Monarch of Death

For the first time in a while, Karnak emerged from the basement and headed to the backyard behind the cabin. He had made some progress in interpreting and applying the magic formulas, and now, he wanted to apply them to actual magic.

As he was warming up, Baros asked him, “It took you a while.”

“Hm? What did?”

“The magic formula interpretation.”

Baros had thought Karnak, being so exceptional, would master Detzras’ magic in no time. But surprisingly, hadn’t he spent more than five days on it?

“You’re the ultimate necromancer, aren’t you, young master? Do you still have anything left to learn from others?”

“There’s nothing more for me to learn about necromancy. I’m the best at that.”

What Karnak had gained knowledge in was the magic formula related to magic.

Although Karnak’s skill in magic was also quite advanced, it wasn’t at the same absolute level as his necromancy.

“And honestly, it didn’t even take that long! I finished it in five days, but for any other mage, it would have taken months.”

Karnak began to gather his mana.

“Alright, let’s give this a test.”

Calmly, he channeled his chaos power and cast a spell.

“Arise, spirit of the earth!”

Boom!

Part of the backyard rose and clumped together, forming a large golem made of earth. It was a golem summoning spell.

Baros, who had been watching, lit up with excitement.

“Oh! Are you going to overlay that golem with Death Armor now?”

He thought Karnak was going to replicate Detzras’ spell, but surprisingly, Karnak shook his head.

“No, I can’t do that.”

Chaos magic and Detzras’ magic formula had completely opposite directions. It was impossible to fuse magic and necromancy together like the Death Armor Golem.

“Huh? Then what is it that you’ve learned?”

Karnak smirked and snapped his fingers.

“Something like this.”

Once again, there was a loud rumble.

Boom!

The noise didn’t stop with just one boom.

Thud! Thud! Boom!

All over the backyard, piles of earth clumped together and rose with a loud noise. And all of them turned into large golems standing tall on the ground.

“Wha—?”

“Oh my!”

Baros and Serati both widened their eyes in surprise.

Before they knew it, there were about 20 golems standing in a row in the backyard.

“How is this possible?”

“Could you summon that many all at once?”

Karnak responded proudly.

“With just magic, it’s impossible.”

If their skills are similar, a necromancer’s summoning abilities are far superior to a mage’s in every way. That’s common sense in the world.

It’s not particularly astonishing to see necromancers controlling dozens or hundreds of zombies or skeletons.

But have you ever seen a mage control dozens or hundreds of golems?

No matter how powerful a mage is, they would struggle to control even three or four golems.

“Even archmages can’t drastically increase the number of golems they control. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because mages have to personally design the control magic formula for each golem, every time.”

It’s not that they lack mana; it’s a matter of concentration and processing power.

“So, instead of trying to control dozens of golems at once, most mages prefer to create a single super golem with the strength of dozens.”

On the other hand, necromancers are completely different.

Necromancers don’t need to design control magic formulas for undead beings like zombies or skeletons.

“The lingering consciousness in the corpse replaces the control magic formula.”

Once they are raised, that’s it. There’s almost no need for processing power or concentration.

As long as you allow necromantic power, you can raise hundreds or even thousands of undead in an instant.

“So, I combined the two methods.”

Pointing to the 20 golems he had summoned, Karnak smiled.

“For each golem I summon, I infuse a lingering thought into it and control it using chaos power, just like necromancy.”

This was the new power he had acquired.

It wasn’t possible to merge magic and necromancy like the cultists did, as their directions were entirely different.

“And honestly, there’s no need to. At my level, why would I bother with something like that?”

At that point, it was much better to simply use necromancy rather than trying to fuse magic with it.

“But this method has quite a bit of usefulness.”

Karnak prepared another spell.

Using necromancy-like techniques, he activated chaos magic. Dozens of black spheres of light rose behind him.

Serati looked puzzled.

“Isn’t that just Scorching Magic Bullets? Only the color’s different.”

“That’s what it looks like.”

Karnak, suggesting they wait and see, cast the spell.

