by Sakon Kaidou
I silently suppressed my rage. There was no denying that we were standing in the laboratory of the Necromancer who’d created those undead.
However, the Necromancer himself was nowhere in sight. It was safe to assume that he’d gone out to face Hugo.
The child on the magic circle was probably going to be his next guinea pig. We’d saved him by coming here.
“What now?” asked Nemesis. “Should we ensure the children’s safety or go help Hugo with the bandit elimination?”
That was a hard decision to make. Saving the children was our primary goal, but carrying all seven of them somewhere safe would be too difficult for me alone. However, if I left them here and went out to fight, I’d increase the possibility of them being used as hostages.
My other option was to stay here and protect the children while Hugo took care of the bandits, but it’d all go to hell if Hugo got killed.
“Man, this is a tough one...” I sighed.
“For now, I think you should take that youngling to the other room,” said Nemesis. “I don’t know what kind of magic circle that is, but I don’t believe it’s safe for a child to sleep on.”
I nodded and moved towards the child in the circle.
After a few steps, I stepped on something that seemed strange. It was a particularly thick piece of cloth. At first glance, it looked like a thin mattress made of felt, but I soon noticed that it had a pair of sleeves sewn on it, making it clear that it was a piece of clothing — a robe, to be precise. What seemed strange wasn’t the fact that clothing was lying on the ground, but the fact that I could feel something hard under it.
I kicked the robe away to find out what it was.
“These are...”
...bones — that was the source of the hard sensation beneath my feet.
Their presence didn’t surprise me in the least. The nearby barrel was full of them, after all. However, I found it strange that half of the bones were those of a human, while the other half belonged to something else. The non-human bones were thicker and reminded me of a horse skeleton I’d seen in a museum once.
“How did human and horse bones end up lying in the same place?” I asked.
“I would guess they belong to a horse-man,” said Nemesis. “As far as I am aware, this is just about how their skeletal remains look.”
That reminded me that, back in Gideon, I had seen some members of a race that looked much like the centaurs from Greek myth.
I glanced back down at my feet. The upper body and skull bones clearly belonged to a human, while the bones that matched to the lower body seemed about the right fit for an equine. Indeed, there was little doubt that they belonged to a horse-man.
However, there were things to be said about their large size. I didn’t know that race’s average, but at the very least, it was clear that it didn’t belong to a child.
How did the bones of a mature horse-man end up here? I thought.
“The Necromancer might’ve somehow gotten his hands on one of their corpses and used it in his experiments,” said Nemesis.
“He would’ve cleaned it up if that was the case,” I argued. “After all, he’s already preparing his next guinea pig.”
I looked at the child on the magic circle. It didn’t take a genius to see that the Necromancer was fully ready for the next experiment. He wouldn’t have left the bones from a previous experiment just lying on the floor like this.
I mean, the madman is methodical enough to put all the other bones in that barrel there, I thought.
“Trying to understand the thought process of a madman is a fool’s errand, if you ask me,” said Nemesis.
“...No point in considering it, huh?” I muttered.
She had a point. My prime objective was to move that child away from here.
After using Nemesis to shatter the magic circle multiple times and making sure that I wouldn’t activate some strange magic, I stepped inside and picked the boy up.
Sleeping on the cold floor had made his body temperature drop. Still, he was breathing properly and had a stable pulse. Slightly relieved, I began carrying him on my back and made my way out of the room.
Suddenly, I felt his breath behind me.
That was normal — considering where he was — but for some reason, a chill arced down my spine like lightning...
“Die.”
I was unsure of where that word came from. But it was too late. I heard the sound of a blade slicing my neck.
Somehow I’d missed it, but the child on my back had a dagger in his hands.
As my carotid artery began oozing blood, I fell to the cold, stony floor.
◆◆◆
One of the two leaders of the Gouz-Maise Gang, Lich Maise
This world had a power most referred to as “Superior Jobs.”
Out of the thousands of jobs available to humanoid creatures, those were the ultimate peak — available only to a select few.
Superior Jobs allowed people to surpass the limits of their corporeal form.
One of the people who had a Superior Job was the Arch Wiseman — the one they called the kingdom’s guardian deity. His magic power was nothing short of divine. He could part the ground beneath and even bring down the heavens themselves.
However, in the war with Dryfe, the Arch Wiseman had been defeated by the King of Beasts — a Master and another owner of a Superior Job.
Though that had been nothing but a tragedy for the Kingdom of Altar, a number of people were glad that he was gone. After all — the throne of a Superior Job was exclusive to the one possessing it. With the kingdom’s Arch Wiseman dying, the role of the Arch Wiseman became open for those wanting to take it.
I, too, was aiming for a Superior Job. However, it was a job completely unlike the Wiseman’s.
The Superior Job I set my sights upon was at the apex of the Necromancer grouping. It was a job known as the King of Corpses.
Its power was far above the magic of common Necromancers... and beyond even the Necromancy of Liches — those who became undead themselves.
