Undying Warlord

Dilan didn't really have a plan in mind but that was not necessary because he was strong enough to make everything work.

The Nightmares around him were wreaking havoc, while he passed through the crowded streets unharmed. Men and women were crying out in despair as they scampered around like mice trying to escape the terror that hailed down on them.

It was only a matter of time before all the Ascenders in the settlement would die at the hands of the Nightmares. After their death, Nightmares would be given birth by the deceased. This made it look as if an Undead Spirits were crawling out of the Ascenders' dead bodies.

Dilan found this to be quite fascinating because the entire battlefield around him was filled with despair, rising Nightmares, and death. The Nightmares tore the Ascenders into pieces, thrashed their skulls, and mutilated their bodies beyond measure.

"This Demon is pretty strong…as expected," Dilan mumbled. He looked around and spread out his Mana to search for the woman, who had wielded the Orb of Mantra before.

He figured that it would be easier to find her than the Orb of Mantra because it might as well be stored away in a storage ring.

However, finding anyone in the mess all around him was quite difficult.

The desperate and pained screams made it hard for him to focus and Dilan had to access the power of the Blood Eclipse Necklace to control the Nightmare Demon. That was what he decided to call the Demon he had summoned before.

It didn't take the Nightmare Demon long to appear next to him.

"What the hell do you want?" The Demon asked in a hoarse voice.

Dilan could tell that the Demon was annoyed and wanted nothing more than to be left alone. However, Dilan couldn't care less about that.

The Demon had to listen to him of his own volition, otherwise, Dilan would use the power of the Blood Eclipse Necklace and force the Nightmare Demon to pay heed to his commands.

"Tell the Nightmares to stop killing, to collect all Essence crystals from the Ascenders they killed so far and to bring me all female Ascenders in their late 20s, who have short brown hair and freckles, including the dead ones to me!" Dilan ordered.

The Nightmare Demon looked at him for a moment but he didn't say anything and followed the order he was given.

He swung his arm in the air, which caused a semi-translucent blackish shockwave to burst through the surroundings. The Nightmares stopped moving and they remained in the same position for several seconds as if they had been temporarily immobilized until they started moving again. They stopped terrorizing the Ascenders and retreated to collect the Essence crystals and search the bodies to find the person Dilan was looking for.

He was not sure if that woman was dead or alive, thus he gave clear instructions to help them bring all the women who fit the description given by him.

Dilan looked at the people in front of him with a faint smile on his face as the Nightmares clamored on the battlefield to complete the task. He received stares from hundreds of pairs of eyes that were overflowing with terror, disbelief, and confusion.

Hundreds of dead bodies littered the ground around the young man, who stood calmly next to the most terrifying existence they had ever seen.

The humans stared at Dilan with trembling legs and tried to fathom what was going on but that failed miserably.

"Do you guys know why this is happening to you?" Dilan asked all of a sudden.

His voice was quiet but it rang through the ears of all humans around like a thunderstorm.

Nobody dared to speak to Dilan in fear that he would target them next, that they would die if they said something he disliked.

"Your leader, I forgot his name again, attacked my group and he killed thousands of innocent people.

They were not even strong enough to fight some Tierless Zombies, yet, your leader labeled them criminals and cruelly slaughtered them. Some of you might be innocent as well, but why should I care about your life?" Dilan asked calmly but he only received silence as an answer.

Dilan was not fazed by that and he just smiled. That smile was more than enough to cause some weak-minded humans to collapse on the ground. Their legs had turned to jelly while their mind was overwhelmed.

"From the looks in your eyes, most of you seem to know how shady your little leader was, but you guys were too afraid to revolt against him because he was stronger than you. You seek his protection and he is allowed to do whatever he wants to, isn't that how it works?" Dilan asked, not expecting an answer from anyone. He was just trying to buy his fleet sometime as they worked hard.

It took a while until the Nightmares returned but Dilan didn't mind that. He could tell that the Nightmares brought more corpses than living women but that was to be expected.

The Nightmares had been ordered to kill all Ascenders at first, after all. There were only five women that fit the description Dilan was looking for but that was more than enough. He only needed one woman and she was alive, which was a great fortune.

The woman screamed at the top of her lungs when she was brought in front of him. She tried to escape the iron-tight grasp of the Nightmares, and to prevent them from dragging her all over the place so as to run away. However, all of her efforts were for naught and the woman ended up on the ground, her face digging into the dirt.

"Tell them to release her and to stop searching for the woman. I've found her," Dilan ordered as he squatted down to the ground, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and moved her head upward, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"Long time no see!" He greeted her with a devilish smile on his face.

The woman stared at him in terror and disbelief. She opened her mouth to speak but words failed her.

"You're probably wondering how I'm still alive, and what I'm doing here, but don't even try, I won't answer your questions," Dilan continued in a cheerful voice. He let go of the woman and gestured to her to get up.

She followed his order and pushed herself up after a bit of effort. Her entire body was trembling and she was staring down at the ground, trying to avoid Dilan's ice-cold gaze.

"Give me the Orb of Mantras and I will allow you to die quickly. But if you like getting tortured, I can comply to that. The Nightmares are more than willing to slowly rip off your skin, pull out your nails, hair, teeth, eyes, and so on," He continued to vividly describe her fate as she shuddered uncontrollably.

There was no need for him to move because his words and presence were already enough for the woman to understand that she would die one way or another.

It was not possible for her to escape this fate!

However, the woman was not strong enough to accept reality. Tears welled up in her eyes and it was clearly visible that she faced an internal dilemma. Numerous thoughts wreaked havoc in her mind but Dilan didn't give her any time to figure out what to do and how to escape.

"Do you want me to start killing the ordinary people, whom I've spared until now? If you didn't realize, I only ordered Ascenders to be killed because all of them participated in the killing process of my people, didn't they?" Dilan asked.

He could tell that it was not easy to activate both the Paralyzation Domain and the Meteor Shower domain, and the leader of the ten thousand Ascenders had reaffirmed this theory.

All Ascenders living in this settlement had given their mana to empower the Orb of Mantras to activate two Tier-4 Domain Mantras and kill his people. Thus, there was no need to show any mercy to them.

"And you should know best that it would only be fair if I were to torture you in the worst possible way. After all, you activated the Orb of Mantras, killing everyone!" Dilan's voice grew colder with every spoken word and the woman in front of him fell to the ground.

​ She kneeled down in front of him and started to cry bitterly.

"I'm sorry….I'm so sorry!!" She wailed but Dilan could only shake his head.

"Being sorry won't bring back the dead!"