“Hee-hee-hee! What do you think? An entrance should always be spectacular!”
“Cough. You insane bastard.”
“Young Master, are you all right?”
Just before the explosion erupted, Glen and Nedain threw themselves in opposite directions and escaped the blast.
However, they could not avoid the chunks of flesh that splattered all over them.
“Greetings!”
The figure who emerged through the shattered doorway was a shabbily dressed old man.
His eyes were unfocused, and there was not a trace of vitality in his face.
He carried a worn-out staff, and even his clothes were tattered and threadbare.
His appearance was enough to make one wonder whether he was truly alive.
“Young Master!”
The scattered members of the group drew their swords and rushed over from every direction.
Glen immediately shouted.
“Everyone, get away from the corpses! Now! He is a Necromancer!”
He hurriedly rose, gripped his sword, and faced the mysterious man.
“Oh, what a handsome young man. That red hair suits you wonderfully. But do you perhaps know me? Hee-hee-hee!”
The bizarre manner of speech did not suit the old man’s appearance.
Naturally, it did not.
That body was nothing more than the bastard’s puppet.
Glen knew him.
They had shared an ill-fated encounter in his Previous Life.
It was that damned pile of bones who forcibly possessed the bodies of other Dark Mages.
“…No. Lunatics like you all seem the same to me.”
“How rude of you to say such a thing when we have only just met! I welcomed my guests with the utmost courtesy! This is simply too cruel.”
A Necromancer and Dark Mage—the worst mage on the continent.
The Saintess Killer. Blasphemy Incarnate. And the monster known as the End of the Continent.
Benedict Taran, the Arch Lich.
“I am nothing like those other lunatics! Do you know how hard I worked to distinguish myself? Take this laugh, for instance… Urgh!”
“I cannot bear listening to you.”
Glen drew a Dagger in an instant and threw it at the old man’s throat, but it struck his chest instead.
Glen charged forward regardless.
There was no possibility that something like this would kill him.
Nedain immediately charged alongside him.
However, when the old man lightly struck the floor with his staff—
THOOM—!
“Ugh!”
A thin, transparent membrane appeared and blocked both men simultaneously.
In the meantime, the old man pulled the Dagger from his chest and retreated.
He had cast a Barrier without an incantation.
“Ahem! Ahem! My goodness. You are an impatient guest, are you not? As expected of such a cheap body, Chantless Casting places far too much strain upon it. How irritating!”
At the same time, he began muttering something.
“O dead who were denied death….”
Knowing what those words meant, Glen immediately shouted.
“Stop him! Now! Do not let that bastard finish the spell!”
One of the nearby knights charged toward the old man.
The old man continued his incantation while extending his staff toward the knight and casting another spell.
Glen frowned when he realized that the man was even capable of Multicasting.
“Acid Arrow.”
A dark green, arrow-shaped projectile immediately flew toward the knight.
At the same time, the Barrier blocking Glen and Nedain disappeared.
It appeared that this body could maintain no more than two spells at once.
“Do not touch it! Evade it!”
When the startled knight tried to strike the projectile with his sword, Glen urgently warned him.
However, he was already too late.
The knight’s sword shattered the dark green projectile.
“A-Aaargh!”
“Damn it! Roll on the ground, you idiot! Get that armor off him immediately!”
He had barely prevented the acid from splashing across his face, but his entire suit of armor was now covered in it.
Another knight hurried over and dragged him toward the rear.
In the meantime, Nedain closed the distance to the old man in an instant.
“My, how bothersome!”
When Nedain swung his sword, the old man extended one arm as though willingly offering it to him.
SLICE.
The arm opposite the one holding the staff flew away.
However, rather than screaming, the old man gave them an unpleasant smile.
Damn it. Has he already finished?
“I must properly entertain the guests who have come all this way! Animate Dead!”
Death given motion.
It was a horrific spell that resurrected nearby corpses and placed them under the caster’s control.
They would continue moving until the caster dismissed the spell or died.
