Necromancer Of The Black Bible (1)

My name is Damian.

I am the sole disciple of Balthazar von Rubenstein, the continent’s foremost black mage and necromancer.

It has been about 20 years since I became his disciple.

Although I started at the late age of twenty, with my master’s help and grueling effort, I mastered 5th-circle black magic and necromancy.

Mastering two different schools of magic is nearly impossible.

But Master Balthazar was a grandmaster who had reached the 9th circle in black magic and the 8th circle in necromancy, and it was possible because he guided me.

In truth, I was optimistic about the future.

I thought that if I continued to grow like this, I could become one of the continent’s top archmages.

However.

Just one month ago, that dream shattered.

Inquisitors raided our secluded mountain residence, capturing us under the pretext of executing black mages who were bewitching the empire.

Now, I was imprisoned with Master Balthazar, awaiting death.

Looking at Master Balthazar through the bars across from me, I asked,

“Is this really the best option?”

This was the most frustrating part.

I knew how great a mage he was.

He had made a blood pact with the great Demon Lord Dikrea, allowing him to summon him directly at any time. Dikrea could annihilate hundreds of Inquisitors in an instant.

It didn’t even have to be Dikrea.

Corruption magic powerful enough to wipe out an entire nation.

Extreme poison magic that would dissolve bones with just a whiff, and so on.

If he had used even one of the spells he had shown me, we wouldn’t be helplessly trapped here.

But Master Balthazar didn’t resist at all.

At first, I thought he had a plan.

Until yesterday, I believed that, and I thought we would soon escape this place.

But this morning, Balthazar was dragged away and returned at sunset, covered in blood.

All the tendons in his limbs had been severed, and he was shackled in manacles and leg irons.

His face had been beaten mercilessly, with his left eye socket caved in.

He sat against the prison wall like a corpse.

I asked Balthazar again, who still hadn’t responded.

“Master. Can you hear my voice?”

“Cough.”

After coughing up blood once, he laboriously opened his mouth.

“Damian, it’s you.”

“Yes, Master.”

Relief washed over me upon confirming he was alive. But there was almost no vitality in his voice.

“Do you remember the night one month ago?”

“Yes.”

“What I said then was no lie.”

I couldn’t continue speaking as I recalled that time.

He had foreseen this exact situation.

We would be captured and imprisoned, then tortured and killed.

I hadn’t believed it back then.

“I have no regrets in life. That’s why I’ve waited for today.”

“But, Master!”

“Don’t worry about yourself.”

Balthazar looked at me with a fierce gleam in his eyes for a moment.

A strange energy emanated from those eyes, as if facing death.

Moreover, his expression seemed strangely relieved. After scrutinizing me carefully for a while, he slowly spoke.

“This is all just the beginning.”

“…What do you mean?”

To my question, Balthazar grinned, baring his teeth.

Red blood flowed from the gap where a canine was missing and dripped from his chin.

He continued in a much hoarser voice.

“I’ve seen the future, and I’ve already told you everything I’ve seen. So now, I have no regrets. Except for one thing.”

I waited silently for him to speak again.

A moment later, his eyes flashed.

It was a clarity unimaginable for a dying man.

With those eyes fixed on me, he spoke in a voice far clearer than before.

“Yes. Finally, we’ve met! You’ve obtained a complete body, and you’re ready to gain eternal power! I knew it. It was all as I foresaw. Now it truly begins. Let’s seize it together. The eternal power that no one else has ever obtained!”

As his shout ended, the light vanished from his eyes. At the same time, his head lolled to the side, and his body collapsed.

With that, I knew my master had passed away.

“Master.”

Confusion and sorrow surged within me.

The death of the master who had taken me in 20 years ago and raised me like his own son was impossible to accept.

For such a powerful master to die like this.

Moreover, what he had given me was far more than I deserved.

‘What exactly do you expect from me?’

Just moments ago, his gaze didn’t seem directed at me.

It was as if he was looking at someone in a hallucination.

They say that in death, one sees what they longed for in life—could that be it?

Or perhaps he truly met the me from the past.

I couldn’t easily conclude.

Seeing my master’s limp corpse made my heart ache.

With a stinging sensation, I closed my eyes, and tears streamed down my cheeks.

But I couldn’t stay like that for long. Soon, a guard appeared and dragged me away.

The place they took me to was the torture chamber.

The torture chamber, filled with a thick stench of blood.

Seeing the blood-soaked chair, it seemed my master had been bound there.

A black-masked torturer firmly strapped my arms and legs to the chair.

Then, after checking my face, he spoke in surprise.

“Damian?”

“……”

When I didn’t respond, the torturer removed his mask. A familiar face was revealed.

“You are?”

“Yes, it’s me. Andre. You remember.”

Of course I remembered.

He was the one who made my orphanage days hell.

“I wondered who it was, but seeing your face, I recognize you right away. It’s been quite a while. You really haven’t changed, huh?”

“……”

I didn’t answer.

I sensed the mockery in his tone.

He continued with a thick smile.

“Oh dear. That shit-eating expression is just like back then. Over 30 years have passed, yet you haven’t changed a bit? Still pathetic. Still doing the same crap.”

He picked up a thin knife from the table and immediately severed the tendon in my right wrist.

There was no hesitation in his movement.

