The Academy’s Deceased Ate It All

The road leading to Yeouido looked no different from anywhere else, but every route into one particular district was completely blocked off.

A massive barrier wall had been erected, and beyond the soldiers standing guard with rifles, I could see hunters and heroes with swords at their hips or spears in hand.

Government-affiliated hunters.

While we drove along the barrier toward the spot Lee Myung-jun had told us about, Choi Hyun-woo fiddled with his sword's scabbard and spoke up.

"Pretty grim atmosphere."

"This is one of the few places where an erosion-type dungeon and gate appeared. There's no telling when it might happen again, so the standard approach is to wrap the eroded zone in a barrier and keep watch over it. It'll probably stay like this for several years. The only people I feel sorry for are the ones who worked inside or owned buildings in there."

Lee Ye-eun, sitting in the passenger seat, answered as she pulled out a hunter's mask and cap from somewhere and tugged them on.

"Pardon me."

"Go ahead."

Her trademark green hair began turning black in an instant.

"This hair really stands out too much, doesn't it? No need to advertise that you or I have come here."

"That's… true, I suppose."

Lee Ye-eun smiled at me with her eyes as she spoke.

With the cap and mask on, plus the black hair, she looked oddly unfamiliar, and my response came out a beat late.

"Hmm."

She made a small sound and looked at me for a moment, then smiled at me with her eyes once more before turning her head to face forward.

While I was wondering what that was supposed to mean, Shin Woo-seok murmured as he spoke.

"Pardon me too, everyone else."

While Shin Woo-seok changed each of our hair colors and we put on hunter masks, we arrived in front of the small checkpoint Lee Myung-jun had mentioned.

"What's the purpose of your visit?"

"Should've been notified about us already."

Shin Woo-seok, whose appearance and voice had shifted at some point, answered curtly.

The soldier peered in through the slightly lowered window and nodded.

"Confirmed."

"Right, thanks for the hard work."

The soldier stepped aside and saluted, and Shin Woo-seok raised a hand in acknowledgment.

Then he drove straight through the wide-open checkpoint.

"I was a bit on edge, but luckily it went smoothly. Normally they'd never let an inspection go like that."

I gave a small nod at Shin Woo-seok's words, his voice now back to normal.

It looked like Lydia and Lee Myung-jun had moved quickly, just as I'd asked.

"So, do you happen to remember where the building is, sir?"

"I remember it."

"Then is that where we're headed?"

Jin Ye-seul answered, and Lee Yu-na followed with a question.

I shook my head slightly.

"No. We're going there, yes, but that's not our destination."

"Huh? Why not?"

"The energy and death-aura a necromancer leaves behind don't stay put — they flow around like water. Still, that's our starting point, so it makes sense to begin our search there."

I remembered it clearly, having played as a necromancer myself.

The death-aura left behind by a necromancer can't be detected through normal means, and it drifts around the area like a current, laying curses on everything it touches.

That's why some playstyles deliberately lure opponents to places where death-aura lingered, or to spots steeped in death's energy, while others involved pulling tricks beforehand to maximize one's power before combat.

…Of course, doing things like that raised your karma or got you publicly branded, so you couldn't pull those moves carelessly.

In any case, the only ways to neutralize a necromancer's lingering energy were either to have a priest — basically the necromancer's opposite — purify it, or to wait it out.

'…But.'

The Han Su-yeong from the other world.

There was no way an average priest could neutralize what she'd left behind.

Not even the holy knight Laura Hartmann could pull that off.

That had to be why they'd sealed the area off this thoroughly and resolved to wait it out.

In fact, on the way in, I'd spotted things scattered around that priests appeared to have set up.

Probably to speed up the purification process, even by a little.

And even another necromancer couldn't just freely use the energy she'd left behind.

If they tried to handle more than they could absorb, the body would rot from the inside out, or their mana would back up and kill them on the spot — necromancer or not.

I'd thought there wasn't a single being capable of handling the energy she'd left behind.

None of the Seven Calamities used necromancy or anything close to raising the dead.

Milited used techniques that came closest, but even those operated in a fundamentally different domain.

'Not that this excuses anything…'

The moment I heard the word "lich," I should've considered this possibility.

