Darkness of the End
Deep in the mountains, shrouded in thick darkness.
A pursuit party of more than ten men, holding torches, was forcing its way through the forest.
"This way! Over here!"
"We've found him!"
The torchlight revealed a man hiding in the woods. He looked to be in his thirties, with a shabby, unimpressive appearance.
The man muttered in a grim voice,
"They've already caught up..."
The pursuers surrounded him and drew their swords.
From within the encirclement stepped forward a knight clad in armor engraved with the symbol of the sun.
"Fallen necromancer."
He was a holy warrior of the Church of Latiel.
"Kneel willingly and beg forgiveness before the goddess!"
"Grrr...."
The man glanced around, then suddenly let out a roar like that of a demon.
"Uaaaargh!"
Darkness surged up around him.
The holy warrior shouted tensely,
"Be careful! He's summoning evil spirits again!"
The darkness transformed into five black wraiths and rushed toward the encirclement.
But the soldiers did not panic. They already had experience fighting those wraiths.
"It's useless!"
"We are under Latiel's blessing!"
With their left hands, the soldiers thrust forward talismans bearing the Sun Goddess's protection, while with their right hands they stabbed with their swords.
Wraiths that would normally ignore mere blades were struck and began to blur.
Boom! Boom!
Explosive sounds echoed from all sides. The blessing of the talismans had imbued the soldiers' swords with the authority to strike spiritual bodies.
Even so, the wraiths did not fall easily.
Though constantly wavering, they bound the soldiers' movements and let out piercing, ghostly shrieks.
Aaaaargh!
In that opening, the man tried to flee again. The holy warrior shouted and hurled himself forward.
"You think I'll let you escape!"
At that moment, the man slammed both hands onto the ground.
"Come forth! Evil spirits!"
Three streams of darkness surged up once more, transforming into wraiths.
Seeing the spirits flying in from all sides, the holy warrior tightened his grip on his sword.
"So you still had this much strength left?"
Soon, the blade of his longsword began to shine as he cut down the wraiths.
"Hyaaah!"
The authority of a priest who served the Sun Goddess Latiel was truly the natural enemy of necromancy.
It took him no more than ten seconds to cut down all three wraiths.
But that was still more than enough time for the man to escape.
Watching his foe disappear into the depths of the forest, the holy warrior ground his teeth.
"Hmph! You won't get far, you filthy necromancer!"
Running frantically along the mountain paths, the necromancer Fred gnashed his teeth.
"Damn those dogs of the goddess..."
Until half a year ago, he had been a day laborer living in the back alleys of Derat City, a northern trading city in the County of Chad.
It had been a grueling life.
Hauling loads all day long earned him nothing but a handful of coins.
Filling his hunger with coarse food, sleeping in places worse than a stable—his only pleasure was numbing his brain with cheap liquor.
That day, too, Fred had been drunk as usual, collapsed in the alley.
"Damn it... this filthy world..."
Nobles lived their entire lives without hardship just because they were born into good families—so why was his life like this?
"Maybe I should just die..."
As he stared up at the night sky and muttered his habitual lament, the darkness of the alley suddenly expanded and swallowed him. The blackness coiled around him and began to seep into his entire body.
"H-huh…?"
At first, he was terrified. But the fear quickly faded.
Not because the situation wasn't frightening, but because the very emotion of fear itself seemed to be numbed.
At the same time, he realized it.
"This is..."
It was power.
Authority—darkness—and death.
Though no one had told him, he understood instinctively.
It was the very thing proclaimed loudly by every church on the continent: the power of the end foretold in the Prophecy of Destruction, now enveloping him.
"Ahhh..."
Stiff as a corpse, Fred let out a groan.
The wisdom of darkness seeped directly into his soul.
It conveyed silent truths and demanded a choice.
If he turned away, the darkness would leave, and he would return to his ordinary life.
If he desired it, he would gain power—and in exchange, step off the path of humanity.
Choose.
Choose.
Choose...
'Step off the path of humanity?'
He snorted.