Anyone seated in the throne of corpses would be immortal, undying, and commanding power surpassing that of all the deceased. It was the only method to receive the undeath that only Masters had.
That was the King of Corpses.
I started leading the Gouz-Maise gang to further my efforts at getting this Superior Job. The kidnapped children were there to help me practice my Necromancy. The money was necessary for me to get certain magic items and to bribe Caldina.
In that country, money was the start and the end of the conversation. Everything in Caldina had a price. A sufficiently-greased palm could even get their army to act in response to movements from Gideon’s soldiers.
Since this place was near the border, that made the kingdom hesitant to attack us because it could provoke Caldina.
Also, with all the Conceal and Presence Manipulation magic items I’d bought from them, the kidnapping of materials had become significantly easier. Blessed with abundant ingredients and the perfect environment, I was able to study the path of Necromancy to my heart’s content and slowly made my way towards the throne of the King of Corpses.
Getting this Superior Job required the fulfillment of several difficult conditions and then passing a certain test. I had learned the conditions by deciphering an ancient text describing the secret processes.
The first condition there was “Turn 5,000 years’ worth of life into death,” which I’d easily achieved by making this fortress my hideout and having the gang work for me. Since I focused on children — who were both easy to convert into undead and still had long, happy futures ahead of them — it all went extremely smoothly. I needed fewer than a hundred of them for this, but since the undead were a great asset, I continued on doing it.
The second condition — which I’d achieved, as well — was the creation of a Crystal of Resentment. It was made by forcing enormous amounts of fear — or grudge, to be more precise — into a Crystal of Purity �
� an item that cleansed the corruption of the undead.
Gouz helped me a lot with this. The fear of the children he ate while they were still alive manifested in exquisite, sorrowful grudges.
Of course, the grudge I got from them when using the Anguish Circle to turn them into materials for the undead wasn’t too bad, either.
The once-white crystal that had emitted an irritatingly divine light was now blackened to the very core.
With that, I’d had already fulfilled the conditions to become the King of Corpses. All that was left was going to Legendaria — the place where the job’s throne was sealed — to clear the ordeal quest and make the title my own.
Both the fortress and the gang had outlived their use. Gideon would soon become crowded with some particularly pesky individuals. Before that happened, I planned to take Gouz — my only useful subordinate — with me, then destroy all the knowledge I might’ve left here and leave once and for all.
That was when a particularly reckless intruder sneaked into the fortress.
◆
“Die.”
A moment after I spoke that word, I heard the sound of a man dropping to the laboratory floor. I couldn’t see the look on his face, but the ground was drenched in his fresh blood.
Standing next to him was a child I’d magically controlled to slice open the man’s throat.
An undead would’ve easily been recognized by the description over its head, I thought. In such cases, it’s better to use them alive.
“So a child got you to let your guard down, huh?” I muttered. “What a fool you are.”
I began rebuilding my scattered body. Once my horse-man skeleton came together, I re-equipped my robe. Then, skin and leather began covering my bones before expanding to fit the flesh inside.
A moment before, I had been nothing but bones, which was made possible by one of my Lich skills — Corpsification. To the man now lying on the ground, I’d probably looked like a standard set of skeletal remains.
I was undead and had Lich — a high-rank necromancer job — as my own. Having such trickery at my disposal was only natural.
“Oh? You’re still alive?” I said while looking down at the man. Although he’d lost so much blood that the stream from his neck had significantly weakened, he still seemed to have a pulse. In his right hand, he held a black halberd with a flag trailing from behind. I tried identifying it, but didn’t get any results. That could only mean one thing: the weapon was an Embryo and the man was a Master.
“You’re still conscious, too?” I spoke again. “Well, it matters not. The dagger was coated in a Poison and Paralysis-causing fluid, specially concocted by yours truly. A Lich’s poison is nothing to sniff at, either. You’ll die without being able to do anything about it.”
The Bleeding and Poison was draining his life, while Paralysis sealed all and any movement. Shame that he was a Master — I could’ve harvested a truly potent grudge from him if he hadn’t been one.
Masters were a terrible source for grudges. When killed, they would simply come back to life three days later. Compared to tians, their fear of death and resentment towards their murderers was simply... mediocre. Not only that — their absolute immortality made them live as though everything was just a game.
That was exactly how the party of Masters that’d attacked this place had been. My magic and Gouz’s strength had been more than enough to take care of them, but since I hadn’t even been able to turn their corpses into undead, they’d been absolutely useless to my Necromancy work. Masters irked me to no end. Their treatment of this world as a plaything, and the fact that they automatically had immortality... the one thing I had decided to make my life’s work.
...Oh, that made me remember. The first party to come here had been comprised entirely of tians, and the grudges I’d collected by torturing them had been simply superb. Ah, the fun I’d had back then. Their corpses had become some excellent materials, too.
Turning tians into undead was extremely easy. I was rather intrigued by the idea of making undead out of Masters, as well, but for now, I had to make due with merely getting rid of them whenever they intruded.
