 12 ancient demon kings’ 【Death King】 shouldn’t be male, because that demon king has always worn a mask whenever they made an appearance, the male demon kings among the twelve never wear masks, but this is just my guess though.”
“That’s good then, I think that me and that demon king were brought together by fate… heh.”
Seeing the dark experssion on Bella’s face, Hadias quietly wiped some cold sweat from her brow, she didn’t know what this master of hers was planning, but after spending some time with Bella, Hadias knew that it definitely wasn’t anything good. Hadias decided to dedicate a moment of silence to that 【Death King】 who had yet to show their face yet.
