Boren.
The world’s sole necromancer, also renowned as the Undying Boren, was trembling in a place quite unlike his title.
All around was a necropolis filled with corpses and coffins far larger than those used by humans.
This was no place for someone who doesn’t die.
In fact, since it was a graveyard meant for beasts rather than humans, it wouldn’t have suited anyone, not just Boren.
At least Boren thought he didn’t belong here.
Still, it wasn’t as if he could immediately run away.
Boren had to stay in this space, and staying here was at least better than the alternative.
‘The noise has stopped. Did I win? Or…’
The reason Boren was in this place was none other than to revive spirits for defense.
There was an intruder with a clear identity—an invader who had already killed Boren once before—and this intruder had attacked the sanctuary.
So, he retreated to prepare forces to intercept the intruder while Tiyalmisof, the ally of his master, attempted to hold off the intruder during that time.
It had been quite some time since they split up and Boren entered the necropolis alone.
During that time, the thunderous noise that had been resounding abruptly ceased, leaving behind an eerie silence.
Boren found this silence ominous.
As he swallowed hard, nausea rose from the sweltering air and stench, causing him to gag.
With a bad mood compounded by the foul smell, Boren coughed several times and began to think.
He tried to deduce how the situation was progressing.
Tiyalmisof had agreed to come to the necropolis after the battle ended.
Alternatively, if the fight seemed unwinnable, Tiyalmisof was supposed to retreat to the necropolis and continue the fight with spiritual entities.
But the fact that this didn’t happen…
‘Tiyalmisof, that bastard, couldn’t have lost… could he? Unless… did he abandon me?’
The possibility that Tiyalmisof had failed while Boren was resurrecting the ‘forces’ of spirit bodies here in the necropolis.
Boren dismissed such a possibility outright. After all, wasn’t that Tiyalmisof?
Even though the opponent had killed him once before and rumors about this priest-slaughterer were enough to make one’s skin crawl,
it would be impossible to defeat the First Mage, Tiyalmisof.
No matter how skillfully the opponent wielded savage means or how many priests they slaughtered,
Tiyalmisof was on an entirely different level.
Cowardly as it was, Boren suppressed his anxiety by relying on the greatness of another person, and influenced by his emotions, the hundreds of revived corpse spirits bared their teeth and glared at the doorway.
One by one, the corpse spirits growled as they stared at the doorway, prompting Boren, who had been muttering and clutching his head, to finally look up.
‘What is it? Is it Tiyalmisof returning? Or…’
For the briefest moment, his thoughts were interrupted by a deafening roar.
KWAHHHHH!
The door exploded as if ripped apart. Metal scraps and fragments flew everywhere.
When these fragments slid across the floor like shrapnel and crushed several corpse spirits, Boren realized that it wasn’t Tiyalmisof.
And the moment he realized this, he sent all the resurrected corpses charging towards whoever stood at the doorway.
Though cowardly and lacking any warrior’s talent, Boren was still a great archmage.
Visible were two individuals and one beast.
On the other hand, rushing towards them were countless spirits numbering in the hundreds.
Beasts spewing fire, galloping through the sky, scattering icy mists, and vomiting lightning bolts.
The numerous spirits Boren deftly commanded hurled themselves at the mere three enemies in defiance.
It was akin to a torrent of life flowing upstream.
At least, that’s how it appeared to Boren observing from behind.
Thus, the arrow cutting through this chaos stood out even more.
KWAHHHHH!
Another thunderous sound, similar to when the door broke.
Together with the roar, the giant human released the bowstring, sending an arrow surging against the tide of countless corpses.
AAEEEIIIIEEEEEEEEK!
Too fast for the eye to follow; only the sound could be heard.
It was as if the sound itself was approaching to assault Boren.
The precise sound cutting through the crowd of corpses, its sharp tip.
Surrendering to the overwhelming sense of unease, Boren clasped his hands together.
His exceptional magical prowess reflexively conjured a spell.
“Shieeeld—”
A shield specialized in blocking projectiles.
Before the glowing blue mana disc he conjured could fully block his front,
CHIING!
It shattered the mana construct.
KWADDEEET!
The arrow pierced through Boren, hurling him backward.
