Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Hatching (1)
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Kanna was drenched in cold sweat.
Sweat mixed with her charred black skin, dripping down in dark droplets.
The moment she moved, the darkness would swallow her whole.
What was this darkness?
It was pitch black, but it didn't feel particularly evil. Yet at the same time, it evoked a strong sense of repulsion, almost like standing before black magic.
'It feels similar somehow.'
A variant of mana?
Now wasn't the time to ponder that.
She needed to figure out how to escape this darkness.
The blackness right below her was that dangerous.
"I can't run away."
At that moment, a boy's voice came from above.
His low, steady tone carried immense power.
No telling how old he actually was, but he appeared as a child.
What a truly disgusting, perverse hobby.
Kanna opened her mouth.
"Whether I can run or not is something I have to try to know, right?"
"Then give it a try."
As Jamie clenched his fist, the darkness swallowed her.
Among black magics, the darkness-type Leviathan was the "Gluttony Spell."
Leviathan
Gluttony Magic - Devours all things ravenously
Leviathan devoured everything voraciously, converting it into sustenance.
'Divine power is a shame, but I'll eat it all anyway.'
Leviathan was particularly ferocious among the powers he wielded.
Back in his Diablo Volpir days, even mighty foes despaired before the might of Gluttony.
The darkness undulated.
Whatever entered would be stripped bare, leaving only its husk.
But his opponent was no pushover.
"I was going to let you off because you were cute...!"
Light began seeping through the darkness.
Jamie grimaced.
Gluttony's power was working properly, but something even greater inside was trying to break through.
'This one's no ordinary Zenith Church priestess?'
He'd thought she was fairly strong when she subdued Vena.
But he hadn't expected this level.
The light exploded.
Gluttony's darkness scattered in all directions before reconstructing itself.
In that gap, Kanna burst out.
"Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah!"
She was gasping for breath raggedly.
"Kid. What the hell are you?"
Within the darkness, Kanna had felt something bizarre and terrifying.
'For a split second, it absorbed everything of mine.'
Starting from her divine power, every ounce of strength she possessed had been sucked into the darkness.
The sensation wasn't painful, but the creeping weakness was deeply unpleasant and frightening.
If she'd stayed in there, she would've died slowly without realizing it.
"Didn't expect you to escape that."
Jamie landed on the ground and checked Vena's condition.
'Her arm's broken bad. Fatigue and pain have built up massively.'
It had piled up since the ruins.
Unlike Jamie, who had the Orb of Life, she relied solely on her natural regeneration.
He'd cast recovery magic on her, but it probably hadn't helped much.
He injected mana into her body.
It included some of Kanna's life force absorbed by Leviathan, so she'd regain consciousness soon.
"You're a black sorcerer too?"
Jamie didn't answer, so she took it as confirmation and spat in genuine fury.
"You filthy vermin, getting too full of yourselves...!"
She had no idea why this kid's black mana lacked the characteristic deathly aura, but evil was evil, and she wouldn't tolerate it.
Kanna gripped her mace tightly and assumed a stance.
"You dare stand tall before me?"
"Is there a reason I shouldn't?"
"A reason? Of course there is. Every black sorcerer bastard who's stood so boldly before me has had their head ripped off by big sis here!"
"That's pretty creepy."
Jamie shuddered exaggeratedly, and Kanna chuckled.
"And I've got a read on our little kid now."
"A read?"
Jamie sneered back.
"What'd you figure out?"
"This and that."
Kanna grinned and kicked off the ground.
The distance closed in an instant.
A massive mace imbued with divine power flew toward Jamie's small head to smash it.
"You know nothing."
Kanna admitted her slip of the tongue.
But admitting it didn't improve the situation.
"You black sorcerer bastard!"
She smashed through the undead surging toward her like a tidal wave, spewing curses.
The undead kept coming endlessly.
Even when shattered by divine power, they soon repaired themselves and attacked again.
"What the hell is this?!"
She'd fought many necromancers and succeeded in decapitating them all.
Some were infamous, but even they couldn't command undead like this.
'Setting that aside, what the hell is this guy doing?!'
Black sorcerers typically specialized in one field.
Of course, they could use other fields to some degree, but that was it.
To master multiple fields, one needed to be at the pinnacle of black sorcery—a "Death Master."
Yet this kid seemed to wield top-tier darkness magic, and now necromancy as well.
'Is he actually a real Death Master?'
No, he wasn't.
Kanna had once clashed with a Death Master.
How horrific the black magic he wielded had been.
The darkness that devoured even divine power—the ultimate antithesis—felt like facing a demon king.
That experience had gotten her this far, but recalling it was still humiliating.
