Chapter 37: Day Of Undead
The tunnel ended with a massive cave canyon once again. The three children who had sped up their walk to a slow jog after following the sound of groans paused on the spot at the sight that greeted them.
"GAAAH!" Ethan took a step away.
"Harrr…" a low groan followed him in sync. And the entire cave fell into a deep silence.
"Oh, great! Well done, Sir Ethan. You made us the target of nearly five hundred zombies at once!"
Kyriaki put her hands on her hips, shaking her head as if Ethan had declared Austria is Australia and Kangaroos are aliens acknowledged as the national bird of Soviet Russia. There was no anger in her voice. She was clearly mocking him, but it also had a faint trace of excitement engraved.
She ran her gaze across the cave. Just as she said, zombies of different races over 500 in numbers were looking at them like they were delicious prey.
Zombie humans, zombie elves, zombie beastfolks, zombie monsters, there were even some Titans which had turned into zombies.
"Can you take one hundred each?" A long sword in jet-black color appeared on Kyriaki's hand as she calmly asked.
"It might be hard, but I think I can." Levana summoned her crescent moon shaped daggers.
"...I-I'll do my best." Ethan reluctantly summoned his axe with trembling hands.
[Claws of the Shadow Wolf: First Claw: Wild wolf]
First to take action was Levana. Contrary to her clumsy look, her fighting stance and methods were all nearly flawless.
As soon as the name and the technique of her Dagger art came out of her mouth, Levana moved. Her fast movements were truly like a wild wolf. They were frenzy imbued, cruel and wild.
Her daggers struck the neck, the lower abdomen, the heart and the thigh of three zombies at once. Sky-blue aura wrapped her white daggers, displaying her status as a beginner Assassin. But the properties of darkness and lightning that the aura energy held couldn't escape Kyriaki's eyes.
Her head then turned to Ethan, who was cowering in fear before an army of zombies. Their eyes met. Ethan flinched at the intense gaze of Kyriaki that seemed to ask; 'what are you doing?'
Ethan gripped his double blade battle axe of excellent quality, swallowing his dry saliva. His voice trembled as he muttered his fighting technique.
[Seven Flames of the Burning Sun: First Flame: Burning Slash]
The blade was caught in a blue aura energy that very slightly resembled a flame. He held his axe horizontally and ran towards a few zombies with an acceptable speed.
Slash! Thud! Thud!!
Two zombies fell down after being cut in half at once. It didn't take even a second for that to happen.
'Tsk. Tsk. If only he wasn't so foolish, he'd have been a great tool for me.' Kyriaki shook her head after witnessing the potential of the axe art.
Kyriaki lifted her sword up, as if she was a war hero announcing the end of a long held war with victory in her hand. Her body was very slightly lowered to maintain her balance as she put her left foot forward.
[Colors of the Spring: Third Color: Fragrance of Wildflowers]
Her pure dark sword blade manifested beautiful multicolors, like an opal blessed by heaven's rainbows. The signature unique aura color of Kyriaki shone brightly.
Under her feet, tiny weeds of various shades of green sprouted. And small wildflowers of different kinds and colors in various sizes bloomed as if spring fairies had sprinkled fairy dust over the ground.
The fluorescent glow was mesmerizing, like a dream created by a fairy.
The multicolored Sword Aura speared around the air like thin threads, turning into a sweet and dizzying scent. The zombies who smelled the scent all looked at Kyriaki as if they were bewitched and tempted by the fragrance.
This was possible because unlike mindless zombies from movies, the real zombies she faced still retained some ego of their previous lives.
Kyriaki's lifted sword was lowered in lightning speed and she charged forward. The sound of the blade cutting through rotten flesh was overlapped by the silent zombie bodies falling apart.
Her movements were mostly made of basic sword moves like horizontal slash, diagonal slash, upper cut, lower cut and stab. It wasn't anything fancy. Nonetheless, the way she made use of it was so close to perfection that it looked more regal and elegant than most flamboyant sword arts.
Slash! Clang! Slash!
Her body kept moving.
[Colors of the Spring: Fourth Color: The Nymph's Green Forest]
"Gasp!" Levana gasped in a mixture of awe and admiration.
"..." Ethan paused and stared at Kyriaki with a blank expression.
Even Zombies stopped moving. All eyes were on the trees that were rapidly growing around them.
It was a mesmerizing sight.
Their shape and form was genuinely real, but they were transparent and looked fragile. At the same time, the faint neon green of the tree leaves and the brown neon of tree barks told them the trees were not ordinary.
They glowed and flickered unstably like dying stars, undeniably beautiful and closer to fading. It seemed Kyriaki's core rank wasn't enough to sustain the sword art properly for a longer time.
Then, it happened.
The tree branches and roots moved with a quick swoosh, stabbing zombies and lifting them up into the air. A few seconds after it stabbed something with flesh, each tree vanished like an illusion, leaving behind a mist full of multicolors. Hundreds of zombies fell like cutted bamboo in a short period of twenty seconds.
Kyriaki danced between active trees, her sword cut down zombies that managed to dodge her sword art attacks.
