The girl slowly turned away from the statue and looked toward the three people standing near the cathedral entrance.
Unlike the corrupted creatures they had encountered outside, there was nothing twisted about her appearance.
She looked around seventeen or eighteen, with long pale hair falling across the white priestess robes covering her slender body, while her almost translucent skin made it obvious she was no longer truly alive.
Her gaze passed across Leon and Mira before finally stopping upon Karl.
"Martial Saint, Shadow Assassin and Necromancer."
Seraphine had spoken the first two without much interest, but the moment she identified Karl’s profession, her expression suddenly changed.
Her eyes narrowed before she took another careful look at him, then another, as though something she had sensed refused to match what was standing in front of her.
Karl noticed the change immediately and tightened his grip around the Death Stick.
A system notification appeared before him.
[Special deceased existence detected.]
[Target soul is currently bound to The Last Lament.]
Seraphine remained silent for several seconds before muttering beneath her breath.
"A Necromancer... but what the hell is this?"
Karl’s eyebrows rose slightly, that reaction was already strange enough, but what happened next made even less sense.
According to the information left behind by the team that had first cleared Insane Mode during his previous life, Seraphine was indeed the hidden existence waiting beyond the Choir Master.
However, Karl remembered absolutely nothing about her behaving like this.
This isn’t how their account described the final encounter.
Before he could think further, Seraphine vanished from beside the altar and appeared directly in front of him.
Leon immediately raised his sword while Mira shifted both daggers forward, but Seraphine completely ignored them and continued staring directly at Karl.
"Take me outside."
Karl blinked once.
"What?"
Seraphine’s expression immediately became irritated.
"Take me outside this place, was that somehow difficult to understand?"
Karl stared at her for several seconds, the supposed final existence behind an undefeated Insane Mode dungeon had just walked directly toward him and demanded that he take her outside.
What the hell changed this time?
Seraphine stepped closer and examined him again, her gaze moving briefly toward the Death Energy lingering around the Death Stick.
Karl remained cautious. "Why exactly do you think I can?"
"Because I have met Necromancers before, obviously."
She crossed her arms before looking him up and down again.
"None of them possessed Death Energy like yours and whatever authority is surrounding you feels even stranger, I cannot understand it properly, but it definitely does not belong to this dungeon."
Karl’s expression changed slightly at those words, Seraphine glanced back toward the enormous statue behind the altar and her irritation gradually became colder.
"I have been trapped inside The Last Lament for longer than I care to remember, challengers enter, the city falls, everyone dies and eventually everything begins again."
She looked toward the statue with obvious disgust.
"I once worshipped the existence represented there, just like everyone else within this city. We gave him our faith, obeyed his church and believed every lie he fed us."
Her fingers tightened around her sleeves.
"Then when sacrificing us became more useful than protecting us, that bastard killed everyone."
Leon and Mira had both lowered their weapons slightly by now, while Karl simply waited for her to continue.
Seraphine released an irritated breath.
"A true god protects those who place their faith in him, whatever that thing was, I stopped considering him one a very long time ago."
She looked back toward Karl.
"I died with everyone else, but my soul never left. His remaining power bound me to whatever eventually became this dungeon and no matter what I try, I cannot break the connection myself."
Karl finally understood why killing the Choir Master had given them neither experience nor a dungeon-clear notification.
The Last Lament still had another condition, Seraphine stepped closer again and pointed directly toward his chest.
"But you feel different, so I want you to try."
For several seconds, nobody said anything until Leon leaned slightly toward Mira and lowered his voice.
"Damn, Karl entered one dungeon and he’s already rizzing up ghosts."
Seraphine slowly turned her head toward him and Leon immediately stopped smiling.
Ice erupted beneath his feet before racing upward across his legs, torso and arms, completely encasing his body before he could even raise his sword.
Within barely a second, only Leon’s widened eyes remained visible through the thick layer of ice. Mira stared at him before failing to suppress a laugh.
Karl looked toward Seraphine with a helpless expression. "Release him."
"He is irritating."
"I know, but release him anyway."
Seraphine gave the frozen Leon another cold look before waving one hand, causing the ice to shatter around him.
Leon stumbled forward and immediately rubbed both arms.
"What the fuck was that?!"
Seraphine turned away from him. "A warning."
Karl almost laughed before bringing his attention back toward the actual problem.
"So what exactly are you asking me to do?"
"If your Necromancer ability can separate my soul from this dungeon, I will accompany you outside."
Seraphine raised one hand toward him.
"I will lend you my strength and join your army if necessary, but we form an equal pact. I have spent long enough trapped beneath someone else’s authority and I have absolutely no intention of exchanging one master for another."
Karl stared at her extended hand, death Legion had never mentioned anything resembling an equal pact, but there was little reason to argue before determining whether he could even free her.
"I can try."
Seraphine nodded and placed her hand against his.
Karl activated Death Legion and death Energy immediately flowed through their connected hands and entered Seraphine’s body, but the response was completely different from every corpse Karl had summoned earlier.
The entire cathedral began trembling as enormous golden chains appeared around Seraphine and extended from her body toward the walls, floor and statue behind the altar.
Karl could feel Death Legion trying to pull her soul toward him while something throughout the dungeon resisted with equal force.
[Death Legion has encountered an external soul restriction.]
[Target existence is bound to The Last Lament.]
The golden chains tightened and dragged Seraphine several centimetres backwards and her expression immediately twisted with irritation.
"Those damned things again."
Karl increased the flow of Death Energy, but the chains continued resisting until another notification appeared.
