Chapter 415 Confrontation Between Old Friends

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"They defeated the Miasmic Slime…"

The Necromancer narrowed his eyes, as the opportunity to sneakily destroy the village was completely out of the question now. Even more, the hole in the barrier was repaired, and over half of his troops were eliminated. Forming a path, Blake and company had now made their way towards him.

However, it wasn't as if he was afraid. He wasn't going to run away now, not now. Not after everything he had accomplished, not after all he had done to get here after all this time.

"I won't back down, nor escape…" He said with a smile. "If what you want to do is fight… so be it."

His Wyvern roared furiously, pumped up for the battle that was to come. His two Rotten Giants, who were the strongest he had ever risen with a power equal to D Rank monsters, and the rest of his army, who were still almost two hundred roared in unison.

"My family… It's already here…"

…

Blake charged across the forest atop of Blood, as he looked into his new abilities with a smile. From within the palm of his hand, blood began moving around, forming from his own Blood Ki which he had been accumulating in large quantities through last week. One of the bad things about Undead was that they didn't gave any Blood Ki, as they lacked any living Blood. Some Demons and Demonic Beasts were mixed in between, but they didn't gave as much as he would had wanted.

Nonetheless, he had accumulated so much over the past months that he had more than enough to unleash several Blood Judgements together, one of his ultimate Blood Techniques that combined both Mana, Ki, and Spiritual Energy. With such power, he managed to defeat the Demon General back then, and might had to use this… and something even beyond that to defeat the Necromancer.

Blake is someone that has quite a tunnel vision, once he sets into something, he continues into it until he reaches his goals. He doesn't let anything distract him from such goals. Since the moment he explored the Miasmic Swamps until now, he had been willing to slay whoever was behind the Undead and Demons.

In two years, he was going to leave his village, and he didn't wanted to leave everyone to their deaths with such a big threat lurking around. Eliminating them all before leaving was his top priority. He was not going to stop until this man was completely defeated, his soul shattered, and with his old body rotting below the ground.

"We are here."

FLASH!

Blake and everyone else suddenly felt a strange, phantasmal energy surrounding them the moment they stepped forward into the forest. They had entered the Necromancer's Domain, a Phantom and Death-Attribute Domain formed by the excessive amounts of Mana the Necromancer exuded, forming a natural area which he dominated. His senses expanded across this large area; his eyes were almost everywhere.

Alongside Blake's friends, his father and Gradus alongside five other Hunters came, alongside Ellergest and Seth and Jack, and of course, Lukas with his knights and The guild master with a few adventurers who were all D Rank, the highest ranked adventurers in the village. Although they were D Rank, they earned such a rank from doing several quest and being adventurers for years, earning merits, but they had not slain any D Ranked Monsters aside from the Miasmic Slime they helped at killing.

"So you've come."

The old voice of the Necromancer resonated across the entire forest surrounding everybody. His harsh and old voice made everyone's spines shiver, as the temperatures in their environment quickly lowered, and the entire forest looked strangely gloomy, dark, and phantasmal. Even small Will-o-Wisp, extremely weak ghosts wandered around, adding to the creepy environment.

"You're the Necromancer behind this?" Blake was the first to speak.

"Ah, the child…" The harsh and dry voice of the Necromancer spoke. "Yes, I am. I have decided to not run from you."

"Before we go and kill you, I want to ask you a question…" Ellergest said. "Are you…"

Ellergest fell into silence for a bit but then mustered the strength to speak.

"Are you Kyle, the young boy that awakened the Necromancer Talent over eighty years ago?"

Ellergest words resonated across the entire forest, forming an echo.

The Necromancer didn't respond but remained in silence.

But ultimately, he spoke.

"Yes, I am." He responded harshly. "What about it?"

"K-Kyle…"

Ellergest suddenly felt surprised, everyone did. Only Blake remained calm and composed. He had already guessed it could be him. There were many speculations but no confirmations until now, the surprise was probably because these people were hoping it wouldn't be this way. Some hoped it could be someone completely unrelated… but not that one boy from the old past, that was once exiled because of his powers.

"Don't you remember me, Kyle?!" Ellergest asked.

"…"

"It's me… Your friend, Ellergest!"

"…"

The moment he said such words, everyone felt even more taken aback.

"L-Lord Ellergest, you were friends with this necromancer?!" Asked Jack.

"I had my suspicions, Ellergest lived in this village back then after al." Said Seth.

"Yeah, I was born not in nobility but was a commoner. I rose to nobility through many achievements over my long life…" Sighed Ellergest. "And Kyle… he was my friend, my childhood friend. We grew to be like brothers."

"So it is you…"

The voice of the Necromancer resonated across the dark forest, as everyone heard his indifferent tone of voice.

"Kyle… there's still time to stop…" Ellergest said. "You don't have to do this! There's… another way! You can't simply try to destroy our hometown… The times have changed, people has changed!"

"But I have not."

The voice of the Necromancer was filled with indifference and devoid of emotions.

"K-Kyle…!"

"Don't call me by that name anymore."

"But…!"

"I am no longer your friend."

"Kyle, I've always prayed for your soul ever since you left, I had…!"

"I have no friends; I have no family. I am alone with my horde… And that's how I shall remain."

