I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 1196: The Undead

The impact came hard and fast.

The first wave collided with them in a storm of steel and corrupted Magic. Blades met rotting blackened flesh, sparks flying as Aerchon and Saeldir enchanted weapons struck bodies reinforced by dark power.

The undead Elves did not fight like mindless corpses. They moved with discipline twisted into brutality. Their attacks coordinated and their timing precise.

Then the Magic came.

Black sigils flared beneath Elven feet, and the air screamed as spears of corrupted Magic energy charged forward from their formation.

Waves of shadow crashed against barriers raised by Sylmira and Arty, frost-laced wind howled through the battlefield, and arcs of dark lightning split the ruined ground.

Adrien didn’t manage to raise his guard before a blast that tore past the barrier hurled him backward.

He skidded across broken stone, coughing as he forced himself back up.

"They can use Magic like this?" Adrien said.

Billy slammed his hand into an advancing undead Elf, shock rippling up his arm as the creature released a burst of force point-blank.

"Is undead usually able to do it?" he shouted with teeth clenched.

Sylmira’s eyes widened as she redirected a spell that should not have been possible from a corpse.

Adrius countered with his own Magic power, Arty’s strikes burned brighter than usual as instinct drove her forward, and Lysander barely avoided being impaled by a conjured blade of darkness.

Aerchon grimaced as he cut one down.

"We should have told you," he said through gritted teeth.

Saeldir followed through with a precise strike, and spoke with a tight voice. "They retained their Magic when they were cursed. I’m sorry."

There was no time to dwell on it.

More rifts tore open in the air. From each one, more undead Elves poured out, their numbers swelling no matter how many being killed.

The battlefield became a grinding storm of motion and sound.

Every kill sent a surge through them.

Essence flooded into their bodies, thicker and heavier than anything they had absorbed before. Sharp and overwhelming power rushed through veins and Magic circuits.

King Gulben felt it and clenched his jaw. Aurdis staggered for half a step as the essence settled into her. Aerchon and Saeldir stiffened, their expressions darkening.

They hated it.

Absorbing the remains of their own people twisted something deep inside them. For a moment their grief threatened to resurface. It felt sharp and suffocating.

Then King Gulben forced it down.

"They were already dead," he said with an iron-strong voice. "We just ended their suffering."

Aurdis steadied her breathing, her attack growing cleaner and more decisive. Aerchon closed his eyes for a moment after killing another undead Elves, then opened them again with renewed determination.

Saeldir’s movements also become sharpened, more precise, and more merciless.

They turned guilt into purpose. What king Gulben said was just the truth they have to accept right now.

The fighting did not slow. If anything, it intensified. Rifts continued to open, bodies continued to fall, and the essence they absorbed grew denser with every exchange.

They advanced step by step through the devastation, cutting their way forward, refusing to stop.

—

Heat swallowed them the moment they emerged on the other side.

The portal sealed behind Erend, Eccar, and Aesa, leaving them standing atop a vast stretch of rolling sand dunes.

The sky above burned with an illusionary sun that glaring mercilessly, its light pressing down on them. The air shimmered, distorted by heat, and every breath felt dry and abrasive.

The sand beneath their boots radiated warmth, almost hot enough to scorch through.

"This place is awful," Aesa muttered immediately.

She scanned the horizon, eyes narrowing as the heat washed over her scales.

As an Ice Dragon, her body reacted instinctively, tension crawling through her muscles as if rejecting the environment itself. Cold was her element. This place was the exact opposite of everything she was attuned to.

Erend glanced at her and gave a short, apologetic smile. "Yeah... sorry about this."

Eccar nodded in agreement. "We didn’t exactly get to choose the climate."

Aesa exhaled through her nose, then shrugged.

"It’s fine. I’ll live." She flexed her fingers, frost briefly flickering around them before evaporating instantly in the heat. "I just hate it."

Erend turned his attention forward, eyes sweeping across the dunes.

"This is Level 55," he said calmly. "We need to push through. The source of the corruption is deeper, in Level 60."

Aesa nodded without hesitation. "Got it. So we fight whatever’s here and keep moving, right?"

"Yes," Erend replied. Then he added, "But the monsters on this level are much stronger than the ones before."

"I already expected that," Aesa said flatly.

The sand ahead of them shifted.

At first it looked like nothing more than heat distortion, the dunes rippling under the false sun.

Then the ground bulged upward, sand cascading down unseen shapes as something massive moved beneath the surface.

Erend’s posture tightened. "Now they’re coming."

The sand erupted.

Humanoid figures clawed their way out first, bodies wrapped in tattered bindings fused directly to shriveled, desiccated flesh. Their skin looked like dried parchment stretched over bone, cracked and gray, eyes glowing beneath layers of decay. Mummies. Dozens of them emerged.

Behind them, the dunes split apart as something far larger surfaced. A giant scorpion burst free in a spray of sand, its chitin dry and cracked like old stone, its tail arcing high with a stinger wrapped in ancient bindings.

Its legs scraped against the ground, producing a sound like grinding bones.

Then the ground trembled. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

A deep, rumbling vibration rolled through the dunes as the sand collapsed inward, forming a massive sinkhole. From its center rose a colossal sandworm tens of meters long. Its body was segmented and wrapped in the same mummy-like texture.

Its maw opened wide, revealing rows of dry, jagged teeth as hot air thundered outward.

"All of them have the same curse pattern," Eccar said, eyes sharp. "Undead, but reinforced."

Aesa cracked her neck, frost flaring briefly along her arms despite the heat.

The mummies began to move, shambling at first, then accelerating as Magic flared beneath their feet.

Sand lifted and twisted around them, forming crude weapons and hardened armor.

Erend stepped forward, fire and lightning already gathering around him. "Same plan."

The sandworm roared and dove back beneath the dunes.

The fight here also began.

—