298 The Dead Dead
“Looks like we have company. Who else knows about this place?”

William glanced at the destroyed root door before his eyes landed on Ebony.

Ebony, still dazed, met William’s gaze weakly. He muttered to himself, “Only you and Floral, who claims to have knowledge of this place from long ago. No one else should know…”

Floral interjected, “He doesn’t exactly do very clean jobs. It’s possible others have discovered it as well.”

William nodded slightly.

No matter how similar Ebony’s thoughts were to the living, he was undoubtedly an undead. Even though he may mimic the living—so well that William failed to see any problems—he lacked their quick wit.

“I’ll go in first. In the event of danger, cover everyone’s tracks and make sure Nizemar and Elise stay safe.”

William turned around and instructed Floral. Without another word, William disappeared in a flash of lightning from the door.

To a Divine Realm mage like Floral, William’s caution seemed excessive.

She grumbled to herself after finding her senses once again, “Does he think I’m a child?”

…

“Marvelous, simply marvelous… This is a scandal of significant proportions, no matter how you look at it.”

With a commanding presence, Elaire directed his subordinates to publicly execute over ten undead beings, coaxing the rest into finally cooperating with his requests.

As they assembled in an organized fashion in the middle of the camp square, they squatted with their hands behind their heads, moving with a fluidity that made them indistinguishable from actual humans.

If it weren’t for the trained guards from the Obliteration Tower, Elaire may not have been able to detect their true nature.

He looked at the undead who acted too humanly and smiled in satisfaction.

This turn of events was nothing short of a stroke of luck for him, and a problem for that insufferable Floral. The highly esteemed Holy Tree Duke privately rearing the undead in the Holy Tree City’s underground roots had just become a topic for the Senate’s next debate.

The Emerald Province was the empire’s breadbasket, and it was legally prohibited to research or utilize undead magic within its boundaries to prevent contamination of the land.

It was the founding emperor, Terra I, who laid down this basic legal provision in the Empire’s Codex: Emerald Volume. Even though Terra Riel was well aware of the Forest Elves’ deep-rooted aversion to undead spells, he still deemed it necessary to make this the first legal guarantee.

With the recent appearance of a large-scale undead magic wave in the Blackwater Province, the Astral Council was contemplating the limitations of undead spells in the Astral Laws. In this current climate, if the leader of the Emerald Province, the empire’s breadbasket, was caught conducting inhumane undead experiments, it would spark fierce opposition from the Forest Elves in the region. This would give the senators ample leverage to pressure the empress at the Platinum Palace.

Elaire had anticipated reaping some benefits from his trip, but he never imagined it would be such a windfall. He eagerly awaited his return to Platinum City to see how he would be rewarded by the fair-minded Speaker York, who was known for his equitable distribution of rewards and punishments.

If he could bring down the Holy Tree Duke, it could very well earn him a reserve seat in both the Senate and the Imperial Council, finally giving him a chance to step into the center of the empire’s power stage.

These thoughts filled Elaire with an intoxicating sense of exhilaration, and he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

The sound of laughter was interrupted by a booming voice, shattering Elaire’s moment of reverie.

It was a Forest Elf, his chiseled muscles rippling beneath his skin as he slowly lowered his hands, stood up, and glared at Elaire, his eyes blazing with anger.

Tattoos of venomous snakes slithered up and down his arms, flicking their tongues in unison, ready to strike at any moment.

“Sorry?”

Elaire feigned ignorance, tilting his head slightly.

“I’m asking you what are you laughing at, empire dog,” the burly Forest Elf undead repeated his question, his tattoos multiplying and slithering out of his clothes as a swarm of angry serpents.

The man in front of Elaire was all too familiar. He was the leader of a tribe that worshiped a venomous snake totem, a man who had refused Floral’s request to have his subordinates join the Wild Hunt army and had paid the ultimate price for it.

In a sudden twist, he found himself—both corpse and soul—transformed into a high-level undead by that woman.

“Remarkable. Your intelligence and ability to control spirits surpass even what the most skilled necromancers in the Platinum Ring are capable of. Is your master Floral that powerful?” Elaire marveled.

To achieve even slightly clearer logic in an awakened undead was a feat, but the duchess had gone above and beyond.

Her achievements only served as mistakes that pleased Elaire.

“Whose slave are you talking about?!”