“Pitch-Black Magic Bullets!”

Dozens of magic bullets struck different parts of the forest, creating a deafening explosion.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground shook as if an earthquake had hit.

The power was truly immense.

Finally understanding, Serati nodded.

“Ah, I see.”

The strength of magic lies in its destructive power.

The strength of necromancy lies in its highly efficient use of mana and the ability to perform continuous bombardments with simple calculations.

Pitch-Black Magic Bullets possessed both of these advantages.

It allowed him to take only the strengths of both necromancy and magic.

“Though, this probably wouldn’t be much help to ordinary mages. The difficulty is many times higher.”

If another mage tried to use this method, they would have to learn how to control necromancy in addition to the magic they already knew.

Instead of wasting time on that, it would be a hundred times better to simply use their existing efficient magic.

But Karnak was the best necromancer in the world.

“Better to use a method that’s difficult but familiar than one that’s easy but awkward.”

Above all, there was another major advantage.

“This still just looks like magic, doesn’t it?”

He was only inserting lingering thoughts, not actual souls. This meant that the golems weren’t imbued with any evil energy or malevolence.

Even if he controlled dozens of golems, no one would suspect him of being a necromancer. They’d simply marvel at the appearance of a genius summoner.

The same applied to the Pitch-Black Magic Bullets.

Since no evil energy or malevolence could be felt, others would merely think he was an incredibly smart mage who could fire a lot of magic bullets.

In every way, the results were very satisfying.

“If I spend more time, I could keep developing more exclusive magic formulas. I don’t know who they are, but this was really great study material.”

As Karnak calmed his mana, he felt content.

Baros, who had been watching, muttered with envy, “Must be nice. I still can’t even grasp the concept of aura.”

“Oh, about that.”

Suddenly remembering, Karnak turned his head.

“I think I figured out why you can’t awaken your aura.”

“Huh? How?”

Baros couldn’t believe it.

Karnak, who wasn’t even a warrior, had figured out the secret of aura that Baros himself didn’t know?

“Yeah. I realized it during the interrogation of those cultists….”

Karnak continued, as if it were ridiculous.

“Baros, you’re actually a necromancer.”

Baros blinked in disbelief.

“…Me?”

***

In both his previous life and this one, Baros had always been the quintessential warrior.

He had lived a life where his body did the work so his brain wouldn’t have to suffer.

He had stayed far away from books his entire life.

Thanks to Karnak constantly pestering him, he at least knew how to read, but it was limited to basic swordsmanship and martial arts manuals.

“And yet, you’re telling me I’m a necromancer?”

“I’m not saying you’re a proper necromancer….”

Karnak scratched his head as he explained.

“Think about it. Were any of those Lords of Darkness we’ve fought real necromancers?”

Baros had a blank look on his face.

“Come to think of it, those guys who ran wild, believing in the Darkness of Doom, were considered necromancers.”

Necromancy is different from magic. Sure, knowledge and wisdom are helpful, but lacking them doesn’t mean you can’t wield its power at all.

There could even be illiterate necromancers who couldn’t read a single word.

“But I’ve never dabbled in something like the Darkness of Doom, right? Or could it be that I somehow became tainted by darkness without realizing it?”

That would be truly unfair! After his return, he had been living so carefully, paying attention to his health!

Karnak shook his head.

“Your body is fine. The problem lies in your soul.”

Mana, aura, divine power, and necromantic power.

Once you master any of these energies, there’s no going back. In the process of storing it in your body and transforming it into power, both your soul and body become optimized for that particular energy.

That’s right.

Both the soul and the body.

“What I’m saying is, just purging the energy from your body doesn’t fully reset everything.”

Even if Baros had returned to a younger version of his body, his soul was still that of a Death Knight Lord who once served the Death King.

“…But I wasn’t a necromancer, I was a Death Knight.”

“Baros, what was your specialty? It was possession and dark battle aura, wasn’t it?”

Someone who could possess others, steal their energy, or extract their energy entirely to convert it into power of darkness.

“If that’s not what a necromancer does, then what is?”

