The Ruined Death Knight

Without being able to respond, the helmet that was in Danzel's hands was pierced from something so fast that Danzel couldn't take a good look at it.

"Baaahm!

"Huh?"

Turning his head around, what he saw stunned him.

'Ice?'

The ice that he was speaking of had created a large while in a tree.

The ice after seemed to have stopped inside a tree which looked like cloth that was ripped with a dull knife.

If it weren't for the fact of the small bits of metal lying near the ice spear, Danzel would have questioned it if that thing took his helmet away from him.

But to Danzel, his helmet wasn't important now.

Rather, the one who cast it was the real threat.

'It can't be...' Danzel thought, hoping that the person behind him wasn't the one he was thinking of.

Unfortunately for Danzel, that was indeed the case.

"Why..." Taking a step back, Danzel looked shocked.

'Why is he here!?'

"It seems that we meet again, wasn't the last time when you did the test of you rang?"

An elderly man with a long white beard wearing a robe and a staff in his hand appeared out of seemingly nowhere not far from Danzel.

Usually, when people faced an undead being head one, various negative emotions would surface in their face.

Be it fear, dread, distress or disgust alone.

There would be always such a feeling there.

That was usually the case.

The elderly Archmage instead, looked at Danzel and shook his head in disappointment.

Like how a child opens eagerly a large presence at Christmas, only to later find out that the present was some clothes that didn't even fit him.

"Right, Lerum Danzel?" With his face hiding him of disappointment, his eyes darted to the sword that Danzel was now holding.

"Or would you rather be called, Rue Danzel, the runesmith from Berum?"

"..."

Danzel in response stayed still, his mind working at his limit to find the reason why this man was in front of him.

In conclusion, only two names appeared in his head.

"Merrick and Honor..." Danzel mumbled as he cursed internally.

'Did they find a loophole in the contract?'

'No, that shouldn't be the case. If they ever had mentioned or wanted reveal who and where he is, the contract would have imminently litten up'

'But that doesn't make sense, the bottles that we're keeping the contract not long that 10 minutes ago by that fireball of that one magic caster. I didn't even reveal my location to either of those two.'

Danzel heavily doubted that this old man was capable of finding him in a matter of 10 minutes in an unknown location.

Truth was, he was both right and wrong.

Finding someone in a mature of 10 minutes while being in the forest was indeed impossible.

Where he was wrong though was that there was indeed a loophole in the contract.

Or rather two loopholes.

"Mhmm, if you thinking how I found you then you guessed right. It's indeed with the help of my subordinate and that merchant. Who the latter is dead."

"Thus, as I said. Making a contract with him would be impossible." The Archmage, Nevvan said with a calm tone.

Hearing that, Danzel realized something.

The deceased can't break or fulfill the contract.

But Danzel was still confused, as something wasn't adding up.

The information.

"But then ho-"

"How did I know where you are? Naive, you are truly naive. Did you really make those runes for the contract by yourself?"

Nevvan wrinkles got even worse as he frowned in doubt.

Walking slowly towards Danzel, he answered.

"I made a contract, with the merchant I mean..."

Like gears fitting each other, Danzel opened his mouth wide open.

As he realized what he did.

The second loophole in the contract was the loophole itself!

The contract or rather the [Rune of Uzal] wasn't omnipotent.

In the case of the contract that Danzel made for Honor, he did make sure to put on the details.

Some being that writing, hinting, saying anything about him and his location would make the contract break.

Making the one signing the contract impossible to reveal anything in any kind of form.

However, if something existed that was able to indirectly reveal the lies of someone without making him break the contract.

Then the contract wouldn't activate.

Realizing what must have happend, Danzel was filled with regret.

"Dammit..."

'I should even write that making another contract would activate the runes!'

"Mhm, it seems like you acknowledged your mistake."

Nodding his head, Nevvan looked at Danzel while touching his white beard with a though full expression.

"Now, although I originally came here to recruit you, sadly, that doesn't look possible anymore."

With the temperature rapidly decreasing, a surge of mana came out of the magic caster body.

"!!!!"

"Now, before I destroy that insult of magic that your body is, let me ask-"

Without letting him finish, Danzel own mana surged through his body.

Turning around, he kicked the ground and run as fast as he could away from the magic caster.

