Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Necromancer Hunt (1)
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Archbishop Gerkios.
He was the man who had betrayed the Dialogue Church some twenty years ago.
Originally, he had belonged to the infiltration faction within the Dialogue Church, a figure of great renown for successfully carrying out more than ten Great Purifications.
But he had a bad habit. Even within the Dialogue Church, there was widespread disapproval of his use of necromantic magic... the magic that created undead.
Gerkios took pleasure in deploying hordes of undead monsters made from corpses to annihilate cities.
He would set them ablaze at the end to burn everything to ash, but using impure beings like undead ran counter to the very purpose of the Great Purification.
This led to frequent clashes with the other archbishops, and in the end, Gerkios parted ways with the Dialogue Church.
The Dialogue Church branded him a traitor and dispatched an extermination squad. And the one who had led that squad was me.
‘Archbishop Gerkios is definitely dead.’
Back then, Gerkios had been burned to death by Dietrich’s flame magic.
I remembered incinerating him completely to ash, taking into account the possibility of resurrection through necromantic power.
‘Is some ritual Gerkios planted back then still active? Or is one of his disciples hiding out?’
Skeletons had appeared in great numbers deep within the Western Great Forest, where undead were normally hard to find. And the skeletons’ neck vertebrae bore runes signifying Gerkios’s rituals.
What in the world did this mean?
“The skulls have all been neutralized!”
“Good work. Take a break, treat the wounded, and then we’ll move out again.”
After giving Lotus his orders, I sat down on a large tree root and scanned our surroundings.
‘Igzard, any undead mana nearby?’
[None anymore. Just the spirits and the mana of great nature.]
‘Then...’
[But if the skulls are buried underground, it’s hard to detect them. Their mana blends with that of the earth.]
The Great Forest’s potent natural mana was apparently interfering with Igzard’s detection abilities.
[We’ll have to keep our guard up and press forward.]
As I listened to Igzard, I gathered my thoughts once more.
‘If...’
A scenario came to mind.
If my hunch was right, this mission wouldn’t end with just recovering the Demon Spirit Sword Ashurai.
* * *
Four days had already passed.
Even though Dietrich knew the way, it wasn’t a direct straight shot, and the Great Forest itself was vast, so we couldn’t reach our destination quickly.
Monsters appearing along the way had delayed us further.
“It feels like the knights are building camaraderie through these real battles. Their confidence is growing, too.”
We were taking a meal break when Lotus approached me.
“Especially when fighting monsters, the formations you trained us in were incredibly effective.”
The Holy Knight Order had formations for battling monsters, but they lacked variety.
Tactics needed to vary by monster type, yet that aspect wasn’t refined.
The Dialogue Church was more advanced in this regard, so I had incorporated my know-how to train them in more specialized tactics.
“It’s just a combination of things I’ve picked up here and there. I even drew from the Pilgrimage Investigation Corps’ formations.”
“Ah, I see. The Pilgrimage Investigation Corps deals with monsters a lot... Did you learn them from Commander Est Aleyas, by any chance?”
“Something like that.”
As I brushed it off, the on-duty knights finished preparing the meal.
“Today’s menu is herb-roasted forest deer! All ingredients sourced from the forest!”
Edwin introduced the meal, and cheers erupted around us.
“Wow, looks delicious!”
“Edwin the Grade 2 Knight’s cooking is always so good.”
“Makes my mouth water.”
Edwin looked bashful amid the praise.
The knights all loved Edwin for his cooking skills.
“I’d love to keep eating Edwin’s food even after retiring from the Order.”
“Hey now, are you proposing to Grade 2 Knight Edwin?”
“No way. I’m first in line.”
“Edwin, marry me after this mission.”
“Ahaha, everyone’s such good jokers...”
The popularity was getting a bit overheated, but... Edwin could handle it.
I got my food leisurely from the serving knight and moved to a quiet spot away from the crowd.
Then I climbed up to the top of a towering tree.
“Dietrich.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Dietrich, who had been hiding, revealed himself.
“Eat.”
“My lord, no need to worry about me. Eating grass or mushrooms around here is enough.”
“If you get sick, it’ll mess up the mission. Don’t be stubborn—eat.”
“...As you command.”
Dietrich began eating while concealed among the dense leaves.
Dietrich had always eaten light meals even before, so sharing mine was no issue.
“Mmm...”
“Tasty, right?”
“Delicious. To achieve this flavor without proper cookware... Is that boy a culinary genius?”
Chewing the meat, Dietrich wore a gloomy expression.
“I’ve trained for over ten years and still can’t cook well...”
“That’s because you have no talent for it. Can’t be helped.”
“Couldn’t you phrase it a bit more gently?!”
Dietrich made a wounded face at my blunt fact.
“I’m hurt...”
“Enough, just eat.”
“Damn it, someday I’ll make something truly delicious and shock you, my lord!”
How could someone so passionate be so hopeless at cooking...?
“Dietrich.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“The rituals Gerkios set up twenty years ago—any chance they’re still active?”
“Practically zero.”
Dietrich wiped grease from his mouth with a leaf as he answered.
“Gerkios did set up magic circles throughout the forest to repel us, but they couldn’t possibly last over twenty years.”
