SWNOVELXO Chapter 537
Chapter 537: Let’s Kill That Guy Now. (1)
Helgenik gauged the timing as he advanced.
“I think the operation has been successful…”
There’s no way they wouldn’t send support after seeing this tremendous army of corpses. The Salvation Society must have sighed in relief because of him.
All that remained was to seize the opportunity and conquer the Kingdom of Grimwell.
Since he decided to deploy all of the Salvation Society’s forces, the Kingdom of Grimwell wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
“The Salvation Society gets what it wants… and I get to have a lot of corpses.”
Especially this bounty of life offered him a new direction for knowledge. With a bit more research, he felt he could elevate his realm another level.
“It’s about time to wrap this up.”
The Parsali Army was in a desperate state. Having nearly lost all their strongpoints, they had no choice but to make a last stand.
For the Kingdom Army to prepare even a little more and minimize damage, that guy named Jerome would have to show up once again.
Boom!
“He’s here.”
As expected, Jerome appeared once more. Had he recovered his mana or something? He was unleashing large-scale magic without restraint.
“Hmph, as expected, he’s impressive. The mana recovery speed is incredibly fast.”
That guy had been fighting him non-stop for several days. Normally, he should be bedridden by now, yet he quickly regained his mana and showed up.
Of course, he couldn’t launch as strong a spell as before, but his recovery speed was still remarkable.
“Go. We need to end this today.”
Roar!
Suddenly, the two resurrected priests launched themselves towards Jerome.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jerome, engaged in sweeping away the approaching corpses, paled at the sight of the two priests.
“Seriously annoying bastards.”
Bang!
Jerome swatted the priests away with a wave of his hand. However, his expression wasn’t very pleasant.
“Tsk.”
Unlike before, they didn’t go down in one hit. This meant Jerome had weakened.
Reluctantly, Jerome had no choice but to scrape together more mana.
Boom!
The heads of the two charging priests shattered in an instant.
Jerome, catching his breath, thought,
‘It won’t end until I kill that guy.’
As long as Helgenik, the source of mana, was alive, corpses would keep resurrecting.
Knowing this, Jerome stepped in to buy people time to prepare.
Right now, there was no way to kill Helgenik.
‘Just hold out a little longer.’
Though he’d lost all strongholds and was pushed back, the entire kingdom wasn’t filled with corpses.
The survivors were gathering for their final battle. The longer he dragged this out, the more time they’d have to prepare.
In fact, just dragging it out this long was an achievement that would go down in history. Yet Jerome showed no sign of stopping.
“Huff!”
Boom!
The approaching corpses were swept away. This time, Jerome was about to pull back due to the considerable mana consumed by the priests.
He planned to recover his mana before thinning out the corpses.
Just as he thought of retreating,
Wham!
“Ugh!”
Space around him twisted, and dozens of Death Knights appeared.
Clank clank clank clank!
The Death Knights aimed their swords at Jerome’s body. However, they couldn’t pierce the shield that unfolded in an instant.
‘That bastard is planning to finish this now!’
He had expected such a time would come. The opponent must have found him quite troublesome.
Yet, he hadn’t shown himself and merely sent forth the Death Knights first.
This meant he was trying to further corner Jerome, who had already expended mana. What a clever trick.
‘Lacking mana.’
He couldn’t unleash large-scale area of effect magic. If he consumed more mana, escaping would become difficult.
Flash!
Jerome attempted to blink and escape the battlefield, but the Death Knights mounted on Phantom Steeds pursued him relentlessly.
Some even bypassed Jerome, spreading out to block his escape routes. It was an action meant to block his retreat.
Helgenik, as a mage, knew well which spells needed to be blocked first.
“Tsk.”
The Death Knights kept rushing in, blocking his escape.
It was possible to escape using continuous blinks, but Helgenik would actually want Jerome to do just that.
‘Now I have a limit on the distance I can escape with my mana.’
He couldn’t afford to expend mana in that way. Lacking mana, Helgenik was sure to catch up with him.
