Former General Is Undead Knight

Volume 2, Chapter 37: Feast of Revenant Dragon ③

「Yeah, it’s still as distasteful as before.」

Lambert muttered this while looking at the towering figure of Rawnpoop in front of him.

Its eerily big head looked down at him while its mouth moved uncontrollably.

Its eyes that had already lost focus swiveled round and round in their sockets.

「HYOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! THIS IS THE END! I’VE NO IDEA WHY AN UNDEAD LIKE YOU WENT OUT OF YOUR WAY TO SAVE THIS CITY, BUT NOW THAT I’VE SUMMONED RAWNPOOP, THIS CITY IS DONE FOR! HYOHOHOHOHOHOHO!」

Riding on Troy, Manzi stood behind Rawnpoop and sneered at Lambert.

From the very beginning, for Manzi, mass producing an army of undead and committing an atrocious act in Barreira City was nothing more than preparation for large-scale destruction and gathering the necessary skulls to summon Rawnpoop.

And sure enough, the scale of the ritual needed to summon Rawnpoop had already surpassed what a small-scale ritual could do.

Although Rawnpoop would be automatically de-summoned as long as Manzi, its summoner, was killed, the very person was currently riding on the back of the swift horse Troy.

In addition, Lilith had yet to be de-summoned.

And that very same Lilith had already rallied an army of undead toward their place to surround Lambert.

The matter of avoiding Rawnpoop along with countless undead, while at the same time trying to kill Manzi, was an extremely difficult task.

The first reason was that Rawnpoop would protect Manzi no matter what.

「AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Rawnpoop raised an eerie warcry as it brought its head closer toward Lambert.

Although Nightmare easily dodged such a reckless attack, the ground behind them was scooped out.

Upon turning around, Lambert saw the jaws of Rawnpoop’s smaller faces were cackling as if laughing at Lambert.

「I never wanted to see you again!」

Rawnpoop chased after Nightmare and Lambert.

It creeped on the ground by moving its countless giant human arms at once.

And in front of Lambert and Co. was an army of undead.

It was the army which was prepared by Lilith.

And then, Lambert saw the figure of a skinny man with murky eyes.

It was Guiref’s presence, an alchemist who single-handedly took over a kingdom and massacred more than ten million humans.

Although he shouldn’t be in this kind of place, Lambert—who was besieged by three of Guiref’s spirits—couldn’t help but think that he was fighting against Guiref.

Lambert recalled the moment when he saw Guiref’s face for the first time, right before the former killed the latter.

That man had vacant, lifeless eyes devoid of any kind of will despite being the worst war criminal.

That was why, despite only seeing him for the first time, Lambert recognized him as Guiref right away.

Distorting even his own expression, that man let out a devilish smile. At that moment, Lambert knew that this was the real Guiref, not a shadow warrior. This was the man who had created literal hell on earth.

At that moment, Guiref’s phantom vanished.

Instead, it was replaced with the figure of Manzi who was laughing from a separate place.

「I’VE TURNED THE TABLES, UNDEAD KNIGHT! WITH GUIREF-SAMA’S BLESSING, POWER, AND WILL, I AM INVINCIBLE! WITH THIS POWER, I’M GONNA TURN THIS WORLD INTO HELL ON THE EARTH AND RULE THIS WESTERN WORIMIA CONTINENT IN HIS PLACE!」

Manzi held absolute confidence in Guiref’s book and his own magical power.

Despite being one of the Eight Wisemen of 『Devil’s Piper』, he had not even a speck of loyalty toward them.

In the first place, Manzi who grew up with his atrocious appearance, never felt any semblance of love toward others.

The exception for that was his one-sided devotion toward Guiref as a fellow necromancer and his attachment for muted corpses.

He never doubted the fact that he stood at the summit of the Eight Wiseman as long as he had Guiref’s book. He thought that it was only a matter of time before he took over the organization.

