Holy Emperor's Grandson Is A Necromancer Chapter 8

"Kidnapped by the zombies??"

With a dumbfounded face, I looked through the monastery's window. It should've been the middle of day right now, but thanks to the relentless downpour, it was quite dark and gloomy outside.

Since it was so dark outside, one's field of view should be limited. And then, zombies took advantage of the weather to not kill, but kidnap a person instead. Now that sounded rather suspicious.

Zombies wouldn't try to ripen a person before devouring the poor sucker, so they must be aiming for something here.

However, just one villager?

"Did you say just one person?"

Gril nodded his head. He continued on with a deeply fl.u.s.tered face. "Yes, just one! It's a young lady who moved into the neighbouring village around three months ago. She's…. You know, that person you tried to score with…."

"I tried to do what now??"

This was the first time I heard this story.

Gril sneaked glances at our surroundings and whispered in my ear. "Well, she is such a looker, after all. I'm not sure if you can remember it, but after you got rejected by her, the shame led you to, you know, hang yourself…."

"………."

I couldn't help but squeeze my eyes shut just then.

Aaaargh, this was so d*mn embarra.s.sing.

This idiot, he killed himself not because he felt despair at his doomed fate, but because some girl rejected him??

I could now understand why the Holy Emperor abandoned this fool.

Since he probably treasured the family's honour more than his life, he would definitely wanted to forget all about this mangnani grandson of his for good.

I groaned helplessly and ma.s.saged my temples. "Okay, so how did she get dragged away?"

"Pardon? T-that is…."

Gril looked fl.u.s.tered, unsure.

Actually, the person feeling more fl.u.s.tered than he was me.

Villagers should've been standing guards outside the monastery. So, it'd be safest to stay indoors - anyone even thinking of stepping foot outside right now was obviously not right in the head.

"W-well, that young lady is very kind-hearted, you see. Her personality won't let her forsake any injured and suffering people, so she said that she'd go and procure some medicinal herbs and…."

What was up with this annoying development?

The bite wound wouldn't pose any threat whatsoever with a sip of the holy water. Yet, this lady personally went out to ‘procure' medicinal herbs??

Gril continued on. "That's why the villagers wish to form a search party."

"Aren't you guys scared of zombies?"

"She's the village's herb gatherer and many people were saved by her hard work, you see. Many of us are indebted to her, and…. She's one of the most beautiful women in the village, too. And also single, your highness."

Meaning, the love-struck men wanted to rescue her?

Actually, there was something bugging me here as well. If the zombies really kidnapped her, then I should find out what they were really up to. I needed to find out if this was a simple kidnapping, or if that woman and the zombies were involved in something shady.

"Okay, so can you even track her down?"

"We have an experienced hunter named Hans with us. If it's him, it should be possible. What will you do, your highness?"

"Form the search party. I'm coming, too."

"With the search party??"

Gril formed a surprised expression. Yup, he was taken aback by the ‘Imperial Prince' wanting to go rescue the maiden who rejected his advance, because he already knew what the boy's personality was like.

"Never mind whether she rejected me or not, I can't even remember it anyway. And besides, a person's life is much more important, don't you agree?" said I, while sounding righteous for a moment there.

Honestly, though, I was thinking of something else - there must've been a reason for the zombies not devouring the woman right away but dragging her away to somewhere else.

I thought that just maybe, searching for the kidnapped woman could lead us to the solution to this crisis. There was this one thing that felt off to me as well, so I should investigate it while we were at it, too.

A search party had been hastily formed.

"It's this way. Over here…!"

While wearing a pair of worn out leather shoes and a robe, I made my way across the rainy, soggy forest on foot. The location ten members of the search party arrived while wielding burning torches was a cave located pretty far from the monastery.

The hunter named Hans nodded his head while looking at the bits of flesh and blood left on the gra.s.s, as well as muddy footsteps on the ground. "It must be here."

