|Vindiction's Strike Acquired|
Evan and Greed then simultaneously punched the Dullahan king and sent him flying towards the ground, making him lose control of his skill and causing it to deactivate, resulting in the 'beams' of aura turning back to normal and dissipating into the atmosphere.
**BOOOOM!!!!!
The sound of the crash knocked Duke Charles back to his senses, with the man activating his lightning rush and blitzing past the sound barrier towards Vazgan's location.
In that same instant, Vazgan flared up his aura with a burst of energy, turning up the power boost from his Geass of Vengeance to the max and encasing his sword in eerie spectral flames.
What followed was a clash of grandmasters that Evan and Greed knew better than to interfere in.
Evan turned towards his contracted demon and spoke while throwing his hand into his inventory.
"That must have taken a lot out of you, huh?"
"No shit.
He's an entire existence level above me.
Of course, it did."
Pride rolled her eyes as she replied, before raising an arm to catch what Evan tossed at her, looking at it and realising it was a potion in a juice pack.
"Really?"
"It was the first one I grabbed."
Evan shrugged his shoulders as he replied, while Pride just sighed and downed the contents of the juice pack to recover her expended energy.
"I had almost forgotten how much joy I derived from the expressions of shock on the faces of those nearby whenever you used your idiosyncrasy, sister."
Greed spoke with a chuckle as he summoned Mammonas back into his hands, with Evan laughing lightly upon remembering Duke Charles' shocked expression.
"Alright, less reminiscing, more killing undead."
"Evan…there's barely anything left for us to kill, you know?
Heinr took out most of the major threats with his 'Grand Cross' thingy, including the Dullahan King's nightmare horse."
"Yeah, but let's try to kill as much as possible before the Eighth finger arrives. I can tell he's coming soon.
I saw a few Senior members mixed in with the Dullahans about half an hour ago."
Like so, the trio re-joined the battle with the remaining undead forces, sweeping through them with relative ease with Evan's level finally getting to 260.
Meanwhile, Duke Charles' and Vazgan's battle continued, with the two swordsmen putting their skill with the blade to the test against each other.
**BOOOM!!
The two men were knocked back by the shockwaves from their own attacks, getting ready to jump back at each other only for another party to interfere in the battle.
"Grand Cross!!!"
The Duke's Zero Sword slashes didn't provide Vazgan the leverage he needed to unleash Vindiction's strike as Sir Heinr's voice sounded out and a massive golden cross-shaped slash of magic force thundered down towards Vazgan.
Left with no choice, Vazgan dodged the Zero Sword and coated his sword with as much aura as possible before raising it to block the slash.
"This damned undead!"
Heinr's annoyance reached his peak as he barely held himself back from using more power than necessary, withdrawing some of the magic power in his slash and replacing it with divinity.
Vazgan's arms started burning off and he cried out in anguish as his death aura was forcibly dispelled.
Duke Charles didn't let the opportunity go, blitzing in and stabbing Vazgan's torso with his sword, before pushing him out from under the Grand Cross and flinging the undead off his blade.
"Enchant: Life."
The voice of the blonde battle priestess who was standing beside Heinr rang out as the paladin withdrew his magic power and divinity back into his body, not letting a single bit of it go to waste.
Her enchantment was not for Heinr, but for Duke Charles, whose sword was enveloped in the green glow of potent life energy, something that was very lethal for the Dullahan King.
What followed was the final clash between the Duke and Vazgan, with the Third Sword easily overpowering the weakened Dullahan King and knocking his weapon out of his arm.
"Zero Sword. Fourth Form."
Duke Charles used his unique skill to sever Vazgan's right wrist and left arm, the aura of life on his blade melting the severed limbs like concentrated acid.
With both his hand disabled and no lich in sight to cast undead recovery magic on Vazgan, was unable to hold his trusted sword, to block the Duke's next strike.
He could barely even rouse his energies as the effect of Eliza's life magic proliferated after mixing with the dredges of Heinr's divinity and had its effects tripled, weakening him even more.
Duke Charles, not being the type to let an opportunity to eliminate one of the greatest Grandmaster-level threats pass him by, infused his sword with a heavy dose of his blue aura and readied it to give the killing blow to Vazgan.
However…
-"?!"-
All the peak master and Grandmaster level existences on the battlefield simultaneously rose their heads in alarm, with their gazes all turning in the direction which Vazgan's army came from.
They all looked up just in time to catch the sight of a singular streak of black light that shot through the sky and down towards the ground in the middle of the ruined savannas.
