Grigori and Eda ran through the corridor, trying to catch up with Regulus. Unlike the prison corridor, this one was quite large. It made sense, after all, the three-meter undead minotaur had to go through the place to enter the room. After running through a winding corridor and passing a few torn undead, they finally reached a broken down iron gate — Regulus must be inside. They steeled themselves, preparing their weapons and charged inside, ready to help Regulus and rescue Azali.

  As soon as they entered the chamber, the first thing they noticed was the familiar smell of corpses and the burning, stinging smell of unknown substances. Around them were various tables littered with papers and weird looking glass bottles, some filled with colorful liquid. On the roofs, corpses and gibbets hanging like some sort of twisted decorations.

  In the middle of the chamber, Regulus stood, facing the gaunt man whose face was pale with fear. The two only saw Regulus’ back, but they could tell that Regulus was… angry. They scanned the room, wondering what made Regulus mad, wondering where Azali was.

  “No.”

  Next to the gaunt man, was an undead with the head of a lion, Lorca. But they did not care that Lorca was turned into an undead. To Lorca’s stomach and back, six undead were attached — three on the back and three on the torso — their lower bodies were gone, only their upper bodies were attached to Lorca. Eda and Grigori knew these six undead — one of them was Azali.

  “NOOOOOO”

  Grigori wailed. He fired his pistol at Carven, but the bullet was blocked by Carven’s defensive magic. Grigori threw away his fired pistol and drew his back flintlock. He kept firing at Carven until he ran out of pistols.

  “EDA, GIVE ME MORE PISTOL”

  But Eda did not respond. She fell to her knees, tears obscuring her vision, hiding the cruel reality in front of her. Grigori realized Eda was of no use right now, he drew his dagger and charged at Carven, only to be stopped by Regulus who grabbed him by his collar.

  “REGULUS, LET ME-”

  Grigori stopped his sentence. He saw Regulus’ eyes — it was blood red. They were so fierce, it was enough to extinguish Grigori’s rage.

  “Eda,” Regulus asked. “I’m not quite sure. So tell me. If the ‘thing’ in front of me is real? Is Azali…” Even Regulus doubted his own perception — no, he was in denial.

  “Regulus,,, Azali… Azali is…” Eda did not have what it took to say the word. To accept the reality in front of her. But Regulus understood that the thing in front of him was real. “... I see… so I was too late.” Azali was dead. Regulus did not make it in time to save her.

  Regulus released his grasp on Grigori, making him fall to the ground. He stepped forward, inching closer towards Carven. “Wa… Wait…” the necromancer tried to plead with Regulus, but he realized it was pointless. So he ran through his secret passage, clutching his chest like his life depends on it — he ran screaming, like the coward that he was.

  Yet Regulus did not give chase. Carven could be dealt later, his first priority was dealing with the abomination in front of him. To give his family the proper rest they deserved.

  Tap Tap

  Regulus approached slowly. He dared not leapt at the undead like he usually did, he did not want to accidentally destroy the younglings bodies. The Lorchimera raised its many hands, mana gathered at its palms. It fired beams of concentrated mana at Regulus. This was Carven’s greatest masterpiece, an undead capable of casting spells — an undead capable of casting a first-circle [Mana Blast] — what a pathetic masterpiece.

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  Regulus took the blast head on. He could easily dodge them, but the stray beams could hit both Eda and Grigori behind him. There was also no need to dodge, the mana blast could not even leave a single scratch on Regulus’ body. All it managed to was tattered his clothes even more.

  Tap Tap

  Regulus was now in front of Lorchimera. It gathered mana on its hands, creating a crude [Aura] on its palm, an [Aura] whose quality was worse than what it could do when it was alive. It swung its arm at Regulus, and he grabbed the oncoming strike, crushing it.

  The undead tried to strike Regulus with its other arm, but Regulus wasted no time and severed the undead legs.dropping it to the ground. As it was writhing on the ground, Regulus took his time to carefully pull out the undead children one by one from Lorca’s body. Taking away the undead source of mana.

  Regulus put the bodies carefully, treating the undead with care. Once he pulled the last body out — Azali’s — he stomped at Lorca’s head, ending the pitiful being’s misery once for all. To be sure, he pierced the thing's heart and crushed it. Carven’s greatest masterpiece moved no more.

  Grigori and Eda approached the six bodies, especially Azali’s. Grigori had to support Eda as they walked, she did not have the strength in her legs. They kneeled next to Azali’s body, snot and tears overwhelmed their faces. “Azali…Azali…” they muttered her name over and over again, as that was the only thing they could do now.