'When was I ever treated like a human in the first place?'
The choice was all too easy.
Without hesitation, he chose the darkness, and the method of using that power came to him naturally.
Surprisingly, the method was simple.
If he wished for it earnestly, it would happen. When he wished, darkness bloomed, becoming obedient wraiths that moved according to his will.
Using those wraiths, he first killed the construction guildmaster who had tormented him. He also killed the back-alley thugs who had always looked down on him.
Strangely enough, murder itself was not frightening. What worried him more was dealing with the aftermath.
Fortunately, he was not discovered.
Wraiths appeared without a sound, stole lives, and vanished without leaving a trace. No one realized that he was the killer.
Gradually, his crimes grew bolder.
He infiltrated wealthy households and slaughtered everyone inside. He stole their valuables, went to the red-light district, and squandered the money, indulging in luxury and debauchery.
If he had thought even a little, he would have realized that such a lifestyle could not last long.
Even if his identity had not been exposed at first, people would not simply stand by while murders continued to occur.
After all, were not the Seven Churches already monitoring strange phenomena across the continent in preparation for the Prophecy of Destruction?
But Fred never thought that far. He was wholly absorbed in indulging his pleasures.
Eventually, inquisitors from the Church of the Sun were dispatched to Derat City.
They soon identified Fred and began pursuing him relentlessly.
The wraiths that could easily kill ordinary people were useless against priests.
Against knights and soldiers protected by holy power, all he could do was flee desperately, clinging to his life.
He fled north, leaving the County of Chad behind, running and running again.
Life as a fugitive was brutal. Like a beast, he wandered through forests, suffering from cold and hunger.
Even so, he did not regret choosing the darkness.
He only felt resentment.
"Why did I end up like this...."
Hiding among the bushes, Fred bit his nails.
"Damn it, if only I were stronger..."
He spared not a single thought for the sins he had committed.
He believed that all this suffering was simply because he was weak—because he was not strong enough to kill all his pursuers.
"I have to become stronger..."
In the darkness of the forest, the man grinned like a demon.
"Yes, I just need to escape this place."
He only had to survive the crisis right in front of him.
Then he could kill more people and grow even stronger.
Power—absolute darkness—that could slaughter the likes of them in an instant!
"Just wait. I'll kill every last one of you then!"
Even cornered like this, he was still intoxicated by power.
At the entrance of a mountain road leading to the wastelands north of the Jaden Mountains.
A group of soldiers lay hidden along the road. It was the Latiel Church's pursuit force.
None of them had lit their torches; they waited silently in the darkness.
How long had they waited?
Suddenly, a priest in his forties hiding beside Karnak murmured in a low voice. He was Priest Rosso, the leader of the pursuit party.
"Are you certain he'll come this way?"
The Zestrad soldier acting as their guide nodded with a serious expression.
"Nine times out of ten, yes. There are very few paths humans can take through the Jaden Mountains."
Sure enough, faint sounds soon came from the far end of the road—footsteps.
Moments later, under the moonlight, the silhouette of a man appeared.
He looked utterly ragged, as if he had suffered every hardship imaginable.
The man glanced around and kept running along the road.
Just as he reached the concealed chokepoint—
"Now!"
At Priest Rosso's signal, a mage in the pursuit force crossed both hands.
"Light that illuminates all directions, Lumis Light!"
A glowing orb rose into the air, flooding the surroundings with brilliant light.
Flaaash!
"Huh—?!"
Startled by the sudden turn of events, Fred raised his arm to shield his eyes and staggered. In that instant, the hidden pursuit force moved, spreading out to form an encirclement.
When he opened his eyes again and took in the scene around him, he spat out a curse.
"Damn it! A trap?!"
Watching him, Priest Rosso smiled with satisfaction.
"Indeed, one local guide is worth more than studying maps a hundred times."
The encirclement steadily tightened.
This time, they were determined to capture him for good, focusing solely on cutting off all escape routes without rushing.
Staring at the pursuers, Fred suddenly bared his fangs.
"You think you can catch me?"
