Chapter 485 - Durian's Mansion (part 9) - On Their Way

At first, they were lucky, thanks to Mia's knowledge about the mansion and Zombie's life signature detection skill they managed to almost catch up to Roan and Mary – as the pair of the runaways was seemingly going the long way and kept on hiding and waiting for Durian's slave to pass – but that's where the luck of the trio had run out.

Because of the erratic movement of some of the slaves with their sane minds erased or at least corroded by their crests, the group found themselves in a bind while passing through the intersecting hallway with three groups of slaves approaching them from every possible way out that they could take.

Unfortunately, the hallway that they passed had no doors to the rooms – which were already being searched through by more of Durian's people anyway – and jumping out of the window was also out of the question as even more slaves were swarming the outside right beneath it.

To make the situation even more pressing on top of all that, the other familiar life essence that the blue undead has recognized was getting closer to the prince and the not-so-eager bride.

|...Since I got rid of Mia's seal with healing magic, shouldn't Luke be able to do that on his own? Wasn't he supped to be a prodigy at healing? I remember blowing off his head too many times to count and it just kept regrowing - in the first playthrough at least -the slave crest can't be harder to get rid of than that.|

Zombie - who did not inform Cranberry and Mia about the worrisome situation they were in and just let the dark-skinned woman lead them through the shortest route straight into the oncoming slaves - thought to himself, furrowing his brows.

|You are right – but he might have not realized that himself. Or – more likely – he knows and just follows Durian's commands because of Mia.|

The sealed being said hesitantly, carefully considering the situation.

"Mia – what about Luke? Is he here too?"

Zombie tapped the dark-skinned woman's shoulder from behind and asked in a slightly worried-sounding tone.

"Y-yes, he is – I told him many times that he doesn't need to be impatient with his training as he already is extremely talented – but he didn't listen and followed me here a few years back. He is Durian's most powerful healer."

She answered, looking around carefully as she finally started hearing some noises made by the approaching slaves that surprisingly – or not surprisingly – did not use any light source during their search.

"What about listening to Durian's commands...?"

The blue undead shook his head, making sure that there is an appropriate amount of anxiety in his voice.

"...well... it's not that he is eager, but recently he was moved to the position of one of something like an elite guard that Durian had put for himself, so he can be considered his trusted man... I guess..."

Mia furrowed her brows and her shoulders slumped just a bit while she was talking about their childhood friend.

|Yeah... we need to get to those two fast – since Mia is with us, the negotiations should go smoothly.|

He decided, already activating some of his skills that would be appropriate with dealing with the group of slaves that was just around the corner – not speaking a word as only the rustling of clothes and careful footsteps could alarm the others of their presence.

"We... we need to go back...! There some-umpfh...?!"

"...?"

Cranberry nudged Zombie in the side and whispered, but the blue undead blocked her mouth with his hand without even looking in her direction, which made Mia look back at him in confusion.

"No, we cannot turn back now – the thing that happened to Mia was not coincident, Durian has done something to his slaves and whatever it was, it wasn't anything good – especially not for us. We can only expect to get captured if we stay back in the assigned rooms. If we encounter any hostiles, we have to fight – okay?"

Zombie explained to the red-haired girl and mooned at Mia – or rather, he motioned at what was about to show up in front of her – making sure that Cranberry understands his intention.

"...mfhey..."

The red-haired girl nodded her head and tried to agree but her voice was distorted by the cold blue hand still pressed to her face.

"...true... If you didn't help me out back then, I don't know what would have happened to me, even if some of them were god people before, now..."

Mia nodded with understanding and focused on the hallway's corner lighted up by the faint moonlight and flinched as she saw a hand showing up and the person to whom the hand belonged had a completely expressionless face and a vacant look in their eyes.

"Plum...?!"

She gasped, taking a step back and grabbing her mace.

But before she could even think about swinging it...

*peck*

"Be careful and not do anything stupid, then we'll do it for real."

The blue undead quickly pressed his lips to his own knuckles – of the hand that was covering the red-haired girl's mouth – and whispered before launching himself right past the dark-skinned woman – straight into the slave with the vacant expression that just showed up.

*CRUSH*

*squelch*

In a dance-like motion, the blue undead spun around and cleanly kicked off the head of the slave that Mia recognized as Plum, straight off of his shoulders in a single attack, causing the said head to splatter against the wall and then peel off of it and fall to the floor with a sickening sound.

/Mid-level player character defeated

You receive the EXP

The message that showed up for Zombie did not take his attention away from four more people lined up behind the corpse that fell to its knees and slumped to the side splashing blood from the wound without realizing that it was already dead.

|Do you think that the other ones are im...?|

|Just fuck them up!|

Surprisingly enough it was the sealed being who cheered for the violence and the blue undead did not need to hear her say it twice – after all, all undead crave for the demise of the living, and the blue undead was no different in that regard...

"KHAHAHA~!"

...although he might have actually been MORE keen on killing than average undead...

*BOOOOM*

*RIIIIP*

Propelling himself forward with a devastating kick, he delivered one even more fearsome – tearing three slaves apart in a single attack.

The first one was straight-up torn in half while the next one had a good chunk of her torso blown apart while the last one got his chest caved in and was alucnhed down the hallway where he eventually tumbled onto the ground leaving blood splatters everywhere.

/Multiple mid-level player characters defeated

You receive the EXP

The message informed him directly about the deaths while indirectly confirming that the ones that just parted with the world were of no importance to the story and did not disturb the Eternal in the slightest.