Thrown off balance by the force of the arrow, his legs detached from the ground, and he tumbled across the floor.
KAANG! KWAGAGAGAK!
“Ughh… Uuuuugh…”
Pain surged with each collision. His breath quickened involuntarily.
The wound in his gut sent waves of excruciating pain coursing through him, and his body ached from rolling on the ground.
Clutching his eyes tightly shut against the pain, Boren shouted.
“Kill them! Kill them all!”
The reason Boren didn’t surrender despite believing Tiyalmisof had abandoned him when the door broke open and revealed the intruders.
Even if Boren were torn to pieces, he wouldn’t die.
A necromancer cannot be killed unless all the resurrected corpses are destroyed, leaving room for resistance.
And the means of resistance were countless spirits capable of toppling kingdoms.
As Boren tried to command the spirits to attack the intruders while lying on the ground clutching his stomach and groaning,
he noticed something odd—the shadows beneath a nearby corpse twitched strangely.
“What…?”
Not just that one corpse but the shadows under all the corpse spirits writhed.
As if dancing to the flickering light of a lantern.
Just as he wondered at this strange sight, a soft voice suddenly reached his ears.
“Lewena.”
Before Boren could process the name, dark shadows shot up from beneath the countless corpse spirits.
Following this were gruesome and chilling sounds.
The tearing of raw flesh, the slicing of entrails, the scraping of bone and muscle.
Accompanying this were the sounds of blood spurting and organs falling to the ground.
Preserved well, the sounds were vivid and horrifying.
“Ahh, uh, ah?”
Boren witnessed countless black thorns sprouting suddenly.
Each of the numerous trees had countless branches, and on each branch hung corpses like fruit.
Their flowing blood was their pulp, and the scattered organs were their flowers.
Overwhelmed by this sight, Boren couldn’t utter a word.
It was the Abyss.
The Abyss rose like a tree, rendering all the spirit corpses irreparably destroyed.
Thus, there were no longer any moving corpses.
‘But how…?’
The amount of divine power the Abyss can project into Geladridion is limited.
Yet, the amount of Abyss scattered throughout this sanctuary far exceeded that limit.
Despite the divine power of hunting and prosperity making such excessive use of the Abyss impossible…
Confused and bewildered, Boren lowered his head as those standing at the doorway approached.
“Huh, how…?”
Aslan remained silent, withdrawing purity and the Abyssal Sword.
Unbeknownst to Boren, from the moment Aslan had adjusted the balance, no divine power remained in this sanctuary.
And since it was a sanctuary, external divine power couldn’t seep in, preventing the Veil of Mercy’s death from penetrating indoors.
Without divine power and unaffected by the Veil of Mercy’s death, this enclosed, dark space…
Into this space entered the medium and master of the Abyss.
Thus, the outcome was predetermined.
In essence, this space had temporarily become the Abyss.
Unaware of this fact, Boren retreated in fear, and the darkness followed as he retreated.
The walls, the dim shadows, the towering ceiling, and the seemingly bottomless floor.
Amid the countless writhing evils and deaths, Boren was terrified.
Perhaps partly due to the countless corpses impaled and hanging like taxidermy on the thorns.
As Boren backed into a wall, Aslan approached and spoke.
“Do you remember me?”
How could he not remember?
“Please save—”
“No.”
But Aslan firmly cut off Boren’s plea and raised his left fist.
A black-scaled fist that looked even more ominous than the Abyss filling the space.
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNG!
From this fist came a sound of overheating mana circuits similar to Tiyalmisof’s.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t.”
What followed was unrestrained violence.
Blind, indiscriminate beatings delivered by a fist that had previously dismantled the Divine Sword burning with divine power.
Filled with rage, there was no mercy in this fist, and every punch tore chunks from Boren’s body, which regenerated repeatedly.
But Boren was the Undying One.
A necromancer freed from death and a being incapable of dying from physical harm.
Therefore, no matter how fiercely Aslan pummeled him, he couldn’t die.
At least, not physically.
“Kill me.”
KWAHHH!
A hammer-like left fist slammed into Boren’s face, caving it in and splattering blood.
Broken lenses flowed out, and his distorted face, showing signs of brain damage, slurred his speech.
His words, whether pleading for salvation or death, were ambiguous, but Aslan