The legion of Phobodemons were composed of undead warriors wearing ancient armor. Most of them barely had any flesh left and were nothing but bones.
The sickening stench of the rot filled the air, and Pavor felt a sense of deja vu.
He immediately knew who the leader of these undead warriors were.The bishop of the Cult of Mysophobia, the same one who waged war with Duke Vanus and his men.
General Leonide.
"Look what we have here….. Are you lost, Retaliators?"
He pointed his curved sword at them. "And base from your bearings, I take it that you are from Sagacitur? Been a while since I met a compatriot."
Tudo's eyes widened. "W-Wait... You are….."
"Hahaha, yes. I suppose your history books have talked about me and my crew."
He spoke the common Amorean language fluently, even using slangs and informal speech.
Common Amorean is basically just the language of Erosith, which was the lingua franca everywhere and required to be studied by other kingdoms. But Erosithans were not required to study other kingdoms' languages at all.
In fact, sometimes foreigners were even more grammatically correct in Common Amorean than Erosithans were. Erosithans did not care much to be 'correct' in their own language, just enough to be understood by each other.
But even with his fluency, this general still had a Sagecituran accent that was much, much older and was practically extinct now.
"You are the King of the Crimson Isles." Princess Minerva said warily, aiming her Bow of Erudition at him.
The general laughed. "Quite right, princess. I almost wiped out your ancestors back in my hay day."
General Leonide was actually considered as the 'King of the Crimson Isles' some 1,500 years ago. The Crimson Isles were the small islands on the territory of Sagacitur, which at that time formed a coalition called Agria.
They were at war with the states in the mainland of Sagacitur. And despite being few in numbers, the Agrians still managed to cause much damage to the capital of Sagacitur.
If it weren't for the fact that barely 1/ 3rd of their military forces had remained, they could have truly ruled over all the other states of Vissus. But after 30 years of victory, the states had managed to recover and push the Agrians back to the small islands they came from.
When that happened afterwards was unknown for most scholars. They knew that General Leonide and his 'compatriots' made their retreat on their ships.
They thought they must have sailed back to the Crimson Isles.
They were wrong.
General Leonide traveled with the corpses of his best men, the 300 who took a stand with him in their triumphant battle against Sagacitur. Stricken by a sickness that makes holes on his body like a honeycomb, he sought the Lord of Dread for a proposition.
He offered to pledge his allegiance in exchange for bringing back his army and giving them immortality.
Of course, he knew that the deal comes with a price. They were not truly 'brought back' in the sense that most would think. Only reanimated, not resurrected. Turned into Phobodemons.
And General Leonide was made to live forever, but as the carrier of his disease to plague others.
"Now, I have no interest in you, boy." General Leonide said to Tudo.
He sniffed the air. "I could smell it from your blood. You are from the Crimson Isles, hailing from the remnants of the once powerful Agria."
"What?" Tudo was befuddled.
General Leonide looked at him softly. "That was why me and my crew were drawn to your direction. You carry the scent of our home... Perhaps fate has brought you here to return our home to us. Won't you come to your true family?"
He then smirked at Princess Minerva. "And this princess' lovely head would suit my bedchambers well….. Just like the skulls of her bloodline from eons ago, resting on my shelf."
The legion of undead that surrounded them all went for the attack, but Tudo set up his blue forcefield to protect himself and the princess. The skeletons crashed into the dome and their bones went flying from the impact.
"I would rather die than let you harm the princess!" Tudo proclaimed.
Princess Minerva didn't waste any time and shot her arrow towards General Leonide, which hit him straight into the eye!
"What if I take your head instead, you rancid fiend!?" She proclaimed, but the fear was still evident in her eyes.
She was not a Retaliator after all, even though she was decent at shooting arrows. She may have trained archery and learned about it by herself, since princesses in Sagacitur were not expected to engage in battle.
Thick, black pus flowed through General Leonide's eye. It wasn't blood, for it was much like tar, bubbling and sizzling like acid. He plucked the silver arrow off his eye.
"Foolish girl. I am blessed by eternal life as the bearer of plagues. You'd have to try harder than that."
He threw down the silver arrow that started to melt from the tip covered in his 'blood'.
