Throne Hall, Skaktak's Castle, Undead Plane.
Three humanoid figures knelt on the ground in the vast decorative hall at that moment and were panting heavily. They were Nicolaus, Fennelis and Grurdin.
Meanwhile, Abium and Umi stood there steadily and resisted the spiritual pressure released by Skaktak.
On the other hand, the Skeleton Leader Skaktak was startled by their resistance and muttered to himself in shock.
'Irregulars? No wonder I felt something was off earlier.' Nodding, he released more of his spiritual pressure and tried to test how long they could endure.
A grim look also appeared on Abium's face at that moment. He soon glanced at Nicolaus and Fennelis and realized that they would not be able to endure a spiritual attack if it continued.
'Is he testing? Or, is he really planning on killing us?'
He took a deep breath and spoke coldly.
"What are you doing, Lord Skaktak? I know you have a way to send us back to our world. Are you really-."
Before Abium could finish his sentence, Skaktak increased the spiritual pressure twofold and even made Abium stop his speech.
'How strong is he?' He had long scanned him but found nothing but question marks in the status bar.
'If I'm not mistaken, his strength should be as strong as the Tier-1 Magical beast. No, it might be even higher. A Tier-2 being.' Abium quietly touched his space ring, took out his sword and enveloped it with a reddish sword aura. He doesn't know if he could stand against a Tier-2 being, but he decided to try it out.
"Oh? You even mastered the advanced sword aura, huh? Impressive." Skaktak commented casually and waved his hand.
Meanwhile, the spiritual pressure decreased and soon disappeared from the throne hall.
'He stopped his attack?' Abium hurriedly moved his body towards Fennelis and Nicolaus and helped them to stand up first.
He even took out a water pouch from his space ring and gave it to them.
While he was helping them, Skaktak fell into deep thoughts and soon shifted his gaze towards Umi, who was now standing next to her mom with a tense face. Her hands were sweating, and her fox ears were standing up, indicating the impending danger to her mind.
'This child… Is she getting ready for my next attack? Precognition ability? Interesting.'
Surprised, he took out a pebble from his spatial ring, casually raised his bony hand and flung it towards her forehead.
Meanwhile, the pebble made a swoosh sound and moved towards her brows at an incredible speed.
On the other hand, Abium also realized what Skaktak was doing, cast the 'Blink' spell on himself and disappeared from there.
A second later, he reappeared in front of Umi, raised his aura-coated sword and blocked the pebble with his full strength.
A loud noise resounded as that pebble collided with his sword, forcing him to back away multiple steps.
At that moment, Umi also transformed into her beastform and moved towards her right side, avoiding bumping into Abium!
It was as if she had anticipated his arrival long ago and acted calmly.
'Incredible. Should I test this young beastkin again?' Skaktak was shocked by her display of power and secretly took out another pebble from his space ring.
On the other hand, Abium felt that he was being smashed by hundreds of kilograms and finally managed to cut the pebble into two.
But he couldn't withstand the attack and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Still, he remained calm and stood up steadily.
Then, he shifted his gaze towards Sksktak and gave him a death glare. He could tell Skaktak was messing with them and got annoyed inside.
On the other hand, Skaktak leaned his back on the throne and spoke.
"An apprentice mage is not a threat in front of me, young elf. You may have mastered the sword aura, but it won't change the result." A strange ripple came out of his golden bony hand and started restraining Abium's body from all sides like a slithering snake.
Without even minding Abium's struggle, Skaktak shifted his gaze towards Umi and frowned.
He didn't consider this girl a threat at first. But after seeing her earlier action, he knew this one was not some ordinary beastkin and thought of testing her again.
"Don't worry, beastkin child. I won't kill you." He spoke while opening his creepy jaws and raising his golden hand.
But just as he was about to throw another pebble at her, a strange fear crept into his heart.
He realized he would lose his life if he threw this pebble at Umi at that moment. His raised hand abruptly froze, and his skeletal body trembled all over.
He felt the dominance power!
When he was in the presence of Lich Lord As'zus, he had faced such similar power and grew warier!
He soon snapped out of the shock, raised his trembling bony hand, pointed his bone finger at Umi and stuttered.
"W-Who are you? I felt a terrifying aura from you, child!"
He quickly turned his gaze towards Abium, retracted his invisible power and ordered.
