171 Needs extreme measures (2/2)
By now, Leilade had at least a basic idea of what was going, even if it didn't tell her anything about what Candaith wanted her to do. The Demon Emperor wanted the humans to behave and be eaten without causing any problems. The One Reborn used the undead to protect those humans and was basically the head of the armed resistance. And apparently, this one had not lived the recent years peacefully.
After reaching a point where she could see the very long convoy of humans, she finally discarded her disguise. Baffling the ratmen that were nearby and making them immediately hide. Starring at them for a few more seconds, she could clearly see their terrified expressions, mixed with disbelief that they hadn't been found out. Even after she left, they didn't dare to breathe for a very long time.
In a land filled with undead, who could tell that she was not from here. Actually, a very, very large amount of people. But for the skeleton that was mindlessly starring at her, it was not the case. Putting her hand on his skull, she forcefully intensified the connection between him and his maker, adding a special something. This was bound to create a backlash for both the caster and the summon, but she didn't care about the crumbling skeleton.
Even if from an external point of view it was obviously suspect to do so, it was still in the realm of possibility for this event to happen. And it was also the quickest way for her to find the mage responsible for it, whether he was alive or dead. In a matter of seconds, the unknown victim had already been located, and it was precisely someone inside that convoy.
Leaving the inanimated body behind, she sudden appearance did not shock the humans more than that. After all, most carts were pushed by skeletons and she could see some zombies playing with the kids. Listening to the discussions, she realized that those undead still had their memories of their past lives. All she could use to describe the situations was to call it an extremely important waste of mana.
The moment an undead retained their memories they will begin to act weirdly, sometimes even disregarding the orders of their makers. Forcing the latter to forcefully size control just to finish that task. Malakov had to do it when the lich he barely shaped managed to awaken and tried to escape. Except for their decaying bodies, they would act like humans, and if one thing was sure about them, it was that they are fickle, prone to break their words, lie and therefore, are completely unreliable.
It was not the first time she saw that, but each time, it baffled her that someone was stupid enough to do that. At the same time, it made it even easier for her to destroy such undead, as a soul was far more fragile than one would think. Passing by a rotting elder corpse that was happily telling a story to a group of kids, she was stopped by a lich.
”You. I never saw you before.” Hearing just this, she looked at him like he was retarded. Clearly, he had not seen the real world, trapped into this tiny plane of his. Otherwise, he would have known that it was incredibly rude to just block someone path just for his own curiosity. After starring at him one second, far too long for her, she began to leave him.
”Hey, stop. I said, I never saw you here, anywhere before.” Feeling the bony hand on her ethereal shoulder, she was extremely close to just kill him. And then, it fell on her. Why wouldn't she do that? What was her plan anyway? Pausing for a second, she searched in her mind for anything that would not make it faster.
Otherwise, what other options did she have? Hide her powers, slowly and painstakingly climb the ranks, before finally having a meeting with the One Reborn? After that, pathetically tell him her story, hope that he will help her? And with his help, do what exactly? Save the planet, free the humans and defeat the demons? Like she cared about something that would naturally be destroyed in a few thousands of years if they were lucky.
”You are right. You never saw me before. In fact, no one in this plane has ever seen me. And survived.” Hearing her infantile voice, the lich was a bit perturbed by what she was saying. In reality, he only wanted to know who and what she was. But apparently, he had angered her, for some unknown reasons. But there was one word he didn't really understand.
”What do you mean by plane?” Hearing his dumb question, the soul began to laugh a bit. She was basically threatening him of death and all he cared was this? It was by far the most idiotic lich she had ever witnessed. At least the others wouldn't have a proper soul and wouldn't be able to ask stupid things like that.
”This is where we are. A plane. A small one. You should reach one of its edges quite easily. As for the rest, not worried about the certainty of death? And what about them, all those living creatures, happily chatting, some even singing. They had put their eyes on me, so their fate is also sealed.” Even if she was not speaking loudly, her discussion with the lich naturally gathered the attention of her surroundings.
But even them, what were the last words they will ever here did not seem to perturb the humans. In fact, they took it as a joke, some even laughed about it. However, the lich realized for the first time he could not even examine her magically. In fact, he felt that he was starring at an abyss so dark, so deep, that not even his soul would escape unscathed.
”You ... You are not with the One Reborn?” Stepping back slightly, the lich fell backward as the ground was uneven. With his size reduced, now Leilade was above him, looking at him with her white eyes. Seeing her raised one arm to the sky, she saw darkness leaking from it, as it began to spread in the air. ”Answer me, who are you!”
With this sudden change in the air, the humans and undead alike realized something wrong was happening. As for the lich that was still in the ground, he couldn't detach his eyes from the things that were moving in the dark. The humans close to that location were the first to suffer, as they didn't even understand how they died. Seeing their kin swallowed by something without shape or form, panic caught the hearts of the survivors.
But it was already too late. Like she did near the outskirts of Archet, a sea of shadows flood the ground, absorbing everything, alive or dead. The only one not affected was the lich, that was starring absently at the events, his mind not capable of understanding it. Soon, the already unhealthy plain become void of anything.
Recalling everything inside her body, she approached the lich before grabbing his core in her hand. There the link she created between him and her was severed, before searching carefully for another connexion. A few seconds later, his lifeless body fell in multiple pieces, as no mana left was here to animate it. Soon after, a tentacle quickly grabbed it, not letting a single trace of what happened here remains.
Not far from there, two ratmen were looking with their mouths wide open at what seemed t be the complete annihilation of an entire human town. Starring at the darkness that was beginning to withdraw, it seemed strangely familiar to the dark soul they spotted previously. Recalling that, one looked at where the skeleton she destroyed was, only to find the place empty. Before he could even turn around and say anything, two hands without flesh on them twisted his neck, silencing him forever.