Chapter 154 - Odd Last Words

"Now… it is time to feed."

Faustina stared at the princess slowly transforming to the man she had seen in her nightmares. The undead princess' rotten flesh gradually transpired into a man's pale skin. Soon her maggot-infested eye became red as ruby and then her height which was about Faustina's grew along with her physique.

Not long after, the undead princess looked exactly as HIM.

The one who had haunted Faustina over and over again.

"My, my. Such a violent young miss." Jonathan says, smiling. "Eula raised such a barbaric young lady."

"I am going to conjure a spell to let her live again. My dear Eula. Ooh, Eula... Eula, Eula! I am going to bring you to your former glory. Necromancy is the key to your eternal life, my love!"

"I can't believe it. A Heilen blood, the king himself, the Sword of Feuersturm. Oh! The prophecies, the prophecies... Eula, Eula... Eula!"

Memories came back to Faustina like water gushing in steadily. Memories of Jonathan stealing Eula's body in order to summon her back from the dead. 

"Your mana… I want it." Jonathan—the undead princes—exclaimed. She, or he—walked towards Faustina and wrapped an arm around her nape. Faustina froze to the spot, unable to move.

**

"I am deeply sorry for what sorrow you have experienced." He says, sympathetic. "Such sadness has befallen your heart, such crestfallen melodies from your cries."

"Wh-who are you?"

"Oh, you may call me Jonathan," he says as he bowed. "I am a Warlock and a Doctor."

The man smiled. "I have come to collect, oh—I meant... to acquire something special, my dear."

**

"I will not shed blood. For my dear Eula." He says, as his gaze drifted to Faustina. "For my dear Faustina as well."

**

"Ventus exacuere vade!"

Faustina's breaths rasped as she gasped and panted. Swinging her staff, she thumped it into the ground, forming a magical hex that had marked onto the floor. The breeze of the wind surrounded her entire body as she unleashed a wind spell—a wind slash.

"Hmm," the undead princess in the body of Jonathan narrowed her eyes. Faustina felt a shiver run down her spine as she stared at this spectacle.

"My eyes can be tricked," Faustina exclaimed. "But I know what you are inside."

**

"The Dark Castle is made specifically to inhabit the royal family." Says the professor. "The Undead Royals."

"The undead . . . royals?"

"They are what you can consider as bosses," the professor exclaimed. "The undead royals composed of the Undead Maid, Undead Princess, Undead Prince, Undead Queen, and lastly, Undead King."

"If a student gets into a certain chamber inhabited by the undead royals, then they can be considered unlucky. The undead royals lurk in whatever room they please because they are actual inhabitants of the castle. If you find them, you have to make them disappear by finding their weak spot."

"Will you tell us their weak spot, Professor?"

"No," the professor said, which had led the students' shoulders slumped. "—but I will tell you how to locate them. Each of the royals has a certain insignia of Magierstadt's firefly. Use a spell to destroy the insignia and you are all good to go."

"Again, the rules are simple. Get into the last floor, and consider yourself passed." The professor smiled. "Oh, and before I forget. The last floor is where the Undead King resides. He is the only royal who never leaves his chambers."

**

Faustina narrowed her eyes, remembering the professor's words. For whatever reason, she could move now. Biting her lips as sweat dripped across her chin, Faustina searched for the firefly insignia in the undead princess' body. 

And this task was proven quite difficult given the fact that the undead princess had transformed into another person. Jonathan, who was clothed all over, didn't seem to show any firefly insignia etched on the visible portions on his skin. Faustina gritted her teeth. Does this mean that whenever the princess changes her form, the insignia won't appear visible as well? Faustina tightened the grip around her staff as she proceeded to go forward.

Right now, she couldn't let her thoughts take her astray. She had to focus on the enemy before her. 

"Ventus exacuere vade!" Faustina chanted and thumped her staff three times to the ground. The undead princess with Jonathan's appearance avoided the wind spells without effort—and that peculiar likeness to the real Jonathan made Faustina disturbed beyond reason. As she continued to fight the undead princess, the image of Jonathan continuously came to haunt her like a fiend inside a nightmare she couldn't escape.

