Journey to Become the Zenith

The Ocean of Death

One more day passed.

The first rays of morning sunlight slowly rose beyond the distant mountains, painting the eastern sky in shades of gold and crimson.

Normally, dawn in Fantom City was peaceful.

Merchants would begin opening their shops.

The smell of fresh bread would drift through the streets.

Children would run through the roads before their parents called them back.

Today was different.

The city felt strangely quiet.

The morning sun still shone upon the rooftops.

Birds still flew across the sky.

The wind still carried the scent of grass from the plains beyond the walls.

Yet beneath that peaceful surface lingered a tension so heavy it felt suffocating.

Thousands of people had spent the night awake.

Some prayed.

Some sharpened weapons.

Some simply sat beside their families, unwilling to waste what might be their final peaceful night together.

Then it appeared.

Far beyond the plains.

Far beyond the reach of ordinary arrows.

A dark line stretched across the horizon.

Far beyond the plains, where the earth and sky seemed to merge into a single gray line, an endless black mass slowly advanced.

The undead army.

At first glance, it looked like a dark stain spreading across the world.

Then the eye adjusted.

And people realized the horrifying truth.

Those weren’t shadows.

Those weren’t clouds.

They were countless undead creatures marching together.

Skeletons carrying rusted weapons.

Corpses wrapped in broken armor.

Towering undead beasts.

Death knights riding skeletal mounts.

An endless sea of death.

Even from this distance, the sight alone was enough to make people’s scalps go numb.

The walls beneath their feet trembled.

Not from magic.

Not from an earthquake.

But from the synchronized march of countless undead.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

The vibrations traveled through the stone walls and into the bodies of everyone standing above them.

The sound of clanking armor drifted through the wind.

Metal scraping against metal.

Thousands upon thousands of footsteps moving as one.

It felt unnatural.

Like listening to death itself approaching.

A young adventurer stared blankly at the horizon.

His face had completely lost its color.

”That’s impossible...”

His voice barely escaped his throat.

Beside him, an older adventurer swallowed hard.

”I’ve fought monsters for twenty years...”

He paused.

Then laughed bitterly.

”...and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The laughter quickly died.

Nobody joined him.

Nobody could.

Because deep down everyone was thinking the same thing.

How do you fight something like that?

How do you stop an ocean?

The undead continued advancing.

Patient.

Relentless.

Unstoppable.

Seeing that sight coupled with the other factors made some of the adventurers shiver in fear as they started to flee from their positions.

One man suddenly turned around.

”I’m leaving.”

The people around him looked toward him in disbelief.

”What?”

”I’m leaving!”

His voice cracked.

”I don’t care what anyone says! That’s not an army!”

His trembling finger pointed toward the horizon.

”That’s suicide!”

Another adventurer immediately followed.

Then another.

Then another.

The panic spread quickly.

Several adventurers abandoned their posts and ran toward the city gates.

Some threw away their weapons.

Others didn’t even bother hiding their fear.

”I have a family!”

”I don’t want to die!”

”No amount of gold is worth this!”

The knights watching this scene clenched their jaws.

Under normal circumstances they would have mocked such behavior.

Cowards.

Mercenaries.

People who fought only for money.

But today...

Not a single knight opened his mouth.

Not a single knight insulted them.

Because deep down...

Many of them were jealous.

The adventurers had a choice.

They could run.

The knights couldn’t.

One knight quietly watched the fleeing figures disappear into the city.

His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword.

”I wish I could run too.”

The knight beside him looked away.

Neither man laughed.

Neither man denied it.

Because they both understood.

If they fled...

Death awaited them.

Not death in battle.

Not death protecting others.

Execution.

Disgrace.

Their families would bear the shame for generations.

So they remained.

Not because they were fearless.

But because they had no choice.

The footmen were also scared, but unlike the adventurers who fought for fame and money, or the knights who fought for honor and hypocrisy, the footmen were fighting for their families that live in Fantom City.

Most of them weren’t soldiers.

Many had been blacksmiths.

Farmers.

Shopkeepers.

Laborers.

Ordinary people.

Their armor barely fit.

Their spears looked awkward in their hands.

Some didn’t even know the proper way to hold a shield.

Yet none of them ran.

A middle-aged man stood at the front of the formation.

His hands trembled violently.

His shield shook.

His face was pale.