Dark red veins bulged visibly across his face.
"I possess the great authority of darkness!"
He had never formally learned necromancy, so he did not chant spells. In fact, he knew none at all.
He simply grit his teeth and dragged the power out by force.
"Uaaaargh!"
Darkness surged up, transforming into countless wraiths.
Nearly twenty of them. Fred was pushing himself to his absolute limit.
"Go, my wraiths! Kill every last one of them!"
The soldiers didn't panic.
"Hmph! This must be his final thrash!"
"Not a chance!"
"Everyone, take out the protective talismans!"
They formed their lines as trained and responded steadily.
Spears and blades imbued with the priests' blessings pierced and sliced through the wraiths repeatedly.
"No… no way…"
Fred was terrified. The wraiths he had painstakingly summoned were disappearing one by one.
Kyaaaa!
Aaaah!
Amid the wails of the vanishing wraiths, he gritted his teeth.
If this continued, he would lose.
If this continued, he would be caught and sent to the stake.
"I can't let that happen!"
Suddenly, his eyes rolled back. His irises vanished, leaving only the whites, and a crimson glare poured from his eyes.
"Uaaaargh!"
A translucent form rose from beneath Fred's feet.
A pale, wavering ghost flew out, flapping its black cloak and howling a hellish scream.
Kyaaaa!
Priest Rosso, who had been so composed, froze in shock.
"Th-That's—!"
The grayish form swept through the soldiers. The Latiel protective talismans they held exploded simultaneously.
"Gah!"
"The talismans!"
The ghost darted among the soldiers, producing a strange, sinister noise.
Like the sound of snakes slithering, the soldiers began to collapse one by one.
"Argh!"
"Aaaah!"
The priests were aghast. No matter how much divine power they unleashed, they could not disperse the ghost's aura.
"A w-wraith!"
"Good heavens! Could a high-level necromancer really summon such a wraith?"
On a hill overlooking the mountain pass, two figures were observing the battle. Karnak and Baros, hidden in the shadows.
"My, my, running wild without a care," Karnak said with a look of disdain, unlike the horrified priests.
A high-level necromancer able to summon a wraith? That's a joke.
"He doesn't even know a single thing about proper necromancy," Karnak muttered.
A skilled necromancer would summon a wraith efficiently, using precise incantations and rituals.
But this? This was just raw, reckless force—pouring in darkness until a wraith barely appeared.
"Well, that's why necromancy can be powerful even without finesse," Karnak said.
A wizard needs precise spells and techniques to cast magic. Just throwing in raw mana doesn't work—it just exhausts you, and nothing happens. Knowledge and wisdom are essential.
Necromancy, however, is different.
Even if one mindlessly channels necromantic power and just hurls evil energy around, results appear—albeit inefficiently.
Furthermore, the summoned wraith is fundamentally no different.
Whether an unskilled fool summons one inefficiently or a powerful necromancer summons one efficiently, the summoned wraith itself is the same.
"So, if we measure by raw necromantic power, that means he's stronger than me right now?"
Baros asked cautiously beside him.
"What should we do, my lord? They've discovered him before we did," he added.
"Yeah. Did we give them too competent guides?"
Originally, they had planned to move stealthily and capture the necromancer before the Latiel Church could reach him.
But the Zestrad soldiers they borrowed turned out to be surprisingly capable, setting a proper trap that lured the necromancer straight into it.
"If he gets caught like that, won't it be a problem?"
"Not really a problem."
If the necromancer is captured by the church, they can take advantage of the lord's authority to interrogate him.
If he dies on the spot? They can summon his spirit using necromancy and interrogate him that way.
Even if things go wrong, there are ways to handle it.
But of course, the easiest approach is to secure the target and interrogate him safely at their leisure.
A moment later, Baros's eyes brightened.
"Ah? He's running. Looks like even a wraith can't stop him at that level."
In the distance, Fred was seen fleeing across the road after unleashing the wraith.
"Things just got easier."
Karnak gestured with his chin.
"Let's move too."