"Wow, you sure have located it so quickly, haven't you." I retorted sarcastically.

Actually, it wasn't ‘locating it quickly', but more like ‘lured' to this place, or so I thought. These zombie as*holes were smart as h.e.l.l, so they must've deliberately left the breadcrumbs for us to follow.

What was their goal, though? Was this a diversionary tactic to split the villagers? If not, lure away small numbers and hunt them down one group at a time?

I stared into the cave's interior, my mind still full of questions.

The light didn't reach the inside of the cave - it was a pretty strong Negative Field, alright. No matter how deep it was, though, it failed to disguise the stench of rotting corpses busy stinging my nostrils. And although faint, I even sensed demonic energy, too.

Without a doubt, we discovered the den of the zombies.

"This place is definitely it."

….And the origin of the plague must be in here, too.

Never mind the annoying zombie rats, there was a pretty good chance that zombified humans and animals could be found inside. Us stepping inside this cave was basically the same thing as presenting a veritable buffet for the zombies to enjoy.

No need to trigger the trap if you knew there was one, right?

"Should I go and get the oil for cremation from the monastery first? With that, I should be able to get rid of the zombies in one go."

The cave even sloped downwards, too. By setting a fire and let it burn for, say, half a day or so, I should be able to reduce the number of zombies by half. Even if that's not all of them, it was still better than nothing.

However, my opinion brought about nervousness from the rest of the rescue team.

"W-what about Morian, in that case?"

"Morian?"

When I mouthed that unfamiliar name, Gril next to me whispered the answer. "That's the name of the kidnapped lady."

Was she even alive at this point in time?

The menfolk were clearly getting anxious now, nervously pacing about.

That woman was their benefactor, and also the object of their crush, so yeah, they should be anxious, alright. Too bad, I simply couldn't endanger everyone just to rescue one person.

I lifted the torch and pointed it at the interior of the cave. "Look, this place is a Negative Field even at a casual glance. Meaning, it'll be seriously dangerous. It's where undead receives buffs, you know."

"….Buffs?"

The menfolk tilted their heads. They were puzzled by a strange term.

"…It's where undeads grow stronger."

Even if you forget about the buffs for a second, the darkness in there was so deep that you couldn't see properly, so staggering, flailing zombies would present greater danger.

At least I had no reason to risk this much danger.

Gril studied the reactions of his fellow villagers before whispering back to me. "What will you do now, your highness?"

This cave was just too suspicious.

"Hmm, I hope there isn't a zombie bear or something in there."

It'd be a definite no-no if that's the case. A d*mn zombie bear? The current me wouldn't be able to properly defeat such a thing. I wasn't even a warrior, so what was I supposed to do against such a monster?

The villagers were now looking at me. I guessed that they wanted me to make the call. Even they had judged it to be too dangerous to blindly rush inside the cave.

"Right now, we should step back."

Since we now knew where the origin of the plague was, we could afford to go and prepare ourselves adequately first. And we weren't going to sacrifice ten lives just to rescue one.

"We return to the monastery. Marching straight in there as we are currently will result in casualt…….."

It was then - a seriously thick stench stabbed into my nose. Stunned silly, I instinctively looked behind me. A chill ran down my spine.

Just as my eyes s.h.i.+fted towards the forest, a black shadow pounced on me and bit into my shoulder.

Stab!

Sharp fangs dug in and tore into my flesh. Soft skin ripped open and my muscles were gouged out; shoulder bones were crushed in the process, too.

"Uwaaaahk!!"

I screamed out loudly.

Then, my vision rotated upside down. Something was forcibly dragging me into the cave while biting into my shoulder.

– Imperi…. -nim!

– Pri…. Resc…..

Villagers had no time to react.

Their voices grew distant.

My vision grew darker. A huge wolf was biting into my shoulder, its eyes glaring at me. The awful stench of the rotting corpse, and disgustingly thick demonic energy…

….G.o.d d*mn it, it was a zombie wolf.

