28. Cunning

From the talisman, a ring comes out. A ring with a Red Alchemy Stone that was given to me by an old man.

I put the ring on my right index finger, put in Red Mana, and the ring glows red.

The ability of <Osiris Orb> can greatly enhance one’s physical ability in exchange for Red Mana without using any Blue Mana. However, as a restriction, this ring cannot be removed until The Red Mana inside my body dried, and so, my Red Mana will endlessly continue to be squeezed.

Once the ring fitted, Red Mana rises so much until it visible clearly. The skull-shaped steam that gushed out of the ring wrapped me around.

Four red and black lines extended from the ring, and a line is drawn to the right shoulder. It stretches like a tattoo and gradually shrinks. This line shows the remaining amount of my Red Mana. In other words, if all of this line disappears, the remaining amount of my Red Mana will be zero.

Judging from the length of the line, the time limit is……. 2 minutes.

“What….. what happened! What is that Mana?!”

The {Corpse Emperor} says with a surprised voice.

I kick the ground and disappear.

BAM!

I make a hole on the chest of the corpses standing on the front, a muscleman, with my right fist.

A splash of blood splat to the feet of the corpse.

“Prepare yourself, King of corpses. I’ll bring an end to this fight soon.”

“Shut up… Don’t joke with me!!!”

The {Corpse Emperor} dismantles the throne and use the bone to attack me.

I destroy the flying bones with my fist.

As it is, I accelerate in a straight line toward the {Corpse Emperor}.

“What?!”

However, my rush was stopped by the corpses who strengthened their bodies with the Mana of Strengthening.

But one step,

I finally could make a step ahead of the bone ring he made.

“Reach……!”

“Magician!! Do something!!! “

The {Corpse Emperor} move his arm.

Now only two of the corpses holding me are left and the others are pulled all at once.

I quickly crush the faces of the two people. But,

” [ ‘The Sword of Water, Be the Courage for the Younger Princess. Oh, The Spear of Ice, Be the Hope for the Warrior’――]”

“A magic with chant…!”

A woman who had been pulled to the back of the {Corpse Emperor} is chanting. 

Certainly, based on what Ash told me, chanting before releasing a Magic means that person has a high skill. It will be bad to just take it without prevention, but the distance between us is far! I can’t stop it in time!

“[――’Hyousuirasou’ !!!!!!]”

There are 5 corpses left.

3 men and 2 women.

The woman who chanted the Magic and another woman are equipped with a water sword.

And the three men were equipped with ice spears. Everyone breathes in, points their weapons at me, and throws it here.

――I don’t have much time…!

If I take it easy, my Red Mana will be eaten by the God of Death (Osiris) for nothing!

“Stop him!”

I destroy all ice spears flying from three directions with the dagger in my hand. I dodged the thrust of the sword of water and seeing the opening, I kick the belly of a female magician.

4 left.

At that point, the {Corpse Emperor} turns his back on me and starts running.

“Are you running away?!――Where is your pride as a king?!!!”

“Escape is not a shame! Kneeling is not a shame! The only pride of the king is to keep reign!!!”

Still, run away huh… to where?

His toes are pointing to the place where I was blown away.

“If I eat that, My Mana will recover!”

The place he plans to go is… the food stor――

“Bastard…!”

He plans to recover his Mana by eating the human corpses.

“Don’t think that I’ll just stay silent!!!”

I kick the ground with my strengthened body and try to approach him. However, four living corpses appears in front of me like a wall.

” ―― ‘Lion Spear’ !!!”

I unseal the Lion Spear. Grab it in my right hand. Hold the spear and thrust it continuously. It pierces the head, neck and heart accurately and so I break through the meat wall. 

Following behind the corpse, I put in Green Mana to stretch the lion spear, but the spear does not stretch.

It seems that I’ve no more Green Mana ―― the Mana of Creation.

“Why now…!”

“Well, well! Let me praise you for cornering me this far! Sealer!!!”

