【 RETURN OF THE UNDEAD 】

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“Uria…”

The Abyssal Giant Serpent, Apophis, wore a grim expression.

Its crimson pupils flickered with bloodthirsty rage as its cold voice echoed across the sky.

“You madman… you are still alive?”

The undead being addressed by Aurora and Apophis as Uria did not respond.

The turbulent winds born from the collision of divine forces lashed at his tattered robes, exposing his decayed body. Within his rotting skull, two faint crimson lights glowed steadily.

Those lights were Uria’s eyes.

Empty and unfocused, as though they no longer registered the world around him.

His mouth hung slightly ajar as thick black fluid seeped from the corners of his lips, dripping downward without pause. From time to time, a hoarse sound escaped his throat, broken and uneven.

“A… po… phis…”

The voice was flat and mechanical, like that of a marionette that had lost all sense of will.

Uria slowly lifted his arm, the motion stiff and unnatural, and raised his dark gray longbow. Without hesitation, he aimed it once more at the giant Serpent.

A tide of malevolent energy surged into his grasp, coiling around the bow and arrow. The power it carried rivaled Aurora’s own, warping the air as it gathered.

Uria released the bowstring, and another arrow, shimmering with a deep and malevolent radiance, shot toward Apophis.

Seeing the incoming arrow, Apophis let out a cold snort.

Its massive body swayed slightly, easily deflecting the attack.

Though his strike had been blocked, Uria seemed utterly unresponsive. His hollow eyes continued to stare forward in a rigid, mechanical manner.

“A… po… phis…”

The same dull voice echoed once more.

Apophis paused briefly at the sight.

Then, its voice carried a hint of mockery.

“So it is nothing more than a corpse that has not fully died…”

“What, Uria, you could not stay quietly in your grave and wait for death? You want me to send you on your way myself?”

With that, Apophis lashed out violently. Its enormous tail swept upward from behind.

A terrifying aura locked onto Aurora and Uria as a vast black shadow rapidly expanded.

The grotesque serpent tail struck down like a colossal whip toward the two figures, moving with terrifying speed.

At the same time, the spreading gray mist continued to expand, swiftly engulfing the entire sky.

This was Apophis’s governing domain laws.

Though it had not manifested as a true Celestial Domain, this pseudo-domain far surpassed that of a demigod. It was not something Aurora, who had forcibly elevated her power to a true mythical-rank through abyssal corruption, could contend with.

Feeling her power being rapidly suppressed, Aurora’s expression changed slightly.

She clenched her teeth, preparing to further accelerate her abyssal corruption in exchange for greater strength.

However, at that very moment, a sharp tearing sound rang out as a severely decayed leg slammed into her body, instantly interrupting her actions.

At the same time, a tremendous suction force surged forth from Uria and Aurora felt the abyssal power she had just absorbed through active demonization rapidly drain away, devoured by the undead entity that struck her.

Overwhelmed by the impact and the loss of power, Aurora was directly kicked away.

Simultaneously, Apophis’s serpent tail swept across the sky, striking Uria.

With a deafening crash, Uria’s body fell like a torn sack, smashing into the ruined city below. He slid across the ground for several kilometers before finally coming to a halt.

His presence vanished instantly.

Aurora climbed out from the rubble. Her eyes, once oscillating between madness and clarity, became clear once more.

She looked toward the direction where Uria had fallen and cried out anxiously.

“Uria!”

“Stop shouting. It was nothing more than a corpse that had not fully died.”

High above, the voice of the Abyssal Serpent Apophis rang out once again. It lowered its massive head and looked down at Aurora, its gaze heavy with ridicule and contempt.

“He merely relied on the power of the Abyss and a lingering consciousness to preserve the last trace of bodily activity. I have already sent him to meet your maker.”

As it spoke, its eyes shifted, locking onto the elven demigod with growing hostility.

“Now… it is your turn.”

With those words, Apophis opened its blood soaked maw, dark energy surging and compressing as sinister power rapidly gathered within its throat.

Yet in the very next instant, a thunderous explosion erupted from the place where Uria had fallen, shaking the ground and scattering debris in all directions.

That malevolent and chaotic aura reappeared once more.

And not only had it returned, it was now far much stronger than before.

Apophis paused.

The forbidden spell it was preparing faltered as it turned its gaze toward Uria’s direction, suspicion flashing through its eyes.

The scattered debris suddenly burst apart as Uria’s undead figure emerged once more, forcing himself upright amid the shattered stones.

One of his arms was gone. However, the areas of his body that had once been rotting were now completely covered in dark scales, eerily similar to those of abyssal demons.

His aura continued to rise without restraint, while thick black miasma coiled continuously from the severed limb, writhing as if alive.

Gradually, the swirling darkness condensed, forming a grotesque demonic claw in place of the missing arm.

