Chương 381: Long Dead Flesh

"Hey! Are you guys done?" Evelyn called enthusiastically, waving as Callum approached. Artoria followed only a few paces behind him, her armor bearing the fresh scars of their duel. Dust still clung to both of them, yet neither appeared particularly exhausted. If anything, the training had only sharpened the excitement lingering in their eyes. Callum gave a small nod.

"Yes. Our training is done for the day." Evelyn studied him for a moment before a mischievous grin spread across her face. She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly.

"It's funny seeing you fight without any powers," she murmured with an amused smile. Callum rolled his eyes.

"The same could be said for you at the moment, Miss Evelyn." She blinked before laughing softly.

"Miss?" she repeated, feigning offence.

"I'm only a year and a half older than you, you know." Callum stared down at her with his calm azure eyes.

"Yeah..." The answer died in his throat. After a brief silence, he sighed in defeat and shrugged.

"... Never mind. You win. It seems I'm not nearly as clever as I like to think." A warm chuckle escaped Evelyn.

"Oh, you're adorable, Callum." Before he could protest, she wrapped both arms around him in a gentle embrace. Callum stumbled half a step backwards from the sudden affection before regaining his balance. A faint smile tugged at his lips as he lifted a hand to her cheek and leaned forward, giving her a brief kiss. Their eyes met as they pulled apart, neither saying a word. For a fleeting moment, the brutal wilderness around them seemed to disappear. Naturally, that peace lasted all of three seconds.

"Have you considered producing an heir already?" Artoria's completely serious question ruined the atmosphere. Callum slowly turned toward her with an expression somewhere between confusion and disbelief.

"... Could you elaborate?" Artoria crossed her arms.

"Oh, well, it's rather simple-" Before she could continue, Yuki appeared behind her like an assassin and clamped both hands over the knight's mouth.

"Ignore her," Yuki muttered flatly. Artoria offered no resistance whatsoever. Instead, she merely glanced sideways at Yuki with mild curiosity, as though wondering why everyone always interrupted her whenever she spoke about perfectly reasonable topics. Callum pinched the bridge of his nose and released a long, exhausted sigh.

"I think it's about time we headed back."

"I agree," Caesar began. Before he could finish, the device strapped around his cybernetic wrist emitted a sharp electronic beep. His expression shifted. He lowered his gaze toward the flashing display, reading the incoming data in silence.

"... Something's coming." Callum looked over.

"Big or small?"

"If I had to guess..." Caesar frowned.

"... Big. Still too far away for a precise reading."

"Can we outrun it?" If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Caesar shook his head.

"No chance. Based on its current velocity, it's moving at nearly twice our speed." A weary look settled over Callum's face.

"... Then we'd better prepare ourselves." He rested a hand on the hilt of his sword and started walking, only for Caesar to stop him.

"It's really big." Callum paused.

"Close enough to identify?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?" Instead of answering, Caesar simply pointed upward. Callum followed the gesture.

"Of course." A colossal shadow swept across the valley, plunging the jagged landscape into darkness.

"It's Ember again." The enormous ivory wyvern carved through the heavens with effortless dominance, each beat of his wings sending violent gusts racing across the mountains below. Yet something immediately caught Callum's attention. Ember wasn't flying aimlessly. He was hunting. His entire posture radiated murderous focus as he surged toward something racing through the valley beneath the clouds. Callum folded his arms.

"Wanna follow him?" The others stared at him. Yuki looked particularly unimpressed.

"... Doesn't that sound like a fantastic way to get ourselves killed?" she asked dryly.

"Whenever Ember hunts alone, it's usually because whatever he's chasing is terrifying." Callum merely shrugged.

"Maybe." A grin appeared.

"But it'd be pretty cool to watch."

"I believe that would be unwise," Artoria answered calmly.

"Considering the disparity in strength between ourselves and whatever Lord Ember is pursuing, we could easily be crushed by the aftermath of their battle." She paused.

