Reborn As A Nephilim: The Rise of A Manaless Prince
Chapter 31 The Perfect Bait

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Now let's get on back to the story...

***

ALGREPPA MOUNTAIN RANGE

7 HOURS AFTER ARVELL AND ZEN ENTERED THE TUNEL

(ROAR)

(SCREEEEE)

(GROWL)

Zen paled as the loud noises seemed to get closer and closer to their location.

It seemed as if it was only a matter of time before the two became beast food.

"Can't they just give up? It's been 7 hours for crying out loud!" Zen lamented.

Unfortunately, the beasts seemed keen on having him for dinner.

No negotiations.

Arvell sighed.

No matter how much they wined or complained, nothing about their current situation would change.

The noise would help them get found faster if anything.

'It seems like I need to use some 'bait'.'

Arvell looked at Zen with an annoyed expression.

'We are using that huh? It might hurt you in the long run, but I agree. It's better to sacrifice that than risk your life.'

Lykos nodded at his suggestion.

Zen felt a bead of sweat run down when he saw Arvell's annoyed gaze.

'Surely he isn't going to sacrifice me right? He's not that kind of person right?'

Zen began panicking.

If Arvell wanted to leave him, there was nothing he could do.

Arvell had already recovered his strength and could walk on his own, so there was no real value for him in keeping Zen with him.

In fact, Zen's only value right now was as bait so that Arvell could save himself.

'I came so far! There's no way I'm going to die here! I'm finally almost home!' Zen frantically thought.

"Zen I have a favour I need to ask of you. By the way, I'm not taking no as an answer."

Beads of sweat began dripping down Zen's forehead, as his body started shivering.

He winced.

'Here it comes…'

"I need to use the bathroom, so could you go a little bit farther down the path? I'll catch up to you."

Hearing that Arvell wanted him to continue on the path while he stayed behind, Zen opened his eyes wide in shock.

Was Arvell trying to sacrifice himself to save him?

Zen wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but he couldn't.

He didn't want Arvell to sacrifice himself to save him.

Arvell had done enough for him. Giving up his life for Zen was simply too much.

'I won't let him die alone. If I ran away and let my benefactor die, could I really call myself a Silvercolt?'

With resolute eyes, Zen shook his head.

"I won't leave! I won't let you be here alone."

Arvell's expression soured.

"So you want to watch me pee… Do you have some kind of weird fetish?"

He looked at Zen with eyes reflecting his disgust.

Feeling offended Zen tried to clear up the misunderstanding.

"Of course, I don't mean it like that! I won't let you sacrifice yourself to save me!"

Arvell's mood somehow got even worse.

"Who the hell is sacrificing their life for you? I value my life and I'm not planning on being a sacrifice so you can escape."

He put his hand on his forehead and took a deep breath.

"Here if you want proof, if I don't come back in two minutes you can come and join me. Also, you can keep the torch, I don't need it."

Realizing that his proposition made sense, Zen wandered off with the torch, leaving Arvell in the darkness.

After making sure Zen had properly left, Arvell breathed out a sigh of relief.

'He finally left. Also,' Arvell angrily looked at Lykos who was suppressing a burst of laughter, 'if you say anything about us being gay, I will end you.'

Wiping a tear from his eye, Lykos nodded his head.

'Fine, fine, whatever you say.'

Arvell turned away from Arvell and faced the direction in which he entered the cave.

[Inventory]

He opened his inventory and let two pitch-black skeletons slowly exit.

The two were fully equipped with gear he had stolen from the bandits he had killed before.

These two skeletons were the undead he summoned through his undead summoning skill.

They were formed of pure death energy derived from Arvell's Nether.

According to Lykos, undead created via nether were beings comprised entirely of death energy.

If one were to use it on a corpse, they would be able to revive the corpse with a portion of the original body's strength and control it as a mindless puppet.

However, Arvell's skeletons were a little different.

While using pre-existing dead was convenient since they would retain a portion of their original strength immediately after being brought back to 'life', their growth potential was extremely limited.

Arvell's two skeletons which he named Sepis and Nord, were beings born entirely out of Nether.

They were beings that were technically categorized under 'undead', but they never died in the first place.

The two of them were created like this.

Meaning they were dead from birth.

Arvell was quite confused about how undead could be born while dead, but Lykos told him to not worry about it too much. Simply telling him to think of them as beings born of Nether.

