"Me? Dangerous? Why, thank you." I said while observing the undead, "But flattery will get you nowhere. What do you want?"

Undead chuckled at my words, "I think I start to like you..."

With his words, a shudder suddenly ran over my spine. This wasn't something you would like to hear from a rotting corpse. Speaking of which, the state of these undead was a bit abnormal. Aurora clearly said that the priest behind this was there only a day ago, but from the way they looked, one would think they were decaying for at least a few weeks.

"Anyway, I am there only to talk." said undead.

"There to talk?!" Zaos joined the conversation with hostility in the voice and at the same time held Kun from attacking, "You have slaughtered innocent people, desecrated their bodies and still have guts to say that you are there only to talk?!"

"First of all, it wasn't me who killed them," replied undead, "I just put their bodies to good use. As they say, the first impression is very important. Besides, I highly doubt there is anyone in this world that can claim to be truly innocent," undead then pointed at zombie not far from him, "Take this guy for example. A few years ago poor lad lost his brother when a pack of wolves ambushed them during the hunt. Or at least that's what he told to everyone in the village... having a beautiful wife sometimes can be very dangerous."

He then pointed to a zombie at another side, "See that lass in a blue tunic? A fine woman. Never cheated on her husband, gave birth to three children... sold a few to slave merchants when harvest of the crop was poor."

He can read memories of the dead?!

None of the books have ever mentioned that necromancers can do something like that. Unless... spirits of knowledge... that must be it! I always thought that it was Champions who offered the knowledge from our world to these entities in exchange for power, but now that I think about it, Harbingers were actually the first to enter this world... I should assume that most of them have some unique skills... just like petrifying gaze that necromancer used on me... or Aurora's immortality.

"... but we are getting off topic there. My mission for today is to make you an offer..." the undead eventually looked straight at me.

"Let me guess, you want me to join your side."

"That would be very nice, but no," the undead smiled, "what we offer you is a ticket to Earth."

I was a bit surprised, I mean, it wasn't completely unexpected, but I really thought that they will at least try to get me on their side or make some threats.

"Yes, yes, we know that our enemy probably offered as much," continued undead and quickly glanced at Zaos, "but we don't even need anything in return. You just pack your things and go and everyone is happy."

When I saw a slightly disappointed look on the face of Zaos I realized that this meeting was also a test for me. It wasn't a coincidence that one of the champions was a pixie and if Harbingers were to offer me switch the sides, my answer would let them know my standing.

"Tempting..." a voice left my mouth after a while.

I was never a hero material. Even now, when I looked at all those people turned undead, I was more concerned with the stench in the air than their fate.

"... but beating you guys sound like much more fun." an evil smile appeared on my face.

My desire to face someone powerful was very very strong. It was in my blood. Even that fight earlier at the tournament did almost nothing to alleviate my never-ending thirst for battle.

Also... just because I care very little for people I never meet, it doesn't mean it applies to everyone. Even if Phoenix with Tristan were to agree to follow me to Earth, there was no way I will leave my friends behind with this kind of enemy.

Besides... if I want to survive an eventual meeting with my demon sister, I have to get stronger... much much stronger. Who would I even challenge to a sacred battle on Earth? Some criminal that killed a dozen or so people barely at level one or two? Even if that God of Order turned Earth into a world similar to this, without dungeons how many years would it take for anyone there to even reach my level?

"Ha ha ha ha!" the undead started to laugh, "I was hoping you will say that. In case you reject, I am allowed to proceed with the second part of a plan. Have any of you ever wondered how would it feel like if a zombie apocalypse from the movies was a thing? Well, me too. And with my skills, I'd say it's not impossible to accomplish..."

"Zombie Apocalypse?" Phoenix asked confused.

The term was unfamiliar to him, I on another hand quickly looked at Lorenzo.

"Ten seconds," whispered pixie.

I wasn't afraid for the other party to hear him. If wanted, Lorenzo was able to completely obscure his voice from the others with wind manipulation.

"Yes. An army of undead spread all over the world," continued his speech undead, "a handful of people struggling to survive... stuff like that."

"Then I guess I will have to make sure it doesn't happen," I smiled and put my hands on the guns at my hip, "I have a very sensitive nose, I really don't want this stench to greet me everywhere I go."

"Found him. Southeast from there..." Lorenzo started to speak, but Phoenix stopped him with a gesture of his hand and a hologram of a planet suddenly appeared above his catbit.

It was mostly blank, with only vague borders of the continent and some cities here and there, but that was only because we have never visited those places in person. With a few gestures, the sight has changed and the sphere was zoomed into a form of a map and a blinking spot at the center indicated our current location.

The pixie quickly hid his astonishment and then pointed with his finger on the map where the necromancer was supposed to be.

"Stay there Kitty and prepare magic circle for mass teleportation," Phoenix said while looking into a distance, "Once I am there will give a signal, use my coordinates as a destination."

And before I could even answer he vanished and then reappeared high in the air, a moment later he disappeared once more and only a small dot could be seen in the distance, which also vanished very quickly.

