Mercenary Wars

Chapter 213 Seth
The two undead were almost completely unsuspecting. The sword-wielding undead, despite holding a sword, did not act as if it were a weapon; it was more like it was strolling around its own backyard with a broom in hand.

This is not surprising. The water cellar may have been untouched for centuries, with hardly any trace of life remaining. To them, this dark space truly felt like their own backyard.

Therefore, during their journey, they were completely unaware of Gaucano and his group hiding nearby.

Looking at the two unsuspecting undead, Gao Jiano pondered for a moment, considering whether to leave them there or capture them for questioning.

Unexpectedly, at that moment, a deep snore suddenly broke the silence: "Hoo—"

But Little Black had fallen asleep.

Darlis was the first to notice that Little Black was asleep. She quickly reached out to pat him, but she was too weak and even with both hands, Little Black did not react.

It was only when Little Gu pecked it with its beak that it suddenly woke up from the sharp pain.

The two undead had already sensed something.

"What was that noise?" The undead with the sword turned to look, then asked his companion, "Did you hear that?"

"I... am stupid." The armored undead stopped in his tracks, speaking in a stiff voice, his empty eye sockets not even looking in the direction from which the voice came.

"Useless!" the sword-wielding undead cursed, then walked towards the source of the sound.

The armored undead stood there, motionless.

"Hurry up and keep up!"

Only when the sword-wielding undead called out did he stagger to follow, his rusty armor clanging with each step. Not only was he moving slowly, but the sound was almost as noticeable as Little Black's snoring.

"What do we do?" the undead hiding behind the boulder asked.

James said, "I might know that guy with the sword. Maybe we can try to communicate with him?"

Pierce: "I don't think it's a good idea. My gut feeling tells me that this guy is very likely mentally twisted and has lost the humanity he can use to communicate."

"Why?" James asked doubtfully.

Pierce: "Spontaneously awakened spirits can be good or evil, but a group of spontaneously awakened and organized spirits can almost only be evil."

“In the world of the living, justice may prevail over evil; but for them, evil prevailing over justice is the norm. In a spontaneously awakened group of the dead, those who retain their humanity either fall into depravity or are simply destroyed.” He added, “Even depravity is not the most common; they prefer to completely annihilate their fellow human beings who possess humanity.”

As the two undead drew closer, Gaucano asked, "Pierce, do you know how to silence?"

Pierce nodded: "Yes."

“Pierce casts Silence on the undead with the sword, and Daris casts it on the other undead,” Gaucano instructed.

As he spoke, he took out a bottle of oil from his storage ring, poured it into his palm, and then evenly applied it to several enchanted steel arrows.

"What is this thing? It's disgusting!" several Sindragosa undead exclaimed, instinctively avoiding Gaugano.

“Secondary sacred oil,” Gaugano said.

After experiencing the island blood sacrifice incident, he specially bought a lot of sacred oil in case of emergency.

Weapons coated with holy oil deal extra damage to undead, ghosts, demons, and other creatures.

Of course, Holy Oil isn't cheap, and these two undead don't seem like much of a threat, so Lesser Holy Oil should be enough.

"Wait a minute, I've seen holy oil before, but it's never this disgusting," James said, then realized, "Oh, I'm a vengeful spirit now, sigh..."

“Although we are the dead, we still retain the personalities we had in life, and we are even afraid of the Holy Oil! It feels terrible to be wrongly harmed by justice…” one of the dead sighed.

Pierce said, "The sacred oil doesn't have time to examine our character."

Gaucano threw out several enchanted steel arrows.

"Whoosh—" Guided by a swift breeze, several enchanted steel arrows shot out.

At the same time, Pierce and Darius finished casting their spell, and the Silence spell hit the two undead, silencing them instantly.

The sword-wielding undead showed no fear and charged straight at Gaugano.

The armored undead was stunned for a moment, then turned and ran. Its originally clumsy movements suddenly became incredibly agile, and it ran swiftly into the depths of darkness.

Upon seeing this, Gaogano immediately guided all the enchanted steel arrows toward the armored undead.

Slowed down by the armor, the armored undead were slow and were quickly overtaken by several arrows.

