“Aaaa… Ha… L… lea… der…?”

“Soleil? You’re back?!”

It worked! Matthias almost jumped for joy. Though she still looked terrible, at least she had regained her consciousness. Perhaps it would take a bit longer for her to completely recover. At most, she would have to sit that fight out. Still, it brought him a great sense of relief.

“Wh… what have I been…”

Soleil shakily brings both of her hands up to her face. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the state of her body. Her left arm was quite literally falling apart in front of her. Anybody would be horrified. So Matthias thought it was a natural reaction.

“Ah–” she flinched and bent over. She pulled her left arm in and cradled it gently. Her face twisted in excruciating pain. But, she didn’t scream. Her mouth simply flapped open repeatedly while viscous fluids trickled down the sides. They were a mix of her saliva, bile, stomach acids, and the blood from having to bite through the wooden vials. Even from a distance, Matthias could smell the disgusting stench of the mixture.

… Was the dosage not enough? Though he had rushed to pull out as many vials as he could from his pouch, she still took several bottles of holy water all at once. That was as much as he could hold in his hand and stuff into her mouth, and more than what Soleil took during the entire course of their battle against the zombie drake.

But just in case it really wasn’t enough, he still had a few more with him. Though it was dangerous to fight in a location filled with undead without them, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

Nothing was more important than getting Soleil back at that moment.

Feeling like it was better to strike while the iron was hot, Matthias approached the struggling Soleil again with almost all of what remained of his supply of holy water. Hopefully he would be able to properly pour it into her mouth. But if need be, he was confident in being able to once again force all of it into her mouth.

“Hah… Ah… It… hah… hurts…”

Soleil had collapsed onto the ground from the pain. That was the first time she had seen her like that. He always thought that she was the kind of person that wasn’t fazed by it. After all, as a master of physical augmentation, she had reached a level that surpassed strengthening and closer to complete control over her body. She should have been able to turn off her pain receptors, or rather, to just stop herself from feeling pain. But she didn’t. Or, perhaps, she couldn’t?

He couldn’t even begin to imagine the agony she was feeling at that moment.

“I hope this works.”

He prayed once again.

But before he was able to get on his knees, he heard a desperate shout behind him.

“Boy! Get back, right now!”

Spear’s voice was laced with desperation; a first from her, who he thought had an arrogance that prevented her from feeling such an emotion.

Despite himself, his reflexes made him kick the ground and get himself away from his friend.

But he was a fraction of a second too late. Soleil’s left arm lashed out towards him and caught him by surprise. While he was able to create just enough distance between himself and her arm, one of his hands, the one that was holding the vials of holy water, wasn’t so fortunate. Her hand grazed his fingers and sent pain shooting up his arm. A simple scratch from her caused him so much pain that he lost his grip on the vials.

As he managed to put some more distance away from her, his mind worked in overdrive. What the hell happened? Many different ideas popped into his head, but most of them came so fast that they all just mixed into incomprehensible garbage that he couldn’t understand.

Panic and terror was gripping his mind.

“Ah…! Ahh!!”

He heard a second scream. It was garbled, almost like the owner was drowning, and filled with agony.

“Soleil!!?”

“Gh!! Hah! Ahhh…!! AaaaAAAHH!!”

She screamed again. Fluids flew out of her mouth as she did. Her left arm escaped from her chest and flailed wildly beside her. Meanwhile, her body trembled violently from pain. She writhed and rolled around the dirt. Her legs thrashed hard on the ground and smashed the vials of life-saving holy water by her feet. Her blood stained the soil around her into a wretched canvas of red and brown. Even from far away, Matthias could hear her breaking her bones from her wild movements.

“It hurts! ITHURTSITHURTSithurtsITHURTS!! Aa!! AAAHH! HAAAA!! MOM! MOMMY!!”

Her miserable cries tore at his heart. It ate away at his soul. He wanted so desperately to make her stop. But what could he do?

“What’s happening!?” he demanded from nobody in particular. But to his dismay, the one person he didn’t want to hear from answered; his voice cutting through Soleil’s shrieks like it was nothing important to him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I told you. It’s too late.”

Enraged, Matthias’ focus shifted towards the necromancer–only to find that he was no longer visible.

It wasn’t due to the lack of lighting. Though most of the ground was slowly starting to regain its earlier unholy glow, it was still insufficient to provide any sort of sufficient illumination. But the area where the necromancer had been standing still glowed eerily with the same amount of intensity as earlier. It was as if Demon Culling’s effects hadn’t reached that area. How? Well, it was easy to determine at a single glance.

There was something that hadn’t been there earlier–something large.

It was easily the same size as a small building. The shape was recognizable. After all, it was something he wished he wouldn’t see again for at least a year. And it was blocking his view of the necromancer.

