Chapter 28: The Grimoire of the Dead (1/2)

That’s against the rules! Aren’t you supposed to shout [I’ll form the head] before combining!

Cough…that’s not the point right now.

The apparitions squirmed as they continued to merge into each other. The end result was an amalgamation of 14 human faces each with an expression of pain, hatred or anger.

Darkness Arrow!

Like a drop of water in the vast ocean, the darkness arrow barely made a dent on the human face it collided with. Under my orders, two large imps swung their bone clubs at the apparition, but both of them passed right through the apparition’s thighs.

I had hoped that their combined form would not be immune to physical attacks, but it seems life was never that easy.

The deformed apparition’s hands had no fingers, but instead had a human head attached to it. It possessed fang-like teeth and its neck replaced the wrists of the apparition. With a fierce swing of its arms, the two heads opened their mouths wide as if they were a pair of vicious pythons and swallowed the heads of the two large imps!

In a mere two seconds, the two headless imps crumpled to the ground, dead.

Flame Whip!

It was just too strong. Based on its strength, it was probably stronger than the guardian on that last step. If you added in the special characteristics of a vengeful ghost, it could probably reach the level of a three-star. I knew this wasn’t the time to hold back and immediately brought out my strongest skill which was also a deadly counter to the undead.

The fiery whip coiled around the arms of the apparition with its snake-like body and immediately flared up. While the apparition was at a higher level compared to us, it still didn’t dare to touch the whip, as like other undead, it was deathly afraid of flames and radiant light.

The flames began to purify the deformed apparition’s right arm, forcing the abomination to give up its arm in desperation as it slowly sank into the floor.

“…did we win?”

Well, that was unexpectedly easy.

Thankfully, my mana reserves were no longer as tiny as before. Due to all the souls I consumed, my mana had received a substantial boost of 50%, and I could now sustain the whip for two minutes. This was particularly useful now as that deformed ghost had only retreated temporarily. It could still come back. Furthermore, the casting time of this whip was quite long so keeping it out was the safest choice.

“No.3, get that chest.”

“Understood, Master.”

While No.3 was slightly dim, he knew that time was of the essence right now. With a leaping step forward, he grabbed the chest and without stopping, retreated. The bone chest was roughly the size of two home PCs which was nothing for No.3 who had a body larger than most large imps.

“Move, quick!”

I really wasn’t sure if that abomination was dead. While the flame whip had an undeniable restraining effect on ghosts, it was pointless if the ghost kept hiding. I just hope it doesn’t pop out at the last second and cause trouble for us.

This hope was soon dashed as we apprehensively approached the second floor. A large imp was suddenly bitten in half by an arm that shot out of the wall. By the time we counterattacked, it was long gone.

We began avoiding the walls since then, but the ghost merely attacked us from below the stairs. That arm rose up once more and bit down on a large imp’s leg and threw him down the floor. With a staggering height of 10 meters, that large imp was definitely dead. Furthermore, it had even collided with a pillar on its way down to the first floor.

“Stay near me!” Avoiding certain areas wasn’t the right strategy. The ghost had the advantage of being able to pass through all physical objects, so no matter where we hid, it would always been able to sneak up on us. If we did not do something soon, we would be all be dead.

As we squeezed together, we cautiously made our way down the stairs. We didn’t dare to rush as we had to look out for the ghost’s attacks. However, squeezing together wasn’t the right strategy either as the ghost merely targeted the large imps on the outside and threw them off.

The flame whip was completely useless against this hidden enemy. Furthermore, as time passed, my mana began to run out as well. To make matters worse, one of the imps started wailing in a loud voice, “It’s over, we need to escape”, causing 4 of remaining normal large imps to run away.

“You must listen to the Master’s orders…”

“Get back here! All of you!”

No matter who it was, whether it was Big 1 or No.3, the deserters ignored them completely. Such was their self-serving nature, no matter who you were, what mattered the most was their own safety.