Chapter 405: Return Of The Dark Lord (End of Volume 2)

Luke glanced at the archangel’s severed torso beside him.

“What do I do?! Hurry!”

“The abdomen… it’s still intact,” the feminine voice from the mask answered. “Part of the archangel is still alive, just like I am.”

“Alive?” Luke’s hands moved frantically over the creature’s body.

“He didn’t turn himself into an item like I did. He doesn’t know how. And even if he did, his method of survival wouldn’t allow it.”

Luke lifted the torso. “Tell me what to do!”

“Open the abdomen. Quickly!”

[Estimated Time Until End: 00 minutes and 48 seconds]

His eyes darted left, spotting the thrown knife lying nearby. He snatched it, drove it into the archangel’s belly, and cut. The skin gave way too easily, fragile like wet parchment. When he pulled it open, he froze.

Something glowed inside. A golden light pulsing like a heartbeat.

He reached in and pulled it free. Thin red strands clung to it like veins, resisting until he tore them apart. The object felt like a core, yet it was translucent, almost glasslike, with something golden swirling inside. Even Identify failed to read it.

“It’s his soul,” the mask whispered. “He’s still inside.”

“Can I use his soul to activate the throne?”

“No.”

Luke stared at the mask. The golden eyes carved into it flickered to life.

“I can activate the throne for you. I told you before, I am only a fragment of a soul. I was incomplete, unfit to be your servant. Do you remember?”

The golden core pulsed in his hand.

“If I use the soul of a full Rank D archangel, I can restore myself. I can become your second servant. And activate the throne in your place.”

“How?” Luke demanded.

“Your bloodline skill is powerful. If I absorb the archangel’s soul and make myself whole, I can submit to your power and be reborn. But there’s one problem.”

“What? Say it. Now.”

Time was slipping away, fast.

“I need a body. A vessel.”

[Estimated Time Until End: 00 minutes and 40 seconds]

Luke froze. He knew what she meant before she explained.

“You want to make a pact… like the archangel did,” he said.

“No!” she cut him off, urgent and clear. “I would never take someone’s living body. That is a violation. And even if I had to, I would never consider taking yours. I just need a corpse. Any corpse. We use the core to reanimate it the same way the wyvern was revived. Then I can take residence in it during the process.”

He lowered the mask, staring across the ruined castle chamber.

“There’s no damn corpse here!”

Maybe outside. Soldiers. Fallen knights. Anything. But time made the answer obvious.

They didn’t have it.

“Luke,” Artemis interrupted softly. “There is a corpse. And you know exactly where it is.”

His pocket dimension flickered into his mind, called up by Artemis.

Angelica’s body.

“My lord,” the mask said quietly. “That is what I was going to suggest. Let me take that vessel. We must act quickly.”

“Possess Angelica’s corpse?” Luke’s voice cracked, disbelief and refusal colliding. “No. That’s not right.”

“Look at the time, you idiot!” Artemis shouted.

Stolen story; please report.

Luke knew she was right.

“I’m sorry, Angelica,” he whispered, removing her body from the pocket dimension. She looked exactly as she had in the moment he ended her life.

He sat her against the wall, her back propped upright.

“What do I do?” he asked the mask.

“Open her abdomen and place the core inside,” the mask replied.

[Estimated Time Until End: 00 minutes and 32 seconds]

Chunks of the ceiling were coming down now, pillars cracking and collapsing around him. Luke lifted Angelica’s shirt with shaking hands. When he opened her stomach, warm blood spilled out in a thin stream. He pushed the glowing core inside.

“And now?” He glanced up at the time, breath short.

“The mask,” the woman’s voice urged. “Put it on her face.”

Luke pressed the angelic mask onto Angelica’s face. It sealed itself instantly.

“Now it’s your part,” the voice murmured from within the mask.

He drove the throwing knife through his own palm and held the wound over her body. Drops of blood fell onto her skin.

Angelica’s abdomen flared with golden light.

[Would you like to use Angelica’s Soul Fragment in this process?]

The notification shimmered before him.

“Yes!” the angelic voice answered before he could. “It’s the least respect owed to this body.”

Luke nodded. His system interface flickered open. The soul fragment counter dropped by one. Something slipped out of him, small and white as a teardrop of light, and sank into the golden core inside Angelica’s body.

Her corpse began to glow.

[Convert Angelica Undead as your Second Servant?]