Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Denille wore a terrified expression. She was deeply terrified by the unexpected face she had seen under the helmet which brought not hope, but an eerie sense of impending doom!

She could have checked the individual's mana core with her advanced senses but the thought slipped her mind as she was in a fear induced stupor.

'An undead?!' she thought as she tried to scurry for anything to use to defend herself but alas, her bow was broken and she had exhausted her arrow supply.

All she could think of right now was the abundant lore on the deadly undead as she sweat buckets.

She trembled and almost broke down as she struggled to stand up.

Skullius was having a kick out of this, the image of the portal still open behind him like a dancing colourful void.

"Can you deal with something for me over here, bro? And hurry up!" Skullius barked.

Suddenly, a large head popped through the portal which instantly expanded to accommodate the large figure!

As soon as the giant's eyes met the creature with the odachi, it thrusted its arm and grabbed the creature before it could even react!

"Don't address me so casually," Sause warned Skullius with a deadly glare. "I'm not your guard."

Skullius didn't respond but the jump in the flames in his sockets spoke volumes about how he felt.

"EEEEK!" Denille screamed upon seeing the figure of Sause who finally pulled his entire body through the portal, his frame not being able to fit in the corridor.

He held the creature with the odachi in one hand firmly, squishing it to its demise and a healthier looking Benzard without the grave burns in the other, unconscious.

"Pretty human girl, sit still and shut up," Sause commanded with a false sense of sincerity which manifested as a light smile.

Denille who had been about to push her broken leg to make an attempt at running away found herself stuck, unable to move or speak!

...!

This horrified her beyond belief.

A giant and an undead!

Plus... there was Benzard whose head was peeking from Sause's hand.

'Benzard! What happened?! Where are others?! What will happen to me?! Somebody please save me! Benzard! Benzard! Wake up and fix this! I swear I'll haunt you for eternity if I die!' she thought.

Tears streamed from Denille's eyes.

"Is this the other thing you wanted to do?" Sause asked Skullius.

"Yeah, large bro. You made it even easier for me actually," replied the Penetrator as he walked towards Denille and crouched down before her.

He searched with his armoured hands around her body and found her to also have a spatial storage ring like the one Reon had.

'I assume it's in here but..' Skullius thought. 'How does this thing work?'

Skullius felt the intertwining of many pathways like when he had used his Null Life Essence to trace along the goblin staves.

His first thought was to use the same method to see if he could extract a skill like how he had gotten [Mana Bolt] and [Flame Shot] but he decided against it as it would take too much time and wasn't his current objective.

Unlike with Reon's ring which he had decided to check out later, he needed to confirm if what he was looking for was here or not.

Therefore Skullius checked with his guidance field.

~~~

[Spatial Storage Ring]

<Uncommon>

An object with a fairly expansive storage forged within it through a specific interweaving of mana runes.

-Ownership can be prompted by injecting mana. A different individual can become the owner provided that the previous user dies-

~~~

"I see," Skullius said before his gaze fell upon Denille. She had nothing on her person which meant that all her valuables when in the ring. "So you need to die?"

Denille trembled nonstop as she couldn't do a thing.

In her mind, this was a transcendent being with a giant as a pet which was extremely uncharacteristic of the race but believable if a high ranked undead was in the picture.

"You should have been a bit kinder to that lowly shitface," Skullius said with an eerily deep voice, watching as Denille's eyes opened wide in shock.

What?

How..?

Why...?

Denille's vision blurred as the shock set in.

Before she knew it, she was bound by thick, dark chains that wrapped around her tightly!

An extreme and excruciating sensation of pain washed over her the instant the chains touched her body and she... couldn't scream aloud.

Her feet wiggled and violently knocked against the ground while her eyed reddened to a frightening degree.

Sause raised a brow.

'What kind of a grudge does he have towards her?'

"Hehe..." Skullius laughed before he activated a skill from the Chains of Damnation!

[Damnation!]

CHTNK!CHTNK!

The chains around Denille started quivering violently and before she even realised how screwed she was, the chains heaved her upwards and pulled her hard towards the ground!

