Death and Resurrection
At that very moment, a fierce clash was unfolding in the vast cavern leading to the deepest chamber where the heart of the immortal demonic beast Levios was sealed. The necromancer Huscular and the academy’s headmaster, Gion Cruise, were locked in brutal combat.
Thousands of resurrected undead soldiers charged forward with a single goal in mind. Standing before them, Gion Cruise looked as precarious as a tiny boat facing a tsunami. Yet the instant his greatsword cleaved through the air—
A colossal slash roared forward with a deafening shockwave, sweeping away hundreds of undead in a single stroke.
Only the bone dragon crafted from a holy dragon’s corpse and the undead mages and knights who had reached lofty realms in life could withstand such an attack unscathed.
With a thunderous roar, the bone dragon retaliated by unleashing its breath. The corrosive poison condensed into a lethal exhalation melted everything in its path as it surged toward Gion Cruise.
He raised his greatsword high.
Body and sword as one. A realm where man and blade became indistinguishable. Yet Gion Cruise had transcended even that, summoning an ideal martial form engraved upon his very soul into reality. The aura enveloping his greatsword swelled to over a hundred meters in an instant.
This was the Martial SoulGion had forged—Amplification.
He brought the colossal blade down with casual ease. Despite its enormous size, the sword moved faster than light itself, as though it had escaped the laws of physics entirely.
A deafening crash reverberated as breath and greatsword collided. The breath’s power was immense, yet the sword did not budge. It simply pressed downward with unyielding stubbornness, snuffing out the breath as if nothing had happened. The aftershock turned over a thousand undead into nothing but dust.
Of course, Huscular’s vast mana quickly reconstructed them, and they rose once more.
The battle had dragged on like this for thirty minutes straight.
“Haaam… when is this going to end?”
Ethan Gloucester, who had been watching the fight from beside the necromancer, let out a small yawn, unable to endure the boredom any longer. Having been against this operation from the start, he was thoroughly sick of the stalemate.
Huscular rebuked him.
“Why? I opposed this plan from the beginning. Weren’t you the one who said you could handle it?”
“What a joke. I’m satisfied with having forcibly activated the Illusory Maze Barrier. I have no intention of doing anything more.”
Intervening in the Illusory Maze Barrier buried deep within the heart of the academy to isolate the entire campus would have been impossible without his exceptional spatial magic. That alone was more than enough to say Ethan had fulfilled his role.
The necromancer stared at his firm refusal for a moment before asking,
The Black Veil was an artifact imbued with the power of the Goddess of Darkness. It perfectly concealed not only the wearer’s appearance but even their level of mastery. There was no need to hide one’s face with a mere mask.
Ethan smirked and adjusted the mask.
Ethan, who had been proudly showing it off, frowned at the necromancer’s cold response. How dare he belittle the mask he had chosen to match with Hyun? As expected, the necromancer just didn’t get it.
Ethan ignored the necromancer and sank into his own thoughts.
‘I wonder what Hyun is doing right now?’
He still wasn’t sure whether Hyun was a student or a professor, but since it was vacation, the chances of him staying at the academy were slim. He was probably traveling across the empire right now, seeking out useful opportunities and fortuitous encounters.
His gaze drifted toward the necromancer’s side. A female swordsman stood there. Pale-skinned, wearing leather armor with a sword at her waist, the woman retained a noble beauty even in undeath.
She was Yuliana, Kain Klaus’s former lover and the necromancer’s bodyguard—the Sword Princess.
Yuliana remained perfectly still like a doll, even under Ethan’s gaze. She had been designed to react only to threats against the necromancer’s safety.
‘It should be about time, shouldn’t it?’
Ethan recalled the story from the game and waited for the upcoming event.
Footsteps echoed.
Before long, faint footsteps approached from the rear passage. A man was walking toward them.
The moment he emerged from the passage, Yuliana’s doll-like eyes shifted in his direction.
The man—Kain—twisted his face into a fierce scowl at the sight of his beloved whom he hadn’t seen in ten years. His gaze naturally turned next to the culprit behind it all: the necromancer.
Before he even finished speaking, Kain left an afterimage as he closed the distance in an instant. His fist collided with Yuliana’s sword. He had been aiming for the necromancer, but Yuliana had intervened at the perfect moment to block him.
The instant Kain grit his teeth—
Ethan, who had predicted the surprise attack and moved out of the way beforehand, grumbled in complaint. No matter how strong he was among the first-years, he couldn’t survive a punch from a level 300+ Kain. Even the aftershock alone would be lethal if it connected.
Of course, Kain couldn’t care less about any of that.
