King of the Dead

Inside the Wall of Spirituality, Leon and Azik sat facing each other.

As the one who had initiated this, Leon extended his right hand, palm up. A ball of Black Flame streaked with crimson slowly took shape in his palm and burned quietly.

"Azik, this is the power stirred by the mystery within you."

He held the flame out before Azik. "It's called Destined Death. As the name suggests, it has to do with death. That's why I guessed your power came from death."

Azik nodded slightly and instinctively looked at the Black Flame, which flickered with a chilling aura.

A single glance was enough to draw his gaze completely into it. Before Leon could say anything, a trace of pallor emerged from Azik.

Suddenly, he groaned in pain and pressed a hand to his forehead, the muscles in his face twisting painfully.

"Death, a familiar aura. I seem to remember something from my past."

"What do you remember?" Leon asked in a low voice.

"A... castle, and... my family..." Azik spoke vaguely, but whenever he tried to make those memories clearer,

all he got was a stabbing pain and memories that grew even hazier.

"All right, stop."

Leon swiftly withdrew the Black Flame from his palm, and the power it had drawn out of Azik dissipated along with it.

Under Azik's puzzled gaze, Leon slowly backed away to the edge of the room.

"At this rate, who knows how many years it would take to fully recover your memories."

"I have a suggestion. I'll try attacking you, and in an extreme state where your life is threatened, forcibly awaken the power that has lain dormant in you because of your lost memories."

Leon turned to look at Azik, a hint of eagerness on his face.

"You've lived for who knows how many years. Even if you can't use your power freely, you're certainly not a Low Sequence Beyonder. And as it happens, I can't go all out right now either-so even if the experiment fails, the consequences won't be too serious."

And this gives me a chance to try drawing on the Great Rune in this world.

Having sensed the power that had just been drawn out of Azik, he estimated that nothing should go wrong.

Surely I can't just run into someone that extraordinary on the street?

Leon made his calculations with considerable confidence. The only regrettable thing was that if word got out that he had taken advantage of someone he had only just met, he would probably be criticized for it.

But perhaps because he saw hope of recovering his memories, the usually composed Azik failed to notice that Leon had other reasons for offering his help. After hesitating for only a few seconds, he agreed to the suggestion.

Great! The plan worked! Leon smiled in satisfaction.

Then he turned to look at Klein, who was maintaining the Wall of Spirituality nearby, and signaled for him to expand it to encompass the entire living room.

Once the area had been expanded, Leon spread his arms and drew on a portion of Destined Death's power, within the limits of what this body could withstand.

Flames of dark red and deep black, like coagulated blood, rose around Leon. As time passed, they condensed into a faint, indistinct shape in his hand.

The shape resembled a short sword with a pitch-black blade. He slashed sharply forward.

Sword energy formed from Black Flame rushed toward the grim-faced Azik, carrying the aura of death.

A suffocating sensation spread like a tide into every corner of the room as the sword energy approached. It seemed that even the slightest contact would deprive someone of the right to "live."

Klein watched closely as events unfolded inside, looking with concern at Mr. Azik, who had helped him so much.

A second before the sword energy touched Mr. Azik, shrill screams suddenly echoed in Klein's ears.

He looked behind Mr. Azik and saw, to his astonishment, faces, some formless and some distorted, rising amid pale mist and forming a strange great door.

Creak!

The illusory door slowly opened, and countless undead of all shapes and sizes scrambled through the doorway, blocking the sword energy coming straight at them.

The undead blocking it at the very front were cut apart like butter the instant they came into contact with the sword energy. In moments, the burning Black Flame reduced them to ashes.

But there seemed to be an endless supply of undead behind the door. Whenever those in front were cut down, others took their place.

The sword energy, which had not been particularly strong to begin with, could not get anywhere near Azik. It was completely spent after cutting down only a dozen or so undead.

And there Azik stood, surrounded by the undead and utterly unmoving, just like the legendary king of the dead.

The bewilderment and pain in his eyes also confirmed that Leon's guess had been right-his memories were being awakened.

Leon restrained his aura and walked up to Azik. He had only just begun, "Congratulations..."

He tilted his head slightly to dodge an undead that attacked him without warning and said, "Azik, it's over."

But the only response he received was the hostile gaze of the other undead. At some point, the area around him had filled with undead under Azik's control, and they were now slowly closing in on Leon, who had attacked their master.

Leon narrowed his eyes at Azik, who was protected at the center by the undead creatures, trying to make something out.

Countless wisps of pale mist rose and fell around Azik, and his aura was imperceptibly drawing more undead here.

This meant his power and memories were indeed returning as Leon had planned. That should have been a good thing, but the problem lay in his eyes: at some point, their gaze, once lost in recollection, had gone unfocused!

Taking in the scene, Leon instantly realized what had happened.

I fucking overdid it again!

This was most likely caused by the impact of that sudden surge of power.

Even if the power had come from Azik himself, he still needed time to absorb so much of it flooding back all at once.

Once experts reached a certain level, their bodies would instinctively protect themselves after they lost consciousness-and Azik was in precisely that state now.

In other words.

There were two choices now. The first was to run; when faced with a target that could not move, putting distance between them was the best option.

But once the Wall of Spirituality was removed, Azik's aura would be released without anything to conceal it. Not only would that draw the official Beyonders, but the other forces in Tingen City would notice it as well.

All his previous efforts would go to waste, and he would also offend Azik, whose strength was quite considerable.

That left only one choice: minimize the impact before Azik regained consciousness.

Take his attacks and hold out until Azik woke up!

Leon snatched up the cane on the sofa and smashed the nearest undead.

Then he jumped onto the sofa and released the power of Destined Death, raising it to the limit this body could withstand without injury.

According to his senses, that was just enough to suppress the level of power Azik was displaying.

The next second, the Black Flame was released again. This time, rather than taking the form of a blade, it spread in a blanket, forming a black curtain that wrapped around Azik. In a breath, it filled the limited space within the Wall of Spirituality.

Standing outside the wall, Klein swallowed as he watched the spacious, brightly lit living room turn into a pitch-black sphere.

Everything fell quiet again, and he had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a trace of pallor suddenly seep into the black sphere.

Watching the pale power grow stronger as he increased his own, Leon instantly realized that this was nowhere near Azik's limit!

He looked through the Wall of Spirituality at Klein, who could not help at all, and a sense of foreboding surfaced in his mind.

Don't tell me he's some fucking old Monster who's lost his memories!

Judging by the current situation, Azik's unintentional counterattack had already surpassed even some of the weaker demigods in the Lands Between.

Even if someone told him now that Azik was actually the descendant of some god, he would believe it!

Out of options, Leon could only increase his Spirituality output and draw on more of the Great Rune's power.

The pale power grew stronger in response, and he increased his own power along with it. In this way, they maintained a peculiar balance.

Leon could no longer worry about whether this body could take it, because once the power he had provoked was released, a good portion of Tingen would suffer for it.

Though he claimed he was no good person, he did not want to bring such an undeserved calamity upon ordinary people unless he had no other choice.