Monarch of Death

Aaaah!

Uwaaah!

However, the wraiths couldn’t hold out for long either. The necromancers stepped in to prevent further losses.

“How dare you use the power of Tesranak in front of us!”

“We’ll show you how terrifying the true power of darkness can be!”

Two men were watching the scene from the roof of a general store in the village.

“They’re not holding out for long, huh?”

The fog was too thick to see clearly, but it was easy to tell that the wraiths were being extinguished one after another.

Even so, Karnak didn’t blink an eye.

He had nothing to lose, after all.

He glanced at the blue-lit lantern in his hand.

“This is great. It’s convenient and takes no effort.”

It was the Lantern of the Lost Souls, a relic left behind by Kale, one of Detzras’ subordinates.

…Though calling it a relic was a bit ambiguous since Kale himself was trapped inside, struggling to be let out.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“Quiet.”

“Grrrr…”

Karnak pressed Kale’s ghost, which was protruding from the lantern, back inside before summoning the wraiths again.

Next to him, Baros frowned.

“Excuse me, young master.”

“What?”

“The lantern is cracking.”

“Well, of course it is. I’m overusing it without much thought.”

It was supposed to have been submitted to the King’s Order a while ago.

But upon closer inspection, Karnak realized it had a lot of practical uses.

So, he stashed it in his illusory space to use a few more times.

Naturally, if he used it too long, he’d be found out, so he planned to use it quickly and discard it.

“And you’re planning to submit it after it becomes trash?”

“I have to collect an extra bonus, don’t I?”

His effort to pour all the remaining darkness into the lantern paid off.

The number of low-tier undead, like zombies and ghouls, had been reduced by more than half.

Although the knights of Hudel and the necromancers of the cult had yet to be touched, it didn’t matter much.

The reason for using the Lantern of the Lost Souls wasn’t to deal with them. As long as it helped reduce the numbers of the annoying undead army before the real battle, that was a satisfying result.

Eventually, all the wraiths summoned by the lantern were annihilated.

Karnak stepped away from the rooftop’s wall and asked Baros,

“Are Laficel and Serati in position?”

“Yes.”

As they descended from the building, Karnak gestured with his chin.

“Send the signal.”

***

Serati and Laficel were waiting in the fog alongside the temple soldiers.

They remained calm, barely breathing, and soon heard a faint rumbling from the distance.

Boom! Boom!

It was the promised signal.

Due to the fog, fire-based signals were hard to see clearly.

Moreover, using fire would reveal their location to the enemy. Once fired, their position would be exposed.

In contrast, sound-based signals were quite useful in this situation.

For someone like Baros, breaking through a wall or two wasn’t a big deal. And in the fog, the sound scattered, making it difficult to pinpoint their location.

The cultists, startled by the booming sound, began looking around in confusion.

“What? What’s happening?”

Serati drew her sword.

With a surge of red aura around her blade, she charged directly into the enemy ranks!

“Attack, everyone!”

With a war cry, Laficel and the temple soldiers followed her lead.

In line with the planned signal, they struck the enemy’s flank.

“Waaah!”

Soon, battles broke out all over the streets.

Slashing through drug-addled zealots, the soldiers fought with wild excitement.

“As expected of Lord Karnak!”

“The number of zombies has drastically decreased!”

Karnak had claimed that he would counter the undead army using his unique magic that repurposed necromancy, known as the Redeemer of Necromancy.

Just as he said, there were hardly any zombies or ghouls left—mostly just cultists.

Amidst the chaos of clashing weapons, Serati continued cutting through cultists as she made her way toward the center of the enemy lines.

That was where the knights of the count’s family were stationed.

“Laficel, deal with the cultists!”

Just as Laficel was about to follow Serati, she hesitated and asked,

“What about you, unnie?”

“I’ll handle things over there.”

“Then, I should go with you!”

“Do as you’re told!”

The knights of the count’s family were all users of dark battle aura, making them too much for the still-developing Laficel.

Though conflicted for a moment, Laficel soon agreed.

“…Alright!”

The necromancers of Hudel didn’t remain idle either.

Though momentarily flustered by the surprise attack, they quickly regained composure and summoned hordes of hell monsters.

“Aaagh!”

“Graaaah!”

As the summoning gates opened, all kinds of hell creatures poured out.

At that moment, another loud boom echoed.

Boom!

Simultaneously, a divine light began to rise from behind the enemy lines.

“Oh Saisha! Rain down the light that scorches the darkness!”

It was the priests of Saisha, leading a small force of elite soldiers.

Their powerful holy spells engulfed the hell monsters.

The monsters’ movements slowed significantly as they staggered. The elite soldiers wasted no time, thrusting their spears and swords, which had been blessed with holy water, into the monsters.

“Hyaah!”

Seeing the situation, Hudel urgently gave orders.

“Sir Ancent! Lead the knights and take on the priests! Switch opponents!”

From a rooftop, a voice mocked him.

“Heh, this guy doesn’t know how to command.”

The blonde knight, Baros, had already charged into the center of the enemy lines.

“Switching formations in the middle of an already chaotic battlefield? That’ll only make things worse.”

Sure enough, Hudel’s forces were thrown into even greater confusion due to the abrupt orders.

In the midst of this, Baros’s red aura sword slashed through the enemy ranks.

“Excuse me, coming through.”

Normally, charging alone into enemy lines would be a foolish move that would result in being surrounded. But with their allies controlling the outskirts, it was more like a breakthrough to the center.

Baros’s charge completely split the enemy formation in half.

“Is everyone alright?”

He joined Serati and shook his right hand.

The chains of his aura unraveled in unison.

Clink!

The red aura chains flail wildly in the air like a living creature.

They soared, changed direction, stabbed, and danced, spinning like a whirlwind.

