Chapter 228


    Maybe it was because it had been killed seven times already


    Thze didn''t immediately reform, remaining as a bubbling pond. Next to it, Prince teased,


    [What are you doing?! You scared? You''re scared, aren''t you? If you won''te out, I''lle in!]


    Simon''s eyes narrowed as he watched from a distance.


    ''Don''t tell me''


    His thoughts were short, and his actions were quick.


    Simon opened his subspace and made all six Overlord des shoot up underneath him,unching him high into the sky.


    [Commander?]


    [Hey, why are you going up?]


    Feeling the cold winds buffeting his face, Simon tightened his grip on the greatsword and took a deep breath.


    He looked down and saw that the pond was bubbling more and more violently.


    ''It''sing!''


    Soon, the pond surged upward, and Thze shot straight up into the air as a drill again.


    ''I knew it was going to do this.''


    Biting his lip in anticipation, Simon heaved the Greatsword of Destruction straight down to intercept the fast object.


    The man and undead shed in the air.


    <em>Bwoooooooooooooom!</em>


    The force of the collision shook trees and ttened grass.


    Once the winds finally died down and everyone could safely look back, they saw a drill sliced perfectly in half falling through the air.


    [Nice!!!]


    [Way to go, Commander!]


    Shouted Prince, pumping his fists.


    Eliza watched in ecstasy as Simon descended to the ground, his cloak pping in the wind.


    ''Only two more to go!''


    Simon, gasping for air, turned around.


    However


    <em>Shhhhhhrrrrrrrr.</em>


    Still in midair, the two pieces of Thze melted back together into a falling, bubbling orb of liquid.


    ''It''s resurrecting before it hits the ground!''


    <em>Pooooow!</em>


    The orb imploded as Thze, with only two lives left,unched itself out.


    Simon was too high up in the air to chase it, so Elizabeth and Prince panickedly called their spiders and zombies to pursue.


    [Thze must survive. Must mutate ording to situation.]


    <em>Bubble bubble.</em>


    A thinyer of the slime forming Thze''s body spread like bat wings across its arms. pping them vigorously up and down, it slowed its descent.


    [Thze. Number of times eight of ten lives consumed 11. But always survived.]


    Thze was quite capable both on the ground and the oceansit specialized in underwater fightsbut it was not able to fly.


    After gliding through the air and making distance, Thze returned to a small four-legged form and skittered across the grass. It was confident it''d survive as long as it could make it to the ocean.


    <em>Dash!</em>


    [Must survive. Must report to Magnus.]


    As it sprinted forward, Thze''s keen senses picked up a figure nearby.


    Ahead of it, it could see a man walking, his robes fluttering with every step. He looked like one of the ''Keepers'' who had so often pestered it as it searched these woods.


    Thze''s grotesque maw opened and it let out a menacing roar to get the man to move out of the way.


    Most people would''ve fled in terror at the sight, but the robed man simply stopped walking and crouched down. That was when Thze realized something was wrong.


    <em>m!</em>


    The man''s fist moved in a sh of light and crashed into Thze''s chest.


    <em>Craaack!</em>


    Ribs shattered and Thze groaned in pain as it sprawled across the grass.


    [Warning. Back off.]


    It had to get out of here before the Seventh Legion came. Thze''s body swelled, transforming into a menacing, five-meter-long monstrosity.


    [Back off.]


    But the man didn''t heed the warning and leapt off the ground into the air.


    The man''s stance in the air was peculiar. His chest was puffed forward, his arms were outstretched behind his back, and his head and legs were both pulled back so far that they almost touched.


    It was as if he was gathering strength like a coiled spring.


    {Kajann Original - Fang}


    His arms came forward and crossed in an X shape. Ten w marks tore through Thze, ripping through its broken ribs, stomach, and even its neck.


    The attack forced it topletely melt once more, returning into a pond.


    "Kajann!"


    Appearing soon after, Simon shouted out with a bright smile as he stepped on a tree that had been felled by Kajaan''s attack.


