Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Necromancer Hunt (2)
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“Uwooooh……!”
Gerkios felt his entire body shredding apart under the wide-area annihilation spell.
This was undoubtedly the work of a 9th-circle mage— one in the upper echelons of grand magicians, no less.
‘This much……!’
But Gerkios himself was a 9th-circle mage.
Moreover, over the past two decades, he had refined his lich body through relentless research.
‘It won’t end like last time……!’
While his body held out, he deployed multiple barriers.
Then, pouring his mana into it, he tried to escape the area.
“Urgh……!”
Though his body was in tatters, he managed to slip out of the wide-area annihilation spell’s range.
“Dietrich…… you bastard!”
Trembling with rage, Gerkios raised his voice.
“I should’ve killed you back then!”
Gerkios had spotted Dietrich over a decade ago.
He’d tensed up, thinking the man had caught wind that he was still alive and come to subjugate him again, but Dietrich had entered the Great Forest for a different reason.
After that, Dietrich had learned of Archbishop Hausel’s death from a comrade who’d followed him and fled the Great Forest in a panic.
“If my memory serves, your master is already dead…… Have you found a new one?”
“I have only one master, Archbishop Gerkios.”
Piercing through the fog, Dietrich revealed himself.
He wasn’t undead, yet he looked exactly as beautiful as he had back then.
“Archbishop Hausel. He alone is my liege. For eternity.”
“You speak nonsense!”
Gerkios gnashed his teeth and spread mana around him.
The thousand skeletons he’d summoned moments ago had been caught in the wide-area annihilation spell and nearly all wiped out.
But the undead legion he’d prepared over the past two decades was far more than that.
“Rise……!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Shattering the dense forest, a colossal monster emerged.
It was a bone dragon.
“A bone dragon! I poured immense mana into it for over ten years to create this beast!”
“Pathetic.”
But Dietrich remained unfazed even before its overwhelming presence.
“A bone dragon is an undead made from a dragon’s bones. But that thing? It’s a patchwork of various monster bones. Couldn’t get your hands on a real dragon’s bones, huh?”
“……!”
“Did you think I, Dietrich, wouldn’t see through that?”
Gerkios felt wronged.
Though he hadn’t used dragon bones, he’d converted the abundant natural mana in the Great Forest and infused it continuously, granting it formidable combat prowess.
By his calculations, it wielded about 75 percent of a true bone dragon’s power.
But explaining all that would just sound pathetic.
“Rise, all of you……!”
Thud! Thud-thud! Boom!
Earthquakes erupted from all directions as undead burst forth.
This legion, assembled in preparation for the day he’d emerge from the Great Forest to ravage the world, now had to be fully deployed just to subdue Dietrich.
“This time, I’ll end you once and for all, Dietrich……!”
Roaring, Gerkios ordered his undead legion to engage.
* * *
“Undead are swarming from all sides!”
“The spirits that were guiding us have vanished!”
“Captain! What do we do now……!”
“Everyone, calm down.”
I scolded my panicked subordinates.
“The undead aren’t targeting us. They’re all heading somewhere.”
“Oh, now that you mention it…….”
“But if we run into them, we’ll have to fight. Let’s move carefully to avoid getting caught in their march.”
Issuing those orders, I led my subordinates onward.
I didn’t know the way as well as Dietrich, but I remembered it.
“Lord Sion, what’s going on? Why are so many undead suddenly…….”
“Probably a necromancer from the Dialogue Church lurking around here.”
“What?!”
Edwin’s eyes widened at my words.
The others looked shocked too.
“Undead on this scale don’t spawn naturally. It means a necromancer skilled in death magic has been hiding here.”
“Ah……!”
“The skeletons we ran into right after entering? Probably guards set by the Dialogue Church’s necromancer.”
As I explained, I looked up.
“The Western Great Forest is brimming with mana. Perfect spot to build an undead legion in secret from the Holy Knight Order.”
“B-but isn’t the Western Great Forest too full of life force? Isn’t it bad for undead?”
“They must’ve figured out a way around that. I don’t know the details.”
Gerkios must’ve struggled plenty with it.
Creating undead here was no easy feat.
“From what I recall, the Dialogue Church had a necromancer named Archbishop Gerkios.”
“Lord Sion, I heard that necromancer was purged over twenty years ago.”
Lieselotte pointed out, but I shook my head.
“They spread fake info to mislead us. In reality, he’s been secretly building an undead legion in the Western Great Forest.”
“Ah……!”
Not just Lieselotte— everyone gasped at my fabricated tale.
“Captain, this is a huge problem!”
Lotus shouted urgently.
“A Dialogue Church archbishop building a massive undead legion? That’s beyond what we can handle! We need to report to Holy Knight Order HQ immediately!”
