Chapter 3: If You Love Her, Take Her Grave Robbing
Flora felt utterly lost after being resurrected by Abyss. Necromancy was classified as one of the “Black Magics” by the Church, and mages who used it were to be executed on the spot by Holy Knights. Necromancers and the Church were sworn enemies. Flora, who had received Church education since the age of two, officially became a Saint at twelve, and served until her death at seventeen, couldn’t fathom that she would become the follower of a necromancer after death.
Moreover, what Flora found even more incomprehensible was that she wasn’t resurrected as an ordinary undead with no free will. The boy with sparkling green eyes before her seemed to have used the highest level of necromancy to bring her back. While this allowed her to retain her memories and thinking ability fully, it came at a great cost to the caster and offered no guarantee of loyalty.
She placed her hand on her chest. Indeed, she could no longer feel her heartbeat. She couldn’t feel a pulse in her wrist either. She had undoubtedly become an undead, lingering in the world after death.
“Why did you use such high-level magic to resurrect me? You must have lost a lot of your life force,” Flora asked Abyss after a moment of silence. “I heard in class that necromancers have to pay a considerable price to resurrect the dead as high-ranking undead: a third of their life force, half of their magic power, and high-ranking undead followers will continuously absorb their life force, making them weak and sickly.”
Abyss sat by the fire, leisurely roasting a carrot on a stick over the flames. He smiled at Flora and then, as if suddenly realizing she was talking to him, looked slightly surprised. “Hmm? Is that so? Such a high price? I haven’t felt anything.”
“Why did you bring me out of my grave?” Flora asked anxiously. “Although I was a Divine Arts user, the undead cannot use Divine Arts.”
“About the undead not being able to use Divine Arts… I already told you, I want you to be mine, body and soul, one hundred percent,” Abyss said, pointing a finger at Flora with a smile. “That’s my goal. I wasn’t lying.”
“You… What are you talking about?!” Flora even felt her face heat up… Could the undead blush?
Flora stole a glance at Abyss. He was looking at her with his clear turquoise eyes, his gaze as sincere as could be.
“I’m very capable. Just tell me what your wish is,” Abyss said, sitting cross-legged on the floor and eating the roasted carrot. “I’ll make it happen for you.”
“…” Flora reluctantly lowered her head. Having been raised in the Church, she still couldn’t bring herself to surrender to a necromancer who used evil magic, even if he was now her master.
Abyss shrugged, seemingly unconcerned.
Flora stretched out her hands, watching as her fingers gradually regained their softness and rosy hue. Her vision was no longer blurry, and her senses were returning under the influence of the high-level necromancy, becoming even more acute than they were in life.
Suddenly, Flora heard the faint sounds of clashing armor and hurried footsteps from far outside the cabin. She immediately looked up, her gaze questioning Abyss, who had just finished his carrot.
“Flora, I want to ask you, what do you think of the Church’s Holy Knights?” Abyss suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.
Flora was taken aback for a moment before answering, “There are good and bad Holy Knights. Most of them are just devout believers who follow the orders of their superiors. Only a few are not truly faithful to God and do not treat other kind and innocent people fairly. I don’t like those Holy Knights. The Saint has a position but no power. I can’t change anything. I just hope that the Holy Knights can become more pure.”
Abyss raised his eyebrows, seemingly pleasantly surprised. “I thought you would be… more naive.”
“Serving God requires purity, not naiveté,” Flora said earnestly, placing her right hand on her chest. “His Holiness the Pope taught me that when I was young.”
The footsteps outside grew closer, and the sounds of clashing armor and swords became clearer. Flora, whose hearing had become exceptionally sharp, grew tense. She tried to stand up from the chair, but her knees were still stiff, and she couldn’t muster the strength.
“Outside…”
“Bang!”
The wooden door of the cabin was shattered by a foot clad in a steel boot. A fully armed knight stormed in, accompanied by the cold wind from outside. The flames in the hearth flickered, and the light in the room became chaotic.
“Ah!” Flora cried out in surprise. The intruder was a Holy Knight of the Church, specifically a Judgment Knight tasked with executions. Although she had grown up in the Church, she had always avoided these ruthless and bloodthirsty warriors.
“The necromancer who stole the Saint’s body might be here. Search this place thoroughly! Don’t leave a single rat!” The knight who entered barked orders. More knights filed in behind him, their swords drawn simultaneously. A suffocating sense of bloodlust pressed down on Flora’s chest.
