141. Necromancer

141. Necromancer

The sun disappeared, and the world was filled with darkness.

The overflowing power from my body vanished completely. At the same time, the weakening effect on the dragons also ceased to exist.

“Ugh…!”

I hastily blocked the dragon’s claw, which was about to strike me, with my sword. With a heavy sensation, the ground, unable to withstand the impact, cracked with a crisp sound.

I tried to swing my sword and cut the dragon, but the blade, which was cutting through the air, stopped as it was blocked by the hard scales. The moment I faltered, another dragon’s tail swung at me.

“Tch!”

I let go of my sword, ducked, and dodged the attack. At the same time, I grabbed my sword again and delivered a powerful kick, sending the dragon flying as I drew my sword.

The dragon flew far away, made a thudding sound, and disappeared into the swarm of wriggling corpse dragons.

Just because the attacks don’t work doesn’t mean the power is nullified. If I can’t cut them, I have to deal with them through impact….

It’s simply too many to send each dragon flying without being able to inflict any proper damage.

“Aargh!”

“Damn it….”

And it wasn’t just me fighting. The people on the other side, who had barely maintained a stalemate with Freya’s magic, were in a situation I didn’t need to imagine now that the magic was gone.

Should I go save them? Or should I go to Freya?

But if I did, the front line would collapse. No matter how fast I run, I can’t save dozens of people at once. Moreover, even if I save them, how can I possibly block the dragons swarming from all sides by myself?

All I can do is struggle to fend off the dragons here and maintain our current position. Even that would mean the people defending the other side would be breached, so it’s essentially a guaranteed loss.

What do they call this? Ah, yes, in chess terminology… I think it’s called ‘checkmate’.

… Or maybe not.

The terminology isn’t important. What matters is the inherent meaning.

“Hoo… Freya….”

I don’t know much about magic. Therefore, I can’t know Freya’s current condition. She might be preparing a new spell, or she might have been injured by the backlash of the magic breaking. The former would be better, but the latter….

“Huh?”

At that moment, a noticeably large green light began to gather inside the protective barrier. Relieved by Freya’s survival, the gathered green light soon began to rotate fiercely, emitting a humming sound.

Whatever that is, it doesn’t seem to be the sun magic she used earlier. Compared to the sun, this is more… aggressive.

What is she trying to do….

“Ugh!”

The moment I tilted my head in confusion, the light exploded and began to sweep the area. The dazzling light, which I couldn’t even look at directly, spread at an incredible speed, completely annihilating the corpses it touched.

It was a scene that looked like a silent nuclear bomb going off.

Looking at the surroundings, which were cleared in an instant, my head felt dizzy. As I stood there in a daze, a tree trunk flew towards me, and Freya leaped down from it.

“Sister!”

“Freya, if you could use magic like that, you should have used it sooner….”

“It’s not the time, I found it!”

Found what?

Freya hastily extended her small hand and pointed somewhere. It was indeed the place from which the black projectile that shot down Freya’s sun had come.

“Sister, Sister, you might not know, but actually, the undead here reappear no matter how many times you kill them. That’s why I was only using magic that would help maintain the front line, but anyway, that’s not important right now….”

“Freya, calm down.”

I can’t understand her when she speaks so fast. I can’t even understand her when she speaks slowly, let alone when she speaks quickly.

Freya took a breath and continued.

“Sister, as you probably realized while fighting, killing these dragons is meaningless. They reappear after a while.”

“Is that so?”

I thought they were just numerous. Freya gave me a dumbfounded look at my reply and shook her head, continuing.

“… And this space is not one that can be escaped normally. The only way to leave here is to defeat the caster, and that’s it.”

“I see.”

“As you said earlier, if we wanted to eliminate the dragons, we could have done so long ago, but since we don’t know when the caster might appear, we had to conserve our strength as much as possible. Do you understand up to this point?”

“Probably.”

I understood that I had to capture the necromancer. As I nodded, Freya continued.

“And because of the attack that flew at me earlier, I found out where the caster is. Perhaps because progress was slow, they became impatient and accidentally exposed their location! They came to die… ah, no, to die!”

