Shortly after, Klein arrived in a clearing in the forest, still searching for Dalton. Just as he was about to press on with the search, Dalton called out to him like a man who had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
Dalton stood surrounded by dog corpses, wickedly licking his sword like a predator that had just found its ultimate prey. Klein got down from the horse and, with a disgusted look on his face, asked what he meant. His disgust only deepened as he scanned the surroundings and saw that Dalton had killed every last one of the dogs.
Dalton informed Klein that he had been waiting for the grand finale of the hunt. Pointing his sword forward, he declared that Klein was the last prey and vowed to kill him. Klein was not moved by the rant of a madman about to meet his end.
But, like every villain who talks far too much, Dalton began to explain exactly how he planned to take Klein down and present his head to Delane, just to show the world that the Rheinland family was trash. As he went on with his monologue, he raised his right hand, signalling the men he had arranged for this very moment. By the time the mercenaries closed in, Dalton was still deep in his speech, talking about how it was time for the dukedom to pass to the collateral branch.
Before long a line of archers had Klein in their sights, ready to punch a few holes in him, but Klein remained calm, as though he were staring down at a swarm of pesky little ants. All the while the rant continued, with Dalton excitedly telling Klein that by tomorrow the whole city would be full of news about the fallen swordsman of the Rheinland family who had ended up as manure.
After listening to all of that garbage, Klein was furious. His mind wandered to Berkel and to how the man had fought so that this so-called trash could have a peaceful future. Klein scoffed at what had become of poor Berkel's legacy, and then he began to laugh uncontrollably, as though he were possessed. Dalton stared at him in confusion, unable to tell whether Klein had completely lost his mind or was simply too foolish to grasp the situation he was in.
In that very moment, the prey became the predator. Klein suddenly embodied his former self and looked at Dalton with a cold, terrifying stare. That cold look sent a chill through the air and made Dalton tremble with fear.
With coldness in his voice, Klein began his own villain monologue, but his was straight to the point, and it sent a chill down the spine of everyone listening. He told Dalton that the Rheinland family had been built upon the price of his death, and yet a pest like him dared to mock it.
Suddenly the air around them began to darken to red, and Dalton wondered whether this was magic. Then he recalled that Klein had no mana, so there was no way he could pull off a scene like this. As the energy thickened around him, Klein let Dalton know that it was not magic at all. It was demonic energy.
The demonic energy swirled around Klein, whipping up powerful gusts of wind that almost swept Dalton and his men off their feet. As the dark aura intensified, Klein's words finally sank in, and Dalton vaguely recalled hearing something about demonic energy before. Klein had no intention of stopping, and with a calm, commanding voice he began chanting an ancient demonic incantation, calling upon the ancient buried souls. Invoking his own name, he ordered them to feast and to devour, and a host of undead skeletons rose at his summons.
One of the men about to be slaughtered was horrified at the sight in front of him, and a chilling thought crept into his mind. He wondered whether Klein could truly be Archmond.
Before long Klein was surrounded by a legion of shrieking skeletons as he continued the chant, telling them to devour until their resentment was satisfied. After summoning his little league of undead, Klein began to feel that familiar sensation he had thought he had long forgotten. Two hundred years later, the feeling of standing in a corpse field now seemed like something from a distant past. Yet Klein could still feel that sensation echoing endlessly through the darkness, and the voices of the dead calling out to him. Having it sweep through his body again, he fully embraced it.
The man who had recognized the monstrosity in front of him skeptically called Klein by that name. Archmond. Klein wickedly answered that he used to be called by it.
Some of the other mercenaries still doubted, since the story about Klein being Archmond had been nothing more than a rumour. But looking at the terrifying skeletons in front of them, they could not help suspecting that the rumours might actually be true. Dalton watched the entire scene unfold in silence, as though his brain needed extra time to process what he was seeing.
After a long, awkward pause, some of the mercenaries burst into laughter, mocking the grotesque skeletons for their bucket-shaped heads. A few even ridiculed Klein, asking why he had bothered summoning such low-level trash.
Klein could hardly believe his ears. These were some of the very same skeletons he had once used to nearly bring an entire continent to its knees, and now they were being dismissed as worthless garbage. Dalton, finally snapping out of his daze, joined in the mockery, and with a smug grin he boasted that he had smashed hundreds of skeletons just like these during missions.
One man still managed to notice that something was slightly off about Klein's skeletons, but Dalton confidently told his men to take a bone from them as a souvenir. The mercenaries found this amusing and decided to heed his advice. Dalton then ordered the archers to take out the skeletons blocking their path while the rest of the mercenaries broke through. He ordered the archers to prepare, and immediately after that he told them to fire.
The archers released hundreds of arrows at Klein and his army of undead. As the arrows closed in, Klein remained calm, as though they were nothing but insignificant feathers drifting towards him. The volley finally hit Klein's camp, and Dalton was excited to see what remained of him, but the sight in front of him left him stunned.
Once the dust settled, he realized that the skeletons carried impenetrable shields, and that they had used them to form a barrier protecting Klein. Pleased with the effect, Klein scoffed at the fact that nobody recognized his special skeletons after two hundred years. The mercenaries, meanwhile, were starting to feel uneasy, because those skeletons had not been carrying shields a few moments earlier.
Klein let them know that his minions were not the typical spineless skeletons. When the mercenaries demanded to know what they were, Klein simply said that his skeletons were different. Those words alone were enough to make them tremble.
As he prepared to show them exactly what he was capable of, Klein silently told Berkel to watch closely, quietly relishing the thought that he was finally about to teach a lesson to the bastards who mocked and insulted the future Berkel had fought so hard to protect.