Necromancer Of The Black Bible (149)

Everything was going smoothly.

Damian’s army steadily expanded its power, and the territories were quickly stabilizing.

Even the residents who had initially harbored strong aversion to the undead began to open their hearts little by little.

“I heard the neighbor’s daughter, Sally, was rescued from the forest?”

“Yeah. It was around midnight—apparently a skeleton knight order was deployed and found her.”

“Amazing. Finding a child in that dark forest. Didn’t Tony die there last year?”

“They look rough and smell bad, but they sure get the job done.”

“Exactly. They helped during harvest and with this winter’s preparations too, right? Life feels better than before.”

Listening to their stories was a kind of pleasure for Damian.

‘Strangely enjoyable.’

In his previous life, he had never been praised by anyone except his master.

Even his master only praised him very rarely, and only for truly well-done deeds.

But now he was being praised for things not he himself had done, but that his subordinates had accomplished.

Of course the praise was directed at the entire undead legion, but to Damian it felt like praise for him.

So whenever he sat on the throne, he would activate the crystal orb and watch them.

The perceptive Ceres always recorded those images and showed them to her lord.

Damian would play those recordings over and over until he was satisfied.

Then one day.

These words slipped from Damian’s mouth.

“I’m lonely.”

Those words carried many implications.

Preparations to confront Illinas were steadily progressing, and likewise the preparations to take control of the empire were nearly complete.

Yet Damian’s heart felt empty.

That emptiness he had never felt in his past life made him lonely.

Ceres bowed her head and offered counsel to her lord.

“How about going down and being with them?”

“With them?”

Damian stroked his chin and muttered.

“Leave the Ethereal Gate and descend to the surface?”

Ceres fell silent, and Damian fell into thought.

There wasn’t much for him to do in the Ethereal Gate.

He simply checked on his subordinates and provided support when deficiencies were found.

Most tasks were handled by subordinates like Natasha and Emma.

They were so capable that Damian merely watched.

‘There was a time when I just wanted to watch from this seat.’

Nothing is more terrifying than being left alone on a battlefield where your life is at stake.

The enemy may be at the front, but you never know when allies at the rear might stab you in the back.

In situations where you don’t know when you’ll die, you envy the commander above who looks down on it all.

‘But now the situation is different.’

Now Damian looked down upon the entire battlefield from the Ethereal Gate.

He also possessed an overwhelming power that no one on the surface could challenge.

To merely watch while holding such power felt wrong.

Because he had become a predator.

‘They fear me.’

The Valkyr Empire was moving to check Natasha’s territory, which was expanding in the south.

Illinas had even received reports that assassins had been dispatched to kill Damian.

This meant one thing.

‘It means they cannot beat me by fair means.’

Damian looked at the thin thread connected to his heart.

The soul-thread Illinas had bound.

Before, he had left it alone, judging it was difficult to oppose, but now it was different.

‘The time has come.’

Damian raised a hand, grabbed the thread, and with force snapped it lightly.

Snap-

The thread broke with a hollow ease.

The soul-bond paid as the price for his regression thus disappeared.

‘Something this easy….’

After that, Damian stood up from his seat.

“I’ll go down. Take care of things here.”

“Yes.”

Ceres bowed her head again and replied, and Damian concealed his presence.

The ruined Citadel of Ruin on the western part of the upper Demonic Realm.

A thunderous sound echoed through the previously silent place.

Crack-

A sound that pierced the entire citadel.

Illinas’s expression immediately crumpled at the sound.

His subordinates, sensing something amiss, all looked around at once.

‘No way….’

Illinas checked the place that troubled him.

He opened the crystal orb to view below, and soon learned what the recent sound meant.

‘Damian… that bastard’s soul-thread has been severed.’

Normally he would have immediately used the power of his contract to track the brat, but he couldn’t.

Because Damian’s location did not appear on the surveillance web spread by the Ten Thousand Eyes.

Moreover, they were already facing war with Dikrea on the eastern Demonic Realm.

The situation was not suitable for worrying about Damian.

Then someone approached and spoke.

Risine Obsidia.

She was someone who had served as a scribe in past years.

She bowed her head and spoke.

“The soul-bond made through the contract has been severed. We cannot leave this be.”

“I’d like to, but even the Ten Thousand Eyes cannot locate him. Do you have a method?”

Illinas asked with cold eyes, and Obsidia answered with a calm expression.

“The Ten Thousand Eyes illuminate the world. That he cannot be detected means he is not in the world. It means he is somewhere the Ten Thousand Eyes cannot see.”

“Where would that be?”

After a moment of thought, Obsidia answered.

“The Ethereal Gate.”

Illinas’s gaze deepened.

Obsidia’s conclusion matched Murak’s earlier speculation heard through Shador.

This was surprising.

After all, she was merely a scribe who had arrived at the conclusion by deduction alone.

Illinas stroked his chin and spoke.

