Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 349 The War of the Dead

At this moment——

"Boom!"

Another earth-shattering tremor, like a landslide, faintly came from another direction!
Thales suddenly jolted awake, hearing several strange sounds:

【Sada, Loch Sada!】

【Sailor, Sailor, Sail Rikai!】

The next moment, several equally withered and terrifying souls, shrouded in black mist, suddenly emerged from the uppermost rock wall, but were quite different in size and appearance!
These undead were also surrounded by black mist, but most of them were huge with bulging muscles, and their clothing style was neither like that of the Empire nor the North.

Their eyes were also deathly white, but their noses were even more prominent, their teeth even sharper, and their rotting, dried skin appeared pale and terrifying.

However, something surprising happened.

Those ghosts… those strange, newly arrived ghosts, howling in a language Thales couldn’t understand at the ghosts already there—Kainkamur and his companions:

【Krully...Sail...Sail...】

This situation occurred in every corner of the cave, and almost every new ghost that arrived at the "battlefield" from top to bottom—often a ghost with a special form—shouted the same terrifying roar towards the ghosts on Cainkamur's side.

Black mist continued to spread through the air, and the number of newly arrived souls gradually increased.

Thales stared in astonishment at the sight before him.

“Enough,” the Silver Shadow Man released Thales’s shoulder and said calmly.

"Stop it."

The silver light emanating from his body transformed into a barrier-like structure, covering the two of them.

"It's coming."

Finally, a thunderous roar resounded from almost every corner, causing the surrounding rock strata to resonate.

【Crowley...】

[Skarna, Nadallis...]

The low growl continued, and a huge, decaying arm, as thick as a human thigh, slowly emerged from the top of the rock wall and clung to the rock strata.

As the low growl gradually intensified, the owner of the arm slowly pulled his entire body out of the rock wall. His massive body even occupied most of the rock wall until he raised his equally enormous head, and under his pale eyes, opened his huge black maw.

Thales' eyes widened.

An anomaly, unlike any of the pitiful dead he had ever seen before, appeared before Thales.

This is also a dead soul—Thales told himself anxiously.

It was a giant, robust ghost, almost the size of three people.

It floated in the cursed black mist, its appearance bizarre and disproportionate—its pale eyes were small, its nostrils flared outwards, a terrible scar ran across half its face, even cutting off half of its lip, making its teeth appear extremely protruding, and making it even more terrifying when it roared.

And it, adorned with several rings of beast teeth, roared furiously at the cave, supported by its decaying and withered limbs:

[Nadalellis!]

Its roar seemed to shake all the dead souls in this cave!
The spirits that had been besieging Thales and his companion in the cave all turned away, seemingly abandoning Thales and the Silver Shadow.

They bared their black, mist-covered claws at the ever-growing number of new dead souls, responding with equally piercing howls: "Aaaaaahhhhh—Kill, kill, kill them all!"

Although the newly arrived, alien undead were outnumbered, they responded to the provocation with even greater excitement and rage under the leadership of the giant leader. Several particularly strong undead even pounded their chests with their already gray and decaying upper arms, their howls briefly drowning out those of their opponents.
【Sail, Sail, Nadallis——】

The most unusual ghost—General Kanekamur Linka—turned his head with a ferocious expression, staring defiantly at the new giant ghost, his pale eyes brimming with intense emotion.

【Mongrel…】 Its ancient imperial language held a deep-seated, inexplicable hatred: 【Mongrel—】

The next second, opposite it, the gigantic, terrifying undead, the size of three people, also twisted its expression and let out a deafening roar: [Sair—]

As soon as it finished speaking, it swung its powerful limbs and pounced on Kanekamur from above!

The black mist surrounding Kanekamur trembled as it faced its new adversary without retreating a single step!

Come on, you ice bastard!

More than just two leaders—more and more new undead swooped down from the rock walls above, invading this narrow place and hurtling straight at the old undead of Cairnkamur in mid-air.

A new battle has begun.

Thales watched helplessly as a massive new undead, howling fiercely, pounced on an old man-shaped undead from above, biting its neck in a frenzy!

The old man's spirit screamed in agony, uttering incomprehensible words: 【Ahhh—】

A cloud of black mist immediately spread from its wound.

But the victim then fought back and stabbed the other animal in the chest with his bare hands!

It used every means at its disposal, including its teeth and limbs, to diminish the other's existence.

The new undead seemed to be infected with madness, showing no mercy, while the undead on Kanekamur's side also rushed up without hesitation, fiercely retaliating!

