Karnak, Monarch of Death

Inside the large, partially collapsed hall, a middle-aged necromancer raised both arms and shouted. At his command, pitch-black wraiths surged from the walls and ceiling. ”Rise, servants of darkness! Cast the shadow of death upon my enemies!”

He had shouted in Lacanian, but everyone except Serati understood him. Even so, she could roughly grasp the meaning. The expression and intonation were exactly the same as when any necromancer summoned wraiths.

So this is what people mean when they say all necromancers sound the same.

Dozens of wraiths swarmed toward the group. Unlike naturally occurring wraiths, these were directly commanded by the necromancer, meaning Circumventer of Necromancy wouldn’t work. They had to fight them head-on.

”Serati! Varos! Hold the front!” Karnak called out.

The two warriors, strengthened by aura, formed a wall against the onslaught.

”Leven! Lapicel! Flank them!” he added.

The two elite fighters filled in the gaps, disrupting the necromancer’s concentration. With their formation set, Karnak finally gave the final command. ”Hold out for three minutes!”

Since he had shouted in Lacanian, the necromancer understood him as well.

The man scoffed. ”Three minutes? I’ll finish you all long before that!”

Yet, not even a minute had passed when a deafening wail erupted. Wraiths of Karnak’s own summoning surged forth. The battlefield descended into chaos as wraith clashed against wraith, both sides tearing each other apart.

And once the spectral entities were annihilated? What remained was four warriors armed with swords, and one middle-aged man who had exhausted his necromancy.

Realizing his predicament, the necromancer staggered backward, his face twisted in disbelief. ”You said three minutes!”

Karnak sneered. ”You actually believed your enemy?”

At that moment, Varos’ massive fist crashed into the necromancer’s torso.

“Guhh!” The necromancer choked, doubling over as his wraiths spiraled out of control, running amok without a master.

Still gripping the collar of his robe, Varos’ expression turned deadly. ”Dispel them.”

”I... I don’t know how!”

From the start, his necromancy worked on the principle that the spirits vanished once all enemies were slain. He had never learned how to dismiss them prematurely.

Varos clicked his tongue. ”You cast a spell you don’t even know how to control? Some necromancer you are... actually, never mind, you fit the stereotype perfectly.”

A proper necromancer, after all, was someone who never thought ahead and simply acted first. Fortunately, the situation resolved itself. Karnak’s summoned wraiths devoured the others, resulting in mutual annihilation. By the time the chaos settled, the hall was once again silent.

Alius stepped forward. To avoid triggering the detection ward, he had refrained from casting any overt divine magic and had instead stayed back, providing only blessings beforehand. ”Let’s proceed.”

The intelligence from Demphis had proven correct. There were no significant changes to the structure of the Governor’s Vault. There was no need to waste time interrogating these necromancers.

As usual, Serati, Lapicel, and Alius would move ahead to scout, while Karnak, Varos, and Leven would disable the captured necromancer and follow shortly after. Of course, that was just the official reason.

”Let’s see... have they gone far enough?”

Once the three scouts had moved ahead, Karnak raised his right hand. And then, he drove his palm down onto the trembling necromancer’s forehead. ”Con-ver-sion!”

Thunk!

Once again, the necromancer’s eyes rolled back, his mouth foamed, and his limbs convulsed violently.

Watching from the side, Varos chuckled. ”You’re getting quite attached to this method.”

”Opportunities to alter human memory without necromancy are rare. I need to gather as much experimental data as possible while I can.”

”It’s not easy living a righteous life, huh?”

”Tell me about it.”

Leven blinked rapidly, struggling to keep up. What... what are you even talking about?

Needling someone’s head and tampering with their mind while claiming it was hard to be a good person? How did those two things even belong in the same sentence? But strangely enough, he realized that they weren’t entirely wrong.

What Karnak had left unsaid was this. He needed to develop a method of memory manipulation that didn’t rely on necromancy, and that required as much experimental data as possible.

But since he had vowed not to live like before, he couldn’t experiment on innocent people. So instead, he accepted the inconvenience and used only criminals as test subjects.

”Isn’t this the very picture of an ethical researcher?” Karnak was genuinely proud of his moral growth.

Leven, meanwhile, could only stare, blinking in silence. “What?”

***

After converting the necromancer, Karnak’s group quickly caught up with Serati’s team, who had gone ahead. The necromancer they had just dealt with was the fourth one. According to Demphis’ information, there were no more necromancers stationed here by Elezar.

As expected, after walking for a few more minutes, they arrived at their destination. They stood before a large chamber encased in thick granite walls .

Serati, estimating the passage of time, spoke up. ”We arrived faster than expected.”

”Of course. We already knew the way.” Karnak, responding nonchalantly, placed his hand on the stone door and began examining it carefully. ”Let’s see...”

As expected of a storage site for valuable remains, the stone door was heavily protected by necromantic magic.

Inwardly, Karnak let out a sigh of relief. Good. If this had been protected by regular magic, I might not have been able to break through.

Archmage Elezar’s spells were not something even he could tamper with easily. Fortunately, this was necromancy. It was not the work of an archmage, but merely decent necromancy cast by Elezar.

—I can break through this much.

Through his palm, chaotic mana seeped into the stone door, and one by one, the necromantic seals unraveled. It was a tedious process.

Watching from the side, Leven posed a question.

—Is Elezar’s necromancy not particularly strong?

—She was originally a mage. As a necromancer, she’s second-rate at best.

However, Karnak’s ranking system of first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate was something that needed to be taken with caution.

