Undead crawled from the soil, crippled, they dragged their soggy bodies to the concrete walls of the castle separated from the world by a giant pit of water circling it.
They entered the walls, clawing and digging their way up, seeing and sensing vibrant life signatures pulsing in the throne room.
They clawed at that life, wanting it for themselves, wanting that fragile pulse for their own selfish desires.
Swoosh!
But that selfish desire would never come to pass.
As the power a singular man exuded with each step, cut through all, lacerating their necks as if it were a guillotine with a blade so dark in its glint that it reflected only the dark desires back.
A zombie, thinking it was smart, dug into the concrete floor, swimming through the floor like a mermaid, it was under the vibrant life in an instant.
Grinning like the lunatic it was, it sprang up, wanting to sink its filthy teeth into the nape where seeds of envy brewed from the scent it exuded.
Those sinking teeth never reached however.
They were always a step or two behind, as Ares was far too strong for mere zombies to lay a hand on him.
Crack!
The concrete broke, a zombie launched itself up, thinking it was smart when it was not.
Before it could even huff another breath, Ares already worked on cutting it through its midsection.
His blade slashed the air. Cutting it elegantly before pivoting sharply to the next enemy.
The zombies kept their numbers on him however, tightening their encirclement on him, knowing that one man can't beat a hundred.
They charged mindlessly.
But there were different kinds of zombies.
Earth zombies which ambushed from the ground itself. Those were the first to be eradicated.
Martial zombies adapted to his moves, learning, calculating his decisions to make him falter with mistakes. Using the familiar terrain to make him trip, slow down and open his heart to the vanguard.
Clang!
"Ho?" Ares raised a brow at the knight undead
Knight zombies protected them, being the vanguard that never took a step back unless necessity willed it so.
From the rear, caster zombies supported the vanguard with spells when they most needed it.
They were a tight family, the zombies supported each other not to win, but to wear down their opponents until one of them can sink their teeth in.
Because that's all it needed, one bite was all it took.
Yet, despite being in formation, in spite of their terrain which should've helped...
They all, laughably lost, crumbling into dust when they were stepped on.
Their formation never mattered, not once did it matter.
Ares was too strong for the vanguard and while the rear churned out more spells to strengthen and support them.
From the shadows, another pincered into their ranks, killing the mages one by one.
His appearance caused panic to flow erratically in the battlefield.
The vanguard hesitated, they looked back and some of them even retreated back in an attempt to save the mages, but that's where it all fell apart.
That's when their numbers started to thin out from the pincer attack, the two individuals pinched down on their bodies, crushing them slowly and methodically, before long, the only remaining zombies in the chamber were the martial zombies, still cultivating and reading the flow of battle.
They were skewered, massacred, torn to shreds and to the bone without mercy.
All while the two seemed to await for something to come, staring at arched doorway ahead with pondering eyes glinting like gold.
Under the rubble of their massacre, a zombie intelligent enough to keep his sense of self grasped at his mouth, his tears never stopped flowing.
'W-What is this?!'
The mutated zombie could even hold his own thoughts despite his decaying flesh, he was still dead though. It was just that his thoughts were made in a secondary operating brain close to where his heart was, it was a parasite that feasted on the flesh he brought and even his own flesh if he doesn't bring any, eating his bones too.
But that seemed to allow the man to be sentient of himself and others, which is why he never ate humans, but this...This is just crazy!
'How could anyone be so heartless!'
So what if there were zombies, how could you kill what was once your kind? What thoughts could possibly be swirling in that tasty brain of theirs for them to be so heartless?
The zombie, his curiosity, while mild wanted to be satiated.
And so the world responded to his call.
The individual who appeared suddenly out of thin air scratched the back of his head, muttering to the man on the side.
"The door isn't opening." He then turned to the man shifting his square glasses on his nose bridge.
"You know what that means, right?"
At that moment, the man nodded, his gaze flickering over a pile of corpses, only that...Under the pile of corpses.
There was the mutated zombie grasping his mouth.
"There is still one more~" After saying that, the young man stretched his limbs, walking toward the closed door.
Screams from the mutant came and those screams seemed to please the dungeon as right after that.
Creaaaakkkk~
The door leading into the next chamber creaked wide open, slowly, to drag out the dramatic effects more.
*
'Honestly, I thought it'd be more hard...' Well, it would be hard without Ares and without my skills, but yeah, it's still sort of a shock that I got him on board.
'Why did past me think it was a waste of time to recruit him? I did it pretty it easily.'
