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Chapter 19: Chapter 18: Darkness of Doom (3)

He shouted and shouted again until veins bulged in his neck.

"Kill that bastard as I command you!"

The wraith remained unmoving.

Like a well-behaved dog, it lay flat at Karnak\'s feet, without the slightest movement.

Karnak grumbled as he looked at Fred.

"Why do you keep calling it an evil spirit? It has a proper name—it\'s called a wraith."

Boras responded while fastening his sword to his waist.

"If you haven\'t been properly educated, that can happen."

Fred had never formally learned necromancy. He had simply gained the power of darkness in an instant and wielded it instinctively.

In his mind, there was just the concept of an evil spirit, many evil spirits, and a stronger evil spirit, nothing more.

"A wraith is still a type of evil spirit, isn\'t it? So technically, it\'s not wrong."

"But from my perspective, it\'s seriously cringeworthy."

Let\'s put this into a normal person\'s context.

Imagine a commander giving orders to soldiers like this:

\'Go, humans!\'

\'Kill them all, people!\'

How awkward would that be? For a necromancer, it felt exactly like that.

Karnak grimaced.

"That idiot\'s the one doing something stupid, so why do I feel embarrassed just watching? Damn it..."

Suddenly, Fred\'s gaze changed.

"That power..."

Karnak had felt nothing when using magic.

But now it was different. A terrible aura of death and darkness flowed from his entire body.

"So, you are a necromancer too!"

"Did you just realize that now? You\'re unbelievably slow."

Necromancy couldn\'t be used with chaos power.

But Karnak still had the remnants of evil energy and aura of malice left after refining chaotic power. It was an extremely concentrated form of necromantic power.

Of course, the total amount was minimal. If measured purely by necromantic power, it was less than one-tenth of Fred\'s.

But in every aspect except quantity, Karnak was overwhelmingly superior. It was more than enough to suppress a wraith.

Fred shouted in frustration.

"As fellow necromancers, couldn\'t you live and help each other instead of becoming a dog of the Church?"

At that, Karnak and Boras widened their eyes. They reacted as if they had just heard something completely absurd.

"What did you just say? Help and live together as necromancers?"

"Wow, this guy seriously has no basic common sense, does he?"

"A necromancer this naive? That\'s refreshing."

Necromancers were beings that thrived on death and darkness.

And that death and darkness included the existence of fellow necromancers. In fact, it was more like an excellent elixir.

Because of this, it was utterly impossible for necromancers to get along with each other.

They had only two options: either kill their opponent and consume their energy, or place them under a powerful curse and use them as a slave.

"The world really has changed. A necromancer spouting such nonsense..."

"Back in our day, no one gained necromantic power without having the knowledge to wield it."

Fred cautiously observed them.

\'These bastards...\'

Was it because they had overwhelmed the wraith and held an undeniable advantage?

They treated him as if he was already a captured prey, chatting among themselves.

\'In that case...\'

Suddenly, Fred turned his back and started running at full speed. He planned to escape while they were distracted by their conversation.

"Well, well, trying to run away?"

Karnak didn\'t bother to chase after him.

Why had he treated Fred as if he were already caught prey?

"Because he really was."

Darkness suddenly erupted from Fred\'s limbs as he ran. The shadows formed into a massive hand that seized him.

"Kuh!"

Fred collapsed to the ground after barely taking a few steps.

Karnak had already secretly restrained his opponent\'s limbs with necromancy.

"Do you think I talk so much for no reason? Misdirecting your attention while pulling something off behind your back is one of the main tactics of necromancy."

It\'s called misdirection—there\'s even a specific section on it in necromancy books.

"After matching your rhythm, I\'ve picked up the habit of chatting during fights too, even though I don\'t really need to."

Even as the two of them leisurely talked, the darkness continued to do its job. It crawled up Fred\'s limbs, seized his torso, and eventually reached his head. The darkness gripped Fred\'s soul and began to twist it.

A horrifying scream erupted.

"Argh, aaaagh!"

***

When the summoner collapsed, the wraith naturally disappeared as well.

