The skeletons approached the giant boulder at abnormal speed— and the stairs made out of undead army units was finally completed.
Following this, the other undead soldiers also began to move. These undead were even more impressive looking than the skeletons moments ago, and numbered approximately one hundred. In their hands were spears with a piece of cloth attached, like the kind used by horse-back spearmen.
Bright red cloth— all of their spear-flags had a single emblem.
Those undead wore cloaks billowing in the wind, and stepped into the wetlands one after each other in perfect unison, advancing forward silently as they shattered the ice beneath their feet. This was followed by another group of skeletons which also entered the wetlands in perfect unison. The second group maintaining a fixed distance from the first group before stopping and crossing spears with each skeleton on the other side.
The crossed spears formed a single path leading directly to the large boulder.
“... Is that a path for the Overlord?”
Zenberu was correct.
The ‘death’ magic caster stepped on the path arranged by the undead, and following behind him were numerous figures who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Leading the path was the magic caster whose extent of true strength had reached unfathomable heights.
On his body he wore a pitch-black changpao, so dark that it looked as if it had been cut from a piece of the night, and in his hand he held a staff which radiated a black aura. That radiating aura seemed to form into agonised human expressions, which collapsed and disappeared. Even under the hood was a skull, with vacant eye sockets which had a shining small red light in either of them.
The opponent wore innumerable magic accessories which were absolutely beyond Zaryusu’s comprehension, and walked forward at a commensurate pace with the authority of a king.
There was a white clothed woman following behind the Overlord of Death. Although she had a human appearance, there were one particular area which was different to humans. Namely, that was the wings attached to her body at the waist.
“She can’t be… an Akuma?”
Akuma.
Demons were those who used violence to bring about destruction, and Devils were those who used their intelligence to bring about depravity. These kinds of otherworldly existences grouped together were referred to as demons. It is said that they are atrocious monsters which existed solely for the extermination of all sentient and good living beings. They were also synonymous with the word ‘evil’.
Zaryusu had once before heard about demons during his travels.
He had heard how terrifying demons were. It was said that two hundred years ago, a being known as the king of the demons — the Demon God — had led demons under his banner, and had almost exterminated the entire world.
The Demon God had met his end at the hands of the thirteen heroes which vanquished him, and in a certain place it was still possible to see traces of that battle.
If undead could be described as creatures which detested the living, then demons were creatures which tormented the living.
A pair of dark elf twins followed behind the demon, and behind them was a silver-haired girl. Not only that, there was also a bizarre creature floating in the air, and lastly there was a human-like male with a long tail.
Although the bizarre creature gave off an impression that it was not strong, a single glance of each of the others would cause tails to start to tremble. His feral instincts were fiercely warning himself, saying it was crucial to quickly get away at full speed.
This line of persons walked forward silently, passed through underneath the spear banners, and climbed up the stairs leading to the giant boulder. Without hesitation, they stepped on the undead soldiers, and stood on top of the giant boulder like royalty. The Overlord of Death, who walked in front, stretched out his hand and gave it a wave.
In the next moment, a high back throne giving off a black radiance appeared, and the Overlord of Death directly proceeded to sit on top of it.
The ones which walked behind, which should be his trusted people, formed a line, and as if waiting for something they looked towards the village. However apart from this, they did not make any other movements.
What kind of situation was this?
Several lizardmen looked at each other uncomfortably, and finally decided to allow the cleverest person at the scene to make a judgment call.
“... P-Please tell us, what we should do, Zaryusu-sama? Shall we prepare to flee?”
This speech was devoid of battle intent. Their powerless and drooped tails spoke volumes about how they felt inside.
“No, that will not be necessary. Think about the previous lich. Our opponent is a magic caster who is by far more superior to that lich, and making an attack at this distance should be child’s play for him. The most frightening thing is… what kind of words does he have for us.”
The lizardmen revealed an expression of agreement.
During this period of time, Zaryusu’s gaze remained focused on a line people that had approached. Like a commoner looking at royalty, he did not stop observing the powerful creatures standing on top of the giant boulder.
This was so that he would not let any information slip his attention.
When the distance between them had closed, he could already make quite detailed observations, and it could even be said that they were close enough to exchange gazes.
Was the Overlord of Death seated on the throne observing the lizardmen? The outward appearances of the dark elves did not show any hostile intent, the silver haired girl had a mocking expression, the demon’s gentle appearance conversely caused hairs to raise on end, it was completely impossible to see if the bizarre creature was up to anything, and the male who had grown a tail had no emotions in his eyes.
After exchanging observations like this for a while, the Overlord of Death once again gently raised the hand not holding a staff to the vicinity of his chest. Several lizardmen who saw this action flickered their tails intensely.
“—Do not be afraid. Do not put an embarrassing display in front of our opponent.”
Zaryusu’s razor-sharp rebuke made all of the lizardmen at the scene immediately raise their heads and straighten their backs.
A number of black clouds appeared in front of the Overlord of Death, numbering twenty. The black clouds spun ceaselessly, growing in size and each becoming approximately one hundred and fifty centimetres in size. Before long, many horrifying faces appeared floating inside the black clouds.
“Those are…”
Zaryusu recalled that it was the monster which had approached the village, and was also the same kind of undead monster which he had once come across during his travels.
Although he had already explained this in Crusch’s village, unless they were to use magic weapons, weapons forged from special metals, magic or special martial arts, it would be exceedingly difficult to harm this kind of incorporeal creature.
Even when all of the lizardmen tribes were aggregated, they only possessed a small number of magic weapons, which meant to say that even defeating one would be very difficult.
Not to mention that the opponent had apparently summoned twenty of that kind of monster with great ease.
“... So, that’s what it means to be able to control death itself.”
Zaryusu despairingly thought to himself that the opponent was indeed a supremely powerful being able to have the powerful lich swear loyalty to him.
After the Overlord of Death uttered some unknown words, he stretched out his hand and waved as if intending for everyone to attack. Following this, the monsters flew over, surrounded the village and began to chant in unison.
『The Supreme One transmits his message to you as such.』
『The Supreme One requests a dialogue. Will the representative please step forward.』