A minute, an hour, or a whole day. I couldn't tell how long I've been scything my way through the hordes of rotting bodies. For every zombie I decapitated, another took its place. Being the undead, the Monarch could use them again and again, like some sort of shield.

To banish her to whatever hole she crawled out of, I needed to sever her connection to these rotting bodies. And I couldn't do that if I just kept swinging my sword. An arm sped towards my face, a shadow falling over from behind. I gritted my teeth, ducked from the oncoming punch, and stabbed backwards. My blade sank into rigid flesh. With a grunt, I pulled it free, swung it into a wide arc, taking a few arms and jaws along the way, and leaped a few steps back before anyone could grab me.

My soles grated against the carpet of shards and splinters. I passed my hand over my face, summoning my menu. Even with all of my skills unlocked, as a valdyrsi, I couldn't do much when there's no other ability to copy. Unless...

The first line of zombies rushed towards me. I continued backing away, putting more distance between us. My back eventually pressed against the stone wall. Beside me, a series of tall pillars holding up carved arches spread out. Bony fingers reached out to me. This was bad. I brought my sword up and slashed, driving them back. Bought myself a little more time.

I shoved the zombie away, letting it crash against the ones behind it, creating a domino effect out of tangled limbs and clacking bones. My boots crunched over them as I dove into the fray. With nothing explosive in my skills list, might as well. I was as useless here as I was against Arzo. Because believe it or not, the man actually managed to make everyone think he was a psalm spiria with a poor excuse for attributes. In reality, as I fought him, I realized his stats as a valdyrsi might have even rivaled Cavya or Karmi.

Which made me worry about Hye-jin. Has she found him already? What's happening to her?

My teeth ground against each other as I whirled and decapitated more zombies. As expected, they staggered up. The detached limbs and heads settled on the floor, their gray finish complimenting the dust and the faded blue-and-yellow patterns painted on the surface beneath our feet.

I needed to finish this. Quickly.

To do that, I needed time. Lots of it. Hye-jin had said I would die first if the strategy games we played took place in real life. She was probably right. With me rolling and whirling around, eyes following the swinging arms, the kicking legs, and the snapping jaws, trying to predict where the next blow would come, it's impossible to think of anything beyond three moves.

A strong grip wrapped around my sword arm. Shit. I tried yanking it away, but the zombie latching on to me wouldn't budge. This was bad. Really bad. It didn't even have a head. I recalled my sword, then summoned it in my left hand. I plunged into the zombie's chest. The fingers fell away. Victory!

Until my momentary incapacitation let part of the horde sneak up on me. I whirled too late. The zombies pounced. My feet slid off the ground when their combined weight slammed into me like the swinging boat in amusement parks. My cheek slapped the dust, my sword skittering out of my grip. The shower of boots kicked it into the netherrealm, lost in a curtain of mismatched and tattered clothing.

The weight on my back tripled. Quadrupled. Were they...were they piling on me?

I clawed on the floor, desperate to get them off my back. My lungs compressed, leaving me gasping and coughing on the ground. My vision sharpened and blurred, dark spots arising in it. The smell of rot and formaldehyde permeated my senses, going as far as embedding themselves at the back of my throat. Shit. Being crushed to death wasn't the way I imagined I'd go.

A single thought ebbed at the shore of my thoughts as my consciousness began slipping away. Formaldehyde. Preservatives. Something was holding these zombies together. That'd be magic. But...where? How?

Just the mere presence of the Monarch somewhere in this room should be enough proof.

There's a skill at play somewhere in this room. Which meant...

I kept my chuckle to myself. Maybe it was the lack of air finally affecting my brain. This wasn't the time to start losing it. I focused on the magic around me, past the haunting drawls and scratches of collagen against the dusty floor. Nazran has warned me several times in trying to make my magic interact with things that weren't organic or natural, but if he saw me being sat on by an elephant, he'd surely relent. Right?

No time for that. "Steal," I chanted.

The weight ceased. I willed the zombies to step away from me. They followed, shuffling backwards until they parted into two different aisles. "Show me your leader," I commanded. I watched as their clothes rustled and their bodies bump into each other, determined to make my order a reality to the best of their ability.

