Ch.1010. Finden Eye

In necromancy, the most difficult part was none other than communion with souls.

Unless it’s a truly powerful spirit with deep grudges, ordinary people cannot see them.

Even for necromancers, books say they can only perceive a tiny fraction of souls.

This was a realm of talent, not mana.

But I’m different.

I can see even the most pathetic souls, which caused me great suffering, but conversely,

I can also use them.

Do souls contain mana?

“No, they are merely consciousness within clumps of mana.”

They are nothing but talking mana clumps, and I convert their mana into magic.

[Kihyahahaha!]

[I’m burning! I’m on fire!]

[Die! You all should die too!]

Magic with will is born, burning and pursuing enemies until its mana is completely consumed.

‘Even a mere fireball spell has this much effect.’

Magic that acts with its own will was certainly an incredible advantage.

Even apprentice mages could easily handle and shoot fireballs, throwing the Resistance into chaos and cleaning them up.

‘However.’

That’s not the issue.

If it were just the Resistance, the Giant of the North, Darius, would have handled it himself.

They wouldn’t have even thought about crossing the mountains.

The white wolf that bit the giant’s ankle.

Findenai’s footsteps were violently rushing toward me.

I clicked my tongue at her speed—it was as if she had engines attached to her feet.

“A monster is indeed a monster.”

A woman who served as a chapter boss. The fortunate thing was that she didn’t yet have proper weapons or equipment.

‘She doesn’t have the semi-automatic rifle from drops. No landing machine, no Blood Claw gloves either.’

As expected, she was quite different from the boss Findenai I knew.

Rather shabby equipment.

I was planning to exploit that, but watching her charge made me change my mind.

“Not yet possible.”

My current level is far from sufficient.

Darius, who chose to face this monster one-on-one, seemed incredibly foolish.

I pull out another soul from my hand and convert the mana within it into magic.

I launch what instantly becomes an ice spike, but…

Crack!

Findenai shattered the ice without the slightest hesitation and didn’t slow down.

Moreover, she grabbed the broken fragments to prevent them from reforming and ground them into powder.

[Kieeeeeek!]

The painful scream of the evil spirit echoes. Since becoming magic was essentially becoming materialized…

They naturally experienced pain as well.

“You’re playing quite merrily with them, Necromancer.”

Findenai leaped high. With the heavily falling snow, she tried to strike down at my head, but…

Thwack!

A white figure suddenly rushed in, sending Findenai’s body tumbling several times in the air before hitting the ground.

“Kuh, keurk!”

Findenai groaned, spitting blood. The Mountain Lord who had taken her down with one blow was now standing quietly beside me.

[We spirit beasts must not take lives carelessly.]

“I know. Leave the finishing to me.”

Saying that, I glanced at the Scrap Gang members who had adapted to my magic.

“Cut! Keep cutting through them and they’ll eventually disappear when their mana is depleted!”

[You bastards!]

[Don’t kill us! Don’t kill us!]

[I have to die again? No! Nooo!]

“Ignore all that nonsense! They’re just magic!”

“Don’t talk like a person, you’re just a fireball!”

[No! I’m alive!]

“Damn you! You burned the inside of Mactery’s mouth! How’s he supposed to kiss his wife now?”

The Scrap Gang members, having realized that cutting through the fireballs would make them disappear from mana depletion, were dealing with them efficiently while raging about comrades who had died from initial confusion.

If the Mountain Lord hadn’t appeared.

Whoosh!

Like a sports car speeding past, they couldn’t even properly see the Mountain Lord’s form before their bodies were lifted and slammed into the ground.

“Kuh, urk!”

“Kwaak!”

Unable to even scream properly, they could only make dumbfounded noises as they rolled in the snow, suffering from sudden pain and broken bones.

‘There was a reason for his confidence.’

I realized that the Mountain Lord’s claim that he could easily kill ten thousand people alone wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

The enemies that Darius and Norsweden’s soldiers had struggled so much against were cleared in the blink of an eye.

That’s not an exaggeration—literally in the blink of an eye.

The Mountain Lord walked majestically toward me from among them. His deep blue eyes were pressuring me once again.

[I hope you won’t forget our pact.]

“How could I? From now on, the Norsweden mountains will not permit humans. I will make it so.”

[Krung.]

With a single rumble from his throat, the Mountain Lord disappeared into white crystalline light. It was impressive to see him gradually rising toward the sky, contrasting with the falling snow.

“Kugh!”

“Your tenacity is quite remarkable.”

Findenai was struggling to get up right in front of me. It was truly impressive that she still had the will to fight after taking a direct hit from the Mountain Lord.

As expected of a troublesome boss mob that grows stronger in moments of crisis.

