171 Needs extreme measures

Approaching the battlefield, she finally witnessed the undead of this plane for the first time. They were mainly reanimated corpses, as most skeletons still had some rotten flesh on them if they were not categorized as zombies altogether. Because of this, they were getting completely annihilated by the very strong demons. If in reality, an angry orc could already pummel a human easily, what to say when it was even more unfair.

Wondering if this was a joke, as it was hardly a challenge, she saw the living creatures beginning to methodically tear apart the fallen corpses on the ground. Not even a single finger was spared, all smashed into dust by heavy hammers. In short, the hundreds of undead did not even make a victim before disappearing from this plane.

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But the expected faces of relief or even satisfaction could hardly be seen, as everyone that survived was worried. Looking at the thousands of demons dispersed in small groups under her, she found it weird to attack these massive forces with just those undead. After clearing the place of all the undead bodies, the army began to march once more.

Feeling a bit curious, she followed it, before noticing more and more of those groups on the horizon. Some were fighting the living dead while others were not impeded by anything. With just a glance, she could see it was in a scale close to a complete war, as the number of demons was easily bigger than the one inside any of the fortified position she saw previously.

"FASTER! FASTER! WE NEED TO GET THERE FASTER!" Here and there, she could hear the loud shouts of the officers, pressing the troops to accelerate. However, the farther they went, the more present some random undead were. Sometimes it was a small group of ten, sometimes it was the same size as the first batch she saw.

But every time they appeared, the progression of the demons were delayed, as they couldn't let any of them still moving. And even if they were strong, the demons did not possess infinite stamina and she could see some fighters already beginning to breathe heavily. This kept going for nearly an hour, before they all reached a small hill, with many fortifications on them.

The moments the earliest group saw this and the warriors within began to smile, their hope was completely crushed. "They are not here. They are all gone." One of those ratmen informed the officer in charge, that immediately threw his helmet to the ground, in a fit of rage. Picking it up afterward and cleaning up the dirt on it, he looked toward his target, only to see smoke leaking from it.

"Look at the smoke, they were here not long ago. We can still catch them, I don't believe they will escape us forever." Questioned like that, the scout could only sigh before telling them the hard truth. "It had been already 20 minutes since the last human escaped. We can't catch them."

"THE UNDEAD! IT'S THAT UNDEAD AGAIN! ARGH!" Seeing their commandant cursing again, they could only dodge quickly when he suddenly kicked a stone on the ground. By sheer luck, it had a perfect angle as it hit one of the undead standing between them and the hidden town. Even after seeing the destroyed skull of the skeleton, the demon did not feel joy but only even more hatred.

"Retreat. Once more, we are retreating. Yeah, yeah, I know. I remember what happened last time when we chased them. Count everyone and if we are lucky, maybe no one died in those last three days." Dejected, the commandant seemed to be lifeless as he walked back without any vigor. As for the ones surrounding him, they were not feeling any better, just that they didn't show it as obviously as their superior.

The good news for that was still the fact that they hadn't lost anyone. There were many injuries, but none of them were lethal. However, just to prove that they hadn't come here for anything, everyone was free to enter that village and tear it apart as they wished. It led to a complete mess, but at least it uplifted the mood of the army. And that position will be useless for an unknown period of time, seeing it so devasted.

Compared to the joyful manifestation of the anger of the orcs, Leilade was more interested in the sneaky ratman that were moving in the shadows. Even in such a desolate place, with hardly anywhere to hide, they were capable with their small size and discreet outfit to walk unnoticed. And thanks to their difference with the regular ratman, they were able to speak properly.

"Why so many undead were present? The other human towns were supposed to be under pressure those last weeks. We were an hour away from it when we were spotted." The two scouts that were talking had no idea that someone was listening right above them. Even when they looked around them, all they could see was some dumb skeletons far far away.

"It had already been years since we employed this tactic, of course, they will adapt. The problem is those undead, without them, we could crush the humans and finally have peace. No outbreaks in the capital, no resistance in the farms."

"Everyone knows that. But now, we are beginning to be more and more useless. Our kin is the first one to fall, just to bring reliable information. But we don't have the same recognition as they do." Hearing that, the other scout immediately watched around him, as those words were extremely grave. Even if he also felt resentment, it was not time to distrust their allies.

"Stop thinking that. The Demon Emperor himself regard us highly, even after our recent failure." But even as he was saying that he did not seem completely convinced by his own words.

"Do you think he will change his mind? Knowing that even they failed?"

"I don't know. But that's not our job. We need to contact the ones that followed the humans to know where they are going. Maybe they will finally lead us to the One Reborn." The two of them knew it would not happen. Not anymore. Seeing the two rodents running fast toward the humans, she accompanied them for a while. During that, she noticed their efforts to never be discovered by the roaming undead.

By now, Leilade had at least a basic idea of what was going, even if it didn't tell her anything about what Candaith wanted her to do. The Demon Emperor wanted the humans to behave and be eaten without causing any problems. The One Reborn used the undead to protect those humans and was basically the head of the armed resistance. And apparently, this one had not lived the recent years peacefully.

After reaching a point where she could see the very long convoy of humans, she finally discarded her disguise. Baffling the ratmen that were nearby and making them immediately hide. Starring at them for a few more seconds, she could clearly see their terrified expressions, mixed with disbelief that they hadn't been found out. Even after she left, they didn't dare to breathe for a very long time.

