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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Having succeeded in persuading him, I headed towards the base camp with a satisfied expression.
Soon after, Athena and Kayla also returned with Annelise.
“It was successful.”
Athena whispered to me after glancing at Cereo’s group.
“I told her we’d allow her to join our party if she survives. I also promised to provide the mana breathing technique or aura cultivation method you mentioned. She agreed immediately.”
I called Kayla over and asked them both.
“How’s your physical condition?”
“Well, I didn’t do much. But why do you ask?”
“If possible, I want to challenge them right away.”
I couldn’t predict what they might think of next.
Therefore, I planned to engage in battle as quickly as possible.
“It should be fine. As for Baldur… we’ve brought Tildi on board.”
Athena also nodded as if to say it was okay.
Fortunately, both of them seemed to have no problems with their stamina.
Meanwhile, Tildi and Annelise were having a somewhat awkward conversation with their monitored party members.
Naturally, they didn’t reveal the true nature of their conversations with us.
Instead, they were saying that there would be no penalty regarding the distribution, and that they had agreed to be positioned in the rear in exchange for our protection and additional compensation.
Cereo bit his lip and glared at me briefly.
‘…Is it because of Annelise? Even in this situation?’
I couldn’t help but think that.
I almost wished he was misunderstanding and getting angry because he thought I was trying to take away Tildi, their only priest.
‘Ah, it could be both.’
It was absurd, but since he only glared for a very brief moment, I didn’t say anything.
To begin with, only I and Baldur, who was watching them, had noticed.
After Tildi and Annelise finished talking, I addressed the group.
“Originally, I had planned to rest at the base camp before going, but that won’t be possible now.”
I bluntly told them that I couldn’t trust them, so we would start immediately.
Cereo and his party members bowed their heads as if ashamed.
However, there was a faint hatred hidden in Cereo’s eyes.
‘I can’t let him live.’
This incident had severely strained our relationship.
He had gone from someone I could take my time dealing with to someone I needed to eliminate as quickly as possible.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’
Neither Kayla nor Athena had any intention of helping the frontliners survive.
‘They’ll probably adjust appropriately.’
I also planned to actively help with that.
I said I needed to prepare and headed towards the area filled with Minotaur corpses.
There, I infused demonic energy into each of their bodies one by one.
If it weren’t for Tildi, I would have released demonic energy en masse as usual, but since I needed to keep Tildi alive for now, I had to be careful.
‘Anything related to the demon realm is an even bigger trigger than other religions.’
Naturally, I didn’t forget to use the artifact to disguise it as magical power.
It was only natural to pay the most attention to the body of the one that had been the leader.
Although it had retained some divine power, it was already dead, and thanks to the painstaking work of infusing demonic energy one by one, the preparations were sufficient.
I poured so much demonic energy into it that some of the internal bones became close to black bones.
‘Normally, this would be bothersome and not very efficient, but…’
It was necessary now.
After this preliminary work was done, I stood in the center of them and chanted the activation words.
Thump, thump.
One by one, the Minotaur corpses began to rise.
Then they started picking up the equipment that had been left on the ground.
Cereo’s group watched this scene blankly.
Amidst their blank stares, I could sense complexity.
“Is this really necessary…?”
It was indeed necessary.
They might not know yet since they hadn’t properly entered, but the concentration of divine power in the central hall where the guardians were was extraordinary.
The undead would inevitably be affected.
At least my direct undead had been enhanced in various ways and were strongly connected to me, so they would be relatively less affected.
However, these temporary undead had weak connections to me, and the efficiency of demonic energy transfer was lower.
‘Moreover, these were beings that originally contained some divine power…’
Although I had tainted them with my demonic energy in a short time, they had still lived for a period, so they were more familiar with divine power and would react more strongly to high concentrations of it.
‘They’re already weak, and they’ll become even weaker.’
Although the base corpses were Minotaurs, which were medium to large monsters and seemed quite usable, considering these various adverse conditions, it wasn’t entirely positive.
‘Even with shields, they’ll likely be incapacitated with a single hit.’
