Chapter 429: The Savior of Death (5)

The thousand-year imperial capital, Thea Krahan, had been reduced to ruins beyond recognition. Amid the vast devastation, a dragon hundreds of meters long and a skeletal giant stood facing one another.

The dragon's crimson eyes were locked with the hollow sockets of the skeleton, which were filled with a blue flame.

Tesranach spread his wings. The sky darkened, and a storm arose. Nearby buildings trembled, and a deep roar echoed across the city. The wind carried draconic mana as it formed a river in the sky. Countless magic circles appeared one after another across the blood-red heavens, and all of them ignited at once.

"Die!"

Every imaginable form of destruction manifested as magic and crushed reality. Hundreds of streams of power tore through the air. Their target was the colossal skeleton standing hundreds of meters away.

Fixing his gaze on the incoming barrage, the skeletal giant, Karnak, raised both hands. "Die? Don't be ridiculous."

Thick darkness gathered and swirled around his massive frame like fog clinging to a mountainside. Bony fingers stirred within it. Black currents surged across the entire city, and countless necromantic arrays formed behind the skeleton. "I'm already dead!"

All the arrays unleashed darkness. Hundreds of streaks of shadow tore across the capital. Power collided with power, and authority clashed with authority.

Hundreds of spells and thousands of necromantic arts collided wildly in midair. Explosions and shockwaves erupted incessantly, and waves of darkness spread across the entire capital.

It was the battle between one who had stolen fate, and one who had reclaimed it. The will of death carried by the two Monarchs of Death spread in all directions.

***

It was an even match between the two streams of overwhelming mana. Brilliant light burst forth like an explosion. Everything caught in the violent currents was destroyed. The battle between the two Diogres, befitting archmages, unleashed terrifying aftershocks. Each clash of magic toppled buildings and split the earth, causing lava to erupt.

Unleashing a vortex of flame, Diogres shouted, "Surrender, my past self! Bow before the Black God!"

Summoning blades of frost to tear through the flames, Dios clicked his tongue. "Wow… just what the hell happened to my future self to end up like that?"

Suddenly, a massive wave of darkness suddenly swept across the capital. The black tide washed over both archmages, as well as Demphis and Maloka. The current washed over them so quickly and vastly that they had no time to evade it. Startled, they immediately checked themselves.

What was that?

It doesn't seem like an attack.

Dios and the archliches were unharmed, but the same couldn't be said for Diogres Kolon. Clutching his head, Diogres suddenly let out a scream. Then, he fell into utter confusion and began to babble incoherently. "Lord Tesranach! No—Lord Karnak! No—Karnak, you villain! My lord!"

Dios blinked in bewilderment. What? What's wrong with him?

He didn't know what was happening, but he couldn't let such a perfect opportunity slip by. Dios quickly sent a message to the archliches.

—Bind him with darkness!

At once, Demphis and Maloka unleashed their power. Chains of abyssal darkness coiled around Diogres. Diogres writhed and struggled like a beast while letting out guttural cries, even though such chains should have been trivial for an archmage to break.

This is our chance. Eyes gleaming, Dios launched himself through the air. As he closed the distance, he touched the necklace at his throat, and a sinister darkness began to seep out. It was a cursed artifact Karnak prepared. Through it, he drew upon the authority of darkness and brought it under his control.

"Link of Necromancy!"

A complex necromantic formula unraveled strand by strand, seizing hold of Diogres Kolon's soul. Grateria had not been the only one to whom Karnak had passed on the technique of reverse possession.

Reaching toward his own body, Dios glared fiercely. "Give me my body back, you bastard!"

***

In the shattered streets filled with ash, a blonde woman with bronze skin lay collapsed, bleeding. Above her stood a gray-haired girl holding a golden sword, staring down in confusion. Why?

She couldn't understand. The Archmage Elezar, so overwhelmingly powerful, had suddenly lost her mind and collapsed on her own.

Lapicel had taken the opportunity and struck her down, but why had this happened? The young Lapicel of this era could not comprehend it. But the future Lapicel had a guess. I see.

Elezar's original master had been Karnak. Tesranach had merely stolen the fate of the Monarch of Death and seized control over her.

But now there were two Monarchs of Deaths. In other words, she had two masters. Now that Karnak had reclaimed his throne as the Monarch of Death, conflict within that dominion of control was inevitable.

Lapicel examined Elezar's condition. Her wounds were severe, but she was still faintly breathing. Even in unconsciousness, her immense magical power as an archmage was sealing her injuries. To finish her off, she would need to cut her throat. But there's no need for that.

It was possible that Elezar of the current era was still located somewhere within her soul. Just as Drel had separated from Dreltein, she too might be able to return to what she once was. If that were the case, it was best not to kill her recklessly. Of course, it was also possible that she might awaken again as an enemy.

However, that doesn't matter.

By then, everything would already be over, whether they won or lost. Lapicel turned her gaze toward the center of the capital. The colossal dragon and skeletal giant were impossible to miss.

The girl leapt into the air, and a streak of golden light carved a long arc across the sky of the capital.