[Monarch of Death authority detected.]
[External soul restriction rejected.]
Karl’s eyes narrowed as the Death Energy surrounding Seraphine suddenly erupted and every golden chain shattered simultaneously.
A massive crack spread through the statue behind her while the remaining connections binding her to the cathedral disappeared one after another.
Seraphine stared down at herself in disbelief.
"What the..."
Her body gradually became translucent before dark Death Energy wrapped around her soul and separated it completely from the dungeon.
Seraphine disappeared and for several seconds the space in front of Karl remained empty before Death Energy gathered there again.
Seraphine slowly reappeared inside it and opened her eyes, Karl immediately felt a completely new connection forming between them, far clearer than anything he had experienced with his ordinary undead.
He activated Perception again.
[Seraphine]
[Race: Undead]
[Current Level: 50]
[True Level: Sealed]
[Undead Rank: Hero]
[Title: Divine Marionettist]
[Core Skill: Divine Gaze]
[Core Skill: Marionette Dominion]
Karl’s attention immediately stopped upon the undead rank.
Hero?
The recognised undead hierarchy began with Common before progressing through Soldier, Sentinel, General, Commander and Marshal, while Hero stood at the absolute peak.
Karl had somehow obtained a Hero-ranked undead inside his first real dungeon. More strangely, Seraphine’s current Level displayed only fifty while her true Level remained sealed.
Just what exactly did I summon?
Seraphine paid no attention to his reaction at first, she looked around the cathedral before slowly raising one hand and examining herself, then a genuine smile gradually appeared across her face.
"The connection is gone."
She closed her eyes for several seconds before opening them again.
"I really can’t feel that damned dungeon anymore."
Then her smile disappeared and Seraphine froze, her eyes slowly moved toward Karl.
"Wait."
Karl immediately sensed that something had gone wrong, Seraphine examined the connection between them before her expression became increasingly strange.
"Why are you above me?"
Karl raised one eyebrow. "What?"
"Our pact."
Her voice immediately became sharper.
"I asked for an equal pact."
Dark energy spread around Seraphine as she examined the connection more carefully before her confusion rapidly transformed into outrage.
"This is not an equal pact!"
Karl raised one hand. "I never said Death Legion could make one."
"You said you could try!"
"I did try, and you’re outside."
Seraphine stared at him in disbelief.
"You bastard! You made me your subordinate!"
"I didn’t choose how the connection formed."
"Then change it!"
"I Can’t."
Seraphine’s eyebrow visibly twitched.
Power gathered around her body as she closed her eyes and attempted to resist the connection directly, causing the surrounding Mana to tremble slightly.
Seraphine opened her eyes again, but most of the anger had disappeared and been replaced by confusion.
"What exactly are you?"
Karl shrugged. "A Necromancer."
"That is obviously not what I am asking!"
Her eyes suddenly shone with pale golden light and Karl felt something pass across his body before reaching much deeper and touching the authority connected to Monarch of Death.
Seraphine immediately stepped backwards, for the first time since appearing, genuine shock covered her face.
She stared at Karl for several seconds before the surprise gradually transformed into intense curiosity.
"You really are something strange."
Karl suddenly preferred when she had been angry.
Behind him, Leon leaned toward Karl and whispered quietly.
"I think your new summon might be slightly insane."
Seraphine remained facing Karl.
"I can hear you."
Leon ignored her as another thought apparently entered his head, his gaze moving between Mira and Seraphine several times.
"Actually, Mira, you might have a problem now."
Mira frowned. "What problem?"
Leon nodded toward Seraphine.
"She might be trying to steal your position."
Mira’s face immediately became red.
"What position?!"
Karl slowly turned toward Leon with a blank expression, while even Seraphine froze before a faint trace of embarrassment appeared across her face.
Leon remained completely shameless.
"You know exactly which position."
Mira raised one dagger.
"Leon."
He immediately stepped behind Karl. "Brother, control your assassin."
Karl moved aside. "Deal with it yourself."
Seraphine watched the three of them for several seconds before rubbing her forehead.
"I escaped an eternal dungeon for this."
Karl almost laughed, Seraphine released a tired breath before looking toward him again, her previous energy noticeably weaker than when she had first appeared.
"Separating from the dungeon consumed considerably more power than I expected, so I am going to sleep."
Karl raised one eyebrow. "Where?"
"Your summon space, obviously."
Before he could ask anything further, Seraphine’s body dissolved into dark particles and disappeared through the connection between them.
Karl immediately sensed her presence somewhere within Death Legion, completely inactive except for the faint connection confirming she was still there.
Leon stared at the empty space.
"She can just sleep inside you?"
Karl looked toward him. "Apparently."
Mira finally lowered her dagger, but before any of them could continue discussing Seraphine, several notifications appeared simultaneously.
[The Last Lament — Insane Mode completed.]
[Hidden completion condition fulfilled.]
[Seraphine has been separated from The Last Lament.]
[First Insane Mode clear recorded.]
[Dungeon reward settlement beginning.]
White light gradually gathered throughout the cathedral as the three of them looked at the notifications and then toward one another.
Their first real dungeon had somehow ended with an undefeated Overlord dying to a one-percent execution effect and the existence hidden behind Insane Mode voluntarily becoming Karl’s Hero-ranked undead.
Leon remained silent for several seconds before finally nodding to himself.
"Pretty normal first dungeon."
Mira punched him directly across the shoulder while Karl laughed and the cathedral gradually disappeared around them.