Karnak extended his hand toward the unconscious Fred. He intended to place him under mind control and extract information.

"Open your eyes, my servant..."

Fred\'s eyes rolled back as he opened his mouth.

"Yes, Master..."

He then began to babble everything he knew.

But even saying "everything" wasn\'t much of value.

He just gained power, went on a rampage, and got caught. The end. A life that could be summed up in just a few words.

"He really was a worthless fool. There\'s nothing to gain from him."

Boras asked.

"So, what will you do now?"

"I\'ll make him kill himself."

If the Latiel Church found out that the two of them were involved, it would become problematic.

"Search his belongings and find a knife or something similar."

"Yes."

A traveler never goes without a blade. Even if it\'s not for self-defense, a knife is an essential item for any journey.

Boras found a dagger on Fred and placed it in the man\'s hand.

"Let\'s step back. Don\'t want to get splattered with blood."

After putting some distance between them, Karnak manipulated Fred\'s mind.

Fred, now completely out of it, slit his own throat with the dagger.

Splurt!

Blood sprayed out like a fountain as he instantly died.

To any onlooker, it would appear as though "a necromancer, driven to despair, had taken his own life after being relentlessly pursued."

"Now we just have to wait for the Latiel Church\'s trackers to find this body."

"Won\'t they notice that he was forced to kill himself using necromancy?"

"If they were ordinary humans, they would. But..."

Karnak reached out toward Fred\'s corpse.

"In this case, the body is already drenched in foul evil energy. Who would notice a little more filth added to a cesspool?"

Darkness rose from the corpse and flowed toward Karnak. The black energy began to fiercely seep into his grasp.

Boras asked in surprise, "Wait, you\'re absorbing the necromantic power?"

"Just a little. I need to leave most of it for the Latiel Church; otherwise, they might get suspicious."

"No, I meant... Didn\'t you say it\'s better to avoid absorbing such tainted necromantic power?"

Chaos power required too much effort to cleanse the murky energy and death energy.

Absorbing the pure yin energy from the beginning was far more efficient than taking in the severely corrupted necromantic power like Fred\'s.

Karnak shook his head.

"I\'m not doing this to gain power. I\'m trying to find out more about the Prophecy of Doom. There might be something useful."

As Karnak continued to absorb the darkness, he focused intently.

"...!"

Suddenly, his expression hardened. Boras, alarmed, asked, "What\'s wrong, young master?"

There was no response.

Karnak\'s face grew increasingly pale, as if he had been deeply shocked.

"...Young master?"

For a long time, Karnak stood there, frozen in place. Just as Boras began to reach for his weapon, wary of any sudden danger—

\'Did something go wrong?\'

Karnak let out a deep sigh and finally began to move.

"...Let\'s return to the mansion, Boras."

It was the usual tone of his master.

Relieved yet puzzled, Boras couldn\'t shake off the strange feeling.

\'Why is he acting like that?\'

To be precise, Karnak\'s expression was slightly different from usual.

\'It\'s almost as if...\'

No one in the world was more accustomed to ghosts than Karnak. He dealt with all kinds of evil spirits, mastered death and darkness, and eventually became known as the King of Death.

So, at the very least, it was unimaginable to use this expression when referring to Karnak.

\'...He looked like he\'d seen a ghost.\'

***

As expected, the Latiel Church\'s trackers found Fred\'s corpse.

Everything went smoothly.

The priests of Latiel inspected the scene and concluded that Fred had committed suici*e.

Since necromancers driven to despair often took their own lives, no one suspected Karnak or Boras. After expressing their gratitude to the Jestarad Barony, the Latiel trackers returned to their church. For some time afterward, Karnak remained secluded.

He distanced himself even from Boras, spending almost all of his time in the training ground, except when he was sleeping. He went so far as to have his meals brought to the training hall, thoroughly cutting off contact with others.

The official reason was this:

– I wish to delve deeper into my magical studies, so I will distance myself from the affairs of the world for a while.

