---Viktor's POV---

  Just as the glowing orb was questioning its life choices, Edgar had already dug out all my bones.

  I watched as he erected a barrier at the spot to shield against the raging magical winds. The translut dome of energy rippled as it deflected the harsh gusts, creating a pocket of calm around us.

  At least we won't have to shout over the wind anymore, I thought as my scattered bones began to move.

  My white bones made a crag sound as they assembled on the ground into a plete skeleton. Because the bone fractures were resolved with 10 points of divine power, my skeletal frame erfectly intact, showing no signs of severe injury.

  Well, at least divine power made food bone glue.

  Two clusters of ghostly blue soul fire ignited within my skull's eye sockets, bringing me fully back to life.

  Let's see... arms, legs... everything where it should be. More or less.

  I moved my neck around to ensure my head was still attached and cheerfully greeted my old friend.

  "Good m, Edgar."

  I'd mao evade the pursuits of numerous churches for hundreds of years, and of course, I hadn't do alone.

  No matter how powerful or dominant the church's influence was, there would always be those who defied vention. Thus, I had created an anization called The Watchers, specifically recruiting those without divine faith, and eveics" who were anti-god.

  The anization's daily tasks were to prevent gods from breaking free of their coffins and resurreg, oppose all the churches, and occasionally solve each other's problems.

  Although the anization had few members, every one of them was exceptional.

  Take Edgar, for instance.

  He was once a holy knight nurtured by the Radiant Church from childhood—a human prodigy with the highest magical talent discovered in the turies following the fall of the God of Light.

  By age 20, he had been grahe title of "Knight of Dawn" and was the undisputed didate for the pope.

  Unfortunately, on his path to being pope, he met me.

  After my persuasive ramblings, Edgar came to an "enlightened" realization about the importance of gods—they were important precisely because the absence of gods was important for humanity and all races.

  And so, he decisively defected from the Radiant Churd ended up on the church's wanted list alongside me.

  "There's no such thing as m on the Frostwind Pins," Edgar said, gng back at the bones he'd dug up and the bloodied, ruined altar.

  Still the same old Edgar. That frown hasn't ged a bit.

  I could see his slight frown at the smell of blood in the air. Many people had died on these pins, and in the process of finding me, Edgar had dug up more bohan I ever had. It must have been an enormous effort.

  "It's really not easy to find you. Thirty years without seeing you, and you've mao get yourself into this state again?"

  I propped myself up with my skeletal hand and barely sat upright. "A failed experiment, coupled with your old church chasing me down. I actally suffered a minor injury."

  "Don't move," Edgar ordered, examining my damaged frame. "These fractures... what exactly did you do this time?"

  "Would you believe me if I said I tripped?"

  "No."

  "Good, because I didn't. If you'd arrived four days ter, you'd have been digging up a real skeleton."

  I tried to stand but, after a few attempts, gave up and sat back down.

  Being buried wasn't too bad, but now that I was out, every part of me hurt. My body was riddled with the side effects of a failed forbidden magic spell. It felt like there was a giant funnel inside me, stantly leaking my magical energy.

  Edgar immediately held me down. "This will hurt."

  "I'm a skeleton. Everything hurts."

  "Then this will hurt more."

  He then took out the magic potion he'd brought and began emergency treatment.

  I had an uhy obsession with forbidden magic to restore my humanity, and this wasn't the first time I'd been injured.

  Edgar had plenty of experience resg me, so the treatme quickly.

  A skeleton only had bones left, after all, so there wasn't much to treat. Recovery potions could be applied directly to the bohe more plicated part was treating the spiritual damage.

  I watched as his frown deepened while treating me. I knew I was too gravely ihis time. Even the worst injuries he'd treated for me in the past didn't amount to a tenth of this.

  My cim of "four days left" wasn't an exaggeration.

  Once he fihe emergency treatment, his expression turned serious.

  "Your injuries are far too severe. I only prevent them from worsening for now. You o leave here immediately for proper healing."

  "This wait. I won't die just yet." I leaned against a broken rod gnced behind Edgar. "Just you today? I'm hurt. Metaphorically, I mean. Literally too, but... Are you the only one here?"

  If I remembered correctly, my distress signal should have reached all the members of The Watchers.

  After all, I was still their leader. If their leader was injured, wouldn't more than one person e to save me? That seemed a little heartless, didn't it?

  Edgar's gaze turned shadowy, as though he had anticipated this questiouck his shovel into the ground and began listing names.

  "The siren is preparing for the ritual to resurrect the God of Sea, so Cire had to deal with that first."

  "Always something with those gods..."

  "The Elf King is gravely ill, so Kasha had to return to the Elven Forest."

  "The king still sick?"

  "Getting worse. And Ludwig ged back by his smen… I was the only one free enough to e to your rescue."