It was as if a massive brush was painting an epic scene on the canvas of the sky.

The only issue was that the paint was the blood of the enemy.

Screams and cries of agony echoed relentlessly.

“Aaaah!”

“Uwaaaah!”

With expert precision, Baros wielded his chain sword, moving freely through the enemy ranks.

Watching him, Laficel’s eyes sparkled.

“Wow! Baros oppa is amazing!”

She felt a sudden urge to imitate him.

But she wasn’t an aura user. She didn’t have the ability to create chains out of aura or change the direction of her sword in mid-air.

‘What should I do?’

After a brief moment of contemplation, Laficel accepted reality.

‘I’ll just do what I can.’

This was a village where people lived. And in daily life, ropes were quite commonly used for various tasks.

Finding a suitable rope wasn’t hard at all.

She tied the rope to the hilt of her sword and began swinging it around.

“Like this? Like this? Is this right?”

After a few spins, she seemed to get the hang of it. Feeling confident, Laficel leapt forward.

“Hiyah!”

Once again, the battlefield was painted with scenes of blood.

Though the scale was slightly smaller than Baros’s, the precision of her attacks was not lacking in the slightest.

Watching this, Serati couldn’t help but wonder.

‘What is she doing now?’

Laficel’s earlier technique had at least been an extension of her swordsmanship, so there was something to be learned from it.

But this chain sword imitation was something entirely different.

‘How does one even practice such a thing?’

At that moment, Baros’s words echoed in her mind.

[There’s one thing I didn’t get a chance to tell you before.]

[What’s that?]

[When dealing with Laficel, there’s something just as important as learning from her.]

He knew exactly what Serati was thinking. After all, he had been through the same thing in the past.

[If it doesn’t seem right, give up on it immediately.]

[…Excuse me?]

[I’m serious. Trying to imitate her will only ruin your own swordsmanship. There were actually quite a few people who did just that.]

Knowing what doesn’t suit you is important. Many lives have been ruined by failing to recognize this.

[That makes sense.]

Serati shifted her focus away from Laficel.

‘I’ll just stick to what I can do.’

Letting go of her curiosity, she returned to her own swordsmanship.

Her sword swings became even more precise.

***

Baros and Serati continued to push the knights of Hudel.

“Hyaaah!”

With a mighty shout, Baros’s chain sword wrapped around and struck down everything in its path like a serpent.

The knights of the count’s family tried hard to counter with their dark aura swords, but it was futile. Whenever they got caught in the chain sword, they couldn’t hold out and were quickly defeated.

The confused knights ground their teeth in frustration.

“Damn it! We’re aura users too!”

“How are we being overpowered like this?”

Serati felt the same way.

[Aren’t these guys Dark Knights? But they’re a lot weaker than I expected.]

Dark Knights were supposed to be as strong as red aura users.

But when clashing swords with them, Serati felt like their aura strength was barely half of hers.

Baros nodded in understanding and explained.

[That’s because we’ve been setting the count’s castle on fire.]

The dark aura that these knights used was drawn from necromantic altars set up in the count’s castle.

With those altars destroyed, the amount of energy flowing to them had naturally decreased.

Also, although Baros didn’t know it, there was another reason why they were weaker.

It was true that the cultists had stockpiled a considerable amount of dark aura. They had enough to empower all the knights of the count’s family.

However, just a few days ago, a certain bishop had taken all of it.

And not only had he taken it, he had used it all up, leaving nothing to be recovered.

‘Lehane has really messed things up in every possible way!’

Grinding his teeth, Hudel assessed the battlefield.

At the front lines, the necromancers were struggling against the priests of Saisha.

The divine light was relentlessly pressing down on the darkness.

The necromancers were clearly losing ground.

The protective barriers they had set up had all been shattered.

The lay members of the Dark God’s cult were fighting the temple soldiers, but they too were on the losing side.

Even though the cult had far more people, most of them were drugged and incapable of making sound judgments.

On the other hand, the temple soldiers were all seasoned veterans.

In fact, after being constantly ambushed every night, they had all turned into elite warriors.

Moreover, that young girl leading the charge was far too fearsome!

“Hiyah! Haaah! Hyap!”

With cute battle cries, she was swinging her rope-bound swords wildly, causing blood to spray everywhere.

Not long ago, she had only been spinning a single sword, but she had already grown accustomed to it and was now wielding dual swords.

‘Wow, now I can handle two at once!’

The knights of the count’s family were already being slaughtered by Baros and Serati.

Hudel clenched his fists in frustration.

‘This wasn’t how it was supposed to go…’

His original plan had been to tie down the temple’s strong fighters with the undead army and the cult’s soldiers.

During that time, the knights were supposed to target the priests, while the necromancers dealt with the temple soldiers. Even if they suffered losses in numbers, the end result should have been victory.

But their positions and timing had been completely preempted. And all in real time.

‘How did this happen?’

This wasn’t something that could be explained by mere strategy or tactics.

‘It’s as if they’re watching the entire battlefield…’

***

The answer to Hudel’s question was quite simple.

They really were watching the entire battlefield.

‘Good, everything is going smoothly.’

Standing on the rooftop, Karnak took in the entire village with a single glance.

The fog was so thick that nothing could be seen from the ground, but that wasn’t an issue.

Tendrils of dark energy were rising everywhere in the fog, reaching up to the sky.

And it wasn’t just one or two tendrils. Pillars of malevolent energy were forming all over the village.

It felt like watching pieces on a giant chessboard.

He could see everything, while the enemy was blind. There was no way to lose.

‘But soon, he will start to catch on…’

Even so, Hudel didn’t have many options.

In fact, to be precise, he had only one choice.

‘Alright, come on. Let’s play.’