Chapter 91 - The Soul Awakens

"I'm going to give you only one chance you overgrown skeleton. Let me go or I will devour you." I said with as much confidence as I could while still being throat carried with one hand.

"Ha, little boy my undeath has spanned a century, you barely look to be in your 20's. I think you should just be a good little lad and listen to me." The lord of death leaned closer to my face before speaking in a whispered tone.

"I know all about your little life burning ability, I am still more than powerful enough to handle that ya piss ant. I'll kill you and drag your bones to the master before you can even blink." 

I felt a large pressure almost swallow me up after he said that as he unleashed his aura of death all around us in a huge radius, It darkened our surroundings and the life all around us started to decay and rot within seconds. I myself could feel as if my very soul was being grasped by the cold and deadly hands of a reaper. 

That's when the memory of that reaper that almost took me away resurfaced and a cold sweat started running down my body. I fought with everything I had at that moment without hesitation, I unleashed my life burn and powered up as my body physically aged into mid 30's. I consumed every ounce of mana and nutrients I stored within my abyss and body to activate every skill I could. I conjured Ice blades, Lightning spears, Shadow claws, Beams of light straight from my mouth, I gave up mental control as my body burned with anger from Berserk, My whole body was one big electrical pillar as it arced with purple lighting. I sent multiple spatial bombs directly into his open face. I did not care what I had to do to escape but the fear of ever meeting that reaper again was more than enough for me to use everything.

The result of it all was a large plume of multicolored lights and shockwaves racing across the land, easily reaching a team of 5 looking for their leader who was taken away.

------Sondar POV----------

"There's no way he could have been taken away this far. Lucy was tiny and although I love Vexsus, I gotta admit that he is one heavy bastard. I think we missed something, I did see a small cave entrance that could possible have opened up further inside?"

"Sondar I understand you don't think so but I have a feeling we haven't gone far enough. My heart is telling me to race forward as fast as I can to reach him." 

At that moment a huge shockwave blasted the team to the ground as the earth around them trembled and cracked. Dust covered the land and obscured even the light of the sun.

"Your right Kitsoma..... We haven't gone far enough." I said shortly before I conjured a healing circle of nature around us and with the help of Sylvania we were then surrounded with a cleansing wind that helped to clear our sight of dust and debris.

"Whatever he is fighting must be more powerful than anything we have fought before. We need to hurry, Or I could run ahead and stall for time until you all can catch up." I was to focused on backing up my brother that I was not a bit concerned for the others but I knew I had to look out for them aswell. As second in command, I had a responsibility if Vexsus got taken but in my heart he was priority.

"Go, Me and the others can catch up but you are the one who can move almost as fast as Vexsus. I will have Howy race back and get the rest of the group and we will all come together to fight against whatever is threatening him." Sylvania said as she was currently healing Kitsoma who was thrown against a tree and got a branch straight through the arm. I guess the adrenaline was overflowing because not once did she cry out but instead was getting agitated at having to wait for others.

I nodded and concentrated the life energy around me straight into my legs and afer a few seconds my muscles were swollen with energy and I blasted forth causing yet another small dust wave to buffet the others. I was on my way to help Vexsus as I concentrated on our connection to help me close in on his location.

-----Vexsus POV------

I was completely spent as everything within my body was being used to constantly fire off attacks at the undead. I couldn't see much of what happened but I know that at one point he did let me go as I dropped to the ground. I kept attacking even then but I was slowly backing up. I was just hitting my absolute limit when out of nowhere I heard a chuckle.

With one swipe of his remaining arm he completely cleared away all of the dust and debris that was all around us as he was just standing there and taking all of my attacks. He then looked down at his arm with a slightly suprised look but it soon turned into an angry look as his aura once again swelled up and overtook our surroundings. Except this time I was able to notice that it wasn't as overwhelming like last time. I could still breath like normal but breathing in the rotting air it produced was painful as if the air itself was rotting away my insides.

"You got lucky and was able to sever my arm, hmph lucky brat." He bent over and picked up the arm before spitting up some kind of disgusting goo on the arm and then with force he jammed the arm back onto his body. With a sickening crunch and disgusting sounding squelches as the decayed muscles and sinew grew back together he rotated his arm back and forth testing it before he turned to me and smiled.

