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Ervas and Veronica glanced at the eternal night of the dungeon's internal biome and at the last, flattened landscape, which was the result of their catastrophic fight against the Necromancer.
?
"We ended leaving this as a wasteland… If we had gone all out outside… the whole mountain might have been destroyed…" said Veronica.
"Indeed, good thing we did it all inside of here… It is impressive how the Dungeon was able to take it all in… Dungeons are really intriguing places… I often wonder if they're alive," said Ervas.
"In a sense, they are alive. Dungeons have wills of their own, which are shared by most monsters within one. Of course, I was born in one, but my will was not that of the dungeon, so it constantly sent monsters towards me to kill me…" said Veronica.
"It must have been harsh…" said Ervas.
"It really was! But thanks to Shade and Aqua, I managed simply fine!" said Veronica.
"Well, that's reassuring to hear… Anyways, there are all these Dead Spirits with us, and the piles over piles of bones, corpses, plants, trees, stones, and all…" said Ervas.
"We'll clean the Dead Spirits inside of our souls through Dead Spirit Fusion and Soul Repair, and about all of these things, we already gathered the corpses of the heroes and warriors that fought in the war… so the rest can simply be left?" asked Veronica.
"All these bones will go to waste… I will pick them up," said Ervas, glancing at the bones as he expanded his flesh through Anir's bone marrow, opening a large bone on his hand and grabbing the piles over piles of bones that belonged to Undead before.
"Huh? W-What are you doing?" asked Veronica in surprise.
"I acquired a Skill named Bone Fusion through our last battle after overusing my bones to my limits. Now, I can do this…" said Ervas, grabbing all the bones and beginning to literally fuse them into his own bones, making them 'disappear' within the inside of his flesh, as if he had a pocked dimension within his flesh and bones.
Ervas quickly finished his meal of thousands of bones after a few seconds, leaving Veronica startled.
"Amazing, now you're like a bone version of Pekoran!" said Veronica.
"Maybe I've become like Knochen? I can also bring these bones back, and coat myself on them and all… I can also control them through Long Distance Control and my Phantasmagoric Aura," said Ervas.
"That's pretty cool! And yeah, you might be like that giant pile of bones… Although it wouldn't be nice to make one for ourselves aside from you?" asked Veronica.
"Yeah, I was thinking to do that. Do you still have those souls that you had to break?" asked Ervas.
"Oh, the specters? Yes, they had been healed quite fast, although they're completely cleansed of memories now…" said Veronica.
"Let's give them a new purpose then," said Ervas.
"Oh? Do you really want to create one?" asked Veronica.
"Yes, although I can use the bones. If the bones themselves become a being of its own, with its own soul and skills, it will become stronger," said Ervas.
"Simple enough, alright you guys, time to stop sleeping," said Veronica, 'opening' her Abyssal Soul and letting out large souls that once belonged to the specters that attacked her.
To defeat them, she had to break them through Soul Break, but right afterward, she reassembled them together through Soul Repair, which ended in making them all mixed together. She had to clean their minds to make them feel at ease, and now that they were completely cleansed, they were ready to become part of a new 'living' or 'unliving' being.
They had no personality or egos and simply flew towards the place where Veronica told them.
Ervas generated a new pile of bones, combining his own bones reinforced with Anir's Bone Marrow, and the bones from the ones he consumed, the pile was over ten meters tall, a good start for this future living pile of bones.
The merged souls flew into the pile, as Veronica and Ervas began to infuse their Mana in enormous quantities, making the souls dance with power, using the bones as their vessel.
Suddenly, a roar was heard, as the pile of bones began to move around as one, sticking together.
"Guooooooonnn…!"
The creature floated in the air as a pile of hundreds of bones covered in Phantom, the entity itself, although big, was not as strong, only being Rank 5, it looked like a promising new member had joined the crew.
"Its race is… The amalgamation of Bones? It is a Rank 5 monster, not bad! You're going to get even stronger soon, little friend!" said Veronica.
"How should we call him though?" asked Ervas.
"What other name than Knochen?" asked Veronica.
