Karnak, Monarch of Death

"Scatter, shatter, and wail as you fall to pieces..." In the depths of the darkness at the center of the grand cathedral, Karnak's incantation extended outward, dismantling the necromantic domain, Repetition of Abyssal Depths.

His skill was worthy of the title Monarch of Death. Ordinarily, the domain would have raged wildly, unleashing all manner of attacks, but Karnak's skill was so exceptional that it simply unraveled quietly, piece by piece.

Even so, Karnak's expression grew increasingly grim. Something has changed...

He had no means of gauging the state of the Black God's faith like Emil, the Avatar of Tesranach. However, he could sense the massive current of death sweeping across the capital, albeit faintly. The priests of the church were dying in great numbers.

Is it Batalok's doing? It wasn't this extreme before.

A sense of urgency gnawed at him. Would Karnak manage to release the seal here first, or would Batalok slaughter all the priests of the church before that could happen?

***

Emil Strauss forced a weary smile. We are faster.

The speed at which the necromantic domain was being dismantled was truly astonishing. Yet the speed at which the priests of the church were dying was even faster. Tesranach's grace continued to swell within him. It was proof that the faith of the seven goddesses was steadily weakening.

Had Varos sensed the looming crisis as well? He began to endure the side effects of using his technique once more.

Reversal Blade, Flowing Fang!

Two streaks of sword light slipped in gracefully, cutting toward Emil from above and below, like a beast baring its fangs to tear him apart. Emil countered immediately, and the reversal blade entwined with the blade of grace.

This time, the power of their blades was evenly matched. Taking advantage of the gap, Demphis unleashed his spells. "Plasma Ball, Fire Blast, Freeze Spear."

Kalaf followed with his own incantations. "Critical Hand, Terra Wave, Death Cannon."

Demphis and Kalaf continuously fired off spells while circling around Emil.

Emil clicked his tongue, dodging and sometimes blocking the oncoming attacks. Demphis and Kalaf truly aren't easy opponents.

It wasn't just their magic either. The mental pressure they mounted against him was also substantial. Two skull-faced figures, wrapped in the same tattered black robes, impossible to distinguish, were flitting back and forth through the air.

Even so, he could still endure for now. If he could just hold out a little longer like this, then Batalok could kill more of the church's priests.

What? Suddenly, Emil felt a sense of dissonance. OnlyDemphis and Kalaf?

He had only seen those two for a while now. Then where are Maloka and Tirafar?

Alarmed, he quickly scanned his surroundings. Before he noticed it, only Varos and the two archliches remained near him.

"When did this happen?"

Varos, aiming his silver blade, grinned slyly. "Have you ever heard of a shell game? You set up three identical cups and shuffle them around to confuse people."

***

It would be difficult to kill Emil quickly even if Varos and all four archliches attacked him together. When a strong fighter of a certain level decided to endure, no matter how vast the difference in power, they did not fall easily. That was why Serati's group and Dios's group had been able to hold out thus far.

However, to simply keep him pinned, Varos and two archliches were more than enough. So why waste valuable forces unnecessarily? A transmission came from the darkness.

—We're in position, Lord Karnak!

—Me too!

It was Tirafar and Maloka. It was faster for Karnak to dismantle the domain, at least for the first stage of the process. Having others hovering around would only get in the way.

That was why the two of them had been tasked with pressing Emil as much as possible. It would be best if they somehow managed to defeat Emil. If not, at the very least, they could divide his attention.

However, for the second stage of the dismantling, the destruction of the domain, it was far more efficient to have many working together. Drawing his wand and aiming it into the darkness, Karnak called out cheerfully. "Let's blow it open, quickly!"

***

Bony fingers caressed the darkness. "Explode, shatter, scatter and wail..."

A metallic voice pierced through the pitch-black shroud. "Scatter, and shatter into countless pieces..."

Maloka and Tirafar continued to consume the necromantic domain. Dozens of strands of black power spread outward like a spiderweb, expanding again and again.

Standing at the center of the web, Karnak elegantly swept his hands through the air. "I, as the master of death, shall sing of destruction..."

***

The battle continued to rage on fiercely in the northern sector of the grand cathedral. Diogres still had not managed to eliminate Serati's group. Just when it seemed they were on the verge of defeat, Lapicel and Leven had each awakened their silver aura, one after the other.

Two silver knights alone wouldn't have been this troublesome. But that red-haired woman was annoyingly persistent.

No matter what spell he cast, she would charge through it with brute force, and even if she was beaten down, she would simply get up again, her resilience monstrous. It wasn't that she was stupidly strong. She was stupid, yet strong.

