Karen's remark had merely been a polite comeback with no deeper meaning. She had said she would prepare a coffin for him, so he had retorted in kind by saying he could reserve one for her.
However, the moment those words were spoken, a manservant lurking in the shadows on the perimeter, waiting for the right moment to strike, snapped his eyes open.
*The Great Existence has already extended an invitation to you. What you should do next is listen to the guidance of your new destiny with pious reverence.*
Alfred immediately began tallying in his mind again: 3/12.
If the Young Master could successfully claim this one, it would be 4/12.
Mm, from one-quarter to one-third.
For a long time, when the Young Master's twelve coffins could be filled had been a persistent ache in Alfred's heart—to the point where, for a period, whenever he saw someone who even remotely met the criteria, he would start wishing they would drop dead at once so they could move into a warm, cozy coffin.
However, as the Young Master grew stronger, the threshold for lying in a coffin naturally rose as well, narrowing the pool of candidates more and more.
It was a pity Neo still had a breath left in him. If he died, he could fill one of the vacant spots.
Even though Neo had seemingly warned the Young Master that if the Young Master dared awaken him after death, the first thing he would do upon waking was commit suicide.
Yet to Alfred, that was hardly a threat. At worst, after reviving him, they could simply seal him right away and plunge him into deep slumber.
When his power was needed, they would unseal him once more.
Alfred didn't believe for a second that, upon waking and finding the Young Master in danger or in need of him, Neo would willfully shut his eyes and carry through on his suicidal promise. Neo would help when help was needed—of that there was no doubt.
Just like earlier above ground, when the Young Master muttered, "Sell him out," everyone else chimed in, while Alfred alone kept his mouth shut.
Because he knew full well that the Young Master would never abandon the Head of the Reconnaissance Department. Neo was his friend—a friend who met the definition of the word in every true sense.
Reining in his emotions, Alfred closed his eyes again and transmitted a message to the others through the mental chain.
From here on, the Young Master's side was the primary battlefield, while their side needed to choose the perfect moment to join the fray.
Thanks to that massive explosion destroying every arrangement here, the necromantic archmage, who should have enjoyed home-field advantage, had been rendered half-blind in her own "home."
A smile tugged at the corner of Alfred's lips as another thought struck him: if this necromantic archmage's fate was already sealed, did that make the coming battle... an onboarding assessment?
That was something to be taken seriously and solemnly; after all, it would affect her future compensation package.
...
Those with steadfast faith could always maintain a positive and optimistic mindset.
Karen's current mood, however, was nowhere near as splendid as Alfred's.
Before him, Commander Daan flattened his palm downward, and instantly the rock beneath his feet began melting upward, forging a Lava Sword right in his grip.
More magma spread rapidly across his skin, weaving tightly around him until it settled into a dynamic equilibrium.
At the same time, a plume of black mist manifested behind him. Out of the mist stepped a woman clad in black armor. Her face was obscured, but her hair flowed with striking grace.
Her arms encircled Commander Daan from behind, casting a shimmering haze of light over him.
The next moment, the commander moved.
He was not exceedingly fast; he didn't drift like the wind. In fact, as he crossed the distance to Karen, Karen even had time to weigh several counteractions in his mind.
Ultimately, Karen chose not to meet him head-on. Although he dearly wanted to test the defensive strength of the Dragon God Armor firsthand, that was no excuse to stand flat-footed and trade brute force with a traditional warrior.
However, the instant Karen retreated, he realized his mistake.
Commander Daan slashed with the Lava Sword. Though the blade didn't strike Karen, as the edge cut down, Karen immediately felt the air behind him sucked away in an instant, and a terrifying pressure bore down on his movements.
The commander pressed forward and swung again. Still, the strike didn't touch Karen, but as this second blow descended, Karen felt the oppressive force intensify. It was as if invisible hands were shoving his body toward the commander.
It was an uncanny combat technique. In the face of it, nimble, swift-footed opponents were reduced to birds with clipped wings.
Karen wanted to break free from this crushing hold, but the commander's swings suddenly quickened. Even though not a single blow landed, Karen felt as though he had been shoved into a sealed canister that was constantly pumping air out.
Wings of Thousand Phantoms sprouted from his back, helping him resist the crushing pressure. At the same time, a Rubik's cube appeared before him, spinning rapidly as Karen began erecting a defensive array.
Finally, under the relentless barrage of swings, even Thousand Phantoms could no longer endure. Karen was forced to take the offensive, swinging the Sword of Diamans with his right hand to clash directly against the commander.
*Clang!*
Their greatswords collided, sending sparks flying in every direction.
At first, Karen parried the strike. He considered it a somewhat strained stalemate, but as the initial surge of power passed and Karen prepared to shift his force, double the power of the first wave surged from the commander.
Next came four times, and finally, eight times!
The rapid compounding of force crashed like ocean waves—before the first wave receded, the next had already taken over, creating a terrifying amplification.
The Sword of Diamans was instantly borne down, its blade wedged against Karen's shoulder. The Dragon God Armor stopped it, but as the raw impact crashed into Karen's frame, he was forced down onto one knee.
