Zal'karn was able to extract the last death order stone and completed his mission.

He saw the last stone float and merge with the obelisk behind him.

But at the exact moment, the barrier cracked, and shattered like glass once the golden arrow hit it with full force. Its tip swirled, enhancing its penetration capability—to a higher degree. A power that Zal'karn didn't expect coming from an Elven Queen.

Especially since the Elven race has fallen from grace substantially.

Coupled with the surprising arrow, Flunra made a perfect ambush from behind.

"A guardian... It's an honor to meet with you," Zal'karn mused despite the pressing situation.

Sensing the traces of the Twilight Realm sizzling around Flunra—he recognized Flunra almost immediately—the Werewolves who could access the Twilight Realm are few and guardians of the royal Werewolves were one of those few.

It was easy to recognize Flunra because of that.

"Save your words for later, you will meet the Emperor" Flunra pushed his claws deeper.

He also used an ancient rune engraved on his palm.

An ancient rune that would allow his runic energy to lock Zal'karn's internal energy flow.

Zal'karn glanced at his front and saw the other Undeads were being pushed back rapidly, the Alpha Primes along—with the Elven forces, were turning their formations into disarray. Also—Adhara and Gistella already broke free and were charging toward him.

Being pinned by three powerful Werewolves would close his escape route, he needed to flee.

"Your Emperor... Greet him for me..." Zal'karn mocked as he lifted his hand.

Seeing this, Flunra was alerted and charged the ancient rune with more power.

Clang!

Just then—his eyes widened when a massive black sword flew and was caught by Zal'akrn's hand, humming with the very essence of death. Flunra could see through his wide eyes, that the sword was completely coated with death mana.

And the concentration of it alerted his senses, he couldn't get slashed by this blade.

In an attempt to break free, Zal'karn twisted its torso.

He twisted his torso to the very back unnaturally and swung at Flunra with his death sword.

Sensing the danger from the death sword, Flunra pulled out his claws and leaped back, able to barely dodge the tip of the blade—before screeching backward a couple of meters. Upon stopping, he looked at Zal'karn's sword again and frowned.

'It's the death order stones... he turned the obelisk into a sword' He exhaled roughly.

Roar!!

Dashing with extreme speed, Adhara and Gistella reached Zal'karn's behind, with their maws opened wide. At the same time, Zal'karn stabbed the sword into the ground, gushing its very energy into the earth.

Before Adhara and Gistella could reach him, the ground exploded with piles of skeletons.

It created a tube-like wall that encased Zal'karn inside of it.

Not only that, Adhara—and Gistella who were pushed back needed to twist and turn mid-air as skeletal spikes tried to pierce them from below. Upon landing on their feet, Flunra's shout echoed, "Stop him! He's trying to escape!"

Before Adhara and Gistella could react, Mavok already reached the wall first.

He used the enhancement from the Demon Moon and body-slammed the wall of skeletons.

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Crash!

More than half of the structures were destroyed, creating a massive hole in the wall but they couldn't see Zal'karn inside. On top of that, the other Undead began to teleport away—using a trinket that caused them to turn into a pile of bones. Ráℕо฿ЁⱾ

Seeing this, Mavok frowned, "Did that Undead escape already?!"

"No, it's still somewhere here!" Flunra replied and scanned the surroundings with his eyes.

Unlike the other Undeads that don't have a burden with them, Zal'karn bears a giant burden, the death sword would be difficult to be teleported away, due to how condensed it was with all the death mana it was made with.

Even for an Undead of Zal'karn's caliber, he would still need at least half a minute.

Hearing that, all of them searched for Zal'karn.

Since the death mana already evaporated already, finding him shouldn't be hard.

And as expected, Gistella was the first one to sense Zal'karn's scent.

Fixing her gaze on the ground, she drove her steel tail deep into the earth and unleashed a surge of moonlight energy. Everyone else instinctively leaped aside except for her—and as the ground fractured apart, Zal'karn's hidden location was revealed.

He was at the center of the ground, channeling his death energy to teleport the death sword.

Almost instantly, Adhara erupted violet flames from the crack.

Kaboom!

Zal'karn was propelled outward, the flame eruption threw him up into the air.

But instead of panicking, its skull suddenly turned ink-blank and its orb eyes disappeared.

Seeing this, the three Alpha Primes circled Zal'karn.

Like a prowling predator, the three waited for the perfect moment and struck repeatedly.

Coming from Zal'karn's blindspot, the three alternately leaped and struck, nicking down the armor with each strike. As this encirclement continued, Mavok noticed something, "Flunra!" He shouted. "He's still channeling! We can't disperse his focus!"

Albeit being attacked from all sides, Zal'karn didn't retaliate.

He instead turned into a meditation state and used all of his focus to channel his energy.

Other than being able to suppress the death sword with his energy without interruption, his resilience—also significantly increased. Recognizing this Flunra swiftly bit his thumb—using his blood to inscribe another rune, this situation was becoming increasingly troublesome.

In this state, Zal'karn is inulvenrable.

Flunra and the Alpha Primes knew about this state.

Powerful Undead has access to this ability, allowing them to buy time for reinforcements.

An annoying ability that all Undead accepted by the Netherworld could obtain.

It wouldn't last long but would be long enough to finish suppressing the death sword.

As Flunra was creating the ancient rune to counter this move, waking up Zul'karn forcefully, Valkis, and Fenrik caught Zal'karn's body, and pinned him on the ground. In addition, Mavok coated his hands with kingly energy and grabbed the death sword.

