Chapter 73
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Necronomicon (1)
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The origin of all the spells used by necromancers, a treasure passed down through generations from time immemorial.
Kang Sa-hu's eye glow deepened as he stared at the Necronomicon, said to radiate immense power on its own while containing every orthodox necromancer spell lost to the modern age.
'Hundreds of spirits are bound within the book itself by qi.'
This was his first time seeing it with his own eyes, but just one glance told Kang Sa-hu exactly why the Necronomicon had been sealed away in Myeongwang's throne.
Qi sprawled out like spiderwebs, binding hundreds of spirits that had been trapped for so long their soul traces could no longer be felt.
Even if they weathered away bit by bit over time, traces should remain unless centuries had passed.
The complete absence of any soul traces pointed to only two possibilities.
Either the spirits had been bound for so long—hundreds of years or more—that even those traces had vanished,
or their souls had been destroyed or shattered before binding.
Of course, Kang Sa-hu, who knew a fair bit about the Necronomicon's ancient history, knew it was the former.
Not just hundreds of years, but over a millennium.
Or perhaps even older—a grimoire of unknown origins.
As Kang Sa-hu stood transfixed before the display case, gazing at it like an artist lost in a masterpiece,
Myeongwang, who had been fondly alternating her gaze between the Necronomicon and him, suddenly jolted in surprise.
"Huh? Sa-hu, what's up with your eyes?"
"My eyes, you say?"
Kang Sa-hu snapped out of his reverie at her shrill voice, widening his eyes in startlement, but Myeongwang gawked at his eyes—
or more precisely, at the eye glow jutting upward like horns.
"Sa-hu, since when has your eye glow taken that shape? It's formed a proper shape! And why is it heterochromatic—no, odd-eyed glow?!"
"Ah, you mean this."
The last time he'd met Myeongwang was seven years ago, and back then, his eye glow had merely billowed like green smoke from dry ice poured with water—thick and viscous.
But now, his right eye gleamed with an even deeper jade green glow, while the left burned with an icy deep blue,
and both surged upward in a shape that resembled horns from afar.
He couldn't pinpoint exactly when the color and form had solidified, but he had a magical excuse ready for times like this.
"It changed after I awakened."
"A-after awakening?!"
Myeongwang recoiled as if she'd spotted a deep scar, pacing anxiously beside him at a loss.
She inspected his eye glow from every angle, firing off questions.
"Your field of vision hasn't changed, right?"
"No, it's the same."
"Focus is fine? Have you ever used spirits or qi when the glow flares up?"
"Yes, no issues."
She probed further with more questions, meticulously checking his condition, before concluding there were no special problems and sighing in relief.
Once her worries faded and the shock settled, she examined his eye glow with a subtly different look.
The colors flowing from his eyes, the upward angle, the shape.
Scrutinizing it all, Myeongwang...
"W-whoa, it's so cool...!"
She loved it.
"Wow, wow. How did it form such a pretty shape? I'm jealous...!"
"......"
As Myeongwang stared up at his "horns" with sparkling eyes, full of curiosity, Kang Sa-hu sat cross-legged to let her see more comfortably.
She gathered spirit energy in her hand and stroked his eye glow as if it were real horns.
She first brushed the green glow, sensing his innate power within and smiling bittersweetly.
But when she touched the blue glow on the left, she whipped around to face him in shock.
"Sa-hu, did you pick up any magic—no, skills related to cold like a sorceress's?"
"Cold? No, I don't have anything like that."
Kang Sa-hu answered puzzled, and Myeongwang tilted her head.
"Weird. This definitely feels like cold energy. And really powerful, too."
"What do you mean...?"
Stunned by the sudden speculation about his awakened power, Kang Sa-hu turned to her—and froze even more at the sight of her hand.
It was slightly melted, blotchy red spots blooming, and faintly covered in frost.
"Myeongwang? What is this?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. Like this."
Myeongwang huffed a "Hup!" as if it were nothing, and her hand instantly restored to normal.
But brushing it off, she fixed him with a serious expression.
"More importantly, Sa-hu, check it out later. Your left eye glow definitely carries an intense chill. You'll gain some ice-related ability eventually, for sure."
As the saying goes, eyes are the windows to the soul—and the glow emanating from them hinted at their owner's power and potential.
So Myeongwang was certain.
"Your right eye shifting from green to deep green seems like the power that should have been split between both eyes converged into the right. The left not just being blue, but deep blue, probably for the same reason."
