Necromancer Of The Black Bible (91)

Verdin dreamed.

A dream where he vividly watched all events of his life as if a play.

In the play, he was the protagonist.

A boy born in a poor slum but with strong potential.

The boy’s hands held nothing, but his heart burned with passion.

Passion to one day reach the heights.

From the slum’s shadows, the boy always gazed at the city standing tall far away.

The pure white stone walls and sharply erected blue spires were what the boy desired most.

Thus, the boy habitually extended his palm toward the city.

Verdin’s heart stirred watching that scene.

Yet that heart soon cooled with a woman’s face.

She was Princess Lillian.

The moment of momentary misjudgment when she was sold into slavery returned like reality.

-Verdin, surrender. You are more important to me.

Lillian’s cold touch caressed the cheek of the boy who became a knight once.

The boy wanted to hold that hand but could not, and thus Lillian vanished from sight.

“Lillian!”

Verdin opened his eyes.

The dark night sky and densely embedded stars.

And the half-moon shedding cold light.

Looking around, it was a familiar landscape.

A field with tall grass and a city visible far away.

That city resembled the one of Altera Kingdom seen moments ago but was different.

Confirming the golden barrier around the city, Verdin knew where this was.

“Ah, this is the Kallios Theocracy.”

Verdin was quite surprised that his voice was clear.

Moreover, he could confirm his hands had become clearer.

“What on earth is this…”

Though he lost consciousness, he remembered the situation before.

After following the Lord of Wraiths here, he fought wraiths as ordered by Damian.

Until then, he had a semi-transparent spirit body no different from other wraiths.

But now, it has become far more distinct.

“Have you come to?”

At the sudden woman’s voice, Verdin startled and looked at her.

“Wh-who are you?”

He remembered.

The woman wearing black glasses gathering beads in the field.

At a glance, she felt similar to Lillian, but definitely different.

Lillian had no scar crossing her face, nor was she this tall.

And her voice was different.

Verdin looked at the woman. Though wearing black glasses, her eyes were clearly visible.

The woman knelt on one knee beside Verdin and spoke.

“Introduction is late. I am Natasha.”

“Ah.”

Verdin quickly sat properly and bowed silently to her.

“Verdin… it is.”

He almost added his surname from life but stopped.

In life, the baronial name granted by the king was honorable, but not now.

“I heard about you.”

“Do you know me?”

Verdin asked with a puzzled expression, but Natasha smiled broadly and nodded.

Indeed.

The situation flowed too naturally to notice, but Natasha’s appearance from the start was strange.

At battle’s start, she was with his master Damian, and during clashes, she leisurely walked gathering fallen beads.

Her demeanor amid the fierce battlefield with wraiths facing annihilation was highly alien.

‘Yet somehow peaceful.’

Like a flower blooming amid the battlefield.

Moreover, like an aloof bystander exuding noble beauty beside those fighting bloodied.

‘But how can she see me?’

The moment that thought arose, Natasha spoke.

“Because I am the same kind as you.”

‘What?’

Verdin’s spirit body twitched once.

Natasha looked at him and continued.

“I too received this body from our master. In exchange for death, I gained eternal life. That’s why I can see souls like you.”

Her answer was still vague.

Some clear, but many unexplained.

Verdin looked at Natasha, still with unresolved questions.

When eyes met, she smiled softly and spoke again.

“You have many questions. I’ll answer one by one. First, we are connected. Our master gave you to me.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t ask—just accept it.”

Natasha removed her glasses.

Facing her blue eyes, Verdin understood what she meant.

‘Th-this is…’

A feeling as if being sucked in.

Dizziness came as green energy swirled once from Verdin’s spirit body.

That energy spoke.

That he and Natasha were connected.

Centered on master Damian, they were already connected, but another firm link existed between Natasha and him.

The meaning of this link was clear.

‘My Young Master.’

The moment he realized, Verdin straightened his posture before Natasha and bowed his head.

“I am sorry. I failed to recognize my Young Master.”

“It’s fine. I fully understand. I would too in your situation.”

Natasha patted Verdin’s shoulder.

At the vivid sensation, Verdin flinched briefly.

Then spoke again.

“Young Master. I still haven’t grasped the situation. I want to know what happened.”

In Verdin’s last memory, he was fiercely fighting wraiths.

Sweeping the battlefield firing absorption sword energy from new enlightenment.

Clearly advancing that way, but nothing after.

Natasha spoke in a calm voice as if understanding all his doubts.

“We were winning. With the technique you taught, our forces were gaining the upper hand. The same goes for our master. He defeated the Lord of Wraiths and completely subjugated him. Right then, our master’s loyal servant Eliastra opened the Ethereal Gate.”

Natasha lifted Verdin’s chin lightly.

Naturally, Verdin could see her eyes.

The eyes glowed blue once, and he was sucked into that gaze.

