Lian did not want the entire skull to collapse, and besides.
His mana intensified, his heartbeat rose, and his power, speed, and reactions increased in an instant.
He went straight among the six puppet bodies.
Glacial Reaper Claw formed on his hand.
With the first movement, he cut one’s spear, and the second strike slammed the puppet body into the wall.
Ice spread from the impact point on the strands and slowed their movement.
The second body attacked from the side. Lian sank the claw into its chest, but there was no core inside the body.
These were only carriers. He threw the body aside and continued his path toward the core.
Seris moved on the other side. King’s Edge cut the white strands at precise points each time.
She did not destroy the bodies; she severed their connection. With each cut of a strand bundle, one of the bodies fell to the ground and became still.
The combined Grave Doppelgänger rose again.
Half of its face was broken, but it was still moving. It came toward Lian with an imitation of Thunder Step.
This time faster than before, and its bone sword moved toward Lian’s back.
Seris sent a strike without looking. The silver blade collided with the fake sword and deflected its path.
Lian took advantage of the opportunity and reached for the core.
He released Cataclysm Pulse again, but this time, he sent the wave directly into the black mass.
The core’s pulse faltered for a moment. The strands trembled, the walls contracted, and the core became unstable.
Seris covered the distance in one step. King’s Edge was concentrated on her blade.
All the force gathered at the sword’s tip. She sent a direct strike, and the blade passed through the core’s center.
For a moment, everything stopped. Then the core split in half, and a black liquid splashed from inside.
All the white strands tightened simultaneously, then fell motionless on the ground. The Varkesh bodies collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut.
The combined Grave Doppelgänger was only a few steps away from Lian.
Its ice claw was raised, but before the attack could be completed, its body began to crumble.
The silver part of the hair turned to dust, the bone sword cracked.
The skin on its face separated, the strands fell from inside its body, and this time, nothing returned them to the wall.
The creature fell on its knee.
"I... better..." For the last time, it said in the combined voice of Lian and Seris.
Its sentence was not completed. Its body collapsed into a mass of black bone and white tissue.
The skull began to tremble. The occupying core had kept part of the structure alive.
With its death, the inner walls cracked, and parts of the ceiling collapsed.
Bone powder fell like rain.
"Outside." Lian said.
They moved at the same time.
One was waiting outside the entrance. Its anxiety intensified through Hive Link.
Lian and Seris jumped out of the eye socket, landed on One’s back, and Lian gave the command to retreat.
The ant distanced itself from the skull at full speed. A few seconds later, part of the eye socket collapsed, and massive bone pieces crashed to the ground.
A wave of white powder spread through the Rib Passage.
But the entire skeleton was not destroyed. Only the contaminated inner part had collapsed. When the tremors ended, silence once again ruled over the valley.
Lian looked toward the center of the Giants’ Graveyard.
He called up the sitting giant’s panel.
[Status: Dormant — Awakening 5%]
The awakening percentage had increased by 3 percent!
3 percent! And that was only because of killing three monsters!
They had killed dozens of monsters before this and had barely gotten a 1 percent increase, so why had it suddenly gone up by 3 percent?
Did that mean there was a specific reason? Because these were stronger? Their species was different? Or this area is different?
System notifications appeared before Lian’s view one after another.
[You have killed an Occupying Grave Core level 28.]
[The area under the occupying core’s control has been freed.]
Lian kept his gaze on the last notification. So the occupying core did not only live inside the skull.
It also affected the surrounding environment. This made him curious whether there were more monsters of this kind.
This was the first time he had seen such a thing. The occupying core itself had no combat or defensive power, but it could create clones.
Its clones were not weak either. It had been able to create two Fallen ones!
Of course, they were not as powerful as real Fallen ones. If Lian wanted to rank them, they were the weakest Fallen ones he had ever seen.
"There are probably more of these in the Giants’ Graveyard."
After the bone powder settled, Lian approached the skull’s remains again.
Seris moved beside him.
One remained outside.
The interior was almost destroyed. The white strands were dry and blackened.
The six Varkesh bodies were lying on the ground. For the first time after years or generations, their bodies had been freed from the wall.
Lian bent down next to one of the bodies. Something dark was visible under its arm.
A piece of black bone. At first, he thought it was part of the contamination, but there were regular lines and writings on its surface.
He examined it. No living flow was seen in it. There were no strands or active mana.
He carefully picked it up. The bone’s surface was divided into several sections.
Some parts were broken, some sections were contaminated by the core’s black liquid and could no longer be read.
But the writings belonged to the Varkesh.
"What is it?" Seris asked.
Lian wiped the dust off it.
"It seems to be a report."
The Varkesh group had recorded everything they had seen on the path on this bone.
Creatures, paths, dangers, points where they could stop.
Their goal was to deliver the report to the tribe upon their return and keep it in the archive.
This mission was probably one of the Varkesh’s first attempts to explore the Giants’ Graveyard in depth.
But they had never had the chance to return. Most of the writing was destroyed.
The words were incomplete, sentences were cut off in the middle, and only recognizable fragments remained.
"Creatures without eyes... inside the bones... don’t believe the sounds..."
"The chain’s trail... movement in the mist..."
But none were complete. Lian turned the bone piece. On the back side, a deeper line was carved.
Probably the last sentence one of the group members had written before death.
This part had remained more intact than the rest.
Seris moved closer to take a look as well.
Lian read the writing.
"After any bloodshed in ###... when the chain sound stops, don’t move." The two looked at each other.
The chain sound...?
"What do you think it means?" Seris asked curiously.
"I have no idea. They didn’t write anything more to understand their meaning. It’s not even clear where they meant bloodshed." Lian had no opinion.
The part that said "bloodshed in" was erased in front, and it was not clear exactly where they meant.
In the end, they shook their heads and placed the bone in Lian’s storage space. There was nothing else there that caught their attention, and they left the skull.
They wanted to mount One when suddenly...
"Shhhhhhhhhhhh..."
Suddenly, both of their ears perked up, and at that same moment, a sound was heard from the depth of the Rib Passage.
The dragging of a massive metal on bone... a chain.
The sound moved calmly and regularly in the mist.
Once.
Twice.
The third time.
Lian raised his head, Seris placed her hand on her sword’s hilt, ready to engage again.
The chain sound continued... closer... heavier... and then suddenly stopped.