The Paladin in the Abyss-Chapter 520 - 544 Accidental Injury

Chapter 520: Chapter 544: Accidental Injury Chapter 520: Chapter 544: Accidental Injury In the rift, Lancelot clung to the cliff, carefully climbing downward while little Tijana lay on his back, her arms tightly wrapped around his neck.

Lancelot was neither a Demon Lord nor a deity, so he had no emblem to symbolize his status; to command those giant zombies, he had to personally sign at the obelisk. However, as a living being, walking into a group of undead giants was nothing short of suicidal, and his techniques for Concealing Breath might not work—those were meant to deal with cultivators of the same realm, and it was unknown how mindless zombies detected living beings.

Fortunately, among his companions was a very special existence, that was little Tijana. Vampires were high-ranking undead beings, their mere presence was enough to deter most undead creatures. Although Tijana’s absolute strength might not compare to any of the giant zombies below, her vampire aura was undiminished. With her on his back, Lancelot was like cloaked in an invisible mantle against the undead, allowing the zombies to ignore his presence.

They were about to enter that dense layer of fog below. Lancelot took a deep breath and, just to be safe, activated all his techniques for Concealing Breath. His figure then disappeared into the mist.

Visibility inside the fog was extremely low, but this time Lancelot was physically present; gravity served as the best guide, and his Spirit Perception still allowed him to sense the terrain within a small radius. A few minutes later, he had successfully crossed that expanse of fog, and his vision cleared, but below, hundreds of giant zombies seemed to hear something and simultaneously turned to look at him.

This was Lancelot’s first experience of being stared at by a large group of corpses, chilling him to the point he felt his hair might fall out. If it weren’t for the constantly active techniques, perhaps his heartbeat alone could shake the little vampire off his back. He was ready at any moment—if those zombies made any move to bend over and pick up stones, he would climb up as quickly as a startled spider.

“Don’t be nervous, brother, it’s okay,” Tijana’s soft voice arose by his ear. “With me here, those dumb zombies won’t attack you…”

...

Lancelot dared not even breathe out loud; he just silently nodded, and indeed, as Tijana had said, the zombies did nothing and just blankly stood there, saluting them with their gaze.

So they continued descending and soon stepped onto the cold stones at the bottom of the valley. This place seemed to have once been a wide, dark riverbed, but the endless summers and never-ending winters had completely changed its condition, and the giant zombies seemed to have lost interest in them and returned to their dazed standing.

Out of caution, Lancelot still walked along the edge of the valley floor, not directly entering among those standing corpses. The giant zombies were like tall trees, collectively forming a surreal forest of death. Although he had completely held his breath, the distinct smell of death and decay still crept relentlessly into Lancelot’s nose, reminding him that he was in an alien world.

Walking tentatively for about half a mile, the two finally reached the obelisk. Another corpse had just been revived; its head hung upside down at its chest, connected to the body only by a strip of flesh about three fingers wide at the neck, one eyeball rolling back and forth in the socket while the other stared blankly at the approaching duo.

The newly resurrected zombie giant walked straight past them without any action. Lancelot let out a sigh of relief and stepped up to the obelisk, pulling a piece of parchment from his chest. The parchment was inscribed with complex magic runes, somewhat similar to those on the obelisk but slightly different in detail.

This parchment was hand-drawn by Kalalin under Tijana’s guidance, and Lancelot’s task was to mimic it, converting the runes on the stele into the style depicted on the parchment.

Compared to the initial conception by the scholar, Tijana made many detailed refinements and added two crucial changes: first, they would not completely erase Okus’s Evil Emblem, but rather employ a special transposition rune that caused the undead affected to view anything related to The Undying Overlord as mortal enemies.

If a priest of Okus or a creature carrying items related to Okus approached, these giant zombies would attack indiscriminately, even if torn to pieces. Each severed limb would continue the assault until the energy sustaining them was entirely depleted, leaving no useful information to be gleaned from the remaining body fragments.

The other modification involved using an obscure title to reference Lancelot’s identity when establishing possession, ensuring that even if The Undying Overlord (or any other curious entities) managed to understand what had happened to these zombies, they could not determine Lancelot’s identity from the bizarre titles.

“The Savior of Oasis Fort, Mogrondale, and Pascaler, the sworn protector of demons, the Paladin of the Abyss…”

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Lancelot’s hands emitted a cyan sword aura as he etched his spontaneously thought-up title onto the stele. Once that was done, following the pattern on the parchment, he carved a complex design around Okus’s Evil Emblem and made other necessary modifications.

He took out a beautiful black onyx and embedded it into a newly chiseled hole on the back of the obelisk, then gently patted young Isha’s head behind him, indicating that the task was almost finished.

Lancelot stood upright and waved his arms in a specific manner while chanting a spell in a very ancient tone and rhythm. He had practiced these movements repeatedly before descending until even Kalalin considered them impeccable. As the last syllable was uttered, the black onyx suddenly lit up, followed by rhythmic flashes of harsh purple light from the entire obelisk.

Lancelot immediately distanced himself as a negative energy pulse was about to burst in a few seconds, which was harmful to his health as a living being. In just a few moments, he had rushed over a hundred feet away with little Isha on his back, while the first giant zombie he passed had not even completed its turn.

Each blink of the obelisk grew brighter until it reached a limit, at which point a purple ring of light violently expanded in all directions. This pulse of negative energy harmlessly swept over all the undead present, but it struck Lancelot like a heavy hammer even though he was protected by the Qingyuan Sword and Shield, knocking him to the ground, with the little girl behind him flung away.

“Little Isha!” Lancelot was back on his feet in an instant with a graceful roll and immediately ran to his companion’s side to help her up, asking with concern, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” The little vampire looked back at Lancelot with a special gaze, “Any instructions, my master?”