General Leonide looked at Tudo now with a bit of irritation in his eyes. "We are your ancestors, boy. So I want to give ya another chance. But if you insist on protecting that blue-blood, I wouldn't hesitate to bring my curse upon ye too."
The bones of the undead soldiers that scattered were collected by their colleagues. They suddenly vomited putrid black and green pus, and used it to glue back the skeletons together.
Soon, they were back on their feet, with green smoke wafting into the air from their joints.
"You might even be a powerful addition to our ranks, with your skill as a Retaliator." General Leonide said, as he raised his curved sword, the kopis.
As he did, the skeletons started surrounding the blue dome on all sides, even at the top. They covered it completely until Princess Minerva and Tudo could not see anything but smiling corpses.
The blue dome protected them from physical damage and reaching hands, but the green stench reached inside just like it did back when Duke Vanus' Mysophobodemon attacked.
"Not again!" Tudo exclaimed as he saw the wormholes growing on his hand.
Princess Minerva had experienced this curse for the first time, and was also visibly unnerved. She started shooting her silver arrows towards the skeletons that surrounded them in all directions.
Tudo almost got hit, and tried to stop her. "It's no use, princess! They will just recover and reattach themselves. They're already dead, and you can't kill them!"
"Then how do we defeat them!?" She snapped. "You heard the general. He smelled your blood, that's why he found us!"
Tudo wasn't able to stay patient anymore and retorted:
"Yes, I know it is my fault, but how was I supposed to know that my blood would lure some undead general!? They wouldn't even have attacked us if you weren't from a noble lineage!"
Pavor rolled his eyes. 'Can't they save the bickering for later?'
He landed nearby, just out of sight from the legion of General Leonide. As he did, he felt something on his back.
"Huh?" He looked and realized there was a playing card on his back.
It was a card portraying a court jester, juggling three balls while on a unicycle. It must have been placed there by one of the people who held him by the shoulders earlier.
He was too busy looking into the trauma of the guy with belenophobia. That must be when someone slipped it on his collar.
But for what?
He couldn't really sense any magical energy from it. It was just a regular playing card.
There was something about the court jester's eyes though.
The card was in a cartoonish style, but the eyes were much more realistic than everything else.
Even though it seemed like a regular card, Pavor didn't want to lower his guard at all. He threw away the card until it sank on the toxic land of the Outlands.
He made sure to watch it burn completely too. Then, he headed for Tudo and Princess Minerva to 'save the day'.
"Amor Vincit Omni."
Pavor saw that his sword had glowed more and since these were creatures of fear…..
He sliced through them all easily. He could not pierce through humans, only using impact and dread powers.
But with monsters, he could easily get into a rampage with them.
Pavor didn't feel that sorry compared to when he had to fight the Phobodemons. Because even though these zombies were technically Phobodemons too, they were also reanimated humans.
They were not born completely out of someone's fear...
In fact, they were born out of pride.
They were born out of General Leonide's thirst for eternal glory. To immortalize his greatest achievement from all those years ago.
"The Champion of Amore!" General Leonide exclaimed as he noticed him. "Everybody get him!"
The skeletons that covered the protective dome around Princess Minerva and Tudo changed targets and ran towards Pavor.
They may be undead and made of rickety bones, but they still move quite fast. Pavor has not been in a proper battle in a while, and he could not use his dread powers on creatures of dread with no memories of trauma.
So fighting 300 undying soldiers at once was certainly a challenge.
But just like all his new experiences, Pavor found a sort of thrill from this challenge.
He slashed and diced through them easily, but spotted the growing holes on his arms as well. Back then, he wasn't affected by the Mysophobia because he was from a noble background, and Duke Vanus' only targeted commoners.
But the opposite seemed to be happening with General Leonide. The wormholes on his and Princess Minerva's body were increasing in a much faster rate than it was on Tudo.
"Hahahahahahaha!" General Leonide guffawed with a slight wheeze. "You picked the wrong fight today, hero! I cannot believe you are the one destined to defeat our Lord! It seems that fate had forsaken you today—"
The top of his head suddenly started growing cracks, starting from his eye that was shot by Princess Minerva's arrow earlier…..
Growing all the way to his scalp with thinning gray hair.
"AAAAAAAAGHHHHH!" He howled in pain as he clutched his breaking head.
And from the crack, a silver creature rose…..
A silver owl!