Unlike corpses that were brought back to life, Sepis and Nord were extremely fragile when they were born.

A small wolf pup even ran off with one of Sepis's leg bones.

It took Nord and Arvell almost 30 minutes to get it back.

Nonetheless, Arvell didn't regret his decision.

According to Lykos, while these two skeletons were weak right now, they would get far stronger than corpse-summoned undead.

His two skeletons possessed an ability to learn, as well as get stronger in proportional to Arvell's strength.

While the strength of corpse-summoned undead was based on their previous life, Arvell's skeletons were based on his strength.

After he taught the skeletons a portion of his god-slaying swordsmanship, the two became killing machines.

Zalcon's bandit group as well as other similarly unfortunate victims can personally attest to it.

Arvell stripped Sepis and Nord of their gear, leaving them with nothing to cover their obsidian bones.

"I want you two to serve as bait to keep the beasts busy."

The only things he left them with were two swords, one for each. Having a sword would let them be able to stall for relatively longer.

These swords were poorly maintained ones he had stolen from bandits.

They weren't even worth that much.

The skeletons chattered their teeth in understanding.

Arvell shared a telepathic link with these skeletons being their summoner.

It was similar to the link that he shared with Lykos, but he could directly share the skeleton's senses as well as read their mind.

Somethings he couldn't do with Lykos.

Lykos could read his mind for some reason, but Arvell couldn't do the same.

It frustrated him at times, but he stopped caring about it after a certain point.

He felt like it would piss him off even more to know all the teasing remarks Lykos had for him.

Sepis and Nord didn't feel any fear, since they could simply be summoned again when Arvell wanted.

Even if they 'died' it wouldn't be a permanent death.

They were essentially the perfect bait.

They felt no pain, didn't mind dying and could be brought back to life whenever Arvell wanted.

The one problem was that he would need to expend Nether to bring them back.

If he ran out of Nether and took a lethal wound…

Well, that would be the end of the story of Arvell.

Sepis ran down the tunnel followed by Nord, while Arvell went in the opposite direction.

He called out when he saw the orange-coloured light that indicated the presence of a fire.

Namely Zen's torch.

"Zen I'm done."

Zen looked at Arvell and breathed a sigh of relief.

"You really just went to use the bathroom."

"That's what I said."

Arvell kept walking without stopping.

"We need to hurry up. We have another two hours of walking left before being able to leave the tunnel."

"Yes!"

***

VISPIA COUNTRY NORTHERN BORDER CAMP

(BOOM)

A fist crashed onto a table that showed the map of the surroundings.

Wood Splinters and flag-bearing pieces went flying across the room.

In the middle of the room, a young man with chestnut-coloured hair was scowling like a demon.

His eyes resembled those of a man who rejected reality itself.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing… It had to be a mistake.

Next to him, his twin sister had an equally distraught expression.

She too was desperately trying to deny what she had just heard.

"haah haah," Tristan panted.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN MY KID BROTHER IS DEAD? THIS HAS TO BE A MISTAKE! HE'S THE PRINCE FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"

Normally his sister would reprimand him for his language.

The first prince of Vispia shouldn't use crass language, but she didn't care about that right now.

She was more focused on the information that she heard.

"Arv's dead? This can't be… I refuse to accept it!"

'Wait… this must be a dream! No wonder! I just need to wake myself up! Arvell's waiting for me, I can't keep him waiting for too long!'

She brought her hand next to her cheek and gave herself a resounding slap.

However, all that managed to do was leave a deep red mark on her otherwise flawless skin.

'Why won't I wake up? Why… Is this not a dream?'

Seeing his sister slap herself on the face, Tristan took her into his embrace and hugged her.

Tears began welling up in Alecia's eyes.

She grabbed Tristan's shirt and screamed into it.

Tristan's shirt became drenched in Alecia's tears, but he didn't seem to mind.

Slowly his anger subsided into grief and he joined his sister, crying while embarrassing her.

'How could this happen? We were only gone for six months… How could my little brother die? Why… Why didn't anyone protect him?'

Ignoring the messenger in the room, the two cried for what seemed like hours before Tristan looked up at the messenger with his tear-filled eyes.

"How… How did this happen?"

He needed to know…

What he heard however turned his overwhelming grief into pure unbridled rage.