After Elaire said those words, the burly Forest Elf who took the initiative to step forward roared and controlled the venomous snakes to attack the human in front of him from different directions like a ignited barrel of explosives.

Elaire watched as more than ten venomous snakes with lethal venom dripping from their mouths attacked him, but his gaze didn’t change at all.

Despite the imminent danger, Elaire stood his ground and watched as over ten venomous snakes, with lethal venom dripping from their mouths, came at him. But his unwavering gaze remained steady. Suddenly, with a deafening crack, the snakes that were attacking Elaire from every direction were beheaded by something invisible.

The triangular viper heads turned into mere specks of light and vanished into the air. And the headless snakes fell to the ground, dissipating into thin air, like ignited tinder.

“Did I say something wrong? You’re not an undead that the duke transformed into?”

Elaire asked curiously, then added, “Ah, you don’t have to answer.”

The burly Forest Elf undead appeared to want to explain or curse, but before he could do anything, his head flew up in the air like the snake heads from before.

“Because you’re already dead.”

Elaire gazed around at the remaining Forest Elves, a tinge of regret in his eyes. With 30% sorrow and 70% joy, he spoke with conviction, “Let me give you a piece of advice. The rest of you better not try to attack me. They can’t read people’s expressions.”

The undead couldn’t contain their shock when the burly elf’s head was cleanly beheaded. It was a sight that made Elaire sigh with emotion, reminiscent of when he first found this place.

“It’s not every day you see undead feeling fear and sorrow over the death of their companions.”

The question lingered in Elaire’s mind. What kind of twisted mind created such an effect? He couldn’t be sure why that woman had done so.

But now was not the time to dwell on such thoughts.

He had obtained the evidence, but the question remained: how to bring it out?

After scanning the 30-odd survivors in the square, he picked out the youngest-looking youth and instructed the guard beside him, “Bring that child over.”

It was impossible to take everyone away as evidence, so selecting a malleable person to bring back to Platinum Province was the best option.

“As for the rest…”

Elaire glanced at the remaining undead, trembling like humans, and felt a tinge of disgust.

The Uncanny Valley theory had yet to be proposed in this world, but people still had a similar feeling when faced with something that looked human but wasn’t.
Coupled with the need to destroy evidence of his presence…

“Cleanse the rest… It can be considered a good deed.”

After some thought, Elaire made a decision.

The guards beside him received the order and simultaneously focused on the undead squatting on the ground, ready to attack at any moment…

“Lunar Monsters?”

A bolt of lightning illuminated the darkened hall, followed by the sudden appearance of a familiar voice beside Elaire.

It was the Storm Province man he had seen in the White Bone Castle’s hall, the one the duke had introduced as a consultant.

The Obliteration Tower guards immediately shifted their focus to the uninvited guest and entered a heightened state of combat. It was a state that Elaire had never seen before, and it made him uneasy.

The man paid no attention to the guards, his attention drawn to the humanoid ashes and the undead with the freshly severed head. His expression darkened as he turned to Elaire.

“You killed a total of 12 people here?” he asked in a deep, menacing voice.

“They are only und…”

But before he could finish, the man slapped him across the face, sending him flying over ten meters away, where he came to a stop against a protruding root in the hall.

“Do you know what you have done?” the man demanded, his eyes fixed on Elaire who had fallen into shock.

“You… Do you know what you have… done?!”

Stunned and disoriented, Elaire struggled to speak, his voice barely above a whisper,

“My instructions to them are to kill everything that attacks me. As long as it’s an order issued to them, even I can’t undo it.”

“Therefore, you’re dead, stranger.”

William listened to his staccato words and surveyed the guards that had surrounded him, intrigued by what he saw.

In his ether domain’s perception, their power fluctuations were not those of magic chanters or Authority holders, nor were they like the transcendent powers found in humans. Instead, they were closer to the existences found in the Moon Realm.

Despite this, they were undoubtedly humans from Currere, not even demon summoners who had signed a contract with a Moon Realm existence.

It was as though they were artificial Moon Realm metahumans.

Remides had told William about the Obliteration Tower and Demon Burial organizations, two groups established by the empire that had delved deeply into the essence of the Moon Realm. It was said that they had achieved a breakthrough.

So these guys in front of him were one of the so-called achievements?

With this in mind, William drew Judgment 2 with his empty hand.

Would an artificial Moon Realm existence be afraid of natural anti-Moon Realm weapons?