Chapter 155 - 52: [Meeting of the Dead]

Chapter 155: Chapter 52: [Meeting of the Dead]

Five Corpse Demons wore owl-like Collins-style Helmets. One held a Nether Copper Staff suspended with a bell high in the air, two grasped massive scythes covered in jagged teeth, and the remaining two carried Morning Star Hammers bristling with sharp spikes. Nether Copper Bells hung around all their necks, emitting light JINGLES as they collided with their Chain Armor.

Lahador’s tactical style seemed to revolve around bloodletting, dismemberment, inflicting massive lacerations, and executing brutal, rapid kills.

Perhaps he was an Assassin-type Ghost Knight.

"However... only five elite units? Are they not here to attack?" Samael thought.

Raising his sword and shield, Samael slowly stepped to the front of the line, calculating and planning for potential situations and formulating tactics to counter them.

"Samael, my good brother!" The Chain Armor Corpse Demon holding the bell-adorned Nether Copper Staff excitedly opened its arms from a distance and shouted. "We’re neighbors now, my good friend! Xiaosa!"

What in the world... This unexpected situation left Samael momentarily at a loss for how to respond. But upon careful reflection, the other party had also appeared just as passionate and cheerful the last time they met. The result? A sudden, unpredictable flurry of slashes from blade-embedded nightmare tendrils disguised as a handshake.

The four Corpse Demons wielding giant scythes and Nail Spike Morning Star Hammers stopped at the border of the mist. They stood quietly in waiting, like a Monarch’s honor guard, flanking the Chain Armor Corpse Demon that held the bell-adorned Nether Copper Staff.

"Good brother! Long time no see! Are you done moving?" The leading Corpse Demon holding the Nether Copper Staff marched forward on its Nether Copper Limbs, twisting its python-like body as it ran over with CLACKING sounds. It opened its rotting arms, passionately wanting to embrace Samael. "Is your tomb settled? I brought you some furniture to decorate your burial chamber. Do you want it?"

Samael took a half-step back. Before the Chain Armor Corpse Demon’s embrace could reach him, he turned sideways and retreated behind the Corpse Knights’ wall of Nether Copper Shields.

CLANG! The Chain Armor Corpse Demon crashed headfirst into the shield wall. Accompanied by SQUEAKING sounds of friction, it clumsily slid down the shield wall and slumped onto the ground.

"Oh my, oh my! I was just messing around with you last time! You really... how can you not take a joke? It truly breaks my heart!" The Chain Armor Corpse Demon lay on the ground in front of the shield wall, wriggling back and forth like a giant python throwing a tantrum. Lahador’s obnoxious voice echoed from beneath its Collins-style Helmet.

"We cannot be easily destroyed. My little joke last time would have left a few scratches on your chest armor at most. I just wanted to test your skills!"

"What are you here for?" A shield-bearing Corpse Knight slightly lowered its head, looking down at the staff-wielding Chain Armor Corpse Demon wriggling in front of the shield wall. Samael’s voice rang out from beneath its Nether Copper Bell-shaped Helmet.

"Can we chat face-to-face? My dear kin?" The Chain Armor Corpse Demon slithered as it stood up, leaning on the bell-adorned Nether Copper Staff. It probed playfully, "Our true bodies, chatting face-to-face."

"Your true body isn’t here. You only sent five elite units," Samael replied. "There’s no need to chat."

"No, no, no, Xiaosa, my good brother. These five are just path-clearing messengers and an honor guard, coming ahead of time to say hello as a show of respect. My true body is right here," Lahador’s voice echoed through the mist.

CLANG, CLANG. The faint sound of colliding Nether Copper echoed through the fog.

Accompanied by the RUSTLING friction of Chain Armor, an emaciated, sharp, and lanky suit of Nether Copper Armor slowly emerged from the mist, standing quietly at the edge of the fog.

His articulated combat boots bent slightly as he stepped, making smooth, completely silent contact with the ground, like a ghost.

Lahador’s helmet was a Heroic Spirit Winged Helmet decorated with bird wings on both sides. The upper half of his face was enclosed by Nether Copper Armor Plates that formed owl-like eyeholes, with Nether Copper wings adorning the sides. The lower half of his face was covered by a Nether Copper Mask hollowed out with twisted, vertical stripe patterns. A layer of Nether Copper Chain Armor padded his neck.

His body consisted of emaciated, thin armor lined with sharp, hook-like barbs and interspersed with articulated, flexible joints. The gaps exposed at the joints were completely covered with Nether Copper Chain Armor inside. Through the crevices of the chainmail, one could see the empty darkness within the Armor.

The excess edges of his Chain Armor drooped from his thin limbs, shoulder guards, and the hollowed gaps of his body’s joints. Fine Nether Copper Lock Rings hung loosely, rustling lightly with his movements. They looked like a tattered short robe, or perhaps broken and festering wings.

"He really is an agility type..." Samael thought as he observed the structure of Lahador’s body.

"We are the true kin here, Samael," the knight in thin Chain Armor and Heroic Spirit Winged Helmet said. Standing before the mist, keeping a cautious distance, he opened his arms toward Samael’s shield wall in a gesture of embrace. "We are all Undead souls from Otherworlds summoned to this place. We might even come from the same place and the same era."

"Samael." Talia’s hand grasped his shoulder guard as she called his name in a low voice from behind.

"Shut up, living one," Lahador said, raising his lanky arm guard. His sharp Nether Copper fingertips pointed one by one at Talia and the Demon Race Exiles behind her. "This is the realm of the dead. Here on the Hai Xin Plain, the living have no right to interrupt. You only deserve to hurry up and die, then offer up your corpses. Understand?"

A cold BUZZING sound echoed from beneath his Heroic Spirit Winged Helmet, like the hollow laughter of an Undead Monarch.

Talia scoffed coldly, still gripping Samael’s shoulder guard tightly.

"Xiaosa, my dear good brother," Lahador said, turning to Samael. "Although I don’t know why you’re mingling with the living... tell them to get lost, and let’s have a chat, how about it?"

Separated by the Corpse Knights’ shield wall and the Scythe Corpse Demons’ honor guard, the hollow eyeholes on the two Ghost Knights’ helmets quietly locked gazes. It was as if two voids were staring at each other, two kinds of death observing one another.

Samael remained silent.

"You all retreat to the camp and rest for a bit," he finally said.

"What?" Talia was shocked. "You don’t actually believe this guy across from us..."

"I don’t," Samael replied in a low voice, looking at Lahador standing quietly not far away. "But he might hold some important information. And I need that information.

"Let me talk to him."