Chapter 611: Money Well Spent!
His caged skeletal jaw opened… and a deep, resounding funeral bell tolled from within it.
DOONG!
Its cracked, iron voice echoed through the forest, sinking into the souls of everyone who heard it… even those who covered their ears heard the next toll louder than the first!
Fleeing soldiers stumbled as their lives flashed before them… childhood homes, forgotten faces, victories they once celebrated, and regrets they had buried.
Years passed through their minds between two heartbeats.
Even the Tier 8 powerhouses saw the same flashback, feeling as if their lives had been declared over the moment they heard the Funeral Bell.
But… they knew it wasn’t directed at them.
’He’s performing his last rites…’
The Elder Witch’s gaze snapped toward Severin’s coffin as the bell reached its occupant…
DOONG!
Around Gallows, the headless cavalry halted together.
Their armor dissolved into black Death Energy, gathering beneath Gallows’s hooves until it formed a narrow road across the sky… at its far end stood a gigantic gallows1 manifestation, with the image of Severin’s coffin hanging beneath its noose!
She knew the sound of a funeral procession when she heard one…
The moment the Headless Gallows took a step, the road connected with the actual coffin!
’Shit!’
Severin changed direction immediately, but the black path followed him wherever he went… and with every hoofbeat, the Headless Gallows crossed a greater distance, his lance aimed straight at his back!
Severin placed another enormous coffin across the road, attempting to imprison him before he reached him.
Yet, before its lid finished closing, everyone watched in horror as the Headless Gallows’ lance pierced through it as though it were nothing but a sheet of wet parchment!
’He intends to kill them both!’
As Bragh stepped out of the way, having no intention of blocking Death, the Elder Witch couldn’t afford to do the same.
Severin hurled the coffin away the moment he realized that his life would end if he stayed on the Funeral Road.
Right away, the black path followed the thrown coffin, and so did the headless armored Centaur.
"Don’t you dare!"
The Elder Witch extended both hands.
Widow’s Loom Arts: Shroud of the Unburied!
Countless soul-threads wrapped around the coffin, their screaming faces overlapping as her loom wove them into a thick white cocoon!
BOOOOOOM!
Gallows’s lance struck the cocoon’s center, blackening the outer layers at once!
The Elder Witch’s expression hardened as she poured more spiritual energy into the loom… but the Death Energy kept consuming her threads faster than she replaced them!
Black cracks raced along her soul-threads, forcing the Elder Witch to sever the connection before they reached her own hands!
Through the collapsing threads, she watched the Dead Night Lance punch through the smaller coffin’s lid; Severin’s fortification meant nothing before the Crusade of Death!
The coffin’s lid split apart… exposing Levi’s body for a brief moment before black mist swallowed him whole!
The Elder Witch watched with an ugly expression as his skin shriveled against his bones… his cheeks sank, his limbs withered, and within a heartbeat, a dried corpse slipped from the collapsing coffin.
"Nooo!"
She reached toward it as laughter erupted elsewhere.
"Hahaha!"
Na’thir leaned forward on his throne, his eyes fixed on the corpse falling through the crimson sky… utter glee displayed across his shadowy face.
"Money well spent… money well spent!"
Ul’Qhess shook his head slightly at his reaction.
He had no idea what Levi had done to leave another Bishop celebrating his death like a madman… but with the task completed, it hardly mattered.
"Then we can finalize the contract…"
His voice abruptly stopped.
On the screen, Bragh reached for the falling corpse while Odrum’s white eye settled upon it… the Elder Witch’s threads approached from another direction, all three fighting for it.
They knew the summoner’s remains still held value… even dead, his connection to the Soulleech Maw might give them a way to reach it.
But before any of them secured the body, its withered face lost its shape.
The Elder Witch’s fingers froze as Levi’s skull softened… then his entire corpse broke apart into a pool of blood that scattered through the air!!
For a moment, none of them moved.
The Elder Witch caught several droplets with her threads, searching for the soul that should have abandoned the body… or even the faintest remnant of it.
Nothing.
Only blood carrying a lingering spiritual wisp… a potent wisp unlike the spiritual marks that attempted to fool them earlier.
Still… it was a mere wisp.
"A blood construct…?"
Bragh’s expression twisted as the crimson rain passed between his fingers.
Inside the dimensional screen, Na’thir’s laughter died slowly… and then, his furious gaze snapped toward Severin at the same moment as the others.
The Vallow King had already put considerable distance between them… his healed gargoyle wings carried him toward his Holy Region, leaving a thinning crimson trail across the sky.
He hadn’t stopped to mourn his guest.
He hadn’t even looked back.
To be honest… the first sign should have been his decision to throw the coffin away instead of trying harder to protect it!
"That blood-sucking vermin…"
Bragh’s suppressed anger started showing with more lines across his eyes as he realized they had been bamboozled.
But the thing is… this shouldn’t have been possible!
His own senses had confirmed living flesh, a beating heart, and blood circulating through the boy’s veins.
And he hadn’t been the only one watching.
Bragh knew that Odrum’s solitary eye examined physical substance… weight, density, and the solidity that ordinary illusions lacked.
The Elder Witch trusted spiritual signatures above appearances, while a Death Knight like Gallows recognized the life force his powers existed to extinguish!
Four Tier 8 beings… each relying on a different means of detection beyond their normal senses.
And every sign had pointed toward the figure Severin pulled from the blood!
The hundreds of other Levis scattered across the battlefield carried copied spiritual marks… but nothing beneath them… No living bodies. No blood. No life force.
They had dismissed those illusions immediately, not expecting that the illusions and the coffin were both part of a larger scheme!
And what sold the trick was that Severin sealed him away before anyone examined him more deeply!
Understanding that this wasn’t the time for an emotional reaction, Odrum suddenly turned his solitary eye toward the blood-covered battlefield below.
Bragh and the others followed his gaze, scanning the place where Levi had emerged from the spiritual trial, retracing his steps.
Still, none found a trace of him… as if his existence were a mere lie.
But then… Odrum’s eye widened as he forced his spiritual pressure against the lake, pushing its blood aside until the ground beneath it became visible.
Bragh’s expression froze.
Even the Elder Witch was left stunned, her green eyes fixed on the human-sized hole underground… its freshly carved walls descended into the earth before bending away under the forest.
It lay exactly where Levi had stood…
"You’ve got to be kidding me…"
Bragh stared at it, feeling his suppressed wrath boil over.
"Impossible…"
The Elder Witch reeled, not willing to accept that a mere Solarbound had what it took to hide from not just her detection… but four Tier 8 powerhouses!
Even the spiritual Genie’s wish couldn’t explain it, as a mere spiritual wish shouldn’t be enough to hide from a Death Knight himself!
Worse… he sent them on a chase of a blood puppet powered by a wisp across the sky… while the real Levi had escaped through a tunnel!
"This can’t be happening…ten million credits… Death Knight…" Na’thir mumured in disbelief, "What do I need to do to get rid of this cockroach…"