The red-haired villainess and the blue-skinned capture target were standing amidst the destroyed mansion.

"..."

​​

Cranberry nodded at her undead, and the blue monster reached down into the debris and pulled out a middle-aged terribly sickly-looking ashen-haired man by the scruff of his clothes.

"...haa... there's something about him that bothers me..."

She shuddered and stiffened looking at the unconscious man.

"His life signature looks very similar to how your mother's was. Most likely he has the same illness she did."

"...ha...?"

Zombie lighthearted answer caused Cranberry's jaw to drop.

"What? Is it that surprising?"

The blue undead raised his brow at the girl's reaction and lightly shook the avatar of wrath in his grasp.

"..."

The red-haired girl furrowed her brows and put her fist to her mouth.

"...mother... why does she have to haunt me even now...? Haa..."

She shook her head and sighed.

"...?"

Zombie raised his brow and tilted his head to get a better look at the muttering girl, but she turned around, set on ignoring him.

"Anyway... I really want to try whether or not it is possible to erase the title alone without harming the one who possesses it before we confront Claymore - if possible, I would prefer to left them alive - but the number of potential tests subjects seems to go lower and lower... I mean, this one here doesn't have superbia skill to boost all his defenses and resistances like my mother did, so he must be way worse off than she was."

The red-haired villainess groaned and tilted her head struggling to keep up an indifferent expression.

"But you can try, right? You don't want to kill your pen-friend - it's okay to say it. No one will shout at you for doing that."

Zombie calmly reassured her with a soft smile.

"..."

Cranberry furrowed her brows even harder and gritted her teeth so hard that they've made an unpleasant sound.

"...I don't know what you are talking about, but I don't expect you to understand my worries. You don't mind people dying even with your free will back in order. You are unable to comprehend why I am so scar-ugh! ... so annoyed about!"

She shook her head and bit her tongue the moment she made a blunder and spoke about her real feelings.

"You aren't wrong about me not caring about the death of some living trash. But you are the one I do care about. This guy isn't the only avatar left that we can test things out, remember?"

Zombie flinched explained with a slightly annoyed expression.

"You are wrong about that. We're only left with two others. To get the queen and not kill her immediately upon picking her up, you would have to limit your speed and that would open you up for potential attacks and with your leveled up superbia... well, you know what would happen to anyone who would go against you."

She clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned white and ended up shaking his head with disappointment.

"S-still! For the queen, we will just have to find a chance for getting a private audience or something...! Same goes for that gluttony lady!"

The blue undead was desperately using every available brain cell not affected by the rotten brain title to come up with something - anything - that would help the red-haired girl to get some peace.

"Haa... yeah... sure..."

But she only ended up crossing her arms and looking to the side with a sour expression.

"Tsk! It really would be best if he was healthy enough to receive at least a few practice hits..."

She suddenly clicked her tongue in annoyance at the unconscious avatar of wrath.

"Oh. Then I can always try this."

Zombie brightened out happy that there is something that he can do and put his index and middle fingers of his left hand to his lips and pulled them away - as he did, a thin trail of dark red smoke followed them, and with that the blue undead touched the avatar of wrath's forehead, connecting himself with him.

"HA?!"

Cranberry's eyes almost bulged out from their eye sockets at the never witnessed before sight.

"..."

The dark red smoke suddenly expanded and encased the unconscious man like a chrysalis.

As for the unperturbed undead, he simply waited for around five seconds and then simply sucked back all the dark red smoke as if it was nothing.

"...!"

As he did, he ended up experiencing some odd sensation - his insides suddenly felt as if they turned into mush, and if he could feel the pain he would undoubtedly be writhing in agony on the ground, screaming his lungs out.

But he couldn't, so he wasn't.

Instead, a familiar message popped up for him and his master.

/Warning

/Servant became damaged

/Servant has insufficient mana to heal

/Permission to use Master's mana required

"Oh, hey look! That's something we haven't seen in a while!"

*sluuuush*

Zombie laughed staring at the window taking up his vision as he swayed his hips from side to side as his broken intestines sloshed inside of his torso with an unnerving and extremely disgusting sound.

"It must have been some actually scary disease if my own mana is not enough to heal the damages it caused, right?"

He added, raising the man in his grasp a bit higher to look at his now surprisingly healthy face.

"Stop there for a second, Zombie! What was that?! That skill you just used?!"

*thump*

Cranberry clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white and she took a step towards the blue undead with enough force to cause a small tremor to reverberate through the city.

"Huh? What skill...? Damage absorption of course, what else?"

Zombie raised his brow and waved his left hand in confusion.

"If you could do it like that then why did you went ahead and kissed everyone before?! Did you lie to me?!"

*thump*

Cranberry got even more agitated and took another earthquake-inducing step.

*plop*

"Everyone...? Oh, for the love of...! You are still jealous over that?!"

Zombie dropped the unconscious avatar of wrath and approached the angry red-haired girl, shaking his head with disbelief.

"Well, maybe I am! After all, if you could do it like that, why did you chose to kiss them instead?!"

Cranberry wasn't going to back off and pointed at Zombie's face with the accusation.

"Because I didn't know I could do it like that! I've only discovered it through practice just the other night!"

"What practice?! You've been with me the whole time, who did you prac...! Ah...!"

Cranberry instantly inquired about his explanation but just as fast did she realized the answer, which made her blush so hard that her face's color began resembling her hair's color.

"I'll give you a hint - you waking up so refreshed today wasn't because of the fluffy bed."

The blue undead spread his arms open and frowned - as if readying himself for continuing the quarrel, completely missing the fact that he had already won.

"B-but...! D-does that mean that when I've told you that you can practice that skill with me anytime you want, you actually were interested? But you looked so indifferent back then! You should have told me sooner...! If it's with me, you can do anything you want!"

"...? Huh...? Okay...?"

Cranberry's act did a complete one-eighty degree turn and she suddenly transformed from the unhinged goddess of ire right into a flirty maiden as she fidgeted bashfully in front of the extremely confused undead.

"...ugh...? H-huh...? Why am I...?!"

Suddenly, lord Pomegranate Wrath, the healed avatar of wrath groaned, and slowly got up, making a bewildered face.

"Tsk! ...haa... back to that I guess...!"

Cranberry's joyful expression disappeared in an instant as she glanced at the now conscious man and she clenched her hands with a bitter expression.