*Hum—!*
Gripping his greatsword, the commander pressed down harder. The two blades crossed at Karen's shoulder, subjecting him to immense, crushing physical strain.
Fortunately, the Dragon God Armor successfully protected Karen's body. Had it been Sea God's Armor, it likely would have shattered by now; after all, Sea God's Armor strictly fell under the category of a spell, not a physical object.
Even with such powerful defense, Karen couldn't afford to stop parrying. Otherwise, he would be fighting like someone trapped in a tin can, toyed with and bled dry in every conceivable manner.
Suddenly, the commander pulled back his sword, raised it high, and brought it crashing down at Karen once again.
This was an attack that completely abandoned defense. If Karen wanted, he could gamble his life to cleave the commander at the waist in exchange for being split in two himself—both of them completing the human body's two simplest planes of division.
The problem was... his opponent was an undead summon, essentially no different from a puppet. Karen would have to have lost his mind to trade his life with a puppet!
With no other choice, Karen could only raise the Sword of Diamans again to parry.
*Clang!*
The two greatswords collided once more.
Unsurprisingly, the clash began in balance, and then the force from the opposite side began doubling.
*Bang!*
The Sword of Diamans was pressed down against Karen's chest once again. Relying on the formidable defense of the Dragon God Armor, Karen managed to channel part of the pressure into the armor, letting it absorb the brunt of the damage for him.
This time, Karen noticed that the magma coating the commander's body was evaporating at an alarming rate, while a continuous stream of magma flowed up from under the commander's feet to replenish it.
If he could have unleashed eightfold power on the very first strike, he certainly wouldn't have saved it for later. Wouldn't it have been much more satisfying to hack Karen down strike after strike right from the start?
The reality was that the initial strength was already the limit of what this summon's body could muster. The subsequent surges were power drawn from the surrounding environment, using his own body as a medium.
He was using his body as a lever.
By comparison, Karen felt that using armor purely as passive armor seemed a bit too crude.
Still, being able to swiftly analyze an opponent's fighting style while being thoroughly suppressed lived up to the defining characteristic of the Inmeles family's faith system. Much like Gray from the Hound Squad, who had once taught Karen close-quarters combat and had been astounded by Karen's learning capacity—sometimes, a technique Gray had just used would be turned back on him in the very next round.
Combat truly was the quickest way to recognize one's shortcomings and improve—provided, of course, that one survived.
The commander pulled back his sword again. Following that momentary reprieve, an intense exhaustion swept through all of Karen's muscles.
A simple exchange, a straightforward clash of twin swords, yet Karen had been suppressed to a miserable degree.
When the third blow fell, Karen was once again forced to raise the Sword of Diamans to block it.
Just as before, wave after wave of power crashed against him. Karen knew this third strike was his limit; taking another blow would put every muscle in his body at risk of tearing.
Though he hadn't shed a drop of blood so far, not an ounce of the pressure had dissipated; his body had absorbed every bit of it.
However, just as the amplification of this third strike reached its peak, the Rubik's cube, which had moved behind Karen, stopped spinning.
The array was set.
A black star hexagram appeared beneath both of their feet, activating the defensive array.
Karen uttered, "Isolate!"
An array hastily erected without physical materials usually yielded subpar results. Leaving potency aside, its durability took a massive hit, especially under extreme pressure.
Yet what Karen needed was merely this brief moment.
The array pulled Karen and the commander into an isolated space cut off from the outside world.
Caught at the very peak of drawing power, the commander abruptly lost his support. His body, which had served merely as a conduit, now had to bear the entirety of the crushing load alone.
*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*
A series of ruptures rang out as holes burst open across the commander's body. Yellow liquid squirted out like blood, and he stumbled backward in rapid retreat.
Such was the limitation of undead creatures: control ultimately rested with the archmage. Put simply, these undead creatures, crafted with the help of her former companions, possessed their special abilities—essentially recorded combos.
Morindi could direct them to execute these moves, but she was a mage, not a warrior. Her capacity to make nuanced adjustments based on the flow of battle was low, making her commands rigid and mechanical.
Had it been the commander himself, he probably would have been on guard the moment Karen began setting up the array. Nor would he have mindlessly repeated the exact same trick three times just because it worked initially, unless the gap in their power was truly insurmountable.
Morindi lacked the insight to grasp such tactical depth. From an outside perspective, it looked like the commander had ferociously delivered three consecutive heavy strikes against Karen, Karen had clumsily parried all three, and then...
The commander's body had burst apart on its own.
Karen rose to his feet, swinging the Sword of Diamans in stride to cleave the commander's damaged body in two.
Yet the commander discarded the Lava Sword. He allowed Karen's blade to cut him in half at the waist, and even as his upper body fell, his arms shot forward, locking Karen in a grapple reminiscent of jujitsu.
In an instant, Karen felt pinned down—not by a wooden post or a pillar of concrete, but by a mountain.
