Free and Unfettered 157 Cleaning Up

It looked like this was the space that had been set aside for the plans that Helce and Zephyr drew up.

Nine even found a book which referenced the ritual that Helce used earlier with the ritual described in full. There was a particular reference in the book which read 'splits the user's lifeforce, using it to create a new base of power' which she suspected was what had caused them to appear as a 'doppelgänger'.

Since the ritual had touched both Helce and Zephyr, this had caused magic itself to create a counterbalance to the lifeforce that had been used up, thus leading to the echo of their appearances.

They were in no way related to the two Elves, which did help clear some things up. At least now, she had a few answers to the strange appearance of the two doppelgängers.

Quickly, the husband and wife duo demolished the information that was stored inside, taking note of everything before packing it up.

As she went through the information, she suddenly frowned.

Nocturne, catching sight of Nine's sudden deep frown, felt concerned. "What's wrong?"

Nine silently handed Nocturne the sheet she was holding.

Nocturne read the sheet before realizing that he was wrinkling the paper. His expression steadily got darker as he read it.

"It's her," he said lowly, and Nine echoed his frown, feeling just as annoyed.

"Rose Beverley," Nine said slowly, as if tasting something particularly disgusting on her tongue.

Suddenly lost in anger, Nocturne slammed a fist onto the frame of the door he was about to exit, causing the frame to shudder slightly. "She's still not satisfied even in death! No wonder the undead kept coming towards Cosmos City. Although the other areas were bad, it wasn't as bad as what Cosmos City suffered. Had we not been prepared…"

The ramifications of that made him shudder. All the citizens in the city would have perished without a doubt. It would only have been a matter of time had they not had the necessary fortifications in place.

Suddenly, as if they had come to a realization, the two Vampires quickly packed the remaining information stored with the study. The moment they were done, the two exchanged a look, teleporting back to Morhil city.

Nine tried to contact her students but received no response. She clicked her tongue in agitation before taking a deep breath to calm down.

It was fine. They would be fine. She had trained them long and hard, and their battle experience was now nothing to scoff at, compared to when she had first picked them up.

Now visibly calmer, her calm had an effect on Nocturne as well.

Besides, other than the large score of undead that was at Rose's beck and call, the necromancer herself was not anything special. Should her students be able to locate and assassinate the lich, that would be more than half of the battle done.

Along the way, Nine and Nocturne noticed that there were scores of undead that were stumbling along in a random direction, and they changed directions without needing another word spoken between them.

The undead did not attack them. They did not even glance in their direction. This only led to them reaffirming their guesses.

The undead all looked like they were heading somewhere with a goal in mind. Or rather, one should say that they were heeding orders from their master.

Rose Beverley, the necromancer, was summoning them, and as low class undead, they would not be able to defy her bidding.

Speeding up, the two pushed their bodies to the maximum limit that their bodies would be able to handle. Thankfully, as Vampires, their maximum limit was far beyond the normal human limits, allowing them to travel that much quicker.

The closer they drew, the more undead was packed together. Nine clicked her tongue, unleashing a scale of devastating Tenth Circle magic without any hesitation. Though using it would significantly cut into her magic reserves, dealing with the mass of undead quickly was without the better choice when they were all gathered together for her spell to hit.

Nocturne briefly admired the large scale of mass destruction that Nine caused with a single spell, feeling the familiar awe build up within him. He was still a long way off from the Tenth Circle, but he would get there eventually. Of that, he had no doubt.

Snapping himself out of it, he started to help out, taking care of a fair few scores of low class undead as well.

Nine slammed a palm on the ground, creating a large-scale barrier that stopped the undead from advancing any further. The undead pressed onto the barrier mindlessly, letting out roars as they were vanquished.

The husband and wife could spot the flashes of spells in the far distance and felt themselves calm further.

The spells being used were something they were used to seeing. They were used in a unhurried, leisure manner, so clearly, they were not in anything above their heads.

Nine felt a thrum of satisfaction run through her when she thought about how far they had come with just a little help from her. All of her students excelled in different manners, but where it mattered the most, they learnt from each other, and built their teamwork.

Now at peace, their previous movements that held the tinges of nervousness smoothened out, flowing quicker and faster than before.

Nine and Nocturne systematically culled the undead that had been conveniently gathered here for them with ease. The undead did not even fight back, too far under the necromancer's thrall.

After a long hour of fighting, the two mostly obliterated the scores of undead, leaving only a few stragglers.

Nocturne huffed, wiping his hands on his shirt. Though he had not gotten any of the grime on him, he still felt unsanitary standing in the middle of the splattered parts of the undead.

Nine laughed, knowing what her wife was thinking. She walked up to him, picking up his hand. She pressed a long kiss on the back of his hand, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

"Shall we, dear wife?"

"We shall."

Like that, the two walked hand in hand, leisurely towards the front where they had stopped the undead from rushing.

When they reached there, what greeted them was Deltan having a leisurely time tormenting a frantically dodging lich. The rest of her students, plus Raphael and Dimitri, were surrounding them as spectators, idly watching.

Clearly, Deltan was having the time of his life as he got to further torment the woman. He had thought that she was wiped off from the planet for good, but she dared to come back and killed so many people in the process!

She was quite literally courting death.

The lich was clearly suffering from the unending light spells that her 'beloved' was throwing her way.

Catching sight of his younger brother, Deltan's eyes lit up as he unleashed the rest of the spells that he had been about to use, ending it quicker instead of drawing it out more. He kicked the lich to the ground, stomping his foot onto the skull, ignoring Rose's frantic scrabbling.

"I see you're having fun."

Deltan flushed, feeling embarrassed. "No, not really."

Behind them, Raphael tugged at Dimitri's shirt, questioning, "Mitri, why is papa lying?"

Deltan choked.

Nine smirked at her elder brother. He finally experienced the joys of tormenti – cough, educating people.

Rose grabbed onto Deltan's leg, wailing. "I just wanted you to love me!"

Deltan kicked her away with a look of abject disgust on his face. "Clearly, you're still as delusional as before your death. Well, then. Let me help you on your way yet again. This time, more… permanently."

Without letting her get in another word, Deltan stomped down harder, causing the lich's skull to give in and fracture to pieces, completely ending her undead life.

The moment she disappeared from the surface of the world, Deltan looked lighter, as if he finally let go of some burden that he had been carrying around with him all this time.

"Good job," Nine praised. "You didn't let her get a hit in. If you did, they you'd be up for some training with me."

Deltan choked yet again at her words, making to protest, but she ignored him.

"Now, let's go home."

As she spoke, she pressed a kiss to Nocturne's forehead. "There's still much to be done."

Nocturne looked at his husband, who's side profile was so unbearably handsome that he felt something within him squirm. Just as Nine was about to open her mouth to speak again, he abruptly teleported the both of them back to their bedroom, pushing her down.

Nocturne pressed a hot kiss to her lips, his hands moving, when Nine flipped him over, biting the side of his neck.

Nocturne gasped as he threw his head back, looking into Nine's devious eyes…

The End.

Chapter end