“Yeah, that’s what I think too.”
“Skeletons occurring naturally in the Great Forest is next to impossible. So someone’s artificially creating them.”
Dietrich’s thinking matched mine exactly.
“Then who’s making them?”
“We definitely killed Gerkios back then. Burned the body to nothing. But we didn’t track down every last subordinate.”
“The forest is too dense; some slipped away.”
“One of them could be hiding in the Great Forest, continuing necromantic research. Building power to one day get revenge on the Dialogue Church—something like that.”
“That’s your take.”
“Do you see it differently, my lord?”
“Yeah.”
Finishing my meal, I told Dietrich,
“Dietrich, I’ll need your combat power. Prepare ahead of time.”
* * *
‘To think the Holy Knight Order scum would come this deep.’
He sighed into the darkness.
The Holy Knights had appeared a few times before.
But they had always wandered the outskirts, retreating without results, never penetrating deep into the forest.
‘Has the method to enter the forest depths without spirit interference become known?’
The Spirit Church and Holy Knight Order didn’t know how to navigate the Western Great Forest.
It was information only the Dialogue Church possessed... How?
‘Even in the Dialogue Church, only Grand Archbishop Aquilast’s inner circle knew. So it couldn’t have leaked from there...’
He considered various possibilities but couldn’t pinpoint the truth.
‘In any case, the key point is that the Holy Knight Order scum are pushing deep into the forest.’
He didn’t know their method, but the Holy Knights seemed to know the proper path.
They were approaching this place, the highest-mana concentration spot in the Western Great Forest.
‘This raises the chance they’ll catch on to my plan.’
Hiding it wouldn’t work.
They were the type who could persuade spirits to delve deep, so they’d likely see through everything.
‘I’ve prepared for over twenty years... Can’t let problems arise now.’
He had made meticulous preparations.
He was about to enter the final stage; the Holy Knight Order noticing would be disastrous.
‘No choice. Have to wipe them all out.’
Reaching a conclusion, he emerged from the darkness.
The surroundings didn’t brighten.
The trees grew so densely that sunlight barely reached, and thick mana-laced fog blanketed everything.
“Rise.”
Crack!
The ground split in all directions.
White bones began thrusting up through the soil.
One by one at first, the skeletons soon numbered in dozens, then hundreds.
But that wasn’t the end.
“Rise even more.”
He deployed more mana.
The rituals embedded in the earth responded, sending mana signals farther out.
The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.
“Come on... rise!”
Boom boom boom!
Skeletons rose en masse—skeletons, skeletons, skeletons!
Not just human ones. Skeletons of various monsters native to the Western Great Forest stood one after another.
Over a thousand skeleton troops deployed.
“Excellent.”
He felt satisfaction amid the evil aura filling the forest.
It felt a bit excessive, but his goal wasn’t just repelling them—it was total annihilation, not letting a single one escape.
To prevent information leaking outside the Great Forest, he had to eradicate them completely.
“Move, my beloved undead.”
He raised his arm and issued the command.
“Slaughter the fools who dared enter my forest without fear, not sparing a single...”
“Indeed, so it was.”
At that moment.
A voice came from overhead.
“My lord’s hunch was right.”
“W-Who’s there?”
He jerked his head up.
But the thick fog obscured the figure.
“Archbishop Gerkios, right?”
“...!”
At the precise call-out, Gerkios’s eyes widened.
How had this bastard seen through his identity at a glance?
“Even though your breath was cut here twenty years ago. We burned the body too, so I thought resurrection was impossible.”
“Who the hell are you?!”
Gerkios was flustered.
How did this bastard know everything from twenty years ago?
“Did you become a lich, Gerkios?”
“...!”
Lich.
It referred to a necromancer skilled in necromancy who had turned themselves into undead.
“Lichs have one special ability. They store their life force in a box called a phylactery, so even if their body is destroyed, as long as the phylactery remains intact, they can resurrect indefinitely.”
“Ugh...!”
That was right.
Indeed, twenty years ago, Gerkios had been slain by the Dialogue Church’s extermination squad.
But by then, Gerkios had already transformed his body into that of a lich, resurrecting using the life force stored in his phylactery.
And he had continued hiding in this Western Great Forest... building his power.
Leading an undead legion created using the forest’s vast mana, awaiting the day he would emerge into the world.
“You from the Dialogue Church?!”
“Dialogue Church?”
“You figured out I was hiding here and sent another extermination squad!”
He gnashed his teeth and shouted.
“But it won’t end like last time! I have the undead legion I’ve built all this time...”
“I’m no longer with the Dialogue Church.”
“What?”
“I merely follow my lord’s orders.”
What was this?
Suddenly, Gerkios realized he’d heard this voice before.
“Wait, you... don’t tell me...”
“And the order my lord gave me now is to sweep them away with an area-of-effect annihilation spell before the undead legion fully deploys.”
“...!”
He couldn’t grasp what was happening.
But he knew he was in extreme danger.
Gerkios hurriedly drew up his mana. Before that bastard could act, he needed countermeasures...
“Too late.”
As the curt voice echoed through the forest.
A massive explosion engulfed the surroundings.