Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne

As the rising sun emerged, Cynthia, Jenny and the fighters were already on the path leading toward the school gate.

"What do you think happened." Jenny asked Cynthia, and from her facial expression, it was quite obvious who she was talking about.

"I don't know.... but I feel like there's more to it " Cynthia mused as she thought of the face, they last saw him with.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it wasn't only the deaths of Alex and Tunde that made him that way." Cynthia explained that there had to more to it than what they saw.

"So, you mean past." As if it had clicked in for Jenny, she started thinking about it.

"Most likely," and it didn't seem Cynthia wanted to dwell on the topic again.

'Does she have a past too.' her awkwardness didn't go unnoticed by Jenny. In fact, she too had a past she didn't want to share.

Suddenly,

"Stop" Cynthia's voice cut through Jenny's thoughts and halted the groups movements.

Cynthia frowned, they had already reached the area they'd stopped at the previous day, however, going forward, the sky began to darken a little.

"Hey, what's wrong." Jenny asked and looking around, unsure of her reason for stopping them.

"Wait, let me check something quick." she told Jenny and dashed off toward the cafeteria.

Then she returned a few minutes later, her face tense. "It's only dark in this area. I think there's something here."

Jenny's face immediately radiated concern and started looking around. Before coming to clear this path, they hadn't checked the time, but they knew the sun was up.

And moving towards the gate, the group also noticed the darkened sky, but thought it was evening, so no one suspected a thing.

It was only Cynthia who felt something was wrong. She knew it was impossible for it to already be evening, so she decided to confirm her thought and it turned out to be true.

The group of fighters also revealed a tense expression at the situation. All of them were already snapping their heads around looking for enemies

"We still have to keep moving," Jenny said after a while with a determined nod. They couldn't achieve anything by staying here.

So, it was decided that they moved, and as they ventured deeper, the darkness grew thicker. It was as if it was swallowing the light around them.

KRTHH CREAK

After wandering for a while in the darkness, noises started coming from up ahead, immediately halting them in their tracks.

Out of the gloom and darkness, a skeletal figure with eyes blazing in eerie green appeared.

"Skeleton?" Laura muttered out, tilting her head as though doubting what she was seeing.

And as if it was rewarding her the correct answer to the situation, more skeletal figures began emerging, each wielding swords, spears and shields made from bones. Their presence felt menacing as they began moving towards them with slow steps.

These survivors had faced dangerous foes since the fall, so though they did flinch a little at the sight of the skeletons at the beginning, the strangeness of it left them all in silent surprise and without a word, they readied for battle.

Jenny moved quickly along the right side of the road, her sword shimmering with silver flames. She moved more skillfully than she had on their first day. It wasn't a matter of learning to swing her swords, no. Ironically or not, she got a skill called 'Basic swordsmanship techniques.'

The "Basic Swordsmanship Techniques" skill provided her with the fundamental movements every swordsman needed. It was similar to Jon's evolved martial expert skill, it was just that his included similar basics for all weapons.

SLASH... SLASH

Jenny's flaming sword sliced through a wave of twenty skeletons as she advanced, placing herself deeper within the battlefield.

She then created silver flame orbs around her, which hovered protectively. And when a skeleton lunged at her from the side, trying to ambush her, one of the orbs surged forward, engulfing it in flames before returning to float around her.

"Charge!" she muttered, activating a skill.

[CHARGE (FIRST REALM) LEVEL 2: USING 50 MANA, CHARGE THROUGH A 50 METER DISTANCE WITH DOUBLE SPEED]

The skill wasn't essential here, as the skeletons remains held little value to her, but she used it anyway, cutting through them effortlessly.

[YOU HAVE ABSORBED LEVEL 4 'FOOT SKELETON' REMAINS]

[YOU HAVE ABSORBED LEVEL 5 'FOOT SKELETON' REMAINS]

As she kept clearing the skeletons, she remembered the beginning, when these levels were very valuable to her, but now she was just warming up.

Then, she suddenly had a thought, 'Wouldn't it have been better if it started with skeletons than with zombies,' she mused, it was really a good thought, because a lot more people would have survived.

