Branth recovered slowly, but by that time, Jonathan had already engaged. He weaved past a storm of arcane power, and moved into melee range with the Revenant, drawing upon all of his energy sources to empower his body. Stamina flared, followed by mana and elemental energy, boosting his next punch by an obscene amount. The monster raised a buckler of energy to block, but that was a mistake.

A simple pulse of the Void weakened the buckler enough that Jonathan’s strength shattered it instantly, letting his fist slam into the revenant’s jaw. Despite its frail appearance, it felt like striking a boulder. However, Jonathan’s strength was enough to shatter a small hill, let alone a paltry boulder, and the monster was sent hurtling backwards, its neck snapping.

As an undead, it was made of far sterner stuff, and it righted itself midair, baring its teeth. Energy swirled around it, and it charged, flares of eldritch power propelling it forwards. Jonathan met its charge with his fists, pushing the monster back, preventing it from sinking its claws into him.

The undead roared in anger, and began to swell, its bones and flesh expanding as it channeled the power into itself. Jonathan slowly felt himself being pushed backwards, and he disengaged with a sigh, letting the monster bullrush past him. Before it could turn around, he sunk a fist soaked in concentrated Void energy into its back. Its paper thin skin turned to ash beneath the elemental energy, and Jonathan drove his entire fist through its body. As it was held there for a moment, transfixed, Branth began to savage the undead’s form, tearing off chunks of rotting flesh and bone.

The undead howled in anger, and pulled itself free, falling to the ground with the noise of clattering bones as its exposed skeleton hit the ground. Before either man could attack, it summoned a portal of green light beneath it, teleporting out of harm’s way. It appeared behind Jonathan, its form blistering with necrotic force.

“Foolish mortals, thinking that you can challenge one of the undying! You will learn the meaning of urghk-”

The noise was cut off as Jonathan not only reacted in time, but drove his fist straight through the burgeoning cloud of greenish power, detonating the consuming energy of the Void within it. The monster was blasted away by the resulting reaction, silencing it.

Jonathan followed through with a devastating kick, knocking the monster’s head off its shoulders. With a final gurgle, the undead died for the final time, withering away into dust as its form finally succumbed to its true age.

Essence rushed towards Jonathan and Branth, not quite enough for a level. Jonathan had a sneaking suspicion that he leveled somewhat slower than others, at least going by the amount of essence that he should have been earning for his kills. Perhaps titles took from his essence stock to provide the immense bonuses that they gave. Yet another question for Edgar, if indeed the mage even knew the answer.

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He and Branth left the tower behind, after searching for anything of worth. Other than the moldering throne, the place was completely empty. Although nothing had come of it, Jonathan was still annoyed at having been taken in by whatever mental effect the undead had used to lure him and Branth. It was quite embarrassing for him, who prided himself on his will and power. Perhaps Divinity would have helped, but he hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to use it.

The copse took another few hours to traverse, but after their defeat of the Revenant, there was nothing else to challenge them. Even better, their detour had helped to lose their pursuers. For the next day or so after, they simply ran, not bothering to converse with one another.

The fetid mud continued ahead for leagues on end, but eventually, they deemed it safe to stop, and rested at a deserted encampment. It had been built up out of the mud with bricks of hardened clay, but had been infested with massive spiders with silk harder than steel. After making short work of them, Branth and Jonathan were left to explore the small hamlet.

There was little left of the original buildings, and they had been reclaimed by the swamps. However, a bit of the old roads remained, crisscrossing empty lanes as if awaiting their builders to return once more. It was a place of desolation and abandonment, and Jonathan did not like it one bit. However, it was a respite from the horrors of the wastes, and somewhere out of the way enough that any pursuers would likely be stymied.

Jonathan had some things to attend to, and so did Branth. He had planned to return to the Ash Heaps at some point, and realized that now was as good a time as any. He was originally going to wait a bit longer, but with the added burden of Branth to protect, he would have to take any opportunity in an area of safety that he could get.

Branth tended to his elemental cultivation, promising Jonathan that he would be careful. A few moments later, he summoned his portal, hopping inside.

He appeared in the ruined center of the Ashen Citadel, except it wasn’t ruined anymore. Buildings had sprung up to dot the area, and it was bustling with life. Many of them had been constructed by the Uthraki, but some had a more personal touch. He expanded his elemental senses, quite easy to do with his new pathway skill, and caught a tiny bit of elemental wind coming from the north. It seemed that Edgar had already arrived.

He strode out into the streets of the new distract, ignoring the awed glances that he received from the townspeople as his aura spread out. Now that he was Tier 3, it was hard to contain it fully, and a small part of his power leaked out into the world. It was only due to the mana concentration array that Granath had made that he could even survive here.

None of his higher leveled aides were present, but that hardly mattered. He knew his own way around the city.