"Tell me, Half-elf. Who is she?"
On the other hand, Abium snorted coldly, stood up from the ground, and moved closer to Umi. He knew it must be one of Nyara's protection blessings and felt relieved inside.
'Umi wouldn't have resisted Skaktak's mental attack earlier.' Abium also noticed many undead soldiers entering the hall, unsheathing their weapons at that moment, and thought of what to do next.
'First, I should do something about this invisible power that tells me to kneel in front of Umi.' He quickly raised his hand, gave a light pat on her head, and spoke.
"You are safe now, Umi."
The dominant aura slowly faded from the hall and soon disappeared as he spoke.
'Good.' Abium nodded his head and spoke solemnly.
"Do you still want to continue, Lord Skaktak? If violence is your answer, I will at least give you fatal injury before dying. But don't think you will escape after that!" He glanced at Umi and asked.
"Are you aware of the consequences of killing a Champion?"
In the meantime, Skaktak nodded his head in understanding and spoke.
"I can clearly understand your words, young elf. This beastkin is God's chosen child, huh? "No wonder I felt threatened earlier." He suddenly rose from his throne and shook his head.
"Why would I want to continue the fight and make more trouble for myself? I was testing your strength."
Skaktak's reply made everyone relaxed.
Without minding the other's relaxed look, Skaktak looked at Abium, stepped down from the dais and continued.
"Anyways, let's come to the current topic. You want to leave this plane, don't you?" He stepped on the rough floor and added.
"The only teleportation gate on this planet is now in enemy territory, so getting out is nearly impossible."
"Enemy?" Abium raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked.
Meanwhile, Skaktak nodded his skull and spoke.
"It's understandable that you guys came from a foreign plane." He paused for a second and asked a strange question.
"Do you know anything about Chaos power?"
Meanwhile, Abium showed a thoughtful look on his face and nodded.
Demons and devils from the Abyss and Hell are called chaos beings, and they possess unique chaos powers. I saw such power in this plane earlier as well. This mysterious power can corrupt humans and all living beings and lead to the destruction of all living beings."
"Oh? It seems you have faced them before." Skaktak nodded his head and continued.
"Well, I will explain about our world's situation then. Undead World isn't like this usually, young elf. Like the normal world, our land used to be lush and green. The nether pools and lakes acted as a womb for this world and gave us many benefits. But it all ended around two decades ago. A few monstrous portals appeared out of nowhere in the sky and disrupted the peaceful lives of this place. Then, five humanoid monsters came from the portal and started their invasion."
As everyone inside the hall started to listen to his words, Skaktok raised his bony hands and used them to express their shapes.
"They look like a black humanoid monster with empty hollows. They don't resemble Devils or demons. But their mere presence on this plane made us quiver. But thanks to our three Lich Lords, we were saved from being completely wiped out and turned into chaos beings. At that moment, the Lich Lords confronted the black humanoid creatures and battled them for more than three months in the sky."
"Although they managed to eliminate the five creepy humanoid beings, two Lich Lords also lost their lives in return. Only Lich Lord As'zus managed to survive the battle, but got his phylactery broken. We all thought that the battle was over and let our guard down. But little did we know that it was just the beginning. Within two weeks, things went out of control. The weather worsened as strange black clouds formed in the blue sky and blocked the sun. At the same time, Lich Lord As'zus also became irrational and slaughtered hundreds of elite Demi-Liches and skeleton Lords. Finally, he left the main city, moved towards the core region and started creating a chaos army."
Skaktak looked up at the ceiling as he spoke and sighed in grief.
"Lich Lord became a tool for this evil power. After that battle, our world turned into a desolated plane and almost became inhabitable for people or even normal undead to live."
At that moment, Abium thought of the evil God sealed in the elven throne room and furrowed.
Soon, he shook his head and returned his gaze to Skaktak.
Meanwhile, Skaktak continued to speak.
"What's more troublesome is that the evil power had already reached the Bone Tree and started contaminating it from inside. The newly born undead skeletons are also becoming corrupted due to this."
"Newly born undead skeletons?" Abium asked curiously, but Skaktak didn't talk much about it, took out a silvery bluish sword from his space ring, and continued.
"All we know now is that this metal not only acts as a cure for this chaos power but also acts as a weapon."