Hilda and Lara who were looking at Alfred felt an ominous presence surrounding him. He smelled of death, which not only sent shivers down Hilda's spine, it actually made Lara a little bit afraid. This was a surprise for her ever since she trained with Ren, Lara thought he was at the pinnacle, but seeing the being in front of her she knew that this being was more powerful than Ren.
Lara for a second doubted Ren's victory which made her angry at herself. How could she doubt his victory?! Lara thinking this looked at the person in question. Ren who was in front of her was smiling boldly, even in the face of an opponent many times stronger than him Ren didn't falter. Instead, he looked like a kid eyeing a new toy he wants to play with.
...
Alfred looked at Ren a bit wary of the young man. Though his mana outclasses Ren's in quantity, Ren's mana was of better quality. The mana emanating from him looked like it wanted to devour everything in its path.
"They say the flow of mana within oneself could show what a person truly is inside. For example the mana flow of that lady over there." Alfred pointed at Lara.
"Her mana flow is icy cold, but deep within there is a fire burning ever so brightly. Then there is her the lady with a shield. Her mana flow is steady and fierce, this is usually how mana flows for true knights. Then finally there is you, the one who looks like the leader of the group. Your mana flow is overwhelming it looks like it wants to devour all. How truly fascinating..."
Hilda who was shocked by Alfred's presence was now facing him without fear. If their group kept on being silent, the idiot would most probably ask for a duel with Alfred or something similarly stupid.
'The first thing we need to do is gather information.' As Hilda thought of this she looked at the masked man and spoke.
"So Alfred can I ask you a question?" Hilda spoke as politely as she could, which made Alfred chuckle.
"What is your question young lady?" Hilda hearing Alfred's reply almost sighed in relief but was able to hold herself back. She looked at Ren who looked like he was calmly watching the exchange between the two, but if you look more closely you would see his hands trembling. It was obvious he was itching for a fight. Hilda needed to quicken this conversation before Ren couldn't take it anymore and attack.
"What have you done with the villagers?" The moment Hilda asked this question Alfred laughed.
"I was waiting for you to ask that." The man moved forward closing in on the three, once he was in a more comfortable distance he continued his answer.
"It was an experiment I was trying to revive them."
"Revive?... You wanted to resurrect them?" Hilda questioned, while Ren hearing the term revive tensed up a bit.
"Yes I did and in a way, I succeeded."
"Then what about the bodies that we saw? Who are those people?"
"Those are the original bodies of the villagers."
"Huh?" The three adventurers were confused by this statement. Seeing the confused faces of the three Alfred answered in a more detailed way.
"You see I have killed the villagers of this place for an experiment. Once I was done killing them, I tried to raise them from the dead. Of course, when I did so, they turned into nothing more than walking corpses which was not a true resurrection. With this failure, I tried other means to resurrect them, but at that point, some of the bodies couldn't handle it and were destroyed."
Hearing this part of the explanation made Hilda's blood boil. She could already guess what kind of monster was behind that mask. Still, Hilda did nothing and continued to listen to Alfred's explanation.
"Knowing that the bodies were weaker than expected I created newer stronger bodies, a replica of how the villagers looked. At this point, you might think that if I changed the bodies then it won't be a true resurrection. Well, that's what I thought as well, that was at the beginning. I was about ready to proclaim this experiment as a failure, but then an idea came to me. The reason I couldn't revive these people properly was that even if I can recreate their bodies perfectly I couldn't bring back their souls, making them into mindless undead."
"So I decided to summon devils to possess the bodies I created. Then wouldn't that become a different person? That's what you're thinking right? Well, let me answer that question with a question. What makes a person with the exact same bodily features different from a person with the same features? The answer was their memories! I extracted the memories of the dead villagers and placed them into the new bodies. The result is as you see before you."
What Alfred was saying was outrageous. The idea of making a new human body from scratch was blasphemous and inhumane since the materials needed to make a human body came from living humans. Seeing as this village had at least forty people, that would mean Alfred had not only killed the villagers but everyone that had visited the place.
Also, the fact that Alfred was able to make undead meant he has dealt with forbidden arts and was most probably a necromancer. The rage Hilda felt was overwhelming, at this moment she remembered Darius which only made her even angrier.
Lara as well who only understood a part of the explanation was angry. Though her face remained ever stoic, the killing intent she emitted was on the rise.
Alfred not caring about the reactions of the two girls continued his monologue.
"I thought my experiment was a success but unfortunately the new villagers, still had characteristics of wild devils. They were no longer human, and as you can see they don't have any free will either. It was a failure once again, but now I'm so much closer to achieving true resurrection. Isn't that wonderful, I'm about to achieve something only those hateful Gods could accomplish!"
"For what reason do you do this?" Ren who was quiet all this time spoke in a chilly voice. This shocked both Lara and Hilda. The usual excitement Ren exhibits before the battle was now gone. They couldn't understand what was happening to Ren, but they knew it wasn't anything good.
"What reason?... Truthfully I can no longer remember the reason... But it was most probably because I only wish to see the depths of magic." The moment Alfred said this, something burst forth and hit him. The force of the attack was blocked mostly by his [magic barrier] but a bit of it penetrated and was able to damage his mask.
The mask Alfred was wearing broke, and the face that was shown was nothing more than a skull. As Hilda suspected Alfred was a Lich, but not just any Lich, based on the quality of his magic and his skull that had not a single speck of flesh on it. Hilda was sure Alfred was an Elder Lich, a higher form of Lich. An Elder Lich was a human who turned into a Lich for more than a few hundred years and survived.
Alfred who has his masked broken laughed at his opponent. No one was sure why, but they felt like at this moment Alfred was smiling, even though you cannot tell since his face was nothing more than a skull.
"What a very aggressive reply, did I perhaps hit a nerve? Well no matter, it seems like our talk is over. It was nice that I was able-" Alfred wasn't even able to finish what he said when Ren holding his scythe appeared in front of him with a speed that couldn't be seen with the n.a.k.e.d eye and slashed down at him.
The [magic barrier] that surrounded Alfred was cracking. Seeing this Alfred pointed his palm at Ren. "[Piercing ice.]" A meter long icicle appeared and darted towards Ren who retreated backward.
"My what an impatient guest you are." Alfred signaled the fake villagers to attack.