Chapter 320 Serena Is Back.
"?! What is this thing?!" Fyora whispered unconsciously with incredulous eyes when she saw the owner of the sarcastic above them.
His body, entirely devoid of flesh and made only of skeletons, wore a dress and a royal crown that allowed his sharp horns to pass over his bald temples.
At his waist, he had a long sword that he had not yet drawn and a hideous black flute in his right hand.
And two orbits had small green flames in them, and above all, he had a long five-meter scythe in his other hand that gave off a strange presence that made Alvine even more sure that this guy had something special.
"Subscumb under my soul collector scythe, poor unimportant creatures, and allow this heavenly emperor to complete his resurrection!" He shouted with an aura of natural sovereignty that others could see in him.
"Nicco, is he the so-called guardian?" Alvine asked with wary eyes.
"Yes, master, it's...it's probably him."
"No, it may be a misunderstanding on our part. There is probably a more powerful guardian a little further away. Anyway, kill this thing, and don't waste any more time." Alvine replied, looking at the undead above him.
'It's impossible that this thing is the guardian of a creature more powerful than a mana beast. When my lord had faced a mana beast, the power of the latter was so colossal that he could raze an entire second-tier planet in less than a day. So this weak and fragile pile of skeletons has no chance of being the guardian of such a creature.'
While continuing in his thoughts, he could feel the energy of an undead increasing drastically because of his wrath. But Alvine didn't care about that, as long as Nicco ended up with him as quickly as possible.
At a glance, anyone could say that the skeleton was a high-ranking divine mage, but he was always weak for Alvine, who had more pressure because of the strange reaction of his dark flames.
But just as Nicco stepped forward, the skeleton approached the flute in front of his skeletal teeth.
"W-wait." Before Nicco advanced more than three steps away, Alvine stopped her when he saw the actions of the so-called heavenly king.
"Is there a problem?" Nicco asked with question marks above her head.
"Look at what he has in his hand; I think that's what we want," Alvine explained while pointing at the flute that the so-called celestial king tried to use.
But strangely, no sound came out of the flute he was trying to whistle.
'Maybe because he is a skeleton that doesn't have the slightest breath?' - He mumbled in his thoughts with curious eyes.
"Yes, that's why I wanted to kill him and steal this artifact from him," Nicco explained the findings of her thoughts after Alvine's question.
"Sigh, think for a sec; at a simple glance, anyone can see this artifact is cursed. In other words, its curse will affect anyone trying to use it in place of this undead. But if we know more about what it can do and how to use it without being affected by its curse, then it will be a jackpot! But otherwise, it'll just be a decorative object."
"Hmm? Even if the flute is cursed, there is always a solution to purify it. Am I wrong?" She asked with a slight frown.
"I know, I know, but think for a sec; these kinds of curses can't be so simple. We'll not only risk making the flute unusable by purifying it but there is also another factor to take into account." While calmly pronouncing this hypothesis that Nicco could not compliment, she could patiently wait for her master to finish his explanations.
"... And finally, there is also ignorance. By this, I mean that we know almost nothing about this artifact except that it can multiply the power of the subordinates of those who use it. But what about the consequences? In my experience, all elixirs aimed at increasing the power of a cultivator will have repercussions on his practice either in the short or long term.
-And this fact is no different from artifacts either. But since this flute has such evil energy, I wouldn't be surprised if it cursed its owner or, who knows, maybe even an entire army!" He said, patiently hearing that his opponent was ultimately using his trick to collect more information.
'Tsk, but why does this pile of skeletons take so long?! We have been waiting for more than a minute, but there is still no reaction. This...could it be that he's really unable to activate the effects of his flute just because he is now an undead man who has no breath? On the one hand, it will be understandable since he can't even flute this artifact, but on the other hand, it will be too ridiculous.' He continued in his thoughts by frowning at the so-called celestial king.
"Fufu~ how interesting it is, your analysis is out of the ordinary, really; I congratulate you!"
At the same time, Alvine and the others heard a female voice resonate behind them.
Because of their attention, which was entirely focused on their opponents, the small group did not notice the presence of Serena, who was accompanied by four people, including a human and three black elves.
-!!!
Brave and Elaydja, accompanied by one of their divine generals, have just joined them!
Seeing these uninvited guests who had just joined their solo trips, Alvine and the others frowned.
But unlike them, Nicco had incredulous eyes.