The {Corpse Emperor} touches the ground and puts in the Mana as much as he can.

” ’Shishiranran’ !!!!!!” [TN: if I were to put it in English maybe, ‘Bone Storm’]

A tornado of bones occurs between me and the {Corpse Emperor}.

“Tch!”

――Should I jump in?

――No, if I take any more damage than this――

“Aren’t I an idiot?! What’s the point of thinking too much now!!!”

I jump into the tornado.　

The blade of the bone hit my whole body. However, Red Mana completely protected my body. It only scratches me.

I pass through the tornado and stand in front of the building.

――I’m too late.

The overflowing Mana is emitted from the building.

“Fufu. Fuhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!”

The {Corpse Emperor} with fresh blood on his mouth comes out of the building.

His belly is bloated. The swollen belly stretches sideways and sits loosely on the ground.

The half part of his body, which is bone, also somewhat swollen. I can see a black bag through the gap between the bones, is that his stomach…?!　

His belly is about 20 times larger than it was originally. Perhaps he ate all the corpses that stored in the building.

“It’s ugly, but don’t worry the digestion will ends soon. Aaah, I can feel it, come on! A torrent of Mana!!! “

A wave of Mana shakes the village.

This is bad. I’ll definitely die if I get closer now ――

If only, if only I have more time…!

“Are you in despair? Sealer…”

He looks relaxed and walks towards me, dragging his drooping belly.

“Do you understand now? This amount of Mana… The corpse in that place was modified to keep absorbing Mana. I was planning to eat it after it ripened.”

From the ground, horse-shaped bones and giant-shaped bones…..{Orobas} and {Troll} are constructed.

“I let the other corpses carry their corpses. This way I can recover their corpses without having to go directly! “

Blood, Mana, flesh, and skin… slowly covering the bones.

The two bodies I saw before…. Even though it has some cracks in the whole body… stands in front of me.

Now, three threats are lining up.

“Go back to the beginning, huh…”

A gust, a giant fist and a tornado full of bones.

Three types of attacks come to me――

…The ring lost its light.

Well, is it impossible after all? I don’t have enough time.

I fall on one knee and about to give up, but,

“Hmm?”

A spear of ice and a sword of water rushed out of the shadow of the tree, aiming behind the corpse.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, General!”

“Let’s finish this!”

Carrs and Ignacio.

“You guys……”

Apparently, the corpse carried not only {Orobas} and {Troll}.

“Some small fry huh”

The surprise attack of the two is easily caught by the {Corpse Emperor}.

However, A Water Magic is shot at the {Corpse Emperor} from a hill at the moment when the corpse’s is being distracted.

” ‘Aqua Shooter’ !!”

A blow of water magic hits the {Corpse Emperor}’s head directly. But ――

“You call this Magic? Not even worth my attention.”

It doesn’t hurt him at all.

“A bunch of mobs…! You’re not on a level to challenge me!!!”

{Troll}’s fist hits Carrs.

{Orobas}’s Wind Magic blows Ignacio away.

Bone spines that crawl out of the hill hit Frederica’s entire body.

“Carrs! Ignacio! Frederica!!!”

In a matter of seconds, Carrs is being blown to the roof of the hut in the center of the three lined up building, Ignacio is being blown into the forest, and Frederica fall on her knees on a hill. Everyone… faint.

But when the {Corpse Emperor} almost smile, he becomes alert.

A black flash shone in the forest behind him.

” ――Coloring, ‘Black’. ‘Roiroinadama’ “

A black lightning bolt erased the {Corpse Emperor}’s face, half of it.

Smoke rises from the face toward the sky.

“Hooo…?”

But he is someone who could regenerate again, and so it regenerated right away.

“Ash, is that you…?!”

“Well, at this level, I guess you can call it Magic.”

The {Corpse Emperor} snaps his finger, and a bone dragon rose behind him.

The bone dragon attacks the forest behind the {Corpse Emperor} and returns with a girl in its mouth.

