Lian did not react specifically to Seris’s words. Instead, he put together all the information he had.
From the moment they had entered the Giants’ Graveyard, it was clear they were being watched by something. At first, he thought it might just be normal monsters.
Then he realized that was not the case, and they were being watched by even stronger monsters like these Doppelgängers.
Now he understood to some extent why monsters did not want to go near this graveyard. The monsters living in this abandoned area were not normal.
All of them had undergone changes and mutations. An example was the pseudo-immortality that all the monsters in this graveyard possessed.
As long as the thing resembling a heart inside their bodies was not destroyed, they would regenerate and return to life every time. Second, they could use the wandering mist in this abandoned area.
As he had guessed before, the mist had hallucinogenic abilities, and the monsters in this area could manipulate it.
Now the question was, what caused these changes in the area’s monsters? Was it the mist itself? Or the residual effects of the massive battle that had formed this graveyard?
He thought for a moment and then let it go. It was not like the answer to this question mattered. In the end, he just had to massacre these monsters.
Lian then looked at the Doppelgänger and then at the living walls of the skull.
If more creatures appeared and this creature absorbed them, its power would increase every moment.
Fighting the bodies was not enough. They were puppets. The main source was elsewhere.
"We need to find the main core." Lian said. If his guess was correct, these creatures were probably just copies of the real source.
This real source was what had the ability to create Doppelgängers, and it was clear that whatever it was, it must be hidden in the walls of this skull.
"Let’s finish this quickly." Seris looked at the black veins on the wall.
The combined Grave Doppelgänger attacked.
On its bone sword, mana resembling King’s Edge gathered.
Unstable but dangerous, and the ice claw simultaneously came toward Lian.
He placed his hand on the skull’s wall, controlled his mana, and this time did not release Cataclysm Pulse for complete destruction.
He sent a narrow and controlled wave into the bone.
[Cataclysm Pulse]
The mana pulse entered the wall from his palm, passed through the bone layers, and for a moment, the interior of the skull transformed in his mind into a network of lines and cavities.
Cracks, black veins, white strands, and very thin connections that went from the Grave Doppelgänger’s body into the wall’s depth.
The creature was not independent. Strands controlled it like a puppet.
Every movement, every regeneration, every imitation was connected to a larger source.
It might seem strange, but it really wasn’t. Some monsters could only make multiple copies of themselves, like clones.
And this main source they were facing could create clones of others.
Lian sent the wave deeper. Behind the inner wall of the eye socket, exactly where the quiet knocks had been heard, he felt a large mass.
A dense center of contaminated mana.
The main source!
"It’s behind the wall."
"I’ll take it." Seris raised her sword.
The combined version lunged forward to stop them, and Abyss Veil formed around Lian.
The Grave Doppelgänger wanted to attack, but for a fraction of a second, it lost its target. More precisely, the target moved so fast that it couldn’t follow its movement.
Its ice claw split the empty space.
[Thunder Step]
This time, real thunder exploded inside the skull. Blue lightning ran over the ribs and bone walls.
Lian appeared behind the creature, activated Iron Fortress Charge, and his shoulder hit the Doppelgänger’s back.
The creature was thrown across the space at high speed and slammed into the center of the skull. Before it could get up, Seris stood in front of the identified wall.
King’s Breaker was activated again.
Heavy silver mana gathered on her sword. The first strike hit the wall, and a deep sound like breaking rock was heard.
The defensive power of the bone decreased at the contact point. Black and white cracks spread on the surface.
Seris took the second step.
[Silver Requiem]
Dozens of strikes landed on the same point simultaneously, each cut exactly on the cracks from the previous strike.
The bone lost its resistance, and a large part of the wall collapsed with an explosion of white powder.
Behind it, something was revealed that bore no resemblance to the natural interior of a bone. A large mass of white strands, black bones, and semi-transparent tissues.
And several bodies that had been absorbed into it. In the center of the mass, a black and massive core was pulsing.
Each pulse created a weak wave in the wall’s veins.
Six Lizardman bodies were seen around the core.
The members of the lost Varkesh group. The tribe’s old armor was still on their bodies, and the color of their scales had faded.
But their bodies, unlike the passage of time, remained almost intact.
White strands had passed through their mouths, eyes, ears, and the cracks in their armor.
They had kept them attached to the wall. One of the bodies suddenly raised its head.
Its eyes were empty, and its jaw opened with a dry movement.
It was neither alive nor aware. The network was only moving the body like a puppet.
Now the reason for the absence of any bodies at the camp was clear. The skull had swallowed them, pulling their bodies inside the wall.
It had extracted their memories, voices, movements, and perhaps their fears.
"So it wanted to pull us here to do the same thing to us?" Seris looked at the core mockingly.
She too realized what that corrupt and strange source had been planning all along. It wanted to lure them here to use them like the Varkesh as a source of food.
She even had a guess. This thing probably became more powerful the more food sources it had to feed on, and could create more Doppelgängers.
The core sensed the danger. All the strands suddenly tightened, and the six Varkesh bodies separated from the wall. Bone and tissue tore from around them.
Their feet landed on the ground with a dry sound. One held a rotten spear, and another held a short blade.
The third moved with bare hands, but white strands were protruding from its fingers.
They all came toward Lian and Seris at the same time. Seris raised her sword.
The mana around her suddenly changed, and the space became heavy. Silver light emerged from around the blade, and its pressure even pushed the bone powder on the ground aside.
For a moment, an image of a massive blade formed above Seris’s head.
Not complete, but clear enough to feel the skill’s destructive power.
[Heavenfall Execution]
"No." Lian said immediately.
"Why?"
"You’ll collapse the whole skull on our heads."
The massive aura remained for a few seconds, and the surrounding walls developed new cracks under the mana pressure.
Then Seris canceled the skill, and the light subsided.
"Okay."