Karnak, Monarch of Death

Strange rumours had been circulating for months in the southern reaches of the Lacania Empire, at the Witzpick Mountains. There were whispers of a headless knight from legend who ambushed passersby.

At first, people dismissed it as nonsense, but as the number of victims grew, it reached the point where there was talk of the Brigade of Purification needing to step in.

At the foot of those very mountains, a woman was strolling along at a leisurely pace. She was a beauty with luscious golden hair and bronzed skin. She walked unhurriedly through the thick fog when suddenly, black shadows appeared from all directions, accompanied by eerie noises.

”Why did you come to my house? Why did you come? Why did you come!”

”I came to take your head! Take your head! Take your head!”

The words came with a playful rhythm, even though the words themselves were rather frightening.

”What is this supposed to be, a comedy...?” The woman waved her hand in exasperation.

With a simple flick of her wrist, a violent gust of wind howled, and the ground trembled. Everything around her was swept away in an instant. As she continued walking, a grotesque creature, as though formed from a mishmash of monsters, appeared and barked nonsense.

”Want the red guillotine, or the blue guillotine?”

With another careless wave of her hand, the creature disintegrated into dust.

The woman clicked her tongue. ”What even is this?”

It was too twisted to be hell, too nonsensical to be the real world, and too chaotic to be necromancy. Such odd encounters continued as she went on her way.

A while passed as she continued down her path, and at last, her target appeared before her eyes. It was a massive knight clad in jet-black armor and a dark cape.

There was nothing above its shoulders, and instead, a voice flowed from the helmet it held in its right hand. It was, unmistakably, the headless knight from legend.

Except... the lines it spoke were still completely absurd. ”Give me a head and I won’t eat you!”

”Seriously, why does it keep saying such ridiculous things?” With a sigh, the woman snapped her fingers.

In an instant, the headless knight was smashed to pieces and scattered in all directions. Even though the headless knight had thrown the surrounding regions into fear, it couldn’t even withstand a single flick of her finger.

After all, compared to the immense power of the archmage Elezar de Reflasion, such a pitiful creature amounted to nothing at all. The shattered knight crumbled into black dust and vanished.

Elezar flicked her fingers through the dispersing dust, and something flew into her grasp. It was a jet-black cube, its surface shimmering with flowing darkness.

”No doubt about it.” It was an Anti-Time-Space Transcender.

Though it wasn’t yet charged enough with mana to summon her future allies, once it was filled with sufficient darkness, it would serve its purpose.

”It is just as Tesranach said, after all...” Muttering to herself, Elezar furrowed her brow in puzzlement. ”But why is this here?”

Tesranach hadn’t told her anything else. He had simply ordered her to retrieve it. Her earrings shimmered faintly as she shook her head in confusion. It was a signal from a long-distance communication spell.

”Lady Elezar,” came a voice.

She touched the earring and responded. ”What is it?”

”It’s Lord Jedex...” As she listened to the report, her expression hardened like stone. ”What did you say?”

***

Three days after arriving at the territory of Zestrad, Lapicel was once again diligently training with her sword at the mansion’s outdoor training ground.

”Hiyah! Haah! Take this!”

Her crimson aura blade traced a beautiful arc through the air. Each and every sweep of her blade looked like an act of pure artistry, as though crafted for the sake of beauty alone, yet anyone with even a hint of knowledge in swordsmanship would feel both admiration and fear. Every intersection of her strike would bloom in a flower of death.

She continued her swings for a while. After a moment, the ash-haired girl, Lapicel, paused and steadied her breathing.

Awakening her aura did not mean her training was over. If anything, she had only just reached the true starting point. And so, she honed herself day after day, forging a path with no shame in herself!

”That’s what Sister Serati said, anyway.”

Of course, Serati discredited herself, saying she had only heard such words in passing as well. But Lapicel knew full well it was just humility. Even now, Serati was holed up in the secret training hall, immersed in researching new realms of swordsmanship.

Now that I think about it, Brother Varos and Brother Leven have been busy too...

All three of them had barely left the mansion’s secret training hall all day, coming out only for meals and sleep.

And they’ve all been acting a little strange too.

At mealtimes, Varos, Serati, and Leven had seemed oddly off. Their stamina and aura didn’t show any noticeable change, but it was clear they weren’t quite the same as usual.

But I just can’t figure out what’s different.

***

Deep within the Zestrad manor, in the secret training hall, as always, Varos, Serati, and Leven had gathered at one corner of the hall. They were groaning with effort.

Varos raised his sword toward the empty air and drew out his aura. Blue energy gathered along the blade, swirling intensely. But that was purely Varos’s own internal aura. The external force embedded in his body, the chaos aura, remained stubbornly unmoved.

Elsewhere, Serati swung her sword in sequence. She wielded her aura blade in rapid succession, focusing her mind on the flow of her energy. She tried to guide the chaos aura along that flow with sheer concentration.

Leven, meanwhile, sat cross-legged in meditation, deep in silence. He sank deep into his mental landscape, tirelessly seeking the link between himself and the chaos aura. Through stillness, through motion, or through pure internal focus...

They were each trying every method they could think of to make the chaos aura their own. But the results were disappointing.

”Any progress, Sir Serati?”

”Nothing. What about you, Sir Varos?”

”No luck either...”

