Former General Is Undead Knight

Volume 2, Chapter 36: Feast of Revenant Dragon ②

「You can’t run from me. Now hand over Guiref’s Grimoire!」

Straddling on the back of headless horse Nightmare, Lambert traversed the deserted streets of Barreira City, swinging his greatsword.

The citizens who saw his bizarre appearance atop the back of the headless horse ended up scattering around while raising terrified screams.

The one being pursued by Lambert was one of the Eight Wisemen, Manzi, who was straddling on the back of an eerie horse with two faces—the calamity horse Troy.

Although both of them were riding equally eerie horses, Manzi was clearly falling behind in terms of riding skill compared to Lambert.

Manzi himself was aware that he would die if Lambert caught up to him.

Nightmare was an extremely swift war horse, but as expected, Lambert’s full-plate armor made from pure Organ was an extreme handicap for them.

But even with that handicap, they could steadily close the distance between them and Manzi.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time until they caught up with Manzi.

「As I thought, you’re not human, huh! WHY WHY WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO HINDER ME?! WHY ARE YOU GOING AFTER ME?!」

Manzi glared at Lambert while shouting at the lump of irrationality called Lambert. i????????????????????????. ????????????

His hand was busily turning over the pages of Guiref’s Grimoire.

‘Forget about Cerberus of the Fifth, even Dullahan of the Sixth was no match against him! Like hell I can fight him head-on! I can’t let him disturb my spirit until I perform the ceremony!’

After being utterly defeated during their first clash in the earl’s mansion, Manzi had come to realize the true terrifying might of the one who proclaimed himself as Lambert.

He did not intend to fight head-on with Lambert from now on.

「Heed my call and come from the abyss O Puppeteer of Black, Lilith!」

After he finished his chant, a black overcoat floated above the tail of the calamity horse.

The face of a girl with abnormally white skin came out from the top part of the overcoat.

The girl of the spirit world, lacking the neck part and below, floated behind Manzi as if she was fixed to that place.

The girl then stretched her finger while giggling to Lambert.

The fourth of Guiref’s 13 spirits, Puppeteer of Black, Lilith.

Although she was weaker in terms of combat capabilities, she could freely manipulate corpses in her field of vision as if they were part of her own limbs.

All Lilith could do was move the corpses. She couldn’t reproduce their movements when they were alive. Whether it was the corpse of an expert or the corpse of a toddler, they were the same.

Although her forte was creating a large-scale undead army as long as there were corpses nearby, that army was nothing more than a gathering of small fries.

For that reason, she was only occasionally useful.

But in the land where a large-scale battle had just happened, like the current Barreira, she could make full use of her forte.

Lilith’s eyes, which were hidden under the hood of the overcoat, gazed at Lambert’s figure. Her lips were smiling lightly.

「This time it’s Lilith, huh…」

Lilith stretched her arms.

Her 10 fingers were shining lightly. The corpses that were lying along the way rose up again as if gaining a new life, and then they blocked Lambert’s path.

There were around 20 of them.

It was a mix of women, children, adventurers, and old men.

Although they looked like a mix-matched army, they were immortal soldiers who would keep charging at their enemy even if they lost their limbs. All that mattered was that they remained under Lilith’s control.

The one those undead were aiming for wasn’t Lambert.

It was Lambert’s mount, the headless warhorse Nightmare.

Even if they couldn’t hurt Lambert with their measly power, the damage of falling from his horse should be really big.

The undead was crouching down, ready to attack at Nightmare’s leg at any moment.

「GO! CRUSH HIM, FU*CKING CRUSH HIM!」

Manzi yelled like a madman, but such an attempt was meaningless in front of Lambert.

One swing from Lambert’s greatsword culled the undead who tried to cling onto Nightmare, and then, they were trampled down by the headless horse, forcibly opening a path.

But one could say that this distraction managed to open the distance between Lambert and Manzi again, albeit only slightly.

「WWWW-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT GUY?!」

Although Lilith tried to do the same thing again, lining up undead to block Lambert’s path, this time, he simply just made Nightmare jump over them.

「Resistance is futile. Stop your act of sacrilege at once.」

At that moment, Lambert felt a strange phenomenon.

The number of headless corpses amongst the dead in his vicinity had increased.

Their number increased rapidly as he pursued Manzi.

And it wasn’t a mere coincidence. He knew that Manzi did that with some sort of intention.

The problem was, what was his goal by doing this?

And Lambert, who defeated the worst alchemist Guiref after a grueling battle, knew the meaning of this sign

「This is… Feast of Revenant Dragon!」

Even someone as strong as Lambert was flustered upon witnessing this phenomenon.

