Halfway through the army of skeletons, their pace slowed down significantly. Sure, Kai could wipe them all out at once but that was dangerous because he hadn't seen all of the Immortal's trump cards. In the other timeline, he fought the Immortal but not as an S-class, he was A-class and was positioned behind the frontlines. Because of that, he wasn't able to see all of the Immortal's attacks, Erina was the one to take him down at the end with help from Amelia though they suffered injuries. The Great War lasted seven days and seven nights against a single opponent. Numerous kingdoms were destroyed and the continent's overall power went down by at least 75%.
A third of the council and an uncountable number of soldiers were killed during the encounter with the Immortal. Memento Mori took the lead in the fight with Erina as the leader. Amelia who was born with the natural gift of Green Ki still had better control over it than Erina. Sure, Kai would be able to stall the Immortal without Green Ki, he wouldn't damage him in the least. There were limits to the strength of mana and slaying immortals was something it couldn't do. Life is stronger than magic.
"The skeletons are getting harder and harder to kill!"
Fifth shouted to inform everyone.
"Is it because we're going deeper into the capital?"
"No, this is..."
Kai used his left eye to find the cause but what he saw was only mana.
"So that's it. Fifth, go back to everyone and protect as many as you can. All of these skeletons are linked to each other and anytime one dies, they transfer power to the rest. It doesn't look like a technique, it's more like they came from one thing and were split apart, the less skeletons, the more power it regains."
Right now, the skeletons were at B-class and approaching A-class fast. If my calculations are correct, the thing it came from is at SS-class.
Kai furrowed his brows.
This didn't happen last time. The Immortal collected dead bodies over the years he's lived and amassed a frightening amount of skeletons, why would he only unleash one and split it apart?
Lost in his thoughts, everyone proceeded to take formation. Fifth and the other five made a beeline towards one of the kingdoms destroying everything in their way.
"We need to end this while killing the least amount of skeletons possible. Everyone, come near me."
Without questioning him, they all formed a circle around Kai.
"With the ferocity of fire and the swiftness of wind, lightning."
Electricity surged around Kai.
"Everyone, get ready to run."
Kai took the front and ran so fast that he literally tore through the skeletons all the way to the capital. A huge bolt of lightning swallowed and pulverized everything in its path along with a thunderous boom.
"Amazing..."
Date muttered while looking at the cleared path in front of them.
"No time to be idle, run!"
Amelia got out of her daze first and immediately used the shadows. Erina and Yoko took after her.
"Kei!"
"Yes!"
Kazuki yelled out, Kei jumped onto Kazuki's great sword and was thrown forward a great distance by using flames as a booster and wind as an accompaniment.
"[Flame Wall]!"
Kazuki created towering walls of flames, it expended a lot of mana but it prevented the skeletons from going back to the path Kai opened. Needless to say, everyone ran with all their might.
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Centrium
Inside the capital, Kai decapitated head after head, desperately trying to keep the gate unoccupied. He couldn't afford to spare any of them because the skeletons regenerated themselves unless they were destroyed.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
It took about only a few seconds for Amelia to arrive next to him and help contain the gate.
"Don't overexert yourself."
"Stop worrying about me, dear. I may not show it most of the time but I am a vampire, one of the most superior races on the planet."
The corner of Kai's lips curved into a smile.
Aside from the widely-known dragons, there were even stronger beings, those were the vampires. In fact, if the vampires were to take an active role to hunt down all the other races, even the Demon King couldn't do much. Vampires when compared to humans didn't even take up 1% but even the weakest of their race hold power of an adult male. The strongest of their race, the ones who hold the title of Vampire Queen or Vampire King, they hold enough power to kill Gods.
Luckily, vampires are very low profile and live in a remote place in the world, otherwise there would be a mass slaughter-no, annihilation. Vampires get powerful the more blood they drink and the more they age. They don't die by old age or sickness, they can regenerate their bodies so long as they have mana. Even if their body is destroyed, as long as a single piece is remaining, they can always revive. The only way to kill vampires entirely was to destroy them enough that there would be nothing except tiny atoms left- even turning them into dust wouldn't work. In the first place, vampires don't like the sun but it isn't their weakness.