  Regulus kneeled closer to Azali’s body, and he hugged her. As an undead, Azali bit Regulus on his nape — red blood flow — not from Azali’s still fresh teeth, but from Regulus' nape. Eda and Grigori were surprised by the sight. The invincible Regulus, let himself be hurt by a bite. Just like them, he too bled red blood.

  “Azali… I’m sorry for being late… and thank you for all the fun we had.” Regulus whispered to Azali’s ear. He then pierced Azali’s heart through the back. Azali bit Regulus deeper, but once the source of mana was gone, she finally stopped moving.

  Regulus laid her body gently, leaving Eda and Grigori to continue grief for her. He moved on to the other undead children, putting them to rest one by one. Once he was done, he stood and walked towards the secret passage. “Where you going, Regulus?” asked Eda.

  “To finish this once and for all.” Regulus said before he leapt into the secret passage, hunting the cowardly necromancer.

  **********

  “Pant Pant”

  Carven ran as fast as he possibly could, his life depended on it. His artificial lungs overworked itself to the limit. He was considering throwing away the chest he was carrying, but he needed the gems that were inside it.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM

  He was so close to the exit, when he heard sonic booms echoed through the passage. He knew — Regulus was coming.

  “SHIT SHIT”

  He opened the chest and pulled out as many magic gems his hands could hold. Judging from the oncoming sounds, he knew he could not outrun Regulus. So he decided to start a chant, to cast the most powerful spell he knew.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM

  The sound was getting louder. Carven could feel it, Regulus was near. He pointed his finger at the direction of the sound. The gems at his hand glowed purple. He used the mana and magical circuit stored inside the gems as magical conduit to expedite the casting process and strengthened the spell firepower.

  [Death Ray]

  In twenty seconds, Carven cast a fourth-circle spell with the firepower of a five-circle spell, boosted by the gems. A purple ray fired from his finger, just in time as Regulus was now in his sight.

  Regulus was mid-air when the [Death Ray] hit him straight on. The impact of the blow made him fell to the ground. Carven was giddy with excitement, his strongest spell worked… or so he thought, as Regulus stood back up. The impact did not kill him instantly.

  But Carven still had some hope. Even if the spell did not kill him instantly, the true terror of [Death Ray] came after the spell hit. It was a spell designed to make the target’s mana go wild. Once it hits, the spell would leave a crack on the target’s body, and from that crack, their own mana would get corrupted, acting as a lethal poison that destroyed the target nerves and eventually corrupted the source of the target’s mana — the heart.

  As Regulus stood, Carven could see the crack on his body. The spell worked as intended. Regulus' death would be swift and painful… Or at least that was how it was supposed to go. The crack on Regulus' body slowly became smaller. His mana that was in turmoil stabilized in seconds. If Regulus was in pain, his face did not show it. Carven was befuddled. Such a thing should not be possible unless a talented third-party helped the victim of [Death Ray] regulate their mana. No matter how strong one’s [Iron Body], it should not help them resist the effect of [Death Ray].

  That was when Carven realized, Regulus was not covering himself in [Iron Body]. At its core, [Iron Body] was a technique where one covered their body with mana, making it more durable and increased their resistance to mana-based attack. What Regulus had must be a technique that was a step higher than [Iron Body], a technique Carven had no knowledge of. Whatever that technique was, it must have helped Regulus in regulating his own mana, making him impervious against spell based attack that corrupts one mana. Carven’s greatest spell — failed spectacularly.

  Carven frenziedly looked for more gems from the chest he dropped. He managed to grab a handful before his head exploded — Regulus leapt at him and destroyed his head in an instant. Carven’s body dropped, laying motionless on top of the meager emergency fund.

  But Regulus was not done with. He could hear Carven’s heart, beating ever strongly. As he put his face closer to Carven’s body, the heart beat faster — Carven was still alive, and he tried to play dead.

  Regulus moved his hand towards Carven’s heart. Carven, realizing his ruse was not working, moved his hand in a desperate attempt to stop Regulus. But his bony arms had no chance in stopping Regulus. Regulus pierced his heart, killing him. In his last moment, Carven realized — why the vengeful spirits haunting Regulus were so afraid of him.

  Carven was dead. But Regulus was not sure. The necromancer might have more tricks up to his sleeve. So Regulus ate the necromancer’s corpse… every single piece of it.