Reluctantly, Jerome decided to prioritize eliminating the Death Knights using the minimum amount of mana.
This was because Helgenik would also need tremendous mana to resurrect the Death Knights.
Zing—
Jerome’s hands became enveloped in mana, glowing gold.
Clank clank clank clank!
He engaged in close combat, blocking the swords swung by dozens of Death Knights. He had no choice to conserve mana.
Fortunately, his martial arts had reached a decent level through extensive training.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Jerome’s fists shattered the Death Knights’ helmets, puncturing their chests. Their armor crumpled, limbs twisted under the force.
Yet, the Death Knights quickly recovered and charged at Jerome once more.
Crack crack!
Despite sustaining minor wounds from the Death Knights’ blades, Jerome kept calmly taking them down one by one.
At some point, the Death Knights began to fall without returning after attacking Jerome.
As time passed, the remaining Death Knights retreated and surrounded Jerome.
“Huff… huff…”
Jerome breathed heavily, exhausted, looking around at the Death Knights that surrounded him.
Now only about ten were left. Even in his nearly depleted state, Jerome had taken down over thirty Death Knights.
‘What a truly cunning guy.’
The one who had achieved such an incredible feat gritted his teeth at the Death Knights. He could feel the end was near.
The opponent was intentionally refraining from restoring some Death Knights to conserve mana.
Flash!
The remaining Death Knights lunged at him simultaneously.
Jerome, with a fatigue-stricken face, gave a slight grin.
“I’m still all right.”
Boom!
The fight began again. Jerome clenched his fists and took down the Death Knights charging at him.
He hadn’t had a proper rest for days. Food was scarce as well. The inexhaustible mana that had surged within him now ran dry.
He could recover mana just by breathing, but the mana consumed exceeded what he could recover, leaving him with no option.
Scratch! Scratch! Scratch!
The Death Knights’ attacks dug deeper into Jerome’s body. Blood poured from various wounds. His movements slowed.
Boom!
Even so, Jerome gritted his teeth and took down more Death Knights.
And when he crushed the last Death Knight’s head,
Rumble!
Grotesque bones erupted from the ground below.
Jerome sensed the presence and tried to avoid it, but he was too exhausted to evade fully.
Boom!
“Argh!”
With his thigh and side pierced, Jerome screamed in agony. He barely managed to pull away, but the bones kept rising.
Rumble!
The area was now filled with emerging bones. Jerome evaded desperately, but slowed movements meant he could only keep sustaining injuries.
In the midst of panicked evasion, Jerome suddenly froze.
No more bones were rising.
“Bone Prison…”
He was already trapped in a cage of bones.
Swoosh…
Darkness enveloped, taking form. It soon changed to reveal Helgenik.
Helgenik looked at Jerome, ensnared in the cage of bones, with a smile.
“Finally caught the little rat.”
Time and effort had been invested in depleting his mana.
Even if it was recovering slowly now, it was the end for him. In a fatigued and severely injured state, he wouldn’t escape from his grasp.
Jerome let out a hollow smile, releasing his strength.
Dark mana oozed out between the risen bones. The opponent had even set up a small mana field by himself.
There was no way to escape in such a state.
“I didn’t think it would end like this.”
“Maybe you should have kept a low profile. You’ve made me expend far too much energy because of you.”
As Helgenik waved his hand, bone bars began to converge on Jerome.
Rumble…
There was no escape. Jerome accepted the death that had come for him.
“I really didn’t want to come out of the house like this. I barely got to have fun and now I’m about to die.”
At his stoic demeanor, Helgenik momentarily halted the movements of the bones and asked,
“What are you?”
“Just a mage.”
“Why go through such a pointless act without any profit?”
“Does there need to be a profit?”
“Then?”
“I just helped people because I have strength.”
“Helping because you have strength?”
“Yeah. The talents and circumstances I was born with are blessings from the world. So using them for the world is only natural.”
“Hahaha!”
Helgenik laughed as if he found it amusing. He had never seen someone so naïve in his life.
To be this innocent was truly remarkable!
So he asked again,
“Is the result of your foolishness to end in death?”