At best, those that weren’t completely destroyed could be regenerated with demonic energy and used once more, but if their condition wasn’t good, I planned to discard them.
‘Still, there are about 20 of them.’
I thought the chieftain would be a bit more useful since I had paid extra attention to it.
The exact information would only be known once we engaged in battle.
I planned to put the Minotaurs, Cereo’s party’s frontline, and Kayla at the forefront to deal with the guardians.
Although I had created a Land of Death, it was subtly different from what I had used in the previous hideout.
It was essentially similar to using Animate Dead on multiple targets simultaneously.
Cereo’s party seemed to think this was their last chance, as they had resolute expressions on their faces.
Escape was impossible in this situation.
To begin with, they couldn’t even defeat Baldur alone.
If they tried to resist, they would die futilely.
Moreover, with two of the six being half-persuaded, they couldn’t even unite properly, so there was no chance for them to take revenge on me, even in death.
Therefore, they needed to perform well in this battle to change the situation.
‘Beyond the distribution I mentioned, they need to survive first to erase their act of betrayal.’
If they didn’t receive distribution of the rewards here, they would surely feel wronged and regretful.
Especially since they would think it was due to their momentary mistake.
However, thinking about it, even if they didn’t receive a distribution of the rewards here, they had once been a promising party.
If they could just start their activities again, the possibility of them becoming successful once more would arise.
If they had any sense, they would have to prioritize surviving and erasing their act of betrayal over the distribution.
That was why they showed such resolute expressions.
‘Well, if they don’t receive rewards, they’ll naturally resent us, but given the clear difference in power and position, they won’t be able to express it outwardly.’
Of course, I had no intention of letting them, especially the four in the frontline, survive, so there was no need to think about distribution.
‘For Annelise, I plan to offer temporary joining of our party, a mana breathing technique, and aura cultivation method as compensation if their party has problems. For Tildi, the compensation will be completely destroying all traces of the temple of another religion.’
As we entered the temple interior, Tildi flinched.
Although it was far less than the central hall, he must have sensed that the interior was filled with divine power.
He seemed to flinch as he felt the difference from his own.
Except for Tildi, Cereo’s group showed surprise at seeing the numerous Minotaur bones we had seen before.
‘Fortunately, it’s still okay.’
Of course, this thought wasn’t about Cereo’s group.
What I was concerned about were the Minotaurs raised by the Land of Death.
Fortunately, although the temple interior was filled with divine power, it seemed there were no major problems yet.
‘There’s quite a bit of demonic energy consumption, but it’s still below my recovery rate.’
Ignoring Cereo’s group’s reactions, I immediately headed towards the central hall.
Just before entering, I brought out all my undead.
Although Cereo’s group was a bit surprised to see my Specter, they started to focus on my words when I began to speak.
“As you know, what you need to do is hold out until Kayla takes down one of the guardians.”
I was still speaking politely to them.
They seemed to feel a bit of fear at my continued polite speech despite being in such an overwhelming position.
“It won’t be an easy task. I’ll provide support, but it will be quite limited. As I’m a warlock, these guardians seem to have a tendency to attack me first.”
I couldn’t support Cereo’s group with full force to protect myself.
Of course, I didn’t intend to completely withhold support.
If I didn’t provide any assistance, Cereo’s group would instantly perish at the hands of the guardians.
Even though they were essentially meat shields I intended to sacrifice, I still needed to use them efficiently until Kayla could take down one of the guardians.
In simple terms, even if I planned to let them die, I needed to make the most of them.
This situation arose because Kayla couldn’t instantly deal with the guardian.
Of course, it was also because I couldn’t handle one guardian alone.
‘Damn light beam.’
I had no choice because of that attack I couldn’t react to.
If, unexpectedly, they managed to hold out well until Kayla took down the guardian, I would forcibly adjust the pace, but the possibility of that was extremely low.
For reference, the fact that the guardians prioritized attacking me wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for Cereo’s group.
Sure enough, a glimmer of hope appeared on their faces.
‘It means the danger is divided.’