'If I don't escape I..!' Danzel thought.

The moment he saw the sole mana amount that this magic caster released, he knew that he had no chance of winning.

"Mhmm, to think you were as stupid as to put such a useless struggle."

Raising his staff a bit, the ground around him turned in an instant into ice and traveled with immense speed towards Danzel.

With his [Great Sense Danger] activating, he felt immense danger coming towards his legs.

Before he knew it, the ice that was traveling started to raise into a thin ice blade.

Danzel attempted to jump, but sadly he was only fast enough to raise this one leg high.

His other leg was cut in an extremely fine cut, to the point it was scary.

But that didn't let Danzel hinder him.

Bringing out the staff that the previous magic caster had, he used it to support himself while he hopped awkwardly further away.

But it was useless.

The magic caster who was 30 meters away appeared 5 meters behind him in an instant.

"Rather despaired aren't you?"

This time, compared to a second ago, the danger wasn't felt to his remaining leg, but his chest.

Knowing full well that lodging was useless, he turned around while engulfing Veren with mana.

What he saw next was an ice spear like the one before flying at him.

Swing Veren at the incoming ice spear.

The next moment he knee, his whole body was catapulted towards a tree.

"Seriously..."

Pinned down with a massive ice spear in a tree. Danzel grid his teeth in anger as he looked at this own body.

The side of his five was completely destroyed, but what made him suffer the most was upon witnessing Veren's state.

"Dammit..!" Cursing out loud, he got out of the ice spear that was pinning him in the tree and fell to the ground right in front of Veren cause of the lack of a leg.

"T-The rune is destroyed..."

The longsword that Veren was, that he was using ever since he defeated one of his kind.

Was now, broken in half with only the hilt with a small part of the blade still intact.

Though it pained him to see Veren now ruined, that' didn't make him forget of the situation he was in.

"I need to get away..."

As he stands up while supporting himself by the tree.

The archmage was right behind me.

"Give up"

Swinging his staff at Danzel's side, hitting like a hammer, Danzel was sent rolling to the ground.

"You neither run nor win against me. Give up" the archmage said as he looked down on Danzel.

"Now, before I kill you. Answer me. Are you a part of the council?"

"..."

Hearing a foreign name, Danzel stayed still for a moment.

But before he could answer, the archmage added in.

"Well, it doesn't matter really. Although killing a runesmith is a shame, but the fact that you are undead makes you too dangerous."

"Hahaha..."

'How stupid was I..."

"What's so funny?"

"You wanted to know if I am from the council, right?" Danzel said.

'For something like this to awaken bits of hope in me...'

Gripping a pile of earth with his hand, he turned around and throws it at the magic caster's face before turning around aiming for his throat with what remained left from Veren.

"Naive..."

The earth that he had thrown was blocked by a transparent barrier of shorts.

Looking at the undead charging at him, he lightly tapped his staff to the ground.

The next moment, a cold wind came out, turning Danzel into a block of ice.

"A third-rated undead daring to face the likes of me..." Saying so with disgust.

The magic was about to raise his staff until he notice something weird.

*Crack

"Hmmm?" Sharing the sound, Nevvan looked ahead only seeing a small crack appearing in the ice.

But what happend next surprised him even more.

"Such bloodthirst..."

His ice that was supposed to stop all movement and made it all the more difficult to move mana had now a slight glow of dark green mana together with killing going towards the magic caster.

Though the cracks were small, they were free in size by each second.

The most confusing part that it was for Nevvan was that the dark green mana was looking like an image of the wight overlapping with his body and only going out for a moment.

"Let's finish it..."

Tapping his staff to the ice block, large cracks start to form in the ice, breaking the ice as the body of the undead.

Once that happend, a wave of killing intent came upon Nevvan that was made him surprised.

As the cracks reached the climax, an echoing voice full of hatred was released.

"I WILL NEVER FORGET! YOU! MAGIC CASTER!"

The ice was below away, destroying the Wights body, with his dark green self-image vanishing at the same time.

Only a small ring with a small part of Verens blade remained.

"Hateful as ever, that is that filthy undead."

Bending to his knees, he collected the ring and looked back at where the undead died before shaking his head from the undead's last words.

In the next moment, he disappeared from the scene.

Failing to see the dead mana that still remained in some small pieces.