Ever since the effect of demonic corruption on her increased, Huang Su felt… strange.

  She had thought she would be prepared for it, but after a few days of travel, she could tell that it was quickly wearing on her. Every time she was even a little distracted, that violet influence would arise within her, subtly sneaking into every little thought she had. It should’ve been easy for her to handle it, since she was pretty sure that most wouldn’t even be able to perceive the influence, but it was perpetual and eternal.

  It was almost inevitable that she’d slip, and she could never be sure when that would happen – or had happened.

  When she thought that Bianca was… attractive, in a sexual manner, she was pretty sure it was that influence. The time she considered giving her a blowjob definitely was. But, each time she thought it was her own fault, that she had failed to live up to her promises, it couldn’t be that influence, could it?

  ‘And every time I allow myself to be distracted, it creeps in once more. At least Mis- Bianca does not appear to be intent on taking advantage of me in this state, although the way she looks at me has clearly changed,’ the Sect Master gnced to her side, where Bianca walked with that endlessly confident gait she had gained after their escape from Heart’s Core Town.

  In that moment, she turned as well, looking right into Huang Su’s eyes, and the way she did it was… painful. The trust and care that had filled her gaze before was absent, and whether she felt the violet presence or not, she couldn’t help but feel responsible.

  “Mistress-”

  “How far away are we?”

  “Ah, we should be finishing the second third of the route by the end of the day. I can perceive the coast starting to turn in the distance, so we should be approaching the edges of the former territory of the Reaper’s Grave in two days at most.”

  “Good.”

  “…” Huang Su held back a sigh as she considered a way to broach the uncomfortable subject with Bianca, but then she felt a strange sensation at the edge of her spiritual perception, “Mistress, hold on. There is something ahead of us.”

  “Something? Just be direct.”

  “It is at the very edge of my perception, about a hundred metres away, but it feels as though… it feels wrong.”

  “Wrong? At your realm, you just have that to say?” Xue Yaling raised an eyebrow, much to Huang Su’s frustration, “Sect Mistress, what do you think?”

  “… Let’s investigate, and determine the truth. Huang Su, protect us – if you do anything strange, you know what I’ll do.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” she had to say, her shoulders slumping as she advanced, following just behind Bianca while raising her disguise.

  As Bianca appeared too distracted to notice, she didn’t get any compints, and the disapproving look from the kitsune behind her was almost constant the st few days, so she paid it no mind. And she hardly had the time to worry too much – not that a single kitsune’s gaze was enough to worry her – as she soon saw a body flying towards them.

  “Mistress!” she shouted without hesitation, trying to warn Bianca, but…

  Her Mistress swung her sword as though she was ready for it, slicing the body flying toward them in two. As the two halves beside them, however, it was very clear that this wasn’t an ordinary situation.

  The two halves had no flesh or muscle upon them, consisting exclusively of bone that stuck together through means unknown. It was only upon being split in half and crashing into the dirt around them that the bones finally fell apart, ending up as little more than two piles on the ground, many of the bones cracked or outright shattered.

  Bianca’s energy was quite something, but it had never destroyed all of the flesh on the bones in an instant – and now that she thought about it, the body that flew toward them was rather skeletal to begin with.

  ‘Necromancers,’ Huang Su thought, looking at the skull and spotting a jewel embedded in the forehead, “Mistress, there are-”

  “Necromancers,” Xue Yaling got in first, “They’re fighting something that is able to disable their skeletal constructs, by the looks of it.”

  “How so?” Bianca frowned.

  “You cut through the skeleton easily, and the two parts aren’t attempting to move after just that cut. That means that whatever unched the skeleton over here must’ve ‘killed’ it, for ck of a better word,” the kitsune eborated, and Huang Su was forced to confirm her analysis.

  “I think that we’re likely seeing a confrontation between a necromancer and someone specialised in dealing with them. What should we do, Mistress?”

  Bianca thought about it only for a moment before she pointing forward, “We go and check it out.”

  They rushed forth, and came upon the beach, where a sight Huang Su couldn’t believe was occurring. It was the first time in a long time that she had been stunned so completely and utterly, to the point that she lost her composure externally and found her jaw agape.

  There were four necromancers in sight, which wasn’t too unusual for this world, and especially for this region. They had numerous skeletal warriors at their side, and were even performing some kind of skills from their archetype that Huang Su couldn’t quite decipher. The thing to catch her off-guard was the one they were fighting.

