Chapter 77: The role of a villainess
*WHAM*
*CRASH*
Zombie's attack was just as fast as when he got Sapotle, but the silver-haired gentleman somehow managed to intercept him and smashed the blue undead into the ground more than seven feet away from the two girls.
"Carambola...! You bastard! Get him away from here!"
The tremors that the attack created cause Fillia to lose her balance and almost let go of Cranberry.
The sickly-looking girl managed to hold on, but now there were long red marks on Cranberry's face where Fillia dug her fingernails to support herself.
"GRAOUGH! (LET GO OF HER YOU PIECE OF SHIT!)"
Zombie roared trying to get up but the silver-haired man got him into a chokehold.
"This... might not be that difficult..."
Even though he seemed to be struggling greatly, Carambola's words were rather lighthearted.
"GROUGH! (LET GO OF ME!) GRAOUGH! (I HAVE TO HELP CRANBERRY!)"
Zombie seemed to be going mad.
His body was emitting stronger purple light with each second and he was actually raising back up even from that position.
"Lay down, little friend, lay down..."
Carambola's hand started glowing and he put his two fingers to Zombie's neck.
/Insuficient mana
"Graough...?! (What the...?!)"
Zombie gasped, all of his active skill deactivated at the same time and he hit the ground, crushed under Carambola.
"Uh-oh. I can't go too far with this or you won't be able to move anymore, little puppet."
The man sighed and patted Zombie's shoulder, right now he was able to hold the blue undead down using only one hand.
/Warning
/Servant became damaged
Servant has insufficient mana to heal
Permission to use Master's mana required
The message popped up for the blue undead but got ignored.
"Graough! (You bastard!) Graough?! (What did you do to me?!)"
Zombie could move his legs and head, yet no matter how hard he tried he couldn't reach the silver-haired gentleman with any meaningful counterattack.
"Carambola...! Make him shut up!"
Fillia scoffed through her teeth without looking away from Cranberry.
...and Zombie's master was looking paler and paler by each second that the green light was flowing away from her body and into Fillia's.
"As you wish, miss."
Carambola nodded, grabbing the back of Zombie's face and pushing his face into the corpse of a nearby werewolf.
"I'm really sorry for the inconvenience, young friend."
Carambola apologized sounding shockingly sincere.
"You see, as soon as young miss Fillia Envy will get your former master's magic ability, we will become comrades, so don't struggle too much, alright?"
He asked, making sure that the fur is completely blocking off any sounds that the undead could make to distract Fillia.
Of course, he did that knowing full well that Zombie didn't need to breathe, and decided that werewolf's corpse was a less rude option than pushing Zombie's face into the ground.
The blue undead was jolting and convulsing but Carambola was holding a firm grip on him.
/Warning
/Servant became damaged
Servant has insufficient mana to heal
Permission to use Master's mana required
The message showed up but there was nothing that Zombie could do about it.
"You see, friend, it's futile. You won't get away from me, so do yourself a favor and stop struggling."
Carambola explained patiently making sure that he is out of reach of Zombie's kicking legs kicking around wildly.
"I'll have you know, I am quite a special person, I have three innate skills you see."
He smiled even though Zombie definitely couldn't see him, and it was questionable whether he was listening to the silver-haired gentleman in the first place.
"The first one is the mana drain I used on you. The second one is close combat I'm using to hold you down. And the third one is..."
As Carambola was about to reveal his last secret, Zombie's head suddenly sunk deeper into the dead body, causing the man to flinch with unease.
"Ekhm... friend, don't tell me that you are eating that werewolf...? You wouldn't happen to have a skill that allows you to regain mana by eating other corpses, would you...?"
He asked cautiously leaning over and lessened the pressure he was putting on the blue undead.
*plop*
*fushaa*
With a wet gloppy sound, Zombie's head got unstuck from the bubbling, rapidly rotting flesh and unleashed a massive amount of noxious fumes that hit Carambola straight in the face.
"GUHUAH!"
The silver-haired man screamed inhaling even more fumes and loosened his grip on Zombie.
The undead didn't waste any time and, after partially breaking free, he twisted his body like a snake and bit into Carabola's throat.
Zombie's eyes shone and he injected an ungodly amount of soul devouring venom into the man's bloodstream.
"...you...! How...?! I took your... mana...!"
Carambola's body was already melting from the inside but he somehow managed to whisper a question.
Who knows, maybe that had something to do with his third innate skill?
"...graough... (...after I received the venomancer title, producing venom doesn't require mana...)"
