Karnak, Monarch of Death

Karnak’s group sprinted through the dense forest, weaving between the trees with practiced ease. They showed no hesitation despite it being almost pitch-black.

Faint moonlight filtered through the gaps in the canopy, barely illuminating their path. Their trained legs instinctively adjusted to the subtle changes in terrain, leaping over roots and avoiding obstacles without slowing down.

As they ran, Leven couldn’t help but admire the efficiency of the plan. This secret transmission spell is incredibly useful.

Karnak had discreetly sent out a message while summoning the elemental titans.

—The moment that bastard gets distracted, bolt straight north into the forest!

Because of that, the entire group had managed to escape at the perfect moment. There had been one exception—Lapicel, who couldn’t hear the magical transmission. But that hadn’t been an issue at all.

She was so light that she could be easily picked up and carried away. At that very moment, she was still tucked under Serati’s arm, being transported rather than running on her own.

Lapicel, her face flushed red, jabbed Serati’s side. ”Please put me down. I can run on my own now.”

Realizing her mistake, Serati quickly let her go. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Lapicel broke into a sprint, keeping pace with the others.

Well, of course. Even if she is a young girl, there’s no way she wouldn’t be embarrassed being carried around like luggage.

Meanwhile, there was someone else—a grown adult—who had no such shame about being carried. ”Faster, Varos!”

”Yes, sir!”

Karnak wasn’t running on his own two feet. Instead, he was riding piggyback on Varos as they sped through the forest. It looked ridiculous, but there was a perfectly rational reason for it.

While magic spells like Wind Walk could allow a mage to match a warrior’s speed, using such magic recklessly in a forest was dangerous. The spell might increase speed, but it didn’t enhance reaction time or peripheral vision. The last thing he wanted was to slam face-first into a tree at high speed.

Varos carried Karnak effortlessly, leaping over tree stumps and dodging obstacles with ease. Meanwhile, Karnak adjusted his posture smoothly, shifting his weight to minimize impact.

Watching them, Serati clicked her tongue. They’re both amazing.

Carrying another person while running at full speed was extremely difficult. Moreover, being carried wasn’t exactly comfortable either. It was even harder when the carrier was sprinting at full speed.

But the two of them looked entirely accustomed to it. Karnak sat atop Varos as if he were riding a well-trained warhorse, his expression completely at ease. And Varos, for his part, moved like an actual stallion. He showed no signs of strain.

Just how often have they done this to make it look so natural?

They continued running for a while.

Suddenly, a thunderous voice roared from the sky beyond the tree canopy. ”I FOUND YOU, YOU VERMIN!”

Karnak scowled. ”So, he did catch up.”

Varos pouted. ”Well, what can we do? The guy’s flying, after all.”

***

Maloka’s ominous voice rang across the night sky. ”Herald of the Burning Surge, rain destruction upon this land! Rain of Inferno!”

His golden staff shone brightly. Moments later, dozens of flaming spheres shot down from the sky like a meteor shower, hammering the forest below. Explosions erupted one after another, and the deafening blasts split the night apart. The sheer power of the attack was overwhelming.

Shockwaves rippled through the forest, and thick smoke and flames spread rapidly through the branches and leaves. The ground cracked open, and massive trees were uprooted in an instant.

And yet, despite all that devastation, Karnak’s group remained unscathed. They had reacted immediately, slipping out of the blast zone just in time.

Hovering above the forest, Maloka gritted his teeth. ”Where are these bastards?!”

From his aerial vantage point, the thick tree cover obscured his vision. He couldn’t see them clearly since they were only vague shadows shifting beneath the foliage. With his sight useless, he had to rely on his presence detection magic.

The problem was that this magic had a margin of error spanning several dozen meters. A warrior’s aura sense and a mage’s presence detection functioned more like hearing than sight. If someone spoke behind you, you could roughly estimate their direction and distance, but pinpointing their exact location was impossible.

He could tell they were somewhere in that area, but it wasn’t as if he had x-ray vision to see through the trees. But he couldn’t just let them go, so he cast another bombardment spell.

”Do you really think I’ll let you get away?!”

