Phase 31 “The Sword”
The shaman was in the midst of a state of bliss when all of a sudden, he heard a familiar voice shout, “Stop this madness!” When he turned around, he saw the high priest of the kingdom, whom they referred to as the bishop. He detested the bishop because the bishop was the one who always found reasons to disagree with him. The bishop appeared to be able to sense the evil and dread that he felt.
“I won’t and you can’t stop me! Hahahahahahaha! I even killed the king, his generals, and prince! No one can stop me now!!!” the shaman went mad as he pointed to the bishop. “Not even you!”
After hearing it, the zombies launched an assault on the bishop, only to be flung a short distance away. The bishop had magical abilities too like the shaman. However, his was a form of good magic which they called white magic. When he used his magic to attack the shaman, the attack backfired, and the two of them continued to fight each other as the number of zombies increased. The bishop was aware that he needed to put a stop to it before the zombies spread their infection to another town, country, or possibly the entire world.
As a result, he was left with no other option except to focus all of his strength and intellect on casting the deadly spell. The shaman's face contorted into a horrified expression as the bishop uttered the spell.
“No! You'll die! Stop that! You can't do this to me when I just reached my victory!” The shaman yelled out right before everything turned completely white and the people of the city vanished into thin air. The bishop made the ultimate sacrifice by sacrificing himself in order to seal the undead and every other soul that had been affected by the curse.
The world balance returned, at least, before the seal weakened by time and the shaman started to rise up once again, bringing apocalypse to the whole world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After hearing what the empress had to say, Dominique was unable to believe what he had just heard. When he looked her in the eyes, he realized that she was telling the truth. He could now hear the empress's story because his pain had significantly lessened and was no longer as severe.
“Yes, it's all true. I was truly sealed at the same time that Allen sealed the shaman. In fact, the bishop's spell sealed every soul within the kingdom until the spell ran out of power and five of you were finally born again.” She said, “I've been waiting for you to return and put an end to this curse.”
Dominique gave a satisfied nod, indicating that he had been correct to believe her. Even though he was still exhausted and in pain, he felt pretty good overall. He attempted to stand up but fell to the ground once. The empress advised him to rest for a few minutes, but he insisted on getting up right away.
“My friends are in danger and I can’t just sit here doing nothing,” Dominique explained. “Especially after hearing those bad things the shaman did. I can’t imagine what he will do to Kaien and Allen... I need to save them.”
“…Very well then,” the queen agreed. “I’ll guide you but only half way because the shaman put a spell in his chamber so I can’t enter.”
“Thank you,” Dominique mumbled as he stepped out of his cell and began to walk slowly away from the cell. Even though his feet continued to hurt, he pushed himself to run because he knew he needed to. He wished that he had arrived on time. As he continued to move deeper into the cave, a few minutes later he finally lost contact with the empress's spirit. While he was leaning against the wall, all of a sudden the ground began to violently shake beneath him.
“What the heck was that?” Dominique asked himself. As he hurried ever-more quickly, he could not shake the horrible feeling that something was wrong. Suddenly, there was another earthquake, but this one was significantly stronger than the one that had just occurred. As Dominique rolled forward, he sidestepped the rock that was about to fall from the ceiling and hit him. Then the dust fell upon everything, and all Dominique could do was be thankful that he had not been squished by the rock. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally registered how drastically the topography had been altered as a result of the earthquake.
Even after the empress implanted the map in his brain, he was still unable to find his way. He detested the experience. Dominique moved quickly, acting only on the basis of his feelings, and he did not waste a single second. He cursed and pledged under oath that he would sever the head of the shaman if anything were to happen to his comrades. He cursed twice.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the earthquake struck, Benji and Nathan were very close to arriving at their destination. They, too, wound up losing their bearings in the end, which is why the detour took so much longer than expected. Although it was a miserable task, they understood they had to get moving in the right direction as soon as possible.
They were startled when they suddenly heard the monstrous voice, which was the horse, quiet screaming of a zombie from a distance. Without making a sound, they dashed forward in a dash to the source right away. They were successful and discovered a sizable horde of zombies swarming inside a specific room that was part of a much larger hall. They noticed that there were several doors but how the undead could have known to go to a specific door only.
Then all of a sudden, they were blinded by a great, blinding light. They were confused for a little moment. As their vision gradually improved, they were able to make out that each zombie was lying motionless on the ground, having passed away. Then, a loud thump caught their attention, and immediately after it followed by a familiar voice.
“STOP IT! DON’T HURT HIM ANYMORE!”
It turned out to be Kaien's voice. Benji and Nathan ran into the room, where they saw a sight that broke their hearts. The shaman, Kaien, and Allen were the only ones found inside. The shaman was enraged, as seen by the redness of his cheeks and the rage in his eyes. He was prepared at any moment to crush Kaein and Allen.
Blood was splattered all over Kaien's face and clothing, and no one had any idea whose it belonged to yet despite this, he was unharmed. Allen was the worst of them all, bleeding profusely from all over the place until he passed out and collapsed onto Kaien's arm. He was so pale that he looked like a corpse, and blood was coming out of his nose, shoulder, and arms. His jeans were drenched with blood, but just like Kaien, it was not clear whose blood it was.
“Damn you!” The shaman was initially attacked by Benji, who kicked him and drew his sword. The shaman, who was as quicker than Benji, used his spell to deflect Benji's blow and tossed him a short distance away. In the meantime, Nathan raced to Kaien's side and saw that he was in a state of extreme fear. Kaien was shivering as Allen, who was dying, rested his head on his arm.
“Help me, Kaien.” Nathan pulled out a bottle of contaminated blood that he had preserved as he put it into Allen's mouth. But Allen did not respond at all for about a minute. They sat silently and waited, during that time they could still hear Benji's sword was still making noises in the background. Then, suddenly, Allen slowly opened his eyes after that.
“Allen! Allen! I was afraid I'd lost you.” Kaien embraced Allen. Just when they thought things could not get any worse, Nathan screamed at the top of his lungs. The shaman had stabbed Benji in the chest with his own sword. The blade had betrayed its owner like a lethal spell, biting Benji like a dog betrays its master.