'H-huh…?'
The impossible began to happen in the presence of Claudius and his entire band of Allies.
~FSHUU~
Particles of dark red liquid—blood—began to appear in the air. This was quickly followed by patches of flesh-like muscles, and then bones, before dead skin finally wrapped itself around everything to form a singular entity.
That singular entity… was the Compound Corpse.
"I-It's not dead?!"
"How?"
"Why?"
"Why isn't it dead?!"
Several voices rushed into the air, and Claudius found himself just staring at the taller, more intimidating thing that now stood before them.
It was now about seven meters tall, with six hands, four faces, and a tail dancing right behind it.
It's body was now muscular, like a veteran bodybuilder.
All of this culminated into one thing.
… The Corpse had evolved once more.
"What's going on, Claudius? Why isn't it dead yet?" Feyu looked at him with concerned eyes, worry palpable on her face.
In all honesty, Claudius didn't know how to respond.
"I… I don't know…" He could only mutter as he stared at the abomination.
How could such a monster exist? How could it have survived absolute destruction?
It was impossible…
"Its entire body was destroyed! There was nothing left! How could it have survived that! There was no body left to restructure!" Claudius yelled.
He wanted to reject what he was seeing. He didn't want to accept that there could exist an Undead of such a caliber.
"How is such a thing possible?!" His hoarse voice echoed in the air.
Claudius was desperate.
His body was trembling due to this sudden revelation.
He just had to know!
"Pfft! I told you already… it's Ancient MajiK. You wouldn't get it."
"Magic? What is Ancient Magic? What in the world are you talking about?" Claudius quickly responded to the black suited man.
Surely, whatever happened now had to have a logical reason or basis for it.
Even Magic Spells had to follow certain inescapable laws.
Necromancy, which was an outlier of conventional Magic—twisting the very rules of life and death, and blurring the lines between them—came with its own cost.
Yet… YET…!
'Why does his power make no sense to me? It's too perfect to be real!'
How could such a master Necromancer have such an amazing body? How could an Undead have so many perks, yet it was summoned without much ceremony?
It negated everything Claudius had known his whole life.
"You thought that destroying its entire body would end the false life of the Compound Corpse, but that's not enough." The black suited man's voice dragged Claudius away from his maelstrom of thoughts.
"N-not… enough…?"
What in the world was he talking about? Regeneration and Healing only functioned if there was something to heal.
Was Claudius foolish or crazy for thinking that?
No!
That was the normal way to reason.
'Yet why is he saying this like it's common sense?!'
Anyone would have called the man crazy if they didn't see the Compound Corpse form from literally nothing.
"It's a Chaos Art, you know? It's not easy to destroy just like that…"
'Chaos Art? What's that?'
"Unless you have special existence erasure abilities, or you can kill the Hollow Technique itself, there's no point…"
'Don't tell me—!'
"You just have to keep killing the Undead until all of its life runs out."
Claudius' aged eyes widened in both shock and just a tinge of despair.
'If that's the case… then we're screwed.'
Claudius knew full well how many Recon Unit members went into the mansion, so he had a rough estimate of the number of sacrifices used to make the Compound Corpse.
'That thing had about thirty lives from the start. We've only killed it three times, and it has become this strong already…?!'
They still had to kill it at least twenty-seven more times so it would forever be dead.
'The problem is… it has already evolved to handle a Wyvern's blast.'
Perhaps a couple more blasts could kill it this time, but what about next time? And the time after that?
What then?!
"Hey, hey, Claudius… why isn't that thing dead?" Shuri asked while pouting at the monstrosity before them.
'How the hell am I supposed to know?!' He wanted to scream out.
"What should we do, Claudius?"
This time, it was Feyu who asked the question. But Claudius' thoughts were practically the same.
"I… I don't…"
Before he could complete his sentence, though, a shriek echoed in the air.
"Uahhhh! I don't… I don't want to die!"
"S-save me!"
"I'm retreating!"
"RUN!"
The Mercenary Gang soldiers were violent, not stupid.
They had heard everything the black-suited man said, and it didn't take them very long to piece together the implications of his words.
Their enemy simply couldn't be killed at this rate.
It was much better to flee.
Claudius' panicky expression was palpable as he turned back, beads of sweat forming on his face.
"Wait, you foo—!"
Before he could speak, beam of yellowish energy trailed past him and instantly shot towards the few men who were already attempting to flee.
Needless to say, they died instantly.
"A-ahh…"
The leftover parts of their bodies crumpled to the ground, jerking a little before finally ceasing movement.
Claudius' breathing became heavy.
He had sensed where the beam came from, but he wasn't even fast enough to react to it.
"Haa… haa…" Slowly, he turned his face towards the monstrosity that stood before all of them.
It suddenly had gaping mouths on all four of its faces, and smoke danced in front of them.
Claudius already knew… the Compound Corpse was the one who sent the blast.
'It instantly killed them with [Wyvern Breath].'
Not only could this creature evolve after death, but it could also learn the abilities that had caused its demise.
If this wasn't already an invincible being, then what was?
'I have no idea how to beat that thing…' Claudius felt his shoulder slump.
As his heart grew mellow, he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.
'… At least, not without making any more sacrifices.'