The air whistled fiercely as the giant fell, its shadow enveloping Philippe's entire body.
Philippe's eyes widened, his pupils contracting, and a small laugh began to escape his lips.
It wasn't fear visible on Philippe's face, but a terrifying excitement!
"Hahahaha!" Philippe's laughter echoed through the vast throne room, sending horrifying echoes bouncing off the stone walls.
In the blink of an eye, Philippe moved. His body twisted sideways at a speed almost invisible to the eye, dodging the giant's axe that slammed into the marble floor with a tremendous crash.
Stone fragments flew in all directions, some hitting the faces of the zombies surrounding them.
Without pause, Philippe swung his sword in a perfect horizontal motion. The dull silver blade pierced through the giant's rotting flesh as easily as cutting butter.
Thick black blood spurted out, splashing onto Philippe's face and staining the pristine white hilt of his sword. His eyes gleamed with intensifying madness.
The giant roared in pain, its gravelly voice making ears ring.
Its right hand, still gripping the axe, swung toward Philippe, but Philippe was already moving again.
He slid low, his sword sweeping the giant's legs with full force.
CRASH!
The sound of breaking bones mixed with tearing flesh.
The giant's left leg was severed at the knee, causing it to collapse with a rumbling thud that shook the entire room.
More black blood flowed, creating a sticky pool on the marble floor.
While Philippe focused on the giant, the other zombies began to approach.
Philippe sensed their movements without needing to look—his sharp fighting instincts alerted him to every incoming threat!
A zombie guard charged at him from the left side, its rusted sword swinging.
Philippe turned with a graceful motion, his silver sword slicing the zombie right at the waist. The zombie's upper body fell, but its legs continued walking for a few seconds before finally collapsing.
"Amazing!" Philippe laughed loudly, his voice echoing throughout the room like a demon's cackle.
At that moment, his expression suddenly changed. His excitement turned to brief surprise as he saw the zombie he had just cut still moving.
The zombie's upper body crawled with its hands, trying to grab Philippe's leg in a horrifying motion.
The zombie's eyes were still glowing!
For a second, Philippe froze, his eyes widening in shock. But the surprise quickly turned into even greater excitement.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed with near-hysterical joy.
His laughter echoed throughout the throne room, resounding against the high ceiling and bouncing back with multiplied force. Even the zombies seemed to pause momentarily upon hearing that terrifying laugh.
Philippe kicked the zombie's upper body with full force.
THUD!
The zombie's body flew far, crashing into the stone wall with a loud impact, leaving a black bloodstain on the wall.
Philippe's eyes grew wilder.
The wounded giant was still trying to rise on one leg. Philippe looked at it with a widening smile. He charged toward the giant, leaping high, and slashed its neck with full power.
SLASH!
The giant's head was nearly severed, hanging only by a bit of flesh and spine. Black blood gushed like a fountain, soaking Philippe's entire body. But it didn't stop him.
Instead, it made him even more exhilarated!
"MORE! I WANT MORE!" Philippe shouted while stabbing his sword repeatedly into the giant's chest. A smile etched on his face, growing increasingly insane!
Each thrust produced the sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones. Green pus mixed with black blood, creating a pungent rotting stench.
Philippe inhaled the aroma deeply, as if it were the most expensive perfume!
Meanwhile, the other zombies kept coming. A female servant zombie with a half-rotted face tried to bite Philippe's shoulder.
Without looking, Philippe swung his left elbow, smashing the zombie's face until its jaw broke with a horrifying CRACK!
The zombie was flung back but rose again, staggering toward Philippe. Philippe laughed at the sight.
"You're all so persistent! No. Or should I say, 'You're so persistent, Madeleine?'" he said while lifting the nearly dead giant by the neck with one hand.
With terrifying strength, Philippe tore open the giant's chest with his bare hand. Rotting flesh and broken ribs scattered.
The giant's black heart still beat weakly in his hand.
"Hmm, still beating," Philippe murmured with a crooked smile, then squeezed the heart until it burst. Blood and black fluid oozed between his fingers.