His voice sounded once more, dull and mechanical as ever.

“A… po… phis…”

Apophis’s pupils contracted sharply, a rare trace of disbelief seeping into its ancient, resonant voice.

“Impossible!”

“You… you’re already dead!”

Uria offered no reply.

Only his broken, intermittent voice continued to echo, looping endlessly like a broken record.

“A… po… phis…”

“Apo… phis…”

As the undead Uria mechanically repeated the name of the giant serpent over and over again, more voices gradually began to join him. Likewise hollow and devoid of emotion, they slowly reverberate from every corner of the Cliff of Sorrows.

“A… po… phis…”

“Apo… phis…”

“A…o… phis…”

“… po…his…”

“…”

Within the ruined city, upon the long-abandoned battlefield where countless corpses had been left behind by the earth-shattering war two thousand years ago, faint streaks of blue light gradually ignited.

They flickered weakly at first, like timid sparks in the darkness, but then steadily grew brighter with each passing second, as if drawn by some invisible force.

Pale blue flames, resembling pairs of eyes burning with suppressed wrath, emerged one after another from the rubble.

They were the soul flames of the undead, awakened by a lingering consciousness that had never fully faded.

All these Rocksand Elves, which had been reduced to nothing but dry bones for thousands of years, began to sit up from the ground one after another.

Pale blue light burned steadily within their hollow eye sockets. Their bones creaked as they slowly rose to their feet.

“A… po… phis…”

Their upper and lower jaws trembled unceasingly, as countless dull, mechanical voices echoed throughout the surroundings.

They picked up the rusted weapons that had been buried in the ground for who knew how long and began to move forward.

Amidst this undead procession, Aurora stared at her suddenly revived fellow elven kin around her, her face frozen in shock and disbelief.

Her gaze then drifted toward Uria in the distance.

“Mental linkage…”

Uria slowly ascend into the air.

Dark abyssal energy coiled around his body, thrumming with a suffocating, malevolent power.

His form expanded at a terrifying speed, tumors twisting across his flesh as jagged scales spread over him.

In mere moments, he had become a massive entity of blackened flesh and barbed scales, his prior humanoid form almost entirely unrecognizable anymore after the monstrous transformation.

His body continued to grow, swelling ever larger until he reached several hundred meters in height, before finally slowing to a halt with an oppressive weight that seemed to press down on everything nearby.

Though still smaller than the Abyssal Giant Serpent, his presence now radiated a force capable of challenging the evil snake god.

“A… po… phis…”

A synchronized, monotonous murmur slowly reverberated in the air.

Behind Uria, countless pale blue lights appeared.

They were the undead legion formed by the awakened Rocksand elves.

Uria, no longer resembling the elf he once had been, raised his bloated right arm high. In his grasp, a gigantic sword formed entirely from writhing abyssal power materialized.

He drew in a labored breath, his hoarse voice cutting through the silence once more.

But this time, the words he spoke had been different than before.

“Cover… Frost…”

Behind him, the seemingly endless ranks of Rocksand undead—tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands—also lifted their weapons and echoed the same chant in unison.

“Cover… Frost…”

“Cover… Frost…”

“Cover… Frost…”

Aurora’s body shook as the chant reached her ears.

Her vision blurred, and two clear streams of tears slid slowly down her cheeks.

Cover Frost…

Those had been Uria’s final orders two thousand years ago, which he had given to his fellow Rocksand elves as they faced inevitable death under the crushing onslaught of the Black Tide.

Cover Frost…

To protect the retreat of the Frost Elves, to preserve the last flicker of elvenkind, even in the face of certain annihilation.

She understood now…

She understood everything.

The one who had been secretly watching their group these past two days… had been Uria himself all along.

—No.

At this moment, that colossal undead could no longer be called Uria anymore.

It was something far greater, a living embodiment of the collective will of the more than one hundred thousand Rocksand elves who had fallen in battle in this city two thousand years ago, all mentally linked to Uria, their Guardian.

It was the collective souls of the Rocksand Clan.

Now, two thousand years later, with the return of the Frost Elves, these long-slumbering wills had been awakened once more.

And within their lingering consciousness, only two persistent obsessions remained:

To oppose the enemy called Apophis.

And to cover the retreat of the Frost Elves.

She understood, she understood it all!

Watching their group from the shadows and their intent had never been to ambush or spy on them.

Rather, it had been their way of quietly keeping them safe from harm.

No wonder…

No wonder the final three days of their journey had been so smooth.

No wonder, during those last three days, their group had not encountered a single demon before reaching the Cliff of Sorrows.

Everything suddenly fell into place—the subtle guidance, the unseen hand steering their path, the silent guardians who had shielded them from danger all this time…

It had all been the work of Uria and the legion of undead Rocksand elves.

Even if they had fallen into darkness.

Even if they transform into undead.