On the floor, a bright blue tint appeared, the floor parting to release a sky blue radiance in the form of an edgy sphere that had flame-like wisps protruding!

Denille could only watch in horror as she was pulled into the blue, disappearing from the corridor.

"..."

Sause was utterly speechless.

He began to re-evaluate his thoughts on Skullius. He didn't know what kind of skill that was, but it definitely wasn't something he was familiar with.

There was no overwhelming intent when the skill was cast.

It was just like Skullius...

A presence less event.

In Skullius' vision, he saw a hazy image of a dumb Denille sink into an unfamiliar space where white faces filled with dread were constantly screaming while being burnt by shimmering blue flames!

This vision barely lasted for a second as Skullius watched Denille sink into the flames with her eyes showing utter terror and pain while she burned.

The chains rose from the blue depression, the ground returning to normal while Skullius received notifications of another death by his hands.

[You have killed Higher level existence LV11 Human. You have gained experience]

[85,000 Exp awarded]

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like he would be able to extract the Null Life Essence from Denille which was a bummer.

"Right..." Skullius said putting the matter asides as he began injecting his mana into the spatial storage ring.

At first it rejected his mana but after a few seconds, streams of his power were readily accepted.

Skullius felt a link to the ring and its contents were revealed to him.

There were a lot of things in the ring, but Skullius didn't look for anything else other what he needed... and he found it!

The Arcane Teleportation Scroll!

This was the scroll he had been given by Eobald as a means to escape back then.

Skullius distinctly remembered Reon asking Denille if she still had it before they had entered the Majestic Territory of the fox to which she had answered with affirmation.

Skullius intended to use it to leave the Tremur Forest and explore Aigas just like Serenity had said.

With that secured, Skullius could finally get to escaping from this place.

He turned to Sause who was still thinking deeply while being extremely uncomfortable in the cramped space and nodded.

He took out his Key, the silvery round object he had kept safe throughout the journey surfacing again.

Sause dropped Benzard who was unconscious on the ground and his eyes flared with a deeper red than their usual hue.

Benzard's body suddenly stood, its eyes glowing with a deep red glow.

He was being controlled by Sause, the giant using his connection through the class to manipulate Benzard's body. The giant felt a massive strain just from having him stand. The lack of his strength limited him greatly as this was the reason he had been unable to use this trick before.

From Benzard's ring, a Universal Gate Key like Skullius' appeared in his hand.

He walked up to Skullius, bringing his Key in close proximity to the Penetrator's.

A low rumbling erupted from the Labyrinth as from the dark corridor, the same double gate that Skullius had seen when he first entered appeared!

It was much smaller but the images carved on its surface were nonetheless magnificent.

'This is it,' Skullius thought.

Sause was anticipating the grand view of a lush forest, the sun and beautiful horizon behind this gate but he couldn't help but be apprehensive.

Both he and Skullius placed their Keys on the door and in the next moment, the doors rumbled as they opened with a weighty vibrance!

A bright light overtook the three and before they knew it, the view of the Labyrinth was no more.

Skullius' four flames became subdued as he saw a familiar scenery.

This scenery was technically good news but he couldn't help but be pessimistic.

A familiar dark sky could seen above with white clouds, hazy figures of what looked like a forest in the distance.

Sause looked around, immediately knowing where was, to which he cursed.

"Intriguing. To think after all these years, someone would return, with such circumstances in tow as well..."

A regal voice spoke to the three.

A giant white fox appeared behind them, its eye glowing with an orange light as a strange symbol appeared within it while it gazed below at Skullius, Sause and Benzard.

'A Territory... Fulgardt you bastard...' Sause grumbled as he gazed at the fox.

He had managed to come out of the Labyrinth after so long only to face a powerful projection of a Majestic Territory.

Skullius didn't know what to do in this situation. He expected aggression because of his appearance which he had hidden immediately after realised where he was behind his helmet.

"Not much can remain hidden before my eye. Tell me. What are you...little thing?" the fox asked as it's gaze focused solely on Skullius.