Chapter 162: Zu Master
Now that the city had revealed its true face, the streets were carpeted with the heads of all its inhabitants. Not a single whole body remained; only stripped faces, skin, and bone turned into a carpet covering the blackened stones.
Kael calmly surveyed his surroundings. His eyes scanned the scene. However, a sudden change broke the stillness: all the heads nearby began to move toward him, drawn by an invisible force that made them roll down the streets with a dry, hollow sound.
The skulls piled up on top of each other, forming mounds of dead flesh. Suddenly, the multiple mouths opened in unison. Torn tongues and jagged teeth vibrated with an unnatural sound, and from that ensemble emerged a single voice:
The skulls piled up on top of each other, forming heaps of dead flesh. Suddenly, the multiple mouths opened in unison. Torn tongues and jagged teeth vibrated with an unnatural sound, and from that ensemble emerged a single voice:
Kael narrowed his eyes. Voices echoed from all directions, bouncing off the walls, mingling with one another. Some were erratic, others deep, others high-pitched like a child’s; there were old voices, young voices, female voices, and male voices, but they all spoke at once, creating a disturbing sound.
"And you are a Zu Master, right?" he asked after a brief silence.
The mouths responded instantly, vibrating with a strange happiness that could be perceived despite the cacophony:
"That’s right. How did you know? People always confuse this with magic. It’s quite satisfying that you know what it is. It’s a shame that such a beautiful path as this one is forgotten."
The voices echoed until they faded into the distance. Kael remained unmoved, but his gaze hardened.
"Since when have all these people been dead?" he asked, looking at the corpses surrounding him.
The mouths moved again, all at once, as if they were puppets controlled by the same puppeteer.
"Hmm... you’ve been dead for a month. Everything had been prepared to capture the third princess, Audrey, alive."
A cold gleam flashed across Kael’s eyes.
I see... so it was all prepared by Zu Master a month in advance.
The current situation was problematic, and he was aware of it.
Facing a Zu Master on his own turf was extremely troublesome. Zu worms could turn the supernatural into reality... and the mystical into something strange and unpredictable.
That meant that right now anything was possible: Zu’s ability could be an illusion, or, as had happened a moment ago, an illusion turned into reality thanks to the power of the supernatural and mysticism.
That was the real difficulty in facing the Zu Masters. While they were in the early ranks, they were easy to defeat, as they still lacked supernatural abilities. But once they reached that level... every confrontation was uncharted territory where the real and the illusory could become confused until they were indistinguishable.
Kael, without saying another word, circulated his mana essence toward his dantian and magic diagram.
At the same time, several headless bodies, completely decomposed, began to approach his position. Their steps were clumsy but steady, dragging the rot of death with every movement.
At that moment, the heads stuck on the posts began to shake... and then slowly rose, floating in the air like vengeful specters defying nature.
...
On the roof of the luxurious inn, Audrey and the maid Martha looked at what the city had become, which was no longer full of life, but looked like an extremely horrible graveyard.
"My lady, what happened while we were sleeping? How is it possible that in a few hours the whole city turned into this?" Martha said, her voice full of disbelief and somewhat frightened.
Everything was too bizarre; it was like a very disgusting and cruel joke.
"..." Audrey remained silent, evaluating everything, down to the smallest detail. Seeing the heads nailed to the posts, and some floating, it was clear that this was not a recent occurrence but had been done in advance.
"So all of this was set up to trap me," she said after thinking about it for a moment, but questions filled her mind. How did they not realize this? How did they make it all seem so real? And more questions kept coming.
Despite all the questions, she had to find a way to get out of this mountain alive and make known her existence as the third princess of the kingdom of Aragon and kill the boss who controls the city.
Martha looked at her mistress and asked as she gripped the huge scissors tightly, "What do we do now, my lady?"
"Get out of this place," she replied without the slightest change in expression.
Just then, one of the floating heads suddenly turned its face toward them.