After a moment's thought, Gaucano did not fire directly. Instead, he hovered several enchanted steel arrows, aiming the arrowheads coated with Lesser Holy Oil at close range at the armored undead.

Sensing the awe-inspiring aura of the Lesser Holy Oil on the arrowhead, the armored undead hesitated briefly before turning around, raising its hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Go and tie him up," Gao Jiano said, activating Earth Skin as he charged towards the sword-wielding undead.

"Qiang!"

The undead swung their swords in a slash.

But his sword, like the armor of the undead, was already severely rusted, dull and brittle, and barely scratched the skin of Gaugano's earth.

Gao Jiano caught the sword with his bare hands, then clenched his fist and twisted it forcefully.

"Crack!"

With a crisp sound, the rusty sword broke in two, and some rust chips splattered from the broken edge.

Only then did the sword-wielding undead seem to show fear, attempting to turn and run away, and also trying to call for help.

But under the influence of the silencing spell, he couldn't make a sound at all. No matter how much he moved his jaw, not a sound could be uttered, making it look like he was performing a silent play, which was quite comical.

He couldn't outrun Gaucano either; he would run one minute and be overtaken the next.

Gao Jiano threw a punch.

"Boom!" The fist in Earth Skin state was no different from a heavy punch, and immediately emitted a dull impact sound, accompanied by the cracking of the undead bones.

The undead holding the sword suddenly opened its jaws wide, looking as if it were about to scream, but it couldn't make a sound.

In fact, the bones of the undead are much tougher than those of ordinary creatures, have a strong ability to withstand pressure, and hardly feel pain.

However, at this moment, Gaucano's hands were covered in Lesser Holy Oil. Before starting the battle, he had made sure to spread the Lesser Holy Oil evenly on his hands.

For the dead, this stuff tastes like a rebuttal—and a scalding one at that.

The physical and mental damage to the sword-wielding undead who took such a punch head-on is unimaginable.

He completely lost his will to fight, threw his weapon on the ground, and turned to run away without a care.

How could Gao Jiano let him go? He immediately grabbed him back, slapped him twice with his backhand, and then pressed his five fingers into his face, applying a full amount of Lesser Divine Oil to his pale skull.

"Sizzle—" As the five fingers touched the white bone, puffs of white smoke rose up, accompanied by a sizzling sound of corrosion. The sword-wielding undead's jaw was clenched so hard it was almost dislocated, and its whole body trembled violently.

"Don't make a sound without my permission, or I'll throw you into the barrel of holy oil!" Gaucano said viciously. "Do you understand?"

The spirit nodded hastily.

Gao Jiano then released his grip. At that moment, a clear handprint had been scorched into the skull of the sword-wielding undead by the Lesser Holy Oil, and wisps of white smoke were still rising, causing him to tremble with lingering fear.

Gaucano used a water cleansing spell to wash away the remaining Lesser Holy Oil from his hands, then looked at the armored undead.

This armored undead was clearly not the mindless undead he had initially thought. Compared to the sword-wielding undead, this guy was not only faster in his reactions, but also very pragmatic.

"You've been playing dumb all along?" Gaucano asked.

The armored undead nodded and even made a Mosaic triangle gesture in front of his chest.

“Dispel their silence spell,” Gaucano gestured to Daris and Pierce.

The moment the silence spell wore off, the sword-wielding undead couldn't help but curse at the armored undead: "You bastard, you've been lying to me all this time!"

The armored undead shrugged: "What else? I'm not a follower of evil gods."

"This is betrayal, this is blasphemy!" the sword-wielding undead roared in fury.

The armored undead were also enraged: "You are the traitors! We were originally the people of Mosa, the craftsmen and mages of Asur, but you chose to become the lackeys of the evil god Set, harming your former compatriots!"

"You—" the sword-wielding undead was about to say something.

Gaucano took out a bottle of Lesser Divine Oil, shook it, and said coldly, "If you keep making that noise, I'll force it down your throat."

The sword-wielding undead shuddered at the thought of the taste of Lesser Holy Oil and immediately shut his mouth.

Gaucano looked at the armored undead: "What's your name?"