In a land filled with undead, who could tell that she was not from here. Actually, a very, very large amount of people. But for the skeleton that was mindlessly starring at her, it was not the case. Putting her hand on his skull, she forcefully intensified the connection between him and his maker, adding a special something. This was bound to create a backlash for both the caster and the summon, but she didn't care about the crumbling skeleton.

Even if from an external point of view it was obviously suspect to do so, it was still in the realm of possibility for this event to happen. And it was also the quickest way for her to find the mage responsible for it, whether he was alive or dead. In a matter of seconds, the unknown victim had already been located, and it was precisely someone inside that convoy.

Leaving the inanimated body behind, she sudden appearance did not shock the humans more than that. After all, most carts were pushed by skeletons and she could see some zombies playing with the kids. Listening to the discussions, she realized that those undead still had their memories of their past lives. All she could use to describe the situations was to call it an extremely important waste of mana.

The moment an undead retained their memories they will begin to act weirdly, sometimes even disregarding the orders of their makers. Forcing the latter to forcefully size control just to finish that task. Malakov had to do it when the lich he barely shaped managed to awaken and tried to escape. Except for their decaying bodies, they would act like humans, and if one thing was sure about them, it was that they are fickle, prone to break their words, lie and therefore, are completely unreliable.

It was not the first time she saw that, but each time, it baffled her that someone was stupid enough to do that. At the same time, it made it even easier for her to destroy such undead, as a soul was far more fragile than one would think. Passing by a rotting elder corpse that was happily telling a story to a group of kids, she was stopped by a lich.

"You. I never saw you before." Hearing just this, she looked at him like he was retarded. Clearly, he had not seen the real world, trapped into this tiny plane of his. Otherwise, he would have known that it was incredibly rude to just block someone path just for his own curiosity. After starring at him one second, far too long for her, she began to leave him.

"Hey, stop. I said, I never saw you here, anywhere before." Feeling the bony hand on her ethereal shoulder, she was extremely close to just kill him. And then, it fell on her. Why wouldn't she do that? What was her plan anyway? Pausing for a second, she searched in her mind for anything that would not make it faster.

Otherwise, what other options did she have? Hide her powers, slowly and painstakingly climb the ranks, before finally having a meeting with the One Reborn? After that, pathetically tell him her story, hope that he will help her? And with his help, do what exactly? Save the planet, free the humans and defeat the demons? Like she cared about something that would naturally be destroyed in a few thousands of years if they were lucky.

"You are right. You never saw me before. In fact, no one in this plane has ever seen me. And survived." Hearing her infantile voice, the lich was a bit perturbed by what she was saying. In reality, he only wanted to know who and what she was. But apparently, he had angered her, for some unknown reasons. But there was one word he didn't really understand.

"What do you mean by plane?" Hearing his dumb question, the soul began to laugh a bit. She was basically threatening him of death and all he cared was this? It was by far the most idiotic lich she had ever witnessed. At least the others wouldn't have a proper soul and wouldn't be able to ask stupid things like that.

"This is where we are. A plane. A small one. You should reach one of its edges quite easily. As for the rest, not worried about the certainty of death? And what about them, all those living creatures, happily chatting, some even singing. They had put their eyes on me, so their fate is also sealed." Even if she was not speaking loudly, her discussion with the lich naturally gathered the attention of her surroundings.

But even them, what were the last words they will ever here did not seem to perturb the humans. In fact, they took it as a joke, some even laughed about it. However, the lich realized for the first time he could not even examine her magically. In fact, he felt that he was starring at an abyss so dark, so deep, that not even his soul would escape unscathed.

"You ... You are not with the One Reborn?" Stepping back slightly, the lich fell backward as the ground was uneven. With his size reduced, now Leilade was above him, looking at him with her white eyes. Seeing her raised one arm to the sky, she saw darkness leaking from it, as it began to spread in the air. "Answer me, who are you!"

With this sudden change in the air, the humans and undead alike realized something wrong was happening. As for the lich that was still in the ground, he couldn't detach his eyes from the things that were moving in the dark. The humans close to that location were the first to suffer, as they didn't even understand how they died. Seeing their kin swallowed by something without shape or form, panic caught the hearts of the survivors.

But it was already too late. Like she did near the outskirts of Archet, a sea of shadows flood the ground, absorbing everything, alive or dead. The only one not affected was the lich, that was starring absently at the events, his mind not capable of understanding it. Soon, the already unhealthy plain become void of anything.

Recalling everything inside her body, she approached the lich before grabbing his core in her hand. There the link she created between him and her was severed, before searching carefully for another connexion. A few seconds later, his lifeless body fell in multiple pieces, as no mana left was here to animate it. Soon after, a tentacle quickly grabbed it, not letting a single trace of what happened here remains.

Not far from there, two ratmen were looking with their mouths wide open at what seemed t be the complete annihilation of an entire human town. Starring at the darkness that was beginning to withdraw, it seemed strangely familiar to the dark soul they spotted previously. Recalling that, one looked at where the skeleton she destroyed was, only to find the place empty. Before he could even turn around and say anything, two hands without flesh on them twisted his neck, silencing him forever.