*Damn it!*
Karen realized he had made the same mistake as Morindi. Morindi didn't understand how a warrior fought, but Karen didn't understand how a necromantic archmage alternated between her summons!
To her, a summon being damaged or destroyed was a completely normal occurrence; she focused primarily on chaining their actions together.
For instance, right now, as Karen was pinned by the commander's torso, a woman leaned out from the withered black heart beneath Morindi.
She had crimson hair and a stern countenance. Crossing her hands below her torso, she swiftly coalesced a fearsome spell, opened her mouth, and fired a crimson beam of light.
The commander had not been the first summon Morindi brought forth in this clash with Karen. Before he had even been "spat" out, Morindi had already summoned this woman from the foul fluids of the heart as a backup.
All of this had been calculated by Morindi; this was her way of fighting.
The crimson beam unerringly struck Karen's chest. The Dragon God Armor gleamed with white radiance to block it, yet just before colliding with the armor, the crimson beam vanished...
The very next instant, it burst out from behind Karen's back.
Without piercing the armor, it had produced the exact effect of an armor-piercing shot.
*Spurt...*
Karen spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed on his knees, mouth agape.
The astonishingly durable Dragon God Armor had just failed...
It wasn't because Kanna had betrayed him. Kanna had been thoroughly dutiful, focusing solely on defense and acting entirely in accordance with Karen's will.
The problem was that upon seeing Karen's armor, there was no way Morindi wouldn't adjust her attack method.
One could only blame the fact that back in the day, the people who followed Norton had all been absolute monsters.
Even today, they would not be outdone by the young talents around Karen.
One couldn't even merely call them "geniuses," for they were people who had already built an empire. Had they not perished along the way or been purged for treason, every single one of them would now hold lofty positions as leaders across the vast Church of Order.
*Clatter...*
The Sword of Diamans slipped from his grip and fell. Karen sank from his knees onto his elbows, bracing himself against the ground with both arms.
As blood steadily dripped from the corner of his mouth, a wisp of red flame flickered out from the seams of his armor.
The Dragon God Armor began to recede, and Kanna returned to Karen's back, sliding off to stare at him in disbelief.
With the armor gone, a round, crimson burn mark was clearly visible on Karen's chest—a lethal blow aimed straight for his heart.
The red flames grew fiercer, gradually engulfing Karen entirely. His expression twisted in agony as he writhed under this bizarre crimson corruption.
...
"Everyone, hold your ground!"
Alfred issued the command through the mental chain.
"No one moves without my order! Even though this apostate is gravely injured, you can never tell how many summons are waiting in the dark for us to launch a sneak attack."
Philomena responded, "But the Department Head..."
"Are you doubting the Young Master?"
"Can we leave him unsaved every time this happens in the future?" Philomena countered.
"Of course not. But whenever you see the Young Master suffering in agony from corruption, you may choose not to save him."
...
The shriveled heart, resembling a deflated basketball, began inching toward Karen.
From above, Morindi said, "Though there are things I cannot understand, facts tell me that you saw through Daan's technique just now."
Stifling his agony, Karen raised his head and croaked, "If only there was a heritage scroll... for me to study in detail... that would be great..."
Once one understood the principle, learning the technique became far easier.
Karen mainly needed to examine the operational method of mobilizing and drawing power from the environment before he could actually attempt to learn it. It was like knowing the laws of physics: to solve a specific problem, one still had to apply the corresponding formula.
"Heh, you're still obsessing over that even now?"
"To be able to... keep learning even on the verge of death... is a kind of happiness too... isn't it?"
Morindi nodded, but then she actually retreated instead of advancing.
Far from drawing closer to examine Karen and talk, she pulled even further back. The woman who had fired the beam of light also stood up, taking position before Morindi in a defensive stance.
Morindi chuckled. "Get up. I bet you're completely fine."
"Uh..."
The agonized expression on Karen's face vanished, replaced by slight embarrassment.
He stood up and gently rubbed the charred spot on his chest.
Earlier had indeed been a lethal strike, bypassing the Dragon God Armor's immense defense to strike directly at his flesh. But having fused and absorbed the Dark Moon Bone into his chest, Karen was built differently from normal people. The attack hadn't shattered his heart directly—it had been blocked by his ribs. It hurt, though. It hurt terribly.
As for the accompanying corruption... would the filthiest trash can care about one more banana peel?
With his right hand, he retrieved the Sword of Diamans, tapping its tip against the ground. With his left hand, he took Kanna's small hand.
"How did you see through it?" Karen asked.
Morindi shook her head. "I didn't see through it at all. I truly believed you were about to die. Just a moment ago, I was heading over to pay my last respects and inspect your body while I was at it—I kept feeling an unusual aura inside you."
"Hmm?"
"However..."
Morindi raised her hand and pointed toward Neo, who was sitting diagonally behind Karen.
"He used the exact same trick to fool me several times today.
"So, at least for today, if someone tries that identical routine again, I won't fall for it."
"Sigh..."
Hearing this explanation, Karen let out a sigh and turned his head to look back at Neo.
Neo blinked.
Chapter 640