“His neck! Cut off that bastard’s head immediately!”
After shouting, Glen charged once more alongside Nedain.
“Corpse Explosion!”
“Damn it!”
The old man retreated again and detonated another nearby corpse.
Meanwhile, the corpses scattered across the chamber began rising one after another.
The sight of the horribly mutilated bodies writhing back to their feet was sickening.
Alarm bells began ringing inside Glen’s mind.
They could not allow the Necromancer to hide behind the corpses and continue casting spells.
If they did, the entire battlefield would become the Necromancer’s domain.
Should they retreat while they still could?
Or should they ignore the potential casualties and force their way through?
Just as Glen considered his options—
“…Hm?”
He saw a blonde knight swinging her sword behind the old man.
…When did she get there?
“Please take your time and enjoy—Kyaak!”
Erdin swung at the old man’s neck without hesitation.
However, he twisted his body, and only one of his ears was severed.
“My, every one of today’s guests is so terribly impatient. Magic Arrow!”
With a wave of his hand, three blue arrows flew toward Erdin.
“Erdin! Those explode!”
“…!”
At Glen’s warning, Erdin abandoned her attempt to deflect them and rolled across the floor.
BOOM! BOOM!
The arrows struck the wall and produced several small explosions.
When Glen charged again, a man wearing familiar armor blocked his path.
“Is this bastard…?”
“Young Master, it is Lakolin!”
Lakolin was no longer a living human.
A sound fit for a wild beast escaped his mouth.
“Grrr….”
A Death Knight was a high-ranking Undead created by infusing a knight’s corpse with Necromancy.
Lakolin, now transformed into a knight of death, raised his sword and swung it at Glen.
“What a tragedy! It is difficult to obtain such a thoroughly corrupted knight, you know. Ah! If only I had not been trapped in this wretched body, he could have been reborn as something far stronger. Hee-hee-hee!”
“You vile son of a bitch!”
Nedain, normally so composed, spat out a curse.
He had taken the transformation as an insult to the Lion Knights, and his fury erupted.
“Why are you angry? Are you perhaps jealous? Hee-hee-hee! Magic Arrow!”
However, even Nedain had no choice but to roll across the ground to avoid the barrage of blue arrows.
BOOM! BOOM!
Meanwhile, Glen exchanged three strikes with the Death Knight in quick succession before rapidly scanning the surroundings.
Every corpse in the chamber had risen and was fighting his companions.
If even one of their people died, everything would be over.
They would immediately rise again and attack their former comrades.
It would become the chaotic melee Necromancers favored above all else.
Glen bit his lip.
“Nedain! We do not have time to fight the corpses. We have to kill that bastard!”
“Go ahead!”
Nedain charged at Lakolin to hold him back.
A faint blue Aura flickered along his blade.
Meanwhile, Glen reversed his grip on his sword and hurled it like a spear.
There was no time.
His urgency was mounting.
“Shield! Damn this useless body! It is already dying!”
CLANG—!
The sword struck the transparent membrane and stopped, but the Shield shattered as well.
“Corpse Explosion!”
“Ugh!”
Another nearby corpse exploded, and Glen was once again hurled across the floor against his will.
However, he immediately rose.
The explosion had been weaker than the previous one.
Is the host’s condition deteriorating in real time?
Realizing this, Glen twisted his body and charged again.
He used the force that had blown him away to propel himself forward.
“Are you some sort of roly-poly toy? You certainly spring back up quickly! Acid Arr—Guh!”
Before the old man could finish casting, Glen’s fist slammed into his face.
“I finally caught you, you damned bastard.”
He seized the old man by the collar as his upper body reeled backward and forcibly dragged him closer.
THUD! THUD!
Glen’s fists struck the old man’s face again and again with merciless force.
The Acid Blood spell the old man had cast without an incantation caused Glen’s gauntlet to melt with a vicious hiss.
SSSSSS—!
However, Glen paid it no heed.
At that moment, the old man’s remaining hand reached toward Glen’s face.
THUD—!