  Pale and skinny, looking more like a corpse than the necromancers due to her ribs showing through her tattered clothes, with messy grey hair that billowed in the wind. Her lips and eyes were pale, her irises looking nearly white, as though she was blind, although they were clearly staring rather intently at her foes. All in all, she looked week and feeble, but there was one thing that prevented Huang Su from assuming she’d fall any time soon, and that was the scythe the deathly-pale woman wielded.

  It was rather pin, a wooden rod with a curved metal bde at the end, and yet it shone with a light that looked as though it could end any life.

  “I-Impossible!” Huang Su excimed.

  The kitsune echoed her, “No… fucking… way…”

  “What?”

  “It’s a reaper.”

  Bianca seemed to realise the severity of the matter, as her eyes narrowed and her attention was fixed on the battle.

  Neither the necromancers nor the reaper seemed to notice them, as the fight continued. As the charging hordes of skeletons rushed the grey-haired woman, she repelled the basic constructs with simple-looking swings, although each one channelled her energy to reduce the skeletons to nothing.

  As the swarm became overwhelming on one side, she turned and removed one hand from the scythe, raising it and performing a swinging motion. Her energy was unleashed into a construct of a scythe bde, easily five metres across, which followed her hand and swung across, slicing through a dozen skeletons as though they were air.

  In that time, the enemy got close to surrounding her from behind, but she pressed that hand to her chest and suddenly unleashed a grave-like mist, which completely enveloped her and spread out to about a metre from her.

  All of the skeletal warriors that neared just crumbled, as though they had found their proper grave and had naught more to do but fall into it.

  ‘Incredible… The reapers were deserving of their reputation if a single woman in the fourth realm can handle such a horde with just basic skills,’ Huang Su assessed, noting that each of the skeletons was equivalent to a warrior in the third realm at the very least, not to mention the necromancers in the back.

  Two of them were close together, hands held out as they faced one another and seemed to chant something, their energy pouring out. Another stood by and was slowly conjuring a number of bone spears, which hovered above his head, ready to be unleashed. The st one was facing the reaper and also chanting, an eerie glow gathering at the tip of his fingers.

  Seeing that their regur creations weren’t able to approach, the two that were chanting towards one another raised their hands and unleashed the energy they had been building, a huge construct of bone manifesting from the ground. It was easily five metres tall, with huge legs and four arms, complete with a head that seemed to be inside of its ribcage. It was quite the sight, but the reaper didn’t seem to be perturbed at all.

  Rather, she frowned and performed another skill, the deathly air around her receding as she started to spin her scythe around her, seeming to almost dance as she approached the huge skeleton.

  Each swing of the scythe unleashed waves of energy that sliced through approaching foes, but that was clearly not going to be sufficient to handle the huge behemoth, which started to move towards her around the same time. The distance between them closed slowly, each step from the giant skeleton being agonisingly slow while the reaper’s movements were limited by her current ‘dance’.

  However, when the gap between them shrunk to about five metres, the reaper performed one final swing, ending with facing the behemoth. Stopping for a brief moment, she turn the scythe and suddenly charged forth, swinging her weapon in one smooth motion as she passed the gigantic skeleton, stopping only after she was a metre past the behemoth.

  It barely looked as though she had cut it, and yet a deadly glint erupted from the mid-section of the giant, scattering the bones of the behemoth as though it was naught but a toy.

  ‘That particur skill… I believe that it is not so simple even against the might of a reaper. The necromancers are still chanting,’ the Sect Master noted, although she had a more pressing matter to consider, ‘If we remain here too long, we will be noticed. At that point, it is almost certain that the two sides will either try to deal with us, or to gain our support. Thus, we ought to-’

  “Sect Mistress, we should decide which side we’ll fall on.”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  The kitsune managed to speak up first, “I’m not sure which you’re thinking of, Sect Mistress, but there’s an advantage to both. We’ll probably end up encountering necromancers in the Reaper’s Grave anyway, so befriending them might make it easier for us to get in. Otherwise, we can aid the reaper, and try to get her help with clearing the Reaper’s Grave. Considering her skills, she should be all too happy to help us recim it.”

  Bianca didn’t hesitate for even a moment before pointing to the lone reaper, “We’re helping her. I’ll handle the guy with the bone spikes, you lot can spread out as you want. Huang Su, keep us safe.”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  Huang Su hardly had the time to do anything before all of them charged in – if Han Rushu’s leisurely walk and Xue Yaling’s quiet run off to the side counted as such – and attracted the attention of both sides. Both paused, even as the giant skeleton rapidly reformed, the scattered bones flying into pce in seconds, taking advantage of the reaper’s momentary distraction.

