Necromancer Of The Black Bible (120)

I was watching Emma through the footage shown by the crystal orb.

Emma followed Belphages’ trail north in the Demon Realm and soon arrived at another Demon King’s stronghold.

‘Where was that again?’

I know nothing about the geography of the underground Demon Realm.

No book describes it.

But I remember who ruled the ice-covered stronghold.

‘Lord of Frost Qairas.’

He is difficult to summon with ordinary sacrifices.

I once met a necromancer in my past life who claimed to have summoned him; he was a striking fellow.

His entire left arm was encased in ice, and thanks to Qairas’s enchantment on that arm he could wield cryomancy freely.

He even used the 9th Circle spell, ‘Eternal Winter,’ to cover the whole region he lived in with ice.

In return, he offered all his kin.

He sacrificed every member of his living family, whether it was old Aigon or anyone else.

Some might shudder at his impiety, but that is the way of necromancers.

They are a people who will give anything to gain power.

Compared to other Demon Kings, the deal with Qairas was reasonable.

He granted the power to use 9th Circle magic from the start, so there was no need to summon him repeatedly whenever one needed strength.

The reason I didn’t summon Qairas back then was because I had no kin to offer.

‘If I had had them, I would have done the same.’

A bitter laugh escaped me.

The thought of sacrificing kin stirred an odd revulsion in me.

This wasn’t the first time I had felt such repulsion.

It was the feeling I’d felt when killing someone, especially someone I knew.

Even though killing him would grant me power and make me stronger, my heart recoiled.

Why?

Why do I feel this way?

In fact, I had felt the same emotion recently.

When Erisia, that is, Emma, was swearing fealty to me.

To be honest, I went down to claim her spirit form.

‘But I couldn’t do it.’

Was it because her unusually red lips caught my eye when I reached to extinguish her spirit form?

Or because my reflection was perfectly mirrored in her luminous eyes?

I couldn’t make sense of it.

My heart raced oddly, and an unnamed feeling swirled inside me.

At the same time, the moment of swearing the pact with Emma resurfaced.

<You are my slave. A slave may not request anything from their master. You must accept whatever the master gives, and if you harbor even a sliver of complaint, I will strip you of your status immediately. You must carry out whatever the master commands even if it requires burning through your entire soul. And be grateful always. If you fail to keep these three rules, your soul will perish on the spot.>

I couldn’t take my eyes off Emma as I recited those curses like a litany.

Her eyes burning like flame and her lips red as blood were unusually enticing,

and I even felt the urge to place a binding kiss on those lips.

‘It’s strange.’

Truly strange.

To hesitate in killing an enemy.

A chance to take revenge on the one who delivered hell to my past life had come, and yet I delayed.

I closed my eyes.

Then Emma’s visage returned, and I shook my head violently to cast it off.

‘Get a grip. She is a target for vengeance.’

She was nothing more than a target for revenge and a sacrifice to obtain my fifth Mana Ring.

I kept her alive to make her suffer the hell I endured.

Not out of any kindness.

‘Emma. You are already mine. I can annihilate you anytime. For now, I will simply wait. I will wait until you feel every ounce of despair and regret I felt. I have plenty of time.’

It was one of the principles of the world I had learned.

The strong are patient.

Because they can obtain what they want even while sitting still.

But the weak are not so fortunate.

They must keep moving, and even with desperate effort they may not get what they want.

The weak strive simply to survive.

Only that is the value the weak can attain.

‘Struggle, Emma. Whether you succeed or fail there, your fate is already decided.’

I opened my eyes again and watched the crystal orb’s footage.

Emma had already reached the stronghold.

Lord of Frost Qairas’s stronghold.

The moment I saw Belphages watching her from atop the battlements, Emma immediately used draconic-word magic.

An extreme form of draconic-word magic.

‘Agnyssed.’

I did not originally know about draconic words, but being linked to Emma I came to know them.

Agnyssed is a final-tier draconic-word spell meaning ‘Breath of the Gods.’

It was the ultimate breath used by the ancient Crimson Dragon Eckhart when she fought the Demon King Belzemon.

Since it was magic used by dragons, a human body cannot normally use it.

However, Emma had gained freedom thanks to the Wheel of Eternity. A spirit form materialized like this can use near-limitless magic and is immune to ordinary harm.

Moreover, if one does not possess sight that can see spirit forms, they cannot detect them.

They are truly invincible.

Honestly, I cannot understand why a god would make such a thing.

According to Eliastra, it was to imprison and control spectral forms that escaped from the Ethereal Realm, but wraith lords sought to seize it and own a completely invincible army.

‘An invincible army. Perhaps that’s what they desired.’