“My power does not reach the Ethereal Gate. I cannot even directly reach it. What do you think should be done in such a case?”

Obsidia’s eyes gleamed as if she had been waiting, and she answered.

“We must draw him into our sphere of influence.”

She approached Illinas and infused mana into the crystal orb.

Then Damian’s figure appeared vividly before him.

Obsidia looked at it and continued speaking.

“Damian rewound time using the contract’s power. And having obtained an unknown force, he is attempting to sever the contract with Your Majesty. For his intent to succeed, he must surpass Your Majesty. Not only Your Majesty but also all the armies Your Majesty has established in the upper Demonic Realm. He is likely moving to achieve that.”

After she gestured, the crystal orb displayed a new scene.

Dead soldiers rising and marching forward.

It showed those soldiers mercilessly slaughtering the imperial troops.

Obsidia watched indifferently and spoke.

“Looking around the world anticipating the creation of a force to oppose Your Majesty, I found incidents like this.”

“Undead? Isn’t this just the work of a Necroturgist?”

To Illinas, that scene did not look particularly special.

As far as he knew, Necroturgists were hidden all over the world, and it was common for them to appear and form forces.

“At first glance it appears so. But look here and you’ll see something different.”

Obsidia zoomed in on a part of the footage.

There was a single knight there.

A knight swinging a spear and cutting down imperial soldiers.

But that knight looked special in several ways.

First, the armor he wore was that of the imperial army.

Moreover, his chest was concave and dried blood crusted there.

That was not all.

His pale skin and yellowed eyes showed that he was undead.

Obsidia spoke.

“This one is undead. But he was not resurrected by ordinary Necroturgy.”

Illinas recognized what Obsidia was pointing out.

“If not Necroturgy, could he have been brought back by Necromancy?”

“If not, there’s no other way to explain it.”

Illinas’s gaze deepened at Obsidia’s resolute answer.

Necromancy.

Wasn’t that a technique that existed only in legend?

“So it’s possible to implant a soul into a dead body?”

Illinas shook his head in disbelief.

Honestly, it was absurd.

If it were possible to transplant souls into dead bodies, the boundary between life and death would vanish.

One could live indefinitely in a dead body as if a living person.

Infinite life.

It was an unreachable goal for the surface-dwellers and a fundamental difference between demons and surface life.

‘Originally the god created the world that way. With them gone, immortal bodies cannot be made anywhere else.’

This place was originally the Ethereal Realm.

The place where angels were created.

That is why demons fought countless wars to seize this place.

But now Damian could apparently create immortal beings using even ordinary dead bodies.

Obsidia answered as if she had read her lord’s thoughts.

“I thought the same as Your Majesty. But the more I examined them, the more unavoidable the conclusion of Necromancy became.”

Obsidia then pointed out several others.

A woman wearing black glasses and a knight carrying a falchion.

The two actually differed from the earlier knight.

No external wounds were visible on the woman with glasses, and she appeared neat.

And there was something strange about the knight.

Even the metal collar he wore was odd, and his semi-transparent body did not look of this world.

“Both are dead. The woman is adorning herself with illusion magic, and the knight seems to be operating in a spirit form.”

“A spirit form?”

A spirit form refers to the state a soul originally possesses.

Therefore it has no fixed shape.

At first it takes on the form remembered from life, but as that memory fades the form disappears.

Operating on the surface in such a fluid spirit form is nearly impossible.

But no matter how impossible, seeing it plainly before them made it undeniable.

A deeper crease formed between Illinas’s brows.

Obsidia looked at him and continued.

“Judging from Damian’s regression and his subsequent actions, he appears to have been meticulously preparing this even before the regression.”

Illinas found himself struck by her observation.

He recalled the one who had inscribed a magic circle on Damian’s body.

‘Balthazar.’

That bastard had carved a ‘sacrificial’ magic circle onto his disciple Damian’s body.

At the time, that person was a third party outside the contract, so he had not read his thoughts.

But looking back now, it had all been planned.

To etch a magic circle on his disciple, rewind time, then have him learn Necromancy to sever the contract.

And afterwards become the god of this world.

It was something Illinas could never tolerate.

‘Crafty bastards!’

At that moment Obsidia spoke again.

“Damian is forming forces in the southern Empire centered around these. This can be seen as a foothold to oppose Your Majesty.”

“Then, do you have a countermeasure?”

Nothing immediately came to Illinas’s mind.

The emergence of Necromancy and Damian’s movements.

The very thought of them made his anger rise, making it hard to keep his composure.

But Obsidia spoke with a cold, composed expression.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Damian has the Empire as his enemy, so assist the Empire. Even minimal troop support will make the Empire move as we desire. Meanwhile we will conquer Dikrea, and afterwards we can deal with Damian.”

A faint smile spread across Illinas’s mouth as he mulled over those words.

He thought it was a sound plan.