I use one of the ghosts I possess to create a chair to sit on. I was going to make a simple ice stump-like chair, but…

[Art. Though I have no hands or feet, I am an artist.]

The soul I chose was a peculiar one, and it added its own design, turning it into a rather luxurious ice chair.

Not bad.

I sat down, crossed my legs, and spoke to Findenai.

“The Resistance of the Republic of Clark. Findenai, leader of the Scrap Gang, and her comrades.”

“…!”

Findenai’s neck suddenly straightened, and her blood-red eyes trembled in confusion.

“H-how did you…!”

“Do I really need to explain that?”

“…”

Though she probably couldn’t properly comprehend what had happened, she knew the result was her defeat.

Yet Findenai still clenched her fists and tried to stand with trembling arms.

However, she kept slipping on the accumulated snow.

“Deus Verdi. Second son of the Norsweden Count family. The younger brother of Darius, whom you brutally crushed.”

“Deus… Verdi.”

“I’m not well-known. Darius’s name was so overwhelming that I was hidden beneath it.”

Even in this situation, Findenai kept repeating my name, infusing it with a determination to kill me someday.

That’s why I clicked my tongue.

Findenai has beast-like aspects and is among the top fighters on the continent, but she lacks cold judgment.

“Why do you think I’m keeping you alive right now?”

“…What?”

“Answer me. If you can’t answer even that much, there’s no need to waste any more time.”

If Findenai couldn’t think rationally as I expected, I was prepared to kill her without hesitation.

However, Findenai bit her lip and answered.

“You want… something from us.”

“That’s an insufficient answer, but I’ll consider it passing.”

I rest my chin on the armrest that the chair ghost had created. It’s a more useful entity than I thought.

“I heard that the oppression against the Resistance in the Republic of Clark has intensified. Because of those specialized personnel called Extermination Officers.”

Extermination Officers.

A specialized organization created by the Republic of Clark to eliminate the Scrap Gang and other Resistance groups.

Before fighting Findenai, you can temporarily use one of the Extermination Officers as an ally, and this guy is quite strong.

“Extermination Officers. Aren’t they an organization that exterminates vermin?”

While the literal meaning is used to suggest they eliminate the Resistance and save citizens…

It’s no different from the extermination used when eradicating pests.

Of course, the pests are the Resistance.

A cold smile forms on my lips.

This was a moment that indirectly revealed how they had been treated.

“If you die here, crushed like bugs, it would be a fitting end that the Republic would appreciate.”

“You…!”

After several attempts to stand, Findenai finally managed to sit with her back against a tree.

Her trembling legs showed no signs of recovery yet.

“However, if that was my intention, I would have trampled you to death long ago.”

“What do you… mean?”

“Two options.”

I raised my right index and middle fingers.

“I’ll present you with two choices. One is to be buried in the snow and trampled to death by me. Like a bug.”

Findenai has her own backstory and is a popular character due to her considerable beauty in design.

But I don’t need any of that. It’s so useless I could crumple it up and throw it in the trash.

What’s important to me is…

The strength of Findenai that made countless players rack their brains, challenge her repeatedly, and forced them to grind levels.

“The other is for you to become mine.”

I needed her power.

“What… did you say?”

Before she could properly react, I slowly rose from my chair.

“If you obey my commands and follow me, I’ll give you everything you sought from the kingdom.”

There are several reasons why Findenai was trying to flee from the Republic across the mountains to the Griffin Kingdom.

The flight began because the Extermination Officers were becoming too powerful.

They lack resources, manpower, and most basically, a base.

So Findenai planned to cross over to the relatively lenient kingdom, establish her base there, and rebuild the Resistance’s strength before returning to the Republic.

In the actual game, she never made it back to the Republic, but she did succeed in growing her forces.

“I will provide supplies, a place to stay, and jobs for funding.”

“What, what are you talking about?”

She can’t possibly misunderstand.

Even an elementary school student could understand this much.

I am scouting you.

“The Republic cannot freely interfere with us, nobles of the kingdom and margrave of the border.”

“…”

“The other members are secondary. Just you. If just you alone join under me.”

Rising from the chair, I knelt on one knee in front of Findenai who was leaning against the tree.

Our eyes were level.

I gently extended my hand to her, who was surprised and confused.

“I will become the barrier that protects you all.”

The younger brother of the Norsweden Margrave.

The second son of the Verdi family.

A dismissed professor from the Academy.

A frustratingly mediocre yet ambiguous position.

But for a wolf who had lived as a slave, fought as a revolutionary, and needed a moment of rest…

It was a position sufficient to serve as a windbreak.

“Five years. After that, I’ll set you free. Then you can return to the Republic to continue your revolution, or give it all up and settle down—I won’t care.”

By then, it would have been decided whether this world’s ending would be happy or damned bad.

So…

“Become mine, Findenai.”