Karnak, Monarch of Death

”Just to confirm, young master.” Varos glanced at Karnak with a subtle expression. ”You’re not thinking of killing yourself, are you?”

”Of course not!” ℯℯ𝑙.

In truth, everyone already knew the most certain way to stop Tesranach. The problem was that it could hardly be called a solution. Even if Karnak regained his power and stopped Tesranach, it would only lead them toward the destined destruction. At best, it would end in mutual annihilation.

”But from your perspective, wouldn’t that be the best option, young master?”

At this point in time, what action would benefit Karnak the most? There was no certainty that he could defeat Tesranach. In other words, it was a gamble with slim odds.

Worse still, the risk of losing was far too great. If he lost that gamble, his authority over death would be taken, and he would be completely erased.

Wouldn’t it be safer and more certain to return to being Astra Shunaph first, deal with Tesranach, and then attempt another space-time regression?

Serati startled and quickly stopped Varos. ”What are you doing, encouraging him like that?!”

What if Karnak suddenly thought, ’Oh, that makes sense,’ and actually went through with killing himself?

Varos shrugged. ”What do you mean? We’d just follow the young master and regress along with him.”

Her shoulders slumped. Right... that’s exactly the kind of people they are.

But surprisingly, Karnak refused. ”I don’t want to go that far.”

Even if he returned to being Astra Shunaph, he would not be able to attempt space-time regression immediately.

”The authority itself would be sufficient, but I don’t have the materials to create the monument that forms the core of the ritual.”

To tear open a hole in space-time, one needed to use the malice and death energy originating from that specific era as catalysts. The energy of Astra Shunaph alone did not match the required attributes.

”Even if I started now, it would probably take about twenty years to gather everything.”

He had no desire to endure that hell of numbness again for decades. And that was not all. Over those twenty years, just how many living beings would have to be killed and killed again to gather enough malice and death energy?

Karnak scratched his head awkwardly. ”Even for me... that’s a bit much.”

Watching him, Serati’s expression softened slightly. He really has become more human than before, hasn’t he?

Varos no longer insisted. ”Well, I’ll just do whatever the young master decides.”

Dios voiced a question. ”May I ask about something related to space-time?”

Grateria fluttered his small wings. ”What is it that you wish to know?”

”Tesranach also failed to prevent the destruction of the world and kept repeating regressions into the past, did he not?” True to his nature as an archmage, Dios’s curiosity leaned toward the theoretical aspects. ”That would mean that if Lord Karnak becomes Astra Shunaph, Tesranach would also attempt space-time regression again, correct?”

”Most likely.”

”Then what happens to the current flow of space-time at that moment?”

If Tesranach regressed, would this present timeline vanish as well? If so, even if they defeated Tesranach, would destruction still come all the same?

”That is not the only part I fail to understand.”

If Tesranach were to return further into the past than Karnak, who had regressed from this era, and if that moment happened to coincide with Karnak’s very first regression, ”Then what becomes of Lord Karnak, who became Astra Shunaph and regressed from this current timeline? Would he, too, cease to exist?”

Grateria answered in an uncertain voice. ”At the very least, Tesranach seems to believe so.”

However, whether that was truly the case remained unknown. After all, that was only what occurred from Tesranach’s perspective.

”As for the flow of space-time, even I do not know that much. I doubt my future self would differ greatly in that regard.”

”Does that mean we will not know until we actually experience it?”

”That is the only answer I can give.”

Dios let out a sigh. ”That leaves us with even fewer options besides stopping Tesranach.”

Drel, who had been listening nearby, spoke up. ”At least there is one advantage on our side.”

Even if they failed to find a way to stop Tesranach and reached the point just before Astra Shunaph was summoned, there still remained one final method.

”Could not Lord Karnak simply reclaim the authority of death at that moment?”

The others shook their heads.

”That’s a bit...”

”Isn’t that far too dangerous...?”

They phrased it politely, but in the end, it amounted to telling Karnak to kill himself. If he killed himself, Tesranach would likely attempt another regression again.

But Drel had his own reasoning. ”If we eliminate Tesranach first, it would buy us time. Then, might it not be possible to find another way to restore life without relying on space-time regression?”

Karnak made an uneasy face. ”Who knows? I struggled for a hundred years without finding the method you’re talking about, and in the end, I resorted to tampering with space-time...”

Honestly, it was an idea with almost no chance of success. Moreover, there was a more fundamental reason why it was impossible. They could not pinpoint the exact moment when Tesranach would summon Astra Shunaph.

”He really is hiding it thoroughly.”

For Tesranach as well, this situation was like walking on thin ice. Why had he tried so desperately to conceal himself? Because if he were discovered, Karnak would kill himself. And then everything would reset again.

So he concealed his identity as much as possible, avoided direct contact, and presented himself only as a demon god seeking to rule the world.

Grateria nodded. ”To begin with, this situation was not what he originally intended.”

Tesranach’s original plan had been to descend as the Monarch of Death and simultaneously summon the World Tree of Darkness, dealing with both at once. It had only failed because of Karnak.

Karnak exhaled in relief. ”Whew... I nearly got erased on the spot back then.”

With his plans disrupted, Tesranach had been forced once again to gather the Shadow of Doom while desperately hoping that Karnak would not choose suicide. Because of that, he had spread his domain across the entire capital region and sealed it off from outside observation.

