Chapter 329: With Your Own Power (9)

[What an absurd mana!]

It seemed even he couldn't directly receive this attack. As he flew up to dodge, he swung his axe and shot a giant aura wave. An ordinary human would have his bones and flesh rot just by being near to it!

[Huuu.]

I sucked it in using Breath of Death and received the impact of the aura with Extort. But as his attack wasn't so weak that I could fully take it with Extort, I weakened it as much as I could using Absolute Soul and stole only the mana I could steal. Steel could then block the rest of the attack with its defense.

[That's the ability of a Death Knight! You even absorbed my aura... Are you a mana eater?]

"You should be worried about other things"

After receiving his attack, I kicked off the round and leaped up into the air. The black energy swirling around his body instantly transformed into hundreds of thorns before hurling towards me. I didn't think of hitting them away. In front of Steel, such minor attacks were useless.

I jerked my spear by an inch. In the next moment, an explosion erupted on his back. The 500,000 mana I shot out had boomeranged back and hit him.

The black cape fluttering behind him disappeared. I expected it to be a fatal blow, but it seemed his cape had the ability to completely absorb a single instance of attack. Kuk, if I knew that, I would have only used 300,000 mana!

[You can already control the aura you shot out? Truly amazing!]

"I haven't even started!"

Using death energy against him was likely to be meaningless. Thus, while I continued to use Breath of Death, I only concentrated on absorbing his death energy. Only chaos flames were burning on my spear.

[I am Dortu. Analyzing his armor.]

"I'll leave it to you, Dortu. Peika, materialize!"

[Got it!]

When a huge lightning dragon appeared in the air, the Death Lord flinched. On the other hand, Peika charged at him as soon as she materialized. The powerful lightning energy circulating around her body was fiercer than any time in the past.

[Kuku, I have never fought at a disadvantage. Savior Hero, I certainly must recognize your strength.]

"Do you know something?"

[Of course. After all, I am the king of the dead.]

Mm? King of the dead? Didn't the Death King call himself that too? Then was this guy also a lich?

At that moment, I closed my eyes and stretched my mana outwards. However, I couldn't find anything that could be his life vessel. It seemed he felt my mana's movement, as he shook his head with a loud laugh.

[If you're looking for the vessel carrying my soul, I will tell you. It's inside me.]

"Inside you?"

[Indeed, extracting your soul from your body and storing it elsewhere is a good way to achieve immortality. But a soul will become tainted the moment it leaves its body. That's why I separated my soul and sealed it inside my body. If you destroy me, you'll be able to destroy my soul too.]

"Well, aren't you kind."

Was he telling me his weakness? Something was definitely wrong with this guy. However, he nodded as if what he said was only natural.

[This way, it will be a much more interesting fight!]

"Fight...?"

This bastard... Was he crazy? I gave him such a glance.

"Are you crazy?"

No, I was saying it out loud.

[The reason I held on to my life even while being reduced to this state was all in order to fight. To experience the clash of powerful mana and strength! That person's ambition to overtake all worlds swayed me, and for that, I endured all these years. Since I got to fight the Savior Hero at the end of it all, can you blame me for being so talkative?]

"You're telling me you became a lich to fight?"

[That's right.]

Dumbfounded, I lowered my spear. He wasn't done talking yet.

[Losing the world's power wasn't important to me either. What was important was that there was no one left in my continent that I could kill! That's why I raised the ones I killed into Death Knights and crossed over to another world. There, I killed and killed again. When there wasn't anyone left for me to kill, that's when I met that person.]

Who said only losers ended up trapped in the dungeon? I had to change this way of thinking. This world's enemy was telling me that he entered the dungeon of his own volition. He even gave up his world's power! Though, I guess it wasn't important to an army of undead.

Thinking about it now, the Death Knight I first faced also seemed to just enjoy fighting without caring about other matters. However, unlike the Death Lord, that Death Knight carried resentment against the dungeon, but perhaps, that was directed at the Death Lord who killed them and dragged them into the dungeon.

"The Dungeon Lord?"

[That person made an offer! To let me fight a powerful enemy capable of defeating me!]

... I took a step forward instinctively. It was a reflexive movement to not be pushed back by the pressure behind his words. The enemy in front of me loved battle more than anyone else I've met. Such an enemy was also the most terrifying one.