More explosions rocked the forest. Unfortunately, it was just as ineffective as before.

From deep within the woods, Karnak’s voice rang out, proving they were still unharmed. ”I definitely think you will!”

Karnak’s voice dripped with mockery, his tone deliberately taunting.

”Th-That bastard!” Infuriated, Maloka descended toward the ground.

If they’re using the forest as cover, then I’ll simply hunt them down inside the forest.

He glided smoothly between the trees and soon spotted three figures ahead—Karnak, Leven, and Lapicel.

Huh? Where are the aura users?

The answer came from behind. From the treetops above, Varos and Serati launched a surprise attack. Two streaks of aura—one crimson, the other blue—sliced through the air, closing in from either side.

”Guh!”

Startled, Maloka tried to pull back, but it was too late. Twin slashes carved an enormous X across his torso. His bones were intact, but his robe was torn, and fragments of his energy-based body scattered into the air.

”You bastards dare?!” Enraged, Maloka summoned a veil of darkness.

Shadows surged forward, morphing into clawed hands that lashed out at his attackers.

Serati clicked her tongue as she hastily parried with her aura blade. ”Tch. Undead really are annoying.”

Their strike had been deep. Against a living opponent, that would have been a fatal wound. But for an archlich? Physical damage meant next to nothing.

Realizing they couldn’t win this fight head-on, Karnak shouted. ”Keep running!”

Serati kicked off a tree trunk and sprinted forward.

Varos rushed toward Karnak, calling out. ”Young master!”

”I got it!”

In an instant, Varos reached Karnak and scooped him up onto his back. But the way he did it was anything but normal. He hooked Karnak’s arm and flipped him over his shoulder. Karnak twisted midair, and then he wrapped his arms around Varos’s neck and secured himself onto his back. It was a motion so fluid and practiced, it almost looked choreographed. It was like watching two martial artists executing a perfectly timed counterthrow.

Leven blinked in disbelief. That looks stupid as hell... but also kind of amazing.

Karnak’s group once again tore through the forest at full speed.

Seeing them retreat, Maloka accelerated. ”You won’t get away!”

Lifting himself into the air, he activated Wind Walk, allowing himself to glide forward at high velocity. With this, even a mage could match an aura user’s speed, at least, in terms of speed.

Maloka slammed into another tree, groaning. ”Ugh... damn it...”

Only now did he realize why Karnak had chosen to ride on Varos instead of running himself. Like he had said before, a mage’s reflexes weren’t fast enough to handle full-speed movement in a dense forest. Even as a lich, that fundamental truth hadn’t changed.

The only difference? A living person might die if they hit a tree at high speed. As an undead, Maloka just had to endure the repeated collisions.

This isn’t working.

Karnak’s group kept moving smoothly through the forest, dodging every obstacle. Meanwhile, Maloka was crashing into everything. The gap between them was growing wider. Realizing he was wasting time, Maloka abandoned the chase and soared back into the sky.

From above, he could barely keep up. But at this rate, they would eventually leave the range of his detection magic, and then he’d lose them entirely.

What should I do?

After a brief moment of contemplation, Maloka raised his bony fingers. If a fish was too fast to be caught with a harpoon... Then the answer was simple. Throw a net. Dark energy swirled violently around him, gathering into a thick, oppressive mass.

”I’ll just cover the entire damn area!”

***

A tide of black mist surged through the forest, engulfing everything in its path. Branches and leaves withered instantly as the creeping darkness drained them of life. Within moments, the mist had spread ahead of the group, cutting off their escape. And from within the fog, shadows began to rise.

Humanoid figures with shifting, featureless bodies emerged. They were creatures born from the abyss, Grim Shadows.

Karnak scowled. ”Great. Those things?”

Grim Shadows were incredibly fast and packed devastating attacks. However, their ethereal bodies were fragile, making them easy to defeat, at least, if you were fighting them in place.

But here? In the middle of a high-speed escape? They were a huge problem. Dozens of Grim Shadows let out eerie laughter as they chased after Karnak’s group. They were fast and agile as they weaved through the dense forest effortlessly, their speed completely unaffected by obstacles.