"Let me go!!"

I held the shovel shorter and stabbed it into the creature's neck.

My posture was all wrong and with my bitten shoulder, I couldn't muster enough power behind the strike. I couldn't even inflict a small nick in the monster's thick hide.

Getting dragged any deeper would be too dangerous.

If I got isolated inside the cave all by myself and become surrounded by the zombies, then I'd be devoured, that's for sure.

"Screw this….!!"

I focused divinity on my hands, then activated the skill [Horrifying Curse]. Immediately, I felt the divinity rapidly drain out of my body.

As the dizziness filled my head up, I could hear a faint voice.

[You have granted a blessing.]

Now wasn't the time to mind my anaemia or whatever. The blades of the shovel glowed softly. My digging tool was now imbued with the reverse effect of the [Horrifying Curse], [Blessing].

"You stinking son of a b*tch!!"

The shovel carrying the aura of divine blessing stabbed into the zombie wolf's neck.

STAB-!!

Forget about burning flesh, the dang thing actually melted away.

This sensation of a heated metal chopstick melting down plastic got transmitted through my fingertips. The shovel dug in even deeper. However, the zombie wolf didn't let me go.

"You stubborn son of….!"

I pulled the shovel out and stabbed again.

Eventually….

Boom…!

I finally managed to extricate myself out from the d*mn thing's maws only after its neck was completely melted away and its body collapsed into a heap.

I rolled ungainly on the floor several times. The pile of bones and rotting corpses acted as cus.h.i.+ons to soften my landing.

While pressing my head on the ground, I screamed out. "Uwaaaahk!! This f*cking hurts!! This… Son of a b*tch…!"

Seriously man, this pain was no d*mn joke.

My trembling hand reached up to the wounded shoulder. I flinched when my fingers touched the gouged-out flesh. As if I got burned by something, intense heat rose up from there.

I couldn't tell whether I was screaming out or grunting from pain as I muttered to myself. "Why do I have to go through this sh*t anyway?!"

I held my shoulder and injected divinity into the wound.

This was the basic healing skill that most Priests possessed. I also added [Horrifying Curse] on top, too. No, maybe I should just go ahead and rename it to [Blessing], instead.

I felt the divinity drain out of my body, and in turn, the wound healed at a visible rate.

The demonic energy permeating within my muscles caused a negative reaction and my skin ruptured, but that only lasted for a short while; broken bones realigned and new flesh grew to replace the old one.

"That freaking hurt."

This d*mn adverse reaction between divinity and demonic energy - healing the undead's bite wound would always be accompanied by horrible pain.

Only after the wound was completely healed without a scar did I breathe a sigh of relief.

"….No, hang on. I shouldn't be relaxing right now."

Maybe I should blame the instinctive fear I felt for the sudden bout of talking-to-myself syndrome. I scanned my surroundings, but my vision remained dim. I couldn't see anything properly at all.

But that too lasted for only a short while, as well; I easily got to confirm the locations of the creatures shuffling towards me thanks to [Mind's Eye].

– Ku-oohhhh….

Yup, it was a horde of zombies.

Zombies, halfway to becoming skeletons after most of their flesh had rotted away, were staggering and shuffling towards me, their jaws falling open as if they had discovered a tasty treat.

"….I'm screwed."

I was already pretty fatigued, but now I had to fight them, too?

Ahh, the G.o.ddess of love and mercy, Gaia!

"….Please, please just spare me once, will ya?"

I begged the silent G.o.ddess and grasped the shovel tighter.

The whole cave was filled with disgusting stench.

Rotting corpses and discarded bones could be seen strewn about on the ground. As an added bonus, I could even see the walking dead snacking on them.

Zombies busy feasting on the discarded bones and flesh discovered me and stood up from their spots. They staggered while coming in closer.

Thankfully, there were no other fleet-footed zombified animals among their midst. Which was nice.

