As Lawrence sped forward with his Misty Step spell, Venti Laughlin's orb of necrotic energy grew wider and he hurled it towards Lawrence, who dodged it nimbly, narrowly missing Craig who threw himself to the ground. The orb of necrotic energy engulfed a few followers, who disintegrated into a slimy mixture of flesh, bones and skin instantly.

Lawrence, almost reaching the Undead Necromancer, tilted his sword sideways-

"Sun's Radiance!" Lawrence shouted, before slamming the blunt side of the blade against the necromancer. Sun's Radiance gave supreme holy energy to a blunt weapon, so Lawrence was technically exploiting a game bug here. However, does it really matter as long as it worked?

Venti's head was struck by the holy blade, causing him to scream in anguish and fear, as for a moment, his head was bathed in a blaze of holy fire. As the fire extinguished itself after briefly illuminating the room, Venti attempted to grab hold of Lawrence and cast Inflict Wounds.

However, the automated combat AI was too smart for that and swiftly removed the offending limb that had attempted to grab Lawrence by means of amputation via his sword. As the sword removed a bone, Venti, though in great pain, sneered.

"It will grow back in no time-"

However, obviously, Venti had not fought someone with truly powerful holy weapons before and as such, knew not the consequences of being an undead that was dealt holy energy.

It simply stopped them from regenerating at all.

As Lawrence offered a triumphant smile as Venti's eyes widened in horror as he waited for his arm to grow back, Venti shouted and cursed, "You'll pay for this--"

The tower shield that made contact with his face shut him right up, coughing some teeth to fall out as well. He must have a religious symbol somewhere in order to cast these spells...

Lawrence spotted a necklace on Venti's neck and quickly cut it off. It was a pendant fashioned in the shape of a horn. Venti shouted and attempted to dive forward to grab it but Lawrence's kick cut him off, causing him to double over.

Craig who had caught up, smashed it with his boot.

"W-Why am I here? Where is this place?"

One of the followers looked around in bewilderment as the charm is permanently lifted off all of the crowd.

"Get out of here!" Lawrence bellowed, using his fear effect and the crowd stared at the man with a skeleton's body but the face of a human. Slowly, one of the people at the front moved towards the door and as if it was a dominoes' effect, everyone herded themselves to the door.

"What did you want to be? Jim Jones and this was your Jonestown?" Lawrence muttered as Venti attempted to scamper away, his origin of magic broken. Even if he could cast something now, it would not be as powerful or strong. Venti reached into his pocket and pulled out a potion and he threw it in his mouth. At this point, he suddenly vanished.

"A potion of invisibility!" Lawrence cursed, as the door to the back of the church suddenly seemed to open by itself, along with rapid footsteps, undoubtedly that of Venti attempting to flee.

Lawrence reached into his inventory and pulled out a lantern that was lit.

"Craig! Hold this up and keep beside me!" Lawrence shouted as he passed the lantern to his friend and the two of them ran into the door. There, they found a cellar door had been thrown open as well.

"Craig, follow me and let us go in... Slowly," Lawrence muttered, the two of them entering the cellar. The scent of decay immediately hit them, the cellar was dimly lit, but thanks to the magic lantern that Lawrence had, they could see everything clearly. In the cells were numerous dying or already dead people. Craig's relatives must be somewhere here.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

As Lawrence and Craig proceeded cautiously along the rows of cells, the lantern light that Craig held up seemed to surprise many of the people in the cells.

"Please, please, you are not one of them, are you? Are you with Countess Vuitton? Please, let us out of here," one of the man stumbled forward in his cell, looking at them with pleading eyes. Lawrence shook his head.

"Two adventurers. Brother and sister. Seen them?" Lawrence asked and the man nodded.

"They are at the back I think, I saw the man in a pretty bad shape while the girl seemed to have dislocated an elbow or something. They were sent there by the Herders, so be careful! Can you let us out?" the man pleaded.

