#108: Necromancer Of The Black Bible (108) — Necromancer of the Black Bible

The Valkyr Empire Academy training ground.

This place was in turmoil from the ripple effects of the recent incident.

One of the students in the middle of a practical exam had left without permission.

‘Erisia?’

Theodore Grambald, the professor of , stroked his grayish beard with thick fingers.

‘Why all of a sudden?’

Until just a few minutes ago, Erisia had been successfully handling the challenge.

She had severed the summoned giant ogre’s arm and burned one of its legs.

Just when all that was left was to finish it off, she suddenly screamed.

As everyone’s gaze focused on her, a change occurred.

Two wings rose from her back, and a red aura began to ripple in her eyes.

Then she incinerated all the ogres summoned in the training ground in an instant and flew into the air.

Theodore looked down at the charcoal scattered across the training ground floor.

He was forty-seven years old.

He had seen mages perform on countless battlefields, but had never seen Fire magic this fierce.

‘Did she awaken the Eckhart family’s Dragonword magic?’

There was nothing else that could explain it.

But he had no idea why she disappeared after awakening.

Just then, an Academy guard ran up in a hurry.

“Professor Theodore! A student just rode a horse out of the castle!”

“There should be guards at the gate?”

The guard unit wouldn’t let a student leave without permission.

If Erisia had tried to leave, the guards would have stopped her.

But the guard opened his mouth looking pale as death.

“The entire guard… no. The whole west gate is on fire.”

“On fire? Tell me properly.”

“That student burned them all to ash and fled!”

Theodore’s expression hardened.

In the span of minutes, a student once considered the Empire’s greatest talent had become wanted.

Astarene was riding a horse.

She looked like Erisia, but side effects had altered her appearance.

Horns had sprouted on her forehead, and wings had formed on her back.

She had wanted to fly originally, but mana backlash prevented it.

Instead, she stole a horse from the stables and left the Academy.

The horse had blood-red fur.

But it wasn’t naturally that way.

Astarene had transformed it.

It was a horse whose speed had been amplified by consuming life force.

Hiiiiing!

The horse neighed and cried out in pain several times, but Astarene did not stop. No, she couldn’t stop.

The information she had just received from Erisia’s spirit form about the enemy was simply enormous.

‘First Brother died so easily…’

The prediction of the first fang, Krasedra, was frighteningly accurate.

The warning he passed on about the Eckhart host was also correct.

She felt contempt for her past self who had laughed and ridiculed it.

‘I underestimated them. This shouldn’t have happened…!’

The opponent was overwhelmingly strong.

While they joked and smiled, they seized Leopold’s body and turned it against them.

It was close to a one-sided slaughter.

They captured Bernual in an instant and even subdued Krasedra.

The fate of Krasedra, confirmed through Erisia’s spirit a moment ago, was shocking.

Even after taking Eckhart’s body and fighting, he was being consumed by a Sand Dragon of all things…

‘Damn it!’

Astarene’s whole body was drenched in sweat.

Unstable Mana Rings spun as if they would burst her heart.

Such side effects occurred because the body was grossly insufficient to contain Astarene’s magic.

Then Erisia’s spirit, silently riding on her back, spoke.

-Mother. The horse is exhausted.

“Shut up!”

Astarene shouted sharply, but Erisia was right.

The horse, spent, gave a groan and collapsed to the ground.

Astarene shot into the air, barely regained her balance, and landed.

She quickly checked the horse’s condition.

The horse lay on the ground with its tongue hanging out.

White foam clung to the area around its mouth.

-It is exhausted. It will die soon.

Astarene spat a curse at Erisia’s words.

“Damn it!”

Nothing went right.

She looked up; the sun was setting, and they hadn’t come very far.

Although she had been sealed in the mage tower’s depths for a long time, she knew at least where this was.

That much indicated she knew the world well.

-Mother, you also seem very tired. You should rest a bit before moving on….

“Be quiet.”

At Astarene’s command, Erisia bowed her head and stepped back one pace.

Astarene placed one hand on her forehead and fell into thought.

