Chapter 14 - My Spirit Body Is Done For ===

Chapter 14 : My Spirit Body Is Done For

===

「He’s our king… Jean Diego-sama. This room and those corpses are my offering… for that personage.」

The long-haired undead in front of me spoke of some man’s name with a trance-like look on his face.

Naturally, I had no idea who he was even talking about.

「Eh… Who?」

「You piece of sh*it… How can you call yourself an undead without knowing that personage’s name?」

Cause I was inside of a dungeon until just a while ago, you see…

「He’s our master, the King of the Undead―no, that honorable personage is the king… of this world! And I… was brought back from death by his very hand!!」

「I got no idea what you’re talking about, but in short… He’s a necromancer, right?」

In the first place, necromancy itself was a forbidden art.

That Jean person must not be a decent person either.

「Don’t lump him together with those vulgar necromancers!」

… Oops, I stepped on landmine.

「Whatever… You’ll know about his greatness soon.」

After he spoke, that long-haired undead dragged the unconcious woman toward the torture instruments.

I stood in his way.

「What are you going to do with her?」

「What am I going to do? Do you think I’ll allow you to torture this woman too? You f*ucker… You think a lowly undead like you can stop me?」

「Euh, please don’t lump us together.」

I showed my disgust toward his hobby.

Nevertheless, I noticed that I could speak normally with him. Was this because we were both undead?

If possible, I wanted to chat a while longer with him but.

「I mean, killing humans is bad, right?」

Yup, I ended up spouting such cliche morals to the long-haired undead in front of me.

Sure enough, he sneered back at me.

「Ridiculous… An undead talking about the weight of life…」

Since we were both undeads, could he really ridicule me?

「Whatever… Even though I’d forgive you if you sat in the corner like an obedient child… Ground Shrink..」 [TL : 縮地斬り–Ground Shrink Decapitation]

In the next moment, the figure of that long-haired undead suddenly vanished, reappearing right in front of me.

Moreover, his drawn sword drew a sharp arc, aiming to behead me.

CLANG!

「WHAT… THE?!」

I saw the tip of his broken sword fly off to the side.

On the contrary, it didn’t even leave a scratch on my neck—what a disappointment.

「Impossible?! Un… scathed?」

The broken part of his sword clattered to the ground with a familiar metallic clink.

It was thanks to that sound that the woman woke up.

「Where… am I?」

Her expression turned to despair when she saw the long-haired undead.

「… Finally awake, huh. Don’t worry, I’ll let you taste hell after I take care of this f*ucker… Fear me, hate me, curse me as much as you want… Those feelings might give you the chance to become one of us… s*ow.」

「HIIIII?!」

「Hey, leave this place now! I’ll do something about this guy!」

「H-HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!」

When I shouted at her, that woman—who couldn’t stand due to fear—crawled frantically toward the entrance of the basement.

But, her feet were caught by the long-haired undead.

「You think you can run! You ungrateful s*ow! Becoming a sacrifice for that great personage is far better than living like trash! You’re one of the chosen! You should feel grateful!」

「You shouldn’t force your warped logic on her, you know.」

I struck his hand that was holding her leg in a vice grip.

BAAAN!

His arm was crushed since I incidentally used a bit too much power.

The color drained from the woman’s face upon seeing the unexpected splatter.

「HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII?!」

On the other hand, the long-haired undead’s eyes opened wide in shock.

「What the? You ba*stard, as expected, you… really aren’t an ordinary undead, right?」

「What’s that mean? What are you going to do if I say ‘yes?’」

「You’re trying to stop me… instead of joining the fun. Let’s go meet that personage… and you… will become one of us.」

Is this an invitation to join his group?

No, no, no, anything but that.

「I REFUSE!」

I shouted and kicked the long-haired undead’s abdomen.

「GUBH?!」

He was blown away toward the wall of the basement while letting out such a grunt and―SPLAT!

… Smashed to a pulp.

Whoops, upon closer inspection, his abdomen was the only part that got smashed, separating his upper half from his lower half.

I didn’t put that much power into that kick, and yet…

「Eeh… Did I just beat him?」

「I’m Jean-sama’s kin, this degree of wound… is just a scratch!」

WOAH, he’s still moving!

