Chapter 128: The End

“Gyaaaaa!”

The monster Gallier let out a series of screams as Emil’s massive axe began hacking into its slimy body, leaving gash after gash.

“What’s this? You’re big, but you’re not all that impressive.”

Perhaps because she had grown accustomed to fighting this monster, Emil was easily suppressing Gallier, the mid-boss.

“Barlan, this useless body of yours really won’t do. I need to transfer… into Draco’s body. Miona, give me your body!”

Gallier, who had originally been targeting Erica, was being overpowered by Emil’s attacks and had no room to fight back.

It shifted its aim to Miona, who was kneeling in prayer with her eyes closed.

In truth, its target had been Miona Draco from the very beginning.

It was said that it wanted to steal her body and control her like an undead puppet.

But now, it seemed, it wanted to use her body as its own vessel.

For a mid-boss, it seemed pathetically weak. Could it be because Professor Barlan, its vessel, was frail and sickly to begin with? “Getting distracted?” “*Tap.*”

Emil leaped, using a pillar for leverage to launch herself into the air. Then, from above, she cleaved the giant monster in two with a single, vertical strike. “*Shing, shing, shing.*”

“Urgh! You bastard!” The bisected monster writhed in agony, a flood of blood-like mucus gushing out.

Its violent thrashing resembled a snake squirming after having salt poured into its wounds. “Arest, you useless piece of trash! What are you doing!” The floating Lich, Arest, seemed about to move.

His ghostly blue pupils flashed. However, despite emitting an intimidating aura, he didn’t even twitch a finger. This was likely thanks to Miona’s desperate efforts to regain control over him. “Feeble little ants… come to me… into my shadow…”

Erica had been worried that Miona might be afraid of the ghost, but she had apparently almost completely regained control of her father, Arest. After all, they were father and daughter.

Perhaps the wavelengths of their souls were in sync, or the blood connection made control easier. “That’s why I said you shouldn’t leave a personality attached to the undead! Arest! I, Undead Lord Gallier, command you! Offer me your daughter! Now!”

“*Whoosh.*”

Arest’s ghostly blue pupils flared even brighter, then turned into a blaze of crimson flame. He floated down to the ground and slowly extended a withered hand towards his daughter, who was still kneeling and praying. —

The Draco family was known for their harsh and strict family rules, a trait that set them apart even among the many nobles.

Their strictness was enough to make ordinary people shrink back in fear, not even feeling the envy one usually felt for the aristocracy.

“They’d risk their lives for a rigid rule. They’re not like living people at all. They’re more like undead puppets just following orders.”

“The members of the Draco family keep working even after they die.”

The isolated and rigid Draco family was always a topic of gossip for the people around them.

While others might have thought the family members felt oppressed and resentful of their situation, they seemed to accept it as a matter of course. As the daughters of the Draco family, Miona and Vivian had also lived this way.

They never smiled in front of others and rarely showed any surplus of emotion.

Yet, their minds were always filled with unspoken questions. Why did the Draco family have so many rules to follow?

Why couldn’t they eat candy or pastries that even commoners’ children could enjoy?

The children eating those sweets all had happy expressions on their faces. Miona was also curious about what they tasted like.

Her father had never bought her even a single piece of candy in his entire life. Because her father was a very stern man.

He kept a vow of silence all his life, barely speaking even to his own daughters. Could a young girl ask such a father?

Why did the Draco family leave the Kingdom to live in such a remote manor… Why did Father remain silent his whole life… Where did our mother go… She resolved to ask him someday.

But life is unpredictable.

The members of the Draco family fell one after another to an unknown curse.

By the time she scattered the last handful of soil onto her father’s grave, there was no one left in the world to give her or her sister an answer.

Trying to resurrect her father through necromancy wasn’t solely for the purpose of strengthening the family.

There were so many untold stories locked inside him.

The girl yearned to call him back to the living world and ask him about the past she never learned about while he was alive.

“*Dol’ slkTum.*”

But the “revived” father and his daughter could no longer speak the same language.

Even if she asked him countless questions now, he couldn’t understand.

The terrifyingly large manor, the nightly duty to guard the graveyard, the individual who was once her father, the countless rules…

A torrent of thoughts swirled and mixed in her mind.

Whenever she closed her eyes to pray, these complex matters would spiral like a vortex, eventually coalescing into one, plunging her thoughts into chaos.

“*Swoosh.*”

Miona Draco felt something touch her forehead.

When she looked up from her complicated and troubling prayers, the gaunt skeleton she didn’t want to face was looking down at her with empty eye sockets.

“*AtemDol’ sNobito.*”

“What are you saying?”