"You believed in those words and stayed here all this time?"

[Of course. It was meaningless to fight weaklings.]

"You waited for me."

[That's right.]

That only implied one thing.

Sherafina knew that I would come here. Me, or some other Savior Hero.

"Well, that's not too important."

My fight with the Demon Lord wasn't far off. If I could defeat the Death Lord and obtain his power, that would be an incredible boon for me.

"Are you done talking?"

[You don't seem surprised.]

"Not really."

I grinned and held up my spear.

"Let's fight then. I like fighting too."

Even if I had things to protect, I wouldn't be so all-out if I didn't have fun. I shouted.

"Peika, Dortu!"

[Got it!]

[I am Dortu. Commencing nullification.]

[Good, let's fight!]

While the Death Lord condensed an enormous amount of mana into his axe, Peika charged straight towards him. At the same time, Dortu began to destroy his armor. Not paying attention to such miscellaneous matters, the Death Lord stared at me and charged towards me. A massive energy was rushing my way!

[Will you dodge it!?]

"Why would I dodge such a weak attack!"

I poured hundreds of thousands of units of mana into my spear and formed a transparent aura. When the Death Lord saw it from a close range, his burning flames in his eyes widened in surprise. However, it was too late. A spear and axe clashed, causing a shockwave powerful enough to tear apart space.

[Kahahahaha! You are the first warrior to ever receive my axe head-on!]

"The Hero of the world you invaded was just weak."

With a smirk, I swung my spear once more. The Death Lord's armor was too unscathed for me to attempt a stab. Dortu was working hard, but it seemed that his armor had quite the resistance.

[Eiit, evil energy, burn!]

On the other hand, Peika also released as much lightning as she could as she bit down on his helmet. The Death Lord's death energy resisted Peika's lightning, and his axe weakened as a result. With a strong flick, I struck his axe away before stabbing it with my spear.

"Why don't you summon something too?"

[I always fight alone!]

"That's why you'll lose to me! Crimson Roar!"

After making a stabbing maneuver and forcing the Death Lord to back off, I widened my mouth and let out a roar. The surrounding area immediately became covered in scarlet flames. Flames were just as effective as lightning when it came to burning death energy!

[What a lukewarm flame! Death Crystal!]

"Oh? I like that one!"

Along with his shout, black energy rose up and solidified into a translucent crystal, protecting him from Crimson Roar. I carved the death energy's movement pattern into my eyes. Then, I raised my spear once and fended off the Death Lord's incoming axe.

"Like I said, you can't win!"

[In battle, there's no such thing as absolute or impossible! Restrain!]

This time, death energy solidified into chains and snaked towards me. Cutting through Crimson Roar's energy filling up the surrounding space and seemingly unaffected by Peika's lightning, the death energy chains seemed to want to pierce through my body.

"Good try!"

However, the Death Lord didn't know a thing about Steel's power! Strengthened by my mana, Steel let out a dark light that engulfed the chains flying towards me.

"I'll make good use of them."

[What!?]

The Death Lord shouted in surprise. The chains coiled around my arm and began to strangle the Death Lord's armor on their opposite ends. With a smile, I swung the chains down. About 200,000 mana transformed into aura and flowed into his armor through the chains.

[Kahak!]

The Death Lord coughed out a scream. It seemed these chains even had the ability to amplify the energy they were carrying. When I gave a victorious grin, the Death Lord coughed out a mouthful of dead blood before breaking the chains and bursting out into a laughter.

[Right, such petty tricks won't work on someone like you! Kuoooooooooo!]

Death energy erupted from all directions. Peika twisted her body and roared in opposition, creating voluminous lightning that scorched the death energy. Nevertheless, the sheer amount of death energy meant that it couldn't be erased entirely.

Along with Absolute Soul, I once again started Breath of Death. Although Breath of Death didn't have any levels, the way the Death Lord wielded death energy was in a different realm.

[The energy I obtained by giving up being human, this energy made me stronger. Death is a weapon, a curse, and an armor that hides me from the brilliant light of life. Savior Hero, do you know death?]

"No, I don't."

I retorted lightly.

"But I plan on learning it today."

Then, I threw out another Heroic Strike towards the death energy concentrated on him!