This necromancer is going to seduce the beautiful girls who are already dead.

However, Leona didn't feel her fist hit anything. The mage's figure dispersed like smoke during her attack, then coalesced again. Leona's momentum didn't stop, and she passed straight through the figure.

After Leona's body passed through the cloud-like figure, a drowsy feeling began to wash over her.

Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Creepy Mage

"What the hell is this..." Leona finally stopped, but her thoughts were a jumbled mess.

A strange drowsiness was constantly assaulting Leona's mind, accompanied by a sense of unease and restlessness.

She slapped her head in annoyance, trying to banish these uncomfortable feelings from her mind, but of course, it was futile. She didn't feel any better; instead, the drowsiness became even more pronounced.

How could an undead possibly need sleep? Leona understood this perfectly well. The only time she slept after her resurrection was under the personal hypnosis of the Abyss. Even a necromancer of the Abyss's caliber needed her to relax before she could be hypnotized, which shows just how difficult it is to hypnotize a high-ranking undead.

"What kind of power is this... It hurts so much..." Leona held her head with one hand, staring at the mage's figure with one eye open.

This must be a projection of the one who cast the spell. His real body should not be far away, because there are magical reactions that Leona can detect nearby. However, here, the magical reactions no longer have a clear direction, but are spread in all directions under the effect of some kind of interference magic. Leona is not a highly skilled mage and has no means to identify the enemy's exact location.

"Projection...projection..." Leona struggled to stay awake, the undead's strong sleep resistance had already helped her a lot, but she still had to expend a considerable amount of energy to stay awake.

The mage projection standing there didn't even glance at Leona. His mouth, peeking out from beneath the wide brim of his cloak, continued to chant incantations. The sounds of battle raging in the valley could be heard from here; various highly destructive spells were still being cast. Fortunately, Flora was there. As long as Flora intended to protect Abyss and Veronica, no one in this world could harm them.

"To hell with the projection!" Leona's eyes suddenly sharpened, and instead of retreating, she advanced, throwing a hook at the mage's figure!

As expected, her fist, burning with surging battle aura, passed right through and slammed heavily into the ground.

But Leona's expression showed no sign of defeat. Instead, she grinned and looked up at the eerie projection of the mage.

Boom!

A massive shockwave emanated from Leona's fist and spread outwards along the mountain at an extremely high speed. The enormous tremor even silenced the battlefield on the other side—neither the dwarves nor the mercenaries could maintain their balance in the face of such a powerful shockwave.

The owner of the projection, being a mage without any physical training, was not spared either. Under the impact of the shockwave, the projection lost its footing and fell heavily to the ground.

"Ha! You coward!" Leona laughed loudly, raising one hand high. The flames of her burning battle aura instantly solidified in her hand, transforming into an incredibly long staff wreathed in lightning. She slammed the staff into the ground, the immense force of her arm propelling it dozens of meters underground!

Immediately afterwards, Leona, following the direction in which the projection fell, swung herself out with great force!

The staff, driven dozens of meters into the ground, was easily pulled out by Leona's fair arm. Like a knife, it cleaved the small mountain in two, creating a fissure. From the fissure, about twenty meters away from Leona, a figure was carelessly pulled out, falling from the air and crashing heavily to the ground. Leona stepped forward, transforming the aura staff in her hand back into aura flames.

At the same time, Leona felt her drowsiness begin to lessen, and when she looked back at the original projection, it had now disappeared!

"You little brat, face me!" Leona shouted smugly. "So you were hiding underground after all!"

Surprisingly, the mage who was lifted up from the ground by Leona did not lie on the ground groaning. Instead, he slowly got up. His face was still covered by his cloak, and only his mouth and stubble chin were visible.

Strangely, his exposed skin was as pale as a necromancer's... even more bluish-purple than theirs, making him appear extremely eerie.

Whoohoo!

The mage didn't waste a single word on Leona. He simply moved his lips slightly, as if reciting a short incantation, and the ground beneath Leona's feet suddenly heated up dramatically, bursting forth with a tongue of fire!

It's a variant of the fire pillar spell that attacked the carriage earlier; this spell can burn enemies to ashes with sustained high temperatures.

However, Leona stood inside the pillar of fire as if nothing had happened. Protected by her battle aura, her clothes were undamaged, and even her long silver hair was not curled by the high temperature.

"You might as well give up and let me beat you up. Do you think this childish magic can do me any harm?" Leona sneered, staring at the mage in front of her. "Don't waste your time. Do you think you can use that strange cloud of mist to trick me again?"

Looking behind Leona, a strange, multicolored cloud of smoke had appeared where the mage had projected earlier.

That mage was trying to force Leona to jump back and pass through the smoke again!

High-level aura warriors can indeed mobilize their aura to protect their bodies from swords, impacts, and heat, but this mage did not expect that Leona's aura had become so powerful that it didn't matter if she didn't dodge!

