Karnak, Monarch of Death

”Hm, turning chaos mana back into necromantic energy...” Karnak made a curious expression at Leven’s question. ”I never really thought to try it.”

After all, he had gone so far as to risk temporal regression just to distance himself from necromancy. Granted, once he regressed, the state of the times had been strange enough that he ended up inching back toward necromancy bit by bit, but it didn’t mean he’d changed his mind about wanting to avoid it.

”Unlike chaos mana, necromantic energy rots the body the more you use it,” Karnak explained.

To say it rotted was, if anything, a mild way to put it. More accurately, it slowly killed the flesh, turning it into that of an undead. In fact, by the time Karnak had almost become Astra Shunaph, only about twenty percent of his body remained alive.

”I was practically a corpse still breathing, back then,” Karnak said.

Varos nodded. ”That’s why we discarded our living bodies without regret. By that point, our flesh was already far gone.”

If anyone asked him to turn into a death knight right now, he honestly couldn’t say he’d accept it willingly. Back then, he had already spent so long as a dark knight that his body was halfway dead anyway, so there hadn’t been much to regret. But now, he possessed a body that was fully, vibrantly alive.

Karnak questioned him in turn. ”Leven, even you wouldn’t agree to turn into a skeleton right now, would you? No matter how desperate your situation is.”

Leven blinked in disbelief. ”How did you even end up like that in the first place?”

”I’ve told you before, haven’t I? I kept thinking, this much should be fine, and before I knew it, I’d crossed the line.”

For this reason, necromantic energy held no appeal for Karnak now that he had a satisfactory alternative in chaos mana. Still, that wasn’t to say there hadn’t been moments when the lack of necromantic power had left him in danger.

It was always better to have more trump cards. Sure, he had said they could escape if Elezar or Dreltein showed up—but under the assumption they came one at a time.

What if, by some chance, Elezar, Dreltein, and even future Leven showed up together? That had never happened so far, but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t in the future.

For things like illusions, deception, and escape tactics, magic can’t quite compete with necromancy. Propping his chin on his hand, Karnak fell into thought. Maybe I should at least research the method, just in case.

***

It had been forty days since they had settled in the territory. Varos, Serati, Lapicel, and Leven had all been diligently devoting themselves to training.

They maintained a good balance of rest and practice, focusing on adjusting to their new realms and refining the purity of their aura. Karnak, too, spent his time mastering eighth-circle magic and devising new necromantic magic.

All of it was in preparation for the battle that would inevitably come. He had long anticipated that the Cult of the Black God would soon set their sights squarely on him.

And it wasn’t as if the damage he’d inflicted on the cult was minor. He had even recently taken down one of the Three Saints, Jedex. The biggest problem was that, by now, they had surely learned that the Anti-Time-Space Transcender had fallen into Karnak’s hands.

They might not have realized it during the affair with Demphis, but after the battle with Maloka, and with the Twilight Cult making their moves and the four archliches showing themselves, it was too much to hope they still hadn’t caught on.

The Anti-Time-Space Transcender was one of the most critical cogs in Tessranach’s grand design.

There was no way they would simply stand by and do nothing. The biggest question was: what would they do?

”There are a few scenarios I can imagine,” Karnak said, spooning up a chunk of shaved ice. ”The first would be Elezar, Dreltein, and future Leven showing up all at once to try and kill me.”

Varos clicked his tongue as he drizzled syrup over his own bowl. ”Well, there’d be no winning that one.”

An archmage and two martial kings attacking together? If they even managed to escape alive, it would be by sheer miracle.

”Still, I’ve made preparations for that. At least within the territory, we could manage an escape.” Karnak had already laced his lands with various magical and necromantic domains, meticulously preparing for such an event.

This was precisely why he had come to the Zestrad Barony in the first place. At first glance, a densely populated city might seem like a better place to stage an escape. But that was only from an ordinary person’s perspective.

Against overwhelming opponents capable of leveling dozens of buildings with a single strike, hiding among the crowd was no strategy at all. Especially not against foes cruel enough to burn their way through both their target and the innocent masses alike.

”Elezar might not have been the type when she was just an archmage, but now as Tesranach’s underling? She’s plenty capable of it,” Karnak declared.

To escape from an opponent like that required equally exceptional preparations, and such preparations couldn’t be laid in a city. You couldn’t exactly go around setting up necromantic domains under the vigilant eyes of the church.

But here, in his own territory, he could.

Popping a cherry from his shaved ice into his mouth, Leven nodded in agreement. ”Indeed, here we can minimize unnecessary civilian casualties.”

The Zestrad Barony, located in the far north of the continent, was not blessed with fertile soil.

Even in years of abundance, its farmlands only just managed to feed themselves. As a result, hunting and foraging had become vital parts of the local economy. After all, their forests stretched vast and wild.

But the true lifeblood of the barony was its copper mine, and that mine was located far away in the wilderness.

”If a battle breaks out there, damage to the territory would be minimal,” Leven remarked.

Karnak casually added, ”Besides, the copper mine is managed by the Tecas merchant guild.” Tecas merchant guild, the firm with deep ties to the Cult of the Black God. ”Which means, even if they attack, they’ll be careful not to harm the mine.”