The giant finally collapsed, slowly, but still twitching like a decapitated snake. Philippe stomped on it hard, its bones cracking and breaking under the pressure.
"Now it's your turn!" Philippe turned to face the remaining zombies, his eyes gleaming with unstoppable madness.
A zombie guard charged at him with a long spear. Philippe caught the spear tip with his bare hand, letting it pierce his palm.
His own red blood dripped, mixing with the zombie's black blood.
"Does it hurt?"
Philippe laughed while snapping the spear in two.
He used the broken spear to stab the guard zombie's eye, piercing its skull until it emerged from the back of the head.
The zombie still moved even though its brain was destroyed!
"You're all truly amazing!" Philippe shouted in delight.
The battle continued with escalating insanity. Philippe moved like a dancer of death among the zombies, his silver sword swinging in all directions, severing arms, legs, heads, and bodies.
But no matter how severe the wounds inflicted, the zombies kept moving and attacking!
The floor was now covered in blood and pus, creating sticky pools that made footsteps produce disgusting squelching sounds. But Philippe enjoyed every second of it.
A male servant zombie with an open stomach, its intestines dangling out, tried to hug Philippe from behind.
Philippe let it approach, then with a sudden motion, elbowed it in the chest, breaking its ribs and piercing its already rotting heart.
"Warm hug!" Philippe laughed while turning and ripping off its head with his bare hands.
The zombie's head still moved its mouth, trying to bite even though separated from the body. Philippe tossed the head toward the Queen who was still watching from afar.
"A gift for Your Majesty!" he shouted with echoing laughter.
The remaining zombies continued to attack, but their numbers dwindled.
Of course, only their numbers decreased because their body parts had been chopped into several pieces. However, they still moved!
Philippe moved increasingly wildly, increasingly insane, as if his energy never ran out. For some reason, the longer he fought, the more exhilarated he became!
Finally, only a few zombies remained moving—mostly body parts still trying to crawl toward him.
Philippe stood amid the chaos, his body smeared with black blood and pus, his silver sword dripping blood that had begun to thicken.
But his eyes, which rapidly shifted, still gleamed with the same madness, a insane smile still plastered on his blood-smeared lips.
"Come on, who's next?" Philippe shouted toward the Queen, his voice echoing in the throne room now resembling a battlefield.
"The show isn't over yet!"
His echoing laughter filled the momentary silence, as if calling for greater death and destruction to come play with him.
At that moment, he suddenly stopped; for some reason, he felt immensely satisfied. To him, he felt he had avenged Emilie.
Philippe glanced at his hand only to find signs of decay already at the stage of gnawing at his soul.
No wonder if he found himself becoming one of them.
But because of his current abnormal condition, it allowed him to think calmly and rationally.
Even in this state, he briefly imagined Armand's fate: had he survived? This made him wonder.
At that moment, Philippe shifted his gaze upward, looking at Madeleine who remained motionless in place, still in the same position. Narrowing his eyes, he then grinned insanely. He pointed his sword at her.
"It's time to end this."
The chopped-up zombies tried to approach him. But Philippe didn't care. How could those body pieces harm him?
Philippe bent his knees, preparing to leap. The muscles in his legs tensed like a spring ready to be released. His ever-shifting eyes focused on the target—Madeleine's pale and fragile neck.
He jumped with full power, pushing off the floor until new cracks appeared beneath his feet. His body shot upward at astonishing speed, sword drawn ready to decapitate Madeleine.
But as he nearly reached her, the death aura emanating from Madeleine's body hit him like an invisible wall.
WOOMPH!
His body was instantly hurled back, crashing into the stone wall with a thunderous impact.
Philippe was flung backward with tremendous force!
Dust and stone fragments fell from the ceiling. Philippe coughed, fresh blood spilling from the corner of his mouth mixed with zombie black blood. But he rose quickly, his rapidly shifting eyes gleaming with strange excitement.
"As expected, it's not that easy!" Philippe muttered while wiping the blood from his mouth.
He retreated a few steps, then ran at full speed toward the wall.
His feet stepped on the stone wall and he ran vertically for a moment before kicking the wall with full force, launching himself into the air at a different angle.