We pulled up right in front of the building Jin Ye-seul had described — the one Margo had turned into a dungeon.

Choi Hyun-woo stepped out of the car, glanced around, and muttered.

"…Is it just me, or do none of you feel anything either?"

"No, Hyun-woo, you're normal. A necromancer's death-aura doesn't register unless the conditions are special. And like I said, it doesn't sit still."

In my head, I kept seeing the Han Su-yeong from that other world — the one I'd met that day, with power that left no room for resistance.

Sbeungali had said she had enough strength that, while she couldn't defeat Minerva, Juno, or Venus, she could at least put up a real fight.

The fact that she could do that on her own already put her beyond the realm of human.

And then there were the undead she commanded…

The more I dredged them up from memory — etched in there as sharply as they were — the more certain I became that an energy that vast couldn't have just disappeared.

"Normally, anyone who isn't a priest or a sensor-type wouldn't find so much as a trace…"

I turned to look at the others.

The ones here who could definitely pick up on that kind of energy were me, with the World Tree, Lee Ye-eun, and as I'd mentioned, Lee Yu-na — a high-end sensor-type.

Shin Woo-seok said his specialty was setting barriers and detection, but whether he could actually pick anything up here was anyone's guess.

"Noona, let's use the World Tree to find the trace together, like I do. With both of us, it shouldn't take long."

"Sure, sounds good. Been a while since we've worked together like this."

Lee Ye-eun stepped closer to me as she spoke.

When I extended my hand, she did the same.

Then, almost in unison, as though we'd timed it together, we began scattering World Tree branches across the ground.

"Hh…"

While each of us searched in our own way, we closed our eyes and steadied our breathing as though meditating. Shin Woo-seok was quietly forming hand seals and murmuring incantations beside us.

Choi Hyun-woo stood watch around us as if to protect us, while Jin Ye-seul kept poking at Henir's Shadow with her finger as if scolding it for no reason, then started keeping watch on the surroundings the same way Choi Hyun-woo was.

[Tracking the death-aura a necromancer left behind is going to be brutally difficult.]

I nodded at Sbeungali's words, acknowledging I already knew.

Even so, I couldn't help feeling a little relieved.

Surveillance and security in here had to be airtight, which meant the lich couldn't openly scan for the energy either.

On top of that, since it was so hard to detect in the first place, there was a real chance he hadn't found it yet.

"That way."

"Hm?"

While I was thinking that, Han Su-yeong — who'd been standing there in a daze — suddenly pointed somewhere with her finger.

"That way. It's over there."

Her voice was full of certainty.

Even though I knew she had no way of detecting this kind of energy at all, I found myself nodding anyway.

"Let's go check."

"What?"

"Let's go — the way Su-yeong said. She's that sure about it, so something must be there."

She wasn't the type to act like that without being sure.

More than anything, she was the one who'd spent the most time in contact with the other world's Han Su-yeong… that is, her own self from another future.

She might've actually sensed something.

"…Here."

After following her for a while, we came to a stop in front of a fairly large commercial building.

Lee Ye-eun and I reflexively stretched our World Tree branches toward it, but we couldn't feel anything.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. It's here. I'm sure of it."

I thought it over for a moment, then pulled out my phone and sent our current coordinates to Lee Myung-jun and the others.

Then I turned to Shin Woo-seok.

"Woo-seok, would you mind waiting here?"

"What would you have me do, young master?"

"Set up a barrier centered on this building. And if our communications cut off after we go inside, bring in reinforcements right away — Lee Myung-jun, Laura, anyone you can reach."

"Are you planning to go in immediately?"

"Yes."

I nodded.

"Waiting it out would normally be the right call, but… a necromancer is basically a one-person army in terms of firepower. That's why anyone who learns necromancy gets branded a public enemy whether they've actually committed a crime or not."

The Han Su-yeong from the other world had been an army in the most literal sense of the word.

When she said the world had ended, she wasn't exaggerating.

If the lich got hold of what she'd left behind — devoured it, used it…

"That's why we need to move now, find the source, and secure it. No reason to hand him more time… and on top of that, if he's already in here, he's bound to have noticed us the moment we showed up."

