At the sound behind him, the man flung out the dagger hidden in his sleeve without hesitation, then lunged forward.
Whoosh!
Squelch!
The sound of the dagger piercing flesh brought a flash of delight to his face.
But that delight immediately froze, and his forward stride came to an abrupt halt.
He lowered his head to look at the hand protruding through his chest, then turned his head with great difficulty to look at the figure behind him.
The dagger was embedded in that figure's chest, yet the figure grinned at him as though nothing had happened. Its hand had also pierced his chest and crushed his heart.
Thud.
The hand slowly withdrew, and the man, now a corpse, slowly toppled to the ground.
"You call this an immortal body?"
"I think you've misunderstood what an immortal body is."
The Upper Evil Spirit looked down at the corpse with contempt.
When it pierced him, it had sensed a peculiar energy gathering in his heart. But once it crushed that heart, the energy dissipated.
Then the man became a corpse in the truest sense.
"What a disappointment."
The Upper Evil Spirit muttered under its breath.
It had thought it might find a being like itself and lighten its own burden by enslaving him. Who would have thought he was nothing but a cheap imitation?
The thought that it still had to charge into battle, spring traps, and act as bait every time filled the Upper Evil Spirit's heart with misery.
That misery, however, did not stop the Upper Evil Spirit from collecting its spoils.
It pulled two checks from the man's clothes, and the numbers on them made the corners of its mouth rise.
If these had been genuinely valuable spoils, it certainly would not have dared keep them for itself.