-- I want to be free.

Bazel told Ed slowly, using sign language that he was not familiar with.

- Please help me.

“...... Do you want to get out of here?" Ed asked, but then reacted that to him, "freedom" meant to be able to escape, but to Bazel, "freedom" might mean something different—and besides, if he just wanted to leave, Ed couldn't help at all.

-- I want my soul to be free.

Sure enough, Bazel struggled to explain to him.

“...... I don't know how to help you. Ed was a little embarrassed, "I was indeed a priest, and I was able to purify the spirits of the dead and let the dead rest in peace...... But I don't know if it's useful against the barbarians, and I'm out of power now...... Uh, if I stab you in the forehead, wouldn't that help?"

He asked cautiously.

-- Not like that.

Bazel's entire face began to distort, as if he had a hard time explaining it.

- If I just want to die, it's easy, I can kill myself. But my soul is not here.

Ed's eyes widened in confusion, wondering if he had misunderstood something...... Isn't it because his soul is still in his body that Baazel can communicate with him like he does now?

-- There is a mirror.

Bazel gestured to him.

- My soul is connected to it, and if I die, my soul will only be locked up in it, and that is not freedom.

Mirror...... Ed stared at him in a daze, and a picture flashed through his mind.

“...... Tum's mirror!" he blurted out. "Are you...... Is it made by Toom?"

For a moment, an irrepressible anger came out of Bazel's eyes, and the bitter hatred made him seem so terrible. Frightened, Ed unconsciously retreated, and almost ran away from him.

He remembered the mirror. When they were trying to rescue the barbarian children, they had taken the risk of using Is's identity to trick Tum, and if it weren't for Is's sudden opening to ask Toom for the mirror, Ed wouldn't have noticed that the old necromancer had intentionally or unintentionally covered it with his own body......

"Silvertooth died for it. —So Ises once said.

And Mock came for it, and even almost took his own life...... It was undoubtedly a powerful and important thing, but in the accidents that followed. No one knew who it had fallen into, and Ed had almost completely forgotten about it.

- He killed me.

Bazel gloomily admitted.

- And then pulled me back. I'm dead, but I'm alive...... I don't know what I am.

Ed looked at him sympathetically...... He couldn't imagine what it was like.

"Did you escape when the hole collapsed?" he asked softly.

It was a chaotic situation...... Until now. There may also be undead spirits wandering unconsciously in the dark underground, among the collapsed rocks.

Bazel shook his head.

-- Until then. He thought he could control me...... But he couldn't. I lied to him and ran away, ever since.

Ed looked up at him. Almost in reverence - what a difficult escape would it be?.

At first, Bazel did not realize that he was still "alive". Toom apparently didn't realize it either.

Tum used the mirror he had stolen from the Silver Tooth Mine to conduct various experiments, some of which Baazel had witnessed—in an iron cage in the corner of the cave.

Little by little, his consciousness broke free from the chaos and madness, and with fear, anger, and despair, he found his soul trapped in his dead body.

He didn't know if this was the result the old mage wanted, but in his opinion, he might be the only one who succeeded, and the old mage himself didn't know - it might have been pure coincidence.

He had tried to communicate with the other caged people, but the living would only scream in fear to stay away from him. Or roaring and trying to attack him, and the one who dies...... There will be a variety of unforeseen reactions. Only in response to his futile attempts.

He gradually discovers that Tum leaves some of the undead behind and throws others at his men—usually the ones who are completely unconscious.

And something that Bazel once unconsciously showed made Tum interested in him for a long time. He could only force himself to be like the other undead, sometimes crazy and sometimes sluggish, and then little by little he became unresponsive to any stimulus.

It wasn't easy...... Before he could really go insane, Toom finally lost interest in him and handed him over to another necromancer.

The mage's spell seemed to tug at his limbs, but Bazel quickly regained control of his body, found an opportunity, and escaped from the cave.

He knew very well that he could not return to his people - he was dead, his mother would soon find out, and the others would take him for a demon, a monster, and burn him to ashes on the fire...... But at that time he didn't want to die. He was still so young and strong, one of the most powerful warriors in the tribe...... He really didn't want to die like this.