"Hm, good enough, Knochen Junior," said Ervas.
"Guuuoooonn…!"
The Rank 5 Amalgamation of Bones, Knochen flew through the skies, seemingly admiring its new life, as the souls that it was made of were mostly cleansed of memories, everything it saw surprised him a bit, and it was rather adorable for Ervas and Veronica, although any sane person would find a floating pile of bones terrifying.
"But boy, this place is enormous. We could even hide our entire Kingdom inside, wouldn't we?" said Veronica.
"Indeed… Though it is not clear now, Undead-type monsters naturally spawn here, so it wouldn't be the safest place," said Ervas.
"As long as we charm them with Death Attribute Charm, wouldn't that mean even more soldiers for us?" asked Veronica.
"That's right… Hm, but it would be certainly hard to bring them all here," said Ervas.
"Oh yeah, that would surely be a pain in the ass…" said Veronica.
"But Veronica, you don't have an ass," said Ervas.
"Aha! Don't say that to a lady, it is very disheartening!" said Veronica.
"I used to be a lady as well and I would not mind," said Ervas.
"You only say that because you already have a flesh body, Ervas! Don't talk like that!" said Veronica.
"Hmm… Okay, sorry? I never imagined that you would be so saddened for not having an ass…" asked Ervas.
"Why wouldn't I be?! Don't you remember it when we were back on Earth? We were quite proud of our ass!" said Veronica.
"…Yeah, but that was long ago. And as Anastacia, we never had any, nor any chest either…" said Ervas.
"Oh… Y-Yeah, we were like a door…" said Veronica.
"I think that this conversation has deviated way too much from its original topic… Knochen, let's go," said Ervas, as Knochen followed him and Veronica back to the Igni Kingdom, which they traveled there through Veronica's Accursed Graveyards.
Finally reaching their Kingdom again, Ervas and Veronica walked through the paved streets, towards their home, the large castle in the middle of the entire Kingdom.
Around the castle and in most of the streets, large feasts and celebrations were being unfolded, as many of the citizens were roasting large dragons, monsters so strong that not many of them would even be able to survive against.
However, they were being gifted all around the place, their meat was delicious and filled with nutrition and mana, which granted strength to demi-human races.
Around the castle, Ervas and Veronica were greeted by their friends, being invited to eat the grilled dragon meat, alongside large corpses of plant-type monsters that were being also grilled.
"Who would have known that plant-type monsters would taste so good?" asked Ragdaz while laughing.
"It surprised me at first as well, but they taste delicious, even more, when grilled, these ones taste like pepper. They're sweet and juicy, and the outside skin becomes smooth when grilled and seasoned well enough, goes well with dragon meat and beer," said Desephise.
"These skewers of Tentacle Plants and Dragon meat are the best, peko!" said Pekorina.
"Hm, they have a delicious after-taste… It is truly a blessing to be able to eat even as an Undead…" cried Pekoran, who was accompanied by his family.
"If sliced into thin slices, and if we add cheese and ketchup… Hm, the perfect hamburger!" said Gaius, serving a large double-patty hamburger with sliced plant-type monster 'flesh', cheese, and ketchup to Ervas.
"Thanks, Gaius, your cooking never gets old," said Ervas, happily eating the burgers that always made his day, and well, all of his friends and family with him as well.
"Ah, I am glad that everything went well, Ervas… Another annoyance out of the way, I guess," said Jason as he drank a mouthful of beer. Such beer was fabricated by the Bear-kin, and was extraordinarily strong, as it was made by fermenting specific types of seeds that only grew in the harsh mountains.
"This beer, I am never getting tired of it!" said Anna.
"Yeah, it's amazing! Although not being able to get drunk sucks!" said Veronica.
"You know what sucks more? That I can't eat," said Shade.
"You'll get to it one day, I promise!" said Veronica.
"I want to eat too!" said Gaia.
"You will get to it as well, Gaia-chan," said Ervas.
"Yay! I will eat a whole dragon!" said Gaia.
"Gaia-chan eating a whole dragon is certainly a terrifying thing to imagine…" said Veronica.
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