At first Klaus was suspicious of Keith, but he changed his mind.
He began to shift suspicions to Karen when she urged Keith to enter the cave. The woman had prepared flashlights, with an equal number on each party member, as if she knew that they were going to a dark place.
And his suspicions were answered when Klaus saw a horde of zombie goblins attacking them.
He saw Keith die with his head separated from his body while Karen was still alive, without any significant injuries, only blood stains covering her body.
How could the zombie goblins kill Keith but let Karen live?
Based on Klaus' experience, zombies were classified as creatures born from necromancy. Goblins would not be able to become zombies if there was no magic or curse on them. Klaus did not feel any curses from the cave, only a mystical aura that was fairly weak for him.
Besides, during the hunt in the forest, Karen did not show her talent at all, only using elemental manipulation.
From there, he concluded that Karen was the mastermind of all this.
Actually, she had a talent called [Zombification]. This talent allowed her to turn corpses into zombies.
Karen burst out laughing as she clapped her hands. "That's amazing. Great deduction. Keith is actually my partner. Deceiving stupid awakeners, taking their equipment and all the monster cores, that's our job. We've been doing this for a long time."
Pausing for a moment, she sighed and her face turned furious.
"But," she continued. "That stupid Keith changed his mind at the last minute. He said his heart was moved, what nonsense."
Klaus finally spoke after listening to her ramblings. "Now, you got their equipment and monster cores. I will return all your equipment—"
"Then in return, you want me to let you go?" snapped Karen. "Don't be stupid. You already know my secret. I can't let you go."
Karen pointed at Klaus. "You have no choice but to die."
The zombie goblin horde continued to move towards Klaus, to kill him.
Klaus could only sigh. He looked up at the sky, seeing the blue color between the leaves.
"Why are there so many stupid people in this world? They always cut me off before I finish my words."
As the horde of zombie goblins came closer, the air suddenly became heavy. An aura of darkness emanated from Klaus.
Of course, Karen noticed the change in her opponent. She began to frown.
"So you're hiding your power, huh?" she said as if she was not worried.
However, the longer it went on, the thicker the aura became. Karen began to struggle to breathe, her chest felt heavy, and her legs struggled to keep the ground.
"What is your power!?" Karen shouted.
Klaus flashed a big smile, and his gaze became sharp, as if he was about to start something terrible. For some reason, Karen was terrified to see Klaus. Beads of sweat started pouring down her face.
At the same time, the fresh grass on the ground began to wither. Trees cracked and collapsed. The leaves and bushes turned yellow then slowly started to fall. Birds fell down from the sky. And the sound of insects ceased to be heard.
Those hordes of zombie goblins were also affected, they suddenly collapsed as if a huge wind had hit them. Not only that, they slowly decayed, some of them melting like ice, giving off a very unpleasant odor.
Only Joanna seemed to be okay.
Karen gulped, she realized something wrong was happening.
"Hey, hey... calm down." Karen grimaced, worried all over her face. "We still can talk—"
Before she could finish her words, her teeth and her hair fell out. She looked at them, her teeth looked brittle and her hair loss was white.
"Waaarrrrrggh!" Karen screamed, but she was surprised by how her voice changed, like an old hag. "What happened to me! What happened!"
At that moment, she realized that she had become old in the blink of an eye.
Klaus walked over to her. Karen looked so old, her body frail and trembling. She held his legs as Klaus stood in front of her. That woman cried, tears streamed down her face.
"I'm sorry... please, put me back to normal…"
Klaus sniggered. "I can smell the fear from you. What's the matter? Life flashes before your eyes, huh."
"Ple... please... spare me. Have mercy on me. You... you can take everything... everything... I'll give you everything I have... please, have mercy on me."
Klaus crouched down and held her chin, he looked at Karen closely. Her beautiful face had disappeared, turning into wrinkled and sagging skin.
"You're okay when you take the lives of people, even your partner, but do you mind if someone takes your life? Well, you have double standards."
He then smiled mockingly and patted her hollow cheek gently. "Goodbye."
As Klaus left her, Karen was on all fours, weak and helpless, begging Klaus to forgive her.
"Please, don't go... please come back... forgive me..."
Klaus stopped, he turned to Karen and said, "I forgive you, but I can't bring you back to normal. You have just tasted the power of [Anti-Life]. Once you're exposed to it, there is no power that can heal you. Sorry."
Old Karen opened her eyes wide, unable to contain her shock. Her youthful body would never return as she became a frail old woman.
"No… no… no no no no. No!"
She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran her fingers through her hair, it was pulled out easily, then blood seeped into her head.
Klaus smiled with satisfaction.
Living for thousands of years gave him a lot of valuable lessons. There are two ways to avenge people; one was with success in life, and the other was to give them their deepest fears.
Every human must have a fear in their mind. The most common one was death but Klaus did not want to get his hands dirty. So, he gave something that women were afraid of.
"If men fear betrayal the most, then women fear being old."
Women were aesthetic creatures. They loved beautiful things, including beauty in themselves. They were willing to feel pain, even hurt themselves, as long as they could look beautiful.
However, as women grew older, their beauty would fade over time. Makeup no longer covered them up. No amount of jewelry could make them attractive. Age took everything away.
Karen stopped screaming as she saw Klaus still standing there. She thought that he had changed his mind. Unfortunately, he was not as good as she thought.
"It's okay. Continue your hysterics. I'm just here watching," he said.
Karen looked confused, she did not understand what he was saying.
Suddenly, the bushes rustled. Dozens of pairs of red eyes peered out from the shadows of the forest. The horde of goblins emerged with saliva dripping from their mouths.
Her survival instinct was kicking in. She tried to resurrect the goblin carcasses around her, but they had turned into lumps of flesh or stinky liquid.
She then tried to gather mana to cast thunder, but it took a long time to charge while the goblins were getting closer.
"No! Go away! Go away! Don't come closer! No!"
"Kraawww!"
The horde of goblins jumped at her, swarming that poor old woman. Not long after, the air was filled with her screams, drowning in the sounds of stabbing and tearing flesh.