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Chapter 543: The Threat of the Scattered Undead

Everyone knew that the undead would never suffer from fatigue and that they would only keep increasing in number as the living died. The only standard strategy in dealing with an Undead Calamity was to kill the leader. Only by gathering all of the living’s elites to assassinate the undead leader would they manage to end the battle before the undead reached an unstoppable critical mass.

And, it seemed that I had indeed successfully taken out the undead’s leader by using underhanded means. Yet, this still didn’t mean that we had won against the undead.

Legends always ended with how some hero slew some demon or dragon. However, legends would never record the fact that the greatest danger would only begin after the demon king or dragon’s death. That was because after the leader’s death, all the magical creatures under it would no longer be under its control, and they would begin running rampant.

“As expected, the undead are beginning to scatter… This is the worst possible development.”

Scattering undead were quite difficult to deal with. While a mid-level vampire would only be a slightly durable cannon fodder on the battlefield, that same mid-level vampire could easily become a dangerous serial killer while disguising itself as a human in a human city. And if that vampire hid itself in a small village that only had a simple village militia, the vampire would be dangerous enough to destroy the entire village.

In most areas of the mortal plane, a single mid-level undead would already be tremendously difficult to deal with, and the intelligent high-level undead were capable of killing off entire cities with nothing remaining alive.

Countless mid-level undead had already scattered from the battlefield. Dozens of liches and death knights had run away from the wood spirits’ aerial knights. Even the Undead Lords were running away like loser dogs, without caring about their image.

These high-level undead at Legend rank or even higher had all arrived through Conservation’s portal leading to the mortal plane. The high-level undead were far more intelligent than average humans, and they would never be foolish enough to keep trying to bash their heads against an iron wall. The high-level undead ran to the wide open plain that was adjacent to Starwood City.

As for me, it was impossible for me to hunt all of them down even though I wanted to. Although our forces were now victorious and had the absolute advantage in the skies, destroying all the undead would still need to take place on the ground. Our wood spirit aerial knights had indeed helped us to obtain overall victory and control of the skies, yet completely mopping up the defeated undead army would still require killing them one at a time. And, our ground forces’ numbers were completely insufficient for the task.

Have the wood spirits go down to the ground for a cruel slaughter? Any cornered dog’s viciousness would be at its worst. Entering a melee without even preparing defensive measures beforehand? That would be utter cruelty toward the wood spirits who had frail physical bodies.

Even if the wood spirits were victorious on the ground, there would definitely be tremendous sacrifices… I looked over at Amelia, and she directly shook her head for no.

“I can do my very best to help hunt them down.”

Hunting the undead down was alright with her, but Amelia refused to send her wood spirits onto the ground in a direct attack. The mother of the wood spirits refused to have her own people sacrifice too much for the sake of another species.

I understood Amelia’s personality quite well. Since she was already “compromising” with me here, it wouldn’t even be possible for me to ask for more.

It was evident that the Undead Lords had voluntarily cancelled their control over the low-level undead under their command. The Undead Lords simply gave the low-level undead one order: to run away. The undead, who didn’t know fatigue, kept scattering farther and wider as they ran, splitting off into countless directions. The direct armies under these Undead Lords could be considered the elite of the undead army, so if they managed to run off and hide in the mountains to become local bandits or something similar, then the Sala Dukedom would basically be finished regardless of the victory just earlier.

And, there was only one method to deal with this problem. That was right—I thought of a solution already, although it would be rather dangerous.

“It would seem that I can only try to negotiate with Conservation again…”

Undead Emperors controlled their Undead Lords. Undead Lords controlled high-level undead. High-level undead controlled mid-level undead, and mid-level undead controlled the low-level cannon fodder. This caused the Undead Emperor to actually become the weakest point of any undead army. And if I wanted to prevent all the defeated undead from scattering everywhere, negotiating with the captured Conservation was likely my only option.

I took a deep breath and took a step forward into my pitch-black personal world of Hell… and then, not far away in front of me, I suddenly saw a gigantic ice and snow lily beginning to bloom, with countless ice flower petals moving and then splitting off, transforming into meteors that shot directly at me before I could even realize what was going on!

“I’m leaving!”