Even Varos murmured in mild surprise. ”Maloka’s actually got some brains. I thought he only used obvious tricks.”

Instead of summoning them to eliminate the group, he had deployed them to slow them down, which was the most effective use of these creatures in their current situation. For Karnak’s group, the only choice was to keep running while fending them off. Before long, the shadows began swarming around Leven. Bracing himself, he planted his hand on a boulder, vaulted over it, and twisted midair.

He rolled across the ground, kicked upward, using the momentum to launch himself back onto his feet. In the same motion, he struck out with his left hand, sending a shadow flying, then slashed with the sword in his right, cutting down another. A third shadow lunged at him. Without hesitation, Leven pulled a dagger from his coat and threw it.

The enchanted blade embedded itself right between the creature’s eyes—Boom!—and exploded on impact. Retrieving his dagger in one swift motion, Leven resumed running.

His movements were so fluid and instinctive that Serati found herself momentarily impressed. Sir Leven is surprisingly skilled at this kind of combat.

Lapicel, watching him closely, began mimicking his moves. Like this? And like this?

Darting between tree branches, she used the terrain as cover, striking down the Grim Shadows one by one. She had a natural talent for imitation, but more than that, fighting while on the run like this was nothing new for her.

In her previous life, this had been routine. It was embedded deep in her soul, and now resurfacing like muscle memory.

”Haah! Take this! And that!”

Both sprinting at full speed and adapting to enemy movements at the same time, she and Leven moved with near-perfect synergy.

Watching them, Serati focused her mind. I can’t lose to them!

She began copying their movements as well, gradually adjusting to the rhythm of battle. At first, her actions were a bit stiff, but as time passed, they grew more natural. A dozen Grim Shadows that had been closing in on her were shredded into shadowy remnants.

Given the chance, her aura blade was incomparably stronger than Leven’s or Lapicel’s attacks. Feeling her confidence return, Serati allowed herself a small smile.

I’m not slow at all, am I? I am a blue-tier aura user, after all.

But this wasn’t the time to feel good about herself. The unrelenting onslaught from all sides was steadily slowing them down.

High above, Maloka smirked as he observed the battlefield. ”Finally... I’ve cornered them.”

***

Karnak’s group kept running, until suddenly, their field of vision opened up. A vast river stretched before them, its surface shimmering under the moonlight. Beyond it, a sheer cliff loomed, steep and impassable. Their steps came to an abrupt halt.

Serati’s face hardened. ”Damn it...”

They were trapped. Behind them, Maloka emerged from the forest canopy, dark energy swirling around him.

”There’s nowhere left to run,” he sneered.

Slowly descending to the ground, he glanced at the cliff, then laughed mockingly. ”Or perhaps you’d like to climb your way out of this?”

Of course, that would be suicidal. The moment they tried, they’d be easy targets, nothing more than insects crawling up a wall, waiting to be swatted down.

Serati turned to Karnak, her voice tense. ”What do we do now?”

But Karnak was smiling. It wasn’t the strained smile of someone desperate, but the calm, amused smile of someone in control.

Something feels off.

She wasn’t the only one who felt it. She found something strange as she mulled over the earlier conversation. Maloka had mocked Karnak for not understanding necromancy very well. But was that really possible? Karnak, of all people, didn’t understand necromancy? There was no way that was true.

Then suddenly, beams of radiant light erupted from all directions, slamming into the ground. Divine power surged through the air, filling the battlefield with a brilliant, holy glow.

Maloka, stunned, spun around in confusion. ”W-What is this?!”

Then, emerging from the cracks in the cliffside, a group of humans stepped forward. Standing at the front was Erantel, Commander of the King’s Order. Beside him, an 8th-Circle Mage, Theoderic, and Hatoba’s high inquisitor, Alius, along with a squad of priests.

What?!

How are they here?!

Karnak’s group looked just as shocked.

Erantel, however, merely smiled at Karnak. ”You did well. You really lured him all the way here.”

Karnak shrugged, grinning back. ”What can I say? I’m pretty good at acting.”