"Oh, but if it isn’t the third princess of the kingdom of Aragon, Audrey Augustus. I’ve been looking for you for hours... I thought you might be here." The head spoke in a happy tone, as if his hard work was finally paying off.
"You seem to know me," Audrey replied without showing the slightest surprise on her face. After all, she had seen much stranger things than floating heads.
A talking head was not, by any means, a cause for amazement.
"Hohoho, of course I know you, princess. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be on this mountain, nor would I be able to use my powers freely."
"I see... so you’re The Major," Audrey asked, trying to confirm if the person speaking through her head was really that mysterious character.
The head moved, as if denying Audrey’s words.
"No, no, you’re wrong, princess. The Major had already left the mountain the night before. Here, there’s only you, the young man with black hair, the boss who controls this city with his subordinates... and me. As for the rest, everyone else is dead."
"I understand," Audrey said firmly. Then she glanced at Martha. That was all it took: the maid understood immediately. Before the head could utter another word, both women had already made a silent decision.
With a synchronized movement, the two propelled themselves forward, running across the rooftops without looking back. Their steps were swift and sure, echoing on the tiles like a drum marking the beginning of their escape.
The cool morning air hit them in the face, but neither Audrey nor Martha looked away. They knew that stopping even for a moment meant death.
Instantly, a macabre noise rose behind them. Several heads rose, chasing them with terrifying speed. Their hair floated like snakes in the wind, their empty eyes glowed with an unhealthy glow, and guttural, inhuman screams came out of their open mouths.
...
Kael, after seeing all the headless bodies approaching, drew the coin sword from his space rune ring. In an instant, the blade was covered by a black and white aura that pulsed like a living flame.
Without further ado, he lunged at the creatures. The ground beneath his feet creaked as it gave way, and in the blink of an eye, he was already in front of them. His expression remained calm, while his arms executed multiple movements at such a brutal speed that the sword seemed to vanish into thin air.
The headless bodies were torn apart, ripped into multiple pieces that fell to the ground with a wet, disgusting sound. But Kael didn’t stop. Without losing momentum, he continued forward, cutting with precision and ferocity everything that dared to stand in his way.
Rotten blood splattered his body, saturating his clothes with a nauseating stench. The smell was so strong that it invaded his nostrils like poison. However, his expression did not change. To Kael, those creatures were just trivial obstacles; they posed no real danger.
The real enemy, the true risk, was Zu Master, hidden somewhere in the city, waiting silently.
Just then, the houses began to stretch and twist, anchoring themselves as if they were part of a cartoon. Kael didn’t think twice: he snapped his fingers, and the illusion shattered into a thousand invisible fragments.
In doing so, everything returned to reality. But in that brief moment of confusion, he was already surrounded by multiple headless bodies.
Kael responded instinctively. He swung his sword in a movement so fast that his hands disappeared and reappeared immediately, leaving behind a fleeting trail of light. The black and white aura that enveloped him merged, taking the perfect shape of yin and yang.
A second later, the scene was drenched in violence. All the nearby bodies crumbled into multiple pieces, torn apart with brutal precision, falling to the ground in a disgusting rain of mutilated remains.
But the calm lasted barely a blink: more headless bodies emerged from different directions, advancing without stopping.
The heads floating in the air began to move their jaws, and Zu’s Master voice came out again.
"Hohoho... young expert, I didn’t expect you to be so capable. It seems that my creations are not much of a threat to you. Then I will have to strengthen them... yes, strengthen them, to see what you are really capable of."
Zu Master remained silent, watching. His invisible eyes rested on Kael, whose body was trembling slightly. It wasn’t weakness. It wasn’t fear... but something disturbing.
Kael didn’t resist. Calmly, he opened his mouth. At that moment, countless tentacles emerged from his mouth.
They were long, wet, and covered with suction cups that pulsed as if they had a life of their own.
They writhed eagerly, twisting in the air like hungry snakes that had just left their nest.