Karnak, Monarch of Death

With a sharp battle cry, Dreltein lunged forward. The dazzling golden aura illuminated the darkness, with razor-sharp sword light flashing across the field of vision.

However, Karnak blocked it effortlessly with a scoff. All he needed to do was lift his left hand and extend the shimmering mirage. The martial king’s sword, blocked, sent shockwaves spreading through the darkness.

Dreltein’s face contorted with frustration. ”Th-this...!”

No matter how exhausted he was, a martial king’s attack contained incredible power. Yet it was blocked so easily. It was because what appeared to be shimmer was, in fact, folded space itself.

Elezar was shocked. Did he really use tenth circle magic?

It was no mere bluster. This man had truly reached the domain of the archmage!

”That’s impossible!” Elezar, unable to accept it, swung the Platinum Queen. ”Come, destroyer of all things, descend upon my hand!”

It was a spell launched by wringing out the last of her mana. The spell contained the power of material disintegration, and it should have stripped away the falsehood surrounding him.

Karnak shook his head. ”I told you, it won’t work.”

At the same time, his right hand moved elegantly. A brilliant golden sword gave bloom to a flower, and each scattering petal followed the trajectory of the spell, tearing it apart piece by piece.

The spell that should have annihilated all matter was itself obliterated in mere seconds. Elezar’s face turned pale. It was undeniable proof that the black-haired youth was truly wielding golden aura.

”Impossible...” she muttered.

In this subspace, he truly possessed absolute power. Karnak continued to laugh mockingly while beckoning toward her. ”Hey, surely that’s not all you’ve got?”

***

Dreltein continued to unleash his aura. The pinnacle of swordsmanship, honed over a lifetime, a technique refined even beyond death, unfolded brilliantly through the darkness. It was the supreme realm that only a martial king could exhibit.

Likewise, Elezar poured forth her magic. As the imperial court mage and a seeker of the tenth circle, she unleashed every ultimate spell she could, her staff shaking the darkness with each incantation.

And that was not all. They were those chosen by the great God of Death, Tesranach. They possessed the fearsome authority of darkness within them, and now, they drew it all forth to face the enemy before them.

Light, darkness, sword, and magic, the power to annihilate worlds was wielded endlessly at their fingertips. It was a power worthy of the titles of martial king and archmage. Yet it was useless.

Dreltein’s sword could not pierce Karnak’s magic. With astonishing speed, Karnak deflected every assault. The same was true for Elezar. No matter how many spells she unleashed, they were blocked by the radiant golden aura.

”As I said before, there is no hope for you,” declared Karnak.

They could not comprehend it. What kind of sorcery could grant such authority to a single individual? Or was it that this being called Karnak was himself transcendent? Karnak shook his head with a hint of pity.

”If you were who you once were, this would have been a little harder.”

The Martial King of Kretas had once defended the world and the archmage of the empire had once protected humanity. Karnak knew well how powerful those great heroes of humankind had once been.

But the Dreltein and Elezar standing before him now were already corrupted beings who had succumbed to darkness.

Their power, their authority, may have grown greater... ”But you’re not as frightening as you were back then.”

Elezar’s eyes blazed with rage. ”Shut your mouth!”

To say they had grown weaker because of Tesranach? Such blasphemy was unforgivable!Dreltein let out a mad roar as he hurled himself forward.

”Weep, O Platinum Queen!” Elezar, too, gathered all her remaining mana to prepare her final spell.

At this point, there was only one choice left. Even if it meant going against Tesranach’s will, even if it meant her own body would perish as a result... I will kill him!

Dreltein shared a similar thought. And I will die as well!

A massive explosion of light erupted, bringing a moment of blinding light in the subspace filled with only darkness.

***

A moment later, the figures of three people emerged within the endlessly spreading light. Dreltein’s face was twisted in agony. Nearly half of his upper body had been blown away by Karnak’s magic. Elezar was also clutching her chest. Karnak’s golden aura blade had pierced through her heart.

Both of them had suffered wounds far too severe to recover from. But the cost was not small. Karnak, too, just like them, had been pierced through the heart by a blade and had nearly half of his upper body blown away by their magic.

Dreltein let out a strained laugh. ”Mutual destruction, is it...”

At least, that was a relief. Wasn’t it better than letting a monster who defied common sense continue to hinder Tesranach’s plans?

But Elezar could not bring herself to laugh.

Karnak, who should have been writhing in pain with a blade through his heart and half his upper body gone, was instead wearing a mocking smile. ”Mutual destruction? Is that really what you think?”

A giant hand suddenly appeared and tore the darkness apart. Before they realized it, the dark space vanished, and the surroundings returned to the vast, half-destroyed hall of the old fortress.

The dying martial king and archmage frantically looked around. They were the only ones in the center of the hall. The four Archliches, Diogres, Varos, and Leven, and the others were all standing at a distance, merely watching them.

And Karnak was... Completely unharmed?

He was looking at them with a gentle smile, without a single scratch on him. A low chuckle escaped his lips. Something was wrong. How could he be so completely unscathed while they were dying? In that instant, realization struck.