"Your tricks are over? Now it's my turn!" Leona smiled confidently, her battle aura flames condensing in her left hand, and a short bow instantly appeared in her hand, while an arrow formed from battle aura instantly appeared in her right hand.

All of this happened in an instant. Leona didn't hesitate for a second. She drew her bow, nocked an arrow, and released it. The arrow of battle aura traveled more than twenty meters and struck the mage's instep, pinning him to the ground.

The mage seemed completely unfazed by the pain. He tried to lift his foot, but the arrow formed from his fighting spirit seemed to have taken root in the earth, and no matter how hard the mage tried, he couldn't move it even half a step.

Before he could even chant the escape spell, Leona had already appeared in front of him.

Then, the mage took a heavy punch from Leona in the abdomen—Leona had tried her best to control the force, but it was still enough to completely destroy a person's fighting ability.

With one foot pinned to the ground, the monk was struck in the abdomen and had nowhere to deflect the force, so he was knocked to the ground by the punch.

"Who are you trying to hide from by hiding like this?" Leona grabbed the mage and ripped off his cloak.

But when she tore off the cloak, the sight before her startled Leona, who covered her mouth in shock.

Beneath the mage's cloak, there was only half a head; everything above the tip of the nose had vanished. On the severed head were white bone fragments and a horrific mass of blood and flesh.

The mage's lips continued to move, still chanting magical incantations...

Chapter Ninety Veronica's Secret

"Die!!!"

Even Leona, who was fearless, was genuinely disgusted by the horrific sight before her. Instinctively, she kicked the mage's remaining half of his head, and the sharp aura performed a head amputation—the mage's remaining half of his head spun and flew away.

The mage's headless body twitched a few times and then lay still. Leona stood in front of him, patting her chest with lingering fear.

"Damn it, what is that thing..."

She had never seen anything so disgusting. A headless mage was still within her comprehension, but a mage with only half a head? How could this world tolerate such a disgusting creature?

Moreover, Leona's intuition as a high-ranking undead told her that this thing was not undead... she couldn't sense any trace of necromancy on him. It was common knowledge that undead could recognize their own kind, yet Leona couldn't detect even the slightest connection between him and her.

This also relieved Leona; who would want to be like such a disgusting thing?

But now another question arises: if this thing isn't a ghost, then what is it?

Let's take it back first and see it when the Abyss wakes up. The Abyss is knowledgeable and an expert in studying the dead; he'll probably be very happy to see a headless corpse as soon as he wakes up.

Even so, Leona still didn't want to carry the mage's corpse back. That guy was just too strange, so strange that even though Leona was invincible, she was worried he might suddenly move.

……

Leona carried a long tree trunk with a headless corpse tightly bound to it by old vines, returning to Flora and the others' location like a hunter returning from a hunt.

As expected, after Leona dealt with the mage, the battle quickly ended. Despite their excellent teamwork and superior equipment, the dwarven mercenaries were no match for Veronica's guards. Their short corpses lay scattered on the ground, while Veronica's soldiers buried the dead and treated the wounded.

Veronica could no longer hide it. In the battle just now, she had already revealed many unusual things—it was impossible for someone to go to such lengths to rob an ordinary potion merchant, and the mercenaries hired by an ordinary merchant could not be so well-trained and fearless of death. In addition, she had not been robbed by the Ossi bandits along the way, so the answer was already obvious...

“Take this; it will heal your internal injuries.” Veronica knelt in front of an injured guard and placed the Spring of Life from her neck into his hand.

“But… Your Highness…” The guard seemed to be badly injured, with his internal organs ruptured, but he still hesitated and murmured softly in Ossi.

“There are no buts. Don’t you want to live?” Veronica frowned and said somewhat forcefully, “Take this first, and wait for that lady with healing magic to come and treat you.”

The guards held the spring water tightly in their hands with tears of gratitude. Veronica then stood up and turned around to see Leona carrying a tree trunk that was disproportionately large for her size, along with a headless corpse.

"This is...?" Veronica was a little surprised to see the headless corpse, and also a little confused as to why Leona would bring back a corpse.

"This is the mage who attacked us; I kicked his head off." Leona casually gestured with her eyes towards the mage's corpse, then said to Veronica, "I took care of the enemy for you; now you can satisfy my curiosity, right?"

“You helped me kill the enemy’s mage, and Miss Flora saved several of my soldiers with healing magic… I will remember this kindness.” Veronica thought for a moment and nodded. “Although we lost a few people, we still need to set off quickly. Let’s talk on the way.”

Leona nodded: "Of course."

She glanced at Flora, who was using divine magic to heal the guards' wounds. Flora looked up and winked at her. It seemed Flora had used some tricks to make these people think she wasn't a divine magician but a healing mage. To make it more convincing, Flora deliberately didn't fully heal the guards' wounds, leaving them with minor superficial injuries to heal on their own.

