The SSS Ranked Villain's Return - Chapter 349

Chapter 349: Graveyard
“This is a graveyard,” Jane announced.

Neraxis nodded. No shit.

“You made it sound like this graveyard is special, so is it?” Evangeline asked. “Because I can’t really feel any dead bodies or anything. This just seems like some abandoned wasteland, you know?”

“That’s just on the outside,” Jane replied. “In reality, it’s much deeper than that…”

As soon as she finished speaking, Neraxis suddenly felt a rumble in the distance. And once he turned to the source of the rumbling, he noticed a single zombie sprinting toward them.

“So is this some sort of undead bullshit then?” Neraxis asked. “We get rid of them, and then we can get to the temple?”

She slowly nodded. “Yes and no. We are supposed to kill them, but we’ll never manage to truly get rid of them.”

“Say, do these zombies have something in common with you?” Evangeline asked before pointing at the one approaching. “Because if I’m seeing right, that thing over there is wearing the same uniform that you are.”

With those words, silence descended, causing Jane to let out an exhausted sigh.

And of course, she soon explained.

“Those zombies are the members of past expeditions. And as you may guess, there are millions of them by now.”

Neraxis tilted his head. “Are they strong?”

“Very…” Jane nodded. “The zombies perfectly replicate the powers of the people who went on an expedition with me. The strength might not be the same, but if someone had a special ability, then that would be carried over to the zombie’s body.”

“So if someone could stop time and regenerate endlessly, then…?”

“Mhm.” Jane affirmed. “Then that zombie would be unstoppable. But the only reason it’s possible in the first place is because they are limited to only the graveyard. Once we get out, the zombies will not be able to chase after us.”

Hearing that, Neraxis couldn’t help but sigh.

The Chasm seemed like some sort of hole in the ground at first, but with every new event, he felt like his world was being broken apart.

After all… even if he was considered decently strong, he hadn’t left his world and genuinely explored another.

Even Evangeline’s world wasn’t as massive and grand since it had multiple eras existing at once.

But even so…

“We should get moving, I reckon,” Neraxis stated. “Otherwise that zombie won’t be the only one running after us.”

Jane scratched her cheek innocently. “Well… you know how there was a rumbling? That can’t have been made by a single zombie.”

And the moment her words fell, the rest of the horde came into view, causing Neraxis’s brows to furrow.

[Yikes. They smell even from a distance. Their lack of blood isn’t really pleasant either. Means we can’t regenerate if we get hurt,] Evangeline pointed out before halting. [Oh right… you have that passive thingy that gives you HP regeneration… touché.]

Neraxis smirked victoriously. It’s fine, yours isn’t that bad either. You can take my blood whenever necessary. And maybe even Jane’s if she agrees.

[You best believe I’m taking yours.] Evangeline giggled. [But I’m not going anywhere near Jane. She has that holy type of blood that I hate. It’s like… you know when you’re too righteous to even piss in the dark? That’s basically her type of blood.]

“…?”

He didn’t understand that metaphor in the slightest.

Even so, Neraxis stretched his back, and without wasting any more time, proceeded to create some blood wings.

In the very next moment, he grabbed the girls, and with a flap of his wings, he—

<Flying is disabled!>

“Oh…” Evangeline muttered. “I guess they could’ve done the same area but cheaped out, don’t you think?”

“Stop it…” Jane sighed as she pushed his body, and started jogging slowly toward the incoming zombie.

“Follow me,” she said. “This is the fastest way out of the graveyard.”

“But we’d be heading directly into the zombies, though?” Neraxis pointed out.

Yet Jane didn’t even humor him as she ignored him, leaving him no choice but to follow.

Evangeline did so as well.

The three ran ahead and soon arrived before the zombie.

Neraxis took the lead as he manifested his sword, then, with a single vertical slash, cleaved the zombie’s body in two.

He didn’t even have to use a skill due to how easy it was. However, once he realized that no kill notification came, he froze.

“Hey… is it possible that someone’s summoning all those zombies?” Neraxis asked with a frown, watching as the zombie he had just ‘killed’ suddenly reanimated itself and began lunging at him.

Before it could get any nearer, Evangeline suddenly sent a blood spear directly through its brain, embedding it onto one of the gravestones ahead.

“That’s probably the case, yes.” Jane nodded skeptically. “But I can’t really do much about it since even after all this time, I couldn’t figure out where the necromancer is. I looked all around, I can assure you that much.”

“Maybe you didn’t look hard enough?” Evangeline commented, and upon receiving a tiny glare from the two of them, she soon apologized. “My bad… I just mean maybe you’re looking in the wrong spot?”

Jane’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Look at it this way… would you hide your most valued possession on your bed?” Evangeline asked. “No, right? So why would the necromancer hide himself in the graveyard.”

“There’s a range to necromancy, Evangeline,” Neraxis said flatly. “I’m sure you know of it since we experienced the range firsthand on the 9th floor of Dreamspire.”

“Did we really though?” Evangeline tilted her head. “The only thing we did was find the necromancer and kill him. Even after we did, his skeletons were still active, they just didn’t respawn anymore.”

The moment her words fell, Jane’s eyes widened.

“A catalyst… yes… that makes the most sense…” Jane murmured. “If there’s no necromancer, then there’s lingering energy somewhere keeping the undead from dissolving.”

She turned toward them, a determined look on her face.

“I know this might sound a bit off, and not what I asked you to do initially, but…” she trailed off, straightening her back.

“Could you help me destroy the catalyst and get rid of these fallen expedition members once and for all?”