‘It’s true that I’m tired.’

The reason for her fatigue was clear.

She had suddenly occupied a body.

Actually, the reason they select successors and wait until the successor reaches adulthood is to prevent side effects.

To fully utilize the spirits’ magic, the possessed body must be sufficiently developed.

The Mana Rings should number at least four, and the heart must be strong.

If the brain was not well developed, one could go mad.

They carefully selected successors from a young age to prevent such side effects.

But Astarene’s power was vastly superior to her siblings’, so she decided early on not to have a successor and to become the origin of the mage tower.

After all, there was no body in the world capable of fully containing her magic.

‘Even so, this body is too much.’

How could Ragdares have thought to inhabit this body?

Pitiful aptitude, a pitiful vessel.

Whenever she tried to draw up even a little magic, mana backflow made her vomit blood.

‘Did I steal it for nothing?’

She pondered briefly, then shook her head.

At this point, Erisia’s body was necessary.

Thanks to it, she had learned the situation in the underground chamber.

The innocent Erisia’s spirit, knowing nothing, had performed reconnaissance excellently.

Thanks to that, Astarene could assess the enemy without risking her life.

The memories extracted from Erisia’s spirit were nothing short of shock and terror.

The image of a giant Sand Dragon spitting out Eckhart’s bones made her body tremble just to recall it.

-Mother. The sun is setting. We should prepare camp.

Erisia’s spirit pointed to a spot.

There was a cave there, and in front of it thick bushes of trees grew.

It looked like a place to hide one’s body at a glance.

But Astarene shook her head.

“If we rest here, we’ll be caught and killed.”

She didn’t bother to say who the opponent was.

Erisia had already met them.

-But, in your current bodily state, Mother, we cannot go further.

Astarene knew that too.

She wanted to use teleportation magic to travel to the continent’s end, but it was impossible with this body.

First, mana backflow was happening so she couldn’t use magic,

And even if she could, the body Astarene had taken did not remember the location.

‘What now?’

She was at a loss.

Even as she worried, the enemy would continue to approach.

They were quite far from the imperial city, yet she could still feel it coming.

Then Erisia’s voice was heard.

-Um… Mother.

Astarene glared at her with an irritated look, and Erisia hesitated before speaking on.

-Wasn’t Mother’s purpose to take my body?

Erisia’s voice trembled faintly.

Astarene watched her silently, and she continued.

-If so, why do you keep bringing me along?

As soon as the question ended, a smile formed at the corner of Astarene’s mouth.

Her observation was correct.

Astarene’s goal was to steal Erisia’s body.

And to detect enemies through her spirit.

Having achieved both goals, there was no need to keep Erisia with her.

Yet she kept her bound for a reason.

‘How clever.’

Truly the one Ragdares picked as successor.

She even felt it was a waste to use her as disposable.

‘Still…’

Astarene rose from her place and stood before Erisia, who bowed her head.

“Do you really want to hear that reason?”

Erisia did not answer.

Taking her silence as consent, Astarene circled her and stirred lesser magic.

A cluster of red light gathered around her palm.

When Astarene opened her hand, the light formed a magic circle centered on Erisia.

“An accurate observation. The reason I brought you. Yes. If you hadn’t asked, I might have missed the timing.”

Only then did Erisia sense that something was wrong.

Watching her, Astarene continued.

“You’ll know now, too. What is happening. And you’ll despair, because those of us who supported you are disappearing one by one. But do not worry. Among my siblings there are those who possess power similar to his.”

Erisia’s spirit trembled once.

The man they had met in the great underground chamber.

Someone with power similar to his.

Erisia’s eyes widened, and Astarene’s smile deepened.

She snapped her fingers once, and the magic circle activated.

“I didn’t know why I used this before. But now I understand.”

She meant it.

The circle Astarene had drawn now was a demon summoning circle.

Among them, it was a circle to summon Belphages, the brother who had become a demon.

In the past, calling upon a corrupted brother who had fallen during the defeat of the Great Demon King Belzemon would have been a blow to her pride.

But now it was different.

Now there were no other brothers left.