A barrage of messages popped up from the edge of my vision. Steal. An alchemized skill that takes a target skill from an opponent, locking it from their side but making it usable from the caster's list. Cooldown in 3h and 59s. 3h and 58s. 3h and 57s...

Soul Divide. Skill added to list because of Steal. Cooldown in 12h and 48s. 12h and 47s. 12h and 26s...

Skill expiring in 7s. 6s. 5s...

My eyes widened. Wait. That's unfair! How come I only got fifteen seconds of Soul Divide? What's a soul divide, anyway? Did that mean the reason I could command them was because my soul...was somehow divided in them?

That's creepy.

Soul Divide has expired.

Steal. Cooldown in 3h and 45s. 3h and 44s. 3h and 43s...

"You dare try and find me?" The venom dripping in the Monarch's voice echoing in the hall sent shivers down my spine. At once, the zombies' heads swiveled to me. Oh no. But I knew what I was looking for. While I was being distracted by the popup messages in my menu screen, my periphery caught sight of a corpse wearing a sizable necklace around her neck. Her hair, which was might have been a rich shade of brown once, looked gray and lifeless, sitting atop her head in a matted hairdo. She wore more stylish clothes than the plain shirts and trousers the others did. Must be a noblewoman or something.

Which made the rest of the zombies...

My heart pounded harder in my chest at the realization. These must be all of the people Arzo had managed to brainwash over the months or years he has been doing this. That son of a bitch. Just how many people had he killed up to this point? How many families had been robbed of its members, and for whose sake?

Disgust curled and gripped the base of my spine. Even though the Monarch shouldn't be roped into this whole mess as she's been dead for more than a decade, still, it was for her and with her that this chaos was being fought over. Movies, books, and games made light of people's response to things like this, but once I was caught in the middle of it, I couldn't think past the horror freezing my bones. I couldn't do anything.

Except maybe stain my hands and end the one who started all of this.

I leveled my sword and charged. Using the revulsion and dread swirling in my system, I cut down everything coming in between me and the woman with the necklace. Because if my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, I swore I saw its pendant flash purple for the briefest bit. That's my goal.

So, I sent one zombie after another to the ground. No matter how many times they stood up, I'd chop them up into pieces if I had to. A torso whizzed in the air, dust and strands of gray hair billowing in the air with the motion. I kicked it away, sending it sailing and slamming into the lunging horde. I thrust my sword straight into a headless chest, using it as a springboard when I planted my foot against it and spun into the air. I arced above their heads, the sudden wind pushing my hair off my forehead better than my hands could.

My boots slid and crunched against the shards as I got past the wall of zombies, heading straight towards the only corpse not fighting. The girl with the necklace. My eyes zeroed in on the pendant now encased with a soft, purple sheen.

"Got you now," I muttered under my breath. My legs pumped faster with success within my reach. None of the zombies behind me could reach me, despite how hard and fast they ran.

The pendant flashed, the purple light blasting at me at full intensity. My arms flew into my stinging eyes by instinct. Something whizzed past my shoulder, sending me to stumble forward. Through the haze and dark spots splotching my vision, the sickly squelch of skin tearing and muscles ripping echoed in varying volumes in the chambers of my mind.

A booming howl pierced through the air, forcing my whole body into stillness. Whatever that came from..it couldn't be something I could play around with. The light cleared, showing me a towering lump of quivering flesh and crunching bones. At the center of it all was the noblewoman's corpse. The necklace was nowhere to be found.

"Foolish men die foolish deaths," the Monarch/flesh being hissed. "Which path will you choose today?"

It's easy to turn tail and run out as fast as I could. But what would that mean to the people still holding their ground just to get us here? What would that mean to the people who had already fallen and were falling?

A distant voice called from the recesses of my memory. This is how you deal with bullies.

The leader of the Hunting Raids had been a big man. This shouldn't be no different. The Monarch might be more violent and revolting, but she's still a bully. A huge one.

