Only death can save him!

The sound of howling wind resounded, as the warm radiance of the golden sun shone down from the sky.

Two figures could be seen flying through the clear azure sky. A beautiful woman donning a golden armor. Her long golden hair fluttering in the wind, with two long white wings extended from her back.

Following her from behind was a man with short blonde-hair, dressed in a silver armor. With two white wings spread outwards from his back.

Both Louisa and Ethan traverses through the southern forest heading towards a remote village in that area.

"... Can you tell me why you decided to come along?" Louisa inquired, glancing at Ethan who raised his acceleration and flew beside her. When she was about to leave for the mission, Lady Udea gave her. Ethan volunteered to accompany her on this mission.

Usually, she would have rejected his offer, as she enjoyed working alone but, after seeing his determined expression Louisa deemed it would be useless in the end. Even if she rejected his accompaniment he would most likely follow after her.

"I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to get stronger." Ethan replied, cooly. "Oh, stronger, you say. I can understand why you would want more power, with our current enemies but... I could never understand your blatant obsession of being the one who stand at the top." Louisa said.

She kept her gaze turned to the front, so she never saw the brief look of confliction that appeared on Ethan's face momentarily before reverting back to its usual calm expression.

"... Even if I tell you... I doubt you would ever understand." Ethan replied. "You think so? I know that the reason is tied to your past, and I can also imagine that whatever past you may have is truly tragic but, so what?... We all have our own tragically past that we are still recovering from. You are not alone... everyone of us has suffered through our own hardships." Louisa uttered, those words as though she had been insulted.

Hearing her words Ethan bit his lips bitterly. 'Why am I acting like this?' He wondered to himself. [Partner...] The spirit sword in Ethan's possession stirred restlessly inside his soul. Upon feeling the conflicted emotions of Ethan. 'It's fine... I'm okay.' Ethan replied, soothing the worries of the spirit sword.

"... Y-You must live. P-Please live... for me."

A soft shallow voice filled with both love and affection whispered gently inside Ethan's head. Making him more conflicted. "This... life isn't mine... I must live in atonement... It was because of me that she..." Ethan muttered in a barely audible voice. But Louisa who was flying silently next to him heard him perfectly.

Ethan didn't say anything more after that, he didn't need to... Louisa could easily discern whatever past he may have been something truly tragic. 'I guess he too had suffered through something in the time before his recruitment to, lady Udea.' Louisa thought to herself. "... You don't have to force yourself to explain. You can talk to me whenever you're ready." Louisa said, in consideration to his emotional feelings. No one said anything after that. The two flew at an impossible speed easily arriving at the mentioned village within a few hours.

BOOOOM!

"Argh!" The screams of various people resounded, as mindless undead attacked them, either slashing at them or biting them, effectively increasing their numbers.

The unarmed villagers were helpless against these undead. As time past the numbers of the villagers kept decreasing while the numbers of undead kept increasing.

"Hmm... The situation is much worst then I estimated. We should go." Ethan suggested. "Don't you think it's strange?" Louisa suddenly said. Ethan paused in his deceleration and looked back at her confusedly. "Strange, what's strange?" Ethan questioned.

Louisa observed the many undead beneath her and narrowed her eyes. "Usually, undead are brainless creatures. They all attack others with natural life energy, all for the sake of satisfying their instinctual urge to consume and devour... but those undead seem to synchronize. They are attacking the villagers while at the same time looking out for each other, something they usually would never do." Louisa answered.

"Mm, now that you mention it..." Ethan observed the undead strangely, it was just as Louisa said. Despite being mindless, the undead though their movements were slow and monotonous, were attacking while protecting each other at the same time.

Whenever a villager fought back, and attack using a shovel, another undead would intervene using its hand to slash at the villager. Thus, increasing their numbers even more all the villagers could do is flee.

"What's going on?" Ethan questioned, confused. "... There is only one explanation, there is a lich hiding nearby." Louisa theorizes. "Eh, a lich... such a high-ranking monster in this place?" Ethan looked doubtful but... Lich was high ranking undead with the ability to use the evil magic "Necromancy" A type of magic that revived the dead, turning them into undead puppets for the caster.

"You focus on protecting the villagers, I'll reduce their numbers." Louisa ordered. "Understood." Ethan stretched his hand outwards and as though answering his call.

A bright light gathered in the palm of his hand, forming a beautiful two-handed silver sword.

[Hahaha! Are we about to go on a rampage! Partner!] The spirit sword said, eagerly to cause destruction. Ethan's figure was surrounded in a flash of light as he disappeared.

Meanwhile, Louisa looked at the undead coldly. And closed her eyes before muttering in a whisper.

"Miracles of the heaven... grant me your blessings." Her figure was enshrouded with a white radiance.

