NOVGO.NET Chapter 1746: Pursued
Chapter 1746: Pursued
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“With Blazer dead… someone must take responsibility for this. And you, who served him, are next in line!”
The three ruthless Death Commanders had kidnapped over thirty guards—those closest to Blazer—and began interrogating them, extracting every shred of useful information from their souls.
Franken and Atrokus weren’t particularly skilled in soul-searching or torture, relying mostly on brute force to crush souls into oblivion. But Bellerine was different. Cunning and methodical, she used her ghostly poisons to infect souls and torment them endlessly.
Through these methods, she extracted every secret from her victims. After several days, the trio uncovered a wealth of information.
The guards hadn’t shared these details earlier, likely believing them trivial or irrelevant. But to the Death Commanders, every fragment mattered.
“Her name is Elayne… a female zombie bound to the skeleton she calls Mark,” Bellerine reported. “Apparently, they shared a romantic relationship in life.”
“Hoo, so that’s how she reversed the brainwashing on his soul,” Franken muttered, arms crossed.
“She was noted for her swordsmanship, but lacked other talents,” Bellerine continued. “Also, before all this began, several soldiers noticed the dark pit filling with mushrooms and moss.”
“Mushrooms and moss? Bah! Is that what she used before? It was maddening—my body grew weak out of nowhere!” Franken roared. “So her power is to manipulate mushrooms and moss? That’s it?”
“No, wait…” Atrokus spoke in his lugubrious, ghostly tone. “It may seem insignificant, but she overpowered everyone in the arena. She weakened them enough to escape with the rebels. Whatever this power is, it must not be underestimated.”
“She cultivated the mushrooms and moss in the dark pit, then drew power from them,” Bellerine explained. “It gave her a tremendous boost—but it was temporary, tied to her terrain. That’s why she fled instead of trying to seize the city.”
“Who can expand terrain like that? Instantly? Such a bizarre power for a zombie…” Franken grumbled. “Makes me think she’s not undead at all—more like a spirit.”
“Hmm…” Atrokus pondered, his many ghostly minds swirling. “Her power resembles that of Druids from the Living World. But we’ve seen many so-called Druids fall here, only to find their powers useless. There’s no life or nature to draw from in this realm. The mushrooms and moss here are entirely different—barely even plants.”
“Aren’t mushrooms and moss born from corpses?” Franken asked. “So she somehow twisted her Druid powers to control these pathetic little growths we step on or eat? And turned that into a force strong enough to overpower us? Even the nobles were weakened! Ridiculous! No such power should exist!”
“That’s why we believe she’s special. She might be one of the rare cases where an Undead is capable of inheriting part of the powers they had as living beings,” Bellerine said. “Maybe inside her soul there was a sealed power she was able to channel, unlocking all these abilities and… somehow adapting them to this realm.”
“How troublesome,” Atrokus groaned. “However… this is our job, and we cannot decline the request from the higher-ups. After all, if we ever want to ascend into Death Apostles, we must earn their trust.”
“Especially now that we’ve hit a bottleneck in our growth…” Bellerine sighed, rolling her eyes. “If we can capture this zombie and present her to the higher-ups, I’m sure they’ll be pleased and might even share some Ancient Nether Refining Scriptures that could help us grow stronger.”
“Hmph, well, talk for yourself. I’m growing just fine with my own method!” Franken laughed. “I’ve heard that the Domain of Death is expanding quickly across the Living World! If we can gain more contribution points, we might be able to buy ourselves the right to explore the Living World and extract all the rare and precious materials up there.”
“Souls will be all for the taking too!” Bellerine said, her eyes full of greed. “These lowly guards aren’t even worth eating.”
“Hmph, well, their bones are precious… don’t waste them all,” Atrokus said, collecting the dozens of bones left behind by the skeleton guards and soldiers and fusing them into his body using his unique Aberrant Bone Chimera Body. “For now… we should quickly restore order to this place… many guards and soldiers think they can do whatever they want now… let’s go. All those who dare to even think about escaping… shall be turned into Ghostly Yin Pills!”
“I understand, but what about that woman?!” Franken asked angrily.
“We are already tracking her,” Atrokus said.
“Indeed, don’t worry, Franken,” Bellerine smiled.
Both Atrokus and Bellerine’s tracking spells and familiars were already on the move, using the mushrooms, moss, and clothes torn from Elayne to chase her whereabouts, running across the endless, desolate dark caves of the Netherworld’s first territory.
“For the time being, let’s stabilize things. Then, once we find another clue, we’ll get moving. We must find her no matter what…” Bellerine said, glaring into the ceiling sky.
Completely unaware of this, Elayne and her band of undead misfits moved through the underground for several days, resting and finally relaxing for the first time since they all died.
Elayne slept for almost a whole week beside Mark, restoring her energy alongside her friends using the vast garden of mushrooms, moss, and other herb-like things that grew everywhere—things she had yet to appraise but that seemed cooperative.
And when she finally woke up, Elayne yawned, feeling like everything had been only a dream, only to realize she had indeed done all those things, which even now she could barely believe.
“I really did it… Huh?”
However, she quickly realized she was inside a large house made of black stone—a small palace someone had just built for her and Mark to live in within the Space of the Domain.
Looking at how Mark was still sleeping comfortably, covered by a blanket of warm dark blue moss and mushrooms that nurtured his body and soul and healed his physical and spiritual wounds, Elayne decided to go for a walk and see how everyone was doing.
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