In a dark chamber devoid of external light sources, only a few candelabras provided a faint glow that barely illuminated the rectangular stone platform in the center.

A naked, muscular man lay atop it, his height reaching over two meters. His body was covered in a countless array of crisscrossing scars, both old and new.

However, the man's skin was deathly pale, his chest and abdomen devoid of any movement, with a long, narrow wound on his chest explaining why he lay there.

A corpse; judging by the wound, the cause of death was likely a dagger or short sword piercing his heart.

But this was no mourning ritual. There stood a gaunt and shriveled monster in a red robe beside the stone platform.

Humanoid in form, it was so gaunt it appeared devoid of muscle, with desiccated, blackened, wrinkled skin clinging to its bones. Its hair was almost entirely gone, leaving only sparse white strands at the edges. Its face was horrifyingly sunken, like a withered skull, with eyes that glowed white.

At this moment, the monster was greedily eyeing the strong corpse, its gaze filled with a longing for the vitality of the living, along with the joy of obtaining a treasure.

It had prepared for a long time to kill this Empire Champion Knight.

To kill him, it negotiated with certain parties, deliberately lured him away, and betrayed his whereabouts to draw the enemy's main force.

Yet even when ambushed, the man still killed the enemy leader, broke through the encirclement, and forced it to use its own avatar. Even then, it took the destruction of three Master-level Wax Puppets to finally kill him.

Though preserving the condition of the corpse was a factor, his formidable strength was undeniable.

Now, it finally had him in its grasp, to become part of its collection.

Through the ritual of that night, it gained a body of eternal life, but lost the human faculties it once had. Now it could only collect these to satisfy its desires. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"So beautiful... How unfortunate it would be to age like this. Let me help you instead... heh heh heh!"

The monster greedily caressed the cold corpse, the sound it made didn't even seem to come from a throat.

Hoarse and gloomy, the tone was so unlike a human's, merely hearing it made one's skin crawl, especially the eerie laughter that resonated through the hollow chamber, making it even more chilling.

At the moment it let out that sinister laugh, its frail body twisted as if struck by a heavy blow, emitting a piercing wail of pain.

But with strong inspiration, one could perceive the eruptions of spiritual fluctuations on it; even its red robe emitted a terrifying force field, as if the surrounding air had solidified.

Meanwhile, in the darkness beyond the reach of the candlelight, a handsome corpse melted like a heated candle, and in just a dozen seconds, only an indistinct puddle remained.

The suffering avatar bore the damage, and only then did it partially recover, the white light in its eyes reappearing, though that flickering light revealed both terror and weakness.

"Impossible... Who? Who..."

It greedily craved youthful vitality, hadn't it always selected young, vibrant bodies as avatars?

It was the fear of death that had turned it into this ghastly creature.

Equally greedy for life, over the long years, it hadn't come to terms with death; instead, it grew increasingly fearful of its arrival.

Thus, its only goal was to revive itself, while collecting some figurines was just a hobby.

For this purpose, it never ventured out personally, instead separating fragments of its soul, using rituals to occupy the consciousness of avatars. Even if an avatar perished, the fragments would return, revealing what had happened, allowing it to decide its next move.

Once, a powerful Transcendent had slain one of its avatars, and the soul fragment brought back such terrifying power that it feared others coming for it.

Thus, it waited (hid) for decades, until that individual died of old age before it took action, killing their entire family to reclaim what had been taken.

But this time, the avatar died without triggering the ritual it had left behind, with the soul fragment not returning, leaving it completely unaware of what happened to that avatar.

Even more unsettling was that the soul fragment seemed devoured by some terrifying entity, as if a piece of its soul had been torn away.

But no panic; having lived so many years, how could it have only one plan without any contingencies?

Previously, its body was destroyed by a young genius Wizard, but it sensed the issue with that avatar. The soul fragment hid directly in a ring, using its power to corrupt and lead them astray, and in the end, wasn't it refined into an avatar?

Hmph! No matter how strong you are, you cannot defy time and power...

However, just as it had barely recuperated, it cried out again, as if struck by a painful blow, echoing throughout the entire chamber.

After exhausting all tricks, it barely stabilized its near-collapsing soul, but it didn't fare much better—it was like a shattered porcelain pieced together forcibly, full of cracks, and crucially, lacking a part.

This time, it vaguely sensed the issue lay with the avatar around Michelle, but it couldn't concern itself with such matters now.

And after all, this was within the chamber, otherwise, the commotion just now would've alarmed quite a number of people.