The knights immediately began overturning every piece of furniture in the cabin. Flora instinctively wanted to find a place to hide, but she quickly realized that the knights couldn’t see them at all, even though she and Abyss were sitting there in plain sight.
Abyss gave Flora a cryptic smile and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t let the Holy Knights drag you back to your grave.”
Flora asked timidly, “Did you use an illusion spell?”
“In a sense,” Abyss nodded, standing up and walking towards Flora. He put an arm around her, helping her to her feet. “But we can’t stay in this cabin anymore. These Holy Knights are as barbaric as a ghoul’s stomach.”
Flora watched in disbelief as the aggressive Holy Knights passed right through them, ransacking the cabin and even trying to smash the floor.
“Your Excellency, there’s no one in the room, and no secret passage!” a Holy Knight suddenly reported loudly towards the door.
At the same time, an old man in a fur cloak and a helmet adorned with feathers slowly walked in.
“The necromancer might have used an illusion spell. Seal this house! I’ll use the Eye of Truth to search the premises!” the priest commanded calmly.
“Yes, sir!” The well-trained knights immediately guarded all possible exits of the cabin.
“It’s a High-Ranking Judgment Priest!” Flora exclaimed, tugging at Abyss’s clothes, forgetting that he was still holding her. “We can’t hide from high-level Divine Arts!”
After a brief prayer, two golden beams shot out from the priest’s eyes. Flora immediately felt an immensely powerful force sweeping over everything nearby. The Eye of Truth was a high-level Divine Art that could directly scan for any “existing” object from the world’s roots, completely ignoring any illusion spells. Even a High-Ranking Priest could only use it once at the cost of a week of blindness.
“What do we do?!” Although Flora was once a Saint, she knew that as an undead, she was now an enemy of the Church. If discovered, she would be “purified,” which meant being burned to ashes and returned to her grave. The seemingly harmless Abyss beside her would also be cruelly burned alive in public.
The scan of the Eye of Truth was complete. The priest’s eyes dimmed, and he closed them in pain, remaining silent for a while before turning his head towards Flora and Abyss.
If Flora could still sweat, she would be drenched by now. Immense fear gripped her heart. She didn’t want to die again. She didn’t want to experience that feeling of nothingness and the pain of being unable to change reality!
“They were indeed here, but they must have teleported away,” the priest finally said. “Immediately investigate all traces of teleportation portals nearby. Retrieve and purify the Saint’s body as soon as possible, ending her posthumous humiliation. I need to rest.”
“Check for any traces of teleportation portals nearby!” the lead Holy Knight immediately repeated the priest’s orders. “Drag all the villagers from the nearby village out of their beds and interrogate them using the Truth Serum!”
“Yes, sir!” The disciplined Holy Knights didn’t waste any words and left the cabin in a blink of an eye.
It took a long time for Flora to recover. “The power of God couldn’t see you either?”
“We’re not even in the same world as them, of course they couldn’t see us,” Abyss said, releasing his hold on Flora. “Watch this.”
He snapped his fingers, and everything around them changed. The fire in the hearth vanished, and the cabin plunged into darkness. Flora’s undead dark vision allowed her to see the dust and cobwebs filling the room. The sound of the Holy Knights’ footsteps crunching on the snow could be heard fading away. The footprints of the knights who had just entered were still clearly visible—they had just been rummaging through an empty, abandoned cabin.
Another snap of his fingers, and the fire reignited, warmth returning to the cabin. The dust and cobwebs disappeared.
“I discovered this last year while conducting experiments. It’s a parallel dimension that overlaps with our world. I call it the Shadow Realm. What happens here doesn’t affect the real world, and it can quickly recover from any damage. I’ve conducted many of my experiments here,” Abyss said proudly. “I suppose those two fools who broke into the Church’s highest-level Saint’s tomb to save their princess have already escaped safely. Let’s go, we still have things to do. By the way, just tell me your wish whenever you’ve made up your mind.”
“What are you planning to do?” Flora asked hesitantly.
“After offending the Church, I plan to offend the royal family of the most powerful empire on the continent,” Abyss said, extending a hand to Flora with a grin. “It’ll be fun. Let’s go dig up the grave of the princess of the Western Empire together.”
“Dig… dig up a grave?!” Flora looked at Abyss with a complex expression.
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