"Become a ray of light that erase all evil from existence, divine retribution!" From the sky, a three-layer magic formation appeared, light condensed from the center and shot out a torrent of light.

BOOOOOOM!

The torrent of white light shot downwards towards the army of undead swallowing them up in its radiance. The undead didn't even had enough time to react as their presence was completely erase from existence.

The villagers all had their mouths opened wide as they saw all the frighting undead disintegrates and turned to ash by the torrent of light that descended from the sky, as though the 'Wrath of the heavens' Has bestowed upon them its divine punishment.

"Divine retribution" One of the strongest forms of holy magic. Beings like the undead was completely vulnerable to magic that carries any traces of purities.

Only those who has absolute faith in the gods can use holy magic. Louisa gently brushes her golden locks that partially covered her left eye and sighed. The magical consumption for using "Divine retribution" Was not small, Louisa had used up half her mana reserve just using that spell once.

"Now then little lich... where are you hiding?" Louisa muttered as she vigilantly scans the surroundings.

....

A few kilometers away from the village inside the forest. The howling winds swept the trees in the area, as the sound of bestial cries echoed occasionally. Sitting on top of a rather large rock a person's silhouette could be seen there, or rather. A skeleton dressed in mage attire was calmly sitting there, its empty eyes gleamed with a strange light as it muttered to itself.

"Those presences... the spear queen and another. Two high ranking followers of that goddess. This could be a golden opportunity to collect some useful puppets. Hahaha." The skeleton uttered with an eerie laugh.

"While her holy magic is going to be an unwelcome annoyance... but it's still within a range of acceptability." He said, before gathering the magical energy from the surroundings. "Secret art. Resurrection!" Once those words were said... a strange energy begun emanating from the surroundings, as a large magic formation appeared. Hundreds, no thousands of undead were summoned.

...

Meanwhile, at the same time running through the frantic village of distressful villagers. Ethan held his sword firmly in his hands and swing his sword easily, decapitating all the undead villagers with a single slash of his sword.

The state of the village was chaotic and filled with blood that flowed naturally from the villagers who were bitten by the undead.

A single undead was no problem but many at once they could be a real threat to the living. A single scratch, bite or cut was enough to easily turn anyone into an undead.

"Grrgaga." A pale looking undead man closed in on Ethan from the front, striking at him with the intention of scratching him but, "Hah!" Ethan leapt smoothly into the air avoiding the attack before swinging his sword horizontally, easily separating the head of the undead from its neck.

Ethan moved swiftly slashing horizontally and vertically, easily dissecting every undead that obstruct his path!

Droplets of blood trickled down the blade of his sword before subsequently falling to the ground.

As Ethan continued to help the villagers occasionally massacring all the undead, he could find. He heard a scream. "S-Someone please help me!" A feminine voice sounded from within one of the many houses. Ethan's feet moved subconsciously as he dashed towards the wooden house.

The entrance to the house didn't have a door, when he looked closely, he could see that the door was forcefully ripped off, the door was lying on the ground a fair distance away.

Ethan quickly went inside cautiously with his sword braced tightly in his hand. Creak! The sound of his footsteps sounded as he walked through the living room of the house. "This... blood!" Ethan narrowed his golden eyes as he saw droplets of blood dripping off the surface of the table placed in the center of the room.

Broken fragments of shattered glass could be seen lying everywhere.

"Shit!... am I... too late." Ethan muttered, with a bitter grimace on his face. "Someone please help!" The voice once again echoed through the room.

Following the sound of the voice, Ethan went through the only exit of the living room and went inside another room.

Inside a simple kitchen, a young teenage girl with short blue hair and blue eyes could be seen. On the ground was a middle-aged man with similar facial features as the girl. "What happened here?" Ethan approached the girl and questioned.

"You...?" Ethan's sudden arrival startled the young blue-haired girl. "It's fine... I'm here to help." Ethan responded, bluntly.

"M-My father he... he protected me!" She explained. Her words alone weren't enough for him to understand what had happened here but, when he looked over at the stove, he saw the corpse of an undead lying there, that was enough for him to get the general gist of things.

'He must have used his own body to protect this girl.' He thought, when he looked at the man lying in a pool of blood. He could see various bite wounds and other slash marks through his rip shirt.

The man had black veins running through his skin, if he were to be left unattended the man would undergo undead transformation, and he would attack his daughter to satisfy his urges. 'I'm sorry, if only I had gotten here on time.' Ethan felt a sense of self hatred for his own powerlessness. "... I have to finish this." He uttered.

"W-Wait but... he is my father!" The young girl frantically tried stopping Ethan who had drawn his sword. "There is no use... he is untreatable. Only death can save him now." He said, with a bitter grimace.

'Perhaps I should knock her out before I execute him.' Ethan thought, this was the least amount of compassion he could show. After all no one would like to see their parents killed right before their eyes. With a heavy heart Ethan sighed.