A sharp pain starting from my arm pierced through my entire body.

“Urk.”

I barely suppressed a groan, but he kept mocking.

“Reminds me of the orphanage days. Back then, you played this role too. The villain role. If you’d reformed back then, this wouldn’t have happened. Sorry. I should’ve beaten you more.”

This time, he severed the tendon in my left wrist.

From the precise way he cut only the tendons without touching the arteries, I could tell how skilled he was at this.

After enduring another groan, I managed to smile and speak.

“Yeah. You’re the same too. Still a talented torturer… Argh!”

Before I could finish, he severed the tendon in my right ankle.

Then, he licked the blood dripping from the blade and said,

“This bastard’s got attitude. Who said I’m a torturer? I’m Andre, the 3rd-ranked Inquisitor of the Kallios Theocracy.”

“Third-ranked?”

I couldn’t help but scoff.

A 3rd-ranked Inquisitor of the Theocracy wouldn’t be in a place like this.

It’s a position where one could be assigned to the Royal Guard or palace, living in luxury.

“You’re still a liar.”

“You’re still bad at reading the room, Damian.”

Andre severed the tendon in my remaining left leg and grinned.

“Ah, come to think of it, you couldn’t use your left leg anyway, right? Cut it for nothing. Sorry about that.”

It wasn’t originally unusable.

It became crippled due to a prank by the gang that tormented me in the orphanage.

Anger from back then briefly surged.

“Urk.”

I gritted my teeth.

And secretly began casting.

The ‘Ignite’ spell that could burn the opponent to ashes in an instant.

If successful, I could at least incinerate this guy.

With my tendons already cut, escape was impossible, but I could settle this old grudge.

However, my plan was foiled.

He immediately slit my throat.

“Your master stayed quiet, but the disciple runs his mouth whenever. You think that works here?”

As he spoke, blood gushed from my throat in spurts.

Seeing that blood, my consciousness faded.

‘I can’t lose consciousness. Focus.’

But maintaining awareness was difficult.

My eyes kept closing, and drowsiness set in.

I couldn’t close my eyes like this.

In fact, this moment was foreseen by my master one month ago.

Back then, he said:

-An opportunity will come soon. When it does, don’t forget what I’ve told you so far. If you do, you’ll obtain eternal power.

‘Eternal power.’

The moment I repeated those words in my mind, my senses sharpened.

The blood from my slit throat had soaked my chest entirely.

Seeing this, I was certain. The magic circle my master had engraved on my chest was now stained with blood.

‘This was it.’

One month ago, my master said that when this magic circle was dyed in blood, I could seize the opportunity.

The meaning of this magic circle was ‘Sacrifice’.

It was a magic circle to offer myself as a sacrifice and obtain what I desired.

What was needed then wasn’t a voice.

It was the voice of a desperately pleading soul.

I had learned from my master how to produce this soul’s voice, and now I executed it.

[O Demon Lord, do you hear my voice? I offer the prepared sacrifice, so descend upon this place.]

At that moment, a burning sensation scorched my chest.

At the same time, a cool yet familiar voice echoed. It was the voice of Ilinas, another demon king of the demon realm.

[Good. In return, what do you desire? As per the contract, I’ll grant something equivalent to the sacrifice you’ve offered.]

My master hadn’t specified what to ask for.

Because the demon king must not learn of our plan.

-If I tell you now what to do, it becomes a memory and part of you. Then the demon king will notice.

-Then what should I do when that opportunity comes?

-You’ll know naturally when the time comes. You won’t miss that opportunity.

Back then, I didn’t believe my master’s words.

But now, none of that mattered—the future he saw or whatever.

‘I want revenge.’

To achieve that, there was only one thing I could ask the demon king for now.

[I want to live once more.]

Yes.

I want a chance.

A chance to undo all of this.

A chance to exact revenge on those who made my life miserable.

Just the opportunity to avenge myself against Andre in front of me would be enough.

Upon hearing my wish, Ilinas’s laughter-tinged voice responded.

[An amusing wish. Fine. I’ll grant that wish. But know this: You’ve offered not only your body but your soul to me. I’ll give you this chance now, but when that life ends, your soul will belong to me eternally.]

Ilinas revealed himself.

The great Demon Lord Ilinas, with two massive horns like a goat’s.

His entire body was covered in thick, smooth red scales.

His well-trained arm and leg muscles were sensual, and the small wings on his back and the long tail on his hips exuded an alien and unpleasant aura.

He looked down at me with a noble expression, and soon our eyes met.

His gaze held curiosity, mischief, and mockery.

Demon lords don’t grant the wishes of cornered humans straightforwardly.

And there must be a reason Ilinas wore such an expression.

But I had no choice. Blood continued to flow, and my consciousness was fading.

I barely gathered my wits and produced the soul’s voice.

[It doesn’t matter.]

[The wish is granted.]

In that instant, I was sucked somewhere.

A small, long passage.

As I began passing through that passage, images of my past flashed by in reverse order.

The moments from one month ago when I talked with my master all night.

The exhilarating moments when I mastered 5th-circle necromancy, and the days before that when I suffered from taking the wrong potion.

And the very first moment I met Master Balthazar came before my eyes.

I reached out to that precious scene, but it didn’t connect.

And then, the deep past I never wanted to revisit swallowed me whole.