'But there was probably a reason,' she didn't think too much about it and glanced sideways to check on Cynthia.

And Cynthia was like a force of nature. Her hands moved like a conductor's, manipulating the wind to form weapons that slashed through their enemies.

In between the wind that was slashing through the skeletons, fireballs were also hurled at them.

It was also like a warmup for her too. And she wanted to try something different, so she stretched her hand, flaming fireballs appeared, then she merged it with a gust of wind to create a fiery tornado that lit up the battlefield.

After a while of compressing, the darkness around seeped into the tornado, and unknowingly she had fulfilled a certain requirement,

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED SKILL 'DARK FLAMING TORNADO']

[DARK FLAMING TORNADO (FIRST REALM) LEVEL 1: USING 50 MANA, ACTIVATE A TORNADO OF FLAMES WITH DARK PROPERTIES]

"Oh?" Cynthia smirked, genuinely surprised at the sudden situation. And she didn't even waste time activating the new skill.

She stretched forth her hands again, the tornado she conjured this time swirled with dark red flames, tearing through skeletons like dry leaves.

WHOOOM...

The looks and quality were even better than when she was combining them separately.

The tornado raged and cleared the path and after clearing about fifty of them, then finally dissipated, leaving her grinning.

She wanted to summon it again, but she decided against it. The mana consumption was quite high.

And as for Laura, unfortunately because of the darkness, she was unable to use her lightning abilities, but she could still use the darkness to her advantage.

And for that, she had to use it in assassination. After watching Robin and Trudy for a while, she began melding with the shadows and detaching the skeletons with speed and precision.

She crafted daggers from the earth, sending skeleton heads flying as she became one with the murky atmosphere. Slowly but surely, she was understanding the true meaning of "climate" in this dark place.

This scene repeated itself again and again across the battlefield as each survivor fought, untroubled by the lower-level skeletons.

"This is too easy!" one person laughed, a bit too loudly. His words earned him sharp looks from the others not to jinx it, and as if to mock him, higher-level skeletons with stronger armor and weapons began emerging.

And like that, the battle grew fiercer as the level of these new foes increased.

Ironically, the man who had called it "easy" was the first to nearly fall, barely evading the claws of death.

As the skeletons reached higher levels, they were fighting fewer skeletons and only the strongest people continued advancing. It was a rule they'd made beforehand; anyone unable to go on should fall back to the entrance of this darkness.

Among the fighters, the former lords were among those who couldn't accept the rule and fall back, they who had lost everything. So they fought desperately to regain the sense of power and authority they once had.

The Poison Lord, slashing at a skeleton with her toxin-laced dagger, glanced at Jenny and Cynthia with smoldering resentment.

They'd thought Jon was their only rival, so when they heard he wasn't going to come, they had been excited at the hope of them getting stronger and him not, but watching the two women fight shattered that notion.

Laura was not a threat for now as the darkness limited her powers, and was just moving in the darkness, but Jenny and Cynthia were like rising stars.

The Blade Lord, meanwhile, squared off against a skeleton in heavier armor, wielding a sword. Studying his opponent, he muttered to himself, "It is not on the bear's level yet." And he quickly dodged the skeleton's attack, launching a powerful slash with a skill-enhanced blade.

"Blade Slash!" he called out, his sword glowing with a golden aura as he struck. The skeleton tried to retreat, but he followed up with "Double!" which added a second, darker energy layer, extending his blade's reach. The skeleton's eye sockets glowed briefly before the sword pierced through.

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED LEVEL 23 'SOLDIER SKELETON' REMAINS]

[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]

The Blade Lord exhaled, feeling the surge of strength as he absorbed the remains. But he couldn't bask in the feeling because ahead, a new sight awaited him.

Now, he had entered what seemed to be a dome, with darkness covered all around it.

It also seemed like the end of the path because standing around were twenty skeletons, each cloaked in the same dark energy that permeated the area.

All of them, especially the one in the center, radiated a menacing aura that set them apart from the others.

And the blade lord could feel it, each and every one of them was at the level or even stronger that the bear he had fought.