Of course, even so, each strike from the guardians would be a matter of life and death for them.
“Well then, try to hold out as long as you can.”
Cereo’s group answered by taking their positions and solidifying their formation.
As we opened the entrance to the hall, the zombie Minotaurs, Cereo’s party’s frontline, and Kayla entered first.
‘Tsk. There’s definitely an effect.’
I could feel the increase in demonic energy consumption in real-time.
Naturally, most of it was due to the Minotaurs.
Fortunately, it was still at a manageable level.
As soon as we entered, the guardians reacted.
Kayla immediately rushed towards one of them, while Cereo’s group started to approach the other guardian a bit later.
The familiar light beams shot from the guardians’ heads, each targeting a different Minotaur.
‘As expected, they react to demonic energy first.’
Although the Minotaurs were moving with their shields raised, the power of the light beams was strong.
With a loud explosion, two Minotaur zombies were pushed back and fell to the ground.
The shields themselves were relatively intact, but they couldn’t properly deflect the impact to the main part of it.
This was the limitation of zombies.
Because they couldn’t properly absorb and deflect the shock, the zombie Minotaurs’ arms were half-torn off, and visible damage could be seen all over their bodies.
Cereo’s group’s faces turned pale.
It seemed they had realized why they were needed.
‘…It would be better to discard them.’
The condition of the Minotaurs hit by the initial attack was far from good.
Therefore, I decided to discard them.
More precisely, I planned to use them for a different purpose.
Only after the first light beam had passed did the rear guard, including myself, enter the interior.
Meanwhile, Kayla was clinging to the guardian as before, unilaterally pushing it back.
‘It seems they either lack learning ability or it’s below par.’
The situation appeared similar to when she fought the guardian before.
If it had learned her movements and attack patterns after clashing with her once, it would have been quite troublesome, but fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.
As I entered the interior, the guardian that was being checked by Cereo’s party turned its gaze.
I tensed a bit, but knowing they couldn’t use the light beam consecutively, I quickly started to set up defenses.
The Minotaurs clustered in front of me to form a wall, with Skeleton No. 1 and No. 2 clinging to my left and right.
Baldur also stood by my side as the last line of defense.
Since I couldn’t see and react, I was preemptively building a barrier.
I attached the Living Armor and Specter to Cereo’s group in a sort of second line.
Athena also joined the front line.
She was essentially in a free role, able to stick with Kayla to deal with the guardian more quickly, or occasionally rescue Cereo’s group if they were being pushed back too much.
In essence, her actions were entirely left to her judgment.
Even after Athena left her position, my defense preparations didn’t stop.
I retrieved the Minotaurs that had fallen to the first attack and prepared magic using their corpses.
I completed the magic as quickly as possible, as I needed to use it before the residual demonic energy was completely erased by the divine power filling the hall.
The Minotaur corpses split open, and bones separated from flesh.
The separated bones reassembled, creating a wall of bones in front of me, with some parts detaching and attaching to my body.
Although temporary, judging by its power, it should be able to block at least one attack.
My vision was limited, but it was something I had to endure.
Tildi and Annelise showed slightly relieved expressions at the suddenly created bone wall.
It seemed they too had been afraid of the light beam from the initial attack.
In fact, Tildi had put up a protective barrier around himself and Annelise, but still couldn’t feel at ease.
For reference, I didn’t have a protective barrier, as it was inevitable that a barrier made of divine power would greatly interfere with my magic manifestation.
Only after finishing all of these defensive preparations did I cast enhancement magic on the Living Armor and Skeletons, and only then did the Living Armor start properly supporting Cereo’s party.
While I was setting up these defenses, one zombie Minotaur was destroyed by a guardian, and Cereo’s group continued to be pushed back, circling around.
“Cereo, fall back!”
“Arahard! Don’t block directly! Deflect as much as possible and try to dodge!”
“Damn it, what kind of attack is this!”
Rabid, one of the shield warriors, had one arm hanging limply.
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[I like this plan of using them as meat shields, very environmentally friendly]
Recyclable or not recyclable?