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The Necromancer glanced within the soul of its creation, as Veronica slowly broke it and said:
?
"You're next."
A strange feeling ran through his very soul.
It was odd, it was as if he had become colder than he already was.
And there was even a slight paralysis merged into it…
"What… What?! Is this… Is this… fear…?"
He lacked any flesh on his face to show his emotions, he lacked a beating heart to even feel the coldness anymore, he lacked any kind of warmth within his flesh, he was a Lich, a living skeleton.
Accustomed to the coldness of his new self and that of his soul, he had never experienced true fear since he became a Lich, not even after having his mind merged with the Fragments of the God that he once found.
It was all just miscalculations on his plans, things that he could work forward, things that had some way of solving if he planned carefully and used all of the resources and scenarios he had at his disposal through certain means.
But this… was different.
It completely broke his cold mind.
For so long since he had been an Undead, and for so long since he had become one with the Fragments… he had never experienced such a thing.
Fear.
He was dead, yet he feared for his life.
It was not simply the fear of having his skeleton crushed, as long as his soul remained, he could simply find another skeleton…
But that was also the main reason, his soul.
'As long as my soul remains' was always what made him so calm.
And now, that out of nowhere, a threat that he had never predicted or foreseen before appeared with the ability to break down souls… He could not simply think such a thing now.
He sat down on his throne of bones as he glanced at the hands made out of bones he possessed, they were… trembling.
"No… This is… Impossible! I am… I am the only one… with that power! You cannot simply… You cannot simply copy it! No…! NO! And to make things worse… That thing had… That thing had two of my main body's fragments as well! How hasn't that had its soul parasitized already?! This is… too many impossible things…! I can't keep calm…!"
The Necromancer gnashed his old teeth attached to his skull as he hit his throne with great strength.
Boom!
"IMPOSSIBLE! This is impossible! How can it be…?! How can I have my own power used against me?! I am… I am the ruler of souls! The ruler of death! How can… How can another one appear before me?! I am supposed to be the one who shall be above them all! With the abilities, I was blessed with since my birth! I cannot… I cannot comprehend how that deplorable mortal has developed them! How… hateful!" roared the Necromancer, as his entire phantasmagoric aura began to flow out of his body like an eternal inferno of blue flames, expanding through the dungeon as it froze everything with its enormous coldness.
Flash!
"…No. This is what they want. They want to make me feel desperate! As if I did not have any other options! Right? Do you think I am a fool? Do you believe that I am someone that could easily be manipulated through fear?! HAHAHA! I did that before you were even born! An army of countless monsters and Demon Gods kneeled to me through fear alone! Do you think… DO you really believe I would be affected by fear?! I am fear!"
After having babbled, the Necromancer sat down on his throne as he sighed one last time before his eyes, which were two blue flames glowed brighter.
"The troops were annihilated, and the graves were discovered to be underground by… a former pawn?! Tch… So, they are even capable of dispelling my curses from my own pawns? I suppose that pain that I felt… It was most likely that, isn't it? They gathered the curses that belong to me through a soul connection and inflicted direct damage to me by eating them through Soul Break… So that was it…"
The Necromancer glanced at the orb in front of him as it flashed with a dark blue flame, showing him what had happened.
The countless piles of bones were scattered everywhere, as there was no corpse of any harpy, to begin with.
"What?! I am sure that some died… Is this why their dead spirits never came to me?! Those ones… even have my Death Calling and Death Enslavement Spells?"
Death Calling, a Death Attribute Spell that the Necromancer possessed, which had the purpose of calling the Dead Spirits in a large radius around himself, the more Mana was used, the bigger the radius would be.
Death Enslavement, a Death Attribute Spell that enslaved dead spirits against their will, bonding them to the Necromancer to do his bidding, despite their wails or disgust, they would be forced to do anything he desired.
