Diablo traveled through time and became a necromancer

Wu Ye's pupils suddenly constricted! Why was he here?! Their relationship was complex and subtle, far from a simple friendship or foe. He had even asked Wu Ye many questions before.

From the shadows at the edge of the battlefield, Nicholas slowly emerged, his iconic black Starfall Bone Staff in hand. Dark silver runes shimmered along the edges of his gray robes, and beneath his hood, his thin lips curled in his usual, subtle, ironic smile.

"Little boy, I haven't seen you for a few days. You seem to be getting more and more trouble-making." Nicholas's eyes swept over the struggling and roaring giant arm with undisguised contempt.

Nicholas?! Wu Ye practically squeaked out the name. Shock, confusion, and a hint of irritation at having his secrets exposed instantly washed over him! Why was he here? Coincidence? Or... stalking?!

Before Wu Ye could think deeply, Nicholas raised his bone staff slightly and pointed at the glaring scarlet halo rune of [Profane Sacrifice] on the top of the giant arm.

"See? The core driving force of that halo is the sacrifice it has just devoured, or... a recently deceased corpse." He spoke slowly, as if explaining a simple experimental phenomenon. "Forcibly extracting the life force of the living is inferior. The true 'blasphemous sacrifice' is to efficiently transform the residual energy of the 'corpse' to strengthen the body."

Before he finished speaking, the Star-Falling Bone Staff in Nicholas's hand slammed to the ground!

"To deal with this kind of garbage aura, we need to do this—corpse explosion! Use their corpse to break their sacrifice!"

The deep amethyst on the tip of the staff suddenly burst out with a cold starlight! This time, the target was not the Hand of the Rot Nest itself!

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Four dull, thunderous explosions erupted around the giant arm, amidst the shards of black and red scale armor, freshly chopped off by the skeleton warriors or shattered by the aftermath of the spell, and the viscous green slurry flowing! These seemingly filthy residues were none other than substances highly contaminated by the power of the Hand of the Rot Nest, containing the embers of absorbed sacrifices!

The energy of the corpse explosion was accurately poured into the profane remains!

Sizzle! Boom!

The blinding pale light instantly tore through the scarlet blasphemous aura! The hidden runes that formed the aura's energy nodes groaned under the impact of the self-destruction that contained the rules of death!

"Crack!" The subtle cracking sound was barely audible against the backdrop of the giant arm's roar! The aura of [Profane Sacrifice], which enveloped the entire battlefield and frantically drained life, flickered violently several times. Like a neon light with its power cut off, it suddenly dimmed, collapsed, and dissipated! The cold, sticky feeling of draining energy instantly vanished from Wu Ye and the others!

"Roar, ah, ah—!" The roar of the Rot Nest Hand suddenly twisted and changed, filled with astonishment and rage! Its proud core buff... was forcibly broken by the other party in the most blasphemous way, using its "carrion-eating residue"!

The backlash from the shattered halo reverberated upon the giant arm! It stumbled, its previously steady force tearing the earth apart instantly losing control! The massive arm suddenly slipped from the edge of the rift, its attempt to drag the main body was abruptly interrupted!

"Beautiful!" Wu Ye was shocked. Nicholas's methods were precise and ruthless, and he could see the problem at a glance. It seemed that he still had a lot to learn.

At this moment when the halo collapsed and the giant arm lost control!

"Chichichichi——!"

Without warning, several dark green energy arrows, as fast as ghosts, shot out from the shadows of a collapsed mill wall. Their target wasn't Wu Ye or Skull Brother, but rather—Nicholas! And behind him, the weak and defenseless Irene!

It's a trap! There are still some remaining cultists lurking in the shadows, waiting for the fatal blow!

"Be careful!" Wu Ye exclaimed!

"Humph." Nicholas snorted coldly, as if he had expected this. He didn't even turn around, as if he was dismissive of the sneak attack from behind!

Just when the poisonous arrow was about to hit the body!

A skeletal warrior, clad in pitch-black bone armor and wielding a rune-emblazoned scimitar, appeared at Nicholas's side as if teleporting! Its skeleton wasn't a stark white, but instead shone with the cold, hard sheen of refined iron. Its joints were covered in fine metallic veins, and its eye sockets burned with a cold, dark blue soul fire! A gray, hazy shield, like solid metal dust, enveloped its arm bones!

