Necromancer Of The Black Bible (74)

Eliastra watched every step the being before her performed on her.

The process of pulling her soul from her flesh and annihilating the Darkness of Chaos that had devoured it.

And then, using an unidentified emerald mana to infuse her soul back into the dead body.

Every single part of it completely shattered her common sense.

‘He transplanted a soul into a dead body using mana as the medium. Something like this is possible?’

Eliastra looked at her hand—now little more than bone—and tried moving it once.

Swish-

The hand clenched and opened smoothly, without the slightest sense of foreignness.

All muscle and skin had rotted away, and even the bones were corroded in places, yet there was no discomfort in movement.

Far from uncomfortable, it actually felt easier.

‘It’s light. I feel no resistance at all.’

She could hardly feel the movement of organs or the weight of the body that she had known when her flesh was whole.

Was it because skin and organs were gone and only bone remained?

‘Or… is it because of the new power that was poured into me?’

El closed her eyes for a moment and felt the strange mana circulating through her body.

That mana was not the divine power she remembered.

It was as pure as divine power, yet it contained not a single trace of Light—a completely new force.

‘What is it? What is the true nature of this power?’

It was not Light, but neither was it the thick Darkness she had felt until now.

The Darkness she had harbored was the Darkness of Chaos that fed on Light.

The power now coiling around her body was of a completely different texture from that darkness.

‘It is Darkness as pure as Light.’

The Darkness on the reverse side of Light.

A Darkness that might even be one with Light.

At that flawless perfection, Eliastra could not help but recall an old memory.

‘Lord Kallios.’

The father of this world and its only God, Kallios.

Whenever she faced him, the sheer purity of his brilliance blinded her, and after parting and returning to her dwelling, she missed him in the emptiness.

And when he died, she had suffered until now in icy emptiness.

But now, facing the being before her, that icy emptiness melted away like snow.

The stinging, piercing ache that had tormented her heart for so long had vanished.

‘I no longer feel pain.’

El became certain her choice had been right.

The being before her, Damian, was clearly not Kallios.

Yet he was connected to him.

It was not merely because he carried Equinox, a vestige of Kallios.

The power he wielded, the aura he exuded.

And those mystically flickering eyes.

Everything resembled Kallios.

If Kallios had wielded the power of Darkness instead of Light, it would surely feel exactly like this.

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

Equinox’s words, drifting through her thoughts, once more settled in El’s heart.

‘The one who will replace Lord Kallios.’

Perhaps from the very first moment she heard those words, she had intuitively known they were true.

She had also felt hope that she could finally lay down her debt to Kallios.

And she had wanted to end the long wait that had lasted until now.

That small hope and resolve led her to swear new loyalty to Damian, and Damian granted her a new body.

Eliastra looked down at her body—now only withered bones—then gazed at Damian standing before her.

Then he spoke.

[It is not over yet.]

“What remains now?”

[The task of adorning your flesh remains.]

El tried to smile, but her skeletal face could not smile—only her teeth parted slightly.

Damian lightly opened his palm, and a clear mirror appeared before her.

Inside that mirror, filled only with Darkness, her bone-only body was vividly reflected.

[Visualize the appearance you desire.]

El closed her eyes and recalled her original form.

The radiant figure of the archangel she once was, and the bodies of the saintesses she had worn after becoming Pope following the god’s death.

When she opened her eyes, the forms she remembered passed one by one before the mirror.

Yet none of them was the appearance she truly wanted.

‘That isn’t me.’

She was no longer an angel.

Nor were the bodies of the saintesses truly hers.

She wanted to live in her unadorned, true form.

‘Though I’m not sure if this can be called life.’

When El gave a soft chuckle and looked at the mirror again, all illusions vanished, revealing only her bare skeletal form.

Bones corroded in places, empty eye sockets.

Two eyes glowing with vivid emerald light inside them.

And long, sparse strands of hair.

At first it had looked hideous, but the more she looked, the more familiar it felt.

It was as though her inner self, worn down over more than three thousand years, was perfectly reflected.

‘Perhaps this is the appearance that suits me best…’

As she thought that, Damian’s voice reached her.

[That won’t do. How are you going to rule the Theocracy looking like that?]

‘Ah…’

She had completely forgotten.

That she was the Pope.

Damian was right.

She could not govern the Theocracy with such a ghastly appearance.

‘Then…’

Eliastra gathered her energy.

Having just watched Damian, she had grasped how to wield this power.

She lightly clenched and opened her hand, and her appearance changed.

Whoosh-

The form of Lactea from before the Darkness of Chaos had devoured her.

Regaining a flawless, beautiful body, a bittersweet smile spread across Eliastra’s lips.

