Mid Boss? Item!.

“Your Majesty!! Quickly, you must flee, quickly.”

Over the knight’s shoulder, while he kneels on one knee on the floor, loud shouts laced faintly with screams and curses come one after another.

The one receiving the knight’s report, a middle-aged man wearing a golden dragon robe and a brilliantly shining crown, leans back against the chair with a languid expression and asks.

“Well, then, Count Ruben, commander of the Royal Guard Knights. Someone coming to cut off my head, you say. The wraith of Duke Leopold, perhaps?”

“No… more than that, Your Majesty, quickly…”

He pays no heed to the knight’s urging. A small sneer forms on the endlessly listless, bored face that nods along.

“Well, we did kill every last bastard in the ducal territory that day. Then is it some marquis from somewhere?”

“No.”

As if he had given up on getting him to flee, no more urgent pleas for evacuation come from the knight’s mouth.

“Is that so? Well, there probably wouldn’t be any troops left in the marquisate. Then a count. Yes, a count, I suppose. A margrave?”

“Margraves. Those who hold considerable military strength to guard the border. The emperor was sure it was them.”

But this time as well, the knight’s head shook from side to side. He was then asked whether it was a viscount or a baron, but that too was not it.

“The one leading the group is a man named Yuhan… a commoner.”

“What? A commoner!! How dare you, how dare you say the one coming to strike this emperor is only a commoner? Less than vermin! How can that be? What are those foolish nobles doing that they dare think to place my neck at the mercy of a commoner’s sword!!”

The emperor shows emotion for the first time. However, the prostrate man’s mouth does not open right away.

After hesitating for a moment, the man opened his mouth.

“He… is said to be a former garrison commander defending the inner castle. His wife and daughter… died tragically, and now he has become the leader of the rebellion.”

A chuckle slips out of me before I know it. How much I had worried and agonized over whether I’d have to make a separate effort to find them. And yet here they were, appearing on their own.

“Welcome, master of the divine dragon. His gracious Majesty says he will grant you one more chance. Will you offer up the divine dragon?”

“……”

The members flinch, ready to spring out at any moment. And Ja-ryong, huffing above my head as if in a bad mood. Rebound looks ready to tear those two bastards apart right this second.

“Thanks.”

But what came out of my mouth was a sincere word of thanks. Not sarcasm, but truly sincere.

The party makes faces that say they don’t understand. Even the two undead themselves tilt their heads.

“Thanks? For what?”

“……?”

“For appearing in front of us.”

Whoosh—

Aside from the suddenly blowing wind, the surroundings fall into silence.

Startled by the silence that arrived out of nowhere, I turned my gaze to the party, only to find the members flinching and stepping back a little. Their faces were brimming with shock and fear.

“Companion… could it be that your tastes…?”

“No, it isn’t!”

“That’s fine. Among people with unusual sexual tastes, there’s no law saying they can’t like undead. Still, even so, don’t those two seem male?”

“I said no!!”

I turn my eyes to the Skeleton King and the Elder Death Knight, and they boldly step back despite being undead. That makes it even worse!

“No, it’s because if I hadn’t met those guys, I wouldn’t have been able to get the treasure to store in subspace. That’s why I said thank you.”

“I see. I’ll believe that.”

I barely managed to straighten out the oddly shifting atmosphere and glared at the two culprits.

Under my glaring gaze, the bastards raise both arms and shrug as if wondering why I’m doing that to them.

“Prepare for battle.”

At the words announcing the start of battle, the members who had been exchanging playful jokes changed in an instant.

Arun, who had been bickering with Naruan, immediately began casting, and Hazel’s basic defense, Space Severance, unfolded as a loud “clang!” like ice cracking on a lake rang out.

Like a gong announcing the start, there were the mages’ casting sounds beginning with that “clang!”, the warriors’ sounds of drawing weapons, and even the sound of the wind blowing as divine power moved.

It feels like listening to a splendid ensemble.

“There are only two enemies, so we’ll go with concentrated fire. Mage corps, prepare… huh?”

Just as Lee Hyo-ju’s order was about to be given, the two undead moved their hands, and a huge number of demon beasts suddenly surged up around them.

The Skeleton King and Elder Death Knight look this way with faces full of mockery, as if they had heard Lee Hyo-ju’s order.

The beings lined up behind the Skeleton King would naturally be skeletons.

But they were not flimsy skeletons armed with crude rusty swords or bone-made blades. They wielded finely crafted weapons in a dull black sheen. The kinds of weapons were varied, and the sizes were large.

On top of that, there were skeletons wearing black, thick armor made of bone. In other words, Skeleton Warriors.

An advanced evolution of skeletons strong enough to make one or two Black Oak into post-meal exercise. More importantly, they were also skeletons that could infuse their weapons with divine power, however faintly.

The figures in black armor lined up behind the Elder Death Knight were naturally Death Knights.

Of course, these were not ordinary Death Knights. If the Wyvern Knight Order’s Death Knights from before used spears and were skilled at javelin throwing, the Death Knights that appeared this time were armed with thick armor.

The Royal Guard Knights. The knights who protected the emperor at his side, the empire’s finest defensive knight order, sparing no effort for the emperor. They were them.

『Master, initiating linkage with the Eye of Argus. 1,350 Skeleton Warriors, 150 Death Knights, and including the Skeleton King and Elder Death Knight, 1,502 total units. Searching for an effective counter formation.』

“Huh? Why are you suddenly doing Battlefield Analysis? I’m not going to participate in the battle, you know?”

Guardian, who suddenly appeared while outputting a message. And the way he was doing Battlefield Analysis was as serious as if he were facing a major battle.