As I was speaking, a few questions surfaced in my mind.

The other world's Han Su-yeong would've cleaned up the death-aura she'd left behind right before she died.

Not just her — any skilled necromancer or mage would do the same.

Just think about Isabel Gaudi — the witch I'd first encountered, whose name I could barely recall anymore — and how she'd left death-aura leaking around her wherever she went because her skill was so poor. That made it easy enough to understand.

But that was exactly what made me question it more.

'How the hell did he…'

How had he learned about her in the first place?

We left Shin Woo-seok outside and stepped straight into the building.

Choi Hyun-woo and I took the front, Lee Yu-na and Han Su-yeong held the middle, and Jin Ye-seul and Lee Ye-eun anchored the rear.

Each line had one person capable of detection mixed in evenly, with Choi Hyun-woo and me — both solid on defense and strong in close combat — up front.

In the middle was Lee Yu-na, sharp on her feet and ready for any situation, paired with Han Su-yeong, who'd serve as artillery with her magic.

And in the rear, Lee Ye-eun would snipe with her bow and provide support through the World Tree's blessing, with Jin Ye-seul guarding her side and ready to react instantly to any surprise attack — the most optimal formation we could've put together.

With every preparation in place, we stepped into the building and took a quick look around the unsettlingly quiet, empty space.

"So how do we do this… start at the basement? Or head up first and work our way down?"

"Let's check the surroundings one more time."

At my words, Lee Ye-eun, and Lee Yu-na too, began scanning again to see if anything had been hidden nearby.

But this time, again, we couldn't feel a thing.

I was just about to glance sideways, wondering if Han Su-yeong might've gotten it wrong, when it happened.

"Su, Su-yeong! What are you—?!"

Before a startled Lee Yu-na could stop her, Han Su-yeong abruptly hurled a fireball at one spot and blew it apart.

We all stared at her, stunned by the sudden movement, when—

"…Just like you said, Ji-hyeok."

Han Su-yeong frowned, pressed a hand to her forehead, and let out a sigh as she lifted her arm.

"Looks like he already knew. He was waiting for us."

"Hk—!"

The instant she finished speaking, Choi Hyun-woo swung his sword and knocked something flying through the air, while I reached a hand down toward the shadow to draw a weapon.

"…Huh?"

[Hm? Hey — Minerva!]

Nothing came out, and as I looked down to see what was going on, spears and swords suddenly poured out in a clatter.

Had Minerva taken over Henir's Shadow completely?

I clicked my tongue softly as I grabbed the weapons that had spilled out and gripped them in both hands.

"Skeletons, huh. Real textbook."

Lee Ye-eun muttered after firing off arrows in rapid succession, shattering the skeleton that had hurled a jagged iron pipe at us.

"Looks like this is the place. Don't tell me he found it first?"

"But there was nothing to sense. Un, undead always carry a specific feel to them — there's no way to hide it…"

While Choi Hyun-woo and Lee Yu-na were muttering, Han Su-yeong cut in.

"…It's different from what I felt that time."

I nodded at her words.

She was right.

Undead that could hide their presence.

Was this thing capable of summoning undead like that?

If the other world's Han Su-yeong had created undead that could fully wield their abilities from when they were alive, then it seemed the lich of Milited's children could create undead that hid their presence.

'You should've told me about something like this…'

I silently blamed Belluna and took up a combat stance.

Then I heard rattling everywhere around us, along with the feel of things on the move.

"Mm…"

"Hmph."

A countless flood of skeletons began pouring out from every direction.

Lee Ye-eun scanned the area and quietly sent out the branches of the World Tree, while Jin Ye-seul let out an amused snort and slid blades out from her shoes.

That's when it happened.

A different sound rang out — not the rattling of skeletons, but the sharp clang of metal.

And among everyone who turned to look at the source, it was Choi Hyun-woo — of all people — who spat out a curse loaded with raw emotion.

"…That son of a bitch."

A dullahan was walking out from beyond our line of sight.

The death knight known to carry a sword in one hand and his own severed head in the other.

And in that knight's hand was Choi Hyun-woo's severed head.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!