Chapter 859: Chapter 836: Corpse Demon

“Wait a moment.” Lancelot used telepathy to communicate with everyone, “There’s something below.”

Though they couldn’t respond verbally, the leader, Danks, immediately reacted–he lowered his left wing, raised his right wing, and tilted his tail feathers upward, causing their direction to shift left while allowing them to conveniently observe the situation below. A few companions, who were not very adept at flying, squawked loudly but eventually followed suit, spiraling in place with a radius of about thirty feet.

“Everyone, pay attention to the north, under that lightning-struck crooked tree,” Lancelot’s voice sounded again, “You may not be able to see it clearly yet, but there is an undead squad there, escorting a few suspicious wagons. We’ll follow them, and if an opportunity arises… you know what to do.”

The companions signaled their agreement through excited wing flaps, except for Danks–despite his bravery in the mission to spread the faith of Cranvo, he was still a commoner and quite anxious about the potential battle ahead, something Lancelot noticed immediately.

“Danks, you keep moving forward and inform Soveris about our situation. But remind him not to act hastily; this might be a lich’s trap meant to lure you out.”

The starling, smaller than a raven, let out a relieved cry, flapped its wings hard, and quickly flew off in another direction. Lancelot took the lead, gradually lowering his altitude to avoid premature detection by the enemy, but his spirit perception remained locked onto the undead squad’s movements.

About a quarter of an hour later, the target left the Witches’ Forest, and their full formation came into view: the core force comprised four undead knights on skeletal warhorses, followed by twelve corpse demons emitting a daunting aura. Lancelot’s heart sank slightly; the enemy outnumbered them and had superior strength, making it impossible for them to take on with their current power.

In terms of comparison, the strength of the skeletal knights was about that of a Succubus. If Lancelot’s cultivation were still at the high rank of Foundation Establishment, he might barely be able to handle four if he went all out, but he couldn’t do it now, and there were also those twelve corpse demons to deal with–they looked similar to zombies but were intelligent, making them extremely dangerous.

This was a world filled with magic and divine power, where resurrection wasn’t uncommon. Most true gods granted their priests the ability to do so. Some priests (with their god’s tacit permission) would even publicly sell this service to fund their church or support a secret plan of the deity.

But one thing was clear: the dead couldn’t resurrect themselves, at least not without prior arrangements.

So, when someone with a strong obsession dies without anyone intending to resurrect them, they have few options–making a deal with a demon is one, but negotiating after death with a representative of hell puts them at a huge disadvantage, often resulting in a clause in their contract where their soul is transformed into a low-rank Bartez. If pressed for details, the demon would honestly and thoroughly (under Cranvo’s demand) describe the transformation process, hinting that it would be ‘somewhat’ uncomfortable and ‘slightly’ risky, causing ‘partial or total’ memory loss.

In other words, this meant a complete destruction of the soul’s ‘original’ personality, an unacceptable cost for some, especially those with intense desires or vanity.

Hence, they would turn to other evil entities or even the dark side of the multiverse for mercy, and (in very rare cases) receive a response. They would return to the mortal realm as undead beings, becoming slaves to the entity responsible for their revival. Retaining their original memories and self-awareness, corpse demons’ combat skills remained as sharp as when they were alive, and they knew how to maintain their weapons and equipment.

Moreover, being devoid of life’s spark, corpse demons’ bodies were filled with bone-chilling cold and consuming darkness; their attacks could inflict frost damage and directly drain their enemies’ life force. This life drain was permanent, not restorable by conventional healing divine arts or potions, only removable through a high-level restoration art of the fifth circle or similar spell effect, or an eight-hour long rest, provided the victim survived the corpse demon’s assault.

For all these reasons, one or two corpse demons might be manageable, but once they had the numerical advantage, they became extremely dangerous. Among the group, aside from Lancelot, only little Isa was unafraid of these monsters. Even if he risked his life to entangle the four skeletal knights, there was no way to handle the full dozen corpse demons, so they could only trail the squad from afar to find out where they were headed to complete their mission.

But sometimes, just a bit more patience can bring about change.

The convoy continued along the road towards the kingdom’s border. Lancelot was almost certain they intended to leave this demi-plane (Peyton, the ruler of this demon’s domain, did indeed have that authority, though not personally). Just as he was considering launching a raid to figure out what the carts were transporting and then withdrawing immediately, someone suddenly ambushed the squad.

This was a road within the forest, and a deceptively deep puddle trapped the wagon wheels, bringing the entire squad to a halt. Lancelot instantly realized what would happen next, but the undead knights, unaware, loudly ordered the walking corpse demons to push the wagons out of the mud from atop their skeletal steeds.

The wagons seemed extremely heavy, and the corpse demons failed in their first and second attempts. The undead knights had no choice but to dismount and help, but at that moment, the ambush hit.

First, a dense rain of arrows caught the unprepared undead by surprise, felling two corpse demons instantly. The others, struck by several arrows, quickly took cover behind the wagons. Arrows continued to fly, and more than ten ambushers leapt out from behind tree trunks, charging at the wagons, led by a half-elf with white hair and a shadow glaive–it was their companion Tanya.

“She needs help!” Lancelot immediately began a dive while using telepathy to tell his companions, “Everyone else, deal with the corpse demons! Bruto, you’re with me to take down those undead knights!”