Iron Golem! (A metal golem summoned by metal equipment, with extremely high physical defense and elemental resistance! And immune to poison)

"Ding! Ding! Ding!" The poisoned arrows slammed fiercely into the Iron Golem's pitch-black bone armor and its metal dust shield! Green liquid, imbued with corrosive energy, splattered with a harsh, sizzling sound, leaving only a few shallow marks on the bone armor, unable to penetrate the refined, pitch-black skeleton! The Iron Golem remained motionless, like the most loyal metal barrier!

at the same time!

The skeleton's figure shifted position! Its dark blue soul fire had already locked onto another venomous arrow aimed at Irene! The rune-encrusted giant sword swept out with a sharp scream that tore through the air!

"Clang!" A sharp clang of metal clashed! The deadly dark green poison arrow was swatted away with incredible precision by the sword's spine, like a flying insect struck by a fly swatter, slanting into the trunk of a nearby dead tree! A charred hole the size of a bowl was instantly corroded in the trunk, emitting acrid black smoke!

Irene's face was as pale as paper. She looked at the corrosive poisonous smoke floating less than half a foot away from her neck. Her whole body was cold and the fear of death almost suffocated her.

Nicholas tilted his head slightly, and the shadow under his hood seemed to glance in the direction of Skeleton Brother. The subtle sneer seemed to deepen a little, and his voice remained calm: "Thanks, there is a clue on that little girl." He was referring to Irene, and his tone was full of the confidence of being in control of the overall situation.

at this time!

“Roar—!!!” Losing its aura’s support and suffering the backlash of the broken sacrifice, the Hand of the Rot Nest let out a final, hysterical roar of fury! It abruptly gave up dragging its main body. Its massive claws, carrying a mighty force that toppled the heavens, swirled with a foul-smelling gust of wind and suffocating pressure, like a collapsing mountain, slammed down fiercely towards the people below—especially Nicholas, who had caused its aura to crumble and its face to disgrace! Before its claws even reached the ground, the turbulent air currents had already sent gravel rolling!

Nicholas finally moved!

He stopped using Corpse Explosion and instead held the Starfall Bone Staff horizontally! The deep purple crystal at the staff's tip suddenly spun at high speed, countless fine runes composed of pure starlight energy rising and falling within it, combining and combining! A death energy far purer and more condensed than Wu Ye's bone spear, carrying an aura of annihilation that chilled even the very air, converged frantically!

"Not dead yet?" Nicholas' voice was as cold as ice. "Then try this—Bone Soul!"

Om-!

Several skulls, composed of pure pale bone energy and burning with icy blue soul fire, shot out from the tip of the staff! They made no sound, yet with a soul-freezing shriek, they traced an eerie arc of death through the air, dodging the descending giant claws with incredible precision. As if possessing life, they pounced directly on the giant arm's elbow joint—the rotten energy core that had been blasted open by Wu Ye's bone spear and corroded by the Skeleton Mage's frost and poison mist, and had yet to heal!

There was no earth-shattering explosion! No blood and flesh flying everywhere!

laugh--!

Like a maggot burrowing into rotting flesh, the Bone Soul instantly sank into the ulcer! A powerful burst of negative energy instantly erupted, frantically corroding the energy structure of the Rot Nest Hand! It wasn't physical destruction, but rather the most direct contamination and freezing of the energy source! The energy channel connecting the original body and the projection was forcibly blocked and frozen by this icy and deadly force!

“Ouch——!!!”

The Rot Nest's hand suddenly froze! The ferocious force of its blow seemed frozen by invisible frost, stuck in mid-air! Its massive claws trembled violently, emitting a tooth-grinding sound of bones grinding against each other, like a puppet without a power source! It roared unwillingly, and the color of its massive arm visibly dimmed. The black and red scales and bone spurs that formed its existence began to lose their luster. Its energy became chaotic and unstable, flickering like a light bulb with poor contact!

Nicholas' voice carried a cold, commanding tone, like a verdict: "The projection's energy channel has been blocked by the contamination of the bone soul. The forced arrival has failed. Time to return, filthy creature."

Deprived of its energy support and the blessing of the blasphemous aura, its core energy nodes eroded by the bone soul, the Hand of the Rot Nest could no longer maintain its energy-consuming existence! The black and red scales and bone spurs that made up its arm began to crumble, transforming into a foul, sticky sludge! Like a wax figure doused in strong acid, its massive form melted and collapsed at a visible speed, plummeting towards the charred, churning chasm of hell!