I totally did not like the looks of that smile so I just turned and ran away.

"Hey! Get back here!" I heard Lucan yell after me but he was stopped as the Lord of Death... Yea thats right, anybody who can withstand all of that deserves my respect. Anyways, the Lord of Death stopped him from chasing after me and just smiled at me as I ran away.

"He needs to stew a bit longer boy, He could only sever my arm but nothing else. Against the oppressing power of the Shadow Eaters, he's but a ant trying to fight a mountain. He can do it but it'll take time."

A magic circle appeared under him and within seconds he phased into the ground to be teleported back to Lord Necro.

I was running away at full speed, I fueled my muscles as much as I can with what remained of the leftover power from Life burn. The speed I was going was so fast my eyes could barely keep up with the passing scenery around me. A few moments after I started running I almost collided with Sondar as he was racing to towards me. He was waving his arms as he ran but with the wind blowing past my ears I just couldn't understand him. I jumped up and then slammed down to try and stop myself but I just ended up creating a huge ditch before I was finally able to stop. My adrenaline was starting to fade away and with it pain started to set in as I looked down and saw that my legs were bent at odd angles. My knees looked caved in and dented, I was bleeding out of my pores and A huge unbearable cramp was starting to rear its ugly head.

I looked at Sondar with a smile before I started just screaming bloody murder as my body was forcing itself to repair.

It took hours and hours and my voice was hoarse as the pain was more than what my tolerance could handle. Everything was mending back together and I was unfortunate enough to be awake through it all. My bones were forcing themselves back together and my muslces that were once split and ripped apart were now slowly wrapping back together. I was begging for Sondar to just knock me the Fuck Out but all he could do was just sit there and watch as I went through hell. 

Near the end of my torture I was crying blood but through the blurriness I was able to notice the appearance of the rest of my group. Everyone came fully equipped with armor and weapons, Kitsoma took one look at me and started crying while crumpling to her knees. Sylvania and Shorunt ran over to me and started casting healing spell after healing spell. They were able to relieve a small amount of the pain and that allowed me to speak without screaming.

"Lord.....Necro....HRRRRGGHHH MOTHERFUCKER!!!!! I.... Am.....too....weak." That was all I could say as breathing in was a whole new beast of pain that clawed its way into my lungs.

"Did he say Lord Necro? Isn't that the necromancer he talked about a while back? Didn't those 3 cultist people that he sent to another dimension say something about Lord Necro wanting Vexsus to join them?" 

Kitsoma asked while wiping away her tears. She was trying to stay tough and give a good cover to the rest of our party. I looked at her and smiled through the pain and tried to hold up my hand towards her but failed as moving my body just forced me deeper into a pit of pain. Thankfully she saw this and rushed over and sat next to me and rubbed my head and tried to soothe me.

Her touch was kind of painful but the softness of her voice and the tenderness that she had was something I wasn't going to force away. Thanks to her my mind was starting to relax enough that I was getting sleepy.

"Sondar.... When I wake up, we have got to find a place to lay low... I'm tired of passing out when I don't want to." Then I closed my eyes and let sleep take me away.

I woke up to a strange room that looked like a minimalistic apartment. There was only a bed in the same room as a sink and a small fridge and in front of the bed was a tv that was replaying my attempt at escaping the Lord of Death. 

"haha, Vexsus I have to say that this has been the best entertainment I've ever seen. I mean better than any anime we used to watch back on earth..... Well maybe except for a few, you could do with some more ecchi in your life man. MMMM especially with that sweeeeet looking Kitsoma." 

A voice I recognized instantly spoke up and I turned to look at a door as it opened to reveal a human. Brown hair, 6 ft. tall, a gut but otherwise looked semi healthy. His face was what I focused on as I stood completely frozen in shock.

"But.... How?" 

I muttered after a few moments of just straight silence between us. The human staring at me with a knowing gaze and me staring back with a look of utter shock and confusion.

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[Life Burn] 2 -> 3

[Terror Resistance] 10% -> Max