She still couldn’t understand her father, but she seemed to know what she had to do. After all, this had all started because of her. Because she hadn’t been able to properly guard the graveyard, the family’s remains were stolen. Because she resurrected her resting father, even his remains were taken from her. Miona bit her lip, feeling guilt and a strange, nameless sorrow welling up inside her.

“Father, you no longer need to bear the burden of a physical body.” “Necromancy — Dispelling.” Miona Draco severed the faint, fragile connection deep within her heart, the bond she shared with her father. With the contract between the necromancer and the resurrected undead dissolved, many things returned to their origin.

“From ashes you came, to ashes return. From dust you came, to dust return.” “*Grrrrrrr…*” Miona lowered her head. “*Rustle, rustle, rustle…*” The body of the undead resurrected through necromancy, undone by the broken contract, dissipated like grains of sand.

Miona couldn’t bear to watch her father disappear before her eyes. Was she really supposed to face her father’s death twice? Then, what of the one who had to experience death twice? What must he be feeling?

If she looked up, she felt she would see her father’s severe, intimidating eyes staring at her emptily, condemning her.

So she kept her lips tightly sealed, her head down, staring only at the floor. But a thin, aged hand reached out in front of Miona.

“*Dal.*”

“This is…” Miona was shocked. Lying in the open palm was a small, round object that seemed utterly out of place for this taciturn man. Wrapped in paper, it was shaped like a bead and gave off a sweet aroma. It was a piece of candy.

The candy she had longed for countless times as a child. As Miona took it, she heard her father speak.

“You’re not crying anymore.”

“What did you just say?”

When the girl looked up sharply, her father’s figure had vanished without a trace.

“*Rustle, rustle, rustle…*”

The body of the powerful Lich dissolved like sand, and the skeletal warriors and zombies that had been stirring around him also crumbled into piles of dust, scattering in the wind.

She didn’t know exactly what happened, but seeing their enemies disappear was certainly a relief.

“Foolish Arest, daring to defy my orders…”

The monster’s voice echoed in the air for a long time.

Its body was already riddled with wounds, purple-black mucus oozing from the gaping cracks. “Hey, Erica, how much longer do we have to fight this thing? Why won’t it just die?”

Emil, who had been battling the giant monster for over ten minutes, was starting to sound tired.

“I will not accept such an end! Die, all of you! Argh!” With a “*Swoosh*,” a long, whip-like leg of mucus shot towards Emil. It was more like a tentacle than a leg. Then again, calling it a tentacle didn’t feel right; it was more like a sharp spear.

“*Fssssss.*” “Ugh!”

It grazed Emil’s flank, quickly corroding her clothes.

Seeing this, Emil quickly shed her school cloak, tore off her shirt, and threw them on the ground. The blonde girl’s pale skin, damp with sweat, and her undergarments were exposed. It was only now that Erica noticed Emil’s body was covered in countless small, fine wounds. She was still dodging the attacks cleverly, but just one hit from that monster, Gallier, would inflict a fatal wound.

“*Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.*”

The amorphous body shot spiked tentacles in every direction like a porcupine. “You bitches! I won’t let you die easy! I’ll use you as vessels to breed Demon Seeds!”

“Erica, we need to get out of the way first!” Emil grabbed the girl’s waist and dove behind a thick pillar. The pillars in the castle ruins were still sturdy enough to shield them from the monster’s tentacle assault.

“Isn’t there a better way?”

Emil asked the girl. The only method that came to Erica’s mind was the reckless, desperate hack-and-slash approach. It was the method the protagonist’s party used to hunt this monster.

“That method is too reckless. I can’t do it alone right now… How many more times can you use your magic?”

“About twice more.”

“That’s not nearly enough, is it?”

Emil clicked her tongue.

At that moment, Miona, who had been silent ever since the Lich dissolved into dust, took a slow, deep breath to steady herself.

“We need a dispel. We have to use a dispelling magic.”

“A dispel?” In response to Emil’s question, Miona elaborated.

“As I said before, Gallier is a Living Curse created by the Demon King Solomon. If we dispel the curse, she will disappear as well.”

A dispel?

That made a lot of sense now that she thought about it.

With no time to waste, Erica extended her Heart-shaped Staff out from behind the pillar and began to chant the dispelling magic she knew. “Serafina!” “*Crackle.*”

The incantation for the dispel magic shot out like a bolt of white lightning, striking the roaring monster directly.

The monster’s body shuddered violently.

“Dispel? Just as presumptuous as that Barlan woman… Do you think… such… a crude… dispelling spell… would work on me…?! I am… Noel’s Calamity…!” It was useless after all? Was it because her Tier was too low? “*Crackle, crackle.*”

But then, the monster’s body twitched violently. Not only that, but its body began to melt and soften, like a massive iceberg crumbling and falling into the sea due to global warming.