I dug my teeth against my lip, doing my best to keep my hands steady around the hilt of my sword. "Step one," my voice quivered as I watched the flesh being landed on the various arms and legs lining its front. "Face it head on."

I spread my legs and lunged forward, angling my blade with the aim to pierce. We met in the middle, the impact sending vibrations up my arms. "Step two," I muttered under my breath and through gritted teeth. "Don't blink. Ever."

As the flesh being's "head" wrestled against me and my blade, I studied its lumpy back. More swinging arms curled from the tangled mass of muscle and bone. Where was the necklace? The Monarch would be sure to swallow it, or whatever was the equivalent of swallowing. I wouldn't ever reach it. Unless...

You're not using your sword to its full potential. More of the same voice played back in my head. I glanced at the sword in my hands. Now was the only time I saw the wings carved straight into the guard, melding seamlessly with the sharp blade bursting forth it. The name—one I saw once in my inventory—came rushing back to me.

The Butterfly Blade.

I knew a lot about butterflies. Mom loved them so much. "They're proof the flowers are healthy," she would tell me whenever I shied away from the ones visiting the shop. But growing up, I understood more why they're important. They carried pollen with them, making it possible for more beautiful flowers to grow. They usher the way for better things as well as tell us what's bound to come. They were the soul, the rebirth of one, and the representation of the most precious thing in the world—life.

It's more than a fitting name for this sword, the one which would bring forth a world where flowers could bloom freely, without the fear of darkness.

So, after watching how Hye-jin's magic wrapped around her sword, I concentrated my skill into my sword. I jumped backward a bit before breaking into a run, straight into the flesh being's head. "Rhanteira, pierce!"

Unlike the single, explosive burst of holy fire that emerged in the danburki mission, using the congested version of the skill only powered my blade enough to slice straight through the flesh being, tearing a blazing trail between it. A pained howl rang from the head as my boots tapped on the floor.

I turned to survey what's happening. The two sides strained and screamed for each other, only one thing keeping them from flying towards the opposite sides of the room. A golden chain. The necklace.

"Step three," I stalked towards the whining flesh being, the monarch spitting clipped curses into the dim and dusty hall, and swiped my sword at the chain, hacking it into two. The pendant clinked against the floor, before rolling into a stop. "Take their toy and use it against them."

The flesh being morphed as I moved out of the way, pointing the tip of my blade at the pendant. The symbol in it glowed bright purple. Another one of Arzo's handiwork.

"Please, anything but that!" the Monarch screamed, scrambling towards my feet. Not to attack me. Rather, it fell into its face. "Being alive feels so good! Don't send me back."

As much as I didn't want to, this woman caused so much pain, sadness, and damage to this world. Even if I wasn't from here, it has cradled me enough to show me its wonders and its secrets. It brought me enough closure with the person I wanted to get one from the most. I couldn't give up on this world. Not now.

I laid the pendant on the ground, a couple of inches from the Monarch's convoluted head. "Step four," I watched with disgust how the faces in the Monarch's body morphed into greedy relief. Before any of the arms could rob me of my victory, I summoned Mirani's dagger into my hands and stabbed down. Straight into the heart of the pendant.

"Make them bleed," I whispered, forcing myself to watch each and every squelch and quiver the flesh being made. I wanted the last thing the Monarch's going to see to be me. Let this remind her—darkness and the land of the sun could never mix.

So, I kept my eyes forward. The Monarch screamed, the bony hands clawing at their flesh, drawing nothing but dust and mud. The voice cursed the Divines, the Guardians, and the adventurers. She continued doing so until nothing of her body remained. Within a few seconds, the carpet of dust and shards only thickened.

Within seconds, I was alone in an empty hall. It was silent.

Only the distant clanging of weapons and the muffled roar of beasts reminded me that the battle was still far from over. I braced my knee and staggered up. One glance at my stats told me I was still good for another fight.

So, I checked my map and activated my tracking spell—one that would lead me to the only person who mattered.

Withdrawing my sword from reality, I lowered myself into a stance and started running. Towards Hye-jin.