"My lord! There's a monster rampaging in the city! It's coming towards the mansion right now!"

A messenger came running to the training ground next to the Envys' family house and shouted in panic towards the tall black-haired man of unearthly beauty.

The man frowned and glared at the messenger with his piercing green eyes.

Standing tall with his chin raised slightly, the man looked like a marble statue of the most stunning deity of fury.

That man was of course Lord Envy himself, father of Mason, and the current head of the Envy family - the avatar of envy.

"What is that supposed to mean?! What are those city guards even doing?! Aren't we paying those former adventurers so much to deal with that exact sort of thing?!"

The stunning man roared, and even his angered voice was like a song composed by a genius musician.

"My lord, they... they cannot stop that monster! It looks almost like a corpse puppet, but it glows violet and is completely unbreakable!"

The messager cried in panic, fearfully looking over his shoulder as if he expected the beast to appear at any moment.

"I've seen it take the attacks of over fifteen guards head-on! Proper skill-empowered attacks! And that thing didn't even flinch! They only made it angrier!"

He trembled.

"...this could be bad..."

"...a corpse puppet...? ...did someone angered a corpse puppeteer...?

All of the members of the branch families of the Envys started whispering amongst each other, the organized training got interrupted, and the man who organized it all wasn't even going to try and calm them down.

"Does it mean that another main family is trying to start a feud with us? How many of those puppets are there? Do we know where the corpse puppeteer is - and who is it exactly?!"

Lord Envy got straight to the point as if a switch was flipped inside of his head.

"No trace of the puppeteer, and there is only one corpse puppet!"

The messenger reported, causing lord Envy's glare to become sharper.

"One? You're saying that those incompetent fo..."

"....aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA...!"

Lord Envy's angry shout was interrupted by an approaching scream of terror.

"...?"

Everyone turned towards the direction of the sound in an instant.

To do that, they had to look up...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

...and they saw one of the city guards flying through the skies...

No, not flying...

The guard was falling from the sky and was going to crash right in the middle of the Envys' training ground!

*CRASH*

"Ghyah!"

"Kyaa!"

"Ughh...!"

But before the falling guard had the chance to become a splatter, a violet blur jumped over the wall surrounding the Envy's estate and landed in the middle of the gathered Envys, causing an eruption that sent more than just a few clansmen flying while raised a huge cloud of dust.

"AAAAAAGHH!"

The unlucky airborne guard on his way back to meet the ground - fell right into the dust cloud and made a pitiful noise.

The thing was - it certainly wasn't a noise of someone getting smeared on the ground after a huge fall...

"Tsk...! Who told you to get launched so high? My cute Cranberry told me to not kill anyone... Or at least that's what I think she meant..."

The dust cloud had dispersed and everyone present could clearly see a tall blue man in very eccentric clothing, holding up an unconscious guard foaming from the mouth - knocked out, but certainly alive.

The undead was towering over all the present humans mostly because of the ridiculously high heels of its thigh-high boots.

Its dark blue skin was contrasting the white cropped shirt with ripped left sleeve, that showed off most of its muscular stomach and suited the jet black hair tied up in a low ponytail.

"What are you all looking at?"

The undead growled aggressively, pulling back the strand of loose hair that fell on its forehead, and straightened its back, squinting its obsidian eyes with a red tint while looking around all the confused faces.

Yeah, it was definitely Zombie.

Even though every Envy present was incredibly beautiful, in terms of looks Zombie wasn't that far off, and if not for the obviously corpse-like color of his skin, he could pass as one of them.

"M-my lord! That's it! That's the corpse puppet I was talking about!"

The messenger pointed at the blue undead with a shaking hand.

"...you dare to point your filthy living fingers at me...?"

*SMASH*

"UGH!"

Zombie glared at the pointing man and threw the unconscious guard at him without hesitation, swiping him off of his feet.

"Hmph!"

The undead scoffed at the living and his face twisted in disgust.

His reddish glowing eyes focused on the mansion and he began casually walking towards it.

"Where do you think you are going, puppet...?!"

But his path was blocked by furious lord Envy, glowing with all kinds of active skills and battle-ready.

"..."