『Were you not going to step forward yourself to restore your honor?』

“…Shut up.”

『Yes.』

While I listened to Guardian’s pointless chatter, the members’ attack began.

The first thing to sweep over the undead horde was Mae Young-ryeong’s black energy, food-luck.

The moment Mae Young-ryeong’s form, wrapped in a black aura, seems to vanish for an instant, a clearly visible black current envelops the undead.

Because the undead themselves were already exuding ominous black currents, it didn’t stand out much, but Mae Young-ryeong’s eerie smile seemed to say not to doubt the effect of food-luck.

And sure enough, the undead began to stumble little by little from the very start of battle.

The melee-type representative goes out to meet the undead, as if trying to make up for being helpless against the Wyvern Knight Order in the previous battle.

The warriors launch a charge led by Proy. Their momentum is so ferocious that Lee Hyo-ju carefully lowers the hand she had raised to stop them.

The mages’ spells raining down on undead groups all over and the warriors colliding with the undead at the forefront happened almost simultaneously.

“Hehe, die. Heehee, you die too. Die. Ah, did I already say you were a corpse? Then die again. Heehee.”

Joy rising from the chest. Now and then, the voice of Naruan, with a childlike body, laughing “heehee” like a kid, could be heard.

If those undead could understand Naruan’s words, they might have felt fear at that bright, innocent-looking Naruan.

The flame of “True Flame.” Fire that is the natural enemy of undead—moreover, flames born from the bones of a special red dragon—took only a few seconds to turn one undead into a handful of ash.

And on top of that, Naruan’s force wasn’t limited to ranged attacks; it also swung at close range. Wielding flame-attribute force, it cheerfully sliced through a Skeleton Warrior’s neck, body, or even weapon.

Proy’s movements were relentless. Whenever the ground shook, two or three Skeleton Warriors would invariably shatter and scatter in all directions.

And with one step, the ground shook again, and with a “boom—” and the cheerful sound of bowling pins flying everywhere, black bone fragments could be seen scattering and flying like cherry blossoms in the wind.

The newly joined elf Cecil. The moment blue or green spiritual energy seems to swirl around her bow, an arrow is formed a moment later. One of the powers of elf Cecil, who blossomed upon entering the land of death: “Spirit Arrow.”

With her archery having reached a considerable level, the spirit-infused arrows were not merely dead-on target, but pierced the heads of their aimed targets as if they were mythic spears or arrows that could never be dodged.

While facing the undead wyvern riders, namely the Wyvern Knight Order, Cecil’s skill “Forest Breathing” rose from “S+” to “SS+.”

The elf’s innate temperament that hated evil energy to death, and Cecil’s personality—strongly competitive for an elf.

Because of that, when she, despite being an archer, could not damage the Wyvern Knight Order, she blamed herself.

Then a day passed, and her momentum changed, along with her atmosphere.

The status window she checked then showed it. The skill rank had risen by two whole steps.

“Forest Breathing [SS+]”. It is a kind of elf-style divine power gathering and handling method. As befits elves, who seek harmony and stability, their method of using divine power is also nothing but stable.

So development is slow, but from the elves’ point of view it’s fine. Time is not a big problem for them, since they live more than ten times longer than humans.

But for representative Cecil, it becomes a problem. However, because it is stable, the effect of divine power usage is undoubtedly excellent.

Setting aside all the additional effects, such as always keeping the user in top condition, it shows the optimal path suited to the user, whether they are a warrior, archer, mage, or spirit user.

As befitting the risen rank, the spirit energy gathering in her bow was truly tremendous.

The medium-length Spirit Arrow did not fly in a straight line or a curve, but wound through the air, moving like a spiritually intelligent “Predator Fang” and surely piercing its target.

And against undead tainted by evil energy, the Spirit Arrow vanished after inflicting an enormous explosion.

With a prim expression, Cecil calmly loosed her arrows. Her silver hair swayed, and each time an arrow flew, it was enough to create the illusion of hearing the silent screams of Skeleton Warriors and Death Knights.

Wigo clearly showed what the phrase “offense and defense as one” meant. He planted his shield into the ground and waited; when the undead were bounced away, he moved one step forward again, slowly encroaching on the enemy formation through defense.

Beside Hugo, Ostum and Hippoly are swinging their massive weapons.

I watched with satisfaction as the members faithfully carried out their roles like precisely meshing gears.

For now, they were unusual high-grade undead, and they seemed to be losing in sheer numbers, but we had an overpowered character specialized against undead.

“…Let’s loosen the snowstorm.”

After the overpowered character’s chant ended, unlike before, not only white muslin cloth but also talismans fluttered and flew about.

Holy light, the mortal enemy of the undead, appeared once more. It surged into the sky as if representing ascending souls.

In the process, the surrounding undead writhed in pain from the light bursting out in all directions.

I had already seen the scene several times, but it felt broken every single time.

Both the members who were directly clashing at the front and those preparing magic in the rear had satisfied smiles on their faces.

“Shall we start?”

“Let’s.”

Until now, Jules had not done anything notable on the land of death, but he stepped forward, chest out, with a confident voice.

The one stepping up in response was Shumix, who had just shown off a broken skill.

As if by prior agreement, the two opened up spaces similar to subspace. The result of five days of moving around without assault, huddling together and fiddling with things, was revealed in the garden of the ruined kingdom’s royal castle.

“Dun-dun!”

The undead exuded an aura as unusual as the sound effect Arun made with his mouth.

The undead painstakingly created by the two men appeared, each tailored to their own individual characteristics.