2128 The Power of Monster Cores (Part2)

"The Dead King never used it as a brothel but as a place to gather all the people who could help him to surpass his brother.

"I was tasked with teaching him spearsmanship, Rakhan with how to fix his outdated Forgemastery, Termian strategy, and so on. Each one of us had their respective duty and by working together we had to help him understand his bloodline abilities."

"What the heck did he mean with 'pleasure', then?" Cyntra's words made sense, but Dusk didn't trust Orpal farther than he could bury him.

"The Dead King kept repeating that ever since he's met Night, he has never experienced a greater ecstasy than becoming stronger and trampling his enemies. He considered us the whetstone with which he sharpened his blade.

"As long as he had use for us, he didn't dare harm us or force us to turn into his Chosen."

"Because of his good heart?" The Red Sun furrowed his brows in disbelief.

"No, because the Dead King had no control over his minions unless he fused his mind with theirs, but doing so meant to erase our personality and knowledge. He often whined about how much he would have loved to just absorb our skills instead of training." Cyntra replied.

"On top of that, he left us precise instructions. The door to these chambers was supposed to only open either by his hand or upon his death. In the latter case, we had to impart our knowledge to Thrud's enemies.

"Were the Dead King to turn us into Chosen, we'd die with him the moment the prism shatters."

"This leaves me just one question. If you knew all this, why did you agree to help him?"

"Because he left me no choice." The spear master sighed. "You were gone, the Courts were still at war with the entirety of Garlen, and I had nowhere to run. I remained loyal to the Dusk Court and waited for your return, but you never did."

Those words struck at the Horseman harder than any blow he had ever taken, making Baba Yaga's words echo inside his head.

'Maybe Mom was right when she said that I'm the one who disappointed her the most. All this time, I never worried about the consequences that my actions had on my people.

'First, I forced them to go to war against the living and then I abandoned them in the hands of not one but two madwomen. I left Cyntra and many others to rot without a second thought.'

'What's the point of being sorry? Be better.' Kelia's voice snapped him out of it. 'We can save them now and give them a choice. They can either join us and help the Empress or they can go to the Eclipsed Lands.

'Whatever they decide to do, it will be on them, not you.'

'Thanks, Kelia.' He inwardly nodded.

"I hereby release you all from your service under the Black Night." Dusk said. "You are free and under my protection until we leave the palace."

"This wasn't the deal!" Sider said. "You are allowed to bring out only those who belong to the Dusk Court."

"Fine. Who among you wants to join me?" The Red Sun asked with a shrug.

Not only all of the undead in Orpal's room raised their hand but also many among the guards.

"I'm going to uphold my end of the bargain." Dusk's eyes shone with a red fury that matched his armor and so did his blades. "I'm leaving with the members of my Court. Now step aside or I'll end you."

"Kill them all!" Sider's voice had yet to die out when the guards were already attacking, yet Dusk, Xenagrosh, and Kigan were faster.

The Red Sun plunged the Firebrand in his left hand straight into the butler's black prism while throwing the second at a Chosen who wore a golem suit of armor, piercing them both.

Before the corpses could turn into ashes, the blades flickered in a blaze of emerald flames, leaving the wounds open and reappearing in Dusk's hands, ready to strike again.

The undead guards jumped on the Horseman while he was still unarmed and arrived just in time to impale themselves on his blades.

Those who came too close had to deal with two short words while those who stepped back were cut asunder by the great ax the two pieces of Firebrand merged into.

As for the Eldritches, they had been absorbing the light element from the arrays the entire time, using it to develop and refine their powers.

"Stay behind me if you want to live." The Shadow Dragon said while activating her tier three Decay magic spell, Lifespark.

Five small beams of white energy came out from each of her fingers, striking at the undead who fell to the ground panting.

The enormous amount of light element they had been exposed to had fixed the imbalance in their blood cores, turning them back into humans. Regular red-cored humans whose bodies were too weak to wield equipment that even a newborn undead would have considered light.

Bodies that aged at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning youths into old people and then into literal fossils. Even those who managed to dodge Lifespark couldn't escape its effects.

The Decay infected the particles of light element released by the arrays, turning them into Decay as well.

"I'm alive!" Cyntra had tried to take part in the battle but Dusk had stopped her.

The small particles of Decay had brought her blood core to full red and beyond, temporarily restoring her mortality.

"Damn, you better take a few steps back then. This is harder than I thought!" Xenagrosh had only recently started to experiment with the magic that her troll core could conjure.

The enormous mass of light element that her monster core produced was neutralized by her black core which in turn needed just a slight push to turn it into Decay.

While regular Eldritchs could only use Chaos safely thanks to their cores feeding off the Decay produced in the process, now Xenagrosh had learned how to do the same with her troll core to control Decay magic.

Yet like all the Cursed elements, its power was wild and unpredictable. Kigan was safe from it only thanks to his black core while Dusk due to his armor whose defensive aura sizzled every time a spark of Decay reached him.

Xenagrosh took a deep breath, hurling a stream of Origin Flames that despite her best efforts carried neither Chaos nor Decay.

"Dammit, why can't I do it? Lith makes it look so easy!" She said in frustration as the first rows of undead perished.

"Tell me about it!" Kigan said with a snarl.

He activated his bloodline ability, Molting Essence, to turn his body into a mass of living flames while also using his Balor's red eye to strip the fire element away from the world energy.

Without its twin element, water turned into Zero and so did the Black Phoenix.

"I'll take the ones on the left. Xenagrosh, you deal with those on the right. Dusk, make sure that those weaklings stay out of our way!" His words hurt the pride of the ancient undead.