"Man, I might go crazy at this rate."

As it turned out, I got dragged pretty deeply inside. Meaning, I shouldn't wait for the villagers to come and help me out.

I raised the shovel up before stabbing it down on the ground.

[The Divine Puddle has been summoned.]

With the shovel as the centre, a holy water-filled puddle gushed up from the ground. And it spread all around me in the diameter of around 5 metres.

Approaching zombies stepped into the puddle and began unsteadily totter about before falling face first to the ground. They then slowly melted away.

Unfortunately, another zombie stepped on top of the fallen zombie and got closer. Using their fallen ‘comrades' as footholds, these d*mn things slowly shuffled towards me.

What a bunch of tenacious evil creatures, slaves to their instinctive desire to devour the living even though they knew they would perish in the process. And that was why I felt so spooked, too.

I quickly swung the shovel at the ones coming in closer.

Along with a dull crack, a zombie's head shattered, the rotting brain matter scattering about.

I knew that this was simply me buying time and nothing more. I needed to completely, utterly destroy them, and do it over a wide area, too.

"The [Plague of Debilitation]."

I took a deep breath and let it out; after raising the shovel up, I planted it back on the ground and closed my eyes. A large Rune letter suddenly appeared on the ground beneath the zombies and then, particles emitting bright light exploded upwards.

[You have carried out a wide-area blessing.]

The light particles rising up from the ground came in contact with the zombies, causing the rotting flesh to burn away. One by one, the undead turned into ashes and scattered away.

One, two, seven, ten….

Nice! It's working! At this rate….!

Too bad, just as the hopes of survival formed in my heart….

BOOM-!!

….My bright expression turned gloomy in an instant.

I raised my head up.

– Ku-oooohhhhh….

The d*mn thing was at least three metres tall.

s.h.a.ggy fur covering the thick hide, large arms and a humongous torso. A bipedal creature capable of standing erect and possessing hook-like claws now stood before my eyes.

I muttered to myself, utterly dazed by this sight. "…A zombie bear?"

Yup, it was indeed a zombified bear.

I didn't know which species of bear it was, but…

[Name: King of Gluttony

Age: ….

Speciality: Biting, crus.h.i.+ng, smas.h.i.+ng, scooping out internal organs

+ Currently strengthened through Necromancy.]

….But, this guy was not something I could handle at the moment.

A pretty vicious creature had turned into a zombie, it seemed.

"Yup, I'm losing my mind here."

Every time the zombie bear took a step forward, I took a step backwards. Even though the light particles from the wide-area blessing touched its body, the d.a.m.n monster had no problem moving.

It then crushed the melting zombies underfoot and stepped into the holy water puddle. Its fur did melt somewhat, but due to its thick hide, the effect was minimal, to say the least.

This guy was on another level altogether compared to zombies I had been dealing with so far.

Should I run now? However, if I showed my back to it, I got the feeling that it'd attack me even faster.

The scarier creatures than humanoid zombies were undead predators. Why? Because they possessed faster movements than regular humans, that's why.

If I tried to run towards sloping exit of the cave, my back would be ripped apart in no time at all. And I'd probably die immediately.

I gritted my teeth and held the shovel tighter.

"A man might get killed once, but twice? I don't think so!"

Dying once from the electrocution was already enough. I would definitely not care to die after being crushed by a d*mn zombie.

I extended my hands and gathered more divinity.

" The [Resurrection of the Dead]."

As soon as my words came to an end, the divinity quickly spread around the cave's interior, causing the corpses found within to writhe.

Undead zombies slowly stood up while emitting the white light particles and breaths filled with divine aura.

– Oh, ohhhh!!

And then, the cave was rocked not by the bone-chilling howls of the undead, but pure and clean hymn-like singing, instead.

< 008.="" imperial="" prince="" is="" hunting="" a="" witch="" -1=""> Fin.