Escape.

"There is no need to fight any of the undead royals since they are practically almost invincible unless you find their weak spot. If you cannot find their weak spot, then you just have to think about one thing: a strategic escape. The undead royals are the dark castle's inhabitants and their thirst for mana is immense. So those at a real disadvantage are the examinees who have a tremendous amount of mana. And that means you, the nobility, who have above average mana."

Faustina took those words at heart. She wasn't a noble, but if mana was the concern, then she was the unluckiest. Even if Faustina from the start doubted everyone's words regarding her having that tremendous amount of mana—she took it as a truth she didn't know. And that truth she believed came to prove itself in the exam, and now—

"Your mana… I will have it." The undead princess exclaims. "Open your heart to me. I already took the form of your fear, yet why aren't you being terrified? What is it that you truly fear?"

Faustina once again conjured similar wind spells to ward off the undead princess—but to no avail, it barely left a dent. The undead princess's appearance of Jonathan gradually faded as she moved closer to Faustina.

"Let me have the taste of your mana…" The undead princess murmured. "That leaking mana is giving me the whiff of that delicacy. Give it to ME!"

Faustina thumped the hilt of her staff to the floor, summoning golden magical circle mid-air.

"Barrier!"

Enclosing Faustina in a spherical shaped cage was her barrier. Faustina gritted her teeth as she felt her nerves pulsating harder. 

Even using a barrier makes her mana surge like this!

Faustina wanted to let go of her staff and rest her arms which were throbbing from the pain—nerves like tree roots marking across her skin. Faustina screamed in pain as she continually cast wind spells to ward off the undead princess, who was now approaching her as she accepts the wind slashes readily without even giving any sign of hurt.

Faustina looked around—searching for an escape route. She had to find an escape route, no matter what! 

"The only option for you is to escape the undead royals if they are too complicated to handle. Think like a real mage—focus only from the goal at hand and do not deviate from what the task you were given—and in this case, it is to pass."

"Ventus!" Faustina conjured a pure wind spell in an attempt to at least slow down the undead princess—and it seems to be quite effective as the princess couldn't take another step forward. Instead, she was being pushed away.

"Haaah!" Faustina let out a scream as she tightened her grip around the wood of her staff. Right now, all she had to do is to let out a wind spell—conjure a powerful wind and focus it in a single direction—to the undead princess. All she had to do is to push the princess away until she finds the right timing to escape to the chamber door. 

"Wind spell." The undead princess utters as maggots' crawls inside her nose. "How fascinating. You're using your delicious mana with such a trivial spell. Are you underestimating me?"

'Nothing of the sort,' Faustina wanted to answer; yet she was in so much pain to even utter a single word. She had to focus on a single purpose—to escape the undead princess' wards and continue to accomplish the goal in order to pass. There was no need to fight the undead royals. She only had to escape.

That's right.

But why—why is Faustina having such an unsettling unease as she fights? Is it because the undead princess took the form of the person she least wanted to see—the one from her nightmare? Is it because she was feeling the pain? Or is it because she knew deep inside that every inch of her screams of different views?

The undead princess and her ostensibly odd behavior—the way she spoke, and the way she acted—it wasn't like the other monsters who seemed to be programmed to eliminate 'intruders' they see like that golem in the greenhouse.

Something about the undead princess seemed… human.

Faustina's hand trembled as her grip slightly loosens. The wind spell she had cast gradually weakened as the undead princess was able to move forward an inch again. Faustina's hair and clothes were getting swept by the breeze as the wind flutters in all possible directions whilst Faustina lost control.

"Using a trivial spell isn't fit for strong mana." The undead princess darkly utters as she ambled against a thick gust of wind. "Now do tell, for it is disturbing me greatly. Your mana greatly hungers me—but your staff,"

Faustina's eyes widened. In the blink of an eye, the undead princess was now in front of her, holding the broken gem of her staff.

"Why is it so similar to father's?"

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