Chapter 13: No Mortals Here (I)

The dust was beginning to settle, revealing the remains of the scorched vegetation.

The trees farther away, still left standing, had little embers clinging to their trunks and branches, while everything at the point of impact had been vaporized.

“As expected, you two won’t disappoint me. It was worth coming here.”

A tall man with fiery hair descended from the sky, a glowing sphere drifting aimlessly around him.

At the very edge of the blast, Aren was pushing himself back to his feet, his clothes slightly singed. Beside him, a wall of melted shields held together by charred skeletons was collapsing and revealing Nerez, completely unharmed.

Neither of them answered at once. Their attention was fixed on what the newcomer was holding by the head: Vilkie’s limp form.

Aren raised Oath’s Edge, which he had already summoned, but Nerez stopped him, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Leave this to me. I have an idea.”

As he watched them, Helux rested his free hand on his hip, a broad smile spreading across his face.

“Are you planning some kind of tactic? Before anything else, let me introduce myself, you’ve earned that much,” he declared confidently. “I am Helux of the Celestial Conclave. I’d like to hear your names.”

“I’m Nerez. There’s not much else to say.”

“My name is Aren, descendant of Ulzor, god of light,” Aren replied, his sword still raised. “Your reputation precedes you, Helux, though I didn’t take you for someone who’d use hostages.”

“Hostages?” Helux echoed, puzzled.

As he scratched his head, his gaze wandered from side to side until it finally settled on the girl he had been dragging across the ground.

“Ah!”

It seemed Helux had only just realized what he was doing, but Nerez did not waste the chance created by his opponent’s distraction.

Two skeletal hands shot up from the ground and clamped firmly around the demigod’s feet, while another group of skeletons emerged from below to surround him by surprise.

I thought the whole coming-out-of-the-ground thing was just a visual effect of this skill. Who would’ve thought I could use it like this?

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One of the skeletons lunged at once, driving its sword straight toward Vilkie. There was no doubt it was going to pierce her.

“Hahaha!”

Far more delighted than alarmed, Helux tossed Vilkie into the air, only for another skeleton to catch her midair.

Bringing his hands together, Helux caught the blade between them, wrenched it away from the skeletal soldier as if it were a toy, and cut off its head with that same sword.

“By the way… I wasn’t planning to turn that cutie into a hostage, so don’t get me wrong,” he said as he examined the rusted sword he’d taken from the skeleton. “But I also didn’t expect you’d sacrifice her so easily. With her that close, I had no way to defend myself from that thrust, and it would’ve skewered both of us… A rather ruthless strategy, I must say…”

With two swift slashes, he severed the hands of the skeletons gripping his feet.

“The plan was never to sacrifice anyone. If you hadn’t managed to move her in time, I was confident I could stop the skeleton’s thrust before the wound got too deep,” Nerez replied, taking Vilkie into his arms as the skeleton handed her over.

“I’d rather not be skewered at all, to be honest…” Vilkie’s voice was soft, almost too faint to hear. “I’m sorry… thank you…”

That “I’m sorry” was almost certainly about the fact that, without meaning to, she had led Helux straight to them.