He had resurrected the giant and now it was under his control. The description of the ability didn't tell him explicitly, but it was enough for him that the giant remained still, without attacking, as if waiting for a command.
Besides, if he couldn't control them, then that Class Skill would be reduced to resurrecting his own enemies. Ha.
If the resurrected person or creature died, could he simply resurrect them again or did they disappear forever? In any case, if he didn't do something quickly, the giant was going to die.
It had resurrected him, but the fire was still there.
"Come on!" said Jonathan, pointing toward the water, feeling a little stupid. But he had to at least try. The giant set off, at last. He thought he saw a red gleam in its eyes. Maybe it was his imagination.
The giant didn't come straight for him. It followed his finger all the way to the sea.
That took care of some of the fire. But not all of it, not even most of it.
"Into the water!" he ordered.
The blind giant plunged into the sea. Drinking water, whether it wanted to or not. That should be enough to save the monster. And if not... Some other creature would be around the island.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
That's right, it's blind. My ability didn't regenerate his eyes. So it's not following my finger.
How did it work, exactly? Could Jonathan know what it was thinking? Its intentions, did they have that kind of connection? In that case, he should be able to give it orders nonverbally. He had been specific with the second command, but not in the first, he had only told it to move, indicating a direction with his finger, not with words.
It was worth a try.
The fire had already been extinguished. Jonathan tried to make the giant emerge from the waters. When his efforts failed, he closed his eyes, hoping to concentrate better.
And so he did.
He didn't need to open his eyes to see that it had worked. He could hear the water.
Okay. So that's how it worked... Jonathan would have to work to give the orders without closing his eyes. And if he wanted this to be his ultimate weapon against the Count, he would have to test his ability to command the resurrected under his power at the same time.
But well. One step at a time.
The fact was that he had succeeded, after so long tormented by memories, by the thirst for revenge, by the memory of not how they had been but what was left of them....
He had finally reached the true beginning of his revenge.
It was just what he needed to kill the Count. He had worried about being betrayed, abandoned by his crew. Jonathan laughed now. He didn't need them.
With this skill, he could raise an army.
Better yet, he could snatch his enemy's soldiers and have them join his army.
It was an incredibly powerful ability. But the Count was immortal.
Still, I'm confident that this is the secret of the Island, that I could kill him... now that we are equal.
"Come with me," he said, turning away.
Jonathan headed into the forest, closely followed by a creature that was completely under his control.
At least you won't stab me in the back, he thought, glancing back to look at the giant. Of that he could be sure. And there was no greater reassurance.
——
If he thought he had seen it all, he had been sorely mistaken.
It wasn't long before he encountered more of the island's strange creatures. Giants existed off the island, but not four-eyed, acid-skinned giants to which they were somehow immune.
Similarly, there was this thing.
A snake larger than the giant that now served him, it towered even above the treetops. With its mouth wide open, like a person with a distended jaw, it seemed to be capable of swallowing a ship in three or four bites.
It was far worse than he had dared to think. Fortunately, he had help.
At his command, in complete silence, the giant lunged at the even more gigantic snake. The force of the impact, with the full weight of its body, allowed it to knock the snake to the ground.
The acid, of course, splashed the snake all over.
The creature was more resistant to the acid in question than the frail human body, or perhaps the acid was somehow weakened because he had killed and resurrected the giant. Either way, it was wreaking havoc.
Less, slower, but he was in no hurry.
The snake stirred. It wrapped part of its body around the giant's neck, squeezing against it, trying to strangle it. Now it was a question of who would last longer.
Well. It would be if Jonathan had no way to change the outcome.
Yes, change it.
The battle seemed to be leaning in the snake's favor.
But he and the giant weren't alone. The snake wasn't the first creature he had encountered in the forest.
The goblin he controlled took a step forward, obeying Jonathan's thoughts. It approached the snake without fear —the dead had nothing to fear— and struck the reptile's head with its spiked mace, again and again.
It took out one of the snake's eyes. But, more importantly, it inflicted a wound on its neck.
A red crack, which was widened even more by the giant's acid.
Jonathan wasn't very strong, yet. But this he could do. He lunged at the snake. Before he got there, it swallowed the goblin.
Unfortunate, but it was a good opportunity to see if he could resurrect those who died a second time. He would pull it out of the snake's stomach later.
"After I cut your head off!
As he shouted, Jonathan reached the snake's neck.
That creature was huge, as he had already said, towering above the trees. But its head was relatively small in comparison, it didn't match. Maybe it would be funny if it wasn't so terrifying.
