Karnak, Monarch of Death

”Hyup!”

With a loud cry, Varos launched himself at the golem in front of him, delivering a body tackle. He drove his shoulder deep into the creature, disrupting its balance. Though the move looked crude, it was actually a highly refined wrestling technique.

No matter how tough a golem’s body might be, it mimicked the human form, including its weight distribution. Its balance faltered, and for a moment, both of its feet left the ground. Varos didn’t miss the opportunity. He plunged his sword into the golem’s torso.

“Take this! Go through already!”

The steel blade pierced through the dark armor. Black blood gushed from the wound.

“Did that work?”

The massive golem began to collapse. Varos stepped back quickly, swinging his sword to shake off the dark ichor clinging to it.

“Man, taking down even one is a pain...” he muttered, his large frame heaving in frustration.

Serati stared at him, dumbfounded. A mere knight without aura had defeated a chaotic golem—a foe that her own aura blade had failed to scratch. And it wasn’t as if Varos was wielding some enchanted weapon. His sword was a simple, well-forged steel blade, with no traces of magic.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“Well, uh...” Varos began, but he didn’t get the chance to finish.

Gooooohhh!

More chaotic golems surged forward, giving him no chance to continue.

“Ugh!”

Varos hurriedly resumed fighting. Dodging to his left, he slashed at one golem before retrieving his blade and pivoting to the right.

Clang!

A sharp metallic sound rang out as his strike cleaved a golem’s shoulder, spilling black blood. Another golem took a stab to the stomach, but it remained unaffected. That was when Serati realized something.

I see!

The entire body of a chaotic golem wasn’t uniformly impervious. There were weak spots where even ordinary strikes could break through. She dashed toward another golem and targeted the same spot on the shoulder that Varos had struck earlier.

This is the weak point!

Her crimson aura blade slashed at the golem’s shoulder with precise accuracy. It was an astonishing display of intuition, characteristic of an aura user’s keen senses.

But it didn’t work.

Clang!

Her aura blade bounced off, leaving her hand tingling from the shock.

“What? I hit the exact same spot!”

Meanwhile, Varos was still fighting. He darted back and forth, striking the golems and creating openings. Sometimes, a golem fell with a single strike. Other times, they continued fighting as if nothing had happened. There was no discernible pattern.

One golem collapsed after a slash to the waist, while another shrugged off a similar blow. A stab to the chest brought one down, but the same attack did nothing to another.

What’s going on?

Serati was utterly confused.

Could it be that each golem has a different weak point?

But that didn’t make sense either.

If the weak points varied, how was Varos managing to hit them all? Did he somehow know the weaknesses of every single golem?

How is that even possible?

***

Watching Serati flounder in confusion, Varos sighed inwardly.

How am I supposed to explain this?

As the second-in-command of Necropia, Varos had served as the loyal confidant of Karnak, the Monarch of Death, who once ruled the world. Among his master’s legions of dark minions were entire armies of chaotic golems.

Thanks to that, he was well-acquainted with their weaknesses. Chaotic golems didn’t operate independently. They drew their power exclusively from the domain in which they were created.

In this case, the blood swamp spread across the floor was the medium supplying them with energy. The golems functioned by continuously absorbing dark mana through this connection.

That’s their flaw.

During the mana infusion process, there were unavoidable interruptions in the flow. When their mana was fully charged, even an aura blade couldn’t penetrate their armor. But in the brief moments when the flow faltered, they became vulnerable—even to an ordinary steel sword.

Of course, this didn’t mean the chaotic golems were useless. The gaps in their mana flow didn’t remain in the same spot. As the golems moved, the flow of mana shifted, causing their weak points to change constantly.

To exploit these weaknesses, one had to track the golems’ every movement, memorize the shifting locations of the gaps, and strike at the precise moment those spots were exposed.

Even in the past, only the imperial knights, the continent’s strongest order, had ever managed such a feat. Having fought Karnak’s necromantic legions countless times, they’d acquired the experience to perform such madness. And having fought those imperial knights just as many times, Varos had learned to do the same.