The palm emitted a brilliant light, and Glen was suddenly overcome by dizziness.
Energy Drain.
The tenacious bastard was like an insect that refused to die.
“…Hup!”
Glen initially tried to tear himself away, but then changed his mind.
Creating distance again would give the old man exactly what he wanted.
Even if it was dangerous, Glen decided to end it here.
“Ptooey. Fine. Let us see which one of us lasts longer.”
GRIND—!
He bit his lip to endure the dizziness.
The metallic taste of blood seemed to forcibly awaken his mind.
CREAK—!
Glen wrapped both hands tightly around the old man’s neck.
I will simply snap it.
The old man was the first to remove his hand.
He had concluded that his neck would break before Energy Drain could restore his body.
If that happened, even he would struggle to continue controlling the host.
The old man barely managed to force out a sound.
“Guh… Hell….”
At the same time, he pressed his middle finger against his thumb before Glen’s eyes.
A chill suddenly ran down Glen’s spine.
“…Damn it!”
It was a spell activated by a Necromancer’s finger snap.
Glen had witnessed it several times in his Previous Life.
“…fire!”
SNAP—!
The moment the horrified Glen pulled away, the spell was completed.
Hellfire—a spell that detonated flames around the caster.
ROAR—!
“Ke-Kegh! How could you attack me during my dramatic line? Hot! Hot!”
It was a powerful spell that even burned the caster.
A wall of flames had formed around the old man.
Good.
I have bought some time.
Now I merely need to escape and properly control the corpses—
The moment the old man thought that—
WHOOSH—!
A figure burst through the flames.
Scorched red hair.
A blood-covered face.
A half-melted gauntlet and a half-burned cloak.
And blazing green eyes.
“Oh! What a magnificent…!”
The old man forgot the situation and exclaimed in pure admiration.
Those eyes.
They gleamed with pure hatred.
They burned with hatred so intense that it was almost intoxicating.
He wanted to tear them out immediately and keep them for himself.
The figure spoke in a cynical voice.
A faint trace of crimson Blood Energy had gathered in his palm.
“…You are still far too fond of hearing yourself speak.”
Glen forced the words out with some difficulty.
He was not using proper Blood Magic.
He had forcibly imposed control over the Blood Energy through Mana.
Relying solely on the memories of his Previous Life, he had temporarily recreated the technique.
Naturally, it was dangerous and horrendously inefficient.
In other words, it was a last resort.
HUM—!
The Blood Energy gathered in his palm was unstable.
Despite maintaining only this small amount, he was already beginning to feel dizzy.
He had no intention of sustaining it for long.
There was only one Blood Magic spell he intended to use.
“Kegh!”
As the old man instinctively tried to retreat, Glen seized his forehead between both palms.
“Backflow.”
It was a technique that extracted every drop of blood from the target’s body.
“Guh… Grrk.”
It was especially effective against spellcasters who relied on incantations.
The reversed flow of blood naturally rose into the throat and blocked it.
If this continued for only a little longer, the host body would shrivel into a dried husk.
Then controlling it would become impossible.
“Grrrk.”
However, the old man apparently had no intention of surrendering so easily.
The fingers of his remaining arm trembled as he struggled to form another snapping gesture.
This damned bastard intends to use Chantless Casting even now?
As Glen hesitated for an instant, he caught sight of golden hair beyond the old man.
“Young Master Glen!”
Erdin was approaching, weaving and rolling between the corpses.
Fortunately, she still held her sword.
Good.
Glen immediately withdrew the Blood Energy and shoved the old man away with all his strength.
“Take off his head!”
Sensing that something was wrong, the old man turned his gaze and recoiled in shock.
A blonde knight wearing a terrifying expression was charging toward him with such speed that she seemed to be flying.
“N-No! C-Cough. Acid…!”
He tried to cast another spell, but this time, she was faster.
SLASH—!
It was a clean swing, elegant enough to draw admiration from anyone who witnessed it.
With a chilling sound of severed flesh, the old man’s head separated from his body.