“Oren,” the armored undead said, “I was a water magic instructor at the Asur Magic Academy. I died while participating in the construction of the Great Water Cellar and became an undead.”

James exclaimed in surprise, "So you're Oren!"

Oren was taken aback: "Who are you?"

James: "I'm James. We met in Mosaroya. I don't know if you remember me."

“Back then, we were all magic apprentices, and we had the audacity to discuss the relationship between magic and theology, for which we were reprimanded!” he added.

Oren nodded suddenly: "Oh, I remember now, it was the Magicians' Assembly in Mosaroye, I went with my mentor."

“We also encountered an elven mage and argued with him. He looked much younger than us, but he was actually older than our grandfathers.”

"I've only ever seen one elf in my entire life..."

The two deceased souls reminisced for a few moments.

Until Daryls asked, "Oren, how long have you been pretending to be a mindless undead?"

“I don’t know,” Oren shook his head. “It’s pitch black here, and there’s no usable elemental clock, so there’s no way to tell the time. But I estimate it’s been several decades. Several decades… I’ve finally waited for you!”

Daryls couldn't help but show a hint of sympathy.

After all, she had also experienced a period of disguise and being trapped.

But then she realized something: "Wait for us?"

Oren hesitated slightly before saying, “Over the past few decades, I have prayed to every one of my name givers, and then… Sindragosa answered me, saying that He would send messengers to deliver me. It must be you, right?”

Darius and Gaugano exchanged a glance, both seeing surprise in each other's eyes, and then she said, "I think so, we did come here under the oracle of Sindragosa."

“Thank you, Sindragosa!” Oren said.

The undead wielding the sword sneered, "Look, you betrayed Mosa too! Of course, Mosa abandoned you as well!"

Oren snorted coldly: "At least Sindragosa is not an evil god, and I have not harmed my former companions!"

"What exactly happened in the water cellar?" Gao Jiano asked.

Oren said slowly, “As you know, the water cellar was attacked by the disciples of Jehovah during its construction and eventually became a tomb, burying thousands of the guards and builders.”

“Over the long years, some corpses spontaneously transformed into spirits, and unfortunately, one of the earliest transformed spirits converted to Seth. Of course, it’s also possible that Seth awakened him.” He couldn’t help but sigh as he said this.

"Set, the god of the desert?"

"Yes."

Oren nodded and continued, "However, based on my experience over the years, Seth is less a god and more an evil god or demon. He is the embodiment of brutality, desolation, and death, and one of the most vile and depraved beings!"

Gaucano noticed that when Oren said those words, the sword-wielding undead seemed to make a fist gesture.

Oren continued, “The first guy to convert to Seth called himself the ‘Desert Bishop.’ Through violence and deception, he purged all his enemies, became the ruler of this place, and began to drive the dead to build the Seth Cathedral.”

Gaucano recalled the house he had seen earlier: "Is this the place you came from?"

“Yes.” Oren’s tone was full of indignation. “In order to maintain their rule and build churches for the evil god, the Desert Bishop and his lackeys showed no mercy to their former compatriots!”

Pierce: "If I'm not mistaken, his plan is not just to build a church, but also an altar."

Oren: "You guessed right. In fact, the Desert Bishop's plan includes much more: churches, altars, palaces... If he could, he would absolutely like to build a city of Set to dedicate to his evil master."

He continued, "If his plan succeeds, it will be a disaster for the Kingdom of Asur and the continent of Fararo. We must stop him!"

Pierce thought for a moment: "Of course, the evil god should be stopped. And as far as I know, Set and Sindragosa are enemies. Since we are the namesakes of Sindragosa, we have an obligation to drive out the power of this evil god."

He changed the subject: "But we need to understand the level of danger from the enemy, and how strong the Desert Bishop is."

"It should be around level eight," Oren said.

Gaucano: "Is there a level nine?"

"Probably not," Oren said, scratching his head.

How many men does he have?

Oren: "Twenty-six."

"It doesn't sound like a lot."

“However, we’d better act quickly,” Oren added, “because as far as I know, the Desert Bishop is building a large-scale magical facility to convert the undead.”

(End of this chapter)