Could it have been that if you weren't a prophet he'd kill you? If so, then that'd mean I'd have to get the blessing of the prophet.
Which I didn't really mind giving up my second slot for. I had more than enough qualifications to just enter the temple where it was at and just steal it right then and there.
Walking through the chambers, I put on a veil of stealth over me, which Ares didn't fail to comment on. Wiping off the smudged streaks of dried cavern zombie blood over him.
"Is that stealth?" He asked, looking directly through my ruse.
"Yeah, though it doesn't seem to work on you and probably won't work on the boss."
I shrug off his amusement over my skill. Which didn't seem to undermine his praise and instead heightened it.
"Seriously? Then that means that except for the boss, you basically don't exist for the other inferior mobs."
A stuffy feeling blossomed in my stomach at the praise of one of the strongest currently in the world.
"Y-Yeah, I guess so..." Ares didn't fail to continue to talk to me, as if now he had found some topics worth speaking about.
"Now that I think about it... is that what you did the other day." Ares turned to me, flicking his wrist holding the pitch black sword to the side. Which splashed over the remaining blood.
Confused, I inquired for what he meant.
"What do you mean?"
Ares continued.
"Before Aegis was kidnapped, I sensed a significant amount of mana being released numerous times... I'm saying if that was you."
"Ah."
Knowing what he meant, I coughed in slight embarrassment. Carefully choosing my words.
"I slipped up is all, you see..."
I released a small amount of my mana that was tinged with intimidation.
The mana made him flinch at first, the unknown feeling of a predator lurking sharpened the look in his eyes.
"This is my holy blessing, intimidation, it works well in getting the riled up kids calm."
"That's not a bad ability, for daily life and dungeon life..."
His words clung to the air, allowing me enough time to think over his words carefully.
'It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't good enough for more than that.' That was the truth, while there were uses, they were pretty niche and catered carefully to intelligent life forms.
Intimidation wouldn't work on mindless, gone crazy beasts after all, now would it?
But that's exactly why pillars were important, they supported a specific amount of blessings, allowing them to broaden their wings and soar further away.
'It seems Ares now understands why I came here.'
His face looked as if he were having an epiphany, realization marred on his face as he turned to glance at me.
Before coming here, we needed confirmation, or well Ares needed it.
He didn't want to suddenly be trapped after all, he still couldn't trust me after all.
He wanted to know if that dungeon was real or not. So we went to the hunters association, a association starkly different from the awakeners association.
It was more like the adventurer's guild in fantasy stories that you'd see often portrayed as mercenaries.
That was the hunters association, a place of mercenaries mingling.
The quests there were thoroughly authenticated, made sure to actually be a quest with the rewards proportionate to the threat level.
It was a place where you could get your hunter's ID and immediately jump. For reference, I already had one since I hailed from a family of mercenaries.
I was never good at it, or well the me before transmigration was never good.
So Eliot's family, well off and all that would send him to the academy of talents. Which I now didn't go to.
Anyways, there, all the information collected from the association was displayed, what kind of set could be found, if it had been cleared before and whatnot.
To my surprise, despite nobody clearing it, thinking it was not worth doing for a trashy mayor who subjects his people to constant suffering.
The association had a lot of information that you'd only know about unless you went in there yourself. Like the information on the enemies, the set effects of the pillar and even the kind of boss in there.
I liked it, a lot, since that meant I could use the strategies I knew about in my past world without making myself look weird or suspicious.
Short story, the hunters association helped me actually keep Ares by my side without much trouble and so I loved them, a complete stark contrast to its counter part.
"Eugh."
My face contorted, twisting into an expression you'd only see after vomiting.
Those were truly trash, the junkyard would have to make a new expansion for them if they ever needed to haul their asses.
Before long, me and Ares reached the second chamber, which opened ominously to us.
With confidence, Ares strode in the room swarming with zombies. Not a care in the world for what trick they may use.
It made sense, since all of this was simply... too much of a child's play for him.
Seeing him fight, I started to wonder in the back.
'Just what kind of prophecy would he want me to orient for me?'
It was all I could think about when he entered so confidently in.
Just what would someone like him want to know? Someone as strong as him, what would he want?
I held fury for the past me, fury for the fact that he wouldn't indulge my curiosities.
Fury that he wouldn't tell me despite knowing the history of this man.
'Just why was he unimportant in our quest to save the world? Isn't he powerful enough to wreck our plans with just his appearance?'
I didn't know, and it seemed to me.
That it would take many years for me to know about this man's ambitions and goals.