Inside the trough, the corpses that had been floating on the surface opened their eyes. In that moment, it was as if each of them possessed spirituality, and one by one they struggled upright.0

The corpses that had already been floating at the edge of the trough crawled toward the “shore” at once, but their advance was quickly blocked by an invisible ward. They did not lose heart. They opened their mouths and tore at the air ahead, swung their arms, raked with clawed fingers, and hammered with their palms.0

The corpses in the center thrashed in the water for a time, then below them, skeletons thrusted up hands and heads. Those bones formed bone bridges, letting the corpses tread over them to reach the shore and join the assault against the ward.0

Last came the skeletons from the deepest part of the trough. They crawled up from the depths and climbed onto the shore. White light flickered inside the hollow sockets of their skulls as they also charged the ward.0

The ward here should be like the Triple Seal the Expositor was using above, like a lid clamped down over this place.0

So the corpses began at the lower edges, tearing and raking. Slowly, those behind climbed over the bodies ahead to reach higher and strike, like a swarm of ants. Even the upper rim of the trough became covered in bone, everyone using every last bit of strength to pound at every corner of the ward.0

Karon stood there. Even though he had “Awakened” so many at once, he had not expended much, and this consumption did not even compare to using Spear of Punishment one more time.0

Because these corpses did not need him to pour spirituality into them. They had been lying in this swamp saturated with generations of resentment. They already met the conditions to awaken.0

What Karon had done was no more than dropping a lit match into a barrel full of kerosene.1

But no one could look at the raging blaze now and deny the role of that first spark.0

Originally, breaking this ward from outside would...0