Chapter 126: The True Essence Of Life Is Bloodshed
[Critical Hit]!
Boom!
Mark started to fight against them again. He punched, kicked, and tore apart the monsters that were in front of him, but he soon realized the foolishness of what he was doing as he saw them getting back to their feet over and over again.
It almost put a bit of fear into Mark's heart as he saw a zombie that he had just decapitated getting back to its feet, grabbing it's head, and putting it back in place. What the actual fuck is that? Is this some sort of joke? How can they heal that quickly? There is no time difference between when I kill them and when they come back!
Mark could not tell what was making them heal so quickly, but his eyes immediately traveled towards the altar in the distance and the fire burning on it. The zombies only started to get up after the altar started to burn. Doesn't that mean that the fire on the altar has something to do with the zombies' regeneration?
Mark wasn't sure, but he decided that the first thing he needed to do was to get to that altar.
Mark gauged the general distance between him and the alter and realized that there was no way he could get over there with the number of zombies in the area. There were so many of them that he would get buried under their numbers if he tried getting through. The only way he could get there was from above.
"Ryax, I need you to throw me."
"What!?"
Ryax was currently in the fight of her life, trying to survive against a horde of zombies with only one arm and a lot of blood loss. Even though Mark was helping her by making sure most of the zombies couldn't get to her, she still felt like she could be overwhelmed at any moment from the sheer number of them, and now Mark was asking something absurd! Why would he want her to throw him?
If he leaves then how does he expect her to survive?
"I need to get to that altar. Fighting them like this is not helping, they'll definitely kill all of us. I need to get to that altar and find a way to stop them from getting back up."
Ryax gritted her teeth as she felt a sliver of betrayal in her chest. She knew that Mark was right, that altar was probably the reason behind the zombies getting back up so many times, but if Mark leaves her and goes to find a way to stop them from healing, then she would surely die. Was Mark abandoning her to her fate?
Ryax shook her head as she realized that Mark did not owe her anything. He could leave anytime he wanted, and that would not affect him. Him helping her before was not because he cared, but because he was standing beside her. He would have done the same for anyone else.
Ryax nodded as she stabbed her sword through a zombie's face and kicked it back. She turned around to grab Mark's shirt and planted her feet.
Mark could tell that Ryax was strong. You wouldn't be able to fight against Zombies with S-rank defense with only one hand if you weren't at least as strong as an upper-level S-rank. That was why he didn't have any doubt that she could get him all the way to the altar with one throw.
"RARGGGHH!!"
Ryax released a loud cry as she wrenched Mark into the air and tossed him like a bag of rice towards the altar, Mark tucked his hands and feet in as he flew over the zombies that were already looking towards where Ryax was standing and converging on her position due to the scream she just released.
Ryax watched Mark go with longing in her eyes before she bent and picked up her sword once more to face off against all the zombies that were converging on her. She did not have any delusions of surviving now that her one supporter had abandoned her, but that does not mean that she would go down without a fight.
Mark flew through the air and landed on top of a zombie a few paces away from the altar. The Zombie immediately tried to bite Mark, but Mark slammed his foot into the zombie's face and kicked it back before he started to run towards the altar.
Another zombie flew in from the side with its mouth wide enough to grab a large bite from Mark, but Mark was able to dodge under it as he flew up the stairs leading towards the altar.
Doon!
Immediately, Mark's feet touched the platform where the altar was standing, every single zombie in the cavern turned away from the people that they were attacking and immediately started to go towards Mark. Mark cursed in anger as he saw this and started to look through the altar for anything that could help him.
There was no button to press and no lever to pull on the altar; all that Mark could see was some form of writing that he couldn't read. It was in hieroglyphics, and Mark just guessed that it was some form of Egyptian writing. He turned to his system.
"Can you decode this?"
[Yes. Does the user wish to decode the message.]
"Do it!"
["For it is in despair that we find joy. For it is in destruction that we achieve true peace. The advent of chaos is merriment, the true essence of life is bloodshed." – A mantra belonging to the once ritualistic people of Thalus who prayed to the god of death Hades.]
"…"
[…]
Mark slammed his hands on the altar!
"What the fuck does that mean!?"
Mark leaned down and read through the words again before a Zombie reached him.
"RARGHH!!"
He used the chains on his hand to wrap around the zombie's head and dragged it down under his feet! He slammed his heel into its forehead and held it down there while he continued looking through the words. Killing it wouldn't change shit, so Mark just needed to buy time!
Joy, destruction, merriment, bloodshed. Merriment… no, bloodshed. Bloodshed. Do I need to use blood on the altar? Is this some sort of cult slogan that is used during their sacrificial rituals?
Mark looked up as he heard the sounds of zombies congregating on his position and he clicked his tongue.
Ryax was running towards the altar at full speed as she hacked through many zombies that were simply ignoring her. Immediately after Mark touched the altar, all the zombies that were attacking her turned away and started to go after Mark instead. She knew that she could simply abandon him and go retreat, but it wasn't in her to leave someone who saved her life multiple times.
She immediately started to hack through to get to Mark, but she was stunned when she heard Mark shout from the altar.
"Ryax!! Throw me your sword!!"
She didn't need to be told twice! Ryax pulled the sword back and threw it like a boomerang towards Mark! Mark easily caught the sword by the hilt before he raised it up.
[Full Body Constitution] has been deactivated.
Squelch!
Mark stabbed through his palm and slammed his palm into the flames on the altar. He didn't care if he got burned. It would surely be better than dying at the hands of the zombies that were coming towards him. Mark was not going to give any of his lives to these useless pieces of flesh.
Mark waited… and waited… and waited. But he slowly started to squeeze his brow in disbelief.