Chapter 498: Dance of a Puppet
[A Couple of Minutes Earlier]
Inside the King’s palace, the King was obliterating everything in his path with pure dominance and destruction.
Hundreds upon hundreds of undead soldiers fell beneath his crushing fists.
Consumed by rage and hatred, he moved like a walking juggernaut, tearing through the undead swarm with ease.
His plan was simple.
If he could not find the human Necromancer behind the undead, he would make sure to destroy every undead soldier without leaving a single survivor.
With his strength and power, he firmly believed he could accomplish this.
Perhaps, this was the pride that befitted a King.
Or perhaps, it was the arrogance that came from standing at the top of the pyramid for so long that he had forgotten what it meant to struggle.
To fight without losing himself.
To fight without losing what was precious to him.
To fight without forgetting the reason he was fighting in the first place.
A fight that required him to forget his arrogance and pride and consider the bigger picture.
To fight as if his life depended on it.
To fight to keep his city whole instead of destroying it himself.
Or perhaps, fighting was not the real solution anyway.
As a King, he needed to consider his losses and gains before making any decision.
Unfortunately, the Scorpion King did not think about that, blinded by pride, rage, hatred, and humiliation.
He continued tearing through the undead cannon fodder while believing he was causing a real problem for his enemy.
He mistook motion for progress, mistaking the storm of his own making for a change in the weather.
While he was killing pawns and calling it checkmate, all his Elders had been slaughtered one after another in brutal fashion.
None of them had been left with a complete corpse. Even if the Scorpion King were to see their corpses, he would have failed to recognize them.
The puppet danced with such passion that it forgot the string attached to its limbs.
But now, his illusion was going to be shattered.
Meanwhile, outside the destroyed palace gate, an undead figure walked calmly between the corpses, a dark cloak draped over its body.
It walked without hurry.
Without the slightest concern for the carnage surrounding it.
Its hollow eye sockets burned with eerie pale soul fire beneath the hood as it slowly stepped over the remains of the fallen Scorpion Men.
Everywhere around it, blood covered the ground. Broken weapons were scattered across the battlefield.
Dead bodies lay among the ruins of the palace, their once proud armor stained crimson.
Yet the cloaked undead paid none of it any attention.
It continued forward.
Slowly, as though it had all the time in the world.
In the distance, the roar of battle continued to echo through the air.
Screams and cries could be heard in every corner as the Scorpion Men desperately tried to push the undead soldiers back, but their efforts were useless.
More of them were dying with each passing second than they could count.
With death spreading throughout the battlefield, the arrival of the new undead servant did not raise any alarm.
The undead stood at the center of hundreds of dead bodies without moving.
A thick stench of blood permeated the air, with blood flowing like a stream around him.
Suddenly, it happened.
Thick metallic liquid began to rise into the air.
At first, no one took notice of it because everyone was fighting desperately to preserve their lives. But when the metallic liquid formed into a small tornado, all the Scorpion Men finally noticed it.
Some froze in their action and stared at it for a couple of seconds before they resumed their fight. Even though an increasing sense of easiness watched over them, they did not think about it.
Perhaps they were too tired to realize what was happening or they simply do not think there could be any more horror to what they were already that could ever appear again.
But they were wrong.
Too wrong as a matter of fact.
And then, the blood tornado devoured all the blood in the vicinity, growing stronger and stronger with each passing moment.
Flesh devoured into blood.
Bones vanishing.
Complete course gone in second while it completely roared like a beast awakened from its slumber.
By now, the blood tornado had grown over fifty meters in height and was still increasing at a visible speed.
"T-This..."
Fear and terror were etched onto the faces of all the Scorpion Men.
Some even took a step backward, their hands trembling continuously as they stared at the terrifying phenomenon before them.
They could fight against the undead.
But against this...
Their courage was shattered, and every illusion that they could still win the battle vanished immediately.
Roar!
Before they could even react, the blood tornado howled forward, devouring everything in its path. And strangely enough, it did not target the undead servant.
"Run!"
"Run!"
No one needed to give the command because the Scorpion Men were already fleeing.
They threw their weapons away and pushed their speed to the limit, desperately trying to escape the approaching disaster.
But how could they escape?
The blood tide caught them one after another, swallowing their bodies into its crimson depths, crushing them into mincemeat, fueling its power.
And with every person it devoured, the blood tornado grew stronger.
Screams and terror unlike anything that had ever appeared inside the city echoed throughout the streets for the first time.
Scorpion Men fled for their lives with desperation written across their faces.
Some stumbled over corpses.
Others abandoned their wounded companions.
The proud Scorpion Clan had completely lost its composure.
Back inside the King’s palace, the Scorpion King who thought he was winning against his enemy suddenly stopped.
His massive fist remained suspended in the air as he slowly turned his head toward the distant sound.
His expression changed.
His pupils contracted.
He heard it.
He saw it.
A scene he never thought was possible appeared before his very own eyes. And in that moment, his heart skipped a beat and then,
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"