Night had fallen. Alioth had prepared himself with the Demon Slayer sword and the Triple Stabs move, which was certainly imperfect. However, he felt confident that just relying on those two things, he could complete this second main quest.
This main quest was about someone from unknown origins raising the dead in the graveyard on the hill. Their purpose for doing this was unknown, but they were part of a religious group called the Church of Blood. It was quite cliché for Alioth, but that was not important now.
This was the beginning of the uncovering of various stories in the subsequent main quests. Currently, Alioth did not want to dwell too much on the future main quests; he was worried that what happened would not be exactly the same as in the game. After all, what he was seeing now was the real world with variables that could change unpredictably, just like real life on Earth back then.
"Alright, let's go."
Leaving the inn, Alioth headed toward the small hill to the west that was already visible from here. He walked fast but did not run, conserving his Mana for the battle later.
As he entered the sparse forest at the foot of the hill, he saw a reddish light at the peak, which was the location of the graveyard. He gritted his teeth.
"It has started, huh...." So he had no choice but to channel Mana to his feet and run quickly toward the peak.
However, when he reached halfway up the climb, a magnificent flash of fire was seen, followed by a loud explosion. Alioth seemed to recognize the fire; he unconsciously gave a faint smile.
"It seems I'm not alone this time." And his pace quickened.
Closer to the peak, the sound of battle became clearer. Alioth had already drawn Demon Slayer from his waist, ready to slash whatever awaited him ahead.
Just as Alioth's feet reached the peak, the tip of a dagger almost stabbed his eye. He quickly tilted his head spontaneously with an irregular, awkward movement, but the knife spun back to stab his nape.
"Damn it!" He swung Demon Slayer to parry.
The knife bounced off, then returned to its owner, who shouted angrily. "Bastard, just as I suspected, there's one more intruder!"
Alioth stared at the battle for a moment. There was one person with a large sword shrouded in fire fighting two people armed with a sword and a pair of daggers. The young man with the large sword stubbornly swung his sword; although his movements were slower than his two enemies, he was able to defend and attack quite well.
However, the young man with the large sword greatly attracted Alioth's attention because he already knew him.
"Adam, I'm coming to help!"
Adam was surprised and turned after parrying a sword attack. A smile formed. "Alioth!"
Wasting no time for small talk, Alioth dashed straight toward the man armed with a pair of knives.
The man threw the knives forward, forming a threatening swirl of red light. Alioth dodged, still moving forward quickly. When they were roughly two steps apart, he swung his sword in the Shadow Slash move, creating a dark blue slash path.
"Whoa!" The man managed to dodge by leaning his body backward.
Coincidentally, one of the opponent's knives turned back to stab Alioth's back.
Alioth frowned in surprise. What magic was that, capable of moving a weapon so freely? He remembered that during the second main quest before, he only fought a female mage who raised these corpses. Now why were there two other people, and what was that knife-controlling magic?
Alioth slashed while dodging, after which the other knife pressed him.
Their fight was quite fierce; both relied on agility and speed of attack to pressure the opponent.
A strange feeling permeated Alioth's body. All this time, he had fought monsters; he had never directly clashed with a human. Now his first human enemy was quite strong, and their strength was perhaps equal. However, his opponent seemed accustomed to fighting other humans.
Alioth was pushed back several times; only with Triple Stabs did he manage to survive because the opponent's neck was almost stabbed. The longer the fight lasted, Alioth observed his opponent more closely, looking for a weakness in the knife-controlling magic.
However, before he could think of the best way to break the opponent's magic, the red staff of the lady standing in front of the pillar shone brighter. The earth gently trembled, and then one by one, hands emerged from inside the graves.
"Damn, they've been resurrected!" Adam exclaimed, slightly panicked. "Alioth, be careful! They're raising the corpses here!"
One by one, corpses rose from their graves, breaking through the graveyard soil. Then they stood silently with empty eyes.
The lady with the short staff rubbed her bloody lip; it seemed the magic of raising the dead significantly drained her Mana. She shouted, "Attack the man with the big sword and his friend!"
The corpses still standing in their respective graves quickly turned their heads in a gruesome motion, then they ran to meet Adam and Alioth.
"Damn it!" Alioth slashed the hands that almost touched his body.
"Sorry!" Adam did the same thing, only the difference was that anyone struck by his big sword would be incinerated.
However, they were the walking dead. No matter how much pain they were given, they could no longer feel it and would not die because they were already dead. So, the incinerated corpse stood up again, and the headless corpse attacked again.
"Hahaha, this is the beginning!" shouted the hooded lady whose face remained mysterious. "You are the first victims of this!"
The person with the sword who was pressuring Adam and the owner of the pair of flying knives continued to press. They didn't care if they accidentally slashed the corpses because they were not living people and could still attack again.
However, due to the influence of Alioth's Demon Slayer, the corpses that were slashed developed black burn wounds that made it difficult for them to move. That was quite helpful.
"Alioth, focus your attack on that woman!" Adam said when their bodies were close. "Don't worry too much about these corpses; they are weak and not dangerous. The most annoying ones are these two people!" And he parried again.
Alioth dodged the pair of knives that targeted his feet. From above, he performed Triple Stabs towards the top of the head and the two eyes, forcing the man to jump backward. "Can you use a big attack?"
Adam nodded.
"Clear a path to that woman; I'll finish her!"
Adam nodded again. He channeled all his strength to fend off the continuous enemy attacks.
"I won't let you!" shouted the tall man armed with the sword.
He channeled his magic, his sword shrouded in reddish Mana, which he slashed twice consecutively. However, six slash paths appeared, pressing Adam simultaneously.
The young man with the large sword crossed his weapon in front, blocking four attacks, and two attacks successfully landed on both shoulders.
"Still not enough!" The man slashed again from bottom to top. Three slash paths appeared.
Adam retreated two steps after parrying the heavy attack, then the hands of the living dead grabbed his waist.
He gnashed his teeth in anger. "Let go and go back to sleep!" His sword savagely slashed backward; five living dead were instantly incinerated.
Before his opponent could launch a follow-up attack, Adam took advantage of this situation to open a path for Alioth. He quickly set his large sword ablaze and slashed twice forward.
His opponent was forced to avoid the powerful, fiercely hot fire slashes. He had to admit that Adam's fire was truly impressive because its color was almost white.
The living dead that were passed by the two fire slashes were instantly incinerated into dust, creating a path that led directly to the woman.
"Alioth, quick!"
Alioth kicked the opponent's stomach, who was currently clashing quickly with his sword. The person groaned as he was thrown back a few steps. Wasting no time, Alioth channeled Mana to his feet and dashed toward the woman holding the short staff with the red crystal tip.
Alioth felt that at that moment, he was able to force himself to move incredibly fast. He had never felt this fast. Now, Alioth had to move faster before the pieces of the corpses rose again.
He moved as if riding the wind.
A flash of surprise was visible on the woman's face—only her mouth was visible because her eyes were covered by the wide hood of her cloak.
When his momentum ran out, Alioth stomped the ground to dash once more while preparing the Shadow Slash move; his sword was also shrouded in dark blue Mana.
He tried to harden his heart; although the person in front of him was a woman, if she was allowed to continue, these corpses would spread and cause disaster to the surrounding villages. He had to decapitate her.
When close, the sword flashed quickly from left to right. The woman hadn't even had time to react due to the speed of Alioth's movement.
However, just as Alioth's sword was about to cut her, he suddenly felt his body being pulled back slightly, causing the Demon Slayer's slash to miss and only cut the woman's wide hood.
The hood was pushed open, revealing a beautiful thirty-year-old face with wavy hair.
"Velma?!"