Chapter 156: Life versus Death

Chapter 156: Life versus Death

Whatever the undead leader unleashed didnt just affect the unholy beacons, but the whole area was affected. The zombies in the vicinity of the fight suddenly shrieked as they fell on the ground, melting with visible speed.

The former humans turned into a putrid goop, and from the puddles a stream of deathly energy rose, joining the energy the monoliths released. Zac hesitantly looked around, and his visibility was quickly getting blocked from the immense amount of miasma rising in the air.

In seconds the whole sky was covered with billowing waves of miasma and Zac felt like a small boat on turbulent seas. The density of deathly energy was skyrocketing where they were fighting, and Zac was starting to feel a bit nauseated. It quickly got to the point it forced him to start circulating his Dao of Trees to combat the nausea.

A torrent of energy was gathering above the Corpse Lord, who started emitting an even mightier aura compared to before. Zac wasnt sure what was going on, but he knew he had to do something about the situation. If the Corpse Lord swallowed up all the energy in the skies he would turn into a true monster.

Zac pushed off the ground and created an overextended edge that he swung in an effort to disrupt the gathering miasma above the corpse lord. He knew he couldnt rip apart the whole miasmic clouds in skies, but he could at least do something about the part the Corpse lord tried to absorb. Unfortunately, it was like cutting air, and the edge harmlessly passed through it.

Zac knew from the start that his swing might fail, but he kept the swing going and released the edge right toward the closest monolith. The fractal blade flew away, and with a thundering explosion destroyed the undead beacon.

An enormous shockwave of wild energies erupted from the monolith, instantly killing a few corpse golems and hundreds of zombies. It seemed all the cosmic energy and miasma gathered in the pillar was released like a bomb when the beacon broke. Zac suddenly felt a huge surge of Cosmic Energy in his body, proving that the System credited him all the kills.

Zac noted with some relief that the clouds quickly thinned out a bit, and set his sights at a second pillar. However, the Corpse Lord wouldnt have it and quickly intercepted Zacs second strike. The leader seemed taken by surprise by the fact that the fractal edge could detach from the axe, but he wouldn't make the same mistake again.

The undead leader suddenly pushed one of his hands toward the sky with a ripping motion causing two swirling torrents of miasma to emerge from the clouds, quickly transforming into actual fractal beasts. They looked like some sort of worms with huge maws and emitted an intense aura of death.

The two miasma monsters descended and Zac quickly summoned multiple fractal edges and launched them at the beasts. To Zac's disappointment the edges only passed through just like with the clouds, as the monsters were largely incorporeal.

At least the beasts temporarily lost their forms from the swings, and two clouds landed on him instead, completely drowning the area in highly concentrated miasma.

Zac hoped that was it, but to his dismay he saw the clouds starting to reform, and from just standing in the clouds he was quickly growing numb and deathly cold. Desperate for a solution Zac released Cosmic Energy imbued with the Dao of Trees into the area where the beasts were reforming, and it actually worked.

The pure life energy created some sort of reaction in the reforming beasts, leaving two convulsing clouds failing to properly reform. It would likely have been better to just cut them with edges imbued with the Dao, but he still wasnt able to imbue his edges with the Dao of Trees.

Just as Zac breathed out in relief he felt an intense danger and immediately jumped to the side while activating a defensive charge on his gear. At the same time, he started gathering his remaining energy into the fractal on his arm, preparing for a final desperate gambit. If it failed he would have to flee and take as many as he could with him through the teleporter.

The Corpse Lord emerged out of one of the clouds, the air around him distorting from the teeming energy in his body. His whole body was swollen, likely from absorbing an unordinary amount of miasma. The bone hook in his hands shone with extremely concentrated energy, and it made a beeline straight for Zacs torso.

Zac didnt understand what just happened, but he felt this was his last chance to kill the undead leader. Both his arms were currently ruined; one from [Natures Punishment], while other was almost completely severed from the axe ghost. The axe was also freed from the arm from the bite so Zac swung it down again at the Corpse Lord.

The undead was in a miserable state and kept trying to move away from Zac. His desperate assault was starting to produce real results, even though Zac himself also was in a miserable state.

Zac looked down at his freely bleeding wound, and saw that there was a sickly black tinge to it. It was painful beyond compare, and he quickly swallowed one of his best healing pills to combat the wound. He felt a warmth spread through his body, but it seemed it had small effect in working against this particular wound.

Still, there was no time to worry about this. Zac rushed toward the mangled corpse lord, and with a growl swung his axe. He also ignored his pounding head and infused it with the Dao of Heaviness one time after another. Each swing was like a falling meteor, and the Corpse Lord was struggling more and more in avoiding a killing strike.

Unfortunately the corpse lord possessed some sort of odd skill that made him swap position with a Zombie, foiling Zac time and time again. However, its range was quite limited and seemed to cost quite a bit of miasma, so Zac didnt relent and kept following like a blood hound.

Finally Zac managed to strike out before the Lord once again performed the body swap, and the axe hit down next to the neck of the Corpse Lord, cutting straight down toward his lung, drawing a huge torrent of the black ichor.

The Corpse Lord looked like he was barely hanging on, but before Zac could finish him off a humongous fist closed in on him. He didn't even have time to dodge, and the fist clocked him right in his face. With Zac's monstrous Endurance he was largely okay, but while he wasnt hurt the power of the swing threw him away.

Zac had been too focused on the undead leader, completely ignoring the surroundings, allowing corpse golem to sneak up on him. Zac quickly tried to return to the undead leader deliver the final strike, but the aberrations and corpse golems went berserk as they disregarded their safety and swarmed him.

Zac was feeling woozy from his festering wound and energy consumption, but he grit his teeth and killed them one by one, each kill giving a huge infusion of cosmic energy.

It only took thirty seconds to push past the resistance since he was going all out, unheeding of energy expenditure, but Zac couldnt locate the Corpse Lord as the last aberration fell. He looked all over, and finally found his target right next to the incursion crystal, his bone hook somehow back on his back.

We will meet again, human. Death wont be a reprieve for you, the Corpse Lord said with seething rage as jumped straight into the shining crystal.

A light flashed, and before Zac even had time to react the undead leader was gone, and soon after the crystal lost its luster.

As if something snapped in the heads of the Zombies they almost instantly started roaring, gaining a bloodthirsty aura. Relief flooded Zacs mind, and he almost sat down to rest. He didnt manage to kill the undead leader, but at least he completed his mission.

But he barely had time to take a breath when a stone spear erupted from the ground, going straight for his heart. It thrummed with abundant ice-cold power, and Zac didnt hesitate in using his second defensive charge.

As the stone spear approached darkness congealed into a stone-man dressed in exquisite gear, and Zacs eyes locked with two black holes filled malice.