When he tried to crush her with sheer force, Lapicel and Leven would intervene with precise timing and block his attempts.

Neither of them possessed the sheer power or resilience of Serati, but in exchange, their combat instincts were razor-sharp. The moment even the slightest opening appeared, they would pounce without hesitation.

One was slow but delivered heavy blows, while the other's strikes were lighter but fast and precise. They complemented each other's weaknesses so perfectly that even as an archmage, Diogres found no immediate solution to deal with them.

He had even considered the idea of abandoning them here and making his escape. But the terrain is unfavorable.

Had this been an open plain, it would have been possible. He could have unleashed a massive spell in true archmage fashion and then simply sprinted away at full speed, making escape relatively easy.

However, they were deep inside the grand cathedral. Of all places, it was a maze of narrow corridors on all sides. Breaking walls or ceilings was not difficult, but doing so would leave him too exposed in front of his enemies.

They had likely chosen this route precisely with that in mind. Sensing the pervasive aura of death lingering over the capital, Diogres muttered anxiously to himself. Who's ahead right now?

***

Giyen Ren's urgent transmission cut through the air.

—How is it, Sir Emil?

There was no reply. Emil, too, was growing desperate. With two archliches assisting, Karnak's speed in dismantling the barrier was terrifying. At this rate, everything would end soon.

In his desperation, Emil issued a reckless order.

—In the name of Tesranach, I command you, Batalok! Disregard your own safety, and kill every priest of the church first!

The command carried through the chaotic battlefield of the capital, and Batalok faithfully obeyed. He thoroughly ignored the presence of Chaplin and Desteran before him and charged straight at the priests of the church.

He killed one priest, and in return, fully exposed himself to the attacks of the two silver knights. Silver blade aura struck the martial king's entire body, blow after blow from those of a lower tier slicing into him without resistance. Dead blood spattered, again and again.

Yet Batalok did not fall. Enduring with the fortitude of a martial king, he did nothing but focus all his strength on killing even one more priest. He killed them one by one, as the wounds accrued at a similar pace. Screams rang out, and wails of agony echoed.

The barrier was breaking. The Shadow of Doom was revealed before the master of death. Priests were dying. Tesranach's faith was spreading across the continent.

It was a chaotic race, neck-and-neck—who would reach the finish line first?

A deep smile formed on Karnak's lips. At last, every domain had been dismantled. The immense power lay exposed before him, with not a single defense left. Once it was revealed, detonating it would be no challenge at all. Toward the vast, endless sea of pitch-black darkness, Karnak drove in the final wedge. "Burst open!"

***

It began from a single point. Waves rippled outward from the wedge driven in. The sea of darkness roiled, stirring up a storm.

The black energy filling the stone chamber swelled rapidly, like a balloon inflating. The oppressive energy made the air vibrate with a biting sting. And at last, it exploded.

There was no physical destruction. No thunderous roar. All the darkness simply seeped through the ceiling and walls like a phantom, spreading outward.

Dozens, hundreds—no, thousands, tens of thousands of black fragments scattered in every direction. The immense Shadow of Doom, gathered from across the entire continent, now scattered above them all.

Diogres let out a groan. "No... it can't be..."

Giyen Ren grit his teeth. "Damn it!"

Emil's face twisted bitterly. "Is it a failure?"

Countless shards of darkness swept beyond the grand cathedral, streaking into the vast skies over the capital, Thea Krahan, for all to see. Over a city that was already a hellscape, an even deeper darkness was spreading across the sky, as if the lid of hell itself had been thrown open.

The soldiers trembled in fear.

"W-what is that?"

"What just happened?"

Those within the imperial command who understood the situation to some extent erupted into cheers.

"My god!"

"He did it!"

"Lord Karnak actually did it!"

The seal, now stripped of all the Shadow of Doom, was nothing more than an ordinary stone chamber. Karnak lowered his wand. "Well, with this, we've stopped Tesranach's descent."

Of course, this alone did not mean the problem was completely solved. How much destruction would that vast Shadow of Doom, now scattered across the continent, end up causing?

Naturally, Karnak didn't care in the slightest. That's none of my concern.

That was entirely the empire's problem to handle. Turning away, Karnak jerked his chin toward Maloka and Tirafar. "Now, it's time to take care of the rest."

***

The black shadow that had once blanketed the sky over the capital was now completely gone. It was proof that all of the Shadow of Doom had dispersed.

Giyen Ren ground his teeth. "Damn it..."

All of their plans were now in ruins. At this point, they would have to start everything over from the beginning. The only small consolation was that they wouldn't need to rebuild Tesranach's faith from scratch. However, even that brought little comfort.

