Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Necromancer Hunt (5)
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“Uwaaaack!”
The moment the pitch-black smoke split apart to either side, a horrific scream erupted.
What sensation would one feel if their spirit body was bisected? From the sound of that scream, it seemed no different from having one’s physical body cleaved in two.
“How, how, how could this...!”
Gerkus’s anguished voice echoed through the air.
“You bastard, what the hell are you?! How, how could you wield sword aura like Archbishop Hausel?!”
“Was my sword aura similar to Archbishop Hausel’s?”
“Yes! It was almost identical!”
The energy to form the sword aura had been provided by Igzard, but I was the one who controlled and swung it.
In any case, seeing Gerkus evaluate it this way confirmed that I could now unleash sword aura rivaling my time as Archbishop Hausel.
Of course, it was only possible with Igzard’s support, so I couldn’t use it anytime I wanted.
“Did you... receive teachings from Archbishop Hausel?! Are you that damned bastard’s disciple?!”
“Archbishop Hausel died sixteen years ago. How could I be his disciple?”
“Then, then... right, you must be that woman’s disciple?!”
“Woman?”
“That woman who was Archbishop Hausel’s left hand!”
“...”
I immediately knew who Gerkus was referring to.
But a slight correction was needed. During my time as Archbishop Hausel, I had publicly declared Dietrich as my right hand, but I had never called that woman my left hand.
She had gone around claiming it on her own.
‘If we’re talking pure skill... she had the qualifications.’
In any case, Gerkus kept grasping at straws.
But that was unavoidable.
Who could imagine that Archbishop Hausel had reincarnated as a holy knight?
“Ahh, my spirit body, my spirit body...!”
In the meantime, the black smoke bisected by Ashurai was scattering into the surroundings.
I couldn’t just leave it like that, so I raised Ashurai once more.
“What are you... Uwaaaack?!”
An even more horrific scream burst out than before.
It was so wretched that even I was slightly startled.
“Wh-what are you doing?! How, how could you... Uwaaaack!”
Mana was now being extracted from Gerkus’s spirit body.
Igzard was drawing it out through Ashurai’s blade.
“No, no no no no, nonononono...!”
It was a different reaction from extracting mana from an ordinary human.
Gerkus’s current form was a spirit body made of mana. For a human with flesh, it must have felt like having all their flesh and organs sucked out.
“Ugaaaah!”
With a grotesque death rattle, Gerkus’s spirit body completely vanished.
I could feel a chilling, sinister mana flowing into my chest.
[Use the mana well. It’s filled with the energy of death, so if you don’t properly purify it, it’ll harm your body.]
‘I know.’
While purifying the mana with the Dialogue Circulation Method, I headed back toward the center of the lake.
There, the mechanism I had opened earlier remained intact.
“...”
Silently, I swung Ashurai from above down.
The device split into two pieces, and a small box rolled out from within.
[Spare me...]
A voice echoed in my mind, just like Igzard’s.
It was Gerkus’s soul, stored in the relic casket, begging me.
[Don’t destroy my relic casket...]
Gerkus’s voice was desperate.
Even when I had cornered him over twenty years ago, he hadn’t shown this attitude.
Right now, Gerkus was truly feeling fear.
[Spare me. If you just let me live, I’ll help you from now on. I’m a 9-star necromancer who rose to archbishop in the Dialogue Church. I’ll surely be of use...]
Terrified of complete annihilation if his relic casket was destroyed, he was groveling to me.
Unable to stand it any longer, Igzard interjected.
[Thick-skinned, aren’t you?]
[Wh-who are you?]
Gerkus was startled.
He never could have imagined another presence inside me.
[So full of bluster earlier, and now you’re begging for your life? You call yourself a lich who transcended death, but in reality, you hadn’t transcended it at all.]
[Y-you, who the hell are you? Why are you in this knight’s body?]
[You’ve seen me many times before.]
[Wh-what? I’ve seen you?]
[Don’t you remember? Grand Archbishop Aquilast showed me to you.]
[The Grand Archbishop? What are you...]
[I am the Demon Sword Igzard, Archbishop Gerkus.]
“...!”
Gerkus was stunned.
But he didn’t deny it in disbelief.
Like Dietrich, this man was a mage well-versed in the Dialogue Church’s secret knowledge.
[I see! The true Demon Sword Igzard that resided within the material sword Igzard... it was inside this young holy knight! That’s why he was so strong!]
[You catch on quick.]
[But, but why enter a holy knight? How the hell did that happen?!]
[This guy isn’t an ordinary holy knight, Archbishop Gerkus.]
[What?]
[Shouldn’t you have figured it out by now?]
A brief silence.
Igzard coldly pressed the speechless Gerkus.
[This guy is the reincarnation of Archbishop Hausel. We’ve been together ever since the day I took Archbishop Hausel’s life.]
“Aaaaaah...!”
Gerkus wailed.
“How, how could this be! Ah, but if that’s possible... yes! This is true transcendence of death...!”
He seemed convinced that I was Archbishop Hausel.
As a necromancer who had researched transcending death, it was easier for him to understand.