"Did you not assure me that you had sealed this crazy woman? So how come she's there in less than an hour?" Alvine asked with an ironic smile.
*... There's a more urgent master! This bitch has a tooth against me! But...I hardly have enough primordial energy to take care of stopping her. The situation can't be worse!* Nicco stammers these words telepathically while keeping her cold outside blood as if she were ready to mount her fangs and cat claws against Serena if she tried to annoy her.
-Rumble !!!
But the next moment, the hall's walls suddenly trembled, and the empty room revealed fifty dried corpses, making the hall almost narrow because of the sudden crowd.
"Ho?! So this thing is a Lich? No, maybe a necromancer?!" Alvine looked away from Serena and the others and focused on his new targets that had just appeared.
"A necromancer? No, no, no~ let's say it's one of the effects of the flute that this subordinate holds." Serena's playful and proud tone resounds once again, not feeling at all offended by Alvine's ignorance.
But the moment after, Alvine manifested a long white scythe with his light affinity and looked Nicco straight.
"Don't worry about this crazy woman; if she wanted to kill you, you wouldn't be with us right now; take care of these two bastards and their men if they try to do any suspicious acts while I care for this necromancer." He said out loud, making Brave and Elaydja speechless!
'He... He just used this nickname that Master Serena hates the most?! Sigh, Even if he has a bright future ahead of him, I fear this man will not really maintain his life.' Elaydja whispers to himself while his eyes wander between Alvine and his master.
But unlike him, Brave had eyes out of their orbits, not because he was surprised to see Alvine disrespect the crazy woman he feared the most, but because of another incredulous factor.
'How many years have passed since our last meeting? Four? Or five? But this bastard was a fucking emperor mage! How? By what fucking hell did he use to reach the divine rank of high rank?!' He had the impression that his head would explode because of his shock.
Meanwhile, Zanac, who accompanied him, only sighed sadly, noticing his king's expression and seeing the mocking glances that Serena threw at them without paying attention to Alvine's words.
'Sigh, I was wrong to say that this guy was not our real threat. First, the daughter of the empress of demons who betrayed us and became one of the most threatening opponents, then, the three former queens who reached the divine rank as if it were as easy as drinking water, and finally, these three women who can show powers beyond our imaginations!
-And as if all this were not enough, there is now this abnormal phenomenon that serves them as sovereign. Sigh, compared to my king, this guy's talent is like a divine tiger against an ordinary ant. Our decision to attack them could not have been worse. At best, we should have destroyed them all as soon as we appeared on this planet. But even then, I seriously wonder if we had a chance against them!' Zanac, Brave's divine general, murmured these words in his thoughts.
But at the same time, Elaydja's divine general had white smoke above his head when he saw Alvine and the others ignore his king.
He was a black elf with short and curly white hair and brown eyes, and like the other black elves, he had honeyed black skin and slightly pointed ears.
He clung furtively to the nine-meter blood-red spear on his back and tried to slip behind Alvine, who had his back turned.
But before Elaydja or even Brave noticed his suicidal actions because of their shock, he used all his strength and speed to approach Alvine.
'If I kill this bastard, my lord will no longer need to humiliate himself more! And as everyone is focused on their enemies, they will not notice the absence of a simple general. That's the moment where never!' While retorting these words with eyes carried by malice while hiding not only his presence, his presence thanks to his skill of stealth, which was one of his pride, but also masking his bloodthirsty towards his target as the best assassin who appeared every hundred thousand years.
*Leave me this bastard; it's time for these bastards to learn their place.* Alvine suddenly replied with telepathy when he saw Nicco trying to stop the most daring among the small group.
Hearing the orders that Alvine had just communicated to Nicco by telepathy, Serena's smile became all the more dazzling.
But as she had promised, she neither arrested the divine general of Elaydja nor warned him in any way. She was perfectly immersed in her role as a spectator.
"I hold you!" Suddenly, the high-pitched voice of the general madly thundered behind Alvine with sparkling eyes and tried to directly pierce Alvine's left shoulder blade to kill him suddenly by destroying his central core.
But at that moment, Elaydja's silhouette turned into a golden brume as he sprinted at full speed towards his general with wrath and horrified eyes.
"Haha~ two? And just for me, in addition to all that?!" Alvine's euphoric laughter sounded as he tries grabbed the spear of his vicious prey with his bare hand.