The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon

Blue flame burst from Gith-Za-Rai’s fist. The Demon Kings’ blessings shielding the four demons couldn’t withstand it. They overheated, then shattered like glass in an instant.

KWA-BOOM!

The fire didn’t disperse. The yellow-blue flame moved as if it had a will of its own, looking different from before. It clung to the four and burned them.

The shockwave alone cracked the cavern floor and sent the tightly packed monsters around her flying. A bleached, white void opened around her.

”G-gaaah!”

”Uwaaaah! UAAAAAAH!”

They writhed and screamed as the flame tore into them. The golden-skinned demon closest to her had all his skin flayed away. The dog-headed one melted from the waist up, drooping like candle wax. The burning bat rolled again and again across the cavern floor, trying to put out the fire, but the flame kept gnawing at him and refused to let go.

Sizzle! Ssszzzt!

Where his charred flesh and the flames burned, the cavern floor turned into a foul, burning slurry. Pale frost formed on his wings a few times, but each time the flame instantly melted it and went back to chewing on his wings.

The masses of demonic flesh caught in the blast left them with no time to scream. They were flung away or burned to nothing, leaving not even a corpse. Watching that impossible scene, a chill ran over my whole skeleton. I didn’t know Gith-Za-Rai had this kind of power.

Was this why she had been buying time?

The Ashen Knight had struck like an assassin and killed her before she could respond, but if she’d had the time to unleash this back then, she might at least have landed a serious blow. The thought made me shiver.

The centaur had melted away entirely and died. The bat only managed to escape the flames by sacrificing both his wings; his shoulders were so badly burned that he could barely lift his arms.

The gnome backed away in a panic. ”Th-that’s impossible!”

As the one furthest to the rear, he had escaped the flame’s reach.

Gith-Za-Rai continued to pour strength into her hand. The clear, water-blue fire responded, dancing even more brightly. Just as it was about to leap at the gnome...

Crack!

Her hand and arm couldn’t endure the pressure any longer. Piece by piece, her arm split apart.

Whooomph!

Flame gushed out from the cracks in her body like lava. Ignoring it, Gith-Za-Rai thrust her fist forward, ancient script burning along her knuckles as she held her ground.

Thud!

The torn areas ruptured wider. The scattered flame dispersed into the air, but the damage remained. It tore up from her arm and ripped through her body. Even as the ultra-high-temperature fire engulfed her, she drove both ruined legs into the ground and forced herself to stand upright.

Gith-Za-Rai gave it one last push, and the fire burst out in the opposite direction, scorching half of her body pure white. The twisted, spike-ridden bone that had swollen up under the curse shattered and fell in chunks to the floor.

[Demon King Bassago laments the causal loss from betraying a contract.]

[Demon King Bassago is furious, thinking you might as well have died outside if this was how it would end.]

[All Affection Bassago held toward you has been completely revoked.]

Messages popped up, but I didn’t care.

”Gith-Za-Rai!”

Everyone had been blown back by the blast. The Dullahans lay scattered on the floor. The enemies, hurled far away, didn’t dare approach her. I was the only one who stepped forward.

At the very least, I wanted to protect what was left of her. I wanted to carve out a small space and cut off the enemies pressing in from every side.

In a world where the Ashen Knight and even the Demon Kings themselves turned their blades on Gith-Za-Rai, I wanted to block the blows aimed at her. With that thought, I staggered to her side.

Clatter.

I wrapped my inventory around my body. Since my regression, its radius was limited to about two meters. Now, it expanded wide enough to cover both of us completely. I could finally feel the flow of mana moving through me.

Woooong...

Three meters. Five meters.

Just like before, I stretched the inventory outward with my will.

Ten meters.

No longer sagging or ragged, a seamless circular barrier formed around us. Maybe it was thanks to the Detection skill, but the world I could touch grew wider.

[You have recovered Inventory Lv. ?]

The level still couldn’t be measured.

Thunk! Thud!

Lost sensations came back to me. The demonic masses, shocked back to their senses, started launching sporadic attacks. I blocked them all, one by one. Arrows and spears flew toward us, as if they were afraid to get too close to the broken Gith-Za-Rai. Everything bounced off.

So... only this much, huh.

I could feel it. Right now, all I could protect were ”points.”

”Urgh... what is that?”

”As expected... wh-what a talent he is!”

I slowly narrowed the radius again.

Five meters. Three meters.

At that point, the only thing I could block was using the rim.

Bang!

I knocked aside a flying axe with a thin line of force. It was still shaky. If they rushed me directly from every direction...

That would be difficult.

Suddenly, the half of Gith-Za-Rai that had fallen to the ground let out a grotesque sound as it ignited.

Kyakak!

Countless unreadable letters, alien characters I had never encountered, burned atop the pale blue embers. Even with my shallow understanding of sorcery, I knew. The white glyphs writhing inside and outside her bones radiated a level of negation so vile it made my skin crawl.

Kyagak! Kyagagak!

It sounded like something alive was screaming. With only half herself remaining, Gith-Za-Rai stared at her burning, severed half and forced out her words.

”Here... the part that made a pact with the Demon Realm... I severed everything... every pathway where the curse flowed...”

I wanted to tell her to stop. Her body was more than half destroyed.

How is she even speaking?