Yet he remained standing.

The younger man beside him noticed.

”You’re scared.”

The older man laughed nervously.

”Terrified.”

”Then why stay?”

The man looked toward the city behind them.

Toward the homes.

Toward the people waiting inside.

”My wife is there.”

His voice became softer.

”My daughter too.”

The young man followed his gaze.

For a moment neither spoke.

Then the older man smiled.

A tired smile.

”If I run... who protects them?”

The young man lowered his head.

A few seconds later he nodded.

”Yeah.”

His grip tightened around his spear.

”My family is here too.”

Another voice joined them.

”So is mine.”

Then another.

”And mine.”

One by one the nearby footmen spoke.

None of them were heroes.

None of them were powerful.

Most would probably die if the undead reached the walls.

Yet not one of them stepped back.

Fear remained in their eyes.

Their bodies trembled.

Their breathing was uneven.

But they stood.

Because sometimes courage wasn’t the absence of fear.

Sometimes courage was being terrified and standing anyway.

The mages, on the other hand, were looking at this whole fiasco differently.

Unlike the soldiers, they weren’t focused solely on survival.

Their attention was fixed on something else.

The being leading the army.

The necromancer.

An Elder Necromancer.

One of the highest forms of undead existence.

A creature that had surpassed mortality through mastery of death itself.

Several mages stared toward the distant army with burning eyes.

Not fear.

Not excitement.

Obsession.

A gray-haired mage adjusted his glasses.

”An Elder Necromancer...”

A younger mage beside him nodded.

”The records say they can manipulate death itself.”

Another mage quietly muttered.

”They’ve reached depths of necromancy most of us can’t even imagine.”

The old mage’s eyes remained fixed on the horizon.

His voice became almost reverent.

”A living archive of magical knowledge.”

The younger mage looked shocked.

”You’re admiring the thing trying to kill us?”

The old mage smiled.

”Of course.”

The younger mage looked completely speechless.

The old mage continued.

”Fear is natural.”

”Death is natural.”

He paused for a moment, his aged eyes fixed on the distant sea of undead marching beneath the morning sky.

”But opportunities like this...”

A strange light appeared in his eyes.

The kind of light only a scholar possessed when standing before something they had spent their entire lives chasing.

”...appear once in a lifetime.”

The younger mages fell silent.

None of them could deny it.

Standing somewhere within that army was an Elder Necromancer.

A being that had walked a path of magic far beyond ordinary understanding.

A monster.

A legend.

A living mystery.

Most people looked at the approaching undead army and saw death.

Mages saw knowledge.

Terrifying knowledge.

Forbidden knowledge.

Knowledge that countless scholars would willingly spend their entire lives pursuing.

The old mage slowly exhaled.

”Do you know why mages continue studying even when the truth terrifies them?”

No one answered.

His gaze never left the horizon.

”Because curiosity is stronger than fear.”

Several younger mages unconsciously nodded.

They understood.

Perhaps more than anyone else.

Even if death stood before them, they still wanted to know.

How did an Elder Necromancer think?

How did it cast spells?

How deep was its understanding of mana?

What truths had it discovered after centuries of existence?

Questions endlessly filled their minds.

A young mage suddenly laughed.

The sound felt oddly out of place amidst the tension.

”I finally understand why people call mages insane.”

A few nearby scholars exchanged glances.

Then one of them chuckled.

Another smiled.

Even the old mage couldn’t help shaking his head.

”Insane?”

He let out a quiet laugh.

”Perhaps.”

His eyes remained locked on the approaching army.

”After all, only a mage would look at a walking catastrophe and wonder how it works.”

The younger mages laughed nervously.

The fear remained.

No one could deny that.

But alongside the fear burned something equally powerful.

Wonder.

Because for a true mage, the pursuit of truth did not end simply because death happened to be standing in the way.

Several nearby mages nodded in agreement.

One elderly scholar chuckled.

”Insane?”

He looked toward the approaching army.

”No.”

His eyes reflected the distant sea of undead.

”We’re simply curious.”

The ground shook once more.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

The undead army continued marching.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer.

And atop the walls of Fantom City, every defender prepared themselves in their own way.

Some prayed.

Some trembled.

Some sharpened weapons.

Some stared at the horizon in silence.

Because everyone understood one thing.

The calm before the storm had ended.

War had finally arrived.