Karnak, Monarch of Death

Once they grasped the method, Varos and Leven quickly succeeded in merging the chaos aura with their own aura. Serati followed about a day later, albeit slightly behind them. Surrounded only by monsters of talent, it might not have seemed so, but in truth, Serati was someone whose abilities were enough to provoke envy and jealousy in the eyes of any onlooker.

For a time, they shut themselves away completely, devoting themselves to the task of refining the chaos aura. And then, ten days later, while still training in the secret training grounds of the Zestrad estate, Lapicel suddenly began to release an overwhelming surge of energy.

A wild gust roared as her aura swept outward, then gathered back to a single point and transformed into a radiant light. A beautiful azure glow, reminiscent of the open sky, cloaked her blade.

Lapicel murmured in a daze, ”Oh... it worked...”

It was the blue aura. She had reached the realm of blue knight.

Varos and Serati offered their congratulations from nearby.

”Congratulations.”

”You’ve finally broken through the first threshold.”

Lapicel calmed her excitement. Their faces showed no surprise. Their faces were serene, as if they had fully expected this to happen.

So this is just normal for them, huh? She withdrew her aura and turned to Varos.

”What about you, brother?” Lapicel asked him.

”Me? Well, I think it’s about time.” With an air of nonchalance, Varos flicked his sword.

With a sweep of his blade, a dazzling purple aura wrapped around the sword. Indeed, Varos too had broken through the wall, reaching the level of the purple knight. Well, to be precise, there was no wall for him. Things had simply gone as they should for someone destined to succeed.

Once you finish refining the chaos aura, it’s not all that difficult.

Swinging his purple aura-forged sword with casual ease, Varos spoke indifferently. ”Looks like Leven’s just about there too.”

Sure enough, the next day, the news came.

”Ooooh! I did it!” Gripping his sword wreathed in blue aura, Leven leapt about in excitement. ”I finally reached the blue-tier!”

For any aura user, surpassing the threshold of their realm was a lifelong dream. The exhilaration and sense of achievement that came with it were beyond words. Moreover, Leven was still a young man in his early twenties, so it was only natural for him to show such excitement.

Even so, Varos couldn’t help but point out, gesturing toward the small girl whose sword already gleamed with blue aura.

—Aren’t you a little embarrassed in front of the kid?

He meant, even little Lapicel had accepted it calmly, so wasn’t it a bit much for an adult like Leven to be this excited? Leven, however, held his ground proudly.

—I’m the youngest one here, you know.

—Huh. Now that you mention it...

Varos mulled over it for a second to realize that he was right. Aside from Serati, the rest of them had souls far older than their outward appearance suggested.

—Still, be careful. We don’t want Lapicel to start wondering about things.

—Understood.

Regardless, it was a joyous occasion. It was all the more meaningful for Leven, given that he was always compared to Emil since childhood. At last, he had reached a realm worthy of the Strauss name.

After barely managing to calm himself, Leven turned to glance beside him. Come to think of it, how is Sir Serati doing?

***

The red-haired beauty stood in the center of the training ground, steadying her breath. Each light exhale stirred the air, making her intense aura ripple outward. With every pulse of her energy, invisible waves spread in all directions.

After scattering her aura far and wide, Serati slowly drew it back in. Then, she gave a soft smile. ”Wow, the aura is overflowing.”

The chaos aura granted to her by Karnak had become fully hers now. It flowed through her body so naturally that it was indistinguishable from the aura she had built herself.

”At this level, I might just be the strongest among the blues.”

In the end, she had not been able to reach the purple-tier. Though she had more than enough aura, something was still lacking. She wasn’t sure whether it was skill, experience, or innate talent.

But Serati showed no hint of disappointment. ”That’s fine. If I keep at it, I’ll get there someday.”

Envy and jealousy could sometimes be powerful motivators. Many stories told of people who, inspired by the growth of others, pushed past their own limits.

But that was usually the case for those who were lazy. Serati had never been idle in her efforts. For someone like her, jealousy would gain her nothing. What mattered was simply not giving up and continuing to move forward. Whether it was resignation or enlightenment, she had learned to be at ease.

And honestly, this isn’t so bad, is it?

Commander Erantel was on the realm of the purple knight. Across the entire Seven Kingdoms Alliance, there was only one gold knight, the Martial King Gellard. Even the number of silver knights barely reached four.

To reach the level of the purple knight was to stand among the undisputed strongest of the Seven Kingdoms. For someone like Serati, who was still only in her mid-twenties, it was an achievement that defied belief.

It was fine to be impatient. But that impatience should serve only as a means to spur oneself onward. Calming her mind, Serati focused solely on what she possessed and what she had realized. She swung her sword and tested the flow of her aura.

Her figure was clearly visible in Lapicel’s eyes. Oh? Somehow, she feels just like Brother Varos .

There was a glimmer in the young girl’s eyes. I’m not sure exactly what’s similar, though.

***

Karnak was thoroughly pleased with everyone’s progress. ”A satisfying result, indeed.”

Now, he commanded a force that included one purple-tier aura user and three blue-tier aura users. With this, they were well on their way to becoming one of the most powerful groups within the Seven Kingdoms Alliance. Besides, Varos possessed abilities beyond even that.

”So, if you push it, can you reach silver?” Karnak asked him.

”Well, more or less.” Varos raised his right hand. A purple aura formed along the edge of his hand and then, following a rough flow, its color shifted.

Brilliant silver aura engulfed his right hand, the realm of the silver knight. It was a remarkable feat considering he had regressed only a few short years ago.

Yet Varos’s tone remained indifferent. ”I’m still a far cry from what I used to be, though.”

Nodding, Karnak asked another question. ”What about Lapicel and Leven?”

”It seems that’s still too much for them,” Varos answered.