Myeongwang flared her own eye glow, shaping it unlike his—flowing downward from the corners like bloody tears—and continued her explanation.
"See? Super intense color, right? Yours right now is on par with mine, or even stronger. That means your potential and hidden power are just as immense."
"Yes, I understand."
Coming from Myeongwang of all people, the info was almost certainly accurate.
But there was nothing to verify right now, and more pressing matters at hand, so Kang Sa-hu suppressed his rising questions and nodded.
"I'd love to discuss this in more detail later. For now, you should use the Necronomicon first, then reseal it."
Since it was unsealed, Kang Sa-hu had seen it naturally absorbing spirits flowing from Myeongwang's magic circle, and pointed at it.
"Eek?! Oh no! It's siphoning spirits so sneakily!"
She was extremely sensitive to and had great control over the power flowing from her domain-forming magic circle.
Yet even she had failed to notice the Necronomicon pilfering it so stealthily, and she yelped in surprise.
"Hold on."
Myeongwang extended both hands, and the bony hands cradling the book synced with her movements, flipping it open.
Ooooooo—!
As the Necronomicon opened, an eerie cacophony echoed—like the wails of countless grudge-filled souls from a domain declaration.
It was a viscous lament that would drive non-necromancers mad or make them retch,
and even necromancers to mental breakdown.
Yet Myeongwang and Kang Sa-hu endured it unfazed, as always.
"Oh, Sa-huu~? You held steady inside my magic circle, and now you're shrugging off the Necronomicon's ghostly wails too?"
Kang Sa-hu grinned at her teasing admiration.
Seeing him like that stirred fresh感慨 in Myeongwang, her chest tightening and nose stinging, but she steadied herself.
"Sniff. Anyway, let's get started on making your Death Knight, Sa-hu!"
She snorted back her runny nose and moved her hands.
Flip flip flip.
The bony hands moved like extensions of her own, swiftly turning the Necronomicon's pages at her will.
The massive, thick tome seemed endless, but it stopped precisely at her target.
[On the Creation and Summoning of Death Knights]
Reputed to hold all necromancer magic and knowledge, even this tome's immense thickness placed the Death Knight creation rite deep in the latter half.
In other words, it ranked among the more difficult spells in the Necronomicon.
Nearly four-fifths of the pages flipped past before it appeared, and the method itself filled at least half the remaining pages—intricately complex.
Though she'd used magic, Myeongwang was the one who'd opened the book with the bony hands, and she naturally felt the arduous contents rise in her mind.
Her brow furrowed at the sheer volume, but she could relay the rite to Kang Sa-hu.
"Alright, let's begin."
Kang Sa-hu nodded at her words.
Spirits gathered in one hand, qi in the other, rapidly swelling her power.
Just skimming some from the magic circle at the domain's heart filled her hands to overflowing, like scooping seawater.
Hummm— hummm— hummm—
Her eye glow flared, taking the form of red tear tracks,
and resonated across space—not just with the magic circle they'd drawn together, but with the ones far away prepared by Kang Sa-hu's parents, Seung-hwan and Ella.
Ziiing—
Groooar—
The lines of the magic circles activated, brimming with spirits and qi, weaving together across space.
Dozens of circles in the virtual space Myeongwang orchestrated began aligning to her will.
At the same time, the materials Seung-hwan and Ella had scoured the world for at Kang Sa-hu's request were absorbed into the circles, completing the perfect formation.
"......"
Kang Sa-hu, who had vaguely thought only of domain declaration and activating vast space-spanning circles, now realized watching Myeongwang arrange and link them organically.
'This isn't something a domain declaration can cover.'
He hadn't realized until seeing it, but the circles and materials were mere components—the true core of Death Knight creation was missing.
The precise sequence and placement of the circles, and how the prepared materials interfaced with each.
And having witnessed it firsthand, he was certain this wasn't mere memorization.
Sinful and arrogant as it was toward Myeongwang, Kang Sa-hu was convinced.
'Even after a hundred attempts, she couldn't memorize and execute this.'
That must be why she'd pulled out the Necronomicon, sealed in the throne.
Even she couldn't memorize nearly a hundred unique circle forms, their order, and placements.
But.
'Good thing I watched with full focus.'
Having anticipated as much, Kang Sa-hu had intently memorized each step of her arrangement, even jotting down condensed notes in his own method.
'Got it.'
As Myeongwang nearly finished preparing the Death Knight ritual, he was confident.
Next time, he could create one alone—without the Necronomicon.