Ancestral Mirror Image (Part 2)

"Were we really worth Lord Marcus going this far for?" they wondered. "Who would've thought that, despite being a mage, he had the heart of a warrior! Heaven lies to the left, warriors march to the right—he's too brave! Too fearless!"

Amid the swarming gnolls' siege, Duke only had time to fire off one [Pyroblast] before falling...

Then, the mercenaries began to feel that something was incredibly strange.

Duke stood back up...

"Hogger, **** your mother!"

A [Pyroblast]!

Duke fell again... This time, Duke was split in two by an axe—dismembered!

Duke stood... stood back up again...

"I'll wipe out eighteen generations of your gnoll family!"

Again and again... Under Hogger's fierce counterattacks, Duke fell time after time, then stood back up intact each time. He did nothing but curse while hurling huge fireballs into the face of the massive Hogger.

Even an idiot could see that although Hogger was fierce and possessed tenacious vitality, the flames on his body had never gone out. Instead, they only burned larger and fiercer.

Hogger's injuries were accumulating.

His roars were no longer as thunderous. His gnoll underlings were no longer as quick to respond to his commands. Even his movements had become sluggish.

Even though some unknown force had robbed him of much of his reason, he realized that things were going very badly for him.

Gradually, Duke was able to cast one [Pyroblast], follow it with an instant [Pyroblast], and only then get swatted to death.

Every tear in the mercenaries' tear ducts had been wrung dry... They felt as though this mysterious young mage had toyed with them, yet also as though he had not.

After all, Duke had told them to run from the very beginning.

Wasn't Duke fighting for his life just to protect burdens like them?

As a mage with so many survival skills, he should have had no problem escaping on his own, right?

Even though Duke's repeatedly heroic deaths and rebirths from the flames were enough to become tavern talk after meals, they noticed something strange.

The ordinary gnolls had long since scattered, hiding far away and watching their boss battle an unkillable Duke with awe.

Over there, Macaro solemnly instructed his men, "What we saw today, we cannot breathe a single word of it, even if we go to hell... If I'm not mistaken, this concerns an extremely, extremely important secret of Lord Duke Marcus. If we're lucky, we may spend the rest of our lives as Lord Marcus's retainers."

Everyone shuddered and nodded together.

Such a bizarre ability was absolutely unheard of. Were there few people who had accidentally learned a great figure's secret and then been silenced?

Being allowed to sell themselves into service rather than being killed was already a tremendous blessing.

On the other side, as his wounds continued to pile up, Hogger's vitality was about to burn out.

"Demon-Piercing Light Cannon—" Duke roared the incomprehensible name of a move. With steps that were hardly nimble, he actually stepped onto the bend of Hogger's left arm hanging near the ground, used it as leverage to climb onto Hogger's shoulder, then, in an outrageously showy move, thrust two fingers into Hogger's eye socket.

An instant [Pyroblast] at point-blank range!

"Awooo—" Unlike his spirited howls at the beginning, this final miserable cry contained far too much of Hogger's unwillingness and resentment.

The cry was cut off halfway through, because Hogger's enormous head was filled with flames rapidly expanding from within.

Just one second later, the back of Hogger's massive head exploded backward like a smashed watermelon.

The gnolls watching from afar immediately fled in all directions in terror.

Standing proudly atop the huge chest of Hogger's fallen body, bathed in a storm of blood and gore, Duke did not feel much accomplishment.

In the game before Duke transmigrated, Hogger had merely been a level-eleven elite monster. Even with the astonishing nickname of newbie killer, he was ultimately just an insignificant little monster.

Who would have thought that killing Hogger once would cost him eleven revivals?

At that thought, Duke felt a despairing urge to curse the heavens.

But just as Duke finally had time to check the system notifications, he suddenly froze.

"Congratulations, Host, on successfully killing the demonized elite monster [Hogger]! You have successfully thwarted an assassination attempt against you by a demon under Sargeras. Because [Hogger] contains a small amount of demonic aura, if you give its remaining head to a clergyman in Stormwind, you may receive an unexpected reward."

"You have obtained the blueprint for the [Skinning Battleaxe], which even low-intelligence creatures can make."

"Because you successfully killed Hogger, the monster that killed you eleven times, your humanity has recovered slightly. Your current soul power is 87, your integrity is 72%, and your current rank is Fifth-Rank Earth Mage!"

After reading them, Duke nearly jumped up and immediately questioned the system spirit in his mind.

"Hey! What the hell is this? Why do I only have 72% integrity left?!"

"Because the creatures that killed you were demons. As demons are the most capable of corrupting human souls, being killed by them has an additional effect. In short, if you are killed by demons or demonic creatures, your integrity will drop faster!"

Duke nearly choked to death on his own saliva.

I hate demons the most!

Unknowingly, Duke's still-ferocious expression had terrified Macaro and the others.

Remembering what Macaro had said, they followed him and knelt trembling before Hogger's enormous corpse. They lowered their heads, not even daring to look up at Duke above them.

Macaro spoke. "Thank you, Lord Marcus, for saving us. We have nothing with which to repay you, so we hope to offer our worthless lives and contribute to Lord Marcus's great cause."

"Oh?" Pulled from his daze by the voice, Duke suddenly became interested. "Why?"

Duke had been asking why Macaro had said such a thing. But seeing Duke's murderous expression, Macaro clearly misunderstood and thought Duke was asking why he should spare them.

"We... We are deeply grateful that you saved us, my lord, but we have seen your secret of immortality, Lord Marcus... We do not wish to die yet, so we are willing to serve you faithfully for the rest of our lives."

Duke was stunned for a moment. For some reason, he thought of how Alleria had rationalized and talked herself into believing things when she first discovered his secret. Duke suddenly burst out laughing.

"Thank you very much for being willing to serve me..."

As Duke said this, he clearly saw Macaro and the others let out long breaths. They looked like people who had taken a walk before the gates of hell.

Duke's next sentence immediately made their hearts leap into their throats again.

"However, I can't accept your loyalty for that reason!"

Macaro instantly panicked. "Lord Marcus, we..."

At that moment, an accident occurred.

Not far from Duke's feet, a gnoll that had not yet fully died suddenly leaped up and viciously hacked its crude stone axe into Duke's neck.

It happened so quickly that no one had time to react.

"Ah!?" The mercenaries cried out together.

From such close range, they saw blood spray from Duke's neck, and then he fell... dead!

"Heavens! What did Lord Marcus do?"

Before they could finish being shocked, Duke's corpse abruptly turned into a faint stream of light and vanished. With almost no transition at all, Duke appeared unharmed less than two steps away from the corpse.

"Fuck your mother! A mere gnoll dared to ambush me!" Dying at Hogger's hands was one thing, but getting killed by an ordinary gnoll was utterly humiliating. Grinding his teeth in fury, Duke sent the bastard who had made him lose integrity to become a maggot in its next life with a huge fireball.

After finally calming down, Duke once again became that elegant mage lord.

"Did you see that? It was only magic. More precisely, it is my family's inherited [Mirror Image] talent! Every mage family has its own inheritance. Some families excel at elemental magic, while others excel at arcane magic. I am merely an inheritor from a fallen mage family. This isn't some earth-shattering secret that requires killing people to keep hidden. Of course, it is one of my trump cards, so I do not want you spreading it around."

Duke's display left the mercenaries dumbfounded, but this explanation truly put every one of them at ease.

Ah! So it was mysterious magic! We common folk who can't use magic have truly broadened our horizons.

Watching their relieved expressions, Duke's heart ached sharply.

Fuck, my integrity dropped again!