What Varos and the older Lapicel demonstrated—the so-called realm adjustment technique—was, strictly speaking, not the same as raising one’s aura rank. Rather, it was the opposite: it was a method of lowering one’s aura rank to reduce aura consumption.

For those who had already reached the level of martial king, adjusting their overwhelming power this way allowed them to operate at a level higher than their current aura capacity would normally permit.

That was why it was impossible for Leven. In this timeline, Leven had never been a martial king. In fact, he had reached the blue-tier for the first in his lifetime.

”Leven aside, not even Lapicel?” Karnak continued.

Though she had lost her memories, the young Lapicel was still, in essence, the Martial King of Cyphras.

”She probably could, with some practice. But I’m not sure how to explain the sensation,” Varos responded.

”Well, if it were something you could just pick up by watching, she would’ve done it already,” nodded Karnak.

Varos had already demonstrated this realm adjustment technique when he fought against Jedex. If she could copy him just by observation, Lapicel would have followed suit back then.

”So Serati’s the only one who hasn’t broken through the wall yet?” Karnak said.

”That’s actually what’s expected. We’re the abnormal ones. And even though she’s blue-tier like Leven and Lapicel, Serati’s aura capacity is far higher. She’s still stronger than both of them.”

”I see.” Satisfied, Karnak nodded.

Varos asked a question. ”By the way, didn’t you use too much of the Anti-Time-Space Transcender’s energy granting us the chaos aura?”

”It’s not as bad as you think,” Karnak responded.

The amount of chaos aura Karnak had bestowed upon his subordinates accounted for only about half the power of one Anti-Time-Space Transcender. Granted, calling it only half was still a vast amount.

But he had three of them at his disposal. And thanks to the cooperation of the Sellas Grand Temple, all three had been fully charged.

Karnak explained, ”I still have plenty of power left. But I can’t grant chaos aura again right away.”

Varos nodded in agreement. ”Of course. We’ve merged it, but we haven’t fully made it our own yet.”

Chaos aura was medicine in moderation. In excess, it became poison. Though they had merged the chaos aura and increased their total aura capacity, the purity was still low. If they received another infusion of chaos aura now, it would cause disruptions within their bodies.

In other words, they couldn’t simply pour more chaos aura into Varos and immediately raise him to the level of a martial king. At the very least, they would need to fully make the merged energy their own before they could accept more.

Karnak wondered. ”How long do you think that’ll take?”

”Hard to say until we try. But it should be much faster for us than for others,” Varos answered him.

Karnak mentally compared his party’s current strength to that of the Black God’s Cult. Then he let out a breath of relief. ”With this much, we should at least be able to escape if Elezar or Dreltein shows up.”

Varos’s expression darkened. ”That still might be too optimistic. The realm of a tenth circle magician or a gold knight isn’t so easily matched.”

”True enough...” Karnak smiled faintly as he raised his right hand. A faint spiritual energy began to rise from his palm. ”But I’ve also just stepped into the eighth circle.”

***

A group of men and women stood by a brook deep in the woods in a forest at the border between the Zestrad Barony and the Viscounty of Devantor. It was Karnak’s party, who had snuck out while leaving Lapicel behind at the manor.

Raising both hands high, Karnak began chanting an incantation. ”Rise, you who flow through the world...”

From his necklace, an immense surge of mana began to pour forth. The Anti-Time-Space Transcender could not have its form altered. In other words, one could not simply drill holes into the dice.

So Karnak had crafted a hexagonal metal frame, embedded the three cores into it, and made it into a necklace to wear around his neck. He had grown tired of taking them out by hand every time he cast spells. Besides, in the chaos of battle, he might not even have the chance to draw them in time.

But with this, they were always attached to his body, allowing him to draw upon the chaos mana at any moment, without any prior motion.

Harnessing the immense mana, Karnak continued his incantation. ”Winds that dance across the hills, waves bathed in moonlight, the song of burning flame, guardians rooted deep within the earth...”

One after another, colossal beast-like elemental spirits, phantasmals, began to appear around them. It was an eighth-circle spirit summoning spell.

Thanks to the mana from the Anti-Time-Space Transcender, Karnak had been able to leap ahead, becoming a practitioner of the eighth circle himself.

At last, the incantation reached its conclusion. Karnak uttered the final word of invocation. ”Necromantic magic, Elemental Abomination!”

The four phantasmals merged midair into one, fusing seamlessly into a giant chimera spirit.

A triumphant smile curled at the corner of Karnak’s lips. ”Success.”

From the force alone, it was clear that this spell possessed power well beyond the Sequential Spirit Summoning he had used in the seventh circle. Varos, Serati, and Leven, observing from nearby, raised no objections to the spell’s potency. Instead, they pointed out something else in turn.

”Well, that’s all fine, but the name’s a bit...”

”Did you have to call it Abomination?”

”You’re not exactly trying to advertise that you’re a necromancer, are you?”

Karnak scratched the back of his head, realizing his mistake. ”Ah, right? I just borrowed the name from the Abomination Creation spell without really thinking.”

Well, the name could always be changed later. The important thing about this spell lay elsewhere. This time, he had paid special attention to the spirits’ condition during the merging process.

There were no agonized screams or anything of the sort. It wouldn’t arouse any suspicion even if he used it in front of others.

”Anyone who sees this will think I’m just a respectable mage, right?” Grinning from ear to ear, Karnak ran his fingers over his necklace. He felt rather pleased with himself, as if he were straying farther and farther from necromancy.

Watching him, Leven cautiously asked, ”I have a question, Lord Karnak.”

”What is it?” Karnak answered him.

Leven continued, ”You said chaos mana is mana converted from necromantic energy, correct? Then is it possible to convert chaos mana back into necromantic energy?”