This time he approached Madeleine from the side. His sword swung in a perfect arc, but again the death aura pushed him away. Philippe was flung back, but this time he was prepared.
While his body was still airborne, small cracks appeared around him, like shattering glass.
Small dimensional portals opened!
The portal slowly sucked Philippe in and spat him back onto the floor in a position ready to jump again.
Philippe grabbed a zombie arm piece lying on the floor and hurled it toward Madeleine with full strength.
The arm was pushed back and shortly after looked burned and destroyed upon touching the death aura, but Philippe was already moving.
He jumped again, this time using the throw's momentum to deceive Madeleine. As the death aura pushed him, he opened a dimensional portal and vanished, reappearing right behind Madeleine.
His sword nearly touched the girl's neck when another energy wave struck him, this time stronger.
Philippe was flung with bone-cracking violence, his body hitting a stone pillar that cracked nearly collapsing.
Philippe rose with blood flowing from his temple. He stared at Madeleine with insanely gleaming but determined eyes.
This time Philippe took a different strategy. He threw his sword into the air, the silver blade spinning like a deadly throwing star. As the sword burned from the death aura, Philippe opened a dimensional portal and vanished.
He appeared right where his sword was, catching it while using the portal's momentum to lunge toward Madeleine. But again he was flung back.
Time and again Philippe tried the same way—throwing objects, using portals to move, attacking from various angles. Each time he was flung back, but each time he rose with undiminished spirit.
Philippe's body was now full of wounds and bruises. Blood flowed from various parts of his body, but his shifting eyes still burned with insatiable madness. His breath came in gasps, but he kept trying.
Philippe jumped again, this time with all his remaining strength.
He managed to approach Madeleine closer than before. His sword nearly touched her neck when the death aura pushed with maximum force.
Philippe was flung with extraordinary violence, his body crashing into the wall with a vibration that shook the entire room.
But as he fell, Philippe opened a dimensional portal right beneath him. He vanished and reappeared right in front of Madeleine, only a meter between them.
For a moment, time seemed to stop. Philippe's eyes no longer shifted; this time they were his own, locking with Madeleine's eyes.
Between them, the death aura swirled like a storm, but Philippe forced himself forward.
"Forgive me, Madeleine," he whispered, his voice filled with sorrow.
At that moment, Philippe thrust the silver blade right into Madeleine's chest, piercing her dead heart. Madeleine's eyes widened in shock, her death aura suddenly weakening.
"Farewell, Madeleine," Philippe whispered with a trembling voice.
The light in Madeleine's eyes slowly dimmed. Her face returned to the girl he once knew. A thin smile curved on her lips before her lifeless body began to fall.
Philippe pulled his sword and caught the body, hugging it tightly as they both fell to the cold floor.
In the ensuing silence, Madeleine, with her last remaining strength, slowly raised her frail hand toward Philippe's cheek. Her touch felt as cold as ice, but Philippe didn't resist. Her pale lips trembled before smiling weakly.
"Heh, you... will soon know the answer," she whispered, coughing blood. "Too bad, even if I die, the impact of World Necrosis will remain. You'll have to try harder to stop it."
She paused, her breath growing shorter. "See you, Philippe, hopefully when we meet again, it's on the same side...."
"Yes," Philippe replied softly, his voice choked. "See you, Madeleine."
***
A/N: Yep, every story ends with the protagonist's victory. In this arc, of course, the protagonist is Philippe! Now you know, right? There's a connection! Why does the abyss world, when entered by Charles, Furina, etc., have undead inhabitants? It's because of Madeleine!
Hehe, it feels so good to answer this world... this storytelling style, for some reason, I like it. So I'll do it in the future too! Of course, in a different series. In other words, I promise to write again. Maybe... until I die.
Now there's still one chapter to answer the questions in the future!
By the way, I'm still expecting comments!
If you want to read the 7 advanced chapters with a faster update frequency than the webnovel, you can read it on my patreon whose link is below:
https://www.pâtreon.com/Junxt
Replace "â" with "a" and search for it in your browser.
By the way, don't forget to throw a power stone and leave a review to motivate me :)