Unlike Veronica and Ervas who could naturally attract the dead without forcing them nor doing anything negative to them, the Necromancer could not charm the death, he simply forced his way through aggressive spells, forcing the dead spirits to do his bidding as he desired.
Because even he did not know about such a Skill as 'Death Attribute Charm' he attributed the ability of Veronica and Ervas to do the same as him by them possessing the same spells he used.
"So, that living scrap of metal has both of my former body fragments, alongside having soul break and even death attribute magic… And the kid must be the same in some regards, as he showed up he had things such as the ability to call the dead spirits…" muttered the Necromancer.
Suddenly, the view he was seeing disappeared.
"And that's how much I could record with my Dead Spirit Familiar before the communication was blocked… most likely by their own actions…"
The Necromancer glanced at his current 'resources'.
A large sphere where thousands of wailing dead spirits convoluted, all together as if they were trapped in a fishnet.
An enormous sphere of pure blackness.
And the Dungeon itself, which could generate Undead, giving him a wide army of Undead to play around with…
The thing was, such Undead were often as strong a Rank 6.
He had created the Living Liquid Metal Undead Slime Golem, a Rank 10 monster, after some arduous work, by imitating the components of Veronica and her capabilities, however, such a monster was not easy to create, and required a lot of his power.
"With all of this, I must… be capable of creating some kind of force. After all, the synthetic beast I made seemed to have put some trouble… It indeed took some time for it to be defeated, meaning that its power is clearly superior. Indeed, such a being is incredibly resilient, and with the ability to parasitize the living and reach such heights… Hm, most of the pawns were sent there, but some remained, they would make good vessels… yes…"
"These Dead Spirits are all drained out of power and emotions, they're blank slates that cannot even make produce some good Mana. However, the good thing about dead spirits is that the soul is immortal as long as I do not decide to break it, meaning that no matter how tired they are, they can still work. As long as I mash them all together… a few good enough Undead can be made from that…"
"They will most likely come here directly, fools, this place is my domain… But still, I need to make procure escaping methods as well. I cannot simply give in to my rage… I can benefit greatly if I manage to devour their souls, they are indeed incredibly strong, enough for me to be able to rise to godhood if I do… If I simply escape now, they will notice and chase me… I will stay here, make large amounts of distractions, and see how things fare, if it is possible for me to crush them, I will take the opportunity happily. If not, I will escape through the routes I will design…"
The Necromancer released a malicious chuckle as he found his plan quite perfect.
He considered that escaping now would be detrimental, as Ervas and Veronica would easily sense that and chase him down… Although he was unaware that they would not do such a thing, they would let him escape instead, as it was more convenient for them if he went away without a fight.
They held grudges against him, but it was not their intention to waste time and effort in chasing him, a more arduous thing than simply raiding his dungeon and coming to kill him directly for a quick Experience Points gain and perhaps a few skills through eating his soul.
Confronting a powerful enemy in a closed space and chasing a powerful enemy were completely different things…
But the Necromancer believed that Veronica and Ervas were vicious beings and that they were also fanatics of Bestellen, as he had thought that they were his Heroes.
Bestellen fanatics held great devotion to God, and also to his orders, such as annihilating Demon Gods or anything that was not human, elf, or dwarf.
For now, the Necromancer laid low as he planned his cards, he would greet Ervas and Veronica with the greatest army he could muster, and see the outcome.
If they are weakened enough after going through it all, he will appear, confront them, and kill them quickly, as he did not like to fight battles he could not win.
And if not, if they were able to go through everything smoothly, he would escape while leaving a 'Big Boss' for them to be distracted enough.
The plan was simplistic, but worked for him…
The Necromancer glanced one last time at the glowing sphere in front of him.
"Bestellen, Razdall, you damn bastards… I will have my revenge… I will retrieve the fragments that are rightfully mine, and I will devour your souls! …This even is nothing but a small obstacle… I will survive and find another way to reach godhood! …There is simply no way for me to die now, I won't allow it!"
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