「This body of mine… is specially made! This kind of injury will be healed… in a moment!」

Just as he said, his crushed abdomen had already returned to normal.

But, that woman had left this place a while ago.

She managed to escape when the long-haired undead’s attention was focused on me.

「Did you see that!? Amazing right?! This is the proof of our master’s greatness! I can revive as much as I want, even if my head and most of my body are destroyed! I… am the Immortal Undead!」

「Eh? Why are you so happy with that? You’re troubled since you can’t rest in peace, right?」

I mean… little ole me was troubled by my inability to die.

But… Was this guy really happy being unable to die?

In the first place, even though I was the closest one could be to “invincible,”, ULTRA STRONG to the point of being nearly unscathed by any attack, I realized that the body of this long-haired dude was way too fragile.

Upon seeing that guy revive… When I compared it to my own self-regeneration ability, I realized that death for me was close to impossible.

I guess I needed to do a few field tests.

「Fireball.」

「?!」

His body was instantly wrapped in a blazing flame.

His flesh melted the very second it was exposed to the extreme heat, eating away at his sinewy muscles and exposing the bones beneath.

「It’s futile! Even burning wounds from flame magic will be healed in no time!」

He shouted triumphantly from inside the raging inferno.

However, his shouts only lasted a moment, since his vocal cords turned to black dust, and he fell silent again.

By the time his flesh had completely melted away, what remained was a skeleton that tumbled to the ground.

Even that skeleton had already carbonized.

After the flame finally vanished, there was nothing but a pile of ashes left of the long-haired undead.

「…」

I waited for a while, but he didn’t show any signs of recovering at all.

「Does that mean resurrection is impossible when nothing but a pile of ash is left?」

◇　◇　◇

===A Certain Maniac Killer===

My name was Sou.

I was a samurai from the far east—and also a dead man.

The time was a turbulent era.

Although the shogunate of Eido had reigned for a few hundred years, I never expected that I would see its end after Eido was besieged by four major powers. In a flash, those hundred years of reign were overthrown.

I fought in that war as someone by the Shogunate’s side.

I was feared by my enemies as the “Devilish Swordsman” since my sword had slayed numerous soldiers from their side. Even so, I fell in front of the enemies’ new weapon.

And then, I entered an eternal slumber―or so it was supposed to be.

I was resurrected from my grave as an undead.

Naturally, the one who revived me was none other than Jean Diego-sama.

I had lost count of how many times I was irritated by the mortal constraints of my body when I was alive.

My power drained so easily by blood loss, my wounds took a long time to heal, and I could easily be killed by a single slash of the sword.

However, I could fight more with this newly gained immortal body―and kill more people!

That was why I was really surprised.

I, who was resurrected by Jean-sama’s great power, would recover from all kinds of wounds in just a moment.

Since then, I pledge my loyalty to that personage, always ready to do his bidding.

「Fireball.」

「It’s futile! Even burning wounds from flame magic will be healed in no time!」

I met a mysterious undead in a certain basement, a place for my offering to Jean-sama.

I didn’t feel agitated at all, even when my flesh was melting due to that mysterious undead’s flame.

My body crumbled inside of his flame.

I calmly gazed upon the situation from above my charred flesh.

I was in my ethereal body―a ghost.

Although my flesh had been turned into a pile of ashes by that blazing flame, it was only a matter of time before it reformed.

But still, the most terrifying thing was that mysterious undead.

To think that he could use such powerful magic.

I must take him to Jean-sama’s place.

… Uhm?

What’s this?

Suddenly, I felt something unusual in me.

For some reason, this ethereal body of mine ascended into the sky on its own.

W-Wait a minute?

What was the meaning of this?

My fleshy body was over there.

Why did I ascend instead?

My ethereal body kept ascending on its own, regardless of my desperate attempts to return.

I was bewildered upon looking up into the sky.

Before I realized it, my ethereal body had gone through the ceiling of the basement, continuing to ascend into the night sky.

And there, a mysterious door floated in the darkness of the night.

The door, engraved with disgusting ornaments, opened ever so slowly―

That moment, I realized.

Was that the gate… to Hades?