Baros looked stunned.

“…Huh?”

Come to think of it, it made sense.

Karnak had been so utterly corrupted, and yet, the person who stuck with him for a hundred years wasn’t corrupt too? That couldn’t be possible.

“Wait, so you were destined to become a necromancer all along, young master?”

Karnak had said that he could only reincarnate after mastering necromantic power. That’s why he couldn’t master magic or anything else and had to create chaos magic instead.

But in reality, whether he had necromantic power or not, his soul was already that of a necromancer, which meant he couldn’t learn anything else?

“That’s not necessarily true.”

This was, in fact, the reason why Karnak hadn’t realized this problem until now.

Once energy accumulates in the body, there’s no turning back. However, when it comes to the soul, it’s merely a remnant of past habits.

If you erase the habits ingrained in the soul, you can make a fresh start, but Karnak had unconsciously overlooked this possibility.

“But thinking about it now, fixing those habits isn’t something simple.”

Let’s compare the process of mastering aura to playing with colors.

If ordinary people’s souls are white and those who wield aura have red souls, then mastering aura would be like pouring red dye into the soul.

But Baros’s soul was currently blue.

“No matter how much red dye you pour into blue, all you’ll get is purple, right?”

With that, no matter how much he practiced using traditional methods, the desired result would never come.

First, he needed to turn his soul back to white. Only then could he follow the usual method to awaken the aura.

“Basically, you’ve been buttoning your shirt wrong from the start.”

Baros slowly nodded, starting to understand the situation.

“So, I need to create my own unique method of aura awakening?”

“Exactly.”

“How do I do that?”

Karnak avoided Baros’s eager gaze, looking away as if distracted.

“How would I know? Am I a swordsman? You’re the swordsman.”

“Ugh….”

Disappointed, Baros hung his head.

But it was true.

Karnak was a necromancer, after all. He could only point out issues related to necromancy.

“The only choice is for me to find the answer myself.”

***

The group had a total of 20 days of vacation.

During that time, Karnak made the most of it.

He developed new techniques combining magic and necromancy, and also worked hard to stabilize the chaos power he had been recklessly increasing over time.

His abilities as a mage improved significantly.

Although he was still at the 6th circle, the power and efficiency of his magic had increased dramatically.

In actual combat, he wouldn’t fall behind even when facing a 7th circle mage.

Serati also spent the time diligently, recharging her body and mind.

She reflected on her battles with strong opponents, incorporating what she learned, and continued to train her aura under Baros’s guidance.

Only Baros was feeling frustrated.

“It’s great that I identified the problem, but I have no idea how to solve it.”

His soul had developed bad habits, and now he was being told to erase them? But how exactly was he supposed to do that?

All the knowledge and wisdom he had gained in his past life as a swordsman were useless in this situation. After all, this was an unprecedented case.

The problem with walking a different path from others is that when you encounter issues, there’s nothing to refer to.

Baros ultimately couldn’t find any answers.

“Ugh, I’m the only one stuck in place.”

When their vacation ended, Karnak and his companions returned to the headquarters of the King’s Order.

One of the subordinates from the 7th Battalion hurriedly greeted him.

“Captain Karnak! You’ve finally returned!”

He looked unusually tense compared to his usual demeanor.

Karnak, noticing this, stiffened his expression and asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Yes, it concerns the southern part of the kingdom, the region of Zetelva.”

The subordinate nodded seriously, continuing in a grave tone.

“A cursed sword that drinks blood has appeared. They say it possesses those who wield it, turning them into murderous fiends.”

Karnak and Baros exchanged puzzled glances.

[A sword that drinks blood and turns its user into a murderer?]

[Isn’t that just a common cursed item, young master?]

[Yeah. Nothing too special. Why all the commotion?]

The subordinate, speaking in a tense voice, added, “In the past ten days, there have been over 500 victims. Commander Erantel is taking this matter very seriously.”

At that, both Karnak and Baros’ expressions turned grave.

“…500? In just ten days?”

“With just a single cursed sword? Does that even make sense?”