On one side of Emerald Bay, there is an area where tourists mainly stay.
Currently, an Undead chief has made its home there.
The number of Undead appearing each time they enter that area has decreased, but creatures that infuse mana or strange energies into their weapons have begun to show up.
At this point, Revelin and Melorna were struggling significantly against the Undead.
“I’ll help too.”
Epiro, who had been quietly following them until now, pulled out his weapon, a sword.
It was clear even without seeing it that Epiro’s swordsmanship, having lived as a priest all his life, would be nothing special.
Swish!
Epiro’s sword deeply sliced into the shoulder of an Undead.
Soon after, as Revelin and Melorna targeted the Undead’s arms, surprisingly, they were cleanly severed.
“Just like that?”
The two, who had struggled against the Undead just moments ago, looked quite astonished.
I knew about Epiro’s abilities from the day before, but it was the first time witnessing it.
The priests of the Diana Order wield the power known as Divine Power.
What Epiro demonstrated was infusing that Divine Power into his sword and swinging it.
Divine Power can be said to be a powerful light.
That power contains the ability to weaken the Undead.
It is a capability that differs from simple light-based magic.
Weakened Undead became manageable even for Revelin and Melorna.
Epiro scattered the light around him rather than directing it into his sword.
As a result, the Undead could no longer easily approach.
Entering the surrounding area engulfed in the light of divine power, thick black fog began to gather all around.
“Looks like a bug just crawled in here.”
The figure slowly approaching us was using a spear like a staff.
“I haven’t seen such a bug-like light in this place.”
“I am Epiro, a priest of the Diana Order. Pleased to meet you.”
Epiro formally greeted the figure with courtesy.
Maran observed quietly as if familiar with the situation, but we didn’t understand it at all.
They wouldn’t bow their heads and greet the enemy so politely.
“Well, according to the goddess’s will, I must eliminate you. May I have your name?”
“I am Morgan, of the Legion of Doom. A servant of Karim!”
The figure identifying as Morgan cleared the surrounding fog and fully revealed himself.
A young man with neatly tied black hair.
His visible skin bore many scars from battles.
“Why is he a human? Aren’t there only monsters in the Undead Legion?”
Jema was quite astonished to see him.
“A monster, huh…”
Morgan began to twirl the spear in his hand and then took his stance.
A dark energy gathered around his spear.
“Dark Sting!”
From a distance, the whipped spear released an ominous energy fiercely.
Bang!
The intact floor was flipped over with a considerable force!
No one was harmed, but in that brief moment, he had already approached closely.
His target was Epiro.
In a hurry, Melorna and Revelin jumped in to block Morgan’s spear.
Clang!
“Get out of the way.”
With a cold voice, Morgan swung one arm, causing Revelin and Melorna to be pushed aside.
“I really like elves.”
He reached out and gently grasped Epiro’s chin.
Epiro, not flustered, shook off Morgan’s hand.
“You’re not completely tainted yet. I can sense a bad aura emanating from that spear. You should discard it now.”
“This has been saying it wants to pierce through you since earlier.”
“Go ahead.”
With Epiro’s calm demeanor, Morgan thrust the spear forward.
Thud!
A low vibrating sound echoed for a moment.
Morgan’s spear failed to pierce Epiro’s abdomen and was halted.
“Damn it! That freaking goddess!”
“Is it my turn now?”
The sword surrounded by pure white light pierced through Morgan’s abdomen.
Morgan hastily fell away from Epiro in surprise.
“Shit! What the hell!”
The white sword was embedded in Morgan’s solar plexus and pierced through to his back.
Morgan tried to pull out the sword, but it wouldn’t budge from his hand.
In that instant, Maran’s sword quickly aimed for Morgan’s neck.
Morgan twisted his body in a hurry to dodge Maran’s sword, but he couldn’t block Jema’s sword swinging from the side.
Slash!
Although it was a fairly deep attack, only a small wound was inflicted on his body.
“I rather like being this way!”
Even with the sword stuck in his chest, Morgan ignored it and swung his spear, charging forward.
The bodies of the leaders of the Undead Legion were much sturdier than those of regular soldiers.
Especially, those with skin instead of bones had defense that was anything but ordinary.
It was indeed impressive that Jema had managed to inflict a wound.
If mana had been infused into that attack, it would have certainly been a fatal injury.
The first to act was Maran.
Maran’s sword shimmered with a deep jade energy.
“You seem to have some skill. Definitely different from the others.”
Morgan lowered his stance like a predator stalking prey and readied his spear.
“Heartbreaker!”
“Stormblade.”
The two weapons, infused with powerful energy, charged at each other’s vital points.
Boom!
Clang!
“Ugh!”
