Don't be afraid. Their numbers had limits. The Dead River Armament could not endlessly call forth phantoms of the souls within it like the Undead Monarch could, because the Dead River could only use the dead souls inside it as fuel. It could only summon those knights and guards it had devoured—those who had served it in life.
Adalbert's voice came from behind Ian. The Undead Monarch, clad in blood-ice armor, slowly came to the Gloomvale Knight's side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
He gazed across the distance at Viscount Avak, his voice gradually rising until it shook the entire Subspace Labyrinth. "Rafine Avak, can you hear the voices of these dead souls?"
"Whether they were the knights and soldiers you devoured, who believed in you, or the ordinary people you treated as fuel—"
"They were all human. They all felt pain. Even if they are now dead souls and phantoms, their hatred still points toward you and me. That is the sin upon us."
He raised his sword and pointed it at Viscount Avak, now completely covered in blood-red armor and standing silent. "You could never become an Undead Monarch, because from the very beginning, you intended to deceive them—to conceal the truth behind all this with lies and deception. Even if you succeeded for a time, you could never achieve the result the Grand Duke wanted!"
"That was why I freed those dead souls while you were conducting your experiment and destroyed your body... They did nothing wrong. They should not have been used by you like this!"
So that was it.
Ian suddenly understood. He finally understood why, as the local lord, Viscount Avak had appeared before Teres's team in phantom form at the very beginning... It was because Adalbert had freed the most crucial