Chapter 759: Third Party

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Some things would require time to prove and spread.

Holy Light had dispelled the clouds. The undead retreated as suddenly as they had arrived.

Since the clouds and rain disappeared, the warriors finally noticed that a bright and sunny sky was now above them.

Even though the battle had been quite fierce, the short duration of the battle meant that it was only an appetizer in this war.

Yet, this battle had left countless scars behind.

“The total number of dead, injured, and missing is more than 4,500. The royal dragon knights lost 129 of their members, while the White Wolves lost approximately 400. Of the dragon knights, Leishe was killed in action, while the young green dragon Soteshe was injured.”

Morale was quite low as everyone had suffered such a heavy blow without even a major direct confrontation.

Obviously, it was natural for there to be losses in any battle. However, it was difficult to accept only one side having such massive losses. The undead had lost nothing more than some low-level cannon fodder, while a significant number of human elites and even a dragon knight had died.

By the way, it should be mentioned that the heroic dragon knight had forcibly fought in the sky despite the torrential downpour. He had killed one gargoyle before mysteriously falling down from the sky. Thinking back on it, it was highly likely that Undead Emperor Shupnus had ambushed him while still being disguised as the clouds.

It would be impossible to conceal the combat situation as everyone here was a veteran who could easily see for themselves.

While ordinary soldiers would be confused when facing a situation like this, the high-ranking leaders would feel so bad that they would want to spit blood. They wouldn’t be able to accept such a blow to their morale, as the elites had been given such a blow before the proper battle even started.

Everyone had come here to defeat the undead, full of fighting spirit, but suffered a serious impact before even reaching the frontlines.

However, this was a good thing for me.

It wasn’t that I was really happy to see the human allied army suffering losses, but rather that I was analyzing things from my own standpoint. The current situation was actually better than I had expected, with the losses being within acceptable limits.

It would be quite simple when thinking about it from the enemy’s point of view.

If I was Shupnus, I definitely wouldn’t have used an ace like his cloud body so quickly.

I would first use cannon fodder to attract the humans’ attention and intentionally lose several times in order to make the humans overconfident while secretly gathering an undead army to set a trap for the humans. Only then would I use such an ace for the final battle.

Rather than a few hundred thousand low-level cannon fodder skeletons, if it was all the elites of the Death Planes that came instead during such a dark day with a torrential downpour… then the losses would have been uncalculatable.

A surprise ace would be wasted if it didn’t obtain enough results on the first time that it was used.

I doubted that any Undead Emperor, even Shupnus, would be so limited in tactical acumen. Still, his ambush here really did feel ill-planned…

“It’s as if he was watching and felt like there was a small advantage to take, so he immediately gathered bandits to steal things. As an Undead Emperor, he’s far too lacking in foresight.”

Harloys’ opinion was the same as mine. We exchanged glances and instantly realized that we had come to the same conclusion.

“There’s only one possible explanation. There must be internal conflicts amongst the undead. Shupnus must be unable to control the situation, so there was a problem with the forces at his command.”

The undead enemy was in internal conflict, even though they had just obtained a nice big victory?

This seemed inconceivable, but was actually highly possible.

Although the five Undead Emperors were allied with each other, there was an obvious difference in power level and status between them. Shupnus and Anina, the two Undead Emperors who wanted to war with humans, were the two youngest and weakest of the five Undead Emperors. Sandro and the Undead General, the two most veteran Undead Emperors, had full control of the Dimensional Door. Meanwhile, the fifth Undead Emperor was relatively neutral, and nobody knew where he was or what he was doing currently.

The Undead General was an incredibly rare warrior-type Undead Emperor. He had a really special relationship with Aso. The Undead General’s current goal was to target the ogres that he had an incredibly deep grudge against.

Sandro had a good secret relationship with me. The Tark Republic reestablishment plan was secretly ongoing in the Northlands, so Sandro was probably the person who least wanted to see the current situation.

Sandro’s Tark Republic reestablishment plan would either be ruined or majorly inhibited if the undead and living’s conflict became even fiercer. Sandro wouldn’t be able to wait around if he couldn’t establish the foundation of a revived Tark Republic during this Holy War, even if I could wait.

Someone like Sandro wouldn’t easily change their mind after coming to a decision. In that case, he definitely wouldn’t allow Shupnus and Anina to continue acting as they pleased.

Still, it wasn’t likely that Sandro would directly attack the other Undead Emperors. However, it would be quite easy for him to tamper with the undead army.

Give a reason for the tampering? The undead army would go together with the Undead General to fight against the ogres for the sake of revenge for the Tark Republic. What an excellent excuse this would make as it would gain the support and understanding of the intelligent undead as well as the full support of the undead who already hated the ogres.

As long as Sandro and the Undead General controlled the Dimensional Door, they would be able to siphon away most of the undead army. Any Undead Emperor who didn’t have an endless Undead Calamity wouldn’t be able to achieve as much.

“I need information…”

The human allied army had made a temporary camp to stop and bury the dead. The squires were busy with the actual burial work, while the priests and apothecaries treated the injured, and the generals held endless strategic meetings.

What could they even possibly discuss? Retreat would be impossible. They would of course blame each other and try to avoid responsibility, and then keep arguing and finally reach the conclusion that they should proceed, albeit more carefully.

I couldn’t be bothered to watch a bunch of muscular gorillas argue with each other, as I knew they wouldn’t possibly come up with any results, so I gave them an excuse not to have to go.

I then notified Harloys and directly left the campground.

After leaving the camp, I took out a magic book and casually uttered an incantation, causing a ghost carriage to swiftly arrive before me in a swirl of black mist.

Death mist swirled around me as I walked. By the time that I got on the carriage, I was a lich enveloped in death mist instead of a living person.

I used some illusion magic combined with the true power of death. I was confident that I would be able to fool any undead at Undead Lord or below as long as I didn’t meet an Undead Emperor.

“I should pay a visit to the world of the undead that I haven’t seen for so long.”

Asolivis was the city where the undead gathered. This was a location which had formerly been on the frontlines of battle. An overwhelming amount of the power of death forever enveloped this city. This was the first stop where countless undead from the Death Planes would arrive at in the mortal plane. The Dimensional Doors connected to the six major Death Planes would never stop working for even a moment.

In the past, this had always been a forbidden zone for the living, but many visitors had arrived here today.

Even though Shupnus should have been quite happy to receive reinforcements, he was actually quite angry because of the painful injuries on the skin which kept reminding him of the Holy Knight that he met not long ago.

Shupnus had transformed himself into the form of clouds. That made him completely invulnerable to physical attacks, but it also meant that his fragile soul was no longer protected by a physical body. The injuries he received from the Holy Light caused him to experience extreme pain, a sensation that he hadn’t experienced for several millennia already.

Yet, Shupnus currently had to act supremely self-confident because these visitors were just like wolves who might turn on him at any moment.

Still, Shupnus had no other choice right now.

The senior Undead Emperors that he had thought of as his ironclad allies had betrayed him. He was basically the only one left to deal with this rotten situation. If he missed this opportunity, he would likely only be able to retreat in defeat back to the Death Planes.

“Venerated ruler of devils, we agree to your conditions. Now, please open up a dimensional portal connected to the Chaos Abyss.”

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