  Though his voice was devoid of emotion, I could hear the rese between the lines. "When was the st time you actually checked on anyone?"

  I let out an awkward ugh. "I've been busy! Do you know how hard it is to run from churches AND do forbidden magic research? That's exactly the problem. Ahaha… well, it seems like everyone's been… um, living a colorful life?"

  Over the past few years, I'd beelessly pursued by the Radiant Church. And my resear neantic resurreagic had made some progress. In the chaos, I had ed the anization's ma.

  As a leader, I had admittedly failed a bit…

  I paused briefly before asking nontly, "And Serkan? You haven't mentioned him. Why didn't I hear his name?"

  A long pause followed.

  "…He died of old age."

  My ughter stopped abruptly.

  After a long silence, my voice dropped two tones lower. "Yeah, I guess it's about time. Fifteen years ago, he asked me to turn him..." I started.

  "I remember."

  "If I'd just had those herbs..."

  "Don't. You know he wouldn't want that."

  The st time I had seen the dwarven craftsman was 15 years ago. Back then, Serkan had asked me to turn him into an uo extend his life. Unfortunately, I had been missing two key magical herbs at the time, so nothing came of it.

  The atmosphere seemed to turn cold.

  Edgar calmly put away the potion bottles. "We're down to single digits now."

  "Quality over quantity?" I tried weakly.

  "Not funny, Viktor." Edgar shot back. "I'm telling you this so you'll stop messing around. We don't have many people left."

  My obsession with forbidden neantic magic was driven by my desire to shed my undead identity and bee human again. But progress ainfully slow, and for turies, I hadn't succeeded once.

  Each failed attempt left me severely injured and created remnants of failed uransformations—human limbs. Moreover, the raw materials for these experiments were monster corpses.

  Undead, bck magic, human limbs, and mohese four words alone were enough to fuel endless horrific rumors among the ignorant popuce. As a result, my already notorious reputation had worsened over the past two turies.

  I was now infamously known as the "Butcher."

  Evechers anization had been affected. No new members had joined in over a tury. And now, yet another old member was gohe group's numbers had officially fallen to single digits.

  The remaining members were all tangled up in their own troubles and couldn't even gather in one pce.

  At this rate, the anization's plete colpse was only a matter of me saying the word...

  Edgar extended his hand, his weathered face showing that tired but stubborn look I'd growo over our tury together.

  "e on, we o find a magiode within four days to save your half-buried body."

  Always straight to business, aren't you, old friend?

  Being an undead had its perks.

  Though I retained all my memories, which made me special among the undead, I also ied their remarkable resilience. Even injuries affeg my core soul fme could recover quickly with suffit magic power.

  Thank goodness for that—otherwise, with my tendenpletely drain my magic reserves every few decades, I would have destroyed myself long ago.

  Right now, my injuries looked severe, but preliminary estimates suggested that burying me in a rge magiode and f me into sleep mode for twenty or thirty years would fully restore me.

  However...

  Large magiodes were mostly trolled by powerful nations and churches, or located in monster-ied no-man's nds. The closest potential rge magiode was in the Great Oak Forest, more than a hundred kilometers away.

  Edgar could travel there easily on his own. But with me in tow, it would take at least a full day to reach the destination—assuming no enters with monsters along the way that would waste time. Add iime o locate the exact position of the magiode, and the situation was tight. We had to act immediately.

  "Wait!" I didn't take Edgar's hand. "Where are you pnning to take me?"

  "Of course, the Great Oak Forest," Edgar replied matter-of-factly.

  "Aly where they expect us to go," I muttered.

  "Since when do you care about being predictable?"

  "I'm occasionally capable."

  He g me with a slight frowe my grievous injuries, I remained scious—an impossible state for any other race.

  "Only pces with monsters will have uncimed magiodes that help you recover. The Great Oak Forest is dangerous, but it's safer for you than any humalement. What are you afraid of?"

  "It's not fear, it's... strategy."

  "Strategy. You." His voice was ft with disbelief.

  I knew undead in a false-death state were almost indistinguishable from ordinary bones. Monsters had low intelligence, so if I were buried for a couple of decades, I'd wake up perfectly fine.

  It wasn't Edgar's first time dealing with something like this, so I uood his fusion at my sudden about the pn's safety.

  I shook my head, then nodded again.

  "It's a long story. Just help me find a small magiode to keep me going. I woer sleep mode this time."

  "And the real reason is...?"

  "'t a skeleton have his secrets?"

  Edgar frowned but didn't argue. He nodded instead. "Fine."

  The Radiant Church's people were nearby, and they already knew I was seriously ihey had likely headed to the kne magiodes in the Great Oak Forest, lying in wait for us. Finding a smaller magiode would also allow us to avoid these pursuers.

  I was surprised by his quick agreement. "Not going to ask why I'm doing this?"