The thing was, this way he could cut its head off cleanly without having to climb on the creature.
One slash should suffice, since the goblin and the giant had done most of the work for him. And because he had increased his strength, thanks to the experience points gained by defeating other creatures, or rather by having the giant do it for him.
But then he realized.
Surely it would work, but he couldn't do that. He wanted to add the giant snake to his army. The golem's eyes hadn't regenerated, so, if he cut off its head, that thing would do him no good.
Good thing I thought of it before it was too late.
Jonathan climbed onto the snake, after all. At its head, and plunged the sword into the middle of it. Deeply, but it wasn't enough, he kept pushing the handle with both hands, placed crosswise, one on top of the other.
He did that until the snake stopped moving.
By then, the handle had almost completely disappeared inside the creature's skull. How frustrating it was to be so weak and have none of the skills he was used to relying on.
How frustrating, but it was worth it in return for this.
The snake had definitely been dead, just a moment ago. But, with a thought, Jonathan brought it back to life. He felt it writhe beneath him, so he lowered himself to the ground again, jumping backwards.
Jonathan was gathering a small but formidable army of undead monsters. Adding the snake, there were now just over a dozen. He hadn't stopped to count, immersed in life and death fights.
He hadn't regained a quarter of his original strength, but that was only natural.
It had taken him literally decades to reach those stats, to gather diverse and powerful Personal Skills and master his Class Skills.
Jonathan had died and been born again. He had a long way to go.
He stretched out, as if exercising normally, on a random day on deck, on course for somewhere or nowhere. Those around him weren't pirates, however, they weren't shipmates, new or old. In fact, they weren't even surrounding him, but behind him. A small army of monsters looming behind him, all with eyes burning blood red like demons that had crawled out of the very underworld. Jonathan, of course, found it comforting.
He was just like the Count. He was no longer human.
But...
He didn't care.
In a sense, he felt he had died when he saw the bodies of his family. So this didn't change anything. He was still very much dead inside. But this power made it easier for him to do what he had to do before he could rest forever.
You have no right to take revenge for them. Maybe that wasn't what Leonard had told him, word for word, but it was close enough, summing up all the venom he'd spewed on him. He grimaced. Leonard didn't know what he was talking about, what were the words of a traitor worth?
Jonathan walked, and the monsters followed close behind.
"I can't wait for a ship to come. My crew... "No, they were no longer anything of his. "We were the first to set foot on this island in a long time, maybe since the Count passed this way, when he was still human. Yes. Besides, I don't want to waste a second."
Talking to himself had quickly become a habit, just as he had feared.
He wasn't used to being alone, he supposed. Physically alone, at least. His life had always been noisy and hectic. As a sailor, as a pirate, and even before the beginning, roaming the streets of a slum along with kids his own age. And the rats.
Jonathan turned his gaze to the ocean, which stretched to the horizon.
"I will kill you all. No matter how long it takes me. "Jonathan gave a feral grin. "I'd say I have all the time in the world now."
——
Jonathan was crossing the sea on the snake's back. It was faster than he thought, and he had to hold on tight so it wouldn't accidentally throw him. In the end, he opted to drive the sword into the snake's body, again using his weapon to support himself.
The snake, completely dominated by him, didn't react to that.
Of course. He hadn't feared for a second that it would react badly or that it would escape his control.
The dead had no fear. Nor pain.
He turned his head to watch the rest of his small army. They were struggling to keep up. And to stay away from the poison the giant was spreading wherever he went. He had given them orders to do so, and so far they were working. So far. On the whole, everything was going better than he would have thought.
He could hardly believe that not so long ago he had been lying on the ground, realizing that he had been shot. And believing that his end had come.
Well. On that last point he hadn't been wrong.
What had worried him was if some of those monsters didn't know how to swim, and the water would take his soldiers away. But so far so good. Slower, faster, the point was that they were still keeping their heads above water.
If some creatures died along the way, it would be no great loss. But besides, he could bring them back to life. He had proven that by pulling the goblin out of the snake's stomach. He could resurrect them all as many times as it took.
As long as there were enough of them left, of course. Because his ability didn't heal wounds.
Maybe he could revive even a severed arm, but it wouldn't do him much good. In other words. The limit was the creature's body, not his ability.
He turned around, again, returning to his original position. With his eyes fixed on the horizon and what lay beyond. Absent-mindedly, he patted the snake's head, as if he were petting a mere mutt.
"I have all the time in the world," Jonathan repeated.
With his gaze still fixed on the burning horizon.
The secrets of Eternity Island, Part 4: FIN