The will of the Rocksand Elves is eternal.

Above, dark clouds churned, swirling relentlessly across the sky.

Lightning, like tongues of fire, tore through the darkness, illuminating the entirety of the Cliff of Sorrows with brief, searing brilliance.

“Uria” threw back his massive head and let out a roar that shook the air, then surged forward toward the Abyssal Giant Serpent with unstoppable force.

On the ground, the revived Rocksand undead mirrored his fury. Letting out terrifying war cries, they gripped weapons that had lain dormant for over two thousand years and charged toward the demons besieging the Frost Elves.

High above, coiled around the cliffs, Apophis let out a furious roar, its immense body twisting as its eyes blazed with wrath.

“Your seeking death!” it bellowed, lunging toward “Uria,” jaws snapping with lethal precision.

But “Uria” extended his swollen, monstrous hand and gripped the serpent’s head with bone-crushing strength.

With a deafening roar, he pried Apophis’s enormous jaws apart, tearing them to either side. The sheer force made the serpent’s pupils shrink violently in shock.

Apophis hissed, spewing streams of corrosive venom, but “Uria” did not flinch at all. He allowed the poison to seep into his body as he continued to wrench the serpent’s jaws open.

A muffled cry of agony escaped Apophis, anger flashing in its eyes even as it twisted violently. Its tail lashed out with thunderous force, striking “Uria” and finally breaking free from his grip.

Yet even in its escape, its jaws were deformed, clearly wounded by the immense strength of its opponent.

“Uria…”

“I admit that you are stronger now.”

“But it is laughable if you think this is enough to defeat me.”

“An ant is still an ant.”

With that, Apophis roared and once more charged at “Uria.”

At that very moment, an arrow shimmering with starlight suddenly shot up from the ground and struck its eye.

“Roar!”

Black blood sprayed outward as Apophis howled, a sound mingling agony and rage. It spun its massive head, its remaining eye glowing like a blood-red star, locking onto Aurora, who was slowly lowering her bow.

“Aurora!”

Its voice overflowed with boundless wrath.

Aurora’s expression remained calm.

She put away the longbow, and a sword once again formed in her hand as she pointed it directly at the giant serpent.

“Apophis…”

“Your opponent is not only him.”

“It is also me.”

Apophis’s eyes burned with rage.

It opened its blood soaked maw and charged toward Aurora.

At that moment, “Uria’s” figure appeared once again, wrapping his arms around Apophis’s massive body and forcibly restraining its movement.

Seeing this, a sharp glint flashed through Aurora’s eyes.

She gave a soft shout as light burst forth from her body. With a powerful leap, she soared into the air, charging toward the struggling giant serpent.

Thus, three mythical beings clashed in battle.

༺⟐༻

High above, the battle of the mythical beings remained hidden within the swirling gray mist, unseen by those below.

On the ground, however, Cypher and the Frost Elves felt their progress growing increasingly arduous.

One Frost Elf after another fell to the relentless onslaught, yet the number of demons surrounding them showed no sign of diminishing.

A sense of despair gradually spread through the group.

Among the familiar Gold-rank elves around Cypher, only Gando remained. But even the elder’s commanding voice had grown hoarse by this point.

Watching the ranks of Frost Elves dwindle by the second, Cypher’s expression tightened with mounting anxiety.

The cliff that had seemed so close now felt distant…

But then, all of a sudden, waves of startled cries erupted from the rear of the group.

A roar like a tidal wave thundered across the battlefield behind the Frost Elves.

Cypher instinctively turned, his eyes widening in disbelief.

From the depths of the ruined city behind them, a tide of skeletal undead surged forward.

Pale blue flames flickered in their hollow eyes.

Clad in shattered elven armor, they charged with unstoppable force toward the demons besieging the group.

“Cover… Frost…”

A Synchronous chant echoed out amongst them, steady and unified.

In an instant, the demons surrounding the group were swallowed like foam by the overwhelming sea of undead.

Estelle watched in stunned silence, her mouth slightly agape, as the skeletal undead tore through the enemy to protect her people.

As she glimpsed the faintly recognizable emblem of the Rocksand Clan on their armor, her vision blurred as joy and sorrow surfaced together on her face.

“It’s the Rocksand Clan…”

“It is the people of the Rocksand Clan…”

“They… they have come to help us!”

By the time the words left her lips, tears choked her voice.

The Frost Elves, witnessing the relentless charge of the undead elven legion, felt a spark of hope reignite within them.

Sensing the change in morale, Cypher lifted his sword high and let out a rallying shout.

“Everyone, charge!”

The Frost Elves responded with a fierce roar.

“Charge!”

Together, they surged forward once more.

On the hillsides, a sea of pale blue undead flanked the group, shielding them as they tore through the demons.

And at last, the Frost Elves’ formation ripped through the demons and broke free of their encirclement.

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