“H-Hausel Archbishop! Hear me out! No, please listen!”
Gerkus urgently rambled on.
[Our reunion is fate! I hold a grudge against the Dialogue Church, and so do you. We can join hands! Let’s combine our strength and get revenge on the Dialogue Church!]
[Tsk.]
[With your immense personal power and my ability to command undead legions, no one could stand against us! Let’s join forces and conquer the world!]
[How can you even say that?]
Igzard mocked him, but Gerkus ignored it completely.
[Hausel Archbishop! Forget the past and let’s build a glorious future together...]
But Gerkus’s voice cut off midway.
Because I had tossed the relic casket into the air.
“Sorry, but.”
Shiiik!
Ashurai’s blade cleaved the relic casket into two.
Inside was a single bone fragment, which split apart, releasing gray smoke.
I let Igzard absorb even that, then coldly spat out.
“I’m not desperate enough to ally with trash like you.”
* * *
After completely annihilating Archbishop Gerkus for the first time in over twenty years.
I climbed onto the lake surface and treated my subordinates who had collapsed in the workshop.
They had all lost consciousness due to the waves of annihilation, but since Gerkus had rushed down to the underground lake in a panic, they hadn’t lost much life force.
“This is when you use holy water.”
Holy knights carry Grade 2 purification holy water produced by the Holy Spirit Church.
Sprinkled on wounds, it acts as a disinfectant to prevent infection; drunk, it restores vitality and cures minor ailments.
Since they had collapsed from contact with Gerkus’s evil energy, feeding them holy water would revive them.
“Ugh...”
“My head...”
The first ones I poured holy water into were Edwin and Lieselotte.
“Are you coming to?”
“Si-Sion...?”
“What happened?”
I gave Edwin and Lieselotte a rough explanation of events, then instructed them to do the same for the others.
“A-are we alive?”
“I remember a black spirit thing appearing...”
“Wh-what the hell happened?”
Soon, everyone regained consciousness.
They all looked exhausted, but there didn’t seem to be any aftereffects.
“You all lost consciousness after a lich attacked.”
“What?! A lich attacked us?!”
“Th-then what about the lich...”
“I took care of it.”
Even after hearing me, they looked incredulous.
I wouldn’t believe it either if I were them.
Taking down a 9-star necromancer who had been an archbishop in the Dialogue Church—a lich who had transcended death—single-handedly was too absurd.
“I smashed its relic casket with the Demon Spirit Sword Ashurai and made it vanish.”
“Ah, so that’s what happened.”
“I thought the captain beat a lich...”
“Even for the captain, beating a lich one-on-one is impossible.”
They exchanged awkward smiles and chatter, but Edwin and Lieselotte stared at me with eyes that seemed to ask, ‘What really happened?’
“In any case...”
“The lich vanished when its relic casket was destroyed...”
“And the captain secured the Demon Spirit Sword Ashurai...”
“Yeah.”
Facing my dazed subordinates, I said calmly.
“Mission complete.”
The first unresolved mission.
The high-difficulty problem Helena had thrown at us to corner us... I had completed it perfectly.
By subjugating even Archbishop Gerkus, who had been hiding in the western great forest.
* * *
“No news.”
Sitting in her office, filing her nails, Helena muttered in a bored tone.
“It’s about time they gave up and fled the forest, but are they still wandering around in there?”
“Um... Mother.”
Cain, who had been sitting across from her keeping her company, cautiously spoke up.
“What if something happened to Sion?”
“Something?”
“He could be lost in the forest, or attacked by dangerous monsters...”
“Cain, are you actually worried about that guy?”
“N-no, that’s not it...”
“No need to worry. He’s not the type to die that easily anyway.”
“I-is that so?”
“Yeah. If he were that weak, I wouldn’t have sent him to the western great forest in the first place.”
“But what if, by some chance, Sion really doesn’t come back... wouldn’t that be a big problem?”
“Big problem?”
“Yes, if Grandfather finds out...”
“...”
Helena flinched.
“N-no, what does that have to do with me? They chose to take the unresolved mission, and I just tossed it their way. I bear no responsibility at all...”
As Helena muttered while breaking into a cold sweat.
The door suddenly burst open, and Robel rushed in.
“Mother! We got a mana communication from the city near the western great forest!”
“Wh-what is it? It’s not that Sion died, is it?”
“No! It’s a short letter directly from Sion!”
Robel, who seemed oddly pleased, began reading the paper he held.
“Ashurai secured, returning immediately!”
“W-what?”
Helena’s eyes widened.
That Sion guy... he actually found Ashurai?
The Demon Spirit Sword that the Inquisition had searched for endlessly but never located?
“R-Robel. Is that real?”
“And there’s one more line!”
“What, what is it?”
“In the process, discovered and subjugated a Dialogue Church archbishop. Detailed report upon return... that’s what it says!”
“...?!”
Subjugated a Dialogue Church archbishop?
Not even a bishop, but an archbishop?
“My God...”
“M-Mother, don’t faint!”
Helena felt her mind go blank.