Necromancer Of The Black Bible (173)

The sun rising in the eastern sky slowly climbed up and revealed itself above the mountain.

Illinas calmly accepted the sunlight shining upon him and closed his eyes.

‘A light I haven’t felt in a long time.’

It was the first time he had felt this since seizing the Ethereal Realm and using the Citadel of Ruin as his stronghold.

Even though this was the frail body of a human mage, sensations like this could still be felt vividly.

After savoring that warmth for a moment, Illinas opened his eyes and spread out his palm.

A soft hand without a single callus.

Human hands were this fragile, yet they had built a powerful civilization.

Just as Kallios the God desired.

‘Now that too is over.’

The corners of Illinas’s mouth rose.

He was now on top of a high mountain.

A place overlooking a vast plain.

The mage Hyro, trapped inside his heart, had given up all the information Illinas demanded.

‘Thirty thousand from Nordin, ten thousand from Tarnia, twenty thousand from Fernesia.’

A total of about sixty thousand soldiers.

Among them were mages and Swordmasters as well.

‘With sacrifices of that scale, it would be possible to summon all of my legions here.’

Illinas’s goal was not merely to purge Damian.

To seize the mortal realm.

To dominate all races—that was his aim.

At the thought of that goal, Illinas’s heart began to pound fiercely.

It might have been Hyro’s struggle trapped inside the heart, but to Illinas it felt like nothing more than pleasant excitement.

“Keukeukeuk….”

Illinas’s laughter deepened even more.

Then, something appeared far to the north.

A gray flag fluttering from a tall pole.

It was Nordin’s army.

Their thirty-thousand-odd soldiers advanced in long columns toward the plain, then quickly filled it and stood in formation.

As Hyro’s letter had instructed, they set up tents on the plain and prepared to camp.

‘The first has arrived.’

Illinas was unhurried.

Because everything would proceed as planned.

The knights sent from the Imperial Capital, Edelmund, received Nordin’s commander, and they went into the red tent for a strategy meeting.

The appearance of the Necromancer and the undead legion.

Groundbreaking measures to stop them were discussed there.

However, those measures were impossible to carry out.

Illinas simply sat on the throne he had summoned on the mountain and looked down at them.

Three days later, Tarnia’s army of ten thousand arrived.

Two days after that, Fernesia’s army of twenty thousand also arrived.

Only after all of them had set up camp on the plain did Illinas finally rise from his seat.

Then he spread both arms and activated the magic circle he had drawn in advance.

A deep crimson light shot into the sky, and moments later the plain was stained with blood.

Thus Illinas’s legion descended upon the earth.

Woong-

Nocturne gave a low hum.

I, lost in meditation, reached out and grasped Nocturne.

Then his urgent voice reached me.

-I sense ominous energy.

-I felt it too.

-Its identity is….

-It’s Illinas.

There was no other demon capable of emitting an aura like that.

‘No. It’s not just that.’

It was too complex and too vast to be merely Illinas’s own aura.

That meant not only him, but also the army he led, had descended.

Then Ceres’s voice came through.

-Illinas’s army has descended. They are marching toward Edelmund.

-Edelmund? Are they trying to occupy the Empire?

-From what I have observed so far….

After Ceres organized the information for a while, she added,

-It seems the Empire drew him in.

It was not even surprising.

I had expected they would be willing to pay that price to oppose my undead legion.

But they did not know how vicious Illinas was.

The Demon King’s greed was such that even devouring every living thing on the surface would not be enough.

‘They must have paid a heavy price.’

I knew the price list, but it was hard to estimate how many sacrifices would be needed to bring Illinas and his legion down here.

I immediately asked Ceres.

-How many troops does Illinas have?

-…Estimated at around sixty thousand.

An interesting number.

My undead legion also numbers sixty thousand.

If sixty thousand elite demons and my sixty thousand undead were to fight on equal footing, who would win?

I laughed.

Illinas is underestimating me.

It was a very good time to settle the matter.

Leaning on Nocturne, I rose from my seat.

It was time to move.

Flash.

Hyro opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the thick dark clouds in the sky.

The clouds were stained with a darkness he had never seen before.

After staring at them for a long time, Hyro felt his whole body grow hot.

It felt as though something warm was enveloping him.

It did not feel bad.

So he closed his eyes for a moment and felt that warmth.

Then he tried to remember why he was doing this.

‘Why am I here….’

The moment the Demon King’s face flashed through his mind, he sprang up.

“What on earth… what have I done….”

His memory was hazy.

But when he closed his eyes and focused, the events of the past began to come back one by one.

The armies of Nordin, Tarnia, and Fernesia arriving in turn.

And the demons summoned by sacrificing them.

Finally, Illinas, who had reclaimed his body, headed south with them.

That was as far as he remembered.

‘In the end….’

They had succeeded in summoning the Demon King.

If there had been a mistake, it was in the number of sacrifices.

He had not expected to sacrifice the entire allied army.