“... Fuck.”

But unlike back then, it had lost all of its flesh and innards. What was left was nothing but bones and scraps of meat. It shone a sickening white, like polished marble and chalk.

He knew what it was. The feeling was all too familiar. It was the same thing they had faced so many days ago inside that damnable dungeon.

It was a giant skeleton in the shape of a reptile.

“Skeletal drake…”

Rank A undead. They were far stronger than their zombie counterparts, as they no longer possessed their innate weakness to fire. Not only that, they were much faster, tougher, and though they weighed much less, their sharp protrusions could easily puncture thick steel. They could also breathe the same noxious breath as well and emit the same deathly aura. The appearance of such a monster heralded new eras, requiring an entire country to put their utmost into defeating it while also having to make peace with knowing that a massive amount of sacrifice was going to be needed. To provoke one was equal to death.

But, it wasn’t staring at him.

It was locked in a deadly staring contest against Manna, who had been pulled out of the shadow from Demon Culling’s light and was aiming an arrow towards the drake’s head.

The monster’s claws surrounded the necromancer protectively. A few small cracks were visible on its surface. On the ground lay two of Manna’s giant arrows.

It appeared that, within the few short moments Demon Culling had blinded everybody with its light, the skeletal drake had been able to manifest and protect its master against Manna’s ambush. The frustration of failing was apparent on her face. Meanwhile, the necromancer declared thus proudly,

“Your friend is gone. Even if you can pull her out, it will only be because of her strong will. I personally made sure of that.”

The drake loosened its claws around the necromancer, giving Matthias a view of his bared teeth. While faint, his augmented eyes saw that it had traces of blood on it.

“You!!” he couldn’t stop himself from yelling out. To that, the necromancer laughed.

“Yes. I bit her. The Body is the dictator of the Mind and Soul. Once her Body turns, both will follow suit. I know you’re not an idiot to not realize that. Sir Matthias.”

“TOLG!!”

“Boy! Don’t!”

Hot rage dyed his mind completely red. He put as much power into his legs as he could and launched himself towards him. If he was in his right mind, he would have been surprised at himself. It was the fastest he had ever gone, and might have even been a match to the speed Soleil had displayed during their first day out. The ground exploded under his feet for every step he took. Faster than a blink of an eye, he had closed the distance between him and the necromancer and thrust his sword through the gap between the drake’s bones.

A crisp, metallic clanging resounded throughout the cave.

Matthias opened his eyes wide.

A rotten elbow had brought his sword down, forcing it against the drake’s hard bones.

His gaze met with Soleil’s. Her face was stained with dirt, blood, gastric fluids… and tears. While her body was no longer her own, she still had some measure of control left over her eyes. Through it, he saw his own visage reflected on its blurred surface.

“I’m sorry,” she seemed to convey.

His heart fell. His mind turned blank. His mouth turned over in despair.

He failed again.

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“MATT!!!”

Manna shrieked as she saw Matthias be blown away by Soleil’s fist. Fresh blood trailed in his wake. His body was thrown back so abruptly that his fluids were left suspended in the air before splattering on the soil.

Her caution, considerations and assessments were thrown away as the desire to run to his side completely overrode everything. She went back into the shadows and made a run for it. It was only an instant, but to her, it felt like an entire day. She gnashed her teeth and hatefully cursed at her ability, wishing that it rewound time instead of wasting it.

She didn’t even pay attention to Soleil and the drake directing their attacks to her. Despite becoming intangible, it didn’t mean she became invulnerable. But who cares if her body was sliced open, or if her bones were shattered? Even if her lungs were burned or if her legs were destroyed… or her nose was broken, or her throat was crushed, all that mattered to her was being with him.

As she suffered injury after agonizing injury, she finally managed to get herself to where Matthias lay. Due to the damage she had suffered, she found that the mana in her body had depleted immediately. She was forcefully pulled-out of the shadows again and collapsed to the floor next to him. But despite the pain, she desperately clawed at the ground to bring herself as close as she could possibly be.

“Matt! MATT!! MATTHIAS!!”

She screamed his name over and over. But her voice was hoarse and incomprehensible. The drake’s noxious breath had eaten away at her throat.

“Fuck! Useless! FUCK!!”

She didn’t even have the solace of being able to feel the tears streaming down her cheeks. The drake’s breath had also started to rot her skin.

She cursed at her own body in disbelief and disappointment. How could it betray her at such an important time? She needed her limbs to crawl towards him. She needed her throat to say his name. She needed her skin to feel his pulse. She needed her nose to smell his scent. She needed her ears to hear his voice.

“WHY ARE YOU NOT WORKING?! DAMN YOU!”

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