Karnak, Monarch of Death

Leaving the shattered corpses of the monsters behind, Karnak stood in front of the candy house.

”Well, we won’t know until we go inside, right?” he said.

Serati glanced at the half-open door and offered, ”Should I go in first?”

”No, not there,” Karnak replied, shaking his head.

Then he snapped his fingers.

Boom!

A deafening explosion tore through the air, and one side of the wall crumbled into rubble. He had intentionally blown a hole in the wall, completely ignoring the perfectly functional door.

Peering through the newly created opening, Karnak gave a smile. ”For your information, when dealing with necromancy, the illogical becomes the logical.”

Inside was a long corridor. Like the exterior, the hallway was crafted entirely of candy. Colorful and bright, the space was lit by glowing candy chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, casting a cheerful radiance.

At first glance, it seemed innocuous, but Serati froze in shock. ”What is this?”

It was indeed a long corridor. The candy house was no larger than a modest hunter’s cabin from the outside. How could such an expansive hallway exist within it? Even more baffling, the corridor rivaled the grandeur of a castle’s great hall. It was several meters high with a width far exceeding the dimensions of the candy house itself.

”This doesn’t make any sense. How can the interior of a tiny house be this massive?”

While Serati trembled in disbelief, Karnak and Varos were unperturbed.

”Why are you so surprised?” Karnak asked.

”This is just your run-of-the-mill spatial distortion,” Varos added.

Their nonchalance was almost insulting, but it did help Serati regain her composure. She narrowed her eyes at them.

”It might be mundane for you two, but for me, this is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen!”

”It’s not as impressive as it seems,” Karnak said, walking forward and pointing at the walls. ”This corridor doesn’t actually exist inside the candy house.”

The candy house was nothing more than an entrance. She might think that they had entered the house through the broken wall, but they had actually passed through a dimensional gate. The moment they stepped onto the corridor they had entered a space completely detached from the candy house.

”So, this is an entirely different dimension?” Serati asked.

”Exactly. Just a standard part of hell.”

”Oh... sure,” she muttered.

For a moment, she contemplated what Karnak had said.

Since it’s part of hell, doesn’t that already make it non-standard?

Surprisingly, she didn’t find the revelation of being in hell particularly shocking. She’d already seen glimpses of hellish landscapes through dimensional windows, encountered demons, and even donned armor forged in hell. By now, anything involving hell felt almost normal.

Ah, I didn’t want to get used to something like this.

Meanwhile, Karnak examined the corridor with an intrigued expression. ”The energy here feels oddly familiar...”

Having traversed countless realms of hell, he could still discern faint traces of demonic energy beneath the candy-coated facade.

”What do you think this place originally was, Varos?”

Varos, who had also been in and out of hell multiple times, offered his hypothesis. ”It doesn’t feel like one of the major hells like Gehenna or Tartarus. They would have a denser, heavier demonic energy.”

”Yeah, this place feels more chaotic and stifling. Somewhere between Parpas and Zilonga, maybe? Who ruled this area again?”

”Probably the demon count, Lota-Budon.”

”But he’s dead.”

”Well, in this timeline, he’s probably still alive. Remember? The undead Sir Leven killed him during the height of your reign as the Monarch of Death.”

”Ah, that’s right,” Karnak said with a nostalgic nod.

As they continued scanning their surroundings and walking down the corridor, a faint flapping sound reached their ears. It sounded like the wings of dozens of birds in flight. The noise grew louder and louder until, beyond a bend in the corridor, a swarm of shadows erupted, accompanied by eerie screeches.

”Screeeee!”

”Eeeek!”

Varos blinked in surprise. ”Huh? Monkeys?”

A horde of winged monkeys came flying down the corridor.

Serati, drawing her sword, asked, ”Are there monsters like that in hell?”

Varos, also preparing for battle, answered, ”There are gargoyles that kind of look like that, but not quite like these.”