Zombie growled and kicked the silver-haired gentleman, and the poor man simply burst like a balloon filled with rotting meat and limp soggy bones.
/High-level player defeated
Master and servant receive EXP
"Carambola, I swear, what are you doing there?! Can't you just stay quiet for five minutes?!"
Fillia had her back turned to them and was focusing so hard that she completely missed the death of her companion.
Zombie's face became void of any and all emotions.
He didn't need to have enough mana for a skill to get to the vermin latching on to his master in less than a second.
"Carambola? Why did you come over for? What about the...?"
Sensing the movement behind her, Fillia asked annoyed.
And then she felt a cold hand closing on her throat like a vice.
"...?!"
She couldn't even squeak.
*CRUNCH*
"!!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!!!!!"
A single skill-less kick broke both of Fillia's arms forcing her to let go of Cranberry.
Without a single grunt, Zombie moved the crying and kicking filth that dared to hurt his master away from the red-haired girl.
When he brought Fillia far enough, Zombie lessened his grip just a bit.
"Yhou... bashtard...!"
Fillia gasped for air through snot and tears.
"I'm... the villainesh of thish shtorhy...!"
She growled forcing every word through her crushed throat.
"It'sh... a parth of the globhal eventh story quest...! You have to become mine...!"
It seemed that she had some sort of passive recovery skill going on because with each spoken word she was talking more clearly.
"It... has been already decided by the system...!"
She gasped coiling her broken arms around Zombie's arm to lessen the burden on her neck even a bit, unable to realize that her precious skill has already failed and the green light was rushing back into Cranberry's body.
"I am the villainess! The system gave me a quest line that would bring me a perfect life! You are just a pawn to be u...!"
Fillia was really getting into this whole villain explains their evil plan thing, but honestly, Zombie couldn't think straight when something happened to Cranberry, and simply didn't give a damn about whatever Fillia was talking about.
Instead, he simply leaned over shouting Fillia, and opened his mouth.
His eyes shone and...
A disgusting-looking stream of soul devouring venom shoot out from his teeth right at the villainess's face.
"A-AAAAAGHruglughlrgughly...!"
It was uncertain whether Zombie wanted to poison her, or just drown her, but he achieved both of those outcomes.
...partially...
The venom spread through Fillia's body, causing it to start decomposing at a terrifying rate, but her lungs were filled with venom before she died from the poisoning.
/Early mid-level player defeated
Master and servant receive EXP
/Error
/Essential character has died
/Vacancy for one of the essential roles had opened
/Calculating...
/Reanimating the villainess
/Error
/Essential character, villainess, was killed by the holder of Superbia
/Impossible to reanimate the target
/Villainess role become vacant.
/Role is being transferred to the one who killed the essential character
/Error
/The killer is the essential character and the holder of Superbia
/Calculating...
/Calculating...
/Calculating...
/...
/Adjusting the story...
/Transferring the role to another player fulfilling the citeria
/Master of the eternal servant
Cranberry Pride
Role: Backstory character
»»
Master of the eternal servant
Cranberry Pride
Role: Villainess
/Transfer complete
/Bond meter cap removed
Bond level reached level 3
/Eternal servant magic (level 3):
Unlocked
Servant takes on all of the Master's burdens
"GRAOUGH! (MASTER!)"
Once Zombie let go of the corpse of the former villainess, it turned into a pile of bloody goop on the ground damp from the insanely potent venom.
The blue undead didn't get overwhelmed by the downpour of messages simply because he was too busy worrying about his master.
Even though he couldn't feel any physical pain, his body must have taken quite the beating because he ended up tripping and had to crawl towards the unconscious Cranberry.
/Warning
/Servant became damaged
Servant has insufficient mana to heal
Permission to use Master's mana required
The message popped up but Zombie couldn't do anything about it while Cranberry was in no shape to address it - she couldn't even see the message in the first place.
/Warning
/Major story elements require rewriting
/The system will restart to implement all the changes
The content of the new message was so unexpected that even Zombie managed to tear his eyes away from his master.
"Gra-ough...? (System... restart...?)"
He groaned confused
/System restart in...
/3...
As if to answer his question a countdown started.
/2...
"Graough! (W-wait! Stop! Heal my master first!)"
He roared, but there was no answer from the system.
In the first place, the system only answered the player characters, and Zombie was just a strong monster.
/1...
The final number showed up.
/Restarting the system
One last message popped up and the whole world drowned in darkness.