The Darkness of the End (3)
Fred shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Get up, wraith!"
Veins bulged in his neck as he shouted again and again.
"By my command, kill that bastard!"
The wraith did not move an inch.
Like a well-trained puppy, it lay flat at Karnak's feet, utterly motionless.
Looking at Fred, Karnak complained irritably.
"Why do you keep calling it just a 'wraith'? It has a proper name, you know—Wraith."
Baros replied as he sheathed his sword at his waist.
"Well, if he's uneducated, that's bound to happen."
To begin with, Fred had never formally learned necromancy. He had simply obtained the power of darkness in a single moment and wielded it on instinct.
In his head, there were only vague concepts: wraith, lots of wraiths, stronger wraiths—that was it.
"A wraith is a kind of evil spirit, though. It's not exactly wrong, is it?"
"Hearing it makes my skin crawl."
Let's translate this into ordinary terms.
Imagine a commander issuing orders to his soldiers like this:
"Go forth, humans!"
"Kill them all, people!"
How awkward would that sound?
That was exactly how it felt from a necromancer's perspective.
Karnak grimaced.
"He's the one doing something idiotic—so why am I the one feeling embarrassed? Damn it…"
Suddenly, the look in Fred's eyes changed.
"That power…!"
When Karnak used magic, Fred had felt nothing at all.
But now it was different. A suffocating aura of killing intent and deathly energy poured out from his entire body.
"So you were a necromancer too!"
"You're only figuring that out now? You're impressively dull."
Necromancy cannot be performed with chaos mana.
However, Karnak still possessed the malice and turbid residue left behind after refining chaos mana—extremely condensed necromantic power.
Of course, the total amount was minuscule. In terms of sheer quantity, it wasn't even a tenth of Fred's.
But in every other aspect, it was overwhelmingly superior—more than enough to subdue a mere wraith.
Fred shouted indignantly.
"So you'd rather become the church's dog than help a fellow necromancer live and survive?"
At that, Karnak and Baros' eyes went wide, as if they'd just heard something utterly absurd.
"What did you just say? Necromancers helping each other live?"
"Wow, he really doesn't even have the most basic common sense."
"A necromancer that naive—this is kind of refreshing."
Necromancers are beings who live by consuming death and darkness.
And that death and darkness includes other necromancers as well—no, they're practically the finest elixir of all.
Because of this, there was no such thing as necromancers getting along.
There were only two options: kill the other and devour their power, or place powerful binding curses on them and use them as a slave.
"The world really has changed. A necromancer spouting nonsense like that."
"At least back in our day, you didn't get necromantic power without the knowledge to go with it."
Fred cautiously read the room.
These guys…
Was it because they had completely subdued the wraith and gained absolute dominance?
They were already treating him like prey that had been fully captured, chatting among themselves.
If that's the case…
Suddenly, Fred turned his back and bolted at full speed, trying to escape while they were distracted.
"Oh my, trying to run away now?"
Karnak didn't bother chasing him.
Why had he been treating Fred like prey already caught?
"Because he actually was."
Darkness suddenly bloomed from Fred's arms and legs. The shadows formed massive hands that seized him tightly.
"Guhk!"
He collapsed to the ground after only a few steps.
Karnak had already secretly restrained his limbs with necromancy.
"You think I talk this much for no reason? Drawing attention up front while doing something else in the back is one of necromancy's core techniques."
It's called misdirection—there's even a separate entry for it in necromancy manuals.
"Matching your rhythm got me into the habit of chatting during fights too, young master. Honestly, I don't even need to."
While the two spoke casually, the darkness diligently continued its work.
It crawled up from the limbs, seized the torso, and finally reached the head.
The darkness clenched Fred's soul and began to twist it.
A shrill scream burst forth.
"U-UAAAAAAAGH!"
When the summoner collapsed, the wraith vanished on its own.
Karnak extended his hand toward the unconscious Fred, intending to place him under mental domination and extract information.
"Open your eyes, my servant…"
With his eyes rolled back, Fred opened his mouth.
"Yes, my master…"
Soon enough, he began to babble on, spilling everything he knew.
"Everything," however, turned out to be nothing of real importance.
He got power, went on a rampage, and got caught. That was it.
A life that could be summed up with depressing brevity.
"He really was a nobody. There's nothing to be gained from him."
Baros asked,
"Then what do you plan to do now?"
"We make him kill himself."
It would be troublesome if the Latiel Church learned that the two of them had intervened.
"Search his belongings and find a knife or something."
"Yes."
No traveler went without a blade. Even if it wasn't for self-defense, a knife was a necessity on the road.
Finding a dagger in Fred's clothes, Baros placed it in the man's hand.
"Let's step back a bit. Blood's going to splatter."
After putting some distance between them, Karnak manipulated Fred's mind.
Vacant-eyed, Fred soon slit his own throat with the dagger.
Pshaaaak!
Blood spurted like a fountain as he died on the spot.
To anyone's eyes, it looked like a necromancer driven to despair by relentless pursuit, ending his own life.
"Now all that's left is for Latiel's pursuit party to find the body."
Baros asked,
"Won't they notice that he was forced to commit suicide with necromantic power?"
"If it were an ordinary person, they would… but."
Karnak reached out toward Fred's corpse.
"In this case, the body's already soaked in filthy residue. Would anyone notice if you poured a little sewage into a pit full of filth?"
Darkness rose from the corpse and flowed toward Karnak. Black energy surged violently into his grasp.
Baros asked in surprise,
"Huh? You're collecting the necromantic power?"
"Just a little. If I leave most of it behind for the Latiel Church, it won't raise suspicion."
"No, that's not what I meant… Didn't you say we should avoid absorbing filthy necromantic power like this from now on?"