With a sigh, the two of them glanced over at Leven, who slowly opened his eyes with a bitter expression. ”Me neither...”

All three slumped their shoulders. It had been a great thing when they first received the chaos aura from Karnak. But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t figure out how to make it one with their own aura.

Since chaos aura itself was unprecedented, there were no manuals or records left by their predecessors to provide a hint.

Suddenly, Serati turned to Leven and asked, ”Nothing like a sudden flash of insight?”

”Why would you expect me to have one?” Leven responded.

”Well, you are supposed to be a genius among geniuses, destined to become a martial king in the future... I figured it wouldn’t be impossible for you...”

Leven grimaced. ”That so-called Martial King Leven is the bastard who tried to steal my body, remember? Why are you comparing me to him?”

”N-no, I didn’t mean it like that...” Serati muttered.

Varos sighed, staring down at his sword. ”Seriously, I have no idea. How are we supposed to do this?”

Leven asked him, ”How did you manage to turn the dark aura into your own aura, Sir Varos?”

”That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do here, but it’s not working,” Varos responded.

”No, I mean back when you were a death knight.”

He was asking if Varos could adapt the method he had used back then — but Varos clicked his tongue. ”That’s useless.”

”Why?”

”You’ve seen the dark knights and black servants, haven’t you? Do you really think those guys processed the dark aura on their own?”

Back in his death knight days, Varos hadn’t done a thing himself. Karnak had spoon-fed him, poured it down his throat, and even digested it for him. By the time Varos received the dark aura, it was already a finished product.

”All I had to do was swing my sword,” Varos admitted.

Serati and Leven’s expressions twisted as they looked at him. So this man had the nerve to call himself the strongest swordsman in the world after all that? Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie. Everyone who was stronger had died, after all.

”I’ve always been saying the same thing. I didn’t get here because of my own talent. It’s because I stuck close to our genius young master.”

Either way, they couldn’t afford to stay like this. The chaos aura wouldn’t linger in their bodies forever. If they failed to assimilate it in time, it would gradually seep out and dissipate.

”It’d be a real waste to just let this precious energy slip away like that, wouldn’t it?”

***

In the end, Varos went to Karnak once more. He found him in his office, training his magic alone.

”Young master.”

”Hm? What is it?”

”Let’s grant Lapicel the chaos aura as well,” Varos suggested.

Karnak frowned. ”You sure about that? If she regains her memories, I’ll be the first to lose my head, you know.”

”Raising her aura level doesn’t necessarily increase the odds of her memories returning, does it?” Retorted Varos.

”Well, that’s true.”

If anything, if she did regain her memories, it would only bring her closer to her former prowess as the Martial King of Cyphras.

Varos corrected him. ”So what we really need to worry about is her memory, not her power. In fact, it’d actually benefit us if Lapicel grows stronger.”

”That’s not wrong, but still...” Karnak said hesitantly.

Varos spoke plainly. ”To be honest, I don’t see any way to make this chaos aura merge with my aura.”

Varos’s talent was, if anything, about on par with Serati’s. He wasn’t lacking, but he wasn’t so gifted that others would tremble at the mention of his name either. Talented, yes—but not a genius among geniuses like Lapicel or Leven.

”What about Leven?” Karnak asked him.

”Sir Leven still lacks too much experience, and besides, his genius doesn’t really lie in this direction. You know that better than anyone, young master,” said Varos.

”That’s true.”

Leven’s strength lay in refining and enhancing existing techniques rather than creating new ones from scratch. That kind of natural intuition was Lapicel’s domain.

Varos reminded him. ”Besides, she’s already done something similar before, hasn’t she?”

Back when she was possessed by the cursed sword, she had mastered a new technique. She had managed to perfectly convert dark aura into her own aura. Her mind was a mess, her soul torn to shreds, and yet, purely by instinct, she had achieved such a feat.

”I was able to awaken my own aura as well thanks to her.” Thus, Varos believed that if anyone could figure it out again, it would be Lapicel.

As he listened, Karnak’s expression grew curious. ”Wait, hold on. Doesn’t that mean...”

Back then, Lapicel had turned an external energy into her own aura. And Varos had learned from her method to awaken his own aura?

”So why not just do the same thing now?” Karnak suggested.

”It’s a bit different this time,” Varos responded.

Lapicel’s method had been about absorbing external energy and converting it into her own aura. Back then, Varos had no other internal aura that could conflict with it.

But now, he already had his natural aura. When they tried to absorb the external energy, the chaos aura clashed with their original aura. The two forces collided and repelled one another before assimilation could happen.

”I just don’t know how to prevent that collision,” Varos admitted.

”But it’s close enough, isn’t it? Seems like you could just adapt it,” Karnak retorted.

”That’s exactly the problem. I can’t figure out how to adapt it.” The difference between close enough and identical was bigger than it seemed. ”It’s like me asking you to just roughly adapt your necromancy, since raising a corpse or raising a ghoul is basically the same thing.”

”Someone with no clue about necromancy spouting nonsense. Yeah, I’d get pissed too. Fair point.” In the end, Karnak agreed to grant Lapicel the chaos aura as well.

Since there wasn’t a trace of dark power in the chaos aura, she probably wouldn’t sense anything unusual.

”Well, there’s no downside to having a stronger ally anyway.”