Sometimes she spun, slicing down zombies to pieces.
Other times, she skidded, giving a pause to her sword dance and mercilessly tearing apart flesh roughly.
And finally—
Kyriaki twisted her body and landed over a pile of corpses. She glanced at the weak monsters still rushing at her with unfocused eyes.
Tak. Tak.
At some point, her free hand was playing with beads that looked like small pearls of various colors.
She knew her total power was limited from the beginning. She also knew she had to save some of her sword aura in case of an emergency according to her backup plans.
That was the reason why those pearl-like beads were on her hands.
'If I can't unlock my elements and my power is limited, I just have to rely on other things. For example, Alchemy.'
Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!
Explosions erupted from all sides where she threw the alchemy beads.
Crimson for fire.
Lilac for lighting.
Grey for metal.
Elemental energy poured out of those explosions like a broken dam. Dust and smoke aroused, chaos erupted among the zombies.
And Kyriaki?
She just stood there.
Not a single pity, none of those sentimental guilt they talked about in poetry. Her eerie calm expression looked like it was carved out of cold marbles. A quiet madness danced inside her golden eyes as she watched the destruction she gave birth to.
This was something she created after countless failures in the Alchemy lab since the day she was permitted to enter the world of Alchemy a while ago. All kinds of bombs, effective in various situations and filled with various types of powers, came to life in her hands.
Since it was something she created by herself, she wasn't breaking any rules in her mission. And she was able to reduce her incompetent to a certain degree all together.
Boom! Bang! Boom!!
Kyriaki frowned slightly at the transparent notification windows informing her of each zombie she killed. A special notification popped out at that moment.
[You've been leveled up!]
[Your core rank has been upgraded to E+ > D-]
[Your Holy Power stat has upgrade to E+ > D-]
[Your job(s) had been registered as
She felt her core getting bigger, her sword aura and mana getting larger. Her Dragon heart pounded with the excitement of pouring more mana into her mage imprint than before. Her clock gear earrings made tiny metallic sounds as the blue gems glowed in aqua blue hue.
"Grrrraahhhh!!!"
It would have been fantastic if only she had more time to rejoice in her happiness.
Kyriaki held her sword like a knight, her eyes had a dignity and a mercilessness that couldn't be ignored. She inhaled softly with her eyes closed and opened them with an exhale.
Then, she muttered;
[Colors Of The Spring: Fifth Color: Fluttering Flower Petals]
Neon green rose vines manifested on her sword blade, atop of it, small red rose buds born and slowly bloomed.
It bloomed, and bloomed and bloomed…
And finally, as if it was about to wither, as if the wind knew it and asked them to come with them, the rose petals flew away while faintly emitting that same multicolored glow at the edge like fairy dust.
Time seemed to slow down at the beautiful sight of red rose petals circling around the little girl with golden hair, holding a long sword that didn't fit her size like a true knight.
Then she moved.
Tap.
Red rose petals glowed in a neon hue and made a stepping stone in the air. Kyriaki stepped on it, displaying it wasn't entirely an illusion. She flung forward like a guardian knight in a fairy tale. Hundreds of petals followed her as if the wind was guiding them.
Like a soft dance, cheerful and rhythmic.
Some petals stabbed the zombies like bullets, while some petals slashed them like sharp knives. Amidst the merciless slaughter by the beautiful rose petals, Kyriaki swung her sword gracefully. Her footworks danced in a flower pattern.
The two elves watched it happening with a daze from the side.
Their weapons lowered, bodies frozen, eyes fixed only on her.
Kyriaki told them to take one hundred zombies each, but they couldn't even finish one hundred combined together before Kyriaki herself slayed them all. If they had calculated it, their team leader's kill count would have been over four hundred.
"Bloody hell…" Levana muttered. "So this is the person who'll rule the world in the next generation?"
'Hmm…my aura pool is empty.' Meanwhile Kyriaki clenched and unclenched her fist several times. 'No wonder. Even though I controlled it meticulously, the sword arts I used are too advanced for my core rank. If I want to pull out the full potential, I'll have to be equal in rank to the sword art.'
If she was of a lower race, she'd have fallen a long time ago, suffering from Aura stroke. Or worse—death.
Thinking how grateful she was to be born as a dragon, she calculated her next moves based on her empty core, completely unaware of Levana's fanatic eyes.
"Let's get moving. You can still walk right?" When the blue glow of her earrings finally went out like a dying firefly, Kyriaki turned her head and looked at the two exhausted dark elves.
"Ah, yes—Yes!!!" Levana enthusiastically spoke while Ethan nodded with his still dazed sapphire blue eyes.
And so, they continue to move south without any delay.
'Hey system.' As they walked, Kyriaki called forth her authority in her mind.
[Yes, Host]
A monotonous voice immediately replied, communicating both vocally and visually with notifications. Kyriaki smirked inwardly, but deliberately made a cold expression.
Ethan next to her flinched without knowing her wicked plans and slowed down his pace, falling a few steps behind in hope of escaping the mad princess.
Kyriaki, who had no idea of his baseless fears, hardened her expression more and spoke in her mind.