He had seen the knights take down chaotic golems too many times to count. Though he despised every moment of it, the sheer repetition had drilled the golems’ movements and weaknesses into his memory. That knowledge was keeping him alive now.

Who would’ve thought I’d end up imitating those damned imperial knights...

It was a method born entirely from experience, and one he couldn’t possibly explain to Serati. There wasn’t enough time, and even if he tried, it would only confuse her further and ruin her rhythm. Feeling her panicked gaze, Varos offered a silent apology.

Sorry, miss. Do your best to survive. If we’re lucky, we might escape this together.

Not that he was in a particularly comfortable position, either. In his past life, he’d been the death knight lord, but now he was just a regular knight without aura. If this kept up, his stamina would eventually run out, and that would be the end of him. If he wanted any chance of escaping, he’d have to rely on Karnak.

What is the young master even doing?

Between labored breaths, Varos glanced at the former Monarch of Death.

Karnak was fighting off the chaotic golems with nothing but chaos magic.

Isn’t it time to use necromancy? This isn’t the moment to be hiding your identity!

***

A towering golem charged at Karnak head-on.

Gooooohhh!

Karnak calmly chanted his spell. “Arcane Disc.”

A glowing magical disc spun through the air, slicing through the golem’s legs. The massive creature staggered before collapsing into the blood swamp with a heavy thud.

Boom!

Without missing a beat, Karnak followed up with a fire spell.

“Fire Blade.”

A blazing sword pierced through another golem’s chest, taking it down mid-charge. Two golems were neutralized in mere moments. But there were still many more. They didn’t falter, mindlessly surging forward regardless of how many of their comrades fell.

Gooooohhh!

Yet Karnak avoided being overwhelmed.

“Wind Walk.”

Gliding like the wind, he repositioned himself to a more advantageous location and unleashed another attack.

“Mass Magic Arrow.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A barrage of magical arrows flew toward the golems’ heads. Despite shrugging off a sixth-circle fire spell, these golems had their heads destroyed one after another by first-circle spells.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Though Karnak only used spells of the fourth circle and below, he was easily taking down the chaotic golems. After all, if Varos could manage it, there was no reason Karnak couldn’t.

Even with the interference of corrupted divine energy disrupting the flow of darkness, Karnak could see the gaps in their defenses. Exploiting those openings was a simple matter for him. But the problem was that defeating the golems wasn’t improving the situation. Even as he struck them down, Karnak grew increasingly frustrated.

Damn it...

The chaotic golems continued to draw power from the blood swamp. In other words, as long as the swamp remained intact, the golems would keep regenerating. Defeating them was meaningless—they would just rise again. The real solution was to destroy the swamp itself.

But nothing I’ve tried is working...

Contrary to Varos’s assumption, Karnak had been using necromancy all along, though he had hidden it from view. Even during the fight, he had discreetly channeled necromantic energy through the ground, attempting to infiltrate the blood swamp and wrest control from it. But every attempt had been blocked.

The cursed, corrupted divine energy mixed into the swamp disrupted his necromantic flow. Worthy of his moniker as the Monarch of Death, Karnak could analyze the domain’s structure and locate its weak points. However, he couldn’t wrest control.

At this rate, we’re done for.

Karnak’s expression grew darker.

I need to find another way...

***

The damp, oppressive basement of the Ranpelt estate was a dark and shadowy space. A figure cast a long shadow over the blood-red summoning circle. It was Straph, the corrupted priest, his body grotesquely distorted by writhing tendrils of darkness that pierced through his flesh.

“Hm...”

He was perplexed.

What exactly are those two doing?

In truth, Straph was just as bewildered as Serati had been.

How are those chaotic golems falling so easily?

The chaotic golems were powerful constructs, strong enough to overwhelm even Alius, the high-ranking priest, as well as the sixth-circle mage and aura user. They were just as fearsome as described in the necromantic texts.

The remaining two individuals were weaker than any of the others, so how could they defeat the chaotic golems so easily?

Do chaotic golems have some kind of weakness?