I managed to react in time to return to the mortal plane with its clear skies and white clouds. And, a certain Gold Elf was clutching my hand worriedly… Why did it make me feel so awkward to see Harloys in such a form? I really should find some excuse to keep her in her silly cat form!

“What was that just now?”

I let go of her hand while awkwardly coughing twice.

“You should recognize that, shouldn’t you? That seemed like one of the foundational magical theories behind your Ice Aeon spell.”

Harloys’ counter-question was indeed quite logical. As an ice magic grandmaster, I naturally recognized Conservation’s spell just now. In fact, I had even spent much time in the past on researching this particular spell. It was precisely because I recognized it that I wondered what was going on.

“So, if both of us saw that correctly, she truly used the spell Sisina’s Flower of Blessing?”

“That’s right. She definitely used that super forbidden spell which theoretically requires ten to eleven SemiGod ranked archmages to cast together for the mana required.”

I, Harloys, and Amelia all fell silent as we were all mages who understood this quite well. Sisina’s Flower of Blessing was no top secret magical spell theory, yet not a single person in history had managed to successfully cast it. That was because the mana requirement for casting this spell was far too ridiculously high—to the point where it was likely impossible for the entire Truth Symposium of the Mage Country to cast this spell even if all those archmages worked in unison.

Yet, it was a fact that I had just run into this magical spell which only existed in theory, deemed to be practically impossible. I could only say that Conservation was indeed incredible, or that she had noticed that she was actually trapped in my world.

“There are only two possibilities why I ran into a forbidden spell the moment that I entered my world. Either I was unlucky to the point where I ran into a forbidden spell right after she prepared it just for me, or she’s currently tossing endless forbidden spells in order to try and smash her way out of my world…”

“Will it be possible for her to leave?”

“I don’t know. But, theoretically speaking, she should have already become a part of my personal Hell… So, tell me. What will happen to a goldfish that smashes its own fish tank?”

“So, the best possible result will be death for everyone? Do you think that she realizes this?”

“Of course. Don’t ever underestimate an Undead Emperor. All high-level mages will have at least some understanding of dimensional laws. Once you’ve reached the level of Undead Emperor, it might still be possible to fool her into falling for a trap, but it would be impossible to expect that she still hasn’t realized what the trap is after falling for it.”

“So she would rather kill herself along with you rather than being your prisoner… she has such a powerfully stubborn personality.”

While I exclaimed over Conservation’s stubborn personality, it was now evident that it would be impossible to ask her to reclaim control over all the scattering undead. Since she made it quite clear with her actions that she would rather destroy my world, herself, and me rather than surrendering, what could I possibly threaten her with?

Since Conservation was willing to give up even her own life, it would be almost impossible to negotiate with her. The only thing I could likely offer her that she’d be interested in would be her freedom. But, I would never be able to set her free, since…

“It’s impossible to negotiate with her. No matter if it’s her personal hatred towards you or the possibility of her breaking out of the cage by herself, her first reaction when she sees you next will absolutely be to attack you instantly. Can you guarantee that you can survive Sisina’s Flower of Blessing?”

“…I’m confident that I’ll be killed in a split second.”

I still recalled the magical theory behind how Sisina’s Flower of Blessing worked. It simply lowered the surrounding temperature to an absolute cold temperature and killed everyone in its effective area with the ultra-low temperature. Although my Ice Aeon spell could create a similar effect, I highly doubted that I would be immune to Sisina’s Flower of Blessing’s ultra-low temperature.

Had I still possessed my Frigidwinter Earth, I could have created more of my [Coldest Ice] to try and resist against the ultra-low temperature. But right now, there was far too much of a power level difference between Conservation and myself, so it would be impossible for me to survive her forbidden spell.

Harloys and I both stared at each other but were unable to find a solution.

I felt so helpless right now as I watched the undead scattering about with nothing I could do.

“If only I could use Ice Aeon as easily as Conservation can toss out forbidden spells…”

But, there were no ifs in the world. Perhaps a certain Goddess of Order would attempt to sell regret medicine, but apart from being especially bitter, even that wouldn’t solve anything.

Yet suddenly, flesh and blood humans arrived to block the path of most of the escaping undead. They established a defensive formation.

“That’s… the knights belonging to the God of Discipline? They’re intending on committing suicide?”

“No, their head priest is about to do a God’s Descent!”