She spoke to Damian, who was looking at her.

“From now on, I want to live in my true form.”

It was sincere.

She no longer wished to adorn herself for the sake of others.

Damian answered with a faint smile.

[The appearance you have now is not a lie either. Accept it as part of your past. And…]

Damian approached, placed a hand on her shoulder, and continued.

[Kallios was right. There is Light inside you.]

Startled, Eliastra looked down at her chest.

At first she could not see it, but when she focused, she could.

A faint light.

Incomparable to Kallios’s, yet a gentle light like moonlight shimmered radiantly within her chest.

[Now I understand. The Darkness of Chaos lived by devouring that Light.]

Damian’s words pierced through all the years El had lived.

‘Perhaps that’s true…’

The Darkness of Chaos may have taken root in her precisely because she possessed Light.

She had taken the bodies and power of saintesses to add more Light,

and the Darkness of Chaos had devoured that Light,

yet even now, the Darkness had not been able to completely erase the original Light Eliastra possessed.

‘To think I still had Light inside me.’

Was it because of this Light that she had survived until now?

Or had this Light been the reason for all her suffering?

Light and Darkness.

She had suffered endlessly between the two.

And when she thought she could no longer endure, she met Damian.

Lost in thought, El continued gazing at the Light within her.

That light somehow resembled her.

Moonlight floating alone in the deep night sky after the sun had vanished.

The light was faint, yet it illuminated the night.

“Now put on your clothes.”

At Damian’s spoken voice, her surroundings returned to reality.

She picked up the ceremonial robes at her feet and put them on.

Then she hesitated for a moment before the three sacred artifacts lying beside them.

She was unsure how the sacred artifacts would react to her greatly changed self.

Damian reassured her.

“Do not fear. You still have Light, so the sacred relics will accept you once more.”

“Yes.”

El steeled herself and picked up the sacred artifacts.

Crown of Wisdom.

Pendant of Protection.

Mantle of Healing.

When she donned all three, a gentle light enveloped and swirled around her body.

“Well done.”

Damian looked at her and smiled faintly.

The moment she saw that smile, indescribable emotions surged up inside El.

Countless emotions she could not name.

Among them, the strongest that seized her heart was awe.

The same awe she had felt the very first time she took physical form and faced Kallios filled her heart once more.

She knelt before Damian.

“You are my new lord. I swear my loyalty to you. Please bestow upon me a name.”

Damian gazed down at her for a long moment before answering.

“Nepheris.”

El closed her eyes and repeated the name.

“Nepheris.”

That name, meaning perfect beauty, somehow evoked the image of the moon floating nobly in the deep night sky.

She engraved that name upon her heart.

It was the moment she—who had once stood in place of the sun—became a moon-like being within darkness.

As she etched her name into her heart, the three sacred artifacts each reacted.

Previously they had radiated brilliant golden light; now they emitted a gentle, pale glow.

Accepting all those energies, Nepheris looked up at Damian.

“From now on, rule the Darkness with that Light.”

Nepheris bowed her head and replied.

“I shall obey that command.”

Around the time Eliastra received a new name from Damian,

a strange phenomenon occurred at the Grand Temple of the Theocracy.

The light that had always enveloped the building in radiant brilliance suddenly changed.

Yet ordinary citizens and priests could not sense the change.

Only those with spiritual sensitivity and the souls of the dead could perceive it.

Verdin’s spirit body, currently heading toward the summit of Shadowpeak, could also feel it.

What is this?

A familiar yet frightening energy reached him from afar.

He was on a mountain ridge.

A place so barren that trees could not grow, filled only with sheer rock faces.

Standing there and looking back, he could see the distant Theocracy far below.

Gazing at it with spirit eyes, Verdin tilted his head.

Was that place always like that?

He could not remember clearly.

For some reason, his very memories felt like they were gradually fading.

Verdin shook his head and looked forward again.

The rugged cliffs stretched all the way to the summit, and from one side of the peak, purple light was shooting up into the sky.

Seeing it, he remembered why he had come this far.

I’m searching for the Princess’s whereabouts. They said I’d find the answer up there. What was that person’s name again?

Lord of Wraiths.

For some reason, that title lingered in his chest.

As if someone else had clearly engraved it there.

They said if I mention Calix sent me, I’ll be allowed to meet him.

Verdin muttered to himself and started walking again.

His mind was not whole.

Though he was a spirit, he did not realize he was dead, and because of that, simply taking each step was excruciatingly difficult.

It’s just walking—why is it so exhausting?

As he muttered that to himself, something appeared before him.

“Piiii-”

It was a Sand Dragon.

The colossal Sand Dragon that burst from the earth looked down at Verdin and spoke.