Neither of us has been at the place pixie showed on the map, but with multiple short-range teleportations, it's hardly a problem for space-time mage to get there.

"What about undead? We can't just leave..." the priest started to speak, but then quickly stopped when a large snake made of fire materialized in the air right next to me, then another.

My hands with a gun in each were already pointing at the undead and just in a moment, a third snake made of fire, over ten meters long, materialized right above me.

"Wait," Zaos gestured for me to stop, "if you don't mind I would like for Jade to give it a try."

"Me?" the dryad asked a bit surprised.

"Yes," Zaos replied, "As a champion, you will have to fight against them eventually and with all of us there, it's a perfect opportunity to get a taste of what is to come."

"He is right," Lorenzo on her shoulder voiced his agreement.

If the dryad was ever killed, it would mean the end for both of them... because the moment their bond was severed, Lorenzo would receive a devastating backlash, and even if that wasn't the case his ability to cast spells would be compromised. In the middle of a fight that was no different from a death sentence.

"Leave it to me!" Jade stepped forward and with each step, a large amount of mana seeped into a ground through her feet.

The earth started to shake and soon countless vines launched from underground all over the village. Most were as thick as my arm, but quite a few even more than that.

Some undead were dealt with immediately as the vines pierced their head or a core inside the body, but many still managed to survive. A few of them did that by dodging the attack, but in most cases, the vines simply missed their vital areas.

Not that it mattered.

Save for undead that did the talking earlier, even those that managed to completely evade the first attack were suddenly caught when the vines coiled around their bodies.

*crunch* *crunch* *crunch*

Their bodies started to twist and deform as the vines tightened the grip, crushing the bones in the process. One undead caught by multiple different vines was even completely torn to pieces. Jade might have been not that good when it comes to precision, but the raw power of her skill was more than enough against this kind of opponent.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

A chain of explosions reverberated through the village and all the vines were suddenly shredded to pieces. Only death knight imitation was left standing in the field. While he had no problems evading or cutting the vines with his swords, his army was now gone. And if not for corpse explosion used at the crucial time, all those vines would be now aimed at him.

"This is what you get when work with cheap materials," undead sighed while looking around him.

The earth started to shake once more and this time roots of trees, nearly half meter thick, launched at the undead from all around him. The undead nimbly dodged a few, but when tried to cut the roots, was forced to leave one of the swords behind when it was stuck halfway through the mass. After a few nearly misses he ended up running upwards on the said roots, occasionally jumping from one to another.

As he did so, a pulse of mana launched from his body and a large number of bone shards suddenly flew from remains of undead scattered from earlier explosions. They quickly gathered near his body and started to spin, chopping any vines that tried to attack undead from the root he ran on.

But not all shards were used for defense and a large part of them launched in our direction as well.

A few more roots burst from underground and blocked the attack, a moment later all shards stuck on their surface were absorbed inside.

"You are wasting a lot of mana," Zaos muttered at the side, his demeanor like that of a teacher instructing his student.

"I know!" Jade replied annoyed.

The roots undead ran over started to coil one another, slowly forming into a large tree and the undead, after avoiding the fate of being crushed in the process, quickly found himself on top of the said tree. Countless buds then grew on the twigs of the tree and one after another started to bloom. But this is where the similarity with the trees has ended. Various insects burst from within and a large swarm, that looked like a dark cloud, covered half of the tree.

Each insect was a man-eating bug at the size of a thumb and with the addition of wings, it wasn't hard for all of them to attack at the same time. Some of them dropped dead from the fog-like miasma undead left in his wake, but the majority of swarm quickly reached the target.

The shards of bone spinning around undead started to move even faster and he dashed down at full speed, probably aiming to break through the swarm. Countless insects were smashed to pieces in an instant, others died from the miasma... but it wasn't enough.

A moment later only a skeleton dropped from another side of the cloud and the battle was over. Or at least so we thought.

"How embarrassing," the skeleton sat on the ground while looking at his hand, "This gives an entirely new meaning to the word naked."

His armor of bones was still intact, but all flesh was now completely gone. The tree he was leaning on suddenly lifted a 'leg' and stepped on the skeleton...

*CRUNCH*

and the battle was now really over.

*

It wasn't long before Phoenix made a call, but when I transferred our group to his location what greeted us was only him in the open field.

"You killed him?" I asked when saw pieces of flesh scattered over the place. Aurora chuckled at the side, but I paid it no mind.

Phoenix shook his head "Another undead. I suspect that necromancer used it as a transmitter for the spell. The moment I got there it was detonated with corpse explosion and... Oh, that's right, before he did that, undead made a strange sign with his hands," and as he said that showed us a severed hand he was holding all this time, "does anyone know what it means?"

"Cocky bastard," muttered Jade.

Even Lorenzo on her head looked like someone who just swallowed a fly. I now knew why Aurora chuckled just now. The severed hand Phoenix held was clenched into a fist... with a middle finger pointing upwards.