Apart from the wings, they were just regular monkeys. They held long spears in their hands, and their glowing red eyes gave them a ferocious aura, but their appearance still fell within the realm of typical monkeys.

”Winged monkeys...” Karnak muttered as he studied them. Then, turning to Serati, he asked, ”Is there a fairy tale about those?”

”Oh, uh, yes, something similar,” she replied.

”Is it a well-known story?”

”Well-known? It’s a fairly common one, yes.”

”Interesting.” A faint smile played on Karnak’s lips. ”Very interesting.”

The winged monkeys were quickly closing the gap. Varos drew his aura sword.

”What should we do, young master?” Varos asked.

”Cut them down.”

Varos grinned, as though waiting for the command, and launched himself forward.

”Got it!”

***

The monkeys were fast. And loud.

”You brutes!”

”Use the door next time!”

”Why’d you break the wall?”

”We’ve been waiting forever!”

”Took you long enough to get back!”

Surprisingly, they were quite articulate for monkeys. Judging by their complaints, Karnak’s crew breaking through the wall had caused them a great deal of trouble.

”Ah, I see now,” Serati muttered in understanding. ”This is why Sir Karnak insisted on smashing the wall.”

Varos dove into the swarm of winged monkeys, his aura sword slashing in wide arcs. Serati quickly followed, her blade flashing alongside his. Scarlet energy flickered dozens of times as the monkeys fell, spraying blood and tumbling like pigeons caught in a typhoon.

”Screee!”

”Gaaaak!”

It took only a few minutes to annihilate the dozens of winged monkeys. Karnak hadn’t even needed to step in. Varos and Serati had handled it with ease. Their success wasn’t just because they were strong—it was also due to the monkeys’ poorly chosen tactics. They couldn’t make good use of their flight in a narrow corridor. Against regular soldiers, the monkeys might have stood a chance. Against aura-wielding warriors, they were no match at all.

”These things are way too weak,” Varos remarked.

”I can’t believe the Brigade of Purification was defeated by something like this,” Serati added, frowning.

From the other side of the corridor, a commotion began to rise. Karnak gestured with his hand. ”Here comes another round, Varos.”

This time, a swarm of toads the size of children hopped into view, croaking loudly as they approached.

”Toad!”

”Toad, toad!”

Serati slumped her shoulders in exasperation. ”Uh, that’s not what toads are supposed to sound like, right...?”

As the toads drew closer, their bodies twisted and swelled into grotesque, slimy monsters. It was the same kind Karnak’s group had encountered outside the candy house.

”Graaaah!”

”Raaaargh!”

Once again, Karnak’s group dispatched the creatures with ease. They mowed through the swarm and paused to catch their breath, only to hear another wave approaching from down the corridor. This time, it was a pack of black cats.

Unlike before, Serati didn’t exclaim over how cute they were. She already knew how these cats would transform. Instead, she focused on their bizarre cries.

”Cat!”

”Cat-cat!”

Serati gave Varos a bewildered look. ”Is this what hell is usually like?”

Varos shrugged, looking equally confused. ”I’m not sure. But even if it’s hell, it’s not usually like this.”

As expected, the cats transformed into the same kind of slimy monstrosities as before. Karnak’s group dispatched them just as swiftly as the toads.

”There’s probably more,” Varos predicted.

He was right. This time, it was a herd of rabbits, hopping down the corridor.

Karnak muttered to himself as he watched them approach. ”I think I see the pattern now.”

Cats, toads, rabbits, they were the traditional familiars of a witch in folklord.

”They’re conventional and universal images,” he mused.

But there was still something puzzling about the scene. The rabbits were holding brightly colored eggs in their front paws.

”What do eggs have to do with rabbits?” Karnak asked.

”This time, I have no idea,” Serati admitted.

The horde of rabbits stopped and glared at Karnak’s group, letting out strange cries.

”Rabbit!”

