Necromancer Of The Black Bible (73)

Humans believe in what they desire.

It didn’t seem to be a statement limited only to humans.

Even a fallen angel was doing the same.

‘It might apply to every living being that possesses desire.’

Looking at Eliastra kneeling before me, countless emotions intertwined.

Guilt for causing her lord’s death, and longing for him.

And the desire to atone for that sin.

All these feelings could only be described with the single word “loyalty.”

‘So something like this is possible.’

Until now, I had believed loyalty was a lie.

I regarded it as little more than a bribe the weak offered the strong.

That’s why I despised knights who spoke of loyalty with their own mouths.

It merely seemed like dressing up the act of kneeling because they were weaker than their lord.

Yet the loyalty Eliastra was showing me now was of a different texture.

Clad in the three sacred artifacts, her power was not much inferior to mine at present.

And she surely knew my true identity.

She had witnessed Kallios’s final moments with her own eyes, and three thousand years had since passed—she could not deny that truth.

Even so, the decisive reason she was acting this way seemed to be a single sentence Equinox had left her before.

This person is the one who will newly take his place.

She must have been uncertain when she first heard it, but from the moment she faced his likeness, her heart began to waver.

‘I can clearly see all the anguish she has endured.’

It is not easy to play the role of Light while harboring Darkness.

Though armed with the three sacred artifacts of Light, her interior must already be thoroughly rotten.

That must be why she went berserk after obtaining a new body.

‘This time, I won’t let it happen that way.’

Eliastra’s search for the saintess is no simple incident.

In the course of it, Raiernov died, and my master’s fate was overturned.

I could not stand by and watch, so I decided to intervene like this.

‘If they find and bring the saintess, it will already be too late.’

That is the truth I learned from Archpriest Alexo’s past.

Once Raiernov leaves, the Theocracy falls into chaos because of an unprecedented murderer who leaves horrific traces.

Because of this, my master takes on the investigation, but the culprit can never be caught.

The reason is probably that the true culprit is Eliastra herself.

‘Silver hair that flows like light. In the Theocracy, only Eliastra has hair like that.’

Yet the Bureau of Investigation, unwilling to accept it, begins a witch hunt, and in the process my master’s silver-haired wife is framed as the culprit and executed.

‘The librarian Elin.’

I saw my master come to Alexo’s office, kneel, and beg with tears.

I didn’t need to see any further to know what happened next.

My master left the Theocracy around that time, and a few years later he met me.

‘He said that during those years he wandered aimlessly, then lost even his daughter before meeting me.’

The face of my master when I first met him is still vivid in my memory.

Deep wrinkles and scars, a gloomy and cold expression. Eyes so deep their limits could not be fathomed.

The very picture of a black mage who had turned his back on the world.

‘In this life, you will not live like that.’

I made that vow to my former master who was not here, then looked down at Eliastra again.

She was still waiting for my command, and I opened my mouth.

“El. Your body has already reached its limit.”

“…That is correct.”

“Now choose. Will you obtain a new body, or will you vanish as you are?”

At the word “vanish,” Eliastra’s eyebrows twitched.

She would surely agonize over it.

Until now, she had guarded the Light in place of Kallios.

But now that I, the one who would truly replace Kallios, had appeared, that reason alone would no longer be enough to sustain her life.

‘Above all, the pain she endured for over three thousand years must be beyond words.’

In truth, three thousand years is far too long for a human like me to comprehend.

It feels like something out of fairy tales or myths.

Yet after awakening as a necromancer, I became able to contemplate time itself.

Especially after obtaining the fourth Mana Ring, I could fully accept and feel even the longest stretches of time.

That is why the current me understands Eliastra.

I can gauge the pain, anguish, and torment she has experienced until now.

‘She could give up her life here.’

Yet she will not.

At the end of a long wait, she has reached her destination.

She has met the one who will replace Kallios, and the moment to gain a new chance has come.

When she spoke her true name with her own mouth, I could feel her writhing desire.

Equinox must have sensed it too, which is why he has remained silent and merely watched until now.

I waited for El’s answer.

After a long while, she finally spoke.

“For all this time I have waited through long years. It was solely to fulfill the mission of Light that you gave me. Now that I have finally met you like this, I have no more regrets. I no longer have the courage to bear the Light.”

At first glance it sounded like she was giving up her life, but that was not the case.

El’s words resembled the speech of demons in their cunning.

A lie hidden within truth.

And within that lie, another truth concealed.

I saw through to that truth.

“There is no Light left inside you anymore. Is that what you fear?”

Eliastra’s shoulders trembled faintly once.

She nodded, and I continued.

“Even so, you are my daughter.”

Tears streamed down from both of El’s eyes.

I wiped those tears with my finger and said,

“If you no longer have to live as Light—what do you wish to do?”

This time Eliastra did not think for long.

“I… want to live more.”

