Chapter 41 - Panic!

Gary had been trying to calm himself down, even after Lucy had died he was still angry! He quickly walked away from Rosa and began to punch a wall close by trying his best to get rid of this anger.

Rosa on the other hand just smiled as she cut open Lucy's head grabbing the multicolored gem inside and began to walk out while dragging her corpse behind her.

Rosa: 'Oh my prince is going to be so happy when he sees what we did! He's totally going to praise me for a job well done! Hehe~'

When she stepped out onto the street she saw Boss out front beating an unknown young man into the pavement. The boy had bruises all over his body at this point, his legs broken so he couldn't move much. Though it didn't matter with Boss using his ability to suppress him, she on the other hand didn't care at all and instead walked past them into the gate.

Brian could only see through the corner of his eye, a red haired women dragging a very familiar corpse behind her into his empire.

Brian: 'No this can't be happening! This can't be right! I'm going to be the next emperor of Vector! This planet belongs to me!!'

His mind snapped for a second, his body went limp on the ground as boss pulled up his pistol before putting a bullet into his skull.

The notification of his death rang out but moments later a sudden change began to occur in Brian's body.

Immediately his forehead began to glow with a green flame. This fire began to consume Brian's body making boss take a step back.

Boss: 'What is this? Don't tell me he still has something left even after his death!?'

The young man's body began to stand, the flames reanimated his corpse but in a new form. He no longer had flesh on his body, instead all that remained was a skeleton in Brian's clothes.

This skeleton was standing there looking at boss with soulless eyes. It's hand came up only to have a wave of bright green flames wash over the entire area before it latched on to any dead body it could find.

Suddenly Lucy had gone up in flames as well as any undead who hadn't disappeared or was still "alive"

The gorilla stood there in the sea of flames swallowing the school. It had fear in its eyes, unlike most undead animalistic undead seemed to have kept a portion of their senses. However due to the undead portion of their brains they had turned their survival instinct into an instinct to eat every living thing they came into contact with!

(The fire doesn't effect the living, at least the fire outside of the skeleton's range. That fire was used to gather souls, the fire around the skeleton can burn even kill creatures that are alive)

At this moment, that portion of its brain had stopped. Instead it's original instincts had filled it with a sense of death that it began to run away from the walking skeleton and the green haired boy.

Turning its back on Baladan was a big mistake though, since he wasn't affected by the fire he rushed forward jumping into the air before impaling the gorilla in the back of its head killing it.

[Congratulations! You have slain a level 25 First Order Evolved Shadow Ape, you gain 8,000 exp]

[Congratulations! You have received a gift!]

Baladan ignored the systems notifications as he traveled through the flames towards the gate.

He had joined up with Rosa as well as Harry and Chris who had been released from Brian's ability upon his death.

Baladan: 'Is this what necrosis was talking about? If I die would I become something like that?'

He shook his head trying not to think about things that didn't matter at the moment. What did was a skeleton who turned the bodies of its previous companions into dust before taking their spirits and branding them. He forced them to serve under him even in death as he releases the now ghosts towards Boss.

All boss could see was a skeleton casually waving its hand around in the air towards him. Ghosts could not be seen with the naked eye without assistance, however the moment Baladan had walked up he took a deep breath as the ghosts got sucked out of the air and consumed by the young man.

The skeleton didn't react in the slightest, at this point none of them could tell if it even had its consciousness anymore.

Baladan hadn't been scared of this skeleton in the slightest. He could feel the death energy circling around them and only let out a sigh as he easily walked through the flames grabbed the skull of the skeleton that was just standing there before crushing it.

[Congratulations! You have slain a level ??? (Awakening) Lich! You gain !#?*!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have…]

[Cap has been reached! Please finish requirements before becoming a First Circle being]

[Congratulations! You have gained a Unique Gift!]

[Congratulations! You have obtained a skill crystal! Please choose which ability you would like!]