So, the kid wasn't Death Master level.
'But that doesn't make him some kid I can ignore.'
Her gut told her he handled other black magics at this level too—a bad premonition.
Kanna clicked her tongue and blasted away skeletons and zombies.
"Always watch your back, miss."
A chill crept up her neck.
She twisted her head as far as she could, and a dagger flashed past swiftly.
"Oh, you dodged?"
"Get serious, Azad!"
Raiza leaped over Azad's head and hurled his dagger.
Kanna backstepped and swung her mace.
Divine power expanded, swelling the mace's size.
"Gah!"
Raiza screamed as he took a solid hit and flew back.
"Big Brother! This miss is pretty tough!"
"You worthless scum daring to flap your mouths?!"
Divine power erupted from Kanna's body.
But Azad calmly commanded the undead.
"Grab her."
No sooner had the order fallen than the undead lunged to grapple her.
"You bastards!"
Zombies and skeletons clinging to her.
Kanna's face twisted in disgust as she unleashed power to shake them off.
But before she could, armed undead charged in formation.
Caught by the undead, she couldn't move for a moment.
"Undead in formation?!"
Staying like this would mean taking several blades.
Kanna tensed her whole body.
With her superhuman strength, the undead holding her flew into the oncoming ones.
The front line collapsed.
But the remaining forces calmly reformed ranks, awaiting orders.
"Maintain encirclement formation!"
"Fallen ones, fall back behind without disrupting and rebuild formation!"
At Azad's follow-up command, the undead soldiers reformed the encirclement.
Kanna frowned.
An undead unit with a proper chain of command.
They weren't that strong individually, but used like this, it changed everything.
'Those two are the problem.'
Kanna eyed the two undead issuing orders from behind.
They looked human at a glance— the trickiest foes.
Plus decent combat prowess; letting her guard down here meant a knife in the gut.
'Thought it'd be an easy sweep at first.'
Her misjudgment of their capabilities was her fault.
She glanced at Jamie watching leisurely from afar, arms crossed.
Now that his Zenith Church ties were exposed, she had to kill the little black sorcerer somehow.
Otherwise, it was over for her.
Kanna sighed.
She hadn't expected to go all out here.
"Consider it an honor."
The atmosphere shifted dramatically.
Jamie's eyes widened.
He clicked his tongue and yelled at everyone.
"Everyone, get back!"
But it was too late.
Dazzling radiance enveloped her.
And like an explosion, it burst outward in all directions.
Trees, earth, and grass were swept away by the light.
The undead began crumbling, unable to withstand the intense divine power.
Even Jamie's black mana, not inherently weak to divine power, was being destroyed by sheer physical force.
"Whoa! Think we need the old man's help?!"
"Focus on running before you say another word!"
Azad and Raiza fled from the light with all their might.
Jamie was furious at the massive Zenith divine power.
"So you've been harboring this much filth?"
He could tell how close she was to Zenith.
Which made him decide to kill her even more cruelly.
Jamie summoned the Gate of Defying Heaven again.
'It's tough just maintaining it, so I didn't want to use it yet.'
His most powerful weapon.
Purple glow overtook his entire eyes.
Black was summoned above his shoulder, spreading its membranous wings wide.
Kkieeek!
The two black manas began resonating.
"Come forth!"
The gate opened.
Unlike when it spat out a hundred undead, an incomparable darkness began flowing out.
"Nebro!"
The gate yawned wide.
From the darkness, a robed skeleton stepped forth.
Just its appearance exuded immense presence. It emitted a piercing glow from its eyes and knelt on one knee before Jamie.
A black sorcerer once frustrated at the wall of 7th class was now a lich, awaiting his master's command.
Jamie felt all mana flowing toward him just from its appearance.
Maintaining it was indeed taxing.
Fortunately, reclaiming Leviathan had greatly increased his mana reserves.
"Capture that filthy thing and make it kneel before me."
"As you command."
The lich rose.
In its bony hand was a pulsing crimson staff.
Black mana rose around its body.
Black light poured from its empty eye sockets.
Nebro's form shot toward the fading light.
"Even commanding a lich."
And from within the light, Kanna emerged.
Clad in pristine white armor she'd never worn before, radiating intense divine power.
She raised her mace toward the approaching lich spewing darkness.
"Watch closely, kid. This is the power of the fifth sword among the 'Seven Knights.'"
Divine light formed a massive mace dozens of meters long.
Its overwhelming size bore down on Nebro.
Light and darkness tangled in a complex clash.
At that moment, the contents within the giant egg slowly opened their eyes.
Slowly savoring the massive influx of "life force," the coiled body began to unfurl.