As the heir to a prestigious European family who even ran his own business conglomerate, no one had ever treated him with such utter disregard. While the novelty of such treatment was refreshing, Ethan wisely chose not to provoke Kain any further. Back on Earth he would have immediately retaliated, but that wasn’t an option here.
Ethan knew exactly where he stood. In a place where the world’s top-tier monsters ran rampant, acting cocky could get him killed before he even properly met Hyun.
‘That can’t happen.’
He stepped back a safe distance and watched the fight between Yuliana and Kain.
Bang! Boom! Bang!
Kain’s formless, soundless fist strikes targeted the necromancer. Yuliana stood in their path, relying solely on her instincts to deflect every blow.
Upon reaching level 300, one’s upper dantian opened, awakening a unique trait. A trait imbued one’s mana with special properties. Kain’s trait was formless—not only invisible to the eye, but capable of freely changing shape, allowing for completely unpredictable attacks.
Had Yuliana not reached an equal realm, she wouldn’t have been able to detect the beginning or end of his strikes before being overwhelmed.
She wrapped her blade in flowing water-like energy, neutralizing and redirecting the destructive force within his fists.
The battle continued in a stalemate. Realizing that he might waste yet another opportunity at this rate, Kain smiled fiercely and placed a hand over his heart.
Thump!
Formless mana was sucked into his heart, spreading throughout his body along with his blood. Doing so heightened the unity between body and mana, producing a synergistic boost to his physical abilities and everything else.
However, it placed immense strain on the heart. Overuse risked the organ bursting.
Kain suppressed the overwhelming sense of omnipotence surging through him and charged at Yuliana.
A single punch unleashed dozens of strikes. The formless blows transcended human limits, simultaneously piercing every blind spot across her body.
Yuliana swiftly parried them, but she grew increasingly precarious. Even after becoming a puppet, she retained the martial prowess she had possessed in life. Yet Kain had grown continuously stronger over the past ten years.
Because she had been his lover, he knew her weaknesses intimately—and exactly how to break her.
Had he fought without pushing himself, the battle would have ended in his victory without much difficulty. The reason he was in such a hurry was because he wanted to eliminate even the one-percent chance of losing her.
For that, Kain would stake his life without hesitation.
Boom!
Another collision rang out. Every time he exchanged blows with Yuliana, memories of their time together flooded his mind. There had been joyful moments and sorrowful ones, but every single second with her was precious to him.
Each minute and every second spent with her had been his hope, his guiding star in life. Even this very moment made him feel as though the ten long years of waiting were finally being rewarded.
The fight continued for about ten minutes.
Footsteps echoed once more.
Another set of footsteps approached from the rear passage, and a silver-haired, golden-eyed man wearing a mask appeared.
Ethan burst into a cheer at the appearance of Hyun, whom he had assumed wouldn’t be at the academy.
The necromancer, simultaneously contending with both Gion Cruise and Kain, tried to give Ethan an order.
“…Fine.”
If Ethan hadn’t already dashed forward with a warning before the necromancer could finish speaking.
The necromancer narrowed his eyes.
He secretly planted a Death Knight inside Ethan’s shadow.
Rape Declaration activated. All physical stats increased by 7x.
“Stop right there!”
Boom!
Just as I barely managed to spot Kain and approach, a mechanical, crackling voice rang out. The entire space began pressing down on me with crushing force.
When I looked up, a man wearing a mask of the exact same design as mine was staring down at me arrogantly.
I immediately guessed his identity.
‘Ethan Gloucester.’
This distinctive method of applying pressure across an entire area was his specialty. Under normal circumstances, that single strike would have incapacitated me. But right now, thanks to Rape Declaration, my strength had ballooned sevenfold. It felt no different from wearing a single sandbag.
As I stood completely motionless, Ethan smiled with satisfaction.
“……”
Ethan’s current state was strange. He seemed somewhat excited, yet also as if he were anticipating something. Those sparkling blue eyes somehow gave me an eerie feeling.
‘His way of speaking is off too.’
It felt like watching friends who claimed to have been born with a woman’s soul inside a man’s body. After a moment of hesitation, I decided this wasn’t the time to overthink it and boldly ignored him, kicking off the ground.
Ethan gladly accepted even that.
I really wanted to smash that smug face of his. With that desire fueling me, I unleashed a strike infused with shattering force.
Crack!
My fist struck the space directly in front of Ethan. He had created a defensive wall by partially crystallizing the space itself. The wall shattered easily, but it prevented me from landing a direct hit.
I was about to follow up with another strike when a chill ran down my spine. I hurriedly leaped backward. A split second later, the space itself folded, creating a massive crater where I had just been standing.
Ethan floated dozens of spatial orbs above his palm and grinned wickedly.
At the same time, the barrage began to rain down.