The Ruined Death Knight

The way towards the palace was a long one even with a carriage.

Danzel listed to Vanessa various other minor runes that he could potentially carve in the artifact.

After all, if what she said to him was true, he will have a whole body's worth of armor to carve into.

How he was going to distribute the runes and how to maximize his given space was something he had to figure out.

And honestly, he was quite excited to do this work.

Though he only manage to get a glance at her "armor", he could tell with [Rune Vision] that this artifact had a high resistance towards runes similar to the alchemical weapons that Azrael gave him.

Just that it was a level higher than those items.

He could tell that by how bright the green light was from the [Rune Vision].

It is like a comparison drawing on a blank white paper and paper that had lines.

While you could draw on both pieces of paper, the one without any lines would be much better to use in order to achieve a better painting.

If he had any complaints in the item he was set to carve runes Into, was the fact that he couldn't secretly carve the [Rune of Harvest] into her item.

Considering her strength, she would have been a great harvester for him.

Other than that, he talked about the issue of how she would hide the runes, but it seems his worries were unneeded. Apparently, she could control how those bandages moved, and controlling which side they face was an easy task for her.

Their talk was though soon interrupted with a faint light reappearing in the room of the carriages. Showing that the barrier has been lifted.

*Knock, Knock~

Knocking on their door, a knight that they saw before opened the door.

"We arrived..." He said with a cold tone while staring at Danzel with a frown on his face.

Danzel recognizes the gaze of the man.

It was a face of hate and despise towards one person.

The only reason why he recognized such face was only because he saw countless of them calling themself his allies. But in truth want to be his enemy.

They were also the brave and the foolish ones that decided to take arms against him.

But they ended up dying and serving his cause.

Most likely the reason for all the hate was because they saw their friends being raised as undead.

Be it for them or his means to get something done were immoral, he didn't care about their opinion.

Ignoring his gaze, he and Vanessa stepped out of the carriage.

The same knight that looked at him with hate guided them inside the palace.

The inside of the palace was quite spacious and the wealth of the dynasty was everywhere to observe.

Danzel at first expected the palace to be simply a huge house for the king of the dynasty, but after seeing people who didn't look like soldiers "running" away after seeing them, he guessed that he was mostly wrong.

"Hey, Vanessa, do you know where we are going."

"Do the boss...probably."

Hearing the last word of her reply, Danzel became twice the warier of his surroundings.

He placed his hand around the handle of his sword, making the knight who was guiding them look behind him, his frown growing much worse.

"...You have been called to meet someone."

"Who is it?" Danzel said, his killing intent rising and his cursed sword coming out of its sheath.

"Wait, don't try anything just yet." Vanessa said as she moved her hand and pushed the top of the hilt down.

"He is provoking oblivious of the fact that you wouldn't hesitate on cutting his head off. He is probably referring to some stupid nobles looking for us or someone similar to the like. Knowing boss, he will come to pick us up. Till then don't kill anyone, not yet." Vanessa said to him, ignoring the fact that she spoke out loud.

'Aren't you supposed to say something like this in whispers?' Danzel asked himself while looking at the knight that started sweating.

"Got it..." Danzel answered instead, continuing to follow the knight.

Soon enough, they walked on a path that was opened up with stone fences, outside a garden with a lake and a huge tree to see. In that path another set of knights awaited them.

The knight that was guiding them turned around to face Vanessa.

"Then lady Vanessa, please follow me. An important person has been earger to meet you."

Before she could answer, the other knights waiting for them stepped up.

"Sir Abdiel, please follow us."

Seeing what was happening, Vanessa clicked her tongue.

"Tch, don't kill anyone before the boss comes!" She yelled before turning around and following the knight.

The other bunch of knights looked at Danzel and he stared back.

They were both confused and scared of the dark elves' last words.

Confused because the colleague that guided them was the one supposed to guide the dark knight known as Abdiel and not actually them. As to why they were scared...it was obvious.

"T-Then sir Abdiel, please follow behind us, "that" person is waiting for you."

Without answering back, Danzel walked behind the knight's steps.

After walking for a bit and climbing some stairs, they soon arrived at a door where the knights halted, which 2 other knights were guarding.

"Please enter the room, his highness has been awaiting you." One of the knights said before opening the door for him.

"..."

They were a moment of pause as the door was opened before Danzel stepped into the room while watching the door behind him close.

Then he froze.

"Welcome, to my humble space of wasting time. So I heard that you were one of the apprentices of that Veleron?" As soon as he finished speaking, a wave of faint dark lighting traveled through the room.

Danzel recognized it as some sort of barrier, but the mana that was there for a moment disappeared without any hints of their having been cast any spell.

The man behind a desk rose from his seat, he wore some simple black clothing with a mix of gold, at least simple considering a nobles perspective.

But the aura that this man released as soon as the barrier was put into place was something that Danzel once experienced before.

"But it is thoroughly puzzling, to say the least. Veleron, knowing that shameless guy wouldn't waste his time on something like apprentices. Maybe I would have believed it if it was only you, but you are not." The man said, his voice becoming colder and colder with each passing second.

It was the aura of a king.

But not from the living.

"Nonetheless of lesser undead like you. So? Tell me why Veleron has been keeping someone like you on his side."

In a blink of an eye, the man's skin started decaying and his overall height began increasing, his eyes became blank before disappearing. His flesh was no more, and only a skeleton figure replaced the human of before.

A dark aura that hungered to devour the light envelopment his body and started to slowly spread to Danzel.

"Tell me!!!" The skeleton in front of him yelled, his voice like that of thousands of banshees singing their curses.

Danzel felt every single bone of his body becoming fives times more heaving while an invisible hand was pushing him to kneel to the floor while whispers tried to convince him to kneel and answer the being in front of him.

But Danzel held on to the surgery to kneel.

Gritting his teeth, he drew his cursed sword and pointed it toward the undead in front of him.

Without saying anything at Danzel pointing his sword at him, the undead raised his hand slowly towards him.

Because of the mana surging around the undead's body, he couldn't tell if the undead was going to cast a spell or not.

But his worries soon disappeared as the undead dragged his hungering aura back.

"It seems you aren't a stray as I had expected. Shouldn't have suspected Veleron after all..." The undead talked to himself before pointing with his extended hand at one of two couches where there was a table between the couches.

"Take a seat, no point pointing that piece of metal at someone like me. Forget the fact that you wouldn't stand a change, but even if you managed to do something, it would have been pointless." The man said as slowly flesh filled his bones.

Once he was on his human form again, he seated on one of the couches and looked at Danzel who was frozen in place confused.

"What are you doing? Come take a sheat already. Or are you planning to talk with me from there?"

"..." Staying silent, Danzel sheathed his sword back on the scabbard before walking to the couch and seating apposite to the undead in human skin.

'If he wanted to hurt, he would already do so. Moreover, his wearing those cloths should make him an important person among humans. Even with the barrier, others should notice...' Danzel through internally.

"So you aren't the type that talks much? Anyway, I have to say that I am impressed with keeping you cool after withstanding my aura. While usual undead would follow through with my will, the natural, lesser undead will at most bent their knee in front of me. At first when I heard that the discipline of Veleron was more of a warrior than a magic caster I couldn't believe it. But it seems that you are special."

"Thank you..." Danzel answered with a cold and blank voice.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Kingra'mash, a Lich and a member of the council. I hoped to have a conversation with you, as you are my dears friend apprentice."