Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1171: Passing On



Five days later...

Eofel.

"Enough sulking. Whatever he faced must have still gone according to plan. You know how Actuass was, Fulina," Cyne said with a frown. He glared into the back of Fulina's head, and was sure she could feel his piercing stare, but she remained sitting against the wall, her head buried between her knees.

She had been like this since Rearren had come to Eofel with news of Actuass' passing.

Frankly, the news had taken Cyne a few hours to process and even now, he still found it hard to believe, but he wasn't going to spend a whole week mourning as Fulina seemed fully committed to doing.

Before Actuass embarked on his journey to Edagon, he had told him and Fulina, his two right hand people, to ensure that they claimed a territory in Pelian in case what Guissepo had done completely cleared the country, leaving no space for him to work when he returned.

What Actuass' next plan had been, following his acquisition of the Herald Jerthrax's soul, was beyond the two, but they had remained steadfast, awaiting his return.

Cyne wished Actuass had allowed him and Fulina to follow.

A part of him wished that if Actuass had actually perished, he would have perished alongside him, where he belonged.

But now...

Cyne looked at a lavish wooden door to his far right within the mansion, surrounded by the undead Fulina had made several days ago.

He sat beside Fulina. Her sobbing had stopped at least, and this allowed him to talk without her blocking his words with the wet, sorrowful sounds she made.

Cyne sighed.

"Have you considered what might happen if... if the thing Rearren said Actuass entrusted to him brings back Actuass?" he asked.

No reaction came from Fulina.

Cyne frowned.

"Well? You and I both know he could have done it, what with all that knowledge on the soul of his. There's a possibility, right? Perhaps he intends to use the EverSword brat."

Still, Fulina didn't answer, which heavily disconcerted Cyne.

"You have that little faith in his co-"

"It's not about faith!" Fulina screamed, startling Cyne.

Cyne scowled.

"What is it about then? You certainly cast away all hope very quickly," he hissed.

"It's not about abandoning hope...e-either," Fulina's muffled, trembling voice came from her filthy robe which hadn't come off her body for more than five days. "You always had a modest Undeath Concept, didn't you? You hardly ever tapped... tapped into how deeply woven death and the soul are. Well... n-n-neither did I, really. But Actuass taught me about it from time to time."

An odd silence followed Fulina's statement. Cyne waited patiently for her to continue.

"I doubt even Actuass could sustain his soul after death. Unlike us, he isn't from Aigas. His soul will linger after his body is dead. But... he can't maintain it for long. He is a mortal after all. And considering the amount of energy he built up just by absorbing Rayne's soul, I can only imagine how difficult it would be for him to remain intact if he managed to obtain a Herald's power in addition to that. He couldn't have travelled a long distance as a soul to safely stow himself inside a new vessel. Even if he wasn't successful in defeating the Herald he desired, if he's dead, no body on Aigas could hold his soul in that state for long. Whatever that book Rearren has... it... it probably has nothing to do with Actuass' consciousness or soul or whatever!"

Cyne remained silent. He had more than a few words to say, but he couldn't say them. They all seemed to have been countered by Fulina's expository outburst.

Yet...

"Is he really gone?" Cyne found himself asking, his face masked by darkness.

Fulina didn't answer.

The two sat in crippling silence for more than three hours, listening sombrely to the distant sounds of undead trudging on the dirt and muttering the same phrase over and over again. It was strangely peaceful and soothing to hear them at a time like this.

The door which had remained closed for five days to their far right suddenly creaked open.

Cyne snapped in its direction at once while Fulina lazily did the same.

From the darkness the door had hidden for so long, a man emerged with a gaunt, tired- looking face that almost embodied the face of death itself perfectly.

He coughed horribly for several seconds and then marched in a limp-like manner towards the two with a morbid air about him.

Following closely behind him, scraping against the floor with her body, was a woman who was strangling his leg, refusing to let go.

She too looked as though she had looked death in the face and had grown extremely thin, her hair, once elegant, haggard and withered.

Marks of dried tears marked her face and her teeth were clenched in what might have been eternal misery.

"It is done," Rearren said, not minding his wife Milissa who had clung to his leg since yesterday. "It is done."

Cyne glared at Rearren, brows furrowed.

"What do you mean 'done'?" he asked shakily.

Rearren didn't look him in the eye.

"What Master Actuass desired. It is done. I expect... his plans for all of us will carry on. I expect..." he paused oddly, "everything will all work out in the end. Just as he promised."

Cyne and even Fulina found Rearren's wording strange.

"IT WAS ALL WORTH IT! IT... IT WILL HAPPEN AS HE PROMISED!" Rearren suddenly screamed, bewildering Cyne and Fulina and he wrenched his wife from his leg and cast her away. The sound of her head knocking against the wall was quite vivid. "As he promised. G- good future prospects!"

Cyne and Fulina didn't understand how exactly they were supposed to react to all this. However, the latter, bolder and just as driven as the clearly aggrieved Rearren set to ask him to explain himself when...

"What happened to that Paladin Champion? Revia, was it? You still haven't located her?" a cold voice sounded from the darkness within the room Rearren and Milissa had just left.

Cyne and Fulina's eyes went round with shock.

A formidable presence, crushing and full of Undeath blasted from the room and met their

bodies.

It was extremely familiar.

It had to be...

Cyne broke into a wide smile.

Fulina soulless eyes brimmed with life for the first time in days.

Could it be...?

"You two. Find that woman at once. She is MY asset. I need her now more than ever. Do not

return without her in your clutches," the cold voice said.

Immediately, the hopeful glow within Cyne and Fulina was doused.

The only thing that could have been worse than the words they had just heard, was the

beginning of a great, rumbling noise...