This means that to kill a vampire, you must drain them of all of their mana and destroy their body thoroughly. Not many people have enough power to destroy a vampire's defenseless body let alone fight one at full power.
Kai thought about all this with a smile. It was true, he didn't really need to worry about her.
"Still, don't use up all of your mana. You don't need it to use Green Ki but the moment we face the Immortal, you're going to need every bit of power you have-"
As he was talking, a giant sword made of bones slammed down.
"I was talking."
Kai glared at the giant skeleton and chopped off its head with slick movements. Kai turned his head to the gate and saw everyone else nearing- but there was an additional ten people following behind them. When Kai saw who they were, he felt a headache.
"Empress, why did you follow us?"
"You all just charged in here without reinforcements so We were worried and had decided to follow you..."
It was Heliana, she held a rapier in her hands. The ten people were all burly men in knight armor using large weapons, axes and great swords.
"I can't let you go back now... Alright, let's go. More people means more to protect but I guess it can't be helped."
Kai turned around despite the suspicious eyes of Erina and began moving forward as he decapitated skeleton after skeleton and sometimes shooting ones who came near. It was a scythe and gun combo, something rarely- no, something that couldn't be seen in this world.
Skeletons were quite slow, Kai walked leisurely as the skeletons came one after another. The others realized the meaning behind Kai's actions and made a formation to protect Heliana.
"A Banshee."
Kai quickly used [Soul Aura] and focused it on the Banshee who was just about to jump at them. It held its head in pain and began kneeling down on the floor- it didn't have legs though. Ghosts were just souls that had lost their bodies and had regrets or were taken forcefully, [Soul Aura] which pressured the soul was extremely effective against them.
The skeletons had no souls so [Soul Aura] had no effect on them unless Kai's will was enough to manipulate physical forces.
"Everyone, remember my words. The Immortal has his innate ability unlocked, it's called『Anguish』."
The moment Kai's words were heard, everyone furrowed their brows. An innate ability, everyone had one but to unlock it was a different matter, it couldn't be trained and was basically a representation of someone. A person who was innately good could awaken a healing power far stronger than normal healing or even regeneration like vampires. They weren't limited to humans either, all beings could unlock innate abilities.
It wasn't a secret but someone with their innate abilities unlocked whether they were weak or strong were extremely rare. In fact, not a single being in the continent had an innate ability yet the enemy they were facing was an immortal and on top of that, had his innate ability unlocked? Even if he had trained for a thousand years, without the right opportunity and luck to unlock his innate ability, it would all be worthless.
Innate abilities varied greatly but most of them relied on the user's power. If someone with a strong body were to get a power to boost their strength, they would get as strong as their body could handle. If someone who liked to manipulate were to awaken the power to read minds, how deep they could go and whose mind they could read would depend on their mental strength.
Of course, not all innate abilities are strong from the start, some could awaken simple telekinesis that could only move cans unless trained or prescience that can see five seconds into the future but takes five seconds to cast.
"What does his innate ability do?"
Arata couldn't help but ask.
"Inflicts mental pain on others. He can manipulate someone to feel as if they've been stabbed by a thousand knives despite not being injured in the slightest, if the person has a weak will, then they'll be killed. His limitation is focus, he needs to focus on the person via sight, it isn't limited to physical sight either. He can view you using magic or even a picture and it would still work. Of course, looking at a person directly is many times more effective."
"A picture?"
"A painting."
"...?"
Yoko didn't mind the lacking explanation, he might've just misspoke.
Just as their conversation ended, they finally reached the plaza which was the center of the capital, they need to travel the same distance one more time to reach the palace where the Immortal was.
It was then that the skeletons changed, they used to hold swords made of bones and wore nothing but now, the skeletons wore knight armor and even held knight's weapons but that didn't matter to them, they could tear through them just as easily.
Kai pointed his gun at a nearby skeleton whose back was facing the palace.
"[Rend]!"