"A sigil monster!?"
Cranberry turned around and shouted wide-eyed at the sight of the barrier that originated from inside of the mansion.
"Now?! Why?! Is it some beast living underground?!"
The red-haired girl gritted her teeth and clenched her reverse-baseball ball scepter.
"You! Sir Kabuto – right? You are a faithful servant of Durian, tight? If so you serely want to make sure that your master is safe! If so I propose a momentary truce until we will deal with the new threat!"
She declared, looking back at the armored man – who didn't change his aggressive stance despite the sudden occurrence.
"..."
"..."
Similarly, Mia and Luke both looked away with bitter expressions.
"...ha...? What's going on? Are you all unaware of what a barrier like this means? A sigil monster had appeared – an apostle of the Eternal – a beast that is supposed to destroy our world as we know it! You must have at least heard about those monsters popping up everywhere!"
The red-haired girl turned first to the pair of former slaves and then to the loyal one and spoke slowly, feeling that something wasn't quite right in with their reactions.
*munyu*
"KYAAH...! Wha...?! HA?! ZOMBIE?! What was that – it's not time and place for this!"
The blue undead poked his index finger at Cranberry's side making her shout out and jump, ash she blushed and glared at him with an embarrassed expression.
"...nothing changed – with the barrier in place it will be that much easier to deal with the undead monster and release you all from his evil influence."
"Ha?!"
Persimmon Kabuto spoke in a tone that would suggest that he was actually unwilling to do what he just said – but still said it and on top of the purple flames surrounding him, a white light started shining from underneath his armor betraying the extensive preparation of various skills, which of course didn't escape Cranberry's attention.
"No. You don't get it! Those things are no joke – and each one that shows up is stronger than the next!"
The red-haired girl clenched her nads around the reverse baseball bat scepter so hard that her knuckles turned white, staring at the focused man in disbelief.
"Cranberry, do not waste your breath – none of them reacts to the barrier because they clearly know that it's not any new sigil monster that suddenly showed up."
"...!"
The blue undead by the girl's side put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head – and his words finally get the armored man to react as he flinched hearing what he had to say.
"New? You don't mean...!"
Cranberry gasped looking at her familiar and then instantly turned towards the mansion.
"The monster that escape the queen helped to cover up – I guess that Durian wanted Mary for something else than just the influence over the Hope family..."
The blue undead smirked, glancing at the dark-skinned girl who refused to meet his eyes.
"It's not exactly true. Durian's magic does work on monsters – the smarter ones at least – but he cannot quite control them completely like he can with lower human slaves. Before he made Mary his slave – which he wasn't supposed to as that was an agreement between him and lord Hope – he wanted to check whether she can tame the monster or not since none of his slaves had a tamer class as it is quite rare..."
"Young Luke – I insist that you will not say another word as revealing ay more secrets of our master may prompt me to dispose of you before I'll deal with the undead..."
"The young healer started explaining everything instead, but before he could explain everything he wanted to, the armored man turned his face towards him - while still pointing the blade towards the blue undead – and spoke in a cold voice, prompting the young man to close his mouth.
"Huh, so that's the case – but tell me one thing – how come that Durian is able to remain in control over a sigil monster – Cranberry wasn't joking – the creatures tainted by the power of the Eternal aren't pushovers..."
Zombie waved his left hand – which already regenerated thanks to the HP regeneration skill – getting Persimmon's attention away from Luke.
"Simple – it wasn't the sigil monster when it was caught and even when it became my master's slave – the strange powers, one of which you can witness now, all showed up later – and because of that, they all could be used by my master to trap the monster in the basement of his mansion."
Surprisingly enough, Persimmon revealed it all by himself without the need of using some tricks to make him talk – it seemed that he was okay with revealing secrets if he was the one doing it...
|...Ha...? And how in the world is that supposed to be possible? Is that some sort of loop in the system...?|
The silence until then sealed being called out, sounding as if she was furrowing her brows in surprise.
|...this feels wrong...|
She added sounding as if that situation bothered her greatly.
|How's the seal of the Eternal?|
Zombie asked internally, without taking his eyes off of the armored man ready to intercept a sudden attack if such would arrive.
|No changes... haa... and that's what bothers me... this isn't how the event should be playing out, but the seal is very stable...|
The sealed being breathed out and complained sounding as f she leaned back and crossed her arms.
|Good to know... still – there's still that promise I made with Durian in the previous playthrough that I am really keen to keep, so I guess that I will go see him now~|
|HA?! When did you have time to promise him anything – weren't you taken away immediately after entering the mansion?|
The sealed being broke out from her thoughts and asked in bewilderment.
|Well... he didn't know that I made a promise I suppose, but that doesn't change a thing~ I want to keep my word – and I think that you can understand that sentiment.|
|...do what you want...|
Zombie smirked internally and declared, making the sealed being sound as if she furrowed her brows and turned away.
"Hey... Persimmon, how I humor you and your honor and we will fight one on one – making sure that no one else gets hurt?"
"Huh...?"
"Eh...?"
"HA?!"
The blue undead suddenly spoke out, causing everyone except for the man he was talking to voice their confusion.
"...I do not expect a monster to know anything about honor, but I don' see why not – as long as I can do something good, I can go along with some filth..."
The armored man nodded without lowering his blade.
"Zombie! I forbid you from...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!???!?!!!!!!!!"
The red-haired girl furrowed her brows and turned to her undead to admonish him for the reckless idea but she got pulled down and her mouth got blocked by soft and pleasantly cool lips of her familiar – which caused her heart rate to skyrocket and her face turned bright red with a deep blush so fast that even lighting would be jealous of the speed.
"You were good until now, be good a little longer – let me play around a little but – I promise that I will not kill him – he might be rude, but I think that he will be a nice addition to your followers' lists, so I soften him a bit with my fists~"
Zombie declared winking at the frozen girl still in the middle of processing what was happening – before he pushed her towards the dark-skinned woman and the healer.
"...You know what? I actually have a better idea..."
"...?"
Suddenly, the blue undead straightened his back and declared with a smile, confusing his opponent.
"Hey. Kopia. I think that this guy's sword is really nice – so nice that I don't mind wielding it instead of you..."
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"
The blue undead glanced down at his sword and spoke with a mocking smirk – which caused the sword to vibrate so hard that Zombie's whole body started shaking – and a high-pitched noise was released into the air.