Previously, the church had been the one to gather the Shadow of Doom. The Cult of the Black God simply had to steal it from them to use for their purposes.

Now, however, the cult would need to gather it themselves. There was no telling how long that would take.

They would need to venture back into the world, scrape together as much of the Shadow of Doom as possible, form the soil from it, and prepare to welcome the God of Death, Tesranach. It would be a long and arduous road.

Those bastards! The furious gaze of the elven archmage fell upon Dios and his companions. They've ruined everything!

From Giyen Ren's staff, the Golden Branch, a chilling magic began to flow. Dios's expression hardened as he sensed the flow of mana. "The atmosphere surrounding him has changed."

Despite the fury on his face, Giyen Ren's flow of mana was astonishingly calm. The cult's plan was ruined. There was no longer any need to rush. All that remained was to calmly snuff out their lives.

Drel let out a bitter laugh. "The operation's success is great and all, but now it looks like we're going to die."

Detonating the Shadow of Doom did not suddenly make the archmages weaker. Whether the operation succeeded or not, nothing had changed to favor those who were facing Giyen Ren in battle.

And Dios's group was already reaching the limit of their endurance.

Giyen Ren aimed his staff and quietly muttered, "Now that it's come to this, at the very least, I will make sure of your deaths."

Mana began to swirl at the tip of the Golden Branch.. Milia, in her angelic form, hastily sent a transmission.

—Lord Karnak? You said if we held on, you would handle the rest, didn't you?

There was no reply. Karnak had already gone to the center of the grand cathedral, which meant he was out of range for their telepathic transmissions.

Milia felt a flicker of doubt. Did the captain really abandon us?

It was then that a different voice, not Karnak's, returned via transmission.

—I've come to assist you.

At the same time, dozens of streaks of black light targeted Giyen Ren's back. "Rain of Dread Fear!"

Giyen Ren was not surprised. He had already sensed their approach. He naturally turned his staff to counter. "Barrier, protect me."

A shield of light unfolded before the countless black streaks. Explosions erupted repeatedly on the barrier's surface.

Through the blasts, a black shadow emerged. It was an archlich, shrouded in tattered, fluttering robes, with blue spectral energy flickering from within. It was a dreadful sight, as if it had just crawled up from hell, but to Dios's group at this moment, it was the most welcome face they could see.

An archlich? From the Twilight Order?

Of course! So this was Lord Karnak's plan!

But... who is that?

Unless one had lived an exceedingly peculiar life, it was impossible to recognize someone just by looking at their skull. The archmage from the future, however, recognized the skeleton easily.

"Maloka, is it?" Giyen Ren's expression twisted further. "You dare pull something like this..."

***

Emil's sword closed the distance, flying in with deadly speed.

Delphiad Swordsmanship: Blade of the Radiant King!

Immediately, Varos's aura blade met it head-on. It was the exact same Strauss family sword technique that Emil used.

Delphiad Swordsmanship: Blade of the Radiant King!

Two streams of aura blades crossed in midair. With a shockwave, Varos was pushed backward. He could not withstand Emil's strike, having abandoned Reversal Blade to return to Delphiad Swordsmanship.

Yet despite this, Varos was smiling. "Why would I do something that kills the mood now that we have some breathing room?"

Emil's expression twisted. It was a statement that was literal in meaning, yet somehow managed to sound like an insult. In any case, the reason Varos had once again set aside Reversal Blade was simple. A vast presence was approaching from the other end of the corridor.

"There's still something we need to settle between us, isn't there?"

Emil let out a strained groan as he glared at the black-haired youth scattering dark energy. "Karnak Zestrad..."

He had already grasped the situation through transmissions. Maloka had gone to Giyen Ren, while Tirafar had gone to Diogres Kolon. And Karnak himself had returned to Emil Strauss.

"So, you didn't abandon your comrades after all."

From the start, it had been an operation designed so that everyone could survive. It was orchestrated with meticulous timing, ensuring that at the appointed moment, the necessary forces would be positioned exactly where they needed to be.

Karnak, Varos, and two ninth-circle archliches was a force that could overwhelm Emil Strauss, despite him being at the level of a martial king.

Now that Maloka and Tirafar had joined Giyen Ren and Diogres respectively, those two could no longer claim the upper hand so easily. The balance had been broken.

If Emil fell, the others would collapse like dominoes in turn. Karnak's group, now freed, would immediately move to assist their comrades, systematically defeating them one by one.

Emil knew this. He knew it, but there was no countermeasure. A cold sweat trickled down Emil's spine.

"It's over, Avatar of Tesranach, or whatever you are." Karnak sneered as he was about to take a step forward. And then, suddenly, his expression changed. "What?"

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