Chapter 31: Escaping From His Ex-Comrades

Everyone watched in horror as the monster corpse got right up.

“What’s going on? Isn’t it supposed to be dead?” Jackie demanded, pointing her daggers at the previously deceased monster.

“It was dead. I was sure of it,” Maison said, his arms trembling as he aimed an arrow at the monster.

“Luke must have done something to it,” Dominik roared, veins bulging.

“This is undoubtedly the work of the evil god. Luke, how could you?” Ruthie said with an aggrieved voice.

Luke stared at the monster corpse’s back, still unable to believe his eyes.

What had the evil god done?

“You need a way to distract the heroes, correct? I simply revived one of the monsters here since I can’t create new ones. Now hurry over to the corpses so I can revive them too,” the evil god said.

No, this wasn’t what Luke wanted. He didn’t even know that the evil god was capable of this.

Why hadn’t he done this ten years ago before he was sealed?

If the evil god had continuously revived the monsters the heroes had been fighting against, they might not have won.

“Luke, hurry while they’re still unbalanced,” the evil god commanded.

He still didn’t move from his spot as the monster roared and rushed at Luke’s ex-comrades.

“We’ll just kill it again,” Dominik bellowed as he charged at the monster.

The others quickly snapped out of their shock to back Dominik up. They made quick work of the monster and turned their attention towards Luke, who hadn’t moved an inch.

“You fool. Move,” the evil god ordered.

Luke still didn’t react, causing the evil god to curse.

“I can’t believe I have to waste my energy because of you. You better get down on your knees and thank me after this,” the evil god said before the same dark energy enveloped Luke.

The dark energy surged forth from Luke’s body, spreading throughout the area and creating a violent wind. His ex-comrades held up their arms to shield against the wind as the monsters in the vicinity glowed with the dark energy.

As one, they all stood up and looked towards Luke’s ex-comrades. Then the monsters surged forth like a tidal wave, rushing towards them.

“Here they come,” Maison said, releasing an arrow at one of the monsters.

It struck the monster in between the eyes, causing it to drop to the ground. The others sprung into action, attacking the monsters charging at them.

Watching all of this unfold, Luke felt like puking.

This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t have brought these monsters back to life.

“What are you doing? Hurry and run or I swear I’ll torment your soul until there’s nothing left,” the evil god snapped.

Even though Luke didn’t want to listen, he knew that he couldn’t just stand there, looking like an idiot. He had to escape while he had the chance and panic about what just happened when he didn’t have to worry about being killed by his ex-comrades.

He bolted, running deeper into the forest as he heard his ex-comrades shout after him.

“Coward! Get back here!” Dominik roared, cutting a monster in half.

“Luke, get back here right now!” Jackie screamed as she stabbed a monster viciously with her daggers.

“Stop running!” Maison shouted as he unleashed a flurry of arrows.

Ruthie struck down several monsters with her magic as she cried out, “Luke, you mustn’t!”

Their voices grew dimmer along with the sounds of fighting until he could no longer hear anything except for his footsteps and breathing. After a while, he came to a stop and hunched forward, resting his hands on his knees.

The scene of the monsters being resurrected in front of him played before Luke’s eyes, nearly causing him to puke.

Luke forced back down his nausea, taking several deep breaths until he calmed down. Once he was certain he wasn’t going to throw up, he stood up straight, ignoring how his stomach churned with the movement.

He needed answers.

“Bydos, explain yourself,” Luke demanded.

There was no response.

Luke scowled and said, “Bydos, don’t ignore me. Tell me right now what you’ve done.”

The evil god still didn’t answer.

As Luke was about to curse the evil god out, he suddenly recalled what the evil god had been saying while Luke had been shell shocked by the abrupt revival of the monsters.

What did the evil god mean by wasting his energy? Could it be that reviving the monsters had taken a toll on the evil god, and that was why he wasn’t responding to Luke?

He couldn’t be certain, and Luke had no way to test that theory. For all he knew, the evil god was purposely ignoring him and was waiting for an excuse to inflict pain on Luke, which Luke wanted to avoid.

Luke shook his head and focused on more important matters like what he should do now that his identity was exposed.

His ex-comrades would undoubtedly report him as soon as the monsters were dealt with. Once that happened, there would be nowhere safe for him in the entire country. Maybe in the entire world.

He scratched furiously at his head, trying to think of a way out of his predicament.

There had to be something he could do, but his mind was drawing a blank. No matter how hard he thought about it, he was completely screwed. There was absolutely nothing he could do except to roll over and die.

No, he refused to let things end this way. He still hadn’t gotten his revenge against his ex-comrades for their betrayal.

Luke was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice a dark energy leaking out of him.

He bit down hard on his lip to draw blood when unexpectedly a bunch of leaves fell down on him. Startled, he looked up and saw that the tree near him had withered and become twisted. Luke stumbled back and saw dead grass where he once stood.

What was going on? What was happening?