However, I couldn’t interrupt what might be her final will.

”Absorb the rest. And this...”

A burst of flame hurled her skeletal fragments outward as she raised the two fingers she had left to point at her chest.

”What do you mean?” I desperately asked.

”Ah... haha... next time...”

Her voice stopped. Silence poured from her like blood, spilling down the severed half of her beast-bone body. Whatever tenacity had kept her alive finally gave way. Blood erupted from the exposed cross-section, and the heat was so intense that it instantly turned crimson and rained onto the ground as ash.

The strongest necromancer in both the Demon Realm and the human world, Gith-Za-Rai, was dead.

”...”

The stream of her blood shook something hanging against her chest.

A necklace? Is this what she meant?

Three daggers hung from the cord. One was as red as sunset while the other was as white as snow. The last one was a familiar black dagger with an obsidian blade. Except for the red one, the blades were covered in dense, unreadable strings of symbols.

I had seen the black dagger before. The snow-white dagger also carried those same drifting, living characters, identical to the runes that had risen from her hand to her shoulder. Then...

[Bassago’s anger is directed at you.]

[Bassago will not give up.]

What?

From the pile of white ash that had burned clean through, something began to rise.

Tadak! Tadatak!

Shattered remnants of glyphs, burned until their shapes were unrecognizable, crawled toward Gith-Za-Rai’s half corpse. The broken letters stopped as if glaring at me, then floated into the air with an eerie pulse.

Tok!

Unfamiliar symbols rose above the silence. The demons who had withdrawn to the rear stirred in agitation. Their formation shifted, hesitant, but slowly and deliberately, they approached us. The intent was unmistakable. This was not good.

So... this is where I die?

I had already accepted that possibility. It wasn’t disappointing, but I couldn’t allow Gith-Za-Rai’s belongings to be stolen.

Bzzzt!

As I opened my inventory to store the dagger necklace, the mana running through my bones surged outward.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

The black aura spilling from me tangled with the floating white ashes and glyphs like a spreading web. The white embers, barely able to stay afloat after being ravaged by crimson flame, shuddered, weakened, and drifted to the ground like wilted petals.

They did not rise again. Instead, crackling black letters danced in the air for a brief, vibrant moment.

[The Demon King Malphas asks you to remember him.]

He... did something?

The demons watched the black glyphs rather than the white ones and silently stepped back. The two surviving high-ranking demons whispered something to each other, but I couldn’t hear it.

Uuuung...

I sensed my inventory expanding around Gith-Za-Rai and me. I had been prepared to fight to protect her remains, but the demons slowly faded away, as if wary of something.

Are they... wary of him?

[Malphas nods with his beak.]

”Guh... ugh...”

The bat-monster trembled, wracked with pain. ”In any case... the objective is complete... ghk... I’ll... be going...”

”Oh! I don’t know what’s going on, but the target’s definitely dead! I’ll take my leave too! Please send my regards to Lord Malphas!”

[Malphas flares his wings in pride.]

Thanks, I suppose...

If they had actually attacked, I would’ve been in danger. Once the enemies vanished, I was alone.

Tadak...

The blue flames that had devoured the cavern dimmed once there was nothing left to burn. In their place, a green light flickered. I looked at the corpses of my companions. I saw half-standing armor, empty shells, and fragments scattered beyond recovery.

I remembered their last moments, their banter, their jokes, and the way they fought at my side. But my heart felt numb. It didn’t compare to the time I first saw Gith-Za-Rai’s corpse. Maybe, somewhere along the way, I had become accustomed to watching my allies die. Maybe I had already accepted it.

The truth sank deeper: Gith-Za-Rai had been strong. Yet even she had been killed instantly by the Ashen Knight and cursed to death by Bassago, a Demon King who hadn’t even descended in person.

[EX-Rank Scenario: Save Gith-Za-Rai is in progress!]

What hardships await me?

No matter how many times I walked, the success rate remained abysmally low. Regardless, I had to move forward.

The green light bloomed atop the blood and white ash. It was so dense that it looked as though the scattered fragments had been threaded together with glowing capillaries. Gith-Za-Rai’s remains resembled a beating heart. It was bright, solitary, and radiant. It felt as though the very concept of Essence Absorption was calling me forward.

I staggered closer and reached out.

She said she severed every cursed part. She said to absorb the rest...

So there was no danger. My own greedy reflection flickered across the emerald glow. The still-hot shards of bone radiated heat, chastising me.

I steadied myself. Then I took the throbbing green light in my hand and drew its heat and glow into me.

Essence Absorption.

[You possess the Epic Skill: Essence Absorption Lv. 1.]

[Number of Epic Skill holders within normal range (1).]

[Adjustment process complete.]

[Absorption authorized.]

[Essence Absorption Lv. 2 restored!]

[Absorption Time: 24:00:00 – Immediate.]

[Much more efficient...]

[Essence capacity from corpses...]

[Within 7 days of death...]

[Maximum absorbable stat increase...]

[Absorbable skill rank increases by one tier...]

While I watched the familiar messages I had first seen when gaining Essence Absorption Lv. 2, another message appeared. I had never seen it before.

[Inventory operating...]

[Distributed Spirit-Storage module active...]

[Future absorbed skills will grant selection options.]

[Skill Rank: Rare]