  "Why?" Edgar repeated without muterest.

  "'t you be a little more sincere? We've known each other for nearly a hundred years. Aren't you going to try to persuade me?"

  "Would you listen if I tried?"

  "No."

  He narrowed his eyes slightly with a "See? I k" look, which made me feel a bit embarrassed.

  "Ahem, don't freak out when I tell you this."

  He was about to nod but hesitated. "Usually, when you say something like that, it's never good news. Last time you said that, we ended up digging twice as many skeletons."

  "No, this time it's definitely good news." I suddenly spoke with serious vi. "Because we're about to wele a massive batch of reinforts. As the leader of anization, of course, I 't go to sleep now."

  "Think about it—no more digging for skeletons in the wilderness!"

  "That's what you said st time," he sighed. "It always is."

  "But with our reputation, how did you mao find new recruits iia?"

  I scratched my head.

  "Teically, I didn't find them iia. It's a long story..."

  "Then make it short." Edgar interrupted. "What do you need me to do?"

  I khe Watchers' biggest problem right now was manpower. If we had enough people, Edgar wouldn't have to avoid the Radiant Church's pursuers just to find an uncimed magiode. Even if the reinforts could only help with grunt work, it would be wele.

  At the very least, as a former holy knight of the Radiant Church, he wouldn't have to do the ridiculous task of digging for skeletons in the wilderness.

  I noticed his usually stone-cold face softening at the thought.

  I gave a thumbs-up. "That's all I o hear!"

  "I o find a magiode to temporarily suppress my injuries. I don't care how big it is, but it has to be far from any kingdom's territories. There also o be water nearby and enough arable nd—enough to grow crops to sustain at least a hundred people."

  "Anything else? Perhaps a nice view and room service?"

  "Well, now that you mention it..."

  "I'm leaving you here if you finish that sentence," Edgar cut in ftly. Then he lowered his head and pondered for a moment before firmly nodding. "But I find you that magiode and the farmnd."

  ---

  The small glowing orb in my inner sanctum was dumbfounded.

  "A holy knight just... agreeing like that?" it muttered in disbelief. "Without even asking the important questions?"

  I could feel its agitation growing.

  "Let me get this straight," the orb tinued. "You waile nd—which is already cimed by every kingdom out there. You want a magiode far from any kingdom—which is basically moerritory. And you somehow need water and enough farmnd for a hundred people?"

  The orb's glow flickered in what I assumed was frustration. "Where are these hundred people even ing from? I've been with you all day! All you've done is mess around with that strange blue light! You 't possibly..."

  It paused, its glow dimming slightly.

  "Wait. You're not suggesting you pull people out of that light orb, are you?"

  Shush, you. Adults are talking.

  ---

  Edgar picked up my skeletal frame and stood up, ready to leave.

  "Wait, let me take a picture first!"

  I struggled back down, my ghostly blue eye fmes flickering.

  After rec Edgar and the desote Frostwind Pins behind him, I climbed bato his back.

  "Okay, let's go."

  "You're keeping a lot of secrets tely," he muttered softly.

  Saying nothing more, he picked up his worn-out hoe and quickly leaped into a.

  ---Logan's POV---

  I couldn't sleep. All I did was toss and turn in bed, my brain stu that icles of Aeltia website I saw earlier. Like an itch I just couldn't scratch.

  It was just a terrible website. Why couldn't I stop thinking about it?

  Maybe because terrible websites didn't usually have army-sized bot campaigns?

  If a pa so far as to hire this many bots for publicity, they must have really made progress with virtual reality game teology, right?

  Just like the Skyrain pany. They had dared to release a cept trailer for herworld Revolution because they had retly acquired a brainwave sensing teology patent.

  I suddenly sat up and spped my forehead.

  "My brain really has been kicked by a donkey..."

  No matter how terrible the icles of Aeltia website looked, I couldn't suppress my curiosity about the game's alleged VR teology.

  Getting out of bed, I turned on the lights and sat at my desk. As I clicked into the herworld Revolution eion, I muttered. "What if the site I saw earlier was a knockoff? These days, fakes sta fakes. Who knows if that was the real official site?"

  I cursed my stubborn nature. If I weren't so single-minded, I wouldn't still be stu the game blogger life.

  Clig the same promotional link again, I watched as the loading s dragged on for ahree minutes, drumming my fingers impatiently on the desk.

  This better be worth it...

  My sense of dread grew stronger.

  Finally, the page loaded—this time with minor yout improvements. But the battle-scarred, war-torn theme still dominated.

  I sighed in disappoi.

  So the website I saw earlier really was the official one.

  Even if the icles of Aeltia developers had VR teology, at the pace they were going, who knew how many years it would take for the game to be finished?

  Maybe I should just call it a night...

  As I prepared to close the puter, something colorful caught my eye…