”Elezar?” Dreltein, who was on the verge of death, could feel Elezar’s mana.

She, too, felt the same. ”Dreltein?”

The golden aura blade piercing her heart undoubtedly belonged to Dreltein.

No way...

We were fighting each other all along?

Karnak shrugged. ”Think about it rationally.”

He wagged the darkness-infused fingers of his right hand, continuing his blatant mockery. ”How would I possibly wield a golden aura blade? I’m not a martial king.”

It was clear that he knew Dreltein and Elezar all too well. And also the critical weakness they each possessed.

”You really are as gullible to bluster now as you were back then,” said Karnak.

”Y-you bastard!” Dreltein ground his teeth under the weight of that blatant mockery.

But then his knees buckled beneath him. He had suffered wounds severe enough that half of his upper body was blown away. Only because he was a martial king was he even still standing. Under normal circumstances, he would have died instantly. There was no way he had the strength to do anything more here.

”You two worked so hard trying to kill each other.” Karnak raised his right hand with a gentle smile.

Darkness rose between his five fingers, writhing like snakes as it began to flow. At that sight, Elezar fell into despair. Ah...

Karnak had dismissed it as them simply being weak to bluster, but the truth was, they had not fought each other because they had been fooled by mere bravado. No illusion or hallucination, no matter how powerful, could ever deceive a martial king and an archmage.

The reason they had been deceived was because this was not a mere illusion. The source of death that transcended human understanding, wielded by the black-haired youth before them, had rewritten the laws of the world itself.

That was why another reality had driven them toward death. And there was only one being, as far as Elezar knew, who could wield such overwhelming power. Lord Tesranach?

The true master of death was smiling before her eyes.

***

Karnak extended his right hand toward the two dying absolutes. ”Well then, it’s about time you die, don’t you think?”

The quivering darkness of necromantic power rose like a serpent and raised its head. Elezar and Dreltein exchanged a silent glance. The battle was already decided.

No matter what they did, there was no way for them to survive this place. The black-haired youth had thoroughly toyed with them and led them to death. However, for the apostles of the Black God, death was not the end!

”My Lord!”

”Take us!”

They shouted in unison.

Darkness surged around Elezar and Dreltein as the Void opened its maw.

Varos, watching from a distance, frowned. That’s...

It was a phenomenon he had seen many times before. It was the dark sorcery Tesranach used to retrieve the souls of his own apostles. The bodies of Dreltein and Elezar crumbled to dust. Their souls left their physical forms and began to drift toward the maw of the void.

Karnak quickly pressed his right hand to the ground. ”Oh no, I don’t think so!”

Darkness raced along the floor of the hall, drawing a necromantic sealing circle. ”I’ve let them get away too many times already. I’m not letting it happen again.”

If his only goal had been to drive off Dreltein and Elezar, there would have been other ways. The reason he had deliberately induced them to use necromancy, and had absorbed the Anti-Time-Space Transcender, was all for this moment.

He roared, ”Seize them!”

From the sealing circle, dozens of tendrils lashed out, grasping the souls drifting in the air. The void extended its own black claws, trying to pull the souls into its grasp. Caught between the two, Elezar and Dreltein’s souls let out cries of pain.

The storm of necromantic energy grew more intense, and the forces of darkness and the void were locked in a fierce tug-of-war. As time passed, the advantage shifted toward the void. One by one, the dark tendrils Karnak had deployed snapped and turned to ash.

But he had anticipated this. ”As expected, stealing souls is still out of reach.”

Tesranach’s sorcery was a method so foreign that even Karnak, once the Monarch of Death, could not fully comprehend it. To decipher it, he needed to steal a soul, just once. Only with a sample could he begin to find a method to break it.

It was a paradox. He needed a sample to find the method to break it, but he needed the method to get the sample.

No wonder I’ve never succeeded before. So he changed his approach. I’ll give up on Elezar.

The soul of an archmage was bound too tightly, and there was nothing he could do yet. Soon, her soul slipped free from the tendrils and disappeared into the void.

But Dreltein is different.

Of course, Dreltein’s soul was also bound tightly. But there was one difference between him and Elezar. He was a martial king.

”You see, I’ve torn apart a martial king’s soul once before, so I know how to do it.”

Stealing the entire soul was still impossible. Tesranach had taken particular care to prevent that. But targeting a part that even Tesranach would not have anticipated was still possible!

”Tear, cut, and reattach!” Karnak shouted.

Dozens of tendrils wrapped around the limbs of Dreltein’s soul as it was being pulled toward the void, binding it tightly. Then, they began dragging it down toward the ground. A harrowing scream tore from the soul.

In that instant, the soul of the middle-aged man split into two. One half soared toward the void above, the other sank into the darkness of the earth, and both vanished. The black maw closed.

The storm of darkness settled, and silence enveloped the surroundings. Karnak looked down at the blue light pulsing in his right hand, smiling from ear to ear. He had managed to seize a part, albeit only a fragment, of Dreltein’s soul.

”Now, things are finally falling into place,” he muttered.