But once he did, he immediately fell to his knees.

"Arrghkk...!" He grunted in utter pain.

Despite pouring everything to protect his hands from the death mana, the high concentration was too much even for him. He couldn't even hold the death sword for a second, but he must take the death sword out of Zal'karn's hand.

Doing that would make waking him up easier.

Just then, Gistella landed right beside Mavok strongly.

Mavok could see reason behind her eyes, it seemed she recovered her consciousness a bit.

Pushing Mavok aside, Gistella, coated her hand with moonlight energy along, with her death energy before grabbing ahold of the death sword. Just like Mavok's attempt earlier, she was bashed by the torrent of death energy.

It was as strong as earlier but she could withstand this way longer.

Albeit her hand was being decayed visibly, she could still put strength into it.

Swoosh!

Gritting her teeth, Gistella pulled the death sword away from Zal'karn's hand.

Upon doing that the invisible connection between him and the death sword, taken the shape of a black string could be seen. She couldn't pull the death sword completely, the string was preventing her from pulling it more than two meters away.

But it was good enough for Flunra.

Dashing like a shadow, Flunra appeared beside Gistella and lifted his claws above his head.

His claws were now glowing brightly with runic energy—and the runic energy was special—it wasn't deterred by the gushing death mana from the death sword at all. As Flunra was about to cut the connection, Zal'karn suddenly woke up.

Swoosh!

Bursting with power, Zal'karn's body exploded with a shockwave of death energy.

It pushed the others back and he broke free from their encirclement.

"Damn it, we're too late!"

"Stop him!"

"He managed to suppress the sword already, he could teleport!"

As they were pushed back—Gistella's steel tail stabbed Zal'kar's shadow, stopping him, from escaping. Her reaction was impeccable but Zal'karn smirked as he threw the death sword up towards the dark sky.

Everyone tilted their heads up, fixing their eyes on the death sword.

However, Adhara was the only one who moved to catch the death sword.

She channeled her fire elements and burst flames from below her feet, propelling her upward to catch the death sword. Knowing that Gistella was the only one who could touch the death sword, the others were confused by her decision.

But that confusion didn't last long.

Scree!!

Coming in hot from the horizon was a massive ghost eagle with four wings.

It moved at close to supersonic speed, piercing the sky like a fish swimming in the ocean.

Adhara reached her hand above, trying to grab the spinning death sword but the ghost eagle blasted through her, pushing her down, with the gush of wind it left behind. It took off, taking the death sword with it.

It went as quickly as it appeared.

Just as the others were distracted, Zal'karn suddenly pierced his hand into his chest.

Once he did that, he crushed his heart and fell to the ground, dead.

Seeing this, Valkis frowned, "Did it commit suicide...?"

"No, it has multiple bodies... A signature ability of a unique type of Undead—the Fragmented Dreadlord also known as the Undead Hydra. He could kill this body and change into another, this Undead is older than you three" Flunra explained with an evident frown.

A Fragmented Dreadlord is way harder to recognize.

It doesn't have a distinctive feature, in hindsight, it would look like an ordinary Elder Lich.

But it wasn't and the only way to know was through fighting it like this.

Flunra rubbed his forehead and this gesture alone struck a realization to the others.

"Did we fail to stop it...?" Mavok muttered, sucking in a cold breath in disbelief.

Valkis and Fenrik were also stunned, to think that the Undead could escape them during the Demon Moon was a huge blow to their ego and pride as Werewolves. Not to mention—there were three Alpha Primes and three other Werewolves equivalent to Alpha Primes.

Basically, Zal'karn was able to escape from being trapped by six Alpha Primes.

Such a realization was devastating for them.

Even Adhara and Gistella growled, venting their anger by decimating the entire place.

All of them Undead have escaped, or at least, the real Undead.

Most of the Undead Army—was comprised of summons, they weren't actually alive, the only ones, that were alive once were the Undead Revenants. It was a total loss—the Undead was able to get what they wanted.

"Sweep the area, it's our defeat but he wouldn't blame us as much," Flunra instructed.

Given that Rex's clone was present and the Undead had evaded detection—Flunra and the others shouldn't be blamed too much. It was still a mistake—but a less severe one because of that.

It was simply a flawless plan by the Undead, they didn't see it coming.

As he reflected on this, Flunra noticed Queen Shanaela approaching.

He quickly told the others to leave before heading over to the queen.

Judging from her expression, she has something to say, and it's not something good.

"You're a great help, Queen Shanaela," Flunra praised—he managed to land an ambush, due to her opening the barrier. "We're only unlucky, the Undead prepared this moment well. I am going to take responsibility for this"

Upon hearing this, Queen Shanaela smiled gently and nodded.

She was thankful but that wasn't what she came to say.

"I appreciate your gesture but I bring news," Queen Shanaela replied with a heavy heart.

It was clear that she didn't know how to smoothen this conversation and decided to be blunt with it. Pausing for a second, she then continued, "It's not exactly bad news but... Shadow is dead. I received news from the outpost on the valley that I sent to check, Shadow is dead"

"Isn't that good news?" Flunra asked back, hoping that it wasn't what he thought.

But the worse came true.

"Yes, but Shadow was killed by two high ranking—Death Knights. Its corpses was teleported away, presumably to the Undead's territory. The Undead didn't come here only for the Death Order Stones, they also came here for Shadow's Elemental Order"

"Cursed them..."

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