It took tremendous effort to cleanse turbid energy and malice from chaos mana.
Absorbing something as tainted as Fred's necromantic power was far less efficient than simply absorbing pure deathly energy from the start.
Karnak shook his head.
"I'm not doing this to grow stronger. I want to learn about the Prophecy of Destruction. There might be something to gain."
He continued absorbing the darkness, focusing his mind—
"…!"
Suddenly, his expression froze solid. Baros asked in alarm,
"What is it, young master?"
There was no answer.
Only the color draining from Karnak's face, as if he'd been deeply shaken.
"Y-Young master?"
For a long while, Karnak stood rooted to the spot. Baros, wary, was just about to reach for his weapon.
Did something go wrong?
Then Karnak let out a deep sigh and started walking.
"…Let's return to the estate for now, Baros."
He sounded like his usual self.
Relieved, yet puzzled, Baros followed.
What was that about?
Strictly speaking, his expression was slightly different from usual.
That look was almost…
No one in the world was more familiar with ghosts than Karnak. He had commanded countless spirits, ruled over death and darkness, and had ultimately been called the Necromancer King.
Baros had never thought he'd see such an expression on Karnak's face.
…It's like he's seen a ghost.
Just as expected, Latiel's pursuit party found Fred's corpse.
Everything proceeded without issue.
After examining the circumstances, Latiel's priests concluded that Fred had committed suicide.
Necromancers driven to despair by pursuit ending their own lives was so common that no one suspected Karnak or Baros.
After expressing their gratitude to the territory of Jestrad, Latiel's pursuit party returned to the church.
After that, Karnak withdrew from public view for quite some time.
He avoided even Baros, spending most of his days holed up in the training grounds, leaving only to sleep. He even had his meals brought there, cutting off contact with others completely.
The reason he gave on the surface was simple:
—I wish to study magic in greater depth, so I will distance myself from worldly affairs for a while.
For knights and mages, isolating oneself in seclusion to reach a new realm was so common it was practically expected.
Hadn't Karnak done the same, staying within the territory rather than traveling abroad for training, even during the Trial by Duel?
Baros let it pass without much thought.
Even back in the days of the Necromancer King, Karnak would often shut himself away alone for months whenever he was deep in research.
At most, Baros felt a little puzzled.
Just what was that expression back then?
And so, a week passed.
At last, Karnak emerged from the training grounds. He immediately summoned Baros.
"You called for me?"
"Yes."
As soon as Baros entered the study, Karnak began preparing magic.
Using chaos mana, he wrapped the entire room in a thin layer of energy.
A soundproof barrier—to prevent any noise from leaking out.
Going so far as to put up a barrier? In his own house?
Watching this, Baros grew even more confused.
The study was already specially designed for quiet reading, with excellent sound insulation. Even when discussing necromancy, Karnak had never been this cautious.
"What's with all this? This isn't like you, young master."
Karnak slowly opened his mouth.
"Baros."
"Yes?"
"I've been doing some research lately."
"You mean that thing called the Darkness of the End?"
There was little gained from Fred, but one thing was certain.
The black force that had tempted him was indeed what the Seven Churches of the Continent called the Darkness of the End.
"Yes. That goddess's oracle… the one about the destruction of the world, the end of everything, that sort of thing…"
Twisting a lock of his black hair around his finger, Karnak trailed off.
"Young master?"
Baros frowned.
"Why are you dragging this out?"
"Haaah…"
With a deep sigh, Karnak forced a smile.
"Turns out… I'm the culprit."
The Necromancer King, Karnak, had used his vast necromantic power to distort space and time, linking the future and the past.
Sending his soul back into the past through this connected temporal corridor was the spell known as temporal regression.
To succeed, he had abandoned even the overwhelming authority he possessed as the Necromancer King, returning to this era.
"Up until now, that's how I understood it…"
Slumped back in his chair, Karnak muttered weakly.
"But there was something I misunderstood."
"A misunderstanding?"
"Yeah."
Suddenly, Karnak changed the subject.
"Baros."
"Yes?"
"Where do you think the world's energies—like aura or mana—are stored?"
Baros tilted his head in confusion.
"In the body, aren't they?"
"Right. More precisely, they accumulate in the physical body. That's common sense."
A knight's aura and a mage's mana accumulate in the body. That's why no matter how powerful they become, knights and mages cannot overcome the passage of time.
The same goes for priests. Holy power gathers within the body, and the soul resonates with the flesh to control it.
"Necromantic power works the same way—it accumulates in the body."
Karnak briefly ignited a flicker of black flame, then extinguished it.
After using chaos mana to cleanse the filthy energy, he continued.
"The temporal regression spell I created abandons the body and sends only the soul across time and space. There's nothing wrong with the method itself."
The problem was that Karnak's case was exceptionally unusual.
"I was Astra Schnapf, remember?"
An undead among undead.
A being of absolute purification, no different from a god of death.
"So here's a question. What did I look like when I was the Necromancer King?"
Baros was dumbfounded.
Was that really a question for someone who had served him closely for nearly a hundred years?
"What do you mean what did you look like? A skull for a face, wrapped in bluish deathly energy, drifting around like a ghost—"
He replied curtly, but then his complexion froze.
Wait… like a ghost?
A deep, mocking smile spread across Karnak's lips.
"Exactly. I was Astra Schnapf…"
A being that had discarded human flesh, created a body of deathly energy through immense dark authority, transcended fate, and ruled over death.
That's right. A body of spirit energy.
Neither fully body nor fully soul—a chaotic existence.
"I naturally assumed my necromantic power belonged to my body. But that body actually belonged to my soul."
And Karnak's soul had transcended space and time to return to this era.
"Don't tell me…"
Baros's mouth fell open.
"You're saying your authority came back with you through the temporal regression?"