“Wh-what is this… What’s happening?! What is going on?! My body… it’s dissolving! Argh! Why, why…”

Oh, so the curse spell worked well after all. Maybe it was because she had the bloodline of King Noel?

“What the hell? If I’d known, I’d have used this spell from the start.” “Hey, Erica! Keep casting that spell! It’s working great!”

“I want to, but I’m almost out of mana!” “You’re out of mana? Then just push through it with willpower!”

Willpower? Yeah, running out of stamina might be common, but I’ve never been short on willpower!

Erica, throwing caution to the wind, furrowed her brow and squeezed every last drop of mana from her body.

“Serafina!” “*Zzzzzt!*”

The lightning that burst from the tip of her wand was thicker and faster than before.

That strange magical current struck the melting pile of rotten, seafood-like flesh. “Wuaaaaaah!” “*Thump… Thump…*” Finally, all the flesh that had composed the giant monster’s body melted and vanished into the ground. “Whew…”

“Hey — Erica — nice — work — now — finish — it — off — with — your — last — breath —” Emil was chattering something beside her, but Erica was gasping for air, her vision spinning, her mind fuzzy. She had absolutely no strength left.

So this was what true mana exhaustion felt like. She felt like if she relaxed her focus even a little, the world would go dark. But she still forced her legs to move, walking over to Professor Barlan, who was writhing on the ground. Professor Barlan looked like a fish pulled from water, lying on the ground in disheveled clothes, convulsing.

There was a circular crest pattern imprinted on her pale back. It didn’t take long for Erica to realize it was a magic circle. “Kill… kill me… My body… won’t obey me… That curse… I studied it my whole life… yet I could never escape…”

A crystalline liquid, like tears of blood, flowed from Professor Barlan’s blood-red eyes. Had her consciousness briefly returned? “Before I lose control… please… end it…”

The sight was somewhat pitiful. Just how had Professor Barlan endured this curse, struggling to survive all this time? At that moment, Miona spoke. “Erica Angelina, can you dispel this curse?” Hearing this, Erica looked at the blood-red pattern on Barlan’s back.

The design… …was savage, as if someone had carved it into the woman’s back with a knife. “Gallier.”

Those letters were written in the pattern. Coincidentally, it was the exact same writing she had found on the tongue of the zombie when she played chess with Vivian.

So, Erica slowly placed her hand on Barlan’s back.

“Gyaaaah!”

Professor Barlan screamed and grabbed the girl’s leg.

Unlike her earlier struggles, this action was clearly malicious.

“You… you seek to erase my existence?! No! That’s impossible! Absolutely impossible—”

Barlan, grabbing the girl’s knee, climbed up and tried to grab Erica by the collar.

But a moment later, Barlan’s eyes flew wide open, her gaze vacant. “No…

This can’t be… there must be some mistake… Why… why would you be with those wretches…?!

You… you bastard!

You lowly… Half-Elf… Erica Angelina… you liar!”

Then, a flood of information washed into the girl’s mind. *

【Gallier: High-level Necromancy. Allows the user to manipulate the dead and turn the living into puppets. The higher the caster’s Tier, the greater the power of its influence.】* *

【Defeated a powerful enemy! A miracle of magic!】* *

【Class: Mage Level Up. Mage Lv.5 → Lv.7】* *

【You are now a true Mystic Tuner!】* “*Thud.*” Professor Barlan finally collapsed as if all her strength had left her.

Thanks to that, her level went up by two directly. What a great feeling. It was as if the feeling of powerlessness from a moment ago had never existed.

A sense of omnipotence and a confidence-inspiring mana flowed through her body, spreading to every capillary in her fingertips, bringing a thrilling, prickling pleasure.

What was even more surprising was the necromancy she had just learned — Gallier.

The curse to manipulate the living? It didn’t seem like a simple spirit-summoning spell.

It was definitely a curse she had longed for. With this, she might be able to control Evelyn however she wanted!

“*Thump.*”

Emil placed her hand on the neck of Professor Barlan, who was lying face down on the ground.

“She’s not dead yet. What a lucky bastard. I’ll let a small fry like this live for now.”

Emil stood up, her gaze sharpening again as she turned to Miona Draco.

“Spill everything you know. Everything! The bloodline of Noel still exists?”

In the darkness, Emil’s blue eyes glowed with an eerie blue light.

For Emil, the shocking events that just happened were secondary to getting information about the Noel bloodline.

“If you hide even one thing, even one word, you die too, Miona Draco.”

That was right.

Things weren’t completely over yet.

However, Erica was also curious about the information Miona Draco possessed regarding the Noel family, so she decided to calm down and listen closely.

Finally, Miona slowly began to speak. “It is…”