Ch.9090. Necromancer (2)

The Necromancer who stepped forward embodied the quintessential image of a necromancer to a tee.

The bald man, with an emaciated and gaunt appearance as if skin had been stretched over a skeleton—an effect of necromantic energy—leaned on a large staff adorned with various human skulls hanging from it.

The black robe wrapped around his body was made by thoroughly soaking human skin from corpses in magical dye. Various ornaments made of bones and skin fragments dangled from different parts of his body, and beneath the robe, he wore scale armor fashioned from connected metal pieces.

The two undead guards positioned beside the Necromancer, who was festooned with evidence of evil, were no ordinary beings either. They were undead knights who flaunted their intermediate status by surrounding their swords with aura.

At first, I wondered if they might be the famous “Death Knights,” but thinking about it carefully… How could such powerful undead possibly serve a Necromancer who was clearly still alive?

Therefore, I concluded that these undead knights were likely Skeleton Knights.

They were probably puppet knights created from the corpses of intermediate warriors who could manipulate aura, moving according to their creator’s commands without any intelligence of their own.

If that’s the case, the best move I can make now is…

‘…Robo, may I borrow your power for a moment?’

[Of course, use it as much as you want!]

I begin to activate the mystery of Robo sleeping in my soul’s inner space—the mystery of the “Divine Beast” Fenrir—using my internal mana as a catalyst.

What I’m conceptualizing is Niflheim (Niflheim), one of the nine worlds from Norse mythology, the origin of “Fenrir.”

It’s one of the afterlife realms in Norse mythology, an infinitely cold world completely covered in glaciers where everything is frozen.

Of course, the Fenrir species (Divine Beast) in this world has no connection whatsoever to Norse mythology, and the very concept of Norse mythology doesn’t even exist in this reality.

Furthermore, even within Norse mythology, the connection between Niflheim and Fenrir is limited to the fact that the goddess “Hel,” ruler of “Hel” within Niflheim, is Fenrir’s sister.

But… such trivial details don’t matter.

What’s important is that my consciousness perceives the cold mystery that Fenrir wields as belonging to Niflheim…

When handling mysteries, the magic user’s perception is far more important than logical causality.

[—Freeze!]

Immediately after completing the not-so-brief incantation, flowers of cold energy bloom from my fingertips, spreading forward and gradually growing in size.

The nature magic that manipulates “icebergs”—normally significantly weakened outside winter or polar regions—created several mountain-sized icebergs when used with Fenrir Robo’s mystery as its foundation.

The icebergs, formed by concentrating mana using atmospheric moisture as a catalyst, emit cold so intense it could kill a human in seconds.

The binding ability of the icebergs, guaranteed purely by their durability, is just a bonus.

And then…

-Whoooooosh!!!

With the pulsating sound of flames, a large, beautiful fireball forms above the Necromancer’s head, dispersing the cold mana that had formed the icebergs.

This confirmed that the Necromancer was likely once a mage who specialized in fire magic.

-Hisssssssss!

Meanwhile, even as I was thinking, the Necromancer continued manipulating magic.

The cold mana forming the icebergs evaporated instantly, creating an enormous amount of steam that enveloped the area.

The heated steam infused with mana would certainly have enough killing power, but even within it, the Necromancer was carefully drawing up mana, his eyes burning with hatred.

With the rattling sound of bones colliding, magical bone-spears resembling sharpened femurs appeared in mid-air.

This bone creation magic, a basic attack spell of necromancy, manifested hundreds of bone spears, each tipped with eerie blue flames flickering ominously.

If nothing else, their lethality against living beings would be truly formidable.

Therefore, my response was swift.

[Claws of the Beast, slash!]

-Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!!!

Upon completing the incantation for “Slashing Magic” (working name) after a long time, about 500 slashes appeared—roughly half of what I could summon at once.

These slashes, forming trajectories in the air, instantly destroyed the bone spears and flew toward the Necromancer…

-Clang!

The slashes aimed at the Necromancer were destroyed by the aura-enhanced swords of the Skeleton Knights guarding him on both sides.

[—Release!]

[Lightning, Thunder!!!]

And immediately after, magic from the two spellcasters watching the situation—Minerva and Sophia—poured down on their heads.

Sunlight gathered in the “Sun Flower” that Minerva rapidly grew from the ground, and the concentrated beam of sunlight became a single heat ray pouring down on the Necromancer.

Meanwhile, Sophia fired a wave of celestial thunder and lightning from the tip of her staff.

This attack, in the form of a shockwave filled with holy-attribute mana and crackling electricity, probably contained enough power to incapacitate even a knight in heavy armor with a direct hit.

However… the Necromancer was, after all, a mage who had reached the intermediate level in two fields (fire magic and necromancy).

-Boooooom!!!

Blue flames rising from the ground—flames that consumed life force using necromantic energy as fuel—formed a wall to defend against the magical attacks.

And what burst through that wall of flames were two Skeleton Knights.

These undead knights, with blue flames clinging to their entire bodies, charged toward us without showing even the slightest hesitation.

“Fire!”

-Ratatatatata!!

The fairy bullet attacks, which had been temporarily suspended to avoid interfering with the battle, resumed at Princess Tristia’s command, but they lacked the power to stop two heavily armored intermediate warriors charging recklessly…

“Hydra, crush them.”

[[[—■■■■■■■■!!!]]]

So I chose to summon a hydra above them to simply crush them.

-Craaaash!!!

A sound close to an explosion echoed. The hydra summoned above the intermediate warrior Skeleton Knights trampled one of them into pieces, then extended its heads toward the remaining one.

No matter how enhanced their durability and defense were with aura, the impact delivered by the multi-ton hydra using its intermediate monster strength was enough to shatter a Skeleton Knight’s skull.

Meanwhile, the story was different for the other knight that the hydra didn’t crush. It swung its aura-infused sword at the approaching heads, inflicting wounds, and gradually advanced forward, looking for a counterattack.

Taking advantage of the fact that the hydra’s poison would have no effect on its bone body, the knight’s bold attack could potentially cause “irreversible” damage to the hydra’s body if things went wrong.

[Grooowl!!!]

That would have been the case if Robo, who had been stealthily hiding his body behind the hydra’s massive bulk, hadn’t lunged at the Skeleton Knight and immediately mounted it.

Robo charged at the knight following my command.

The knight dropped its sword and fell to the ground, with Robo mounting on top.

Our Robo, a wolf as massive as a one-ton truck, tore the knight to pieces.

Of course, the Necromancer wasn’t just watching this situation unfold.

[—Die!]

The Necromancer pointed his finger at Robo, who had crushed the Skeleton Knight, and pronounced death.

The power imbued in the magic was “death,” something close to a target-specific instant death spell.

[Power of the Wild, protect!]

Of course, such instant death magic wouldn’t work unless there was a significant difference in level between the caster and the target, and just to be safe, I summoned a wolf form to defend against the magic, rendering it ineffective.

And then…

[—Pass judgment!]

-Boom, Crackle-crackle-crackle!!!

-Zzzzzzzzzap!!!!!!

Sophia and Minerva, who had been observing the situation until now, called down “Divine Retribution,” dropping pure white lightning directly onto the Necromancer’s head.

The “Divine Retribution” spell, imbued with celestial, higher-dimensional power, determines its strength solely based on the evil deeds or malice harbored by the target, regardless of the mana contained in the spell.

[Gu, Guaaaaaaaargh…!!]

There was no way it wouldn’t be effective against a Necromancer who had accumulated power through countless evil deeds.