「I see, so you’re the inheritor of Guiref’s will, correct?」

Lambert readied his greatsword.

At that moment, Nightmare charged into the horde of undeads.

As many as 10 undeads lost their upper halves as soon as Lambert swung his sword. Their lower halves were then kicked away by Nightmare.

Rawnpoop, who was chasing after them, squashed any undead who dared to block its path.

「As if a pretentious brat like of you, who can only commit murder by using the curse of the book, has any right to claim yourself as Guiref’s successor.」

「Hah!」

Although enraged by Lambert’s provocation, Manzi was left dumbfounded with a half-opened mouth.

The reason was simply that the thick, overwhelming miasma released from Lambert’s entire being put a heavy pressure upon Manzi.

Manzi’s rage evaporated right away as soon as he caught a glimpse of the overwhelming majestic presence from the mysterious undead knight who masqueraded as Lambert.

His lips were shut tight. His body shivered uncontrollably in front of Lambert’s overwhelming presence.

「You’re not manipulating magic and spirits. You’re being manipulated by them. You’re just the run-of-the-mill, small-minded greenhorn who mistook another’s power for their own.」

「GU… H…」

He wanted to refute, but he was simply at a loss for words.

Lilith’s childish laugh beside him sounded like she was agreeing with Lambert and sneering at Manzi’s stupidity.

After a moment of silence, Manzi was finally freed from his stupor.

He desperately told himself that the dread he felt was only his imagination. He looked at the huge, grotesque eyes of Rawnpoop in order to get a grip on himself.

「SQUASH HIM TO DEATH, RAWNPOOP!」

As if to respond to Manzi’s order, Rawnpoop raised its ugly head again.

Its murky, unfocused eyes that turned round and round finally stopped to glare at Lambert.

Its huge body trembled as its mouth clattered, and then, it swooped down toward Lambert.

Its huge heads caught Lambert.

Lambert, whose entire body was wrapped in super heavy Organ, was thrown easily.

Even the headless horse, Nightmare, was thrown along with Lambert into the air, landing on its side.

「HYOHOHOHOHO! AS EXPECTED OF RAWNPOOP! NOW, KILL HI—… 」

「AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Rawnpoop let out a cry as it raised its face to the sky.

That repulsive cry was so loud that it drowned out Manzi’s order and left him dumbfounded.

And then, Manzi noticed.

There was a long wound that looked like it was made with a dull blade across Rawnpoop’s left eye.

Manzi’s eyes opened wide in disbelief.

「R-RAWNPOOP?! I-IMPOSSIBLE! HOW CAN THE HIGHEST RANK SPIRIT BE WOUNDED LIKE THIS?! H-HOW CAN A SINGLE MAN WOUND IT LIKE THIS?!」

Lambert rose to his feet.

「As I thought, I really can’t fight like before against an opponent like Rawnpoop without the assistance of my subordinates. Moreover… Nightmare will most likely be unable to run after taking that much damage. Waiting for it to slip and use that moment to close in and finish it off doesn’t seem to be possible either.」

There was not even a scratch on Lambert’s Organ armor even after receiving Rawnpoop’s attack that threw him and Nightmare to the ground.

「Just watch how I slaughter this one, greenhorn. Your turn will come next.」

And again, Manzi was at a loss for words, unable to retort.

Lambert’s current appearance and statement contained no falsitudes. He really was going to take down Rawnpoop in a frontal assault.

Although the wound on Rawnpoop’s left eye wasn’t shallow, it had come from a single slash. Even so, it was far from enough to subjugate Rawnpoop.

It wasn’t like Manzi was doubting Rawnpoop’s power.

But Manzi simply couldn’t believe that there was someone out there whose power could rival Rawnpoop, who was powerful enough to annihilate an entire army by itself.

And yet, Manzi’s absolute faith in Rawnpoop was crushed by the single slash that left a long wound on the dragon’s left eye a while ago.