    "Thank you foring!"


    "d I''m notte."


    Elizabeth, who came in soon after Simon, rolled her eyes.


    [You again?]


    "It''s been a while."


    The two knew each other from their joint investigations during the Saintess incident.


    Prince was thest to arrive, and when he saw Kajann, he gasped and took up a fighting stance.


    [A-A human??!]


    "Kajann is fine, Prince. He''s"


    <em>Bubble bubble!</em>


    As the pond began to boil, everyone shut up and looked toward Thze.


    "It turned into that after I killed it."


    "Yeah, I saw that too."


    Only one life left.


    If they could get him now, it was their victory.


    Then, Thze''s voice came from the pond.


    [Thze. Number of times nine of ten lives consumed just 1. But survived.]


    The pond shrank for a moment.


    The moment everyone readied their jet-ck and prepared to attack whatever came out


    <em>Fwooooooooosh!</em>


    The pond suddenly expanded in size. It covered Simon, Kajaan, and the two Ancient Undeads, stretching out to cover several hundred meters of forest. The four of them began to sink.


    [Kugh!]


    Elizabeth tried to pull her legs out, but it was no use. It was as if they were glued to the ground.


    The center of the pond then rose up, revealing a Thze sorge it rivaled even Big Krum.


    [Change of n. Will return after killing them all.]


    As Thze chopped down with its hand, its victims were sucked down to the bottom of the pond at the same time.


    * * *


    * * *


    <em>Gurrrrrgle!</em>


    Simon held his breath and looked around.


    He was inside a murky substance that assaulted his nostrils with its stench.


    Chunks of mass floated under the surface, including countless bones of beasts.


    There was a bottom, too, covered in a ck, dirty moss that swayed with the current. It almost looked like human arms beckoning him toe closer, nearly making Simon open his mouth to scream in fright.


    ''There''s something off with this pond. We can''t swim out.''


    Simon saw Kajann swimming, but he wasn''t moving forward, just iling in ce.


    Simon looked up. Above the pond, the giant Thze was waving its arms filled with jet-ck, doing something suspicious.


    [Boy! Look down!]


    Hearing Pier''s warning, Simon whipped his head back to the ground beneath him.


    There, in the dark moss at the bottom of the pond, were hundreds of piranhas swarming like bees. They almost looked like a single mass surging forward as a crashing wave.


    [Hieeeek! Why are there so many!]


    [I can''t even spin a web here! What do we do?]


    ""


    Instead of answering, Simon slowly grabbed the Greatsword of Destruction and lowered it. Pier''s skull and Simon''s eyes shed dark blue at the same time.


    ''Let''s go, Pier.''


    [Kuhehe!]


    Simon swayed the greatsword side to side, then lifted it up over his head before gathering all his strength and jet-ck.


    <em>Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!</em>


    The water rippled as the jet-ck gathered. A huge sh of light erupted from the Greatsword of Destruction, illuminating the dark pond as bright as day.


    ''Slowly.''


    Simon spun with the whirlpool of forces created by his jet-ck. He tilted his body to the side before


    <em>Crrrrraaaaaaaash!</em>


    The greatsword began to move in a huge spiral around him.


    A giant line was drawn across the space where it passed, and everything it touched was ripped in half. The swarm of piranhas was obliterated, and the mossy soil looked like it had been savaged by some giant beast.


    Just holding such enormous power made Simon cry out in pain as blood vessels burst, but he gritted his teeth and continued to direct the destructive force.


    The spiral that had cut across the bottom of the pond now began to ascend.


    The final destination. Simon''s eyes were now on Thzeabove the pond.


    ''sh the opponent''


    The spinning tip of the greatsword sliced down through the ground and then up into the sky as Simon leaned back.


    Feeling his mind go nk, he screamed in his head,


    ''through space!''


    <em>Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!</em>


    The pure white sh cut all the way down to the bottom of the pond and all the way up the sky as Simon spun, slicing through Thze from head to toe.


