Chapter 84: Run—While You Still Can

For a moment, Minerva failed to react.

She stared at her best friend with wide, unblinking eyes, as if she had just heard something utterly absurd.

The words echoed in her mind, refusing to make sense.

A necromancer.

She almost scoffed.

The denial rose instinctively, clawing its way up her throat.

She wanted to laugh, to brush it off as paranoia born from fear.

How could there possibly be a necromancer hiding among Federation Police Officers?

To her, it sounded like the most ridiculous accusation imaginable.

Yet the moment she looked into Rowena’s face, the scoff died before it could escape.

Rowena was pale, deathly pale.

Her lips trembled, and her eyes were wide with naked fear, the kind that could not be faked.

It wasn’t panic or hysteria.

It was terror sharpened by certainty.

Slowly, Minerva felt a chill crawl up her spine.

Her expression shifted, dread seeping in as the realization began to settle.

The world suddenly felt colder, heavier.

Before Minerva could open her mouth, before she could even decide what to say, Rowena spoke.

“He’s after us…”

Her voice was low but urgent, trembling despite her effort to steady it.

Each word carried raw fear, stripped bare of composure.

Minerva’s heart lurched.

Rowena inhaled sharply and continued, her thoughts racing faster than her lips could keep up.

“I’m only a Level Eleven Paladin,” she said. “From the undead energy I sensed… he’s at least Level Fifteen.”

Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

Holy energy was the natural bane of undead and evil-aligned energy but that advantage only mattered when the gap in strength wasn’t overwhelming.

A difference of four levels wasn’t something she could bridge with blind courage and light alone.

Not against a necromancer.

Not like him.

“I can’t fight him,” Rowena said grimly. “Not head-on.”

Minerva’s chest tightened.

“We split up,” Rowena said suddenly, her words spilling out faster now. “If we run in different directions, he won’t be able to chase both of us at once.”

“What? Wait—that’s a bad idea—!”

Before Minerva could finish her sentence, Rowena moved.

She bolted into the street, her body exploding into motion with everything she had.

Her boots struck the stone pavement in rapid succession as she vanished into the flow of the town

“Rowena!” Minerva called out.

But her voice was swallowed by distance.

Minerva froze where she stood, staring at the direction her best friend had disappeared.

Her emotions tangled violently inside her chest, fear, guilt, confusion, and helplessness colliding all at once.

She was scared.

Truly scared.

’What would have happened if Rowena hadn’t followed me…?’

The thought alone made her shudder.

Once again, she had failed.

She had dragged her friend into danger, danger far beyond what she could protect her from.

The weight of it pressed down on her chest until it hurt to breathe.

She sniffed, her vision blurring as tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. But she refused to let them fall.

’I need to do better. I have to…’

Her thoughts faltered.

She had always believed herself to be one of the most capable officers in the Federation.

Disciplined.

Observant.

Reliable.

But ever since she met Thoren, the cracks in her confidence had begun to show.

One lapse after another.

She was ignorant.

Naive.

Too trusting.

Worst of all, blind, utterly incapable of reading the room when it mattered most.

’What should I do?’

The Federation Police Building, once a place of safety and familiarity, now loomed behind her like a predator’s den.

Just the thought of being near it made her skin crawl.

’I need to hide…’

She turned in the opposite direction, her instincts screaming at her to flee.

That was when she noticed a familiar back.

Her breath caught.

’I know that silhouette…’

She watched as the man slipped into a narrow alley, his movements unhurried, almost casual.

“Why is he going in there…?” she murmured to herself.

Her unease grew.

Without realizing it, she began to follow.

The idea of hiding slipped to the back of her mind, discarded in favor of something far more dangerous… curiosity.

She maintained a careful distance, her steps light and measured. She blended into the shadows, her gaze locked firmly on her target.

Just as she slipped into the alley’s shade, a thin young man with ash-gray hair stepped out of the Federation building behind her.

The disguised guard.

He scanned the street, his dark, hollow eyes narrowing. His nose twitched subtly as he turned toward a specific direction.

“Holy energy…” he murmured.

A sinister grin stretched across his face.

He surged forward.

He had waited deliberately, allowing his prey to gain distance. There was no need to rush.

With holy energy leaking from her body, she was nothing more than a beacon in the night.

No matter how well she hid, as long as the light had not fully faded, he could find her.

Rowena knew this.

That was why she hadn’t lingered near the Federation Building, not for even a second.

She ran without hesitation, weaving through streets and crowds, her mind racing.

’I need to find someone.’

Someone strong.

Someone powerful enough to deter a Level 15 necromancer.

Her thoughts scrambled until realization struck like lightning.

’There’s only one person I can depend on…’

Her eyes hardened.

She changed direction sharply.

Then she saw him.

From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of ash-gray hair closing in.

’What?! How did he find me so fast?!’

Her heart slammed violently against her ribs, pounding like a war drum. Panic surged through her veins.

She pushed herself harder, drawing on every ounce of strength left in her legs.

She became a blur streaking through the street.

Behind her, he closed the distance effortlessly, his gaze fixed on her like a predator savoring the chase.

’Today, I’ll offer your holy heart as a sacrifice…’

The thought made him grin madly.

He increased his speed, vanishing from the perception of low-level awakeners before they could even register his presence.

’Shit! Shit!’

Rowena cursed silently as she felt the distance shrinking.

’Just one more street…’

She turned sharply onto a quieter road lined with aging buildings. At the far end stood a two-story inn—the only building still lit at this hour.

Hope surged through her chest.

Relief washed over her as she sprinted toward it.

Behind her, the necromancer’s expression twisted in horror.

“No—!” he snarled.

He unleashed his full speed.

Whoosh!

He vanished and reappeared less than three meters behind her, his hand shooting forward to seize her by the neck.

The sudden acceleration stunned her.

Her heart skipped a beat.

’Not good!’

She tried to dodge, but it was too late.

Fear and panic gnawed at her heart. She refused to be captured. She only needed to make it inside the inn.

Just one step more.

Then…

A silver-haired boy stepped out of the inn.

He looked up.

And his gaze met hers and then shifted to the boy behind her.

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