Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!-Chapter 1895: Jonathan’s Family

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"Let's rescue anyone we find along the way!" Jonathan said.

Using her shadows, Maria stored everyone she discovered while Jonathan healed them as well.

They hurried toward Jonathan's family residence.

There he saw his home—crushed beneath an enormous boulder.

"N-No…! Mother! Father! Hello?!"

Jonathan screamed, rushing forward to search for his parents and little brother.

If they had been at the ball, Maria would have told him already.

"I can feel something… down there…! Beneath the boulder…!"

Jonathan swung his fist forward. The boulder split cleanly in two, then four, twelve, two hundred, a thousand pieces—reduced instantly to dust that scattered and vanished.

He dashed into an underground chamber, a kind of basement.

"M-Mother?!"

The first thing he saw was a blonde woman lying unconscious on the floor.

"Father!"

A man held her tightly, shielding her from falling debris.

A massive rock had crushed his back.

"Ah…!"

He was gone.

Jonathan's eyes widened as he fought to steady himself.

Someone else was missing.

"Brother?! Where are you?! Brother!"

He tore through the basement, searching frantically.

Until…

"J-Jonathan…?"

"...!"

A faint whisper rose from beneath the ground.

Jonathan hurled aside furniture and rubble until he spotted a small arm twitching from a gap.

"Lucian! Hang on!"

Tears streamed down his face as he dug deeper, uncovering his brother—alive, coated in dirt.

Lucian's legs were broken, but he was breathing.

"Lucian!"

Jonathan lifted him gently and poured healing light over him, clutching him close.

"J-Jonathan… I thought you died. Am I… Am I dead?"

"No, you're not dead…!"

Jonathan held his little brother tightly, sobbing.

At the same moment, Maria's light enveloped his mother and father.

"Luckily, your father's soul never left your mother's side… and he died only recently, so revival was possible…" Maria said softly, smiling. "They're still unconscious, but they'll wake up soon."

"Aahhhh!" Jonathan ran to his family, weeping with his brother in his arms. "Thank you…! Thank you, Maria…!"

All this time, Jonathan had lived in terror that his family would pay the price for his betrayal of the Empire.

Yet they had been alive the entire time.

Perhaps the gods' neglect and utter indifference to mortals had spared them.

They cared so little for humans that they never bothered hunting Jonathan's family specifically.

Maria's family had been targeted only because her ancestors had sealed Evil God Fragments within them.

After mending Lucian's legs, Maria guided the boy and his family into her pagoda, settling them on soft beds.

She cast a gentle dream spell over him so he could rest—he needed it desperately.

"Thank you…" Jonathan hugged Maria between sobs, trembling uncontrollably. "I… couldn't save your family, but you saved mine… I'm sorry… I…! I only take from you… I'm pathetic…"

"No," Maria said, smiling warmly. "You fought Hercules and defeated him. You've stood by my side through everything. I rely on you so much, Jonathan—you're not pathetic at all! I wouldn't have chosen you as my beloved if you were. I only fall for strong men!"

"Hah… Is that so?" Jonathan let out a soft, shaky laugh.

Maria had that gift: the ability to draw a chuckle from him even in the darkest moments.

It was one of the reasons they had clicked so perfectly back then. He had always been so serious, so weighed down by his duties as a knight and young hero.

But Maria had been his light—funny, quirky, endlessly teasing him until he laughed despite himself.

"Sirius is still fighting and doesn't look tired at all," Maria said, gazing into the distance. "Jonathan, your new techniques will be crucial against him. I'm counting on you—Lucifer can't hold him alone."

"Lucifer is incredible, facing someone stronger than Hercules all by himself!" Jonathan said. "Yes, let's go!"

They sped through the skies after rescuing everyone nearby…

But as they raced toward Sirius, dozens of God Vessels erupted from the city, locking onto them once more.

"Where do you think you're going, traitor?!"

"It's really him!"

"Jonathan, the hero of light!"

"You betrayed your own country!"

"You think we wouldn't recognize you?!"

"We kept your pathetic family alive to lure you back—we planned to execute them, but that's pointless now."

"Still, since you're here, we'll kill you."

Many gods spoke through their vessels, their voices thick with divine power as they merged their strength into one overwhelming force.

"The Aesir…!" Jonathan muttered. "Enough! Why do you keep exploiting and abusing your own people?! Release those citizens and face us yourselves, you cowards!"

"You dare?!"

"Kill him!"

"By Divine Decree, you are sentenced to death, Jonathan!"

The gods fused their auras into a colossal giant of pure, condensed divinity. It charged Jonathan with dozens of fists blazing with every element at once.

Jonathan dodged swiftly and countered with his own power, slicing the godly spirit aura apart with his astonishing new techniques.

SLAAASH!

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

A single hand slash multiplied into dozens, tearing the spiritual giant apart until it collapsed and vanished.

"W-What…?!"

"Impossible…!"

"What is this…! How?!"

"He didn't even draw a sword… yet he used sword techniques?!"

Maria smiled, watching Jonathan's new "evolution" in awe.

Unlike her, who had extracted her soul to forge a dream-made sword…

Jonathan had transformed his entire body and soul into a blade—refining, sharpening, and elevating himself to an entirely new realm.

If he had died after defeating Hercules, it would have all been for nothing.

But thanks to the power Maria gained after returning to Earth and reclaiming her human body, she had worked a miracle and kept him alive.

"If I hadn't chosen to go back to Earth… we wouldn't have been ready for any of this, and we would have all died."

With that thought, Maria stepped forward, Sword Soul Heart gleaming.

"Shall I join you?" she asked. "I wield the sword too, and honestly, you were the one who inspired me. Back when I was alive, I always thought it was kind of cool to fight like you did."

"Haha, is that so?" Jonathan replied. His missing arm reshaped into a radiant sword-hand of pure light. "Then let's fight together."

FLAAASH!

They surged forward as one, slashing not through flesh but through divine souls.

They severed the gods' connections to their vessels.

"Aaahhhh!"

"H-How?!"

"Ugh, damn it!"

Screaming in pain and rage, the gods were violently expelled back to their Heavenly Realm while Maria swiftly drew the innocent people into her Shadow Realm.

"We're finished here—let's move!"

"Yes!"

Cutting down any monster or enemy vampire that dared approach, the two raced to join the others confronting Sirius, the Vampire King of Yggdrasil.

Meanwhile, a gigantic crimson castle loomed ever closer, carrying the full might of Umbralheim's strongest within its walls.

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