As soon as the barrier collapsed, Snow swooped in with his weapon, swinging it with great purpose…

  ‘You will die.’

  As his sword traveled, Snow remembered the writings on the altar. And because of that single thought, his concentration suddenly wavered and his sword slowed in momentum.

  The undead king reacted slightly and easily stopped Snow’s sword with one hand. The ascender had hoped the flames would spread into the cursed creature’s body. But, to his surprise, the flames disappeared as if the undead king had some kind of authority over them.

  What happened next was hard to describe because after glazing into the Undead King’s eyes, Snow was hit by an invisible collection of dark energy that sent him flying through multiple pillars before stopping in a wall where he died instantly when his skull shattered on impact.

  His sword burst into blue flames as soon as his connection with it was severed.

  That was Rita’s signal to attack. Utilizing her closeness to the Cursed General, she charged with her rapier and attacked without any fear in her crimson eyes.

  She used her ability to borrow the undead king’s vision for a few moments and take in her surroundings. And in those few moments, she felt the world spin as she saw herself charging at herself in a misty green world.

  …it was weird, seeing the world through something like this.

  ‘Move…’

  Rita suddenly reached to a voice whisper in her mind and switched to her original vision. She ignored the feeling of vertigo and prepared her attack.

  Swinging her rapier diligently, the enchanted weapon cut through the second barrier. Now that she had grasped the concept behind it, the barriers were no longer a problem for her.

  “Move out of the way!”

  Shin bellowed, concern painted on his pale face as he looked through so many futures.

  Rita heard and stepped out of the King’s line of sight before dark tendrils of electricity launched and struck her previous location. She jumped back as more as more lightning struck at her as if following her movements. She continued to dodge and block each tendril that reached her.

  However, each time she moved, she was being pushed further away from the enemy.

  He was doing it on purpose to keep her away from the stone throne.

  According to Shin, the throne was the main supply of all the energy that it used to control the cursed creatures in the city. It was also the source of the energy supposed to be fueling the portal leading to the next floor.

  It would make sense as to why he wouldn’t want anyone close to it.

  ‘I need to understand this attack .’

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  Rita suddenly stopped and let one of the dark tendrils strike the tip of her rapier. Her red eyes glowed as the zenshi from her soul gate traveled from her hand to the rapier’s delicate blade and destroyed the dark energy creating the electricity.

  As a person studying enchantments, Rita was familiar with how easy it was to cancel out energies. The zenshi might have been stronger in this situation, but this dark energy's versatility proved it was dangerous enough to combat the divine energy.

  Another tendril struck at her. But this time, it was canceled out by the zenshi coming out from her body. She now had a grasp of how the Undead King's power worked.

  ***

  Meanwhile, as Rita fought to occupy the enemy…..

  …Snow’s eyes flashed open when his bones and spilled brains finished mending themselves.

  He barely remembered how he had died—it all happened so quickly—but the memory of his mission was still wired in his very being.

  His vision cleared and the first he saw was Death floating in front of him. He also noticed that he was lying in a huge depression he seemed to have created after that quick strike from the Undead King. He was surprised by how thick the tower’s walls were for him to remain like this despite the damage.

  “About time. Welcome back to the land of the living.”

  Ignoring the wraith, Snow stood up and summoned his forged weapon—a large black war scythe that seemed to tear reality itself with its curved blade.

  Pretty ironic, right? A guy whose Aura was Death having a scythe as a forged weapon. Snow disliked it of course. He always wanted something smaller and not so obvious.

  But according to how his Aura, this was the perfect weapon. It was always cold to the touch and it hummed with an ominous energy.

  After a sharp exhale, Snow launched himself at the undead king with his war scythe ready to be swung.

  The cursed creature noticed him and immediately launched multiple lightning strikes that he easily canceled out with his own zenshi and destroyed another one of its barriers.

  Once its barrier shattered, Rita disappeared and reappeared behind the throne with her rapier ready to destroy one of the runes inscribed on its surface. She searched for the one that produced the most Dark Energy as she gathered more and more zenshi into her sword…

  It hummed as the sword’s blade started to emit an ethereal bluish glow.

  There….

  Rita’s face then tensed and she immediately thrust her rapier into the brightest rune on the throne. When it was deep enough, she poured half of her remaining zenshi into the dying rune and destroyed the system controlling the dark energy.

  Before she could celebrate its destruction, Rita was suddenly met by a powerful pressure that forced her to freeze right away.

  ‘What? What is this?’ she asked herself as she slowly took a few steps away from the ancient throne.

  “Get out of there!”

  Shin’s warning reached Rita a few seconds too late when a black hand emerged from the throne’s shadow. It grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground. Rita’s pulse hammered in her ears, the cold touch of the shadowed hand freezing her breath as she strained against it.

  Terrified, she placed both hands on the hand and tried crushing it with all the strength an ascender could muster at a time like this. But…

  To her surprise, it felt like she was trying to crush the bark of a very thick tree with the strength of a mundane child.

  What was this? A spell of some sort? No. This was a devil.

  She thought when she realized that its ominous presence had swallowed that of the undead king in an instant. She also couldn’t sense its energy cores summing up the fact that this was no cursed creature.

  ‘Damnation.’

  At the same time, Snow’s scythe was blocked by the undead king’s rotten arm.

  For the first time, the king moved and grabbed the war scythe’s blade. However, Snow quickly turned it into a mist just before the undead king could destroy it.

  He leaped back and the forged weapon materialized once again. And without hesitation, he moved forward.

  The undead king also stood up and stepped away from the throne and a dark tachi appeared in his left hand. His dim green eyes were devoid of emotion. And his eerie presence was still there though lesser compared to the one behind it.

  Snow’s eyes flickered to Rita for a split second, her form suspended and struggling. Unfortunately, he was still occupied by the Cursed General. “Shin! Please help Rita!”

  The man only nodded and ran past him and the undead king with a silver glaive in his hand. His hands were trembling, betraying the brave mask as he approached the dark presence holding Rita.

  Snow was quick to turn his attention back to the undead king after making sure that Rita now had some help. ‘I will take care of this one.’

  “Come at me, you bastard!”

  He roared at the cursed general, his bellow echoing through the empty tower. His war scythe gleamed ominously as he charged, each step reverberating with raw power. With a mighty leap, he swung the scythe with deadly precision, aiming to cleave the general in two.

  The cursed general, armed with a fearsome tachi, met Snow's attack head-on. The weapons collided with a thunderous clang, sending a shockwave that made the entire structure tremble.

  The sheer force of the impact pushed both combatants back and left the air trembling.

  Snow gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with determination. He twisted his body, using the momentum to swing his scythe in the opposite direction. The blade arced through the air, aimed at the general's exposed side.

  The cursed general reacted with supernatural speed, raising the tachi to block the incoming strike. Sparks flew as the blades clashed again, and the ground beneath them cracked under the strain of their battle.

  Snow's attack was relentless, each swing of his scythe filled with fury and precision. He pressed forward, driving the general back step by step.

  While they fought, a chill spread from Snow’s core as he decided to draw more energy from his second gate. The air thickened, a palpable darkness creeping forth as Snow’s eyes glimmered with an eerie light. Just then, his ability came to wake as he whispered the words that would tip the scales:

  “Death Dealer.”

  Then....

  The chamber shuddered as if death itself had awoken to claim a specific soul.