Kazuki's eyes trailed the unfolding system notification Infront of him, each line pulsing faintly with urgency.
[Mission: Emergency Class Seal Reclamation]
Mission Name: Seal of the Abyss: Stabilize the construct.
Rank: C (Escalating…)
Time Limit: 00:30:00
Failure Consequences: Seal Degradation. Unknown Outbreak Risk.
Mission Details:
The corrupted seal has recognized your presence as a temporary stabilizer. You must prevent further unraveling of the Abyssal construct.
Proceed to the Temple of Ruttwa, locate the seal, and reinforce the binding.
Rewards Calculated Upon Completion.
The ticking coutdown began.
00:29:59… 00:29:58…
Lillan stepped beside him, her eyes still on the north. "What was that?"
Kazuki didn't answer, his mind was still struggling to catch up.
Seal the construct? Temple, what?
It felt like the system had just dumped a jigsaw puzzle into his lap, without a single piece to start with.
Everything was moving too fast. The corrupted undead, wailing horror, the sudden earthquake—and now this?
He didn't even know what the hell was going on.
Just then, Lillan jolted his shoulder. "Kazuki snap out of it." She said sharply.
The shake pulled him out of his thoughts, blinking rapidly, blue screen flickering in his vision. "I—yeah. Right. I'm here," he muttered.
She gave him a quick once-over, her face tight with urgency. "Let's get out of here, I'm getting bad feeling about this."
Before he could reply, a thunderous crash echoed behind them, the debris of the hut exploded in dust and splinters, wooden beams and straw thatch spun wildly, flung into the air as if caught in violent cyclone.
From the center of the wreckage, the corpse of Fleshbound Wailer—grotesque and bloated pulled itself upright. Kazuki stumbled back a step. "Wait, what!? But didn't, we already killed that thing!"
It rose with slow twitching movements, its three malformed mouths stretched open, releasing a piercing screech, a chorus of inhuman wails. Kazuki, Lillan—both of them clutched their ears. It felt like claws raking across the inside of their minds, scraping against the wall of sanity.
Then in the haze of pain and panic— it hit him.
Undead
Right, that's why that thing was moving—but that raised a far worse question.
How do you even kill something that's already dead?
His hand flickered instinctively, air around it shimmering, and in an instant, the dagger was there. But just as the cold grip tightened around the hilt, a new wave of screeches shattered in the air. Voices— dozens of them rising all around them.
Kazuki's heart skipped a beat as he turned around, his breath got caught in his throat.
The zombies were everywhere, and they were rushing from both sides of shattered road. In just matter of few minutes, they were about to get stormed with the hordes of them.
Bad. Really bad.
Then—
The Wailer raised its hands, gripping in each one of them—four massive wooden beams—each size of Kazuki, and then with unnatural strength, it hurled them like spears of terror, launching them high into the air.
They hovered for a heartbeat like dark omens...
And then plummeted down like meteors.
Kazuki's eyes widened. "Shit—"
But before beams could crash down—
CRACK!
Four spears of ice streaked through the air and collied mid-flight.
BOOM!
The debris exploded into harmless splinters, raining down like snow. Icy mist hung in the air like frozen breath.
Kazuki turned toward the source, Lillan's stood still, hand raised, frost dancing around the magic circle. Her gaze was locked on Wailer, with cold fury. She spoke, without turning. "Kazuki. Handle the others. I'll take care of big guy."
He nodded stepping forward, the blade of his dagger rippled with energy—the air rippling as mana surged along its edge.
[Skill: Mana Edge (C) — Activated]
Around his other hand, light twisted and spun—an oval shape pulsed into existence, radiating with unstable energy.
[Skill: Egg Bomb (C) — Activated]
Without hesitation, Kazuki hurled the glowing bomb straight into the advancing swarm.
BOOM!
A violent explosion rocked the front line—zombies were blasted into chunks, their half-rotted limbs flung into the air, few were reduced to crawling torso, their jaws snapping mindlessly. Behind him, the horde was already on him.
The nearest zombie lunged over him with a snarl, teeth aiming for his throat.
Kazuki ducked. [Skill: Feathered Footwork (D) — Activated] Sliding low, twisting in one heel as his body spun beneath the grasping claws.
A claw snapped to the other side, dagger slashing upward as he rose, the mana blade severing a zombies arms clean off.
More were closing in.
All the meanwhile, Lillan's crackling of frost, Wailer bellowing along with debris exploding and ice clash with beams echoed in the background.
The scattering zombies that had been focused on Kazuki were now turning toward her, drawn by the massive spells she was casting. Before he could assist, three new zombies lurched in his path, replacing the last one.
Kazuki gritted his teeth.
"Guess we're doing this the hard way."
[Skill: Brute Strength! (E) — Activated]
A pulse of raw strength surged through his limbs, he launched himself forward like a cannonball. The zombies didn't even get a chance to react.
SHING!
His blade carved cleanly through the first two—like slicing tofu—splitting their rotting torsos in half., the third barely had the time to turn around before his dagger found its skull, ending it in one clean thrust.
He didn't stop, carrying the momentum through carnage—straight through the mangled remains, his boots skidded through gore as he sprinted straight for Lillan five more zombies were closing on her.
She stood her ground, magic circle glowing brighter with each passing second, her face was drenched in sweat, breath ragged from the constant spellwork—ice spears launching one after another in a relentless rhythm.
They were just few steps away from her.
Shit no time
"On your left!" Kazuki shouted.
Her eyes flicked to the right, catching the incoming zombies, spinning around she hurled a fresh volley of spears—CRACK! CRACK!—skewering the undead mid-lunge.
But it left her front wide open.
She didn't saw coming, five massive wooden beams—launched by the Wailer— already descending on her like divine punishment from the sky,
Kazuki's eyes widened. "Shit—!"
[Skill: Brute Strength! — Recast]
He exploded into motion again, pushing his body beyond the limit. He dove toward her, rolling just in time to knock her off balance.
CRACK!
One of the beams struck him mid-back as they hit the ground, the impact a brutal, thunderous thud that echoed through his bones.
Pain seared through his spine as he gasped, blood splattering from his mouth. But he'd shielded her—barely.
They rolled to a halt, Lillan blinking in shock above him. "Kazuki! You—are you—!?"
He grunted through clenched teeth; face twisted in pain. "M'fine. Just... give me a sec."