They already considered it part of their own assets, so they’d want to keep it intact and take it whole.

Karnak continued, ”If they want to take it whole, they’ll have to leave it untouched, won’t they?”

Sucking on her syrup-stained spoon, Serati asked, ”So that’s why you didn’t hand over the mine management to the Altas merchant guild?”

”Exactly,” was his answer.

Altas only handled the transportation of refined ingots. And those on the move could more easily avoid danger.

”If they really come at us together, we’ll abandon the territory entirely and go into hiding to wait for our chance.” The second scenario was that only one of them came after Karnak. ”Well, in that case, we’d still have to run first,” Karnak admitted.

Serati looked puzzled. ”But didn’t you say you’d set plenty of traps and domains across the territory?”

”I did, but things change when you’re dealing with someone of martial king level.”

Setting traps wasn’t free, and neither was maintaining them. Maintaining powerful trap formations required just as much effort for their upkeep.

Thus, most of the long-term domains set up across the territory were meant for distraction and deception to aid their escape, not to repel the enemy.

”We’d have to run either way, but at least this way it’ll be easier to counterattack afterward.”

At present, Karnak commanded the external force of the Eustil King’s Order and the hidden shadow force of the Twilight Cult. If he managed to regroup with the King’s Order and the followers of the goddesses, not even Elezar or Dreltein would be able to easily take him down.

And if he summoned the four governors to join the fray, there was a decent chance they could at least deal with one archmage or martial king.

”Of course, that’s all just theory on parchment. If things actually go south, we’ll have to adjust on the fly,” concluded Karnak.

The third scenario was that the enemy might try to lure Karnak to them.

”They’d call you out, young master?”

”Yeah.”

”Do they really think you’re the kind of person to go just because they call?” Varos said skeptically.

Karnak only shrugged. ”Of course I’m not. But would they see it that way?”

What was Karnak’s public image, after all? He was a nightmare to cultists, a man consumed by hatred for necromancy. He was a hero of humanity who, without seeking any reward, saved foreign civilians from the clutches of cultists and necromancers alike.

”That sounds a lot like what people used to say about Lapicel in our previous life,” Varos commented.

”It’s funny, even to me. But things somehow turned out this way,” admitted Karnak.

It was obvious the conclusion that the Cult of the Black God would come to.

”If they cause some major incident, they’d think I’d be sure to show up.” Not that Karnak truly intended to move according to their expectations, but it meant that’s how they would act. ”Personally, I think the first scenario is the most likely.”

He scraped up the half-melted shaved ice and popped it into his mouth before continuing. ”That’s part of why I’ve holed up here like this.”

But what if it turned out to be the second or third scenario? ”Maybe there’s something going on behind the scenes I don’t know about. Or maybe, even with all the noise I’ve been making, they’re still underestimating me.”

Varos gave a bitter laugh. ”Well, either way, we won’t know until it happens.”

With that, the conversation came to an end, and they all turned their focus to finishing off the rest of the shaved ice. The heat made it go down even better.

”By the way, could we bring some of this to Lapicel too?” Serati asked.

Karnak shot her a side glance. They’d already eaten everything there. ”So you’re asking me to make more ice, huh?”

”It just feels wrong, you know? Eating all this good stuff without her,” complained Serati.

The lord of the Zestrad Barony was the only mage in the territory. Thus, he was the only one who could conjure ice in the middle of summer.

But he wore a deadpan look. ”I’ll make some more ice. You can do the rest yourselves.”

***

Five days passed. Still, nothing happened in the territory of Zestrad. The aura users continued their steady training, and Karnak pressed on with his magic practice. It was a rare moment of peace. Unfortunately, that peace was soon broken.

”My lord, you have visitors.”

”Visitors?”

”Envoys from the Strauss family.”

At the butler Tafel’s report, Karnak tilted his head. The Strauss family? Could they have business with Leven?

It wouldn’t be too strange for the Strauss family to check on their second heir, but Karnak knew better. He knew all too well how little the current martial king, Gellard, cared for his second son. Still, guests were guests, and as lord of the territory, he had to receive them.

He made his way to the audience hall, where five knights were already waiting for him. Karnak furrowed his brow in confusion when he saw them.

Has the Strauss family fallen on hard times?

Their conditions were dreadful. Instead of proper armor befitting knights, they wore tattered and filthy travel clothes. Their hair was a mess, their beards unkempt and ragged. They looked like men who had barely escaped disaster.

For a moment, Karnak wondered if they were even real knights of Strauss. But it seemed they were genuine after all. Leven, who had rushed over to the audience hall upon hearing the news, immediately recognized them.

”Sir Heiss! Sir Andrel! Sir Terion!” Leven murmured in shock at the sight of the battered knights. ”What on earth happened to you?”

One of the knights, tears welling in his eyes, cried out. ”Young Master Leven!”

Another, gritting his teeth, followed. ”That villain Emil Strauss has raised the flag of rebellion! He’s confined Lord Gellard and seized control of the family!”

With a grim expression, Serati sent a message to Karnak.

—It’s the third scenario, isn’t it?