He didn’t know. None of the necromantic texts he had studied ever mentioned anything like that. Straph’s understanding of necromancy came entirely from books stolen from the archives of the Hatoba Church. Ironically, the churches of the seven goddesses possessed the largest collection of necromantic texts in the continent.

The reasoning was simple: to counter their enemies, the church had preserved the necromancers’ grimoires, ensuring they could anticipate and neutralize their methods.

As a high-ranking priest, Straph had secretly stolen some of these texts and learned their forbidden knowledge, granting him powers rivaling those of a first-class necromancer.

But his knowledge lacked depth. His understanding of necromancy was superficial at best. He could activate the rituals and summon dark powers, but he had no idea how they worked. He simply followed the instructions, set up the circle, chanted the spells, and that was it. That was all he knew.

They must know something I don’t...

One thing was clear to him: The chaotic golems weren’t working as effectively as he had hoped. But that wasn’t a problem.

If one method fails, I’ll just try another.

Necromancy wasn’t limited to summoning chaotic golems. The blood swamp could be used to call forth a wide variety of dark entities. Straph began to draw upon his necrotic power.

“You seem to know how to handle chaotic golems... but what about this?”

Dark energy coursed through the tendrils and spread across the stone walls of the chamber.

“Let’s see how you fare against this. Hahaha...”

***

Although Karnak and Varos were easily dispatching the chaotic golems, it didn’t mean Serati’s situation had improved. The golems weren’t ignoring her to focus solely on them. Though she had narrowly escaped several life-threatening moments, Serati was still being driven into a corner.

“Hah... Hah...!”

Even an aura user didn’t have infinite stamina, especially when repeatedly using aura in bursts to fend off attacks. Her aura was beginning to falter, and the intervals between her strikes grew longer. She was nearing her limit. Desperately, she turned to Karnak. Though weaker than her, at this moment, he and Varos were her lifeline.

“What do we do now?” she called out urgently.

And then, the situation changed again. All the chaotic golems suddenly collapsed, dissolving into the blood swamp. At the same time, a crimson wave radiated outward from the center of the swamp, washing over the party.

Whoooosh!

Caught off guard, Serati was thrown backward by the shockwave. It had come without warning, and she failed to react in time.

“Ugh!”

Karnak and Varos, however, barely moved, bracing themselves against the force. Karnak had conjured a shield, as if he had anticipated the shockwave, while Varos had already positioned himself behind the barrier.

“Truly astonishing little insects,” Straph’s mocking voice echoed. “I don’t know where you learned such tricks, but isn’t it a bit careless to neglect your allies?”

The shockwave had separated Serati from the rest of the group. From the blood swamp, a blue spirit rose and surged toward her.

Screeeech!

Damn it!

Varos moved to save her, but he was too late. The evil spirit reached Serati first. Desperately, she raised her sword and unleashed one final aura strike.

“Take this!”

But it was useless. The crimson aura blade passed harmlessly through the spirit’s illusory form. Unfazed, the spirit’s claws raked through her.

Shhhnk!

Her arms were severed in a single swipe. There was no blood. The wounds were charred black, releasing only a bitter, acrid stench.

“Aaaaagh!”

Serati’s scream echoed through the chamber, filled with excruciating pain.

Straph’s voice rang out, brimming with satisfaction. “With this, the aura user is secured as well.”

The spirit reached out, ready to seize the fallen Serati. But at that very moment, Karnak raised his arms, a confident grin spreading across his face.

“Finally, you’ve shown an opening, you amateur necromancer!”

A massive surge of darkness erupted from Karnak’s body, waves of shadow engulfing the specter.

Screeeeeech!

The specter let out a shriek as it dissolved into nothingness, completely obliterated by the overwhelming power. At the same time, the entire space began to shake violently.

Straph’s voice, filled with shock, echoed through the room. “Necrotic energy? You’re a necromancer too?!”

The trembling space gave way to a cacophony of explosions.

Boom! Boom! Boooom!

With a final, thunderous roar, the collapsing space revealed the entrance to the estate where the group had first entered. Karnak threw his head back and laughed triumphantly.

“It’s wide open! Hahahaha!”