"That being said..." A faint smile appeared.

"I also wish to witness it." Silence settled over the group. Callum looked toward Evelyn.

"I'll go." She answered without the slightest hesitation. Caesar scratched the back of his neck before looking down at Yuki.

"What do you think?" Yuki sighed dramatically.

"You people are impossible..." She thought for another moment before eventually shrugging.

"... Fine. As long as we're careful." Callum smiled.

"Then stay close." Without another word, he exploded forward. The rocky earth shattered beneath his feet as he accelerated across the uneven landscape. Even stripped of every supernatural ability, his physical body remained absurdly powerful. Mountain after mountain vanished beneath him while fierce winds tore through his blond hair. Behind him, the others quickly followed. Far above, Ember suddenly changed direction.

The great wyvern folded one wing and pivoted with precision before diving almost vertically toward the earth. Ivory fire gathered between his jaws, illuminating the sky beneath him like a newborn sun.

"What did you find?" Callum whispered. Only one mountain remained between them and the battlefield. He bent his knees. Then leapt. His eyes widened.

"What..." Below them stood the creature Ember had been pursuing. Or rather, The corpse. Its neck remained clamped firmly between Ember's massive jaws, yet despite every law of life, the thing still moved. It had once been a dragon. Now it resembled little more than a walking carcass. Entire sections of flesh had rotted away, exposing yellowed ribs and cracked vertebrae beneath. Great patches of muscle hung loosely from its frame, already decomposing into blackened strands.

One wing had almost completely withered away while the other consisted of little more than torn membrane stretched across splintered bone. It should have been dead. And yet... It lived. Before Callum could gather another thought, the skeletal dragon threw back its head and roared. The sound froze every one of them. It wasn't truly a roar. Its vocal cords had long since decayed.

Instead, the noise resembled a violent storm forced through a corpse's hollow throat, a horrific mixture of shrieking wind, grinding bone, and something disturbingly... wrong. Even the air seemed to recoil. The undead dragon lashed out without hesitation. Its massive claw crashed into Ember's side, forcing the ivory wyvern backward before the creature hurled its own decaying body forward like a battering ram. The impact launched Ember clean through a mountainside. Stone erupted in every direction.

The mountain itself collapsed inward beneath the force. Yet before the dust had even settled, brilliant ivory flames ignited once more within Ember's jaws. The skeletal dragon immediately reacted. Panic. It hurled itself skyward just as Ember released a torrent of incandescent fire that carved through the valley below, reducing everything in its path to molten ruin.

The creature narrowly escaped, though its rotten body was briefly illuminated by the blinding inferno, making the extent of its decay even more horrifying. By then the rest of the group had reached Callum's position. No one spoke for several long seconds.

"So..." Caesar finally muttered, unable to tear his eyes away from the impossible creature.

"... Any idea where that came from?" Artoria studied the monster with narrowed golden eyes.

"It is undoubtedly a Spawn," she answered.

"Of that I have little doubt." She frowned.

"... But it should not exist in such a state. A body this decayed should no longer be capable of movement." Caesar glanced down at the scanner on his wrist again.

"... You're right." He slowly lowered his hand.

"Every reading says the same thing... It should already be dead." A loud yawn interrupted the conversation. Yuki had already found a comfortable rock and dropped onto it.

"Spawn this, Spawn that..." she muttered lazily.

"You all wanted to watch, didn't you? Then stop talking and enjoy the show." The others exchanged weary looks. Almost simultaneously, they sighed. Then Caesar's eyes snapped back toward the battlefield. His expression instantly drained of color.

"Oh..." His voice caught.

"Oh, shit!" The others whipped around. The undead dragon's colossal body had been blasted directly toward them by Ember's attack. Like a falling mountain, the gigantic corpse tore through the sky, its immense shadow swallowing the entire ridgeline. It was coming straight for them. And unless they moved immediately, Every last one of them would be crushed.