Traveler of the River of Time and Space-Chapter 408 - 24: The Awakened Lord of Cinder

Kill them all?

Su Ziyu gazed at the members of the Undead Squad before him. The weapons wielded by the Falan Undead Squad felt familiar to him, as the embers who first attacked him, originating from Falan, were wielded by Hawkwood with an identical great sword.

The chaotic battle in the hall ahead had been ongoing for an unknown length of time.

In Su Ziyu’s line of sight, at least a dozen Falan Undead Squad members were engaged in combat. Their moves, originally grand and extravagant, had now devolved into a chaotic mess with sparks flying everywhere. They leaped, spun, and rolled through the air. Silhouettes flickered in and out of view, and the Falan Great Swords whipped up powerful gusts as they swung, occasionally bursting with the power of flame. Just during Su Ziyu’s brief hesitation, two Undead Squad members launched a pincer attack, thrusting their Falan Great Swords into a member whose eyes glowed red.

Thud.

Another corpse of a Falan Undead Squad member fell.

At this moment, one of the combatants noticed the arrival of Su Ziyu and Sister Fried. He seemed to be one of the few still retaining his sanity. His eyes fixed on Sister Fried, he raised the Falan Great Sword in his right hand, while holding a hook-shaped dagger in his left, crossing it over his chest to rest on his shoulder, slightly bending his knees.

This appeared to be an ancient ritual of the Falan Undead Squad, as he kept his eyes fixed on Sister Fried.

Because she was the unkindled ember.

—"Captain of the Falan Undead Squad!"

All the Falan Undead Squad members looked alike, but this one had a much stronger presence; the others bore marks of having been killed before, whereas this one seemed never to have died and resurrected.

Not a Lord of Cinder.

Although this Undead Squad Captain was formidable, he was not yet a Lord of Cinder.

Sister Fried bowed slightly, pinching the corner of her skirt, and then leapt, vanishing from view with her giant scythe in hand.

"Prepare to awaken the Lord of Cinder!"

Sister Fried’s figure instantly appeared to the upper right of an Undead Squad member. In a blink of frosty light, a head topped with a pointed hat was cleaved off, and the gushing blood splattered upon the corpses of the Undead Squad members.

Quickly.

Another Undead Squad member with a pierced heart stood back up, his eyes glowing with blood-red light.

He had been polluted by the Abyss.

Clang.

Su Ziyu also drew his Yirushir Straight Sword and strode toward the Undead Squad Captain.

The entire closed hall was a scene of chaos.

The members of the Falan Undead Squad were killing those companions corrupted by the Abyss; not all of them were targeting Su Ziyu and Sister Fried, but only about a third of them charged at them.

A lingering shred of sanity told them they had an important mission.

That was the transmission of fire.

If all the untainted members of the Undead Squad were to attack Su Ziyu, he would likely be overwhelmed, but now it was much easier: the red-eyed members were frenzied in their attacks on their companions, disrupting their attack rhythm.

Three Falan Great Swords emitted sparks as they slashed with unrivaled power and momentum.

Clang clang clang!

Su Ziyu’s figure retreated three steps, and in an instant of displacement, he lunged forward, stabbing an Undead Squad member in the abdomen while deflecting another enemy’s attack.

The people of this world mastered a peculiar counterattack technique.

Su Ziyu had learned it briefly and found it quite useful. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always successful; it required perfectly predicting the enemy’s attacks.

Yet another spark-emitting great sword swept toward him.

This time, the attacker was a red-eyed Undead Squad member—a berserk enemy that would attack anyone who came near.

This was the erosion of the Abyss.

Completely lost reason.

Clang!

Su Ziyu leapt back more than ten meters, while, on the other side, Sister Fried had already decapitated a second Undead Squad member.

A completely sealed environment.

Thunder Strike couldn’t be used now.

Su Ziyu’s enhancements in close combat couldn’t quite keep up with the intensity of battles in this world. The White Crow Swordsmanship here was at best second or third rate, even when fully mastered, it was insufficient to suppress these Lords of Cinder.

Sizzle pop.

Traces of electricity manifested in Su Ziyu’s palm.

—"Dragon-Hunting Spear!"

Although Su Ziyu hadn’t learned the gun technique, thanks to his proficiency with White Crow Swordsmanship, he handled the Dragon-Hunting Spear fairly well. He could execute basic cutting, thrusting, and sweeping maneuvers.

—"Thunder Spear!"

Golden electric currents crept along the Dragon-Hunting Spear; since the true Lord of Cinder hadn’t yet been awakened, he didn’t want to waste too much spiritual energy; he only imbued the Thunder Spear onto the Dragon-Hunting Spear. His form flashed past as he thrust directly at an enemy’s chest.

Boom.

A muffled thunder exploded in the hall.

The Dragon-Hunting Spear’s formidable armor-piercing ability pierced through an Undead Squad member’s body. As Su Ziyu swung the Dragon-Hunting Spear in a sweeping arc, a massive burst of golden lightning blasted out, hurling a red-eyed foe away.

—"Thunder Spear!"

The Dragon-Hunting Spear in Su Ziyu’s right hand still crackled with golden electricity.

In Su Ziyu’s left hand, a mass of golden lightning began to converge—a pure energy form of Thunder Spear, a golden spear reaching three meters in length appearing. While sweeping the Dragon-Hunting Spear, Su Ziyu hurled the left-hand Thunder Spear with force.

Electric snakes roiled wildly. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The pure energy Thunder Spear exploded on contact with the enemy, and at the moment of the enemy’s paralysis, the Yirushir Straight Sword instantly unsheathed to sever the enemy’s head.

Golden electric light encircled the Dragon-Hunting Spear.

In the left palm, a new Thunder Spear took shape.

The Yirushir Straight Sword emitted a cold, crystalline glow as it hovered behind Su Ziyu; when an enemy swung a great sword at him, it autonomously parried and deflected an attack.

"It’s getting out of hand."

Su Ziyu had planned to control another Dark Sword with telekinesis, but it felt too challenging; his spirit couldn’t sustain the control of so many weapons at once.

"Step back." A gentle voice from Sister Fried reached him.

At the moment Su Ziyu withdrew, a black-and-white flame fell like a serpent, and the astonishing impact force blew away some of the Undead Squad members’ bodies. The black flame rapidly spread throughout the hall, its edges tinged with a faint icy breath.

At some unknown time.

Sister Fried’s body exhibited signs of burning, indicating she had entered the state of the Unkindled.

One after another, the members of the Undead Squad fell.

The hall contained nearly eighty to ninety corpses. As Su Ziyu and Sister Fried combined forces to slaughter the remaining Undead Squad members, the blood they shed soaked into the ancient fortress’s interior.

Sister Fried’s figure descended from above, saying slowly, "The Wolf Blood has been awakened."

There was no Source Power Value notification.

Nor was there any soul drop.

When Su Ziyu slew the last Undead Squad member, all the corpses started to ooze blood, mixed with sparks, which gathered and gradually flowed into the corpse of the Undead Squad Captain.

The next moment.

Faint traces of sparks spread across the ground, the body surface of the Undead Squad Captain bore marks identical to Sister Fried’s ember traces, and a fierce flame ignited on that hefty Falan Great Sword.

He slowly stood up.

His aura surged explosively in an instant!

The entire fortress was filled with an overwhelmingly scorching heat wave, as he swung the Falan Great Sword with one hand, and instantly, a sea of fire rage appeared before them.

—"Falan Undead Squad! [Lord of Cinder][Corruption][Abyssal Erosion]"

.........