Hyro could not tell whether what he had done was truly the right thing.

Then someone appeared behind him.

“Towermaster?”

“Hm?”

It was Miles.

He rose up from the ground and approached Hyro with a worried expression.

“Do you recognize me now?”

Hyro’s eyebrows twitched.

Miles seemed to have witnessed everything he had done.

Hyro slowly stood and asked Miles,

“Did you see what I did?”

Miles nodded slowly.

“How much did you see?”

Miles hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

“I saw everything from the moment the Demon King took over your body, up to the ritual here.”

“So you saw it all.”

“…Yes.”

Hyro looked at Miles.

His expression and gaze were full of worry.

He was clearly worried about him.

“What is it that worries you so much?”

“…I was wondering whether this was really the right thing to do.”

“And if we had not done it?”

At Hyro’s counterquestion, Miles fell silent.

Then Hyro continued,

“If we hadn’t summoned the Demon King, could we have stopped the Necromancer’s undead legion?”

After thinking for a moment, Miles shook his head.

“Probably not. But….”

Miles continued with a heavy expression.

“If Illinas wins, do you think he’ll leave us alone?”

Miles took a book out from inside his robes.

A grimoire written about black magic.

It was the book he had used as a reference to summon Illinas.

Miles opened the book and continued.

“And Illinas summoned one demon for each human life. Honestly, that price makes no sense.”

“Doesn’t make sense? What do you mean?”

At Hyro’s question, Miles showed him a page.

“If you look here, there’s a table. It’s the price list for making a deal with the Demon King. According to this, the cost to take one life is at least ten ordinary people.”

Hyro’s eyebrows twitched.

Miles was right.

The part he pointed to was something Hyro also knew well.

‘That’s why I decided to sacrifice two mages. Mages are worth five ordinary people each.’

But Illinas did not accept his wish as it was.

Instead, he asked this.

-Do you want my army?

Something pricking at his mind, Hyro quickly examined the price list.

Soon he was able to confirm the phrase written on the very bottom line.

[Army Summoning - 1 ordinary person per demon]

Hyro’s hair stood on end.

Then Miles’s voice came to him.

“What is the content of the contract you made with the Demon King, Towermaster? Did he promise to kill the Necromancer?”

“That….”

Hyro could not answer.

Then Miles asked again.

“If you made a contract with the Demon King, there should be a contract left behind. The summoning circle we set up was one that leaves a contract behind.”

‘A contract?!’

Miles was right.

Hyro instinctively searched his chest.

But he found nothing inside. At that moment, he recalled the first moment he had opened his eyes here.

The strange warmth he had felt all over his body.

Hyro quickly ripped off his clothes.

When he even took off his undergarments, his bare body was revealed, covered densely in demonic script.

Miles looked at it and spoke.

“…It’s a contract.”

“Can you decipher it?”

“I’ll try.”

Miles recalled the Demon language he had learned and began interpreting the text.

“This contract originates from the primordial pact and proves the agreement between Hyro and Illinas.”

As Miles read each sentence haltingly, cold sweat ran down Hyro’s forehead.

The same was true for Miles.

The contents themselves were formulaic, but the meaning they carried was anything but light.

And then.

The general clauses ended, and the contents of the contract were revealed.

“Hyro wishes for Illinas to summon his army. In return, sixty thousand adults are offered as sacrifices.”

“The purpose of the summoned army is unrestricted, and it will remain in the mortal realm until its lifespan ends.”

“Hyro guarantees this contract as long as even one member of the army he wished for remains.”

After reading all the lines, Miles and Hyro wore blank expressions.

The word Necromancer did not exist anywhere in the contract.

It only stated that Illinas’s army would be summoned indefinitely.

There was only one thing this meant.

“So we’ve unleashed the Demon King and his legion into this world.”

Hyro stared toward the south with a stunned, dazed expression.

The sky over Edelmund was already turning red.

Miles looked at Hyro and asked,

“What should we do now?”

“Well….”

Hyro was overcome by mixed emotions.

To stop the Necromancer’s undead legion, they had summoned the Demon King’s legion.

Was that really the right thing to do?

Would the Demon King actually bother fighting the Necromancer?

Or rather, who would win?

After thinking for a moment, Hyro spoke.

“I think I’ve underestimated the Demon King too lightly all this time.”

“Shouldn’t we notify the Imperial Capital at once?”

At Miles’s question, Hyro shook his head.

“It seems there is nothing more we can do now.”

Hyro was sincere.

Now that they had even summoned the Demon King, there was nothing left for them to do.

Moreover, a single thought from when the Demon King had dwelled in his body was echoing in his mind.

-Wait, Damian.

It was the first time he had heard the name Damian, but he could immediately tell it referred to the Necromancer.

Based on that, Hyro continued,

“The Demon King will deal with the Necromancer himself. No one can interfere in that fight. We can only hope those two kill each other.”

It was a truly powerless line of thought, but Miles could not think of any other measure either.