From its trajectory, the streak of light was headed straight for the Duke and there was no way the man did not notice this.
He made the split-second decision to unleash a weaker version of his skill that had a shorter charging time, delivering a diagonal slash that cut through Vazgan's torso, before jumping backwards just in time to avoid the streak of light from crashing down onto him.
**BOOOMM!!!!!
The Duke and those in close proximity to him were forced back a few yards by the resulting shockwaves, and a cloud of dust and dirt rose into the sky after the explosion.
The entire battlefield was silent, but living and undead beings alike had stopped moving, with all their gazes locked on the cloud of dust that rose up into the sky.
The dust was cleared by a silent wind that swept westward, revealing the true identity of the black streak of light that had smashed to the ground.
It was a humanoid figure, kneeling with their right leg, while only their other foot and one of their hands were also touching the ground.
Slowly, the figure stood up on their own two feet, revealing their whole form to everyone who cared to look.
It was a slender yet fairly muscular male of average height and a slightly melancholic appearance.
He had fairly long, neatly done black hair, kept up with intricate white headpieces that contrasted his black clothes, along with a pair of cat-like opal eyes.
He was dressed in short-sleeved dark and grey-coloured robes, and floating beside him was a dark red orb, with five interconnecting semi-circular rings orbiting it constantly.
Silence pervaded the entire battlefield, with both the Duke and Sir Heinr, along with the other A and S-ranked adventurers tightening their grips around their weapons as they sensed the threat this man posed.
This silence, however, was broken by the words of a certain hero who acted like he could not read the serious mood.
"That landing reminds me of the boss battle. So, she actually got it from the real person, huh?"
His incomprehensible words attracted the attention of both this new entrant and the grandmaster-level existences on the sides of both living and undead beings.
"Oh my, where are my manners?"
Sensing the gazes on him, Evan covered his mouth and spoke, before giving a light bow and then offering greetings to the battlefield's new entrant.
"A dreadful afternoon to you, Old sir.
It is most definitely NOT a pleasure to meet you, Eighth Finger Dominik Velak."
The high-ranking adventurers and mercenaries, as well as the paladins of the Church and other military officers, took Evan's comments as confirmation of this man's identity.
He was indeed the man who they had been briefed about recently, the necromancer who was the grand mastermind behind the undead crisis of the past few months.
"I would have very much loved for you to extend my 'greetings' to the First, but that would prove to be impossible as you would not be able to leave here today."
Evan spoke as he let the unforged float in the air, activating his appraisal skill simultaneously and checking the status of the man in front of him.
Despite having sensed Evan's skill activation, the Eighth Finger did not seem to care as he glanced at the grand master-level beings present before throwing a look towards the body of the Dullahan King behind him and speaking.
eaglesnov?1,сoМ "You were expecting me, huh?"
"I mean, aren't you seeing this line-up? Of course, we were expecting you."
Evan casually replied to Dominik's words, keeping the Eighth Finger's attention on him while the Duke quietly ordered a retreat of all the forces behind the man's position.
Although Dominik noticed this, he still kept his gaze on Evan as both his instincts and his contracted demon were warning him that there was something 'off' about the boy.
[Also…it seems the person who dealt with Methik is here too. Vazgan's soul is injured.
I can't tell whose aura caused it as there are too many aura residues on his body but the person who has that soul-damaging ability definitely had a hand in the earlier battle against Vazgan.]
'That so?... I'd get one of his subordinates and ask them, but for now, let's focus on both this eerie kid here…and the person who's resonating with my series skill.'
"You're the one who killed Xakon, aren't you? Eris Evan."
"Xakon? Oh, you mean that low-level grunt that was hiding out in Geto?
Yep, that was me. Made short work of him.
He didn't even know how he died."
Evan chuckled as he spoke, watching as the members of the undead coalition force retreated while warily watching the undead that had not moved ever since Dominik appeared.
"Oh yeah, where's Zacular? Still recovering from the beatdown he got after Falos died?"
Dominik's brow twitched in annoyance when he heard Evan call the name of his deceased right-hand man, but before the boy could say any further, Duke Charles' voice rang out from the communication device in his ear.
[That's enough.]
"Oh my, it seems I might have said too much."
Evan rose his hands in mock surrender as he spoke, while slowly backstepping towards the area where Duke Charles and Sir Heinr were standing.
It was then that Eliza who had been silently watching Dominik ever since the man landed finally opened her mouth and spoke.
"Evan…is there anything else you didn't tell us about him?"
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