Simultaneously, he could see the situation then.

A silver hole appearing in the sky.

Smaller than the moon, but with incomparable power. Countless wraiths began being sucked in.

Verdin too lost consciousness and flew toward it, but the “Freedom” around his neck prevented it.

Other wraiths flapped similarly hung on “Freedom.”

But only briefly.

From far away, the “Freedom” holding wraiths began severing one by one.

Seeing this, Natasha quickly called her master and requested.

-Master. Give this one to me!

[You mean Verdin?]

-Yes.

[Don’t worry too much. Entering the Ethereal Gate doesn’t scatter all spirit bodies.]

-But I don’t want to part like this.

Perhaps her earnestness reached him.

Indeed, while other wraiths were sucked into the Ethereal Gate, Verdin’s “Freedom” did not sever.

Confirming this, Natasha beseeched her master again.

-You said you will support whatever I decide. I want to travel with this one.

[Travel?]

-I want to return to the Principality of Tarnia and see my father.

[Oh… So that’s why you need Verdin. But he failed as an escort once. Wouldn’t another be better?]

-I watched Sir Verdin’s skill up close. I think his skill is sufficient. And if another, you mean Sir William, but he…

[Why? Don’t you like William?]

-He’s too scary.

Damian’s laughter came.

Then he gladly permitted and taught her how to take Verdin.

Currently, Natasha could not use all power from her previous life. Yet basic magic was possible, so it proceeded easily.

Sever the chain connected to the iron collar and link the beads gathered in her basket so far.

Considerable beads were needed.

Natasha formed a fairly large sphere with the beads and soon chanted the spell Damian taught.

“…With this, I request the Wheel of Eternity. Deliver the one bound by ‘Punishment’ to me.”

As the words fell, silver energy gathered around Verdin.

That energy enveloped Verdin’s spirit body and seeped inside.

Up to here, Verdin understood how he obtained this body.

Touching his neck, the iron collar with embedded silver gem remained.

Natasha looked at him with a rather stern expression and spoke.

“Obey me. Then there will be no need for compulsion.”

Verdin silently bowed his head.

Natasha lightly patted his shoulder and stood.

“Now, let’s go.”

At his Young Master’s order, Verdin rose and followed her.

Then looked up at the sky.

Night deepened, the half-moon now hung on the mountain ridge.

Then his gaze turned to the Ethereal Gate.

The Ethereal Gate emitting faint light.

Gazing at it, Verdin spoke.

“So the Ethereal Gate truly existed.”

Natasha turned to him and replied.

“I didn’t believe it until I saw it myself. Priests raising the dead, wraiths wandering the surface, angels abandoned from the heavens. I thought all were merely tale motifs.”

“I see.”

Verdin smiled bitterly.

Natasha’s point was correct.

He too had thought so.

Death is life’s end, nothing after.

Thus, he lived fiercely and desperately.

But now he experienced directly things heard only in old tales.

His flesh already dead and rotting, yet his soul walks with form?

Sensations somewhat changed, but no great discomfort upon habituation.

Following Natasha, Verdin looked down at his semi-transparent hand.

His bright green hand easily sparkled even in faded moonlight.

‘Am I dead? Or revived?’

Asking himself that, Natasha ahead answered.

“I once asked our master the same. Do you know his answer?”

“What did he say?”

“You have found your original form.”

Finishing, Natasha smiled softly and resumed walking.

‘Original form…’

Because the Master said it?

Or because it’s the truth?

A strange resonance felt.

It might truly be so.

Flesh inevitably dies someday.

This deathless body might be his true original form.

“Why are you standing there? Already rebelling?”

“Ah, sorry.”

Verdin hurried to her.

She looked down at him and asked.

“But, shall we walk all the way? To the Principality of Tarnia?”

“Ah.”

Come to think of it, from the Theocracy to the Principality is quite a distance.

Even by carriage, it takes over a month.

“We’ll need horses, I suppose.”

“Are there horses nearby?”

Looking around with Natasha, no horses were seen.

Instead, something large hung on branches.

Beside, badly shattered wood fragments. Seeing wheels among fragments, a carriage seemed destroyed.

Verdin checked the object on the tree and spoke.

“Horses. Two horses seem caught.”

When the Ethereal Gate opened and all spirits here sucked in, caught in it and brought here.

Natasha glanced at the shattered carriage and spoke.

“Yes. This is the carriage I rode with our master.”

Natasha pointed at the horses impaled dead on broken branches and spoke.

“Tsk tsk. Poor things. First, bring those down here.”

“Yes.”

Verdin picked a nearby stick and swung twice.

The branches with the horse corpses fell, and Natasha smiled deeply and spoke.

“Two skeletal horses. Perfect timing. Just right for us to ride, right, ghost knight?”

Without waiting for an answer, she raised the horses.

Their journey began thus.