Chapter 479: Scramble

Catho was making a mad dash towards the Eskin family manor. He only found out just now that Ramillies had gone to work at the Eskin manor.

After returning Parry's corpse, he had begun to search for a secondary soul in hope of implanting it into himself and becoming a Ghostman, thus becoming powerful enough to regain the Jugus family glory.

However, before he managed to find a secondary soul, he heard news of the city lord Dolan giving out an insane order to hunt for children. Worried about Ramillies, Catho immediately returned home, only to find that Ramillies wasn't actually home, leaving him a letter that said he had gone to the Eskin family manor.

With how sharp Catho was, he instantly realized what sort of dangerous situation Ramillies might be in. Since Dolan had been able to issue a massacre of children due to his rage, it was impossible for the only survivor of the Eskin family to be allowed to roam free.

This was why he had rushed to the Eskin family manor, but he still came a bit too late.

By the time he arrived, all he saw was Dolan embracing a young child with an expression of despair, while his brother had collapsed on the ground and stopped breathing entirely.

Without having the time to think about why Dolan was here, Catho hurriedly rushed to his brother's side. The Jugus family had only started to fall into ruins the past few years, so Catho had been able to enjoy the life of an aristocrat, but when Ramillies was born, their father was killed during an aristocratic struggle.

The family started going downhill, and Ramillies had not been able to enjoy even a single day of aristocratic glory since he was born, but he had always been a considerate boy that didn't worry anyone.

Without hesitation, Catho drew a dagger and cut open his wrist, allowing his blood to flow out into Ramillies' body, carrying the massive vitality into his body.

The surging vitality instantly drew Dolan's eyes. With his current senses, how could he not realize that it was the aura of the Bone of God?

He also began to remember Catho, recognizing him as one of the people in the cathedral during the day of Parry's kidnapping. Dolan had seen him during the cathedral lockdown, but didn't think that he would be the culprit.

The Bone of God's appearance gave Dolan a bit of hope. While this thing was no longer as potent as the Spring of Life during the days of the Sacred Valley, it still contained a massive amount of vitality.

"Wake up, Ramillies!"

Catho could only blame himself for not paying enough attention to Ramillies. If he had cared even a little bit more about Ramillies, he wouldn't have allowed him to step a single foot into the Eskin family manor.

However, this vitality was only enough to barely bring Ramillies back from the brink of death. His organs were already crushed, his body itself had died, and the link between his soul and body was slowly breaking off. This little bit of vitality-filled blood wouldn't be able to save Ramillies' life.

The only way to save Ramillies right now was to turn Ramillies into a Ghostman, but since there was only one Bone of God, saving Ramillies meant that he would gradually be reduced to an undying skeleton. This was the most horrifying thing, as he would be unable to die, but also couldn't move to do anything about it, forced to remain in eternal torture.

Drawing the Ceremonial Blade from its sheath, Catho stabbed it into his own chest and took out the Bone of God that had been embedded inside his heart. He then proceeded to stab Ramillies' chest and put the Bone of God inside.

"The King of Evil Spirits' Ghostmen Ceremonial Blade" his actions caused Dolan to instantly recognize what this was.

He gently put Parry down, then stood up and stared closely at the blackened Ceremonial Blade. In reality, he and Catho were the same kind of people, willing to do anything for the sake of their family's glory.

If it was before, Dolan would have done everything in his power to steal the Ceremonial Blade and keep it as the Ashius family's last trump card, but the only thing he wanted to do now was for his son Parry to survive.

Dolan could sense the flames of his life rapidly being snuffed out and would quickly cease, so he immediately began to act to steal the Bone of God.

There's only a single piece of bone, so only one person will get to survive between Parry and Ramillies.

Catho naturally noticed this, so he stood up to shield Ramillies while glancing confusedly at Parry.

"You've already killed Parry once, so now it's your turn to use your lives to become his survival"

With the remaining time he had, Dolan sighed and charged towards Catho, his hand forming a blade as he chopped towards Catho's neck. His hand swiftly sank into Catho's body while his other hand took the Ceremonial Blade and thrust it into his own body. He didn't have much time left, so even as a reanimated corpse, he would die very soon; Burning Soul Tempering doesn't only burn away one's vitality.

Dolan pushed Catho's body away and reached into Ramillies' chest to pull the Bone of God out and headed towards Parry, only for Catho to hold his leg back.

Catho's constitution as a reanimated corpse allowed him to continue moving as long as his body was still mostly intact, he locked his hands around Dolan's legs to prevent him from moving forward.

Right at this time, Dolan's Burning Soul Tempering time limit was over. Although he wouldn't die right away thanks to using the Ceremonial Blade on himself, his body had gotten much weaker. He was currently even weaker compared to Catho, and no matter how much he tried to kick Catho away, he wouldn't let go.

Dolan struggled to get closer to Parry, but his strength was waning, so it was now a desperate struggle for both reanimated corpses.

"I'm sorry, only one person will survive, so I hope that it will be my brother" Catho was risking everything he had to stop Dolan. He had even thought about what comes next, Ramillies wouldn't need to find another secondary soul, he could just use his soul.

This way, he would be able to escape from the fate of being trapped in a useless boney body, and since he whole-heartedly wanted to save Ramillies, the side effects of a secondary soul would be reduced to almost nothing.

「 I think you two can stop your competition, I have a way for both of them to survive 」 right at this point, a slightly crooked voice called out.

Aureum had arrived while using his hand to hold onto his head. He was defeated and fell down, but he wasn't dead since his main body was just a single mote of dust. He also had a general idea of what had happened here.

For the past while, he had been spending his time to heal his body, otherwise, a mote of dust wouldn't have been able to do anything. What he didn't expect was for the two boys to already be dying by the time he healed himself.

"I have a way to split that piece of bone you're competing over in half. Although the potency will decrease, I can mostly guarantee that they remain the same" Aureum explained.

Having gone through physical death, his soul had been further stimulated to improve his control over dust. Otherwise, how could he heal himself so quickly with his head kicked away?

The majority of the Giant's bones had turned into regular rocks, only a portion of it managed to maintain activity and became the source of the Sacred Valley's Spring of Life.

During the change of the era, the Sacred Valley collapsed. Although this piece of bone managed to adapt to the change of the era and remained in existence, Aureum managed to discern that a part in the middle of the bone had already been calcified thanks to his control over dust.

If he used his full power, he would be able to split the Bone of God in half.

Dolan and Catho exchanged glances, both of them fully understood that if they continued to struggle, the ones at risk were the two boys.