“Of course, I don’t want to die. I slightly regret coming out of my house now.”
“Hahaha! You really are an entertaining fellow.”
Jerome turned to Helgenik, who was still laughing, and asked,
“Why are you, someone with such strength, doing this kind of thing?”
“Because I can.”
Although it was the same answer, the meaning was very different. Helgenik continued with a relaxed demeanor.
“Because I have strength, I can do such things. The world’s blessing? Do you think a lion uses its power for a rabbit?”
“……”
Jerome remained silent. Engaging in a war of words with someone whose beliefs were different was pointless.
Helgenik waved his hand. The bones that had momentarily stopped now began to move again.
His voice echoed ominously.
“A lion and a rabbit are different from birth. To a lion, a rabbit is just prey. You are a foolish fellow who has given up a lion’s life for rabbits. No, do you have a rabbit’s soul in a lion’s body?”
Rumble…
Large and small bones began to dig deeper into Jerome’s body.
“Ugh…”
He tried to pour all the remaining mana into holding on, but it wasn’t easy.
“Argh!”
Jerome could no longer endure the pain, trembling. His mind couldn’t focus, and his whole body was drenched in fatigue.
Helgenik looked at him with a smile.
“I’ve obtained a truly good material. Make it more painful. Let that useless belief and spirit crumble.”
The deeper the pain and resentment, the more powerful an undead he would become.
Not killing him instantly was for this reason. Finding a material like him would be incredibly difficult, even searching throughout the continent. No, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was impossible.
As Helgenik waited joyfully, he suddenly raised his head.
“Huh?”
Flash!
A bright light shot down from the sky like lightning.
Boom!
Helgenik already dodged, but he could feel it.
The immense energy drawing near.
Boom!
Helgenik’s body moved backward again.
Swoosh!
Dozens of blue daggers whizzed past where he had been standing.
Dodging, Helgenik raised his hand.
Suddenly, a woman had appeared beside him, plunging a dagger into him.
Clank!
Was there divine power in the dagger? The hand blocking it began to smolder gradually.
In a low voice, Helgenik asked,
“Who are you?”
Belinda grinned and replied,
“Does it matter?”
“How dare you…”
Helgenik gathered his energy. Countless corpses were still advancing in front of him.
Yet sneaking past the army of corpses without a sound until that woman got close? That meant her skills were excellent, regardless of her power.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Before Helgenik could counterattack, lightning struck down, shattering the bone prison. At the same time, it smashed through the surrounding corpses.
Given the aura of mana, it appeared she was casting magic from quite a distance.
“Who did this…”
Her mana control skills were quite impressive. Jerome was unharmed, and only the surroundings were being smashed. This meant she was at least a 7-circle superhuman.
Jerome, already unconscious, lay collapsed on the ground.
Bang! Bang! Boom!
Startled by the sudden booming noise, Helgenik looked ahead. A group was advancing, piercing through the corpses from a distance.
“Could it be them?”
Realizing there were several superhuman-level individuals, Helgenik ignored Belinda and moved.
“The material…”
He intended first to recover Jerome.
Even if superhumans had come, the front was filled with corpses. It would take time to break through them.
Belinda hurriedly attempted to follow, but Helgenik was slightly quicker.
Boom!
As he leaped through space with magic, he aimed to scoop up Jerome.
But Helgenik felt an ominous premonition etched into his body without any warning.
Scratch!
He quickly pulled back, but this time he couldn’t evade it fully.
His chest was already slightly torn.
‘I have to avoid this.’
He decided to give up on Jerome the instant he felt his chest slice.
Engaging in a frontal battle was not how a necromancer fought. He had to retreat and move all the corpses. In fact, he was already a bit late.
Right as he made that decision to retreat,
Crack crack crack crack crack crack!
A spear fell from the sky.
Surrounded in red light, the spear descended with tremendous speed, tearing through the air around it.
“……!!”
Helgenik couldn’t dodge the attack that came in with such a time lag.
Boom!
The spear pierced Helgenik’s chest and plunged forcefully into the ground.