[Necromancer] - Become one with death and control the Shadow Corpses around you. Caution: After death your soul will pass on leaving your body to become a soulless Lich who attacks the living.

[Metal Manipulation] - Gives you the ability to control metal close by. It can also create metal with Mana, depending on how much Mana is used changes how much metal can be manipulated or created.

[Reading] - This ability allows you to read anything very quickly! It can even allow you to read people like a book, upon use you may spend more Mana on a target to either read their memories, or read their thoughts.

[Slaver] - Allows the user to place a mark on any living creature and turn it into a slave unable to stop themselves from disobeying the users commands.

Baladan was overwhelmed with notifications, after crushing the skeletons skull a wave of noises flooded directly into his brain before one last one floated before him saying.

[You have obtained ???]

Bal: 'What… what is that?'

He was confused, all those notifications was overloading his brain to the point he couldn't comprehend what just happened.

Bal: 'A Lich? Brian was turning into a Lich!? If I hadn't stopped him then… if I wasn't here and Brian died some other way would our entire city have been under control by that thing!?'

He was overwhelmed, the fact that a being like that could be created just from dying with a certain ability sent shivers down his spine!

Bal: 'Wait! Doesn't the system allow multiple people to get the same ability!? If this was to happen to everyone who got the necromancer ability wouldn't that be a disaster!'

He was unable to slow his breathing, though he was physically fine emotionally he wasn't! His mind raced with the possibility that someone had gotten another necromancer ability in the housing district! If his mother had been caught by such a creature she would forever suffer as a ghost or zombie under its rule!?

He got on his knees holding his chest as he became more and more anxious, eventually he started to have a panic attack clearly upset by this discovery.

All the others could do was watch, he was in a circle of green flames that no one besides him could get close to. He was laying on his side trying to calm himself down and think rationally.

This only resulted in him temporarily keeping it together as he bathed in the green flames.

Rosa: "Bal! You must calm down, please come out of the fire! I-I can't get to you unless you come out!"

Harry: "Baladan! Come out! We can't help you if you stay there, please crawl to us or something! At least say something damnit!"

Harry had tried manipulating his shadow wanting to smoother the flames only to have them slightly dim for a second before burning away the Mana from his ability.

Even boss wasn't able to put out the flames completely, with his ability he tried to put them out only to reduce their volume by half as it immediately goes back to normal after a couple seconds.

Bal: 'I-I need to leave… I can't stay here and wait for those buses anymore! I-I must protect my mother at all costs!'

This was the moment he truly understood how dangerous life in the apocalypse was now after casually facing a being he normally had no hope of killing. If Brian had died without someone like Baladan there to stop him, he would have become a being of immense power who could gather every corpse in this city and use them to destroy every living being there!

That was when Baladan stood up, finally having recovered from his panic attack. He looked at everyone who was worried for him as he turned around now facing away from them.

Bal: "I have to go… I have realized… if there are people like this in the world. Truly horrible people as well as creatures as strong as that skeleton then… I have to leave and protect my mother as soon as possible. Boss you understand right? If I don't go now… I fear I may lose the one person who has loved and supported me my entire life… will you let me leave?"

Boss was silent upon hearing this, the others wanted to stay something but boss raised a hand quieting them for the moment.

Boss: "Go, we aren't babies boy. Go save your mother, we will be in the housing district soon to come and get you!"

He had faith in the boy, after all almost every situation they have gotten themselves in Baladan had faced them head on and won each time! He had trust that the boy would live and save his family no matter what.

Bal: "Thank you… Dad, and thank you all for being by my side till now. I will return, you can count on that!"

He soon broke into a sprint heading towards the central district and away from East University. Rosa stood there watching her Prince leave with a saddened face.

Rosa: 'I will support you no matter what my Prince. If you must go I will wait for you, please come back alive!'

Tears filled her eyes as she watched his back disappear into the darkness.