"Wait in there, the Butcher is still around here, I don't want to save you and end up being some undead raised against me," Lawrence replied. As the duo proceeded down the corridor, there was a shimmer in the corner which was illuminated by the light from Lawrence's lantern held by Craig.

"Sacred flame!" Lawrence shouted and even in the confines of this room, holy fire erupted from Lawrence's hands and shot it at the shimmering figure in the corner.

A scream that no doubt originated from Venti Laughlin. The shimmering figure fled once more, suffering another 2 Sacred Flames in the process.

"Craig, this lantern illuminates hidden doors, traps and people. Shoot first, ask questions later," Lawrence muttered and the archer nodded, having attached the lantern to the side of his backpack.

At the end of the corridor was a room. As the lantern showed no signs of a trap, Lawrence simply pushed it open. This opened the door to a large furnished room, dark red carpets, red drapes along the walls. Sconces light the otherwise dark room. At the very centre was a large campfire, surrounded by three chairs.

However, standing along the walls were what seemed to be two dozen men, women and children. All of them unblinking and unmoving.

In two of the chairs were a man and woman tied there. The man is unconscious and the woman groaned in pain. In the chair in the middle was Venti Laughlin, much more pale as he was before and half his face having melted away, revealing bones and rotten flesh.

"Welcome. Can we talk?" Venti smiled and Lawrence smiled back in kind. Another illusion it seemed. The people standing alongside the walls are undoubtedly either mindless slaves or undead. The interface then clearly informed Lawrence that there were 24 zombies of levels 15-20.

"I can grant you powers that you have never imagined. Imagine your power as an undead lich!" Venti raised his hands and preached.

"We're not listening to him, are we?" Craig whispered, his eyes widening at the man and woman.

"I'll even return these two to you! What do you say?" Venti proposed, a twinkle in his eye as he took out a small chest with a large diamond in the middle, almost buried in gold coins.

"Hang on, just another 6 seconds," Lawrence replied, leaving Craig's eyes narrowing. As Lawrence opened his mouth, Venti smiled. There was no way that someone could refuse him, Venti Laughlin!

"Mass turn undead!" Lawrence shouted, a wave of holy energy blasting itself within the room, causing all the illusions rip it self apart, revealing a room strewn with corpses, body parts and walls tainted with blood. The undead that stood guard against the walls simply crumpled into dust.

The blast was so strong that Venti was knocked over in his chair, coughing up black blood.

Standing over him, Lawrence raised his hand-

"Wait! Wait! We can still discuss this!" Venti cried out-

"Divine Judgment!" Lawrence shouted and for a moment, the air was still. Did something go wrong? Lawrence scratched his chin as Venti looked around terrified. Suddenly, the metal door that was opposite the door in which Lawrence had entered, shook and flew open and cold air drifted in. And from the ground underneath him, several blue and grey wisps appeared, in humanoid form.

One of them--

"Wait, I recognise you!" Lawrence shouted at one of the wisps. It was the same man in the painting that he had seen in the Donovan Castle. The man offered a bow in response, "Briar Donovan, I would say that I am at your service, but I have mere minutes to settle my scores with this man."

The wisps all held a translucent dagger in their hands. Craig and Lawrence took a step back each as the wisps politely asked for them to stand aside so they can surround Venti who was on the ground, moaning.

"I am Baroness May Donovan and this is for the family," one of the female wisps snarled and stabbed Venti with the dagger, causing him to howl in pain.

"... A holy ghost dagger? Interesting," Lawrence mumbled as he took out two Greater Restoration Potions and passed them to Craig.

"Untie them and get them out of here, I will make sure things wrap up here," Lawrence whispered and Craig cut his niece and nephew loose and fed them the potions.

"I am Lord Sigur Donovan and this is for the family," a balding man, with the robes of a merchant said in anguish and stabbed Venti.

As Craig supported Kunivia and Kessler out of the room, only half of the ghosts were done with their vengeance. Lawrence knew that this divine judgment was that Venti Laughlin shall be subject to a slow death, at the ancestral members of the House Donovan, because this was a debt of blood, that has to be paid in full.