I began to understand what I needed to prepare against Illinas, with whom I was still at odds.

An invincible army that takes no damage from any attack and can assault endlessly.

Spectral forms are already the dead, so no matter how much you cut them down they endlessly regenerate and rise.

Just like Emma in the footage now.

Having once incinerated the entire stronghold with her ultimate draconic-word spell, Emma was now fighting the Frost Demons that burst forth from the fortress.

An ice spear imbued with glacial magic pierced her body, but she nonchalantly pulled it out and burned her foe to ash.

Her magic surpassed imagination.

She poured out magic until the surrounding mana thinned; even Frost Demons, who were strongly opposed to fire, were helpless.

I watched that spectacle with interest.

It is not every day one sees an ice hell burning.

The flames raised by draconic-word magic did not easily subside.

Even as the ice turned to water and the water evaporated to reveal the ground, the fire continued to rage,

filling the area with steam.

Emma incinerated the force that had attacked her and approached the crumbled battlements.

The walls made of ice had almost melted, and the area was full of water.

Because it was high ground, the water kept flowing down to the lowlands, but it could not stop Emma’s advance.

Emma was murmuring only a single phrase.

-I will obey my Master’s command.

Is this what it’s like to watch a competent subordinate?

Each time Emma swept the battlefield with flames, a strange pleasure arose in me.

It was refreshing and exhilarating, causing a small thrill.

I realized another important fact.

‘What you learned in life determines your combat prowess.’

Previously, Berdin had been a swordsman, so even as a spirit form he used only swordsmanship.

That level was similar to his living self.

Emma was not much different.

She was using the draconic-word magic she had learned in life with ease.

If there was a difference from Berdin, it was that Emma had surpassed her living-level abilities.

This meant she possessed exceptional insight and mental strength.

‘It’s a waste to annihilate her right away.’

Until just a moment ago I thought I could erase her at any time, but watching her now it wasn’t so easy.

If I was to discard her, I would have to use her as much as possible first.

That would be to my advantage.

I quelled the heat that had crept into me and watched Emma.

Emma was searching for Belphages, but it was not easy.

There were still many Frost Demons, and they resisted desperately because their habitat had been taken.

They bound Emma’s feet with eternal freezing magic and created massive ice walls to trap her.

At last, a dragon-shaped guardian appeared.

An ice dragon covered entirely in ice.

Looking closer, it had as many as five horns on its head.

‘Pentacrios?’

It was the most notorious among the ancient ice dragons.

This creature exists only in records; where it dwells or how to meet it is unknown.

Seeing it appear here makes sense—it seems connected to Qairas, who rarely makes deals.

When the ice dragon Pentacrios appeared, the Frost Demons vanished somewhere.

The ice dragon unleashed its breath, and most of the flames Emma had raised disappeared.

Only Emma remained.

The recent freezing breath swept over her but, unsurprisingly, caused her no harm.

Emma brushed off a few shards of ice clinging to her spirit form and summoned a sword.

‘A confrontation between the heir of an ancient ice dragon and the heir of an ancient Crimson Dragon…’

Intrigued, I projected myself into her through the mana I had planted in her.

As the cold wind and hot warmth were felt together.

The battle between the two began.

Krrrrrrrrr-

Blue flames spewed from the ice dragon’s maw.

Emma quickly raised a shield, and the breath struck her squarely.

Shhhhhhhhh-

Large and small freezing particles scraped across the shield.

Ice chunks even flew in and shattered upon striking the barrier.

Each shock made her whole body tremble, but Emma’s resolve was steadfast.

‘This is nothing. You don’t even feel pain, do you?’

The truth was so.

Though she had gained a spirit form, Emma vividly remembered the days she possessed a body.

She remembered the amount of effort needed to advance a single step.

To gain her first Mana Ring, she vomited blood countless times; mana backflow left her senseless.

It was the same even after earning a Mana Ring.

When taking exams at the Academy she stayed up nights practicing magic.

She couldn’t remember how many nights she had spent awake to achieve satisfactory results.

But now it was different.

She could use magic simply by focusing her will.

Her Mana Ring had already reached the 9th Circle, allowing her to use an ultimate draconic-word spell.

‘I have to use it once more.’

There was no other way to take down the ice dragon spewing freezing breath before her.

Emma waited calmly.

Her shield kept eroding, but she did not flinch; she aligned her Mana Rings and waited for the breath to cease.

At last.

The fiercely raging breath stopped.

When she looked up, she saw the ice dragon perched atop the stronghold, which had been reduced to a low ice hill, staring at her.

Murderous intent poured from its frigid eyes, but Emma ignored it.

Then she used the ultimate draconic-word spell once more.

“Agnyssed (Agnyssed).”