Undead city - Altraud,

on the day of the Newborn Ceremony.

Under the dark, cloudy sky, Ervin sat atop the inner city wall with his team, waiting for the human delegation to arrive. Four other teams accompanied them, each consisting of 3-4 members, all armed to the teeth with skill scrolls and arrows, prepared for any potential confrontation with the humans.

Amidst the agonizing cries of the newborn undead undergoing the painful ceremony, Ervin observed the human delegation approaching the city. The group was led by the captain of the entire delegation, a silver-haired man, approximately 36 years of age. He wore a grey robe and carried a 30 cm-long wand in his hands.

A step behind him walked the vice-captain of the group, an orange-haired man called Blaze. He appeared to be around 35 years of age and although he lacked any visible weapons, his role as the second-in-command was evident, as all the other 20 members of the group stood a few steps behind him, gazing at him with respect.

What baffled Ervin the most was that all these humans were welcomed with open arms by none other than the right-hand man of the city chief himself. Paul, the wolf-headed undead, welcomed and guided them towards a large cathedral in the inner city. Confused at this turn of events, he turned towards Maya.

“Hey, am I missing something? Why is Paul treating those humans like guests!?”

“That's because they are guests. Wait! You didn't know? Were you living under a rock!?”

“No, I was busy living under a pile of books with a snake. Now explain.”

Maya sighed and with a shrug explained the reason for their special treatment.

“They are treated as guests because Arthur invited them for a meeting to discuss our foreign affairs. If everything goes well, then we will get access to their city's minor dungeon.”

"I see," Ervin mused, finally understanding the reason behind their special treatment. Accessing a minor dungeon had always been a big problem for the undead. They had access to two minor dungeons but lacked a third. Without it, they had no way to enter a major dungeon, limiting the growth of the undead. If the upcoming meeting proved successful, it would solve one of the major problems of the undead.

While Ervin pondered the new opportunities, the human group ventured into the inner city, and under Paul's guidance, approached a large cathedral near the city's minor dungeon.

Ervin noticed their entry into the cathedral, but his expression changed when the vice-captain of the group refused to follow suit. Despite Paul's attempts to persuade him, he marched towards a large grave away from the cathedral.

Not wanting to resort to violence, Paul turned towards the human captain for help, but the captain shook his head.

“That grave used to be his house 30 years ago. Please let him spend some time,” he requested while gazing at a large grave a short distance away from the cathedral. Then, he entered the cathedral along with the other humans to participate in the meeting.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Under Ervin's watchful eyes, the orange-haired man sat before the large grave, tears streaming down his face.

As far as Ervin knew, that grave served as a storage facility for raw materials such as ores and wood required for creating weapons. The fact that his once-home had been repurposed into a storage site was a bitter pill for anyone to swallow.

Ervin could understand that, so he just silently observed him embrace the grave and carve ‘Home, Sweet Home’ on it.

Moments later, the orange-haired human rose to his feet and turned towards the city wall. Instantly, a wave of intense intimidating aura spread out from him, threatening to engulf everyone in the city.

All the undead, including Ervin, sensed it and instinctually launched arrows towards his direction. The arrows zipped towards him but before they could reach him, the human opened his mouth and breathed flames, torching all the incoming arrows into ashes.

After he was done with the immediate attack, he looked towards the cloudy sky.

“Hey sabertooth,” he called out, “the captain ordered you to kill the undead if they try to harm humans. Now they’ve tried to harm me, despite my lack of aggression towards them. They are filthy creatures that don't deserve to live. Attack them, now!” he roared, prompting an enormous beast to descend from the cloudy sky.

Ervin's breath hitched as he stared at the beast hovering in the sky. It was around 4 m long, with a sleek and muscular body and deep ebony-coloured fur. The most striking feature of the beast was its half-a-meter-long curved fangs that threatened to tear its opponent's body into pieces. But even with all those features, what truly made Ervin breathless was the 6-meter-wide pristine white feathery wings that the beast was using to glide down from the sky.

The entire city fell into hushed silence as the beast hovered above them. Then, right before their eyes, the beast opened its mouth and with a deafening roar fired a beam of light towards the city.

The white beam streaked through the air like a laser, rushing towards Ervin and his companions. ‘Is this my end?’ Ervin questioned himself as the world flashed white before him. He waited for the laser to hit him, but it never did. Paul, the wolf-headed undead, swooped in just in the nick of time and swung his large scythe. The scythe travelled in an arc and struck the laser, deflecting it towards a faraway corner of the inner city. A huge explosion rattled the city as the light ray exploded upon hitting the ground.

"Are you guys okay?" Paul asked, his gaze still focused on the beast hovering above them. Ervin nodded absentmindedly, but in reality, he was not fine. ‘What if Paul wasn't around to help?’ he wondered, horrified. The thought of losing his friends and family members horrified him. It was obvious what would have happened if Paul hadn't been there; the laser attack would have landed, and every undead atop the city wall would have been turned to dust.

For the first time in his life, Ervin felt powerless, and he didn't like that feeling one bit. His fear turned into rage when his eyes landed on the orange-haired human. The man was grinning from ear to ear in mad glee, fueling Ervin's rage even more. Ervin wanted nothing more than to puncture the human's body with arrows, but he knew it wouldn't be of any use. After all, he had already seen the human turn a few dozen arrows into ash with just one attack.

While he desperately thought of ways to take action, the flying beast shot a few more lasers towards them, forcing Paul to remain on the defence. Paul deflected the lasers with minimal effort, but he couldn't counterattack, and Ervin knew the reason for it: "It's us, we are holding him back."

The thought of being a burden didn't sit well with Ervin, so he committed one of the biggest mistakes of his life—he took one of the knives that Maya had and jumped down from the wall.

“Wait! What are you doing!?” Maya exclaimed, reaching out her hands to stop him, but she was too late. Ervin ignored her plea to stop and rushed towards the human.