Hao Xuan raised the glaive, pointing it at the burly man.

"Choose, him or yourself?"

The man's frown deepened by several degrees. He looked at Hao Xuan and then at Ensis from the corner of his eyes.

Thinking that even he wouldn't last long if he was besieged by two people in this place, especially with the necklace still on his body.

"Listen to me, I don't know who you are or what you want, but we cannot fight here," he said in such a calm manner that it took Hao Xuan by surprise. Amused and curious, he decided to humor him.

"And why is that?"

"That- I can't say," he shook his head hesitantly. "But know that I'm not lying. There is no reason to. That fire, the second it burns out we will be in big trouble," he pointed at the 12 still burning torches on the ground not far from them. The blue flame was flickering lightly, hanging on by a thread.

"What is that flame?" Hao Xuan gestured towards it with his chin.

"It's a wormwood flame. Its only function is-"

"To keep away the spirits of the dead!" Baracus suddenly cut in with a shaky voice. This was the first time Hao Xuan had heard the panic in Baracus's tone of voice.

Hao Xuan's smirk vanished as he looked at the numerous corpses just a few dozen meters away from him.

"Spirits of the dead…?"

The burly man faltered when Hao Xuan finished his sentence. How could someone here know the function of a wormwood flame?

But it was good that he knew. He wouldn't have to explain everything to Hao Xuan if he got the gist of the situation. He peeked at the 3rd man behind him, inwardly urging him to finish the prayer faster.

The man let out a sigh of relief but froze stiff when he heard Hao Xuan's next words.

"Doesn't matter. Not the first time I've seen the dead come to life. I'll just choose for you since you seem to be dragging it out on purpose."

"WHA- WAIT! You fool!"

*Clang*

He managed to raise his daggers just in time to block the meter-long curved blade of Hao Xuan's glaive that was aiming for his head. The man's expression turned livid. He couldn't believe how unreasonable his opponent was.

His eyes became resolute as gritted his teeth. He grabbed the necklace hanging from his neck and pulled, breaking it into several pieces.

"Fine! So be it!"

*Whoosh*

A surge of concentrated Qi erupted from the man's body. His cultivation which was temporarily sealed away by the necklace's power erupted like a volcano. Spirit Realm 9th Stage!

Hao Xuan's eyes narrowed when he felt the man's cultivation level. It felt like he was standing in front of a torrential wave.

'The necklace really was hiding it' he thought while tightening his grip around the glaive's shaft.

"Help me take him down," he said to Ensis through their soul connection. Ensis nodded back and unleashed his full power. His bloodline was activated in its entirety.

The seven blades hovering above his head started quivering as a layer of black energy surrounded them. Ensis's appearance started to change as well. The black energy twisted and turned, surrounding Ensis completely.

It formed a robe around his body which looked extremely simple without any engravings or designs but gave off an undeniable aura of sturdiness.

Seeing Ensis take out everything in his arsenal, Hao Xuan knew the situation wasn't as simple as he had initially thought. Rather than playing around with the man, he decided to go all out as well.

"Infernal Rapture: 2nd Strike"

Streaks of black lightning covered Hao Xuan 's arms and then proceeded to do the same to the entirety of the glaive, making it let out a whirring sound, like it was getting windup.

"Assault of the Mad God!"

His arms which were already quite muscular swelled up even more, changing to a shade of black. All the energies were gleefully running throughout his body.

The burly man's eyes became serious and his forehead unconsciously creased up.

He knew both of the attackers were only at the beginning stages of the Spirit realm so he was expecting to finish the fight quickly, before those fiendish creatures got his scent, but it looked like that wasn't going to be the case anymore.

"Fine, remember kid, you asked for this," he said in a low voice while activating his trump card.

"Hngh!"

The space around him distorted. It looked like there was an invisible layer of 'something' around him.

"Go!" Hao Xuan shouted.

Ensis and Hao Xuan both jumped towards him together, one from the back and one from the front.

The dagger in the man's hands started glowing with a yellow light. He used the left one to block Hao Xuan, and the other to stab at Ensis and the seven swords.

In an instant, his right hand stabbed out more than 10 times. Even Ensis was taken by surprise at the speed of the man's attacks. He had to use the sword in his hand to deflect the attacks to the sides.

Meanwhile, Hao Xuan felt like he was trying to push away a rampaging elephant. How could that flimsy little dagger be this heavy?

It was actually the yellow color of the dagger that should have been the biggest clue. The daggers were imbued with weight inscriptions. This meant that the burly man could control their weight at will, up to a certain limit.

They could be as light as feathers, or as heavy as entire mountains.

It seemed like the man was a true professional and an expert at using the daggers. He alternated their weights in the blink of an eye. When he was blocking they would become heavy, and light when he attacked.

Along with his superb technique and accuracy, it seemed like he had the upper hand. The daggers left yellowish arc's in the air that thrummed for several seconds.

Black also joined in the fight and attacked whenever there was a chance.

Deafening booms continuously reverberated in the chamber whenever they met.

A few minutes went by like this and the 3rd man that was chanting next to the altar threw up a mouthful of blood and fell down to his knees.

The altar started shaking and then lifted up off the ground. It started decreasing in size until it was nothing more than a speck of dust, at which point it turned into a ray of light and shot towards the man's forehead, vanishing within.

"I-It's done!" he shouted weakly before passing out.

*Rumble*

The platform shook once and then cracked right across the middle.

*Whooooosh*

A breeze started blowing in the enclosed chamber. There were no windows or openings other than the one entrance they all came through, so this caught everyone's attention.

The burly man glanced towards the flickering flame which was on the verge of going out. There were only 2 torches left now.

'Not good, they're almost awake!' he looked around worriedly.

But no matter how he tried he couldn't get rid of Hao Xuan and Company. He had tried escaping several times but they stuck to him like glue.

*Crrrrrrrrrr* (Google Kayako Saeki sound, that's what this is supposed to be like)

As soon as that crackling sound reached the burly man's ears, his entire frame shook. He snapped his head to the right, looking towards the sea of corpses with narrowed eyes.

Ensis took the opportunity and stabbed, impaling the man with 3 of the floating swords. Yet the man still didn't look away.

With a deep frown, Hao Xuan followed his line of sight and saw something that would give him nightmares for a long time.

The corpses were pushed away as semi-transparent flickering silhouettes started appearing above them. 1, 2, 10, 30, 500, 10,000, there was no limit. Every second more and more of them came out and stood atop the corpse sea.

They didn't even remotely resemble humans beings.

With elongated bony limbs, 3-4 times the size of the main bodies, a few strands of hair waving above their scalps and small disjointed heads moving around independently from their bodies, these nightmarish creatures were enough to scare even the bravest of warriors. (Pic in author note)

Horrendous wails echoed in the chamber, announcing the arrival of the beings from beyond the veil.

****

Authors Notes:

Original link: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/24/b7/06/24b706a4e1f6e1dba07759362d2fefb6.jpg

Short link: https://urlzs.com/UoSWu

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