“You think we can? Breaking through the Western Great Forest crawling with undead won’t be easy. And we’ve lost our spirit guides.”
“B-but…….”
“Let’s change our thinking.”
“Huh?”
Lotus looked baffled.
My other subordinates stared at me, equally confused.
Only Edwin and Lieselotte…… seemed to grasp it, their faces tense.
“We’ll handle it ourselves.”
“What do you…….”
“We’ll take out Archbishop Gerkios.”
“C-Captain!!”
Lotus raised his voice.
“I said I’d follow you last time, but this is insane! Way too reckless!”
“Calm down, Lotus.”
“How can I?! Against a Dialogue Church archbishop and his massive undead legion—with just twenty knights?!”
“Gerkios is probably a lich.”
“A lich? What’s that?”
“A necromancer who turned their own body undead. No human could control an undead legion this size. Gerkios must’ve become a lich.”
“Th-then it’s even more dangerous, isn’t it?”
“Liches have one weakness. They store their life force in a box called a phylactery. As long as it’s intact, they can revive endlessly. Destroy it, and the lich vanishes.”
“S-so?”
“So liches hide their phylacteries in secret spots. Places brimming with mana, for revival.”
“……?”
Lotus still didn’t get it.
But then Lieselotte chimed in.
“You mean find and smash the phylactery? Then we don’t have to fight Gerkios or his legion.”
“Exactly.”
“Ah……!”
Lotus finally got it and swallowed hard.
“B-but how do we even find the phylactery?”
“Everyone, look closely. The spirits guiding us are gone, but there’s a faint light leading this way.”
“A light? I don’t see anything…….”
“You must lack mana training. That’s why you can’t see it.”
Making it up as I went, I pushed through the forest.
“Follow this light, and we’ll find where Demon Spirit Sword Ashurai is hidden. The spot with the densest mana around here…… Gerkios probably set up his lair there too.”
“Ah……!”
“It might not be, but worth a shot.”
As I said that, I looked up.
“I don’t know the details, but Gerkios has some problem right now. That’s why he’s unleashing the undead like this.”
“So we sneak into his lair during the chaos and destroy the phylactery!”
“Exactly.”
Hope sparked in my subordinates’ eyes.
[Unbelievable. They’re swallowing your pack of lies wholesale.]
‘They trust me.’
[Well, this makes your plan work perfectly.]
Realizing Gerkios had become a lich and hidden away, I’d decided to subjugate him.
But taking on a 9th-circle mage meant deploying Dietrich. Problem was, I couldn’t let Dietrich show himself in front of the others.
So I sent Dietrich solo. He’d track and attack Gerkios alone, while I led the rest to destroy the phylactery.
[But can Dietrich handle it alone? Even if Gerkios himself isn’t much in a fight, facing twenty years’ worth of undead legion by himself…….]
‘Dietrich can.’
[You trust him that much.]
‘He was my right hand.’
Dietrich of the Ice Flame, right hand of Archbishop Hausel.
He could buy plenty of time.
“Captain! We found a cave!”
“There are bone giants! This really must be the necromancer’s hideout!”
“Jackpot. Let’s go!”
Unlike the swarming undead in the forest, the bone golems inside the cave stood motionless, guarding their posts.
Proof this was Gerkios’s lair.
[I sense something ominous deeper in. Not just Gerkios’s phylactery…… Demon Spirit Sword Ashurai’s there too!]
Hearing Igzard’s excited voice, I led my subordinates into Gerkios’s lair.
* * *
Boom! Crash!
My ears rang from the constant barrage of attack spells.
But Dietrich kept casting without a care.
“Is that all you’ve got, Gerkios?!”
“Don’t underestimate me……!”
The moment Dietrich taunted, a massive bone monster charged with jaws agape.
His pre-deployed freezing spell activated automatically, shattering its jaw, but another monster lunged right after.
‘Not easy……!’
He kept up his confident front, but facing this scale of undead legion alone was taxing even for Dietrich.
Gerkios himself was no great fighter, but the high-tier undead he’d crafted were seriously threatening.
While Dietrich battled the undead beasts, Gerkios had fortified his defenses.
Surrounded by hordes of skulls now, Dietrich couldn’t pierce through with ordinary spells.
‘And I haven’t seen real combat in ages, so my senses are dull!’
It looked bad for anyone watching.
But Dietrich had no intention of backing down.
‘This is the mission my liege entrusted to me……!’
He’d been given minor tasks before, but this was the first major one since reuniting.
He had to stake his life on it.
‘Until the day my liege reaches the pinnacle of the Holy Knight Order and crushes the Dialogue Church, I will never fall!’
Burning with resolve, Dietrich drew up his vast mana.