Read Novel Full Chapter 1307 Echo of Decay
Chapter 1307 Echo of Decay
On the Continent of Iskaris, there were two known types of undead. First, those who succeeded - at least partially - in the Ritual of Undeath, meaning they did not die and became an undead, either failed or true undead.
The other known option was to become reanimated - meaning to go from a corpse to an undead minion, raised by a necromancer. These beings lost all they were in life, unless their new master was the One True Necromancer. True undead, on the other hand, retained their memories as living beings, though their personas were altered on the deepest of levels, becoming entirely unempathetic toward the living, cold, rigid, and more.
However, not all true undead were necromancers; they were all inherently dark mages, but that category of magic included more than corpse animation.
One such entity - a true undead and not a necromancer - was standing before them.
Ria's lips parted without sound.
Her face drained of all color, leaving her skin almost as pale as the monster standing before them.
"A-are you…"
Her voice broke.
She swallowed and tried again.
"A-are you the Blind Grave Oracle?!"
Feng and Felicity both jerked at the name.
"What?" Feng whispered.
"No way…" Felicity breathed, eyes widening until they hurt.
The Blind Grave Oracle.
A name spoken in old books, older stories, and terrified whispers across the Continent of Iskaris. If the Covenant of Eternity had anything resembling a ruling council, she was said to be one of the pillars at its apex, comparable to an Obsidian Circle Member of the Consortium.
But there was one vast, irreconcilable difference between the leadership of the Consortium and the Covenant.
As mortals, Consortium heads changed every few hundred years at the latest.
Covenant heads did not.
The leaders of the Covenant were immortal undead who had kept their thrones for tens of thousands of years. They were unchanging, unchallenged, and untouched by time or politics.
The title "Blind Grave Oracle" was older than the country.
Older than most temples.
Older than some races' recorded history.
Her name had been passed down through generations, especially in Ravenshade, where the Covenant held its deepest roots. Even the oldest legends in that duchy, carved in stone and inked on crumbling parchment, traced her existence back to the era when the Valorian royal line conquered Ravenshade, when the old kings were forced to bend the knee and become dukes instead of sovereigns.
If those first rumors were true…
If they were even remotely accurate…
Then the pale, motionless figure in front of them, this eyeless, hollow, perfect undead, might have been alive back then.
She might have watched the conquest.
She might have even partaken in it.
And she was now standing three steps away from them, silent, cold, and unreadable, with the red orb on her staff pulsing once like a slow heartbeat in a corpse.
The undead did not react to the screams of the girls.
There was no acknowledgment nor denial of her guessed title. In fact, it seemed as if she couldn't care less about their thoughts.
She simply opened her ledger.
Her fingers moved with a steady, mechanical rhythm, turning pages with the same care one might use when inspecting weather reports. The undead entity behaved with the rigidity and lack of care a lot like a golem created by a master artificer.
The screams of recognition might as well not have existed as far as she was concerned.
Her empty sockets didn't lift from the page.
Ria's throat tightened.
Her pulse kicked into a frantic gallop.
Every breath came shorter than the last, pulled through clenched teeth. Something primal deep inside her clawed at her lungs, begging her to run, to hide, to disappear.
And she obeyed her instincts, frantically doing her utmost to undo the bindings tying her wrists behind her back.
The undead didn't lift her head. Instead, she muttered a short incantation under her breath.
"[Echo of Decay]."
The tone was flat, indifferent, almost bored.
Something wet rolled off her staff's red orb.
A drop of dark bile hit the stone floor with a soft tap.
The moment it touched the ground, it twitched. Then it moved. Slow at first, like thick sludge dragged by gravity. Then faster. And faster.
It slithered straight toward Ria.
"W–wait-wait-NOOOO!" Ria shrieked, scrambling backward on her bound hands, heels slipping on stone. Iris jumped into action, trying to kick the strange drop away, but she was one step too late.
*Thud!* Ria's spine suddenly pressed against the wall, reaching the end. The drop surged across the floor like a living stain and latched onto her feet and moved up until it found a patch of unhidden skin. As soon as contact was made, the blonde assassin's eyes went wide.
A dry rasp tore out of her throat.
Her skin tightened in seconds. Moisture fled her body. Her cheeks sank inward. The lines around her eyes deepened. Her lips cracked, splitting open from the sudden dryness.
Her hair thinned.
Her nails darkened.
Her face collapsed into an aged, shriveled mask, as if decades passed in the space of a heartbeat.
Soon, she looked like a terminally ill woman on her deathbed, right before the last moment.
Ria screamed again, but this time it was a raw, broken sound that ripped straight from a throat collapsing in on itself.
The undead didn't watch.
She didn't even raise her gaze from the book.
"[Cease]." she said, without a hint of urgency.
The drop peeled away from Ria's skin, sliding back across the floor with the same casual rhythm it had started with. As it left her, the wrinkles pulled back, her skin softened, and breath rushed into her lungs. The color returned to her face, though shakier, uneven, trembling.
"Haaah… Haaah… Haaah…" Ria collapsed sideways, wheezing through clenched teeth as tears of pure terror and agony spilled down her cheeks. Her body shook in jerks while her breath came shallow and irregular. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, looking like prey waiting for the next strike.
The undead woman closed her ledger.
Calm.
Silent.
Completely unaffected.
A monster carved from stillness.
Then her jaw stayed still as her voice slid out, thin and cold. "Ria Valecrest. Mithril-rank adventurer."
The undead's empty sockets turned toward the others.
"A new adventurer team, Team Black, led by Thorn." Her tone did not rise or fall.
It was the sound of a ledger being read aloud.
Facts, nothing more.
The red orb on her staff dimmed once.
The cell felt smaller.
"Clarify your objective in seizing a Covenant artifact after killing its bearer."
Iris let out a short scoff.