Morgan’s spear deeply grazed Maran’s right shoulder.
Thud!
A severed arm fell cleanly to the ground.
It was Morgan’s arm.
Then, Morgan’s wrist holding the spear was also severed and fell.
“Gah!”
Barely managing to catch the falling spear with his teeth, Morgan quickly distanced himself from Maran.
“Just this! Ah!”
Morgan seemed to realize something as he was not getting his way.
“Because of this sword, I can’t regenerate!”
One of the most troublesome aspects of dealing with Undead was their regeneration abilities.
Flesh tears would patch up, and broken bones would reform—a ridiculous capability.
Epiro’s Divine Power rendered those abilities null.
He would never attack believing in a body that could regenerate infinitely.
As long as Epiro’s sword remained embedded in his body, he could not recover his lost form.
“Now, it’s time to…”
As Maran retracted the energy around his sword and glanced aside,
Jema’s sword was engulfed in flames, burning brightly.
Kicking off the ground, Jema flew toward Morgan.
Whoosh!
Slow, but the smooth line of his sword cleanly separated Morgan’s neck from his torso.
“Gack!”
Morgan’s mouth moved, having lost his voice, but no words came out.
His body instantaneously crumbled into gray ash.
Where Morgan had stood, only the sword created by Epiro’s Divine Power remained.
As Epiro withdrew the Divine Power, the sword returned.
With the Undead chief Morgan defeated, the surrounding black fog began to dissipate.
“Now, where to next?”
“We’re going back to the hotel.”
The way back to the hotel was very comfortable.
As Epiro swung the Divine Power-infused sword at the Undead soldiers, they were sliced apart like tofu.
Upon reaching the hotel, two individuals capable of combat were guarding the lobby.
“Why are you two out here?”
“We’re taking turns guarding. As you advised, we’ve avoided combat.”
Maran observed the two with a rather satisfied expression.
“Let’s go up.”
Once back in the banquet hall, Maran received reports from the two.
It seemed that Maran had previously issued commands to the fighters in this area.
He emphasized that they should never engage in battle with the Undead if he was away.
Thanks to avoiding unnecessary actions that would attract the Undead’s attention, the survivors in the hotel had not yet been discovered.
This was the reason the hotel had remained safe until now.
As soon as Maran returned, he had Epiro treat his shoulder wound.
“Now, there aren’t many healing potions left.”
Epiro’s healing ability isn’t miraculous.
It rapidly restores wounds by bringing them onto himself.
In that process, healing potions are essential.
Without them, Epiro would be filled with all sorts of diseases and injuries.
“I brought some healing potions with me, should I give them to you?”
Revelin took out a few healing potions from the bag he had brought.
“Did you prepare these?”
“Yes, I did. Because I’m going into a dangerous area.”
Once Maran’s wound was healed, we sat huddled in a corner of the banquet hall.
“Shouldn’t we mobilize those fighters?”
“It seems they can use magic a little, but their swordsmanship is terrible.”
“We can teach them.”
At least ten of them had combat experience.
I persuaded Maran that if we trained them a bit, they could become a sufficient fighting force.
“I can train them, but how long can they hold out here…”
Initially, the hotel restaurant had supplies for about thirty to forty people that could last around a month.
Now, that number was decreasing steadily, and it was now dangerous to not go out and find more.
“To gather food, we need to break through this place.”
Maran pointed to a spot on the map where the city was sketched out.
“What do you mean by breaking through?”
“Literally. We need to wipe out the horde of Undead here.”
That area was where the Undead summoners gathered to continually produce their forces.
The numbers exceed thousands, and even the renowned Maran would find it difficult to take a stand.
“Is it impossible even with sword energy?”
“Hmm.”
It seemed plausible for Maran to do so.
Most magic swordsmen realized sword energy and actively utilized it in combat.
A technique capable of sweeping away dozens of Undead with just a single swing.
“Since we have many people, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try it out.”
I could also blow away the Undead using my wide-area magic, but since I shouldn’t destroy important buildings, I decided to keep that as a last resort.
Late at night, training for the fighters was underway in a corner of the banquet hall.
Even if it was not immediately, Maran believed that if we stirred things up a bit more with the Undead Legion, this place would certainly become a target.
At the very least, the goal was to raise the fighters to a level where they could protect people when the banquet hall was attacked.
That night, Melorna and I learned the technique of sword energy from Jema in a short session.
Of course, learning sword energy didn’t mean we could use it immediately.
Melorna, who was listening to the explanation from the side, had a look of complete confusion, and I felt the same way.
Later, when Maran added further explanations to Jema’s instructions, it became incomprehensible.
But in the end, both of us arrived at the same conclusion.
“You’ll understand once you try it.”
