Chapter 83: Swallowed

Riven suddenly realized that he had a big problem. Zandrel might be gone, but there was one right there just as equally dangerous. Malum was still standing there, right there in front of him—the man that had hid in his shadow since he left the Shadowwood.

He couldn’t trust him any more than he could trust Zandrel.

With his eyes still blurry, he didn’t make any moves. He didn’t even move as he sat down on the ground. “What do you want?”

Malum snorted. “You don’t have to be so on guard, Riven. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Yes. Zandrel promised more than that.”

“Ah! There’s nothing I can say to that, but you should know that Zandrel wasn’t the one who saved you here.”

Riven acted as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “Save me? You’re all about dragging Zandrel to… your master. Tell me the truth. What do you really want?”

With his heart calm, he directed his aura to his head, his eyes, to make them heal faster. His blurry eyes cleared, and he saw Malum. The undead was going around to collect his two undead.

Riven found it ironic. An undead using undead. But that fact only made him more wary of the kind of power that turned Malum—because the higher the necromancer, the more humanlike the undead they would make.

Which was what made Spartacus a kind of unique case.

Malum shoved the undead into his face. They shrank and were sucked in by the face. “What I really want? I don’t want anything to do with you personally, but my master wanted something from you, so I’m only here to represent his interests.”

Riven’s gut tightened because he remembered what Zandrel called Malum’s master. ’…Is this all because of the Necromancer King and the Death Ledger… They should all leave me out of all of this! What I wanted was to grow stronger and save my sister, but everything just seems to be getting in my way…’

“And your master?” Riven asked.

Malum was inspecting the crumbled bits of the construct. “My master. Yes, he’s one of the Skull Lords. He’s commonly known as the Faceless Lord. And he found the traces of the dead Necromancer King around you. He wants to know what it means.”

Riven blinked. When he asked the question, he honestly didn’t expect a reply—and not a reply like that! Malum seemed to be telling the truth, but the problem was that even Riven didn’t know what the Death Ledger meant and what the Necromancer King wanted with him.

And he’s not ready to even say all of that to Malum. He’d only told one person, and that hasn’t exactly gone well. But then Riven had to remind himself that Kivara probably didn’t have any will in the matter.

And besides, she’d also lied to Zandrel about what happened in the Shadowwood, so it was highly likely that none of his secrets were spilled.

“I don’t know what it means,” Riven said, and he tensed as he waited for Malum to explode into action.

But the undead just shrugged. “Okay. We have a lot to say, but we need to get out of here first.”

Riven’s eyes shifted. “Why should I trust you?”

“Maybe because if you don’t, then the Green Clouds Sect will torture you until you tell them everything you know. Like what happened to their expensive constructs.”

Riven didn’t have to think twice. If Malum wanted him dead, then he was sure he would be long dead. So why not follow him and see where that would lead? And he didn’t even know the next step on what to do.

He nodded once. “Alright.”

“Wait here,” Malum said, and he ran to the side. He sniffed the ground there, then crouched and used his hand to lick something straight off.

“What is that?” Riven asked. He couldn’t entirely keep his distaste to himself. Just how weird is this undead?

Malum shrugged. “It’s blood, from your friend’s. It might show her location. Come, let’s go.”

He ripped an undead monster from his face. The monster was the huge whale from earlier. It opened its mouth, and Malum pushed him inside.

“Hey!” Riven shouted as he was suddenly surrounded by the stink and cold flesh of the dead monster. Its tongue squirmed beneath him.

Fortunately, he’d recalled Spartacus since the battle ended, and his undead entered the monster’s mouth with him, putting the necklace around his neck before he went down into his shadows.

Malum glanced at him. He was upside down from the upper part of the jaw. “Alright. Hang in there! We are going for a long ride that will take some days. Use the time to reflect on yourself!”

“Wait! What are you talking about!” Riven shouted as he ran toward the monster’s mouth, but the whale snapped its mouth shut with an echoing click.

“You madman!” he shouted.

Then the monster started to move, and Riven had to keep himself busy to avoid getting smashed around. And when Malum said they were going for a long ride, he hadn’t been joking.

The journey was long—extremely so—and Riven spent it in darkness. It wasn’t exactly a smooth one either, because the whale kept getting rocked around.

Riven spent the whole time angry. He was dirty, hungry, and tired. He didn’t know what time it was or what direction. He’d shouted enough that he couldn’t be bothered to again.

And the only reflection he did was how he was going to punch Malum without getting killed. He even thought about sacrificing one of his lives just to do it.

But even with all this, a part of his mind was thinking about the situation he was in. All the plans he’d previously made had been completely overthrown as if he were a joke.

It was almost a joke. Everything had been taken from his control, and the only thing he could think of then was how to get back his control.

’…My revenge… my growth… just like that… What should I do now? What else? Start everything again!…’

Riven opened his eyes. He was lying by the monster’s cheek, his hand dug into dead flesh. He opened his dried mouth and cursed Malum again.

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