<h4>Chapter 1143: An Avenger Reborn</h4>


    Avenger disappeared, filling the air with a gloomy mood.


    Wended a short distance from the crater where the fort once stood, and no one could speak. It wasn’t only Fran and Urushi, Maleficent and Persona looked rather sad too.


    Maleficent was acting particrly strange. He had his usual smile on the surface… but he gave me a very depressed impression.


    That said, it seems I won’t get the time to dig any deeper. A pack of undead popped up to surround us.


    「Undead!」


    『Wickerman must still be alive!』


    Like I suspected, he must have evacuated before the torrent of divine mes. But where is he now? It felt like the undead were intended to slow us down rather than finish us off.


    While we were busy dealing with the undead, a redser came flying at Maleficent.


    「Where did thate from…?!」


    『Over there!』


    Damn, so Roh survived too. I guess he’s not dumb enough to burn to death in his own mes! We saw him firing at us from a short distance away.


    Maleficent just barely managed to put up a barrier in the nick of time. However, I doubt he can repeat that many times in his current exhausted state. Roh’ssers became much weaker after he used Divine me Excitation, but they were still plenty deadly.


    『Fran! I’ll teleport us!』


    「Nn!」


    The divine energy covering the region had dissipated, restoring our ess to teleportation. We managed to reach Roh instantly and deliver a sh.


    However, he blocked our hit with the relic again. The red knight could still move despite taking all that damage earlier, and after unleashing so much divine energy.


    「TCH! YOU DAMN BRAT!」


    「!」


    『What the hell?』


    Did he heal the injury we gave him?


    Roh’s voice sounded strangely high-pitched. Meanwhile, the cut on his neck was already closed, though it had turned a discolored reddish-ck.


    What’s weird was the wavelength of his mana. He was both human and inhuman.


    Only after an appraisal did I understand what was going on. Roh’s race was now disyed as “Demi-Undead (Mutating)”. He must be undergoing the process of transforming into aplete undead.


    Moreover, this didn’t seem to be some kind of forced experiment, he clearly epted the transformation willingly. To think anyone would willingly turn undead while alive.


    I assume some magical form was installed into his body, in order to allow him to fight after death. Perhaps Wickerman assisted him with that.


    「DIE! DIE DIE DIE!」


    Roh repeatedly pulled the trigger of the relic, but the performance seemed off. The st of me came out a bit dyed, and their speed and power had fallen like 50%.


    Does the gun’s performance correspond to the wielder’s condition or something? Well, I suppose it’s firing magic rather than actual bullets, so that makes sense if true.


    「SHIT! THIS UNDEAD BODY DOESN’T HAVE WIELDER PERMISSIONS…!」


    『This is our chance, Fran!』


    「Nn! Hah!」


    「DAMN BRAT! GET THE FUCK BACK!」


    Whoa, what?! He managed to block a three-hitbo from Fran! We may be a bit slower now due to our fatigue, but Roh needed his me transformation to avoid that previously.


    Yet now he blocked it without taking any damage. I checked his appraisal again, and saw that his stats had grown much higher. Also, the reddish-ck portions of his skin seem to have expanded too.


    It seems he’s getting stronger as his mutation progresses. Wickerman, the necromancer behind this turn of events, must be channeling mana into him. Gaining an undead body also means he can no longer feel fatigue.


    On the other hand, Fran’s exhaustion was slowing her down. Not enough to fall behind Roh, but wecked the ability to deal a decisive blow. Should we use Sword God Transformation or Potential Release?


    That’s when I realized a third option. Well, not that I came up with it… Someone had told me.


    I exined the n to Fran and Urushi, then set up all the preparations.


    『Alright, we’re ready! Fran!』


    「Nn!」


    「STOP TRYING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN, YOU MORON!」


    Fran jumped forward with a sh as Urushi leapt at Roh from the shadows. However, our opponent saw this surprise attacking.


    Just as he had down once before on the roof of the fort, Roh evaded the attack from his shadow by turning into mes. Only this time, it didn’t end there.


    「Fuhahaha! Witness my revival! God, priestess, you have my eternal gratitude!」


    「W-WHAT!?!」


    Avenger, who was supposed to have been dead, jumped out of Urushi’s shadow.


    The ghoul had been ranting in my head for the past couple minutes. I couldn’t understand anything he said in that state, but there was clearly some sort of necromantic presence trying to make an appeal. Then, the Evil God Fragment hopped on the bandwagon and started transmitting something too.


    Thus, I upped the level of my Necromancy skill and secretly summoned Avenger in Urushi’s shadow. Like I thought, Roh couldn’t detect Avenger so easily, since undead don’t radiate body heat!


    I can only summon Avenger for a few minutes since he’s a high-ranking ghoul, but that’s more than enough for a surprise attack. At first, I was only hoping to poison Roh and wear him down, but Avenger went on and on about how he could pin the red knight down. I decided to give him a shot, and then…


    Surprisingly, Avenger managed to get through Roh’s me form with his sharp ws. All thanks to the massive amount of evil energy the Evil God Fragment apparently shared with him.


    Roh’s me form became unstable, eventually wearing offpletely.


    『Now!』


    「YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!」


    「My priestess is no bitch!」


    Dammit Avenger, just shut up already!