Zombie glared at him and rolled his eyes.

*WHAM*

"GHUHOH!"

...and threw a powerful kick out of nowhere, without as much as taking a proper stance or activating a skill - no warning at all.

Lord Envy managed to protect his chest from being pierced by the high heel by intercepting the sole of the boot with both arms, but even so, he was still pushed back by a dozen feet, digging a trail in the ground.

"My lord!"

The others have gasped.

"Weakling."

The blue undead scoffed at the green-eyed man and shook his head.

"You...! Ugh... How dare you speak like that to the avatar of envy!"

Lord Envy had to gasp for air before he could shout because the kick knocked all the air out of his lungs.

"Avatar of envy? You...? Khahahaha!"

The corpse puppet let out a mocking, condescending laugh and waved his hand dismissively.

"Impossible. You are way too weak... Unless you are just like the last avatar of pride was..."

The blue undead tilted his head examining the beautiful man with his glowing eyes.

"You...! Impudent bastard! What connection do you have with those detestable Prides?! Did they send you?! Men! Get him!"

Lord Envy roared and railed his clansmen against the corpse puppet.

"Yes, my lord!"

The less quick-witted ones actually tried to jump at him without any plan...

"UH!"

"GHHH...!"

"AYHA!"

But all were sent flying with lightning-fast kicks.

"Detestable you say...? So you have something against Prides...?"

The undead lowered his leg and stared coldly at the avatar of envy whose hands still couldn't stop shaking after receiving the first kick.

"Prides are over! They got what they deserved over three years ago during the night of the hungry wolves event!"

Lord Envy growled focusing on using self-heal skills to get his arms back into shape.

"...? Wait a second... How do you even know about that event...? And... do you actually understand my groans? It sure sounds like you do... and here I thought only my Cranberry and that one tamer girl - Mufy, or whatever her name is - can understand me...!"

Zombie furrowed his brows and squinted his eyes in suspicion.

Lord Envy paled and closed his mouth for a moment as if he realized that he had said more than he should.

"What groans? You've been talking clearly since the very beginning!"

He quickly used the first opportunity to change the subject and shouted back trying to sound annoyed to mask the nervousness.

"Oh? Is that so?"

It looked like the corpse puppet has took the bait and relaxed.

At least he did tilt his head and smirked.

"That makes things so much easier then."

Zombie nodded and looked back at the tense avatar of envy.

"If you can understand me, then let's make things less annoying for all of us, alright?"

The blue undead opened his arms with a cheerful expression that was only a little bit mocking.

"...?"

Lord Envy blinked a few times in confusion and his clansmen started looking at each other similarly taken aback.

"I don't want to waste my time by carefully watching the strength of my attacks just so they wouldn't kill you, weaklings. So just let me pass and get inside that house, so I could join my Cranberry. Easy, right?"

Zombie proposed with a friendly smile while pointing at the mansion...

No, he was pointing at the mansion, he was pointing somewhere below the mansion...!

"Join your...? Join?!"

Lord Envy repeated and turned towards the mansion and his eyes shook from terror.

"AN INTRUDER IS TRYING TO INFILTRATE THE BASEMENT! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!"

He roared in a blind panic and dashed towards the mansion like a madman.

"I'll take care of the intruders! You all get rid of that puppet! If it rejoins its master it could be all over for us! Take care of him and follow me!"

He looked back and shouted at his previously unwilling clansmen.

"GET HIM!"

And this time there was no hesitation in any of their movement.

Every person available that heard lord Envy's shout, rushed at the blue undead without a second thought - as if they suddenly went mad for some reason - while their leader busted into the mansion.

"Oh, you weak little assho...!"

Zombie also rushed after him but...

/Optional quest special timed quest unlocked

/Servant receives a special timed quest

Helping the master

Keep the Envys' clansmen away from the basement

(30:00)

/(29:59)

/(29:58)

A quest with no reward and a timer showed up for the undead before he could even finish his sentence.

...he could his help master by dealing with those weak living...?

"...It looks important... fine... Bring it on!"

Failing to find the odd quest suspicious, Zombie roared with a huge smile only after a little bit of hesitation and turned right back to face his opponents.