He fled to the Giant's Spine, covering up his mortal wounds, pretending to be a wanderer banished by the Horde, and staying in the nameless town for a short time, until he was accidentally discovered his secret and had to flee again.

For months, Bazel wandered among the mountains and forests of the north, lonely and angry. He wasn't as afraid of sunlight as the other undead, but that didn't give him much comfort. He had stood in the sun for long periods of time, but he had not felt the slightest warmth, just as he could not feel the chill of the ice and snow, the beating flames, the aroma of food......

He doesn't feel, he doesn't hurt, he doesn't get hungry, he doesn't get tired...... Sometimes he even feels that he has become the invincible and powerful warrior of his dreams, but he has nowhere to go and no home.

No one will accept his existence.

He was hunted down - different people. In the end, he was caught by a middle-aged man who was not good-looking and tired.

It was also a necromancer, and instead of returning him to Toom, he gave him to their leader.

Bazel had never seen such a beautiful woman, with black hair and green eyes, and red lips as bright as blood—but it was a complete demon.

They tried to find out the secret of how he could "live" like this. It was the most terrible day Bazel had ever experienced - not feeling pain, not being able to calmly watch his body being dissected day after day, even watching his scalp turned in front of his eyes......

The people who do it all have different faces, but have the same cold and proud tone. The woman never did it herself...... She just smiled and watched curiously.

Bazel doesn't remember when he broke down. He began to cry and beg for real death, but it was the only thing they wouldn't give him.

When he was already completely desperate, he was given an unexpected opportunity.

There is more than one prisoner in the dungeon of the female mage. One night they suddenly started moving everyone to another place. In the midst of the confusion, probably thinking that he had completely lost the strength to resist, someone randomly untied the chains from his body, and he smashed the guy's head against the wall with a single punch.

His body is still strong and powerful.

He was lucky enough to escape again, but he knew that they would never let him go, and he had to turn back and flee to the ice field—and now, if he could die at the hands of his own people, and his soul would be freed from the flames, it would be the best outcome for him.

But he didn't expect that Tum was still looking for him.

Not long after returning to the ice field, he was captured by his "companions" who had briefly spent time at the spine of the former giants, and the belated old mage with his schoolboy took revenge on Bazel - he turned all those who tried to ambush him into undead.

He is old and dying, but he still has a strength that ordinary people cannot match.

Realizing this didn't quench the flame of revenge burning in Bazel's heart, but the old mage he had deceived once was so cautious that he couldn't find any chance at all, only to become a miserable prisoner and test subject once again.

At some point, Hoan began to crouch at the edge of his cage and talk to him, and he unconsciously began to respond—presumably because they were all too lonely.

Hoan would occasionally tap his arm...... That was the gentlest and most affectionate treatment that Bazel had ever received since he became an immortal "monster".

The barbarians almost wept over this...... But he had no tears to shed.

Even so, Bazel never thought that Hoan, the weak and pale teenager, would risk saving him. Even when he was bound to the stone platform and watched the tip of the knife emerge from the old mage's chest, he couldn't believe his eyes.

Huo An silently stabbed a short knife into the back of the old mage's heart, and even had a shy smile on his face when he did it.

“...... Why?"

The old mage asked in his near-death convulsions, "I saved you." ”

"For freedom. Joan replied, "My ...... and his. ”

He pointed to Bazel.

The old mage laughed hysterically.

"You ...... forever Unable to be free, he ...... The same. ”

-- His last words were more like a curse.

"We will. But Hoan told Bazel, "We're going to get what we want...... If we want it all to the death. ”

But first, they have to live.

At Hoan's suggestion, they leave the ice field and return to the human forest, where they find Hoan's "teacher", Jay Oylan. Hoan claimed that Oylan would help Bazel...... But Bazel is increasingly skeptical of this.

Oylan repaired his body, and even seemed to be enjoying it, but he was clearly more concerned about what kind of power was hidden in the mirror that Joan had brought back than he had helped Bazel.

And Bazel didn't want to wait any longer...... Or wait until Oylan creates a "monster" like him.

(To be continued......)