Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Spank That Cheeky Ass
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Evelask Benapoci.
The world's one and only necromancer.
The corpses she commanded ranged from the numbered ones all the way to monsters crafted from nothing but bleached bones.
And right now, the mountains of the Hardenharts were crawling with those bone monsters.
From four-legged beasts to all sorts of twisted forms, the monsters descended the slopes, each armed with grotesque biological weapons of their own.
Their purpose was to block anyone from interfering with the battle between the Mad Emperor and the Sword King.
"Lord Krash."
As he watched the horde of bone monsters swarm, Number 8 approached him.
When Krash turned to her, she wore a troubled expression.
"Lady Evelask says not to interfere and to leave immediately."
Interfere, huh.
Krash let out a scoff.
"Where's she hiding?"
"Well..."
Number 8 hesitated, fumbling for words.
Even so, she couldn't defy Evelask's orders.
She couldn't just blurt it out.
"Forget it."
He didn't need her to spell it out.
Knowing her personality, she was probably holed up somewhere sneaky anyway.
"A necromancer never shows herself on the battlefield. The battlefield where you can't see the necromancer is the most terrifying of all."
It was something Evelask used to say all the time.
Finding her was his job.
"Haring, Professor Sena Maier."
Haring and Sena were already drawing their weapons.
Fully geared up for battle.
"Those things have a core inside them that's their vital point."
Each one had its core in a different spot, but they all shared that one clear weakness.
To break through that many, they had to target those weak points precisely.
"Hmm, right up my alley."
Sena drew a saber with a dramatically curved blade.
Her red eyes flashed as her lips split into a wide grin.
"You're planning to track down the Night Raven's leader, right, Krash?"
"Yes. I'll find her no matter what and give her a proper thrashing."
"Good. Then save your strength."
A pure white aura cloaked Sena's saber.
At the same time, her outfit began to morph bit by bit.
Long, snow-white fabric wrapped around her arms.
A lengthy veil draped over her face, obscuring it.
Finally, white feathers sprouted from her shoulders, forming wings.
Her moniker was the Phantom Sparrow.
She was also known as the God's Shrine Maiden.
The reason was simple.
Normally, what one received from the gods was a skill.
But she had forgone the usual contracts mortals made with deities.
Divine Invocation
A secret art that granted not a god's skill, but the god's innate power itself.
It was like what had happened recently with the Moon Temple's priestess, the Erosion Hunter Juyo Irma, who had been consumed by the Night God's power and turned into the Night Lion.
But while Juyo had lost all reason, Sena was different.
One of the few bodies in the world capable of digesting a god's power.
God-Possessed Physique
Born with such a body, she received the gods' power directly.
And that power became her own strength.
"Keep up."
She flashed a smile through her veil and kicked off the ground.
Boom!
A massive explosion echoed out.
Sena shot forward at a speed that strained even Krash's eyes to follow.
The shockwave blasted a hole straight through the oncoming bone monsters.
But that wasn't all.
Her saber work was exquisitely precise.
In that single strike, Sena's blade had shattered the cores embedded in every bone monster it touched.
"Whoa."
Haring couldn't hold back her admiration at the sight.
It was a firsthand taste of a Raheln Academy professor's prowess.
"Haring, I'm going after Evelask now."
Krash bolted after Sena, not wanting to lose her.
"I'll be focusing from here on, so cover me."
Haring's eyes widened a bit at Krash's request.
Then she thumped her chest.
"Leave it to me. I'll guard you."
Her eyes burned with resolve.
Haring moved far more proactively when asked directly than on her own initiative.
It was undoubtedly a lingering trauma from long ago, when she'd been told to do nothing.
Quick on the uptake in these matters, Krash had clocked it.
Everyone had their own way of performing at their peak.
This was hers.
"Thanks."
Krash smiled, and Haring gripped her dagger tighter.
"Got it!"
Her enthusiastic reply promised her all-out effort.
With that, Krash slowly tuned into his Sixth Sense.
He'd always used it in combat.