“Plop——!!!”

With a resounding thud, like a giant falling into a quagmire, and a final roar filled with endless resentment and unwillingness, the terrifying figure of the Hand of the Rot Nest completely disappeared into the vast crack of the earth, which was swirling with fel energy smoke and molten lava light! The fissure began to close frantically amidst the violent vibrations, as if the gates of hell were forcibly closing!

Nicholas slowly retracted his staff, the crystal light at its tip receding. He seemed to have done nothing more than brush off the nonexistent dust. He turned and faced Wu Ye. His gaze from beneath his hood seemed to penetrate a person's heart, falling on Wu Ye's hand, which tightly grasped the staff and trembled slightly with shock and thought.

"Westmarch is not your playground, little one." Nicholas' voice was calm, yet it carried unquestionable weight. "The darkness here is a man-eating swamp. Thorien's blood dyed half the coastline red, and he even dared to touch the 'forbidden relic' under the throne of Westmarch. If you want to live a few more years, it's best not to get to know this place in depth now." This was not an order, but more like a condescending warning, or... a reminder.

Without giving Wu Ye any chance to inquire, refute, or thank him, Nicholas's figure quickly faded and disappeared as if blending into the shadows, as if he had never appeared. Only his cold and unique aura of death lingered in the air.

Wu Ye stood there, gripping his staff tightly, his fingertips turning slightly white from the strain. Nicholas' words were like a cold blade, precisely slicing through the glimmer of hope deep within him. If Nicholas hadn't suddenly appeared, perhaps he would have died right here.

Involving the "forbidden relic" of the Westmarch royal family? Just how far-reaching was Thorien's ambition? The waters of Westmarch were far deeper than he had imagined.

"Wu... Elder Wu Ye..." Irene's weak voice trembled with the pain of having survived a catastrophe. She struggled to stand upright, but her face remained as pale as paper. The tearing pain from the wound on her back made her forehead covered with cold sweat.

"Those cultists... and this giant hand..." She looked at the huge pit that was closing and emitting black smoke and the smell of sulfur, her eyes full of despair and regret.

Of the two severely injured Filth Cult leaders, one was devoured in the explosion, the other sank deep into the earth along with the terrifying giant arm. Their crucial intelligence—about Thorien's base in Westmarch, his forces, and the specific purpose of the blasphemous ritual—was also lost! The captured leader, the only one who might have known more, ultimately ignited the summoning ritual with himself, leaving no trace!

"It seems that we can't get any more information from the corpse. Let's go find the sisters' remains first. We can't let them die in a strange place."

After all, Wu Ye had already been a member of Rogge. Hearing this, Irene couldn't stop her tears from flowing down. She had already been on the verge of death, and when she heard that this young elder had not forgotten her captain and the others, she was even more grateful.

Wu Ye's gaze shifted from the deep pit to the battlefield that had been torn apart by giant arms, ravaged by explosions, and covered in charred pits and filthy mud.

The air was thick with the stench of sulfur, rotting entrails, and blood, almost condensing into a solid substance. Every breath was a burning sensation. He walked silently towards the devastated area, his bone staff leaving a faint mark on the scorched earth.

"Erin..." His voice was low, with an unquestionable solemnity, "Show me the place where they fought the last time."

Irene fought back the sharp pain and dizziness in her back, tears silently streaming down her mud-stained cheeks. Biting her lip, she pointed to an area near the edge of the mill ruins, near the streambank. Broken weapon fragments and charred cloth were scattered there. "There... Captain... they... were covering my retreat... and were struck by the lightning of those black-robed mages..."

Wu Ye nodded and said no more. He walked over to the area and tapped the ground lightly with his bone staff. This time, there was no overwhelming surge of magic power, no icy aura summoning the undead.

He closed his eyes, his mind like the most sophisticated probe, carefully sensing the land beneath his feet, polluted by profane power and washed by the fel energy of hell. He was searching for the buried remains of the pure life mark of the Rogue warriors.

The terrain that had long been destroyed by the giant hand could not cover up the traces they had left behind.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, his gaze as sharp as an eagle, locking onto several places under the soil where the energy fluctuations were extremely weak, but with a familiar and tenacious aura.