”Rabbit-rabbit-rabbit!”

Feeling betrayed, Serati shouted back at them, ”Hey! What happened to your usual cries?”

Varos shot her a look of disbelief. ”What kind of complaint is that?”

Even Varos, who rarely lost his composure, seemed exasperated by the absurdity of it all.

”Well, we can’t ignore them, can we?”

”Yeah, let’s get it over with.”

The rabbit horde transformed into more slimy monsters, and Varos and Serati dove into the fray, cutting them down. As the others fought, Karnak stood back, deep in thought.

”It doesn’t feel much like hell at first glance, but....”

In a way, it was deeply characteristic of hell—reality itself was distorted here.

The real question is why, and how, it became so warped....

The rabbits were eliminated as easily as the previous waves. But this time, Serati and Varos didn’t look as relaxed.

”They’re nothing special, but...,” Serati began.

”If this keeps up, it’s going to wear us out, young master,” Varos finished.

”Then let’s rest for a bit,” Karnak said.

”Where?” Serati asked, glancing around. ”There’s nowhere to rest here.”

Karnak raised both hands, shadows beginning to seep between his fingers. ”I’m going to make a place.”

***

He had come to a rough understanding of how this place was laid out.

”This is a variation of the Infinite Corridor,” Karnak murmured.

However, it wasn’t the result of sophisticated necromancy. Rather than using intricate necromantic formations to create a domain, someone had simply torn a hole in the dimensional fabric using overwhelming power and forcefully connected this place to a part of hell.

That was why it took Karnak some time to figure out the structure. Complex formations, while difficult to unravel, often had patterns and logic to them. But for Karnak, once the Monarch of Death, most formations weren’t challenging.

In contrast, brute force methods like this—simple yet overwhelming—were trickier to grasp. Without formations to analyze, he had to trace the flow of the space itself. Standing in the midst of it, Karnak began weaving a counter-spell, his hands moving intricately as if playing an invisible instrument.

”Erase the false distortion and return to true warping....” His ten fingers tapped and flicked at the air. ”Let evil return to evil, ash to ash, dust to dust.”

His tapping created ripples, and each ripple overlapped, spreading waves of shadow through the space. The ceiling, floor, and walls began to tremble.

”There is an order even in death, so to this distorted hell, I command: follow the ordained laws.”

Slowly, the candy-like corridor began to dissolve. Serati’s face paled.

What?!

The chocolate-embossed patterns on the ceiling vanished, revealing bones wrapped in pulsing veins. The walls, once constructed of bread, wriggled and transformed into slabs of raw, throbbing flesh. The glittering candy chandeliers were replaced with writhing tentacles, burning with eerie green flames. Even the floor was no longer solid. It was a carpet of hundreds of interwoven human skeletons.

”Ugh....”

Serati stumbled back, her eyes darting around in horror. The charming candy house had become a grotesque house of flesh, horrifying and ghastly in every way.

”Wh-What is this?” she stammered.

As if it were no big deal, Varos and Karnak casually responded.

”What do you mean?”

”This is its real form.”

They both acted as though they had expected this from the start. Even as she reeled from shock, Serati found herself begrudgingly accepting it.

No wonder... those two lunatics, who usually lose their minds over sweets, didn’t even glance at this place.

Karnak and Varos settled down, nonchalantly choosing a spot and sitting as if nothing had happened.

”Well, let’s take a break,” Karnak said.

Serati glanced nervously down the corridor. ”Are you sure it’s safe to rest here?”

Her eyes caught movement. A swarm of winged monkeys was flying toward them. At the speed they were going, they would reach them in seconds. At least, that’s what it looked like.

”It’s fine,” Karnak said calmly, gesturing toward the approaching monkeys.

They were flapping their wings furiously, flying with all their might. And yet, they weren’t getting any closer. The monkeys remained stuck, endlessly struggling to escape the same spot.

”It’ll probably take them a month to get here from there.”