It was almost common knowledge that knights or mages would isolate themselves to reach a new level of mastery.

Even during the Duel Trial, Karnak had left the barony to train. Boras accepted it as such without much thought.

During his time as the King of Death, Karnak often secluded himself for months while immersed in research.

However, one thing still puzzled Boras.

\'What was that expression back then?\'

On the seventh day of Karnak\'s seclusion, he finally emerged from the training hall. He immediately summoned Boras.

"You called for me?"

"Yes."

As Boras entered the study, Karnak began preparing a spell.

He used chaos power to create a thin barrier that enveloped the entire study.

It was a soundproof barrier to prevent any noise from escaping.

\'A barrier? In his own house?\'

Watching this, Boras grew even more puzzled.

The study was already soundproof, ideal for quiet reading. Karnak hadn\'t even taken such precautions when discussing necromancy.

"Why are you doing this? It\'s not like you."

Karnak slowly began to speak.

"Listen, Boras."

"Yes?"

"I\'ve been doing some research."

"You mean about that \'Darkness of Doom\' or whatever?"

There wasn\'t much to gain from Fred, but one thing was clear.

The dark energy that had tempted Fred was indeed the \'Darkness of Doom\' as referred to by the seven major religious orders on the continent.

"Yes, the prophecy of that goddess... the one about the end of the world and all that..."

Karnak twisted a strand of his dark hair around his finger as he continued to trail off.

"Young master?"

Boras frowned.

"Why are you dragging this out?"

Karnak let out a long sigh and forced a smile.

"It turns out... I\'m the culprit."

***

The King of Death, Karnak, used his immense necromantic power to twist time and space, linking the past and the future.

This twisted passage of time allowed him to send his soul back to the past—a technique known as the Space-time Regression Spell.

Successfully casting this spell, he had abandoned all the immense power he possessed as the King of Death to return to this era.

"Up until now, I thought that was how things worked..."

Slumping into a chair, Karnak muttered weakly.

"But it turns out I was mistaken about something."

"Mistaken?"

"Yeah."

Suddenly, Karnak changed the subject.

"Boras."

"Yes?"

"Where do you think the world\'s energies like aura or mana are stored?"

Boras tilted his head in confusion and asked in return, "Aren\'t they stored within the body?"

"Right, to be precise, they\'re stored in the physical body. That\'s common knowledge."

A knight\'s aura or a mage\'s mana is accumulated in the body. Therefore, no matter how powerful a knight or mage may be, they ultimately cannot escape the passage of time.

The same goes for priests. Holy energy is stored within the body, and the soul governs that energy in tandem with the body.

"Necromantic power is also stored within the body in the same way."

Karnak briefly conjured a small black flame before extinguishing it.

After using chaos energy to cleanse the foul aura, he continued speaking.

"The Space-Time Regression Spell I created discards the physical body, allowing only the soul to transcend time and space. There\'s nothing wrong with the method itself."

The problem was that Karnak\'s case was extraordinarily unique.

"I was Astra Spiritus, wasn\'t I?"

An undead among the undead.

An embodiment of absolute power, akin to the God of Death.

"Here\'s a question: What did I, the King of Death, look like?"

Boras was dumbfounded.

Was Karnak really asking such a question to someone who had been his loyal follower for nearly a hundred years?

"What did you look like? You were just a skeleton draped in a shroud of dark energy, floating around like a ghost..."

As he responded brusquely, Boras\'s expression suddenly hardened.

\'Wait, like a ghost?\'

A deep sneer formed on Karnak\'s lips.

"Exactly. I was Astra Spiritus..."

He had discarded his human body, creating a body of spiritual energy through immense power of darkness, becoming a being that transcended fate and mastered death.

That\'s right, a body of spiritual energy.

A chaotic existence, neither fully a physical body nor merely a soul.

"I naturally assumed that my necromantic power was stored in my body. But it turns out that body was actually part of my soul."

And Karnak\'s soul had transcended time and returned to this era.

"No way..."

Boras\'s mouth dropped open.

"Your powers... They regressed through time along with you?"

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