CHAPTER 1604: THE DEATH KNIGHT AND THE MARAUDER (3)

Aside from things like souls and mana, Classes were also a universal concept. They weren’t a prospect only for worlds. Even the Undead had them.

Undead Infantries, Undead Captains, Death Knights, Calamity Knights, Doom Knights...

These were all Classes, but unlike on Aigas, the term Class when it came to Undeath did not solely represent an area of specialisation. It denoted a mixture of rank and purpose.

And indeed, Death Knights, as Undead units, had a purpose. That was why there was a precise formula for creating them known to all Lichkind.

Sila’s opponent, newly born, was just getting a hang of its purpose.

Though the creature didn’t have a nose, it took a great whiff of the air. The action must have taken a significant portion of its attention, because ever so slightly, Sila felt its grip around his neck slacken. Without missing a beat, the former Tower General used the chance to kick off the chest plate on the Death Knight’s armour and escape its clutch... but not without losing a majority of the skin and flesh around his neck.

’Dammit!’ Sila thought.

To stop himself from falling into the depth that was left behind where the ocean had been, he fired mana from his feet in a consistent stream and glared at his opponent.

The Death Knight, completely ignoring Sila, took another whiff of the air.

...And then it suddenly jabbed into the empty space in front of it with its right hand.

...!

Baleful red pennons of Undeath energy exploded from the empty air, and traced a vague average human shape. This shape twitched, craned its neck and let loose an inhumane screech that stumped Sila.

’What on Aigas is that?’

Before he knew it, another outline was painted by the Undeath energy when the Death Knight stabbed the air again. Another followed. Then another, and another and another...

Differently shaped human figures, barely detailed, but livid with Undeath stood around the Death Knight howling in all kinds of misery.

"A power you don’t have, I assume," said the Death Knight to Sila’s look of confusion. "These are Mirrors, sub-Undead grunts that can be made using the residuals of life energy from the living things on this world. One of them may not be impressive on its own, but I can make as much of them as there have been living beings since the dawn of this world."

Sila’s scowl could have spoken a sentence.

Mirrors? Residuals?

The Death Knight took another whiff of the air. "Those who fight with physical and mental combat forms. Those who fight using weaponry. Those who shape and command energies. That is the gist of this world’s power system, isn’t it?"

The Death Knight grabbed a Mirror and then as though kneading dough, shaped the Mirror into a large, detailed lance that it brandished against Sila.

"This is more like it," it said. "Shall we continue?"

The words were no more than a suggestion. The Death Knight was already charging through the air before Sila could respond, an army of a thousand Mirrors following behind it.

’What kind of nonsensical powers are these?!’ the former Tower General thought, but not while floating still.

Using the jets of mana firing under his feet, he pulled back quickly, cocked his head back and fired a concentrated jet of Null Life Essence from the singular eye socket on his face. His target was the Death Knight, but the creature vanished from sight before the beam could connect. The Mirrors were the ones to take the full brunt of the attack.

They all pushed against it as though it were a mere gust of wind. It did them no harm.

...!

The Death Knight appeared behind Sila and sent its lance piercing through his shoulder before quickly whacking him in the face with the blunt haft. When the former Tower General reeled, an upward swing of the enemy’s lance casually sliced off the three arms on the right side of his body. A heavy lethal, disorienting blow completed the lethal combo: the Death Knight zoomed in close and struck Sila across the chest with a lariat, sending him flying.

It hurt.

It hurt so bad.

The former Tower General was received by the army of Mirrors... and his ordeal didn’t turn out any better.

Even though the Death Knight had called the Mirrors grunts, they deserved a bit more credit than that.

The life energy that the Death Knight studied to create these obscure creatures was as dense as the soul. It carried information – emotion, intention, action. In this case, the Mirrors were reflections of the violent nature of humans in the warring periods of Aigas.

As such, Sila quickly found himself held in a shoulder lock, his face pulled back to an almost fatal degree, his legs pinned by the thigh, his arching back pressed by a Mirror’s foot, and finally...

A shower of punches and kicks were raining endlessly on him. The Mirrors were violent and unrelenting, but also shockingly powerful. Each of them was as strong as the average Incandescent Stage expert. While that meant nothing to Sila in a one on one, it mattered in a one thousand v. one.

’The Undeath energy from them is chipping away at my natural Null Lifeform defences!’ Sila thought while trying to reel in his senses.

It hurt.

It hurt so bad.

Before he could recover enough to fight back, he heard a loud whistle coming from just beyond the wall of attacking Mirrors.

A lance came flying through all of them inconsequentially... only to bore a hole through the former Tower General!

...!!!

The shuttle of pain was disorienting.

It hurt.

It hurt so bad.

Sila almost lost consciousness.

He was used to pain, but not the ordinary kind, he realised.

He had been a bodiless being for so long that this kind of agony felt...new.

Even though he didn’t have a soul, it was dark displeasure.

’Urgh. Did it always hurt like this?’ he thought to himself.

The Death Knight didn’t relent.

While its Mirrors stormed after Sila, it raised its hand into the air and more of what it gleaned from the life energy livid throughout Aigas sifted through its mind.

Indeed, it was through this life energy that the creature managed to dissect even more of the secrets behind Aigas’ power system... like Runes.

Great, oddly hewn Runes, fiercely ablaze with Undeath energy flared over the Death Knight.

Runes were the perfect model of controlling power. So why wouldn’t the Death Knight use them?

One by one, the great Runes, each with a specific purpose, fell towards the former Tower General. They promised a cruel fate upon the mortal enemy of Undeath indeed. A single touch and Sila would regret ever being born.

However...

"Hahahahahahaha! I missed this so much!" the Tower General laughed amid it all.