From the sudden disappearance of her son to being tasked with such a boring mission then being this severely injured by a powerful enemy that popped out of nowhere. This day couldn't become worse for Claudia, who was busy eating the filthy.

The undead was about to finish the half-dead woman only for a white figure to appear out of nowhere and send the monster flying away until it hit the wall and ceased moving once and for all.

As she struggled to sit up and see what happened, Claudia noticed the bent body of the undead and Lucy, who had her back facing her.

She didn't believe the sight in front of her and only snapped out of it when Lucy walked up to Rebecca and tapped her forehead, resulting in the short girl to wake up.

After confirming the situation from Lucy's mouth, the mage ran up to Claudia and fed her an expensive Healing Potion. Although it wouldn't regrow her limb, it would still alleviate some of the pain and give her a bit of energy to move.

The loli almost fainted again when she saw all the blood on the ground but she forcefully resisted the urge to vomit and tented to the scared and infuriated Claudia.

The venomous woman didn't angrily shout at Lucy for being or whatsoever, she was just thankful she was saved at the last second and expressed her sincere gratefulness once she was helped up by Rebecca.

Lucy merely nodded her head and motioned for the duo to hurry up and leave this building as the undead army had already infested every corner of this deserted town.

........

Back at the temporary camp set up by Zalon, the soldiers and heroes were resting after a brief confrontation with the undead a few miles from there. The undead army that attacked them paled in comparison to the one that obliterated the town Claudia's team was tasked to protect.

Zalon, who had a large build and usually wielded a large two-handed sword, was panting heavily as he checked the injuries Heroes and gave orders left and right.

Although the undead weren't particularly powerful, their number was mind-numbing and after fighting them for more than a day, he started feeling exhausted.

As he gazed at the stretched plains of sand mountains, he noticed three figures running with a speed that exceeded common sense. The one leading was a masked silver-woman who was too eye-catching for Zalon to not guess her identity almost immediately.

Not even a minute later, the four arrived before Zalon while panting heavily, except for Lucy, of course.

"The situation is dire, the undead that attacked us are large in numbers and there was even a leader amongst them!"

Rebecca narrated what she witnessing while pointing at the pale-faced Claudia, who had difficulties breathing. She couldn't run all the way here by herself so Lucy used some Magic to make her body floated while automatically following them.

"Calm down first!"

Zalon raised his tone as he couldn't comprehend a single word from all the gibberish Rebecca was uttering. It was apparent that she was scared shitless from what she saw.

Seeing that hearing the explanation from her wouldn't help him, he turned his head to Usui, who was calmer than the rest.

"The army was unusually powerful and there was even some kind of a commander that was leagues ahead of the rest in terms of strength. Honestly, I couldn't even see it move...."

Usui then told Zalon how the Death Knight attacked Rebecca and Claudia, how the latter lost an arm and had several of her bones broken and if not for Lucy's intervention, the two women would have been killed quite easily.

"I understand. Rest for now, we're departing in an hour. We don't have the resources or the manpower to face such an army and if there are more than one commander, it'll be our doom if we stay here."

.......

Back at the town where Claudia and co where, Arthur stood on the roof of the tallest building and silently gazed at the marching undead army, which stretched as far as the eye can see. Their number is way over ten thousand and amongst them, there were powerful Death Knights and even Lichs.

'It reminds me of the Lich King's army though this one is way weaker.'

Currently, his sense was locked into a solitary and destroyed building at the Southwest of this small town. His eyes, which could see through walls and earth, were staring at two weak looking humans. They were none other than the father-daughter duo from before, the ones who were begging for food a few days ago.

From the moment Arthur laid eyes on them, he instinctively knew they weren't normal, he didn't need [Appraisal] or his Sixth Sense to confirm such strong intuitions. Even the ever-so silent Makaze, which never reacted since it lost its other half, started emitting signals to its partner.

Arthur tried asking his copy but he received no response no matter how much he tried so he tried to figure out this matter alone. The sudden appearance of the undead and these two 'humans', it's definitely related, or so thought Arthur.

The duo was now shaking in fear as the undead passed one after another when finally, a transparent specter managed to discover them which led to monster into screeching loudly thus causing the rest of the undead to come and check this place to kill whoever is still alive.

The girl was shaking with fear while the father placed here in a more hidden corner while he grasped a rusty bronze sword and prepared himself to fight the incoming enemies, however, his chances of survival are slim.

With a shaking body, the father prepared himself and ran straight at the undead, which brandished its weapon, ready to slice him apart. Just when the black spear of a skeleton soldier was about to pierce the man's throat, the time seemed to stop.

Literally, the time stopped, the undead stopped moving and even the whistling air and the rising dust froze. This sudden even startled Arthur but he still kept his calm and tried to assess the situation

"Heeeeeey, you are strong so why didn't we save us?"

From behind him, a sweet voice rang in his ears, however, Arthur didn't just turn around to see who it is or have a chat with the source of the voice, he vanished from his place and appeared in front of the weak-looking girl who was floating in the air. His eyes were cold as several dark hands appeared from his back and lunged themselves at the girl, ready to rip her apart.

This wasn't the end as he unleashed a large wave of dark red flames that covered the whole area, engulfing himself and the girl in it.

Unfortunately, both his attacks were useless as they passed through the girl without dealing any damage to her. The face of the girl showed a surprised expression as she looked at the dark red flames and the big dark hands that vanished from sight once they missed their target

"Well well, aren't you very powerful? Then why didn't you save us?"

Arthur didn't reply and instead, squatted his body a bit down then violently banged both of his hands on the air, shattering it and causing the whole area to shake.

This astonished the girl even further but she didn't seem to be worried about her safety. Her astonishment only grew further when countless small mouths appeared around Arthur and started eating away the cracked space until the spell cast by her was deactivated and time finally resumed.

Arthur still didn't stop, he grasped the moment of shock the little girl was feeling to appear in front of her and stretched his hand to her neck. Before he managed to do so, his body was cut in two by an invisible thing, though that didn't cause him to suffer any injuries since the body that was attacked was only the Dark Cloud, which briefly assumed his appearance and strength to fool the enemy.

Like a creeping phantom, another Arthur appeared behind the little girl and was about to ruthlessly kick her but wasn't able to do as he was frozen in mid-air, just like what happened to the undead a second ago.

Yet again, the bound Arthur vanished into a black smoke as it too, was a shadow clone used to feign an attack. The girl was confused and turned her head left and right in panic but wasn't able to sense his location.

The situation worsened for her as a series of white thunderbolts descended from above and were about to hit her only for them to miss by a hair-width as the girl would vanish and appear a few meters away.

Unfortunately, when she dodged the last thunderbolts, which scared the shit out of her as they couldn't be frozen with time like everything else, the girl was about to breathe a sigh of relief only to feel a thick and chilling killing intent lock into her.

Before she could react, she found herself immobilized as countless golden threads were wrapping around her body and a hand was grasping her neck, choking her.

"What are you? Speak or die."