'Why was the information of this dungeon unattainable?'
[I only conveyed the system window of the will of the world as it is]
'I knew it.' Kyriaki frowned as if she was disgusted by something. Then in a very cold and aloof tone, she ordered; 'Fix it.'
[Host, it is necessary to—]
'Fix it.'
[Please understand that your demand may—]
'I said fix it.' Kyriaki mercilessly cutted in the system's explanation and said coldly.
[...]
'I know you can give me all the information about this place. If I ask, you could even calculate the date of creation of this dungeon. Just fix the window before I ask for more'
[...]
A short silence fell. Kyriaki felt like she was getting resentment from a system that couldn't have emotions in the first place.
[Ding!]
Then the expected outcome happened. Kyriaki grinned from ear to ear.
[Day of Undead
Rank: C+
Type: Double Dungeon
Theme: Death
Description: Created by a Necromancer who worshipped demons in ancient times. Be careful of getting bitten or captured, otherwise you might get influenced by demonic magic and will be forever trapped in this dungeon until the Dimensional Crystal breaks.]
"I think the theme of this dungeon is 'Death', and it's a double dungeon, which means the Dimensional Crystal is in the Boss Room of the second dungeon." Like a true leader, Kyriaki immediately informed her teammates of her new discovery.
"Ah!" Levana nodded with enlightenment. "So we might continue to see zombies?"
"If the dungeon was a creation of a demonic necromancer, maybe we could get to see Skeltons too."
"Woah…Necromancers?! That's vicious! Why do most darkness attribute users go to the darkside? Oh no offense to you, Team leader, I have the darkness attribute too. My older sister has the light attribute. Strange right? She's getting married next month and I wonder if her kids will inherit her powers. Light always beats the darkness, does that mean I'm going to lose to my future nephew or niece too? Wow, that's sad. I wish they could find a necromancer to beat up instead of me. Ah! By the way, if it's true that this was a creation of a necromancer, does that mean they had accepted demonic energy from demons?"
"Yes."
"Holy fxxx! So they are demon worshipers! Well, only demonic magic can make undead anyway, I knew it, but to see it firsthand feels creepy and exciting. I did a good job applying to EESOP!!!" Levana was so excited that she tripped on her own feet and barely managed to keep her balance. She had regained her clumsy life once again after the shock of death was buried with the memories of watching Kyriaki fight.
From then on, hours passed with Levana's excited yapping and all sorts of clumsy falling, tripping, tongue twisting and brain freezes. Kyriaki politely nodded and gave short answers, not wanting to get caught up in Levana's stormy conversation that could possibly drain her energy.
According to her calculations, three days had passed since Kyriaki had fallen into the dungeon. And a day had passed since she joined the two elves in her journey to the south.
Detached dimensions had a different kind of time flow, similar to the Void Plane. A day here meant two days on the Primal Plane. Which meant it had been six days since she had entered through the trap gate.
She swallowed a sigh that came from her true heart.
'If this goes on, the elves will lose their energy soon.'
She had read in books that Elves could usually live only with water for nearly a year. And without water, a few months was the best they could hold on. Moreover, that also came with the cost of weakened bodies.
And even a slight weakness meant death in a place like this. She couldn't afford death right now.
Not for herself.
And definitely not for her teammates.
Kyriaki didn't know how much time it'd take for them to reach the mid-boss room, even if she did it as soon as possible, there was another dungeon waiting for them somewhere.
Since it was a trap gate connected to a double dungeon, it could take months to clear it if they were unlucky. The possibility of still carrying Ogofa's misfortune was very high, so she couldn't let her guard down.
'In the end, I have no choice but to use "that".'
"Umm…Kyriaki, I think you should see this." Levana pulled Kyriaki out from her deep thoughts with a voice full of worries.
"Hmm?" Kyriaki half-heartedly looked at the direction she pointed at.
That was when Kyriaki realized.
She had finally reached the center.
Before her was another massive dome, as big as the dome where she was born as a dragon. Though it wasn't as luxurious as Elysium's castle since it was still canyon sandwalls, it still looked beautiful enough to satisfy her eyes.
Countless tunnels were carved on to the walls of the doom like it was an ant colony. Looking at it again, Kyriaki felt like she'd have reached her destination even if she took random tunnel paths.
But what matters most was neither the dome nor the tunnels, but the bottom floor of the dome.
The golden hatchling lowered her eyes and looked at the bottom floor, just like she did when she met Levana and Ethan.
Countless fallen zombies and monsters, and countless more zombies and monsters who were still standing clashed with a single opponent in the middle of the dome.
The zombies were attacking both the person and monsters that weren't zombies, turning those into zombies as well. It was chaos down there. However, Kyriaki's golden eyes were fixed on the only one who looked dazzling among the maniacing Chaos.
Snow white hair with aquamarine tips, ocean blue eyes that always looked mysterious, charming face and adorable rosy cheeks.
Oh, how could she look away from someone like that when they held a sword with all their might?
[Breath of the Ice Spirit: Third Breath: Icy Mist]
It was Euclid, who seemed to shine brightest on the battlefield.
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