    A massive shockwave shook the pond and the entire Forbidden Forest.


    [Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!]


    Thze reached toward the sky in some form ofst ditch effort, but its dismembered body crashed down, shattering into pieces.


    The four swam away from the falling remains.


    [Phew!]


    "Whew!"


    With the destruction of Thze, they could nowe up.


    The pond had been greatly reduced in size. Elizabeth sent out a spider web and lifted the four from the pond at once, carrying them to safety.


    Even now, the pond was shrinking and shrinking until it became a tiny dot of blood.


    <em>Squuiish</em>


    Mangled organs and dposed corpses poured out of the dot, and then the pond disappearedpletely.


    [We won! We killed it 10 times!]


    [We did it!!]


    Elizabeth and Prince cheered. Simon just slumped onto the ground from exhaustion.


    Kajann walked over and said,


    "Well done."


    "Ah, thank you so much for your help."


    Simon tried his best to smile. He felt a little better hearing Kajaan''s praise.


    [Hey! Don''t forget our victory ceremony!]


    [Let this woman be embraced by your arms, Commander!]


    The Ancient Undeads were busy celebrating. It seemed that it might take a little longer for Simon to rest.


    * * *


    <em>Squeak squeak.</em>


    Thze, in the form of a rat, was frantically running away.


    Everything had gone ording to n. In itsst life, it had drowned the members of the Seventh Legion in the pond, and now it could escape in this form.


    As it was itsst life, it put all its strength and energy into arge clone of itself. Thze thought it would buy it good time, but when it looked back, it saw that even the powerful clone had been torn in half.


    They were extremely dangerous.


    A lot more so than it had imagined.


    The necromancer who it assumed to be the Commander seemed to still be a student, yet he was already that strong.


    He would grow to be a great threat to Magnus if given a chance. Magnus already took control of an Ancient Undead belonging to the Seventh Legion, so conflict was inevitable.


    It needed to inform Magnus of this by any means necessary.


    The sea! It only had to reach the sea!


    As it cleared the forest, it saw the beach and sandy shore. The sound of crashing waves was very wee to Thze.


    Thze, still in the form of a rat, formed gills on its cheeks and ran to the water.


    [!]


    Sensing someone''s presence, Thze immediately hid behind a rock.


    There was a person.


    A dark-haired girl, walking alone on the moonlit beach at thiste hour.


    She gave off an indescribably intense aura.


    Yawning as if she had just woken up, she walked barefoot across the sand in a white dress.


    Then, she pulled amunication crystal ball out from a subspace.


    "Yes, Mom"


    Her voice was heard.


    "Yes, I am where you told me to be. Just what is it at thiste night? Ah, you''re always giving me too much work. Ok, ok. Fine."


    Thze held its breath and waited.


    It didn''t know who that human was, but there was no point in taking risks.


    Leave. Please just leave.


    <em>Step.</em>


    Throwing the crystal ball back into a subspace, the girl walked down the beach, her ck hair fluttering in the chilly winds.


    "I hold no grudge against you, but"


    Before Thze even realized, she was holding a crimson red dagger.


    <em>Fwip.</em>


    It cut through the winds, and Thze hastily stepped back. The dagger split open the rock it was hiding behind and stuck in the sand where it was stood.


    [I am under the Magnus Legion. Ancient Undead Thze.]


    Said Thze, urgently.


    [If you are necromancer I demand you identify your affiliation.."


    <em>Step, step.</em>


    She approached, crunching the waterlogged sand beneath her pale feet.


    "Affiliation?"


    As she stopped moving, her eyes gleamed red like a wild animal''s.


    Then, the space behind her gaped open like a mouth, and countless eyes red like hers shed from the darkness.


    "The daughter of a random, nosy mother."


    From the abyssal darkness, red pirs of energy beamed down.


    <em>Sizzle!</em>


    The frantically fleeing Thze was eventually swallowed up by one of the countless red cones of annihtion and disappeared.


    This was Thze''s firstandstmission failed.