But like when he'd navigated the Demon Palace before,
this time, he focused it on finding Evelask.
'No matter what, her presence is the easiest for me to pick up.'
Sena had ghostly senses, but she'd never met Evelask.
So tracking her down fell squarely on Krash.
Krash's aura morphed into thin spiderwebs, spreading outward.
Layered atop those delicate threads, Lioner wove an even finer web of aura.
It was the detection variant of his Thunderclap.
The web extended endlessly, filling the surroundings.
At the same time, Krash's focus sharpened.
In the three-dimensional space,
the endless clamor of the bone monster horde began to fade away.
Beyond that noise, he sensed the cores inside them pulsing at regular intervals.
Bone monsters weren't independent creatures.
They moved on the aura Evelask fed them.
Especially with an army this size.
No matter how skilled Evelask was, she couldn't cut off the signals she sent them.
'More precisely, this idiot can't.'
Krash's eyes slowly opened as he traced the signals.
'She sucks at hiding her emotions. Even here, it slips out.'
She said not to find her,
but deep down, she wanted him to.
Whenever she thought something was wrong, she made her reluctance crystal clear.
'So damn consistent.'
Swallowing a wry chuckle, Krash lifted his head.
All the signals from the bone monsters pointed to one spot.
Up on the ridgeline.
Krash stared straight at a bone monster pretending to descend with the others.
At that moment, the monster flinched and subtly tried to back away.
It had realized he'd caught on.
Just then, Haring cleaved a bone monster lunging at them.
Krash spotted Sena's back ahead amid the chaos.
"Professor!"
Snapping out of his focus, Krash bellowed.
Sena, who had just blasted more bone monsters aside, turned.
"Can you give me one big launch?"
Sena got it immediately.
Krash had found Evelask.
Realizing that, her lips curved into a smile.
"Come on, then!"
She was a theology professor, but a martial artist at heart.
Her nature was wild as they came.
The moment she gave the go-ahead, black flames engulfed Krash's body.
"Haring, I'll be right back."
"Be careful."
Heeding her warning, Krash kicked off instantly.
Trailing remnants of black flame, he rocketed toward Sena.
Sena swept aside the surrounding bone monsters and spun, her fabrics billowing.
Her arms traced graceful circles like a dance.
The air around her rippled.
The ripples swelled into a whirlwind, whipping up a ferocious gale.
The wind was so fierce it hurled even the massive bone monsters nearby.
"Land on your own."
With that, Krash leaped into the updraft.
Whoosh—Boom!
The whirlwind rocketed him skyward with a thunderous roar.
Air whipping his face, Krash soared straight ahead.
Below, the endless sea of bone monsters flailed.
But they were too slow to catch him.
"Ugh!"
Krash wasn't much better off.
This professor had gotten carried away and launched him way too hard.
Even with Annihilation Erosion active, his senses were spinning.
But he wasn't about to pass out embarrassingly.
Reinforced further by Annihilation Erosion, Krash locked his eyes below.
There, a bone monster fleeing without looking back.
The instant he spotted it, black flames surged around him.
He twisted mid-flight, veering his trajectory.
Swoosh!
The g-forces made his body shudder.
But Krash ignored it, diving straight down in that pose.
"Huh?!"
A panicked yelp echoed from the bone monster.
Choking back a laugh at its dumbfounded fluster, Krash lashed out with his foot.
"Take a hit first."
Crack!
His leg collided with the monster's skull in a crisp impact.
"Urk!"
A foolish groan leaked from the shattered cranium.
Thud-roll!
The bone monster tumbled across the ground, and Krash rolled right after.
Whatever insane force had propelled him, he rolled for ages before stopping.
He shook his head, steadying his spinning vision.
Never asking for a launch like that again.
Firm resolve in place, Krash turned.
There was the bone monster, belly-down and slinking away.
Without hesitation, he leaped and stomped squarely on its back.
"Eek!"
With a shriek, the monster's body began to melt into a gooey mass.
Soon, long black hair came into view.
She wore a robe far removed from her usual attire.
It was none other than Evelask.