He feared that Karnak might somehow notice his intention to seize Astra Shunaph. As a result, there was no way to determine how much of the Shadow of Doom had already been gathered, nor how much time remained before Astra Shunaph would be summoned.

Karnak stroked his chin and muttered, ”It won’t be summoned for a while. You can tell just by watching their movements.”

Seeing how the Black God’s army was frantically gathering the Shadow of Doom, it was certain that they still had a fair amount of time left. But whether they could pinpoint the exact moment just before the summoning—that was another matter.

”Trying everything we can and then killing myself if nothing works? That kind of approach just won’t work.”

There was a far greater chance they would delay and delay until they missed the timing altogether.

”I see.” Leven, who had been nodding, raised a question. ”Wait a moment. Are you saying that Tesranach doesn’t know that the dragon emperor escaped?”

Their guesses were based on the notion that Grateria had not informed Karnak about Tesranach.

”How could that be possible? Future Diogres noticed Lord Dios’s escape, didn’t he?”

Grateria raised his forepaw and pointed to himself, to the body of Floke. ”He does not know. It is all thanks to this child’s existence.”

Karnak himself had said it before. In theory, Grateria could not resist Tesranach. Tesranach, who had seized the body of the dragon emperor, was the ruler of all dragons, and after stealing the destiny of the Monarch of Death, he had become the ruler of all undead as well.

Alive or dead, Grateria’s soul had nowhere to escape.

”Tesranach would have believed that I did not escape, but instead dissolved into his soul. If this child did not exist, that truly would have been the case.”

Grateria let out a sigh of relief. ”He does not know that his secret has been exposed. That is the one advantage we possess.”

Millia raised her hand slightly. ”Um... that’s not our only advantage, is it?”

She had been listening all this time, unable to understand why no one had pointed out what seemed like the most obvious thing. ”Didn’t you say that Tesranach can neither kill nor seal Lord Karnak?”

Then wouldn’t it be enough for Karnak to just keep charging at him until something worked? After all, Tesranach couldn’t kill him anyway. At that, Grateria, Karnak, and Varos all gave the same answer at once.

”That’s not how it works.”

”That won’t fly.”

”That won’t work.”

Not only them, even the others were shaking their heads.

Startled, Millia asked, ”Did I say something wrong?”

Dios kindly explained. ”Imagine a prince from a neighboring kingdom invading your land.”

You could not kill him due to political complications, and since he was still a prince, you could not simply throw him into prison either.

”What would you do then?”

”What else? You’d just drive him out and send him back to his own country... oh?”

Exactly. Tesranach only needed to drive Karnak far away from the capital. He could even manipulate space at will. He could simply toss Karnak to the far end of the continent without harming a single hair, and the problem would be solved.

For that to count as an advantage, Karnak at least needed enough strength not to be helplessly chased away by Tesranach.

Millia muttered gloomily, ”Ah... Tesranach really isn’t someone to take lightly.”

The small dragon flapped its wings and raised its voice, slightly agitated. ”Of course not. No matter how incompetent he may be, he is still a dragon emperor who has lived for thousands of years. How could he possibly be easy to deal with?”

Seeing that reaction, Serati paused in thought. Did he get sulky over being called incompetent?

They continued exchanging various opinions, but no clear answer emerged. For now, they decided to postpone the issue of what would happen when Karnak eventually died of old age.

To begin with, the conditions were far too demanding. Karnak had to defeat Tesranach while still alive. They had to take follow-up measures to ensure the defeated Tesranach would not attempt another space-time regression. And they also had to deal definitively with Astra Shunaph.

Serati let out a weary sigh. ”At this point, I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do.”

Was there truly a way to prevent both a world of death from unfolding and the world from being destroyed? And even if such a method existed, could they actually find it?

Even the dragon emperor had desperately searched for such a solution. Yet he failed, and now sought to drown the world in death as Tesranach.

Suddenly, Grateria murmured, ”Come to think of it, among Tesranach’s countless failures, there is one peculiar point unique to this time.”

Everyone’s gaze turned toward the small dragon.

”A peculiar point?”

Nodding, Grateria looked at Serati. ”You.”

”Me?”

”That’s right. You might be the key to the solution.”

Startled, Serati blinked. ”Why me?”

***

The nightmare wrought by Tesranach and the Black God did not remain confined to the territory of the Lacania Empire alone.

Their target was the darkness of the entire continent, so the Seven Kingdoms Alliance wasn’t safe from becoming targets.

The Black God’s army crossed the Baracant Mountains. Countless dragons swept through the skies, following in their wake. The Black God’s cult, which commanded corpses, could create massive armies with terrifying ease.

Soon, innumerable undead forces erupted across the lands of the Seven Kingdoms. The first nation to be attacked was the Eustil Kingdom. Being the closest to the empire, it was the first to taste hell.

Yet even within that hell, there was a sliver of hope. Times of chaos gave birth to heroes. As the Eustil Kingdom’s army collapsed under the tide of undead, a single man appeared before them.

A young priest, his entire body wreathed in holy radiance, led hundreds of priests and temple knights. The despairing soldiers of the kingdom army burst into cheers.

”It’s Alius!”

”Saint Alius has arrived!”

In one hand, he held the Codex of Earth. In the other, a sword.

”In the name of Hatoba, I command!” Shouting the goddess’s name, Alius pointed his blade. ”O darkness, fade away!”

A brilliant light spread across the battlefield.