***

Giyen Ren was also clutching his head, screaming. Even so, he did not meet the same fate as Diogres Kolon or Elezar. That was because Batalok was suffering from the exact same condition. He too clutched his head and roared in agony.

He was different from the four archliches, who had been prepared carefully and over a long time by Karnak. Batalok had been hastily raised as a death knight at the last moment. But now that Karnak had returned as the Monarch of Death, his control conflicted with Tesranach's. Tesranach also possessed the fate of the Monarch of Death.

There was no victor, no defeated. Those present were merely beings writhing in torment under the darkness.

***

This won't work. Tesranach, who had been bombarding them with magic, abruptly changed his approach.

He kicked off the ground with all four limbs and charged forward. Then he raised a foreleg and brought it crashing down.

Huh? Startled, Karnak raised his bony arm to block it. A thunderous impact rang out.

Tesranach wasn't quite done. He twisted around and followed with a tail strike. The dragon's tail, which stretched well over a hundred meters, whipped through the air like a massive lash.

The skeletal giant, over a hundred meters tall, was sent flying into the air before crashing down onto the capital. The ground shook repeatedly, and buildings collapsed as debris rained down.

Thrown back, Karnak shook his skull and muttered, "So you want to fight hand-to-hand…?"

Surprisingly, it was a reasonable tactic. Until now, Tesranach had relied on bombardment because Karnak's group had been too small. But now, there stood a colossal skeleton over a hundred meters tall right before him.

Roaring, Tesranach lunged again. His sharp claws aimed straight for the skeletal giant's skull. Karnak hurriedly crossed both bony arms to block. The immense weight bore down on his entire body.

Gritting through it, Karnak counterattacked. He stomped forward, shaking the ground, then lifted his gaunt foot and kicked. The skeletal left foot slammed into the dragon's torso. Shockwaves rippled outward. The massive dragon was pushed back.

"Such a puny kick…!" Regaining his stance, Tesranach ground his teeth. "It's not nearly enough to stop me!"

There was no longer any need for refined control of magic. This body itself was will, power, and authority! Once more, the two monstrous beings, each hundreds of meters in size, collided in the heart of the capital.

Massive weight crashed against massive weight, and what little remained of the streets and buildings was obliterated entirely. The entire capital had become a battlefield of ruin.

Serati frowned while carefully dodging the surging destruction. Damn it.

Even at that size, Karnak was still being pushed back. Varos clicked his tongue.

—It's a weight class issue. He's all bones, and the other guy's packed with muscle.

—Is that really the problem here?

Jokes aside, the fact remained: Karnak was smaller than Tesranach. The outcome was quite obvious at the rate.

Leven and Drel, who had been waiting for an opening, made their move. With a shout, they poured all their aura into their blades. Golden energy surged, growing longer and larger.

They didn't use any refined sword techniques. They simply focused on raw destructive power, again and again.

Against an opponent that massive, precision and finesse meant nothing. It wasn't as if they needed to aim carefully to hit something hundreds of meters wide. True to those who had reached the realm of martial kings, both their aura blades extended to nearly twenty meters. Then they drove them into Tesranach's flanks from either side! A burst of brilliant golden explosions rocked the colossal dragon.

These insects! Even Tesranach could not ignore such an overwhelming force focused purely on destruction. He decided he had to deal with them first. His vast tail swept across an area over a hundred meters wide.

Karnak wasn't about to let Tesranach do as he pleased. He intervened. "Not so fast!"

The massive skeletal fist smashed squarely into the dragon's head. The dragon's massive tail was veered off course. As a result Leven and Drel managed to escape safely.

As the two fell back, Varos and Serati took their place in the assault.

Reversal Blade, Desolation!

Twilight Swordsmanship, Evening Shadow!

Explosions erupted along Tesranach's back and waist. Once again, they carried enough force to be impossible to ignore. Darting in and out from behind Karnak's massive frame, striking and retreating in perfect rhythm, Serati clicked her tongue.

—In a way, this is still going according to plan.

Wasn't this just an extension of their strategy, "I am the meat shield"? Varos tilted his head.

—But there's no flesh left on him anymore, right? Shouldn't we call it a bone shield now?

Whatever it was called, there was no denying its effectiveness. In truth, Tesranach was taking considerable damage.

"Y-you gnats!"

If he could, he would have killed those tiny humans first. In fact, he had tried. But now, that massive Karnak was getting in the way.

If one were to put it in human terms, it was like grappling with someone while hornets swarmed in from behind and stung relentlessly. He would not be left alone to stop fighting and swat away the hornets first.

"Stop interfering!"

That immutable evil had returned as an undead. He had abandoned the human life he had long desired. What did that mean? Was it not the same as declaring that he would once again turn back time?

Fury boiled over as Tesranach roared. "At this rate, the world will disappear! The world will fall again!"

No one refuted him. Honestly, they understood how he felt. When it came down to it, Karnak was the root of everything. Tesranach and his followers were, in a sense, victims. Karnak may have abandoned his human life for the sake of his companions, but from Tesranach's perspective, it could never look that way.

That doesn't mean we can just lie down and die!

Gritting their teeth, Leven and Drel leapt forward. Their blazing golden aura shone even more brilliantly.