Serati followed up with another question.

—If you compare it to magic, what level would her necromancy be?

—Around ninth circle, I’d say.

It was only then that Leven finally understood Karnak’s skewed sense of scale.

—You sound just like my father.

—Gellard Strauss is like this too?

—Yes. For him, martial king is first-rate, silver-tier is second-rate, and everyone else is just third-rate.

—Why are geniuses all like this?

Meanwhile, Lapicel was utterly confused. Wait a second... Now Sister Serati is exchanging deep glances with Sir Leven?

In reality, they were just having a conversation, but from an outsider’s perspective, they were staring daggers into each other’s eyes while saying nothing.

Is this what they call ’adult matters’?

Their group was not the best for setting a good example for children. While they were caught up in their conversation, the necromantic barriers were completely dismantled. The stone door slid open on its own without the need for force.

Rumble...!

The interior was... plain. No, it wasn’t just plain—it was shockingly bare. It was a square stone chamber, made of nothing but unadorned walls, ceiling, and floor. At the center, there was a simple altar with a pile of bones resting atop it.

Surveying the altar, Alius murmured, ”These must be the remains of the ancient mages.”

Though he did not know their true identities, the others did. Serati asked through telepathy.

—So these are the remaining three governors of the Necropia Empire?

Varos smirked bitterly.

—Seeing them like this feels strange.

To the others, they were just bones. But to him, they were former colleagues. Just as they were examining the central altar, Varos spoke. ”Huh?”

If Demphis had been resurrected, then there should have been three sets of remains left. But the number of skulls was off.

“Young master, there are only two sets.”

***

Frowning, Karnak carefully counted the bones. Varos was right. The remains before them belonged to only two individuals. Or rather, there was no need for further deliberation. There were only two skulls in the first place.

”It looks like our information from the Maleficus Dungeon was a little off.” Alius gestured toward the interior of the chamber. ”Shall we investigate further?”

Looking around, Leven furrowed his brows. ”Is there even anything here to investigate...?”

The stone chamber was far too simple for any hidden spaces or complex structures to exist.

”There might be a secret compartment somewhere.” Alius suggested.

”That’s true,” agreed Leven.

The group spread out, knocking on the walls and floor, searching for anything unusual. Meanwhile, Karnak calmly sorted through his thoughts.

So, even Demphis didn’t know about this?

Hadn’t Demphis himself admitted? Communication within the cult was abysmal.

Staring at the pile of remains, Serati muttered absentmindedly, ”Who could have been resurrected?”

It wasn’t really a question, just a passing remark. But an answer came.

—Maloka. The governor once assigned to the eastern part of the empire.

Serati’s eyes widened in shock.

—How do you know that, Lord Karnak?

—I can tell just by looking.

—But it’s just bones, isn’t it?

—Which makes it even easier to recognize.

Varos interjected from the side.

—Serati, you can recognize people just by their faces, right? It’s the same thing.

Humans identified each other by their facial features. But for an archlich, the skull itself was the face.

—For undead creatures, bones and even internal organs often count as external features. Actually, it’s rarer for them to have fully intact skin.

In fact, Karnak had a harder time recognizing people by their faces. It was easier for him when they were dissected.

—Unbelievable...

Serati was speechless. How horrifying must one’s life experiences be to reach the point where autopsies were more familiar than human faces?

—There’s a reason people call him the Monarch of Death.

Meanwhile, Alius had finished examining the chamber. ”As expected, there are no hidden compartments or secret spaces.”

”That’s fine. We didn’t leave empty-handed.”

At Karnak’s signal, Varos gathered the remaining bones. They were the remains of Governor Kalaf of the West and Governor Tirafar of the North.

—What about Maloka, young master?

—I’ll need to get in touch with Demphis again.

Even as a ninth-circle master, Demphis couldn’t communicate over such long distances.

Karnak turned to the group and gestured. ”We’re done here. Let’s head back to Drunta.”

***

Leaving the dungeon posed no major problems. Well, except for one small incident.

”Huh?! Those bastards escaped!”

Somewhere along the way, the necromancers they had captured had vanished.

Without missing a beat, Karnak delivered a completely shameless excuse. ”Ah... I suppose the binding spell I placed on them wasn’t strong enough. This is fully my mistake.”

What was done was done. There was no point in making a fuss about it. Alius simply sighed in disappointment and let it go. After descending the mountains, they reunited with the Brigade of Purification, leaving them with the information on the Governor’s Vault. It was now their responsibility to handle the remaining cultists.

With their task completed, Karnak’s group began their journey home. As they crossed the Baracant Mountains and finally arrived at the gate city of Swindler, a familiar group was waiting for them. It was a unit from the Seventh Squad of the Eustil King’s Order.

”Captain Karnak!”

”No, wait. He’s not our captain anymore, huh?”

”Vice commander! Something terrible has happened!”

While Karnak’s team had been away, a disaster had struck Eustil Kingdom.

”The Cult of the Black God has launched a full-scale rebellion!”

”Their forces are unlike anything we’ve seen. They’ve already conquered one of the northern territories, and the casualties are overwhelming!”

Surprisingly, Karnak didn’t seem particularly shocked. ”The moment I saw you guys waiting here, I knew it was something serious.”

After all, if they were just delivering a message, they would have waited in Drunta. The fact that they rushed here meant the situation was far worse than usual.

”But was it really so urgent that you had to come find me here?” Karnak wondered.

There was a reason for their desperation.

”The territory that was conquered is the Zestrad Barony.”

”What?”