Spiral of Madness: Ascension of the Villainous Dragon Prince-Chapter 106: Conquering The Ruined Undead Empire [2]

"Knights! Ghostly Wall!"

Zorba roared, casting a Spell he had created. All the knights charged forward and merged their Ghostly Auras, forming a wall of Ghostly Flames that clashed against the Ghost Soldiers and pushed them deeper into the fortress city.

At the same time, Louis obliterated the Ghost Soldiers in the sky. Once the last few fell, he descended, rejoined Zorba, and pressed forward, his body glowing brightly.

Louis had previously covered himself in Ashen Frost, which he then purified by reversing Despair into Hope—transforming it into Holy Light... and Salt. Bright white crystals gleamed around his body, reflecting holy light; they were salt itself. The power of the Hollow Queen was beginning to manifest in this "reversed form."

His Fake Dragon Heart and Fantasium Aura continued to intermingle as his Cultivation Methods fused further, spreading their power throughout his body.

"Where are you?!"

Louis roared and thrust Gungnir forward. An explosion of blinding light shaped like a roaring dragon devoured dozens of ghosts at once, purifying them into salt and scattering them across the fortress.

As he plunged deeper into the swarm, he quickly sensed the Guardian’s location—hidden beneath every ghost, shielded by them.

An old-looking man with a long white beard stood there, a ghost like the rest. Made of green ghostly energy, his bald head blazed with green flames. He wore a black robe and held a staff of bones.

"How annoying...! How is it possible...! A wielder of holy light...! Uuuggh...! Die...! Die already...! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

The old man screamed furiously, raising his staff as dozens of ghosts wailed in unison, lunging toward Louis and attempting to invade his Fantasy Heart. Green ghostly energies flooded the internal world, dark clouds spreading to consume everything within.

But Niflheim had grown more active. She floated upward, radiating spiritual power, then divided herself into one hundred swords of primordial ice.

"Begone from here, foul Entities!"

Niflheim struck without mercy. Her divine ice blades pierced the green clouds, scattering the ghosts’ influence before they could pose any real threat to Louis.

"Thank you, Niflheim."

Louis charged downward, kicking, punching, impaling, and slashing through the Ghost Soldiers that swarmed him. He cut straight toward their leader, who hid behind his minions and sacrificed them relentlessly—just like a Spiralwalker Necromancer.

"Get away! Die! Die! Dieeeeee!"

The old ghost shrieked in terror. Unlike the others, he was a complete coward, cowering behind his ghosts while they died in his place. Louis deflected his frantic spells with ease and countered with his own. Beams of radiant light and swords of holy light and salt rained down, catching the ghost off guard and tearing through his spectral body.

"Stop running away, old man. Your time has come!"

Louis roared as he carved through dozens more ghosts until he finally reached the leader. Gungnir, hyper-charged after reaching her kill limit of sixty, flew from his hand. He activated the Rune of Slaughter as she hurtled forward on her own.

A massive pillar of light erupted, piercing the ghost. His body twisted in agony, disintegrating rapidly. He screamed, resisting desperately, but the light consumed him completely, twisting him further, reducing him to ashes that scattered into nothingness.

BOOOM!

The radiance exploded outward, exorcising every remaining ghost until they dissolved into particles of salt and drifted away on the wind.

"It’s done... Haa... Haaa... Hahaha..." Louis gasped for breath, then began to laugh. He couldn’t stop. "Hahah... Hahahahaha! I did it...! Hahahahahaha! It was fun! It was so much fun! Hahahahahahah!"

Zorba watched his lord laugh like a maniac with a warm smile. He slowly approached Louis, who looked as though he had just experienced the greatest thrill of his life battling those ghosts.

"My Lord, I see you’re quite joyful. With this, we’ve taken down all the Fortresses, right?" Zorba asked. "What’s next?"

"What’s next, you ask?" Louis replied, still catching his breath. "Well, what else? We’re going after the Desolate Palace and slaying the two Area Bosses... Ah right! Let’s not forget the treasure chest."

After locating the path downward, the two descended to where the third treasure chest waited. Louis opened it, expecting little at this point, but surprise lit his face.

"A Relic! Finally!" Louis celebrated.

"Is it?!" Zorba asked eagerly.

Louis held a small ring topped with a skull-shaped white jewel. At first glance it looked simple, yet it pulsed with immense power. He sensed a strong concentration of Fantasium within.

"Is this a Relic you need?" Zorba wondered.

"Hmm, it’s more equipment than a special relic," Louis explained. "Though I think it could function as one if we don’t find more."

"I see. Wait, my lord—are you planning to keep going until you find three more relics?!" Zorba asked.

"That’s the plan, but I’m not a fool. I’ll stop at the Third Layer and then return home," Louis said, slipping the ring on for now. "The Skeleton Soldier Ring has no side effects beyond draining soul essence when summoning new Skeleton Soldiers."

"It can summon them?!" Zorba stared in amazement as Louis called forth ten common skeleton soldiers. "Ah, they don’t look that strong though."

"They really aren’t," Louis agreed with a nod. "But I like the novelty. They could prove useful in certain situations."

"Can they grow?" Zorba asked.

"Most likely not," Louis shook his head. "But they make excellent bait or shields. And perhaps with your abilities, we can sacrifice them to unleash a powerful spell or reform them into something stronger."

"Oooh! I hadn’t thought of that!" Zorba nodded enthusiastically.

"Also, it creates them complete with bones and everything," Louis continued. "And those bones are sturdy Level 2 Entity parts—perfect fresh materials for new undead... if they persist after death."

"I believe we could run a few experiments," Zorba said, admiring the skeleton soldiers. "Would you like to?"

"Sure," Louis nodded.

The prince decided to spend an hour experimenting with the new skeletons and discovering what they could do. They uncovered several intriguing details. First, once crushed and destroyed, the skeletons scattered into shadows and vanished completely, leaving nothing behind.

However, while still alive, it was possible to fully dismantle them into a pile of bones surrounding a glowing, phantasmal core. They did not contain Fantasium Cores but Ghostly Cores instead—the kind Zorba described as belonging to Undead Monsters from Spiritias or Yggdrasil.

In this dismantled state, the skeletons merged into a giant bone golem. Ten glowing cores fused together into one large core in the stomach, shielded and concealed behind thick layers of bones.

They observed that the fused skeleton golem’s strength roughly matched one of the Salt Golem Knights. Later, they tried infusing it with additional souls, and it succeeded. The golem powered up further; its color shifted from white to black, and it gained ghostly armor forged from rusty steel.

"So as long as they stay alive they can be reshaped in many ways, but the moment they die they disappear," Louis said, nodding. "Interesting... Now I wonder if I can do this too?"

Louis touched the bone golem and, using the spell Zorba had taught him—Undead Shaping—he transformed the entire construct into a massive shield.

"Hoh."

He reshaped it into a large sword, a lance, an axe, and even a hammer. Then he enveloped himself completely in the bones, forming ghostly black skeleton armor.

Drawing on the power of the Necromancer Incarnation, he fused it with the armor and began to realize he could internalize these bones into his own body if he chose.