Veronica didn't ask too many questions about why Leona wanted to take a corpse with her. She readily arranged for the body to be placed in a covered wagon. Anyway, they were still far from the border of the Kingdom of Tammy, and they could figure out a solution later.

Flora then cast a protective spell on the corpse to prevent it from emitting a foul stench. After all, no one wants to travel with a rotting corpse that attracts flies.

“I apologize for concealing the truth from you before.” Veronica bowed her head to Leona and Flora and said, “My name is not actually Veronica. My real name is Gvia. I am a princess of the Kingdom of Osi… I originally thought you were just two noble girls going to the Eastern Empire. I didn’t want you to know too much about my plans, so I lied to you and said we were a caravan—in fact, we were indeed pretending to be a caravan, going to the Eastern Empire to buy some special things.”

The carriage they were originally in had been destroyed by magic, and now the four of them were sitting in a covered wagon. The wagon was dark inside, but it was still better than being outside in the sun.

Flora and Leona exchanged a glance. They had long guessed Gvia's identity, but they lacked some solid evidence to prove their guess.

“You should have already heard about my Restoration Army. These people disguised as mercenaries are actually my guards… though they are called guards, many of them are just volunteers to protect my Restoration Army soldiers. Santos is not my father, but one of my fierce generals,” Gylvia said somewhat solemnly. “Some of my guards gave their lives to protect me, and I will certainly not mistreat their families.”

"Disguising yourself as a merchant from the Western Empire to purchase special goods from the Eastern Empire—that's a clever idea," Leona nodded. "Do you know what happened with this attack?"

“I don’t know the specifics… but I can guess that the mastermind behind this must be my brother, Prince Kevin, who is now the King of the Kingdom of Ossi.” Ghivia frowned and said, “Our restoration army is supported by the people and is unstoppable. As long as I lead them and they fight hard, they will be invincible. That’s why Kevin has been trying to use despicable means to assassinate me, preventing me from fully devoting myself to command…”

"Therefore, I have two things to do on my trip to the Eastern Empire!"

"First, I need to get a batch of prohibited military-grade potions from the Eastern Empire's gangsters to enhance our soldiers' combat effectiveness when necessary."

"Secondly, I need to find a way to combat the extraterrestrial evil god that has been troubling me, and explore possible countermeasures!"

Chapter Ninety-One: The Monster That Manipulates Nightmares

Leona and Flora weren't surprised when they heard Princess Gylvia's first idea, but they were astonished when she revealed her second plan.

"You mean an extraterrestrial evil god?" Leona's eyes widened. "You mean an extraterrestrial evil god is bothering you? What does it want with you?"

Flora also seemed somewhat worried: "Which extraterrestrial evil god is it? We know a little about them. Evil gods are incredibly powerful; mortals cannot contend with them, and it's extremely difficult to counter them. How did you get entangled with an extraterrestrial evil god?"

Although Flora had once accompanied Abyss in conquering the Fallen Lord in Leona's dream world, she was not blinded by victory.

Abyss didn't subdue the enormous monster by brute force, but rather through a clever trick. First, he used his high status in his followers' dreams to forcibly elevate his mortal status to the same level as the Fallen Lord, thus gaining the ability to control His severed limbs to attack him. At the same time, he also induced the Fallen Lord to make a bet with him, which allowed him to successfully subdue the monster.

Abyss is a man who likes to dance on the edge of a knife; his plans are always extremely risky. If the Fallen Lord is of a higher rank than Abyss, or if the Fallen Lord is slightly more intelligent, Abyss's subjugation plan may fail, and Leona will have to give up her Hellish face to ensure her safety.

Flora knew very well that challenging an extraterrestrial evil god with her mortal body was already almost impossible, let alone countering it.

“At first I thought my brother Kevin was only after me for his political purposes, so he could secure his throne and buy himself time to gradually gain people’s trust.” Gylvia continued, hearing that Flora and Leona had some knowledge of the extraterrestrial evil god. “But what happened later proved me wrong.”

Leona and Flora sat up straight, waiting to hear what had happened to Gylvia, leaving Abyss lying down alone.

“Kevin isn’t trying to achieve any political ambitions… He seems to be using something to create nightmares,” Givia said, frowning. “When I fled the capital, he had just ascended the throne and his position was unstable, so he didn’t continue to hunt me down. I thought I would be safe for a while, but who knew that after a few months, I would start having nightmares.”

"This nightmare was no ordinary nightmare, nor was it a hallucination caused by excessive mental stress. In the dream, I met a gigantic creature that was indescribable, constantly writhing and deforming. It kept trying to eat me, and all I could do was desperately run away."

"His attacks weren't fierce; he merely writhed closer to me, reaching out with his transformed tentacles, his movements slow and predictable. But from the first time we met, he appeared in every dream I had, and later it even got to the point where I could see his ugly figure whenever I closed my eyes..."

"Do you know the despair of having nightmares every day? And these nightmares aren't just nightmares; if I'm touched by Him in my dreams, my body will also be injured in reality... Look."