The tears gathered on her chin fell to the floor with soft thuds.

The crying she had been unable to release until now began to burst forth.

She lifted her head to look at me, tears still flowing endlessly.

Even with my dulled senses, I could clearly feel the emotions carried in those tears.

She was confessing to me right now.

After staring at me for a long while, she spoke in a voice soaked with tears.

“I want to remain by your side.”

Now was the moment to face the truth.

I asked her.

“I am not Kallios—I am the one who will take his place.”

“I know.”

“Even so, do you still wish to stay by my side?”

“…Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because when I look at you, I can feel Him.”

Eliastra was no longer crying.

She was gazing at me with calm eyes.

Now the choice returned to me.

What should I do?

Accept El? Or erase her here and eliminate future trouble?

You must not kill her. The key to the Ethereal Gate is with her.

[What does a mere Ethereal Gate matter? A great demon like this should be killed and removed as soon as possible. Even without opening something like the Ethereal Gate, Master, you will become the lord of this world.]

Today Nocturne’s voice sounded unusually sweet.

But I had already made my choice.

My power originates from Equinox, and Equinox is a vestige of Kallios.

That means my power ultimately stems from Kallios.

‘Then I want to take everything Kallios left behind.’

I looked into El’s eyes and spoke.

“Remove all the sacred artifacts.”

Without hesitation, El stood, removed the crown, pendant, and mantle, and placed them on the floor.

Then she stripped off even her ceremonial robes, becoming completely naked.

Seeing her body, its condition was beyond words.

Cracks covered her everywhere, repeatedly forming and vanishing.

It seemed she had barely maintained her form until now under the protection of the three sacred artifacts.

I placed my hand on her forehead and said,

“Close your eyes. Do not be startled by what is about to happen.”

El closed her eyes as told.

Just as I had done with Natasha before, I pulled Eliastra’s soul out of her body.

Her heart stopped, and her body died completely.

At the same moment, the cracks that had been forming all over her body spread in an instant.

The cracks enveloped her entire body and began devouring the dead flesh.

But that lasted only a moment.

Having consumed all the life force in the flesh, the cracks could no longer endure.

They writhed in search of something more to feed on, then gradually began to disappear.

‘This is…?’

[It is the Darkness of Chaos.]

Equinox continued in a markedly different tone.

[It is the primordial power of demons. A force completely different from the pure Darkness that stands opposite Light. Kallios did not know that his creations had been exposed to the Darkness of Chaos hiding in this world. That is why he fell.]

I already knew something about the Darkness of Chaos.

Because it is treated as important even in black magic.

A truly vicious power that indiscriminately uses raw life force itself as fuel, regardless of attribute.

That power had completely devoured Eliastra’s flesh.

Now I understood clearly.

Eliastra had possessed Light. The Darkness of Chaos had eaten that Light.

I gazed at the Darkness of Chaos writhing within Eliastra’s dead body.

With all life force now gone, it had nothing left to feed on.

‘The Darkness of Chaos that has lost its food cannot endure long.’

For the same reason, demons cannot remain in the mortal world for long.

And to affect the mortal world, a sacrifice is required.

That is why black magic constantly demands offerings.

I watched the Darkness of Chaos slowly scattering from Eliastra’s body.

At first it struggled violently, but as time passed it grew weaker.

It resembled the final moments of black mages who had run out of offerings.

A moment later.

Having finished its struggle, the Darkness of Chaos turned to ash and scattered.

When all the darkness had finally vanished, only bones and dried skin remained of Eliastra’s body.

I implanted El’s soul, which was floating in the air, into this dead flesh.

The Mana Ring in my heart began spinning fiercely, and thick emerald mana flowed from my fingertips, enveloping El’s soul.

Astonishingly, her soul was clearly watching the entire scene.

Was it because of the dignity she had as a former archangel?

Or because of her extraordinary nature?

Ordinary humans do not possess mental strength this strong.

Even William, who had reached the realm of Swordmaster, was not like this.

For created beings, death brings a shock great enough to shatter the mind itself.

Yet Eliastra’s soul gazed at me calmly.

Within that calm lay firm trust.

‘She trusts me.’

In my previous life, the only one who believed in me was my master.

What about now?

How many trust me as deeply as Eliastra does?

‘I’ll find out as time passes.’

Setting curiosity aside.

I proceeded with necromancy.

My hands moved busily again.

With the emerald core mana that bound the soul, I seized the flesh and focused my mind to link them.

The emerald core mana began to permeate the entire body.

Visually it resembled what the Darkness of Chaos had done moments ago.

‘No. It’s completely different.’

The Darkness of Chaos moved by consuming and stealing all life force.

In contrast, core mana moved by infusing the body with the energy it possessed.

As mana spread throughout the flesh, strength began to return to the limp body.

It regained balance in midair.

I completed the necromancy by pouring El’s soul into the prepared body.

From now on, it was up to El.