Chapter 357: Emptiness

"It's only you and me." Theo smiled.

Because Theo took the kill, the Zombie Lich was fuming in anger.

The lich raised its staff, summoning a huge black fireball above their head.

"…" Theo furrowed his eyebrows and quickly used his Telekinesis to launch himself. Yet, the lich was taken aback when Theo flew straight at him instead of sideways and pushed him back with the Telekinesis, using that move to take both of them away from the incoming fireball.

This wasn't Theo saving the Zombie Lich. He simply didn't want the Zombie Lich to kill itself using that attack since he couldn't get his EXP and kill or the skills that might drop from the lich.

Boom.

The fireball engulfed the ground and turned it into a crater while some zombies were devoured by that flame.

Luckily, Clone Theo and Ava had gotten enough distance from them.

Theo looked at the lich a few feet away from him and shouted, "Useless struggle. I'm going to kill you right now."

Suddenly, Clone Theo appeared next to the lich, thrusting his spear. "Cannon Blast."

"!!!" The lich widened its eyes while avoiding Theo's Cannon Blast, albeit it took his right arm as he dropped the staff to the ground.

The lich was bewildered since Theo said he wanted to fight him alone. This was an insult.

When he saw the anger in the lich's eyes, Theo smirked evilly while saying as though he did nothing wrong, "I never lie to you. My clone is myself, so basically, I'm still fighting by myself."

At the same time, Theo used his Blink skill to appear behind the lich and thrust his spear right at his head.

Sensing his presence, the lich turned around and leaned to the left, avoiding this attack. However, Clone Theo had ducked down and slashed both the lich's feet before the real Theo kicked him away.

The lich was one step away from dying, so Theo prepared to finish him with Magic Bullet. At that moment, he couldn't help but recall a certain memory.

…

A few years ago.

A middle-aged man stood in this valley. He was a courageous man who kept challenging everyone he saw, including monsters. That was why he was alone in this valley.

There were numerous monsters lying down lifelessly as he had killed every single of them.

However, his body was also heavily injured after fighting a total of fifty monsters alone.

His green hair swayed to the left as he took a deep breath, saying, "This is it. It's already dark and I can barely see the enemy. It's time to take a rest since no monster should come here during the night.

Yet, when he was about to turn around, he heard the river water splashing as if something big hit the water.

The middle-aged man furrowed his eyebrows and tried to check. With barely enough light, he needed to approach the river to know what was going on, albeit that action turned out to be a fatal mistake.

A huge wave of water appeared in his vision, only a few feet away from him.

"!!!" He leaped back but still got engulfed by the wave. He ended up rolling on the ground before raising his Awareness to check his surroundings.

His attention was grabbed by several water spikes above his head that already fell upon him, piercing his hands and feet.

"Argh!" His body wasn't particularly muscular since he was a Necromancer.

As a necromancer, there were two paths they could take. The first was to go to the Magic Path, using the Darkness Affinity to wield many kinds of magic that could help the undead in a fight.

Or he could go to the undead path and perfected his own undead summoning.

He chose the former, so the moment he got pierced, he quickly regained his calm and summoned a graveyard from the ground.

"Graveyard Sacrifice." The man looked up, finding the fish leaping out of the river with its mouth gathering the water.

The fish released all the water and used the current and high pressure to blast him away.

The man, on the contrary, utilized his Graveyard Sacrifice to gain the Magic Power of the dead and formed a huge blue shield.

Unfortunately, the water was stronger than he expected and shattered his shield and pierced his body, creating a hole in his stomach.

'What? In an instant? Although I haven't reached Hero Rank yet, I should be able to withstand this fish for a few rounds?' This was the last thought in his mind. It was such a ridiculous thought, yet, it suited him very well.

What he wanted was a battle that could make him stronger, thus the reason for him challenging these monsters.

However, it seemed that he just got bad luck when he encountered this monster. 'I have been fighting for as long as I remember… It's true that it's my honor to die in a fight, but this is a humiliation…

'No, I refuse to die. Even if I need to die, I will drag my enemy down.' The middle-aged man didn't want to die, not because of a grand goal or complex emotion… He just wanted to win. He refused to lose and promised himself to fight to the very end. And that drive, although shallow and weird, made a decision for him.

'If I can't defeat you, I won't be able to rest in peace. In that case, no matter how long it takes, I'm going to kill you!' The middle-aged man's hand was covered with black-colored flame as he burned his own body, which turned out to be the flame that turned him into a zombie.

The fish simply ignored him and returned to the hill, but the former human woke up and remembered only that last vow. He kept building his undead army to kill the fish.

Yet, in the middle of remembering his life, the lich was reminded of the reality. When he was about to kill his archenemy, two rays of light pierced the Megalo Fish's head, killing it. And he could only stand there in shock.

With the last struggle and regret in his mind, the lich raised its hand, trying to grab Theo's foot. However, Theo used the Magic Bullets to destroy its head completely, killing it.

"…" Seeing such a struggle from the zombie, his expression somehow turned grim.

[Killed a Zombie Lich.]

[EXP+30,400]

[You have leveled up.]

"Despite seeing so many EXP and killing both monsters… Why do I somehow feel empty?" Theo frowned.