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"Kyle, there's still time! I could help you, let me help you!" Ellergest grew more desperate, as his face twisted in pain for his friend's fate.

"Help? Time? Ellergest, you've always been a fool, haven't you?"

"Eh?"

"You've never changed at all either, have you not? Since you were a child that you've been a fool, filled with hopes and dreams…"

"Kyle…"

"I hate that. I've always hated you."

"…"

"While you enjoyed a beautiful life with your family, I was shrouded in darkness, in abuse, in fear… I hated seeing you smile, I wanted to punch your face until you bleed and cried… And now, I can finally do this, even as we are both old and decrepit."

"This is not true… You're lying, Kyle!"

Ellergest surprised everyone as he opened his heart to many for the first time, even Blake looked back at the old man, pitying his fate.

"Lying? I am not lying. And time to change? There is none. It has been so long ago… The only thing that remains within this rotten heart is hate and resentment. I am so old I am falling apart; do you truly think I can change now? I've gone too deep… The only path left for me is to continue going down and embrace it. I've already embraced it, in fact."

"You're insane! How can you think that killing everyone is going to somehow solve your problems?!"

"It might not do a single thing, but it has been… one of my greatest desires since I left the village."

"Y-Your greatest desire?!"

"Yes, my greatest desire has been to burn this village to the ground, to see everyone withering in agony as I laugh from above. To see you all crying, bleeding, and asking for help… To see your suffering and laugh at you. The same way you did this to me… The same way… you… YOUUUU…!"

With the flames of resentment lighted by Ellergest's words, the Necromancer began to scream in fury to all of the people here.

"KYLE!"

"Shut up."

"Don't make me do this, friend…"

"Don't call me Kyle, don't call me your friend. I am none of those things. If you get in my way, I'll kill you, and don't worry. That'll not be the end for you. If you want to join me so badly, I will let you stand by my side as my loyal undead… How about that?"

"Bastard…"

Ellergest lost his temper.

"That's right! Those are your real emotions, isn't it?!"

"You mad bastard!"

"Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"

The laughter of the Necromancer resonated around everyone's surroundings, as their hearts grew more and more concerned about what was happening. The ground below began to tremble, and so the surrounding bushes and trees.

Undead began to walk forward, being incredibly close in a mere second, as countless skeletons and zombies also surged from the floor, not only humanoids, but demons and monsters as well. Every corpse that had died and rotten in this forest area was reanimated, moving towards them without stopping, incessantly.

"Now have a feast, my children!" Laughed the Necromancer.

Suddenly, there were not just two hundred Undead, but almost a thousand!

Blake was left surprised, not even he noticed them approaching… it was as if the surrounding mist in the forest worked as some sort of magic to make the undead undetectable unless they're less than ten meters close…

Ellergest seemed to be losing his temper as everyone began fighting, his Holy Dragon Spirit surged from within his body, unleashing a bright light. And at his side, an enormous turtle made of stone, with the shell covered in hard metallic rocks and crystals, being as big as five meters, majestic and old.

"Oi, Ellergest, don't lose your temper!" The guild master roared back at him.

However, he quickly noticed Ellergest shedding some tears. The guild master's eyes opened wide; this was the first time he saw this old man crying.

"After all, this is how it'll end…" Ellergest whispered to himself. "So be it… SO BE IT!"

FLAAASH!

His staff suddenly shone brightly with golden light, hitting the ground. A wave of holy light purified his surroundings, generating an immense change in the environment.

The mist suddenly disappeared within a fifty-meter radius, and all Undead began to wither in agony as they stopped moving. The weakest ones immediately turning into ashes while the stronger ones were paralyzed, unable to make a single step.

And then, Ellergest started chanting a spell nobody had ever heard before.

"Oh Holy Spirits, as your greatest follower, I've dedicated my entire life to your cause. Please, with all honesty and humbleness, I ask for your blessing, I ask for your aid, I ask for your divine light! Please, I implore of you, open the gates to the sky! Gates of Heaven!"

FLAAAAASSSSSHHHH!!!

Suddenly, in front of everyone, an enormous amount of light emerged, changing, and shaping into a beautiful gate to heaven itself, an arc of light quickly was erected from within the gates, as they showed everyone the right way to go through the forest, shining with right light and burning anything that got closer that was an enemy demon or undead.

Ellergest's eyes began to shine with divine light, as Blake and everyone else noticed his Spirit Orb was shining so brightly it was about to burst! His own level of power also increased, his Spirit Orb suddenly reaching Rank 3!

"Wh-What is this…?!" Blake muttered to himself, even he felt slightly shocked! "Can a priest channel the power of a higher being to such an extent that he can enhance his own cultivation temporarily?! However… the burdens must be atrocious to his body…!"

"P-Papa?" Elizabeth asked Ellergest, as the old man smiled back at her.

"We don't have much time, this powerful spell takes away a year of my lifespan every ten minutes, let's go."

"Eh?! WHY?!" Elizabeth asked in shock.

"Wh-What?! Why are you using something like this?!" Jack roared back.

"We don't have another option…" Seth sighed.

"Against Kyle, we can't hold back…" Ellergest said firmly. "And… I am partially in fault for his fate. I am… responsible for what has happened to him."

With the lead of Ellergest, the entire group went through the Gates of Heaven, quickly reaching where the Necromancer was hiding.

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