Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”A greatsword, black mist...” Ron and his companions were all stunned to hear the description, but Sera and Aive had the most intense reactions of all.

Having once clashed head-on with that Death Knight, no one knew better than they did just how terrifying it was.

”Weren’t those things supposed to stay near the monument?!” Sera shouted, swinging her sword with all her might. Grip of the Vast Wave plowed a dark-red clearing through the Beastmen. ”How did it get here?!”

”This place is nowhere near the monument, not to mention most Undead Creatures are slow,” Victoria said. Her weapon couldn’t decapitate the undead beside her, but luckily, some Kambions and Little Devils were fighting at her side, and they quickly swept the area clean. ”Even if they could leave, and the Pollution Worm Demon was no longer controlling them, it would have taken a very long time to get here. So how did they arrive?”

”The Pollution Worm Demon! Remember the Undead Creatures beneath her village?!” Delaford suddenly recalled. ”Only she can command those damned things!”

”Datina? She has already signed a contract with my master,” Kao Jia’s icy gaze swept over the Goblin Hunters on the ground. ”Are you questioning the authority of Her Highness, the princess?”

”She did say that the undead she commands were already the most she could control...” Ron frowned, turning to the Elf Grand Mage for help. ”Jilannis, do you know what could have caused this?”

”A Teleportation Technique could manage a single Death Knight, but to move an entire army over a long distance... Do these Undead Creatures have a Casting Team composed of high-level Witch Demons or something similar?”

”If that were the case, we wouldn’t have survived this long,” Aive said, looking up at the Elf. ”The high-level Witch Demons you mentioned... wouldn’t each one have to be on par with you?”

”Weaker than me, without a doubt,” Jilannis snorted. ”But it seems they don’t even have that... In that case, the most likely scenario is that a nearby Teleportation Array is connected to their original location. Is there one?”

Ron and the others looked at each other.

”Well, there is,” Ron said with a strange expression, unfolding the Weaving Introduction to show Jilannis the map he had acquired. ”But look, these five sealed lands are all independent. The ten Teleportation Arrays are paired up, and the one at the monument is a world away from here.”

”You actually got your hands on a map? Interesting...” Jilannis immediately perked up. ”It seems we have a lot in common, Lord. So, may I assume you also recorded the on-site conditions of these Teleportation Arrays?”

Ron didn’t answer. He simply turned a page in the Weaving Introduction, and diagrams of every Teleportation Array he had encountered immediately materialized upon it.

He was studying Enchantment, and these Teleportation Arrays were undoubtedly some of the best teaching materials available. Ron wasn’t about to miss out on such excellent practical examples.

”It doesn’t look like these were made by the same people,” the vastly experienced Grand Mage quickly concluded. ”But the underlying principles are the same. A scholar proficient in this field should be able to link different Teleportation Arrays together.”

”To permanently change the array’s destination?”

”Impossible. It’s a one-time thing,” the Elf said, waving her hand. ”These Teleportation Arrays are unstable to begin with, not to mention they’re in disrepair. It’s a miracle they can be used at all. Rerouting them can only be a one-time operation. Let’s see... is the closest one near the canyon? If so, it should be completely destroyed by now—along with the one it was originally linked to.”

In other words, this kind of teleportation was not repeatable. A single connection would take four teleportation points out of commission, meaning this trick could only be used twice with the ten existing Teleportation Arrays.

This news allowed everyone to breathe a collective sigh of relief. If there were an endless tide of undead pouring through the array, they would have no choice but to pack up and flee.

”But in truth, you can barely handle the enemies you have now, can’t you?” the Desire Demon said, throwing cold water on the mortals’ hopes. ”That Death Knight alone is more than you can contend with, no?”

”That’s true. We fought him before and barely escaped with our lives,” Ron sighed. ”Lady Kao Jia, you’re a powerful demon and you once assisted with Duke Mephisto’s experiments. You must have studied souls extensively, right?”

”’Assisted with experiments’?” The Desire Demon was so amused by Ron’s choice of words that she shook with laughter. ”I was just an experiment, dear. Don’t give me too much credit!”

”Besides, the principles behind a Death Knight are exceedingly complex—hardly something that can be understood with ’a study of souls’,” Jilannis stated coolly. ”As it stands, the most widely accepted method for stopping a Death Knight is to help it atone for its sins and achieve eternal redemption.”

”Elf, you’re joking, right?” Kao Jia raised an eyebrow. ”Death Knights are Undead Creatures. Who knows how long they’ve been dead! This one has been dead for at least three to four hundred years! Even if it once had a chance to atone, that opportunity has long since vanished into thin air!”

”Correct. That’s why most Death Knights can never be stopped,” Jilannis did not deny it. ”But I believe—”

Before the Elf Grand Mage could finish, the ground began to tremble. A roar rumbled deep in the Hill Giant’s throat as he tried desperately to conceal his profound dread and fear.

The Hill Giant’s intelligence was limited, and he barely knew the meaning of fear. His reaction was more instinctual, like a creature in the food chain encountering its natural predator.

It made the giant tremble instinctively.

”CLOMP, CLOMP—” The sound of heavy hooves echoed through the street just recently cleared of Beastmen and Centaurs. The rhythmic scraping of bone on bone served as a ghastly accompaniment, accentuating the terror of the commander. Standing on a rooftop, Ron saw a black cloud slowly advancing on them from outside New Green Swamp Town.

The advance of the Undead Legion sounded like a death knell. Even the air itself no longer seemed to side with the living; it grew heavy, pressing in from all directions on every creature that still needed to breathe.

”GULP—” Sera swallowed hard. The palms of the usually fearless barbarian were starting to sweat.

The goblins and Kobolds were in even worse shape. The braver among them trembled as if they’d been struck by lightning. The more cowardly had already collapsed to the ground, and it was best not to speculate on the state of their trousers.

”F-Fireball Magic?” Anpbi looked pleadingly at Morlo, but the Kobold Sorcerer couldn’t even form a complete sentence. His teeth were chattering so violently he couldn’t make any other sound.