By now, Gouz had probably taken care of this man’s ally on the surface. All I had to do now was leave the fortress, go where I must, complete the ordeal, and become the King of Corpses.
“With that in mind, it’s time to move out and head towards Legendaria,” I muttered.
As I made my way towards the laboratory door, I noticed the materials... the children I’d put to sleep in the other room. I’d nearly forgotten.
“The gang act is over,” I said. “Better kill all the children and turn them into materials for my undea... hm?”
The moment I said that, I saw the fingers of the man on the ground twitch a little bit. That small action — combined with the look on the side of his face — made me realize something.
“Did you actually come all the way here just to save the children?” I asked. “It wasn’t for my treasure?”
He didn’t say a word. Not like he could, considering his current condition, but his reaction was more than enough.
“Hah... hah... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” I placed my hands on my belly and laughed out loud.
No other reaction was appropriate. How could I not laugh?
“Hahahahahah! An inhuman immortal? Going out of his way to save a few brats? Ghahahahahahah! Oh my, quite a heroic way to play you’ve found, Mister Master.”
Thought you’d roleplay as some champion of justice, huh? I thought. The fact that this was where it had gotten him filled me with great bliss.
“Heheheh,” I continued laughing. “All right, this is how it will go. I’ll create some lovely little undead creatures, and you will watch it happen until the poison kills you. Who knows? You might learn something. After all, I’m quite skilled at it, if I say so myself. But that is only natural, considering that I’ve already created hundreds of them!”
In response to my words, the man on the ground exuded some horrific, traumatic emotions.
Excellent, I thought. It appears that even a Master can be a good source when properly agitated. But even more than that, as one who will soon be the King of Corpses, I know now that I will thoroughly enjoy the freedom to look down on any and all immortal Masters.
“Now, then...” I said. “The children with thick-looking bones will be turned into Skeletons, while all the others will do fine as Zombies. Oh, but it might be a good idea to turn these pretty-looking ones into taxidermy pieces and sell them off somewhere. Despite appearances, my hands are quite dexterous, so I’m actually pretty decent at managing the finer details. Some men of culture value my work quite highly.”
In response, I got more angry silence.
Ah, the joy, I thought. This is pure bliss.
I’d never have expected to have this much fun with a Master. His sorrow was like the perfect seasoning.
However, it was time to end it.
“Now, let’s start with the brat that cut your neck!” I exclaimed. “First, I’ll have him cut his own neck and—”
Suddenly, a gust of wind...
...followed by the sound of something hitting the ground.
“...What?” Confused, I looked to where the sound came from and saw something very familiar.
It was a left hand, covered in magic rings. Magic rings that had cost me a fortune.
Isn’t that... my own left hand? I thought, stunned.
“If you... are...”
The man whose defeat was all but certain slowly spoke up. His right arm was raised in the air.
“If you... are not among the living...”
The blade of the halberd he held was emitting a noble, white gleam. I recognized it. It was imbued with the bane of the undead — Purifying Silverlight.
“If you... lost sight of what it means to be a person...”
He slowly stood up and faced towards me. The neck wound that was surely there less than a minute ago had disappeared without a trace.
“If you... are the one responsible for that scene...”
His expression had neither the weariness of Poison, nor the heaviness of Paralysis.
“If you... claim that you will keep on doing it...”
The only real emotion on his face was in the light in his eyes — a blaze of pure rage.
“...then I will kill you.”
It was the first time I had seen a Master — one of those immortal, inhuman beasts of undeath — make such an expression.
I couldn’t articulate it completely, but what I felt was dread. Utter and unmatched dread.
My instincts were screaming, telling me only one thing:
Run! He is going to extinguish you.
“■■■■ — Abyssal Delusion!”
Dead Man’s Bind!
I quickly used the most vile hexes I had at my disposal. They were two high-rank debuff spells — one was vocal and came accompanied by a chant, while the other came from the magic item on my right hand and didn’t need any words.
Abyssal Delusion was a powerful hex that gave the affected the Death Sentence, Weakness, and Deterioration status effects, making them rot and become corpses while still alive. Dead Man’s Bind was another spell with three debuffs — Binding, Curse, and Lethargy. Together, they gave a total of six particularly powerful status effects.
This combination had sent many of my enemies to their deaths. Anyone unlucky enough to receive it was rendered completely immobile.
“Ghaah!”
Yet he didn’t stop. As though he’d reversed the effects of my hexes, he became more intimidating and horizontally swung his halberd — shining with Purifying Silverlight — towards me.
“Guh?!” I exclaimed. If I had been but a step closer, his attack would’ve split my torso.
I couldn’t let that happen. Taking fatal damage from him was something I had to avoid at all costs.
I was a Lich — an undead master of magic. Most of my wounds would mend a moment after they’d happened. I could lose an arm or get my body split in half — no such damage was critical to me.
However, in this case, the mending didn’t work at all. In fact, the arm he’d cut off had already turned to dust.