“Ooh.”

Freya put on a triumphant expression as I clapped… but then realized it wasn’t the time and shouted at me.

“Anyway, this is our only chance. We absolutely cannot miss it!”

If Freya emphasizes it this much, it must be that important. I looked at the place Freya had pointed to earlier.

It’s just darkness. But I can feel it.

“So Sister, please move quickly instead of just staring…!!”

“Freya, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Darkness is approaching. Not metaphorically, but literally. A swirling black curtain was coming towards us. At the same time, the sleeping Ur woke up.

“Ugh… Master? What’s happening….”

“Ur, I think your former master is coming here right now.”

“What?!”

Freya quickly cast magic on me. A brilliant light, incomparable to the one under the sun, enveloped me, and at the same time, I felt immense power surge as I raised my sword.

The approaching curtain, the ever-growing darkness. But now, I am invincible. Freya’s buff is divine.

With this power, I feel like I could split the moon in the sky in half.

I shouted powerfully.

“Bring it on!”

The curtain of darkness passed by me with a whoosh and headed towards the protective barrier. We, who were preparing for battle, were left alone in an empty field.

“Huh?”

“What? Where is that going?!”

Naturally, isn’t this the flow of a major battle? It’s quite bewildering to be bypassed so quickly.

Yes, well. Is the common sense of this world not strange a few times? In a world where sex between women is a pastime, skipping a fight that seems bound to happen is entirely possible.

Right now, more than that.

“Claire is in danger.”

“Huh? Why?”

“She’s being targeted.”

From the moment it passed me and Freya, it became half certain. The necromancer is targeting Claire.

Freya tilted her head, perhaps not understanding my words.

“Why? Isn’t it just going to catch people?”

“Freya, think logically. Would a necromancer who commands tens of thousands of corpse dragons, which are difficult for even us to handle, set up such a trap just to capture a few thousand powerless imperial citizens? They must have a larger goal.”

Freya let out an exasperated sigh at the words “think logically.” I continued.

The dragons that had been targeting Claire and me from some point on, no, only Claire. Then, the necromancer, ignoring the most threatening us sisters, heading towards Claire in the center. What that meant was simple enough for even a puppy to understand.

“That necromancer is trying to interfere with my and Claire’s marriage!”

“… What?”

I ran towards the protective barrier, chasing the necromancer with all my might. To keep my promise, to protect my fiancée.

“Wait, Sister, marriage?! What are you talking about, Sister!!”

Freya will follow me on her own. She’s a grown-up, reliable sister now.

Every time I stomp on the ground, the bricks that can’t withstand the impact shatter. As I cut through the air, the protective barrier protecting the shelter gets closer.

“Claire!”

“Ugh… S-Skadi….”

A giant curtain of darkness stood as if confronting the protective barrier. As I cut it away with Ur, I saw the culprit behind all this.

Holding Claire’s neck….

It’s a skeleton!

“It’s a Lich, you idiot!”

It can talk too.

A skeleton wearing a tattered robe, revealing only bony hands, with red glints in its eye sockets. It reminded me of Ur’s past appearance. Ur wore armor, not a robe, but in any case, the words ‘former master’ didn’t seem to be a lie.

The necromancer’s voice was low and heavy, yet at the same time high and delicate. It was a voice that combined male and female voices, making it difficult to determine its gender.

Simultaneously, every time the skull opened its mouth, a grotesque sound, as if crawling up from hell, like fingernails scraping a steel plate, tormented my ears. Regardless of its gender, it was clear that it was not a voice I wanted to listen to for long.

The necromancer threw Claire to the ground. I quickly ran over and examined her body. Her neck, which had been tightly gripped, was red, and there were scraped wounds from being thrown.

“Claire, are you okay?”

“Th-that is….”

As soon as Claire opened her mouth, the necromancer began to laugh sinisterly. At the same time, a golden aura began to emanate from the skull’s body.

That aura is definitely….

“Finally, my long-held wish…!”

I smashed the necromancer’s head.