Though it had been a while since he'd seen her face, Krash's first response was a sigh.
"Pulling all sorts of stunts, huh? 'Don't find me'? Repaying that favor, my ass."
He pressed down firmly on her back.
Evelask wailed beneath his foot.
"Eek, eek, ow, it hurts! You're crushing my chest! Stop iiiit!"
Krash looked down at her pitifully.
But he kept his foot planted.
She was too embarrassed to get up and face him, after all.
Naturally so.
She couldn't bring herself to look Krash in the eye.
He was the one who'd saved her from a life of being the empire's plaything slave.
Yet she'd betrayed him and put the Hardenharts in peril.
No way she could show her face.
Gazing down at her, Krash sighed again.
"If you were gonna block me, do it for real. Not like that."
Evelask flinched.
The bone legion she commanded was formidable in numbers.
But Krash had sensed it clearly while facing them.
There wasn't an ounce of her true intent behind it.
He knew her battlefield feats.
Her full power lived up to the title of one-woman army.
No way Sena alone could've let him punch through unscathed.
And none of her real numbered corpses had even shown up.
'She could've held off anyone from the Mad Emperor and Rai for at least three days.'
In other words, the bone legion blocking his path had been nothing but scarecrows.
Evelask fell silent at his rebuke.
Or rather, into quiet sniffles.
"...It was my own foolish greed."
Long ago, the greed to revive her lost comrades.
The repeated necromancy research born of that greed.
And the inescapable reality of failure.
For her, that single-minded wish to save her comrades was like a curse.
One she'd never break.
And because of that curse, she'd betrayed the one who'd helped her.
With her innate inability to betray others weighing on her, guilt crushed her.
Knowing that all too well, Krash sighed.
"That's why you joined Ixion?"
Evelask froze.
Krash had Crimson Garden.
No surprise if he knew about Ixion.
"You think you'll get what you want in Ixion?"
"...She promised. The Black Witch said she'd revive my comrades."
Evelask bit her lip hard as she spoke.
"No, you know better."
But Krash shot her down.
"There's no way to revive your comrades to begin with."
Evelask's eyes widened slowly.
Then they flared with venom.
That was the moment.
Her body crumpled like a shadow and vanished.
She reappeared in the woods.
Her black robe hung loosely, her face gaunt and hollow.
The emotions she'd always hidden were laid bare, shrouded in deep darkness.
"...What do you know, talking like that?"
Rage burned in Evelask's eyes.
Krash's words were utterly unforgivable.
But he couldn't leave her like this.
Evelask couldn't join Ixion.
A necromancer of her caliber would make them unstoppable.
And to end the Mad Emperor and Sword King Rai Valheim's battle, he needed her help.
'The Mad Emperor's other secret art.'
Blood Heaven World
A nasty secret art that trapped the target in an isolated space with himself.
The Mad Emperor had surely used Blood Heaven World on Rai.
To breach it required overpowering him and forcing entry.
Or...
"Evelask, you've planted corpses in the Mad Emperor's Blood Heaven World."
Her shoulders twitched.
She wasn't a complete fool.
She'd prepared contingencies.
Corpses prepositioned in Blood Heaven World to carve a path anytime.
That's why he needed her help.
Exhausting himself breaching it would defeat the purpose.
Persuasion, huh.
Krash swallowed a short, dry laugh.
"Cooperate? I made a deal with Ixion. I don't care what you know, but she promised to revive my comrades."
Gazing at her defiant denial of reality, Krash looked up.
Time to pull her from delusion back to truth.
"The piece of their bodies needed to revive your comrades."
Evelask's wide eyes began to tremble.
She couldn't fathom how Krash knew that.
"S-stop."
As if to halt Krash from dredging up reality, Evelask spoke.
But his words didn't stop.
"They're all gone. Nothing left."
Crack—
Something in Evelask's heart shattered audibly.
The reason she'd devoted her life to necromancy yet failed even to revive them as undead.
In the words of the fugitive who'd escaped their world alone.
That reality reared its head once more.