Ahead of Lambert, Manzi turned around a bit as he revealed an ugly smile on his pale face.

「How did you know that? Well, not that I care about it anyway. This is the end. You cannot escape anymore! Although my Lilith wasn’t strong enough to defeat you, she was plenty enough to buy time for me!」

Two suspicious figures clad in black robes stood in Manzi’s path.

A huge magic circle around ten meters in diameter was carved on the ground beneath their feet. There was a mountain of skulls piled up within that magic circle.

There was a saying that the spirits, the inhabitant of the spirit world, had their own favorite time, place, situation, and even mana spot.

In particular for high-ranking spirits, they were even more selfish due to their superior rank and strength.

And the act to summon a spirit by artificially creating an environment which matched the preference of the spirit with sorcery was called a ritual.

The Feast of Revenant Dragon was one such ritual. Although one could summon superior spirits with Guiref’s Grimoire, a ritual to summon them was simply indispensable.

「This is the end for you, armored man… no, Undead Knight. Although you’re just a lowly undead, you did a good job in cornering me this far. But from the very beginning, my goal was this Feast of Revenant Dragon! Large-scale preparations and mountains of corpses are needed to call forth the curse of the dragon! And now, everything is already in place! HYOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!」

The calamity horse Troy then stopped running.

The two men who were waiting in the circle then shifted their attention to Manzi, who was riding on the back of Troy.

「Since you’ve already summoned Lilith, that means that you’re ready for the ritual, right, Manzi-sama!」

「But the ones behind you are…」

The faces of the two suspicious men clad in robes stiffened upon looking at the figure of Lambert running in their direction.

Manzi ignored the two men and looked up at the face of the girl floating on the rear of Troy, Puppeteer of Black, Lilith.

「Lilith, summon Revenant Dragon!」

Lilith showed a smile befitting her young face as she pointed her hand toward the mountain of skulls inside the magic circle.

The skulls, which were also part of the corpse, floated systematically due to Lilith’s power.

At the same time, the eyes that were already closed were opened wide, exposing the murky eyes that already lost their light behind the skulls’ eyelids.

The skulls were then placed at regular intervals in the air on top of the magic circle.

The chins of the skulls started to move, cackling as if they were laughing.

It was a scene that would cause any normal person to see a never-ending nightmare.

The moon that just started to ascend illuminated that spectacle.

The heads that danced around in the air left drops of blood in their wake, which fell inside the magic circle.

Manzi screamed as he turned over the pages of Guiref’s Grimoire.

「Heed my call and come from the abyss, O Revenant Dragon, Rawnpoop!」

The light of mana swelled and then started to take form inside the magic circle.

And then, a giant skull close to two hein in height rose up from the center of the magic circle. There was an eerie laugh as the skulls flew in the air.

The eyes inside the giant skull were stale; the color of its skin was also different.

There was no hair on its head, and the huge, wide-open eyes gave the impression of an oversized baby doll.

And though the skin of its body has normal color, its structure was obviously different from the human body.

This fact became quite obvious because the body appeared to be much longer than it seemed with many pairs of arms attached to it at regular intervals.

That grotesque body crawled on the ground. Its total length was more than 20 hein.

The spirit of Hades, Revenant Dragon Rawnpoop, opened its mouth and raised an eerie cry.

「A…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

It ate one of the skulls floating in the air because of Lilith’s power. Its hand crushed the skull so easily.

Lambert, who was approaching as fast as he could, was also forced to decelerate since he realized that he failed to stop the ritual.

The grotesque monster, who could drive any normal person insane with just a glance, bent its body as if to change its direction.

「M-Manzi-sama! S-Stop—」

The two subordinates ran toward Manzi while escaping from the recently revived Rawnpoop.

But Manzi didn’t even spare a glance at them.

The eyes of that insane old man were completely focused on the grotesque monster in front of him.

He let out a sigh of admiration whenever he saw the grotesque monster’s movements, its grotesque head, and its eerie body.

「OOOOO… Beautiful, how beautiful. Rawnpoop is as beautiful and magnificent as ever!」

He was completely immersed in his own world, completely neglecting his desperate subordinates.

One of them was pinned down under Rawnpoop’s limbs, squashed, and died a tragic death while vomiting his own innards from his mouth.

The second one was even more unlucky than the first one as he was caught by Rawnpoop’s countless hands. He was torn from limb to limb till there was nothing left of his corpse.

When it turned around, Rawnpoop raised its head, looking down at Lambert and Nightmare.