The girl, Ash, falls from the air to the ground in front of the {Corpse Emperor}.

“Urgh…?!”

Being hit at the back of her head, Ash lost her consciousness.

“―――― !!?”

I stop my foot that almost moving by itself to her.

Wait, I need to calm down.

Looking in the eyes of the {Corpse Emperor}… that’s not the eye of someone who want to kill.

“You ―― you have another one inside.”

The {Corpse Emperor} tears Ash’s clothes and exposes her navel.

He laughs as he observes the exposed belly of Ash.

“Hah! ‘The Curse of Ra-’ huh?! There are three curses by the God in this world, but the one from ‘Ra-‘ is rare…I’ll not take your life until you get to the《Gray Zone》. “

The Corpse grabs Ash’s neck and threw her behind him.

“Well, with this, everything is settled. But it seems that everybody is still breathing ―― I’ll kill all of you except that little girl. But! first of all, You. Sealer …… ”

The {Corpse Emperor} walks between the corpse of {Orobas} and {Troll}, approaching me.

Raises his right hand to create a bone sickle. It’s a long sickle. A sickle that can drop my neck while keeping a distance.

His bloated belly has deflated and now returned to his previous slender state.

“It was a good exercise. Thanks to that, the digestion is over. “

Finally, huh?

It was so long…….

“What’s wrong?… Why don’t you say some nonsense like those idiots?”

“Well, then, there’s only one thing I want to say…”

I raise the corner of my mouth.

“Remember this well, You Fucking Demon―― If you eat humans, your stomach will get upset…! “

“… Mmm?”

The {Corpse Emperor} looks down at his right hand.

“What……? My Mana is disturbed??!”

The corpse of {Ororbas} and {Troll} collapses.

The bone sickle turns into dust.

I look up and laugh.

The {Corpse Emperor} looks at me and muttering, “No way…..”.

The worst situation that came to my mind in that food store was… He eats that corpses, and he regains his Mana.

That’s why I put ‘it’ in the corpse. If he ever swallowed it. A poison… pebbles engraved with pentagonal characters, will disturbs his Mana and suck it.

It took some time for that pebble… I mean fifteen pebbles to erode his Mana, but it seems that it was activated safely.

“No, no way…! Something like this is――”

“That’s not the end, oh {Corpse Emperor}. What do you think will happen when your Mana is sealed and the vessel dissolves in your gastric juice? “

BAM!!… There is a hole in the belly of the corpse.

A pebble whose Mana is sealed, it dissolves with his gastric juice and the Mana that was absorbed and being sealed will be released. And the Mana that once being absorbed is not something that is under his control anymore. It becomes under my control, But I can’t do anything from here, so the Mana that has lost its place will go out of control and burst.

“Argh! Seal,er――! Did you put a seal on the corpse …?! the humans of the same family?! Even though it’s a corpse, how could you use it as a trap?!! You heartless!!! “

“Shut up! I don’t want to be told by You!”

I throw away my weapon and hold my fist.

All I have to do punch him.

“Surely my Mana will soon disappear! But!!!! “

A huge tornado wraps him around.

” ‘Fire, Water and Ice. The sorrow of all creation!! Show yourself under the King, Prostate and prepare to be punished!!!!―― Prison Gate, No. 7! ‘Punish Gate’ !!!!”

A Magic with a chant!

The {Corpse Emperor} mobilizes all the remaining Mana and reveals a huge bone. In the center of it, fire, water, and ice are being mixed.

A huge whirlpool is floating above him.

“Seriously, it’s time to give up, You Bastard!!!”

“Well, in the end, it’s my win! Even if there is no Mana left and my body is destroyed! I could just reborn again!!!”

A bunch of bones crawls on the ground, urging me to go to the whirlpool.

There is no more way for me to avoid it.

And, it’s absolutely impossible to block it.

“……?!”

The whirlpool filled my field of vision.