The entire cave was thrown into chaos!
This is……

Thales watched the dead killing each other with a pale face, and suddenly realized that the new dead's words "Sael" sounded very familiar.

A second later, he recalled the relevant information.

In the military history classes of the northern nobles, there is one subject that must be learned—orc language, especially military orders.

And “Sael,” that was—that was—Tales stared in disbelief at the new undead, though their faces were unrecognizable, their physiques terrifying—it was one of the military offensive orders of the Glacier Orcs, meaning:
Kill, massacre, murder.

Or, more directly and cruelly, "leave no survivors."

and so……

The sin of the River of Hell within Thales slowly faded, and he continued to stare intently at the frenzied battle between the two groups of undead in the cave.

"You didn't...you weren't planning to use me as bait to lure them away and then run away yourself?" Thales asked the person next to him in surprise, feeling like he had escaped a disaster.

The silver-clad figure turned his head to the side, seemingly disdainful of answering.

And that playful silver light mischievously darted out from above the silver-clad figure's head, bouncing and leaping to form a few words:
[Pranks, bad taste]

Telston's face immediately darkened.

The presence of the new undead made the cave even darker, but for a moment, no one paid any attention to this small corner anymore.

“Alright, but… what is that?” Thales quickly forgot his displeasure and pointed with a puzzled expression at the newcomer, the large undead who was fighting the general with utter devotion.

"Also, souls cursed to the ends of the earth," the Silver Shadow replied readily.

"It's just another one."

"His soul is resilient, his will is terrifying, and after being cursed, imprisoned, and corrupted, he is even more troublesome than our General Linka."

Thales turned his head urgently: "But why..."

The Silver Shadow nodded.

“You know, there’s something very interesting,” the other person’s voice sounded somewhat relaxed at this moment: “Under this terrible curse, these souls, though in a daze, are still inseparable from the world they were in life.”

"Some of the most deeply rooted emotions and obsessions not only cannot be forgotten, but grow stronger and more distorted—they have become detached from memory and context, leaving only feelings and instincts."

“For example…” The silver shadow gestured toward the chaotic battle.

Thales carefully observed the strangely described new souls and suddenly had an epiphany.

“Let me introduce you,” the Silver Shadow said softly, pointing to the giant undead adorned with animal teeth.
“Loksada Dark Thunder”.

"And its hundreds or thousands of orc companions."

Thales's mind raced.

"Dark mine? Orcs?"

The silver-clad figure nodded again.

"I heard from a dead man that he was a former war chief of the Dark Thunder tribe."

"It was also one of the glacial orcs that ravaged the south after the collapse of the ancient empire, and the culprit behind hundreds of bloody robberies in the northern provinces back then," the silver shadow man said after a moment of silence. "Until it died in a joint ambush by the northerners and mountain elves, people used to call it—'The Hammer of Ravage'."

The Hammer of Plunder.

Thales watched the orc ghost named Loksada from afar, observing the beast-like fighting and the general Linka who was forced into a sorry state, and seemed to be deep in thought.

"It's easier for you to remember your enemies than yourselves."

The silver-clad figure chuckled softly.

"That's why I, who was originally in danger, can still stand here and leisurely watch the fight with you, while they can only stand there, mindlessly killing each other."

The silver shadow man turned around and raised his index finger at Thales:
"Use every means to divide and weaken your enemy—that's war." Thales frowned; he noticed the silver light flickering above the Silver Shadow's head again.
【That’s weird. 】

“From the very first day I opened my eyes here, I was searching for a way to permanently restrain them and suppress these souls,” the Silver Shadow Man shook his head slightly, “and this is one of the results.”

The silver light continued to flicker, and this time, it revealed an unusually large number of characters:
【That’s not the case.】

[On the first day, he was beaten so badly he was practically wetting himself.]

She escaped death by disguising herself as a female ghost.

Thales turned his gaze away from the silver lettering and looked at the silver-clad figure with a strange expression.

Is that so...

Pretending to be...

cough cough.

Thales struggled to pull his mind back from his tedious thoughts and turned his attention to what was in front of him: two wrestling ghosts flew a meter away from them and, amidst painful screams, dissipated into black mist.

"How ironic, it's supposed to be the afterlife..."

Looking at the increasingly intense fighting before him, he sighed, "The struggle and conflict have not disappeared."

“Even if they are both cursed souls,” Thales shook his head as he watched a ferocious human soul bite off half the face of another orc soul, “between souls…”

"They remain irreconcilable."

"Repeating the hatred and pain of his previous life."

"It's just that they've turned a war in the mortal world into a war of the dead."

This time, the Silver Shadow remained silent.

He stared intently at the performance, as if that was the most spectacular show.

“We should go—before the mountain spirits arrive to join the battle,” he said calmly a few seconds later.

Thales was startled: "Elves? There are still elven spirits here?"

“Yes, compared to humans and orcs,” the Silver Shadow scoffed, arms crossed, “the souls of those long-eared creatures are more special and more troublesome—I’m not very good at dealing with them.”

A silver light automatically appeared above his head, forming a sentence:
[Because he impersonated their female leader.]

[And they even recognized me.]

Thales glanced again with a strange expression at the great man beside him who had been dead for a long time—the latter stood with his arms crossed, gazing at the battlefield, full of vigor and imposing presence, like a hero from mythology.

The boy's gaze made the silver-clad figure, who resembled a great leader, feel slightly uneasy.
"what happened?"

“It’s nothing,” Thales said, turning his gaze away from the top of his head and shaking his head dismissively.

"They didn't even spare the elves..."

“Yes, this curse is quite fair,” the silver-clad figure paused, then nodded slightly, as if sighing:

"At least it is never racially discriminatory."

I'm not talking about a curse.

Thales raised an eyebrow.

The Silver Shadow continued:

"And we really should go."

The next second, the silver shadow suddenly grabbed Thales' left arm and pulled him backward!
Thales was startled and fell backward before he could react!

Lamenting his bad luck, he was bracing for the impact of the back of his head against the rock wall when he heard a faint rumbling behind him. He felt himself being dragged along, while the endless, fighting souls in front of him grew smaller and smaller in his field of vision.

After about ten seconds, Thales finally loosened his grip and was released.

Thales scrambled to his feet and found himself in a new spot.

Even under the "lighting" of the Silver Shadows, the so-called "new place" was nothing more than another rock underfoot.

When Thales looked up, he was surprised to see that the two rock walls in front of him were slowly closing in, shutting out the battlefield of the fighting dead on the other side and disappearing from sight.

He blinked several times.

Just now, the Silver Shadow Man carried him... through the rock wall?

What power is this?
Everything he had seen in those few hours—the ghosts, the silver shadows, the curses—was far beyond his imagination.

Amidst the faint rumbling sound, the rock walls closed together perfectly, as if they had never cracked even a tiny fissure.

“Go,” the silver-clad figure said slowly.

"It's time for you to go."

“Go back to the world you truly belong to.”

Thales, who was lost in thought, finally snapped out of it.

The prince swallowed hard. "Ah, yes."

Yes.

I should...

I have to go now.

There are many more people... waiting for me.

Thales took a few deep breaths, and a sense of gloom settled over the road ahead.

"If I am still here, can I leave?" He looked at the Silver Shadow Man hesitantly.

"If you want to." The Silver Shadow nodded calmly.

The rock strata began to shake again.

“And from today onward, I will block all possible entrances and exits here,” the Silver Shadow slowly shook his head amidst the tremors of the rock strata, his voice heavy with sorrow and grief: “The Black Path will be cut off.”

"No one can enter here safely anymore."

"No one will ever stray into the dark path again."

"No one else will ever witness such sorrow again."

"You will be the last one."

The silver-clad figure glowed faintly as he gazed silently at the dark cave ahead.

Thales felt a lump in his throat.

But looking at the other person's appearance, at those still-dark features, he couldn't say a word.

"And you, Canxing, you must keep this secret in your heart, or simply forget everything here."

Thales was taken aback: "What?"

“To avoid causing even bigger trouble,” the Silver Shadow shook his head.

"It should be understood that not everyone who comes for the curse is there to eliminate or resolve it."

It took Thales three seconds to grasp the meaning of "bigger trouble," and he looked up in confusion:

"So this so-called 'Curse of the Iron-Blooded King,' these souls... will they just stay like this forever, buried deep within the Black Path, beneath Dragon Sky City?"

The silver-clad man astutely retorted:

"what do you mean?"

Thales recalled the layers of grotesque faces and felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

“Closing the Blackpath might be a good way to stop the people up there from coming down, but that general said,” he said worriedly, “that they will eventually…”

Thales glanced at the Silver Shadow before whispering, "We must return..."

The silver shadow did not answer.

“Don’t forget Longxiao—your Arendtburg,” Thales said hesitantly, looking at him. “There are thousands upon thousands of people living above us, even the whole world of living people.”

The silver-clad figure slowly raised his head and looked back at him.

“Even someone as powerful as you seems quite wary of this curse,” Thales asked with a worried expression. “And if the curse continues to intensify, these souls will one day…”

"It's appeared on the ground now?"

(End of this chapter)