  Before she could question their intentions, Bianca ran past the reaper and headed for the necromancer that had been conjuring more and more bone spikes above himself. As soon as she got too close, the necromancer released the two dozen spikes he had manifested at her, the row of bone flying out at a great speed. It felt as though it could pierce through armour with speed alone, disregarding the inherent power in any pnar construct.

  However, Bianca raised her hand just in time, conjuring her defensive skill and blocking the spikes that headed directly for her. They exploded on impact, shattering her barrier, but it was enough for her to charge right through, while the rest of the bone shards impaled the ground behind her.

  She charged forth, blinking to cross the distance before swinging her bde without hesitation, her mighty crimson crackling as it sought to split apart her foe. The necromancer barely had a moment to react, but it seemed enough, as a wall of bones burst out of the ground between them, taking the brunt of the strike. As the bones shattered, their splinters flew all over the pce, likely being dangerous enough to injure both combatants if they didn’t have a mean of protecting themselves.

  ‘I believe Bianca will be able to handle this particur foe. She might ck the versatility of the necromancer, but her attacks are more powerful, so it is only a matter of time,’ Huang Su looked over to the other parts of the battlefield, while keeping her spiritual perception out to ensure any threats weren’t overlooked.

  The pair of necromancers to the left of the area were still focusing on their chanting, even as Xue Yaling closed in, but it appeared that their energy could be spared for more than keeping the giant skeleton standing. Some of it surged out and quickly carved a rge circle in the ground beneath the kitsune’s feet, easily five metres across, with symbols and lines that quickly filled it in from the outside.

  Rather than panicking, she just ran forward, and as the circle nearly filled in, she released the power of one of her artefact shards, and the energy unleashed by the strange circle was swallowed up completely, as though the very concept of pnar energy was negated.

  ‘I believe she mentioned this one… Anathema. I am not certain how such a thing is even possible, but if it was a high grade artefact once, then…’ Huang Su wished that she had gotten to examine the artefact shards before the kitsune had integrated them into her own body, but as is, she could only guess at details from the occasional showings of them.

  Her core concern was the safety of everyone involved, and by the looks of it, the kitsune would have little issue with handling the threat, especially with the support of Jia Bo Xun and Han Rushu, who rushed to the same side.

  Thus, she turned to the other side of the field, where Yu Juan had to handle the foe before her alongside Song Ming, who only spared a gnce at her Mistress before concluding that she would be fine.

  Together, they approach the foe somewhat cautiously – neither had extremely strong close combat capabilities, with the Dancer relying more so on deception, and Song Ming relying on her runes – as they had no idea what the enemy was capable of. The energy building at his fingertips was still there, growing more intense by the moment, and they couldn’t quite grasp the nature of it.

  ‘From my understanding of the necromancers, they are adept in summoning, maniputing bones, and cursing their foes. The circle that blossomed underneath the kitsune’s feet should have been one of the curses, and the energy is simir enough, but it does not appear to be focused on the ground,’ Huang Su assessed, ‘In that event, they may be able to handle it. I should be prepared to negate his efforts if I must, however.’

  Just as she thought that, the man unleashed the first bit of the gathered energy, a violet projectile surging out and flying at a rapid pace, straight for Song Ming. However, the young woman quicky dodged aside while surrounding herself in a Pnar archetype skill, and even used that moment to release a rune beneath the necromancer’s feet, a subtle light that the necromancer completely missed.

  He gestured towards her again, an eerie glow falling from above, but it was countered by the aura of energy that surrounded her. He switched targets to Yu Juan, at whom he unched a ray of light that struck her quickly, enveloping her eyes.

  ‘Did he just… that man is not very fortunate, is he? To begin with, to encounter Mis- Bianca, to encounter Bianca of all people…’ the Sect Master caught herself and pressed her hand to her forehead, ‘Heavens, this kind of situation is exactly what I feared. I should be careful.’

  “Die, asshole!” Bianca’s shout forced her attention back to the field, just in time to see a vast wave of crackling crimson cut into the ocean behind the necromancer, devouring her foe with almost trivial ease, “Fucking finally. You can fuck right off as well!”

  She didn’t hesitate to turn to the pair and slice down with her bde, another huge wave rushing towards them, then turned and unleashed another at the one that cast a curse of blindness upon Yu Juan. Both of the waves weren’t taken so directly by them as by her first opponent, but they provided an enormous opening for the others to take advantage of.

  Thus, the fight barely sted any longer, leaving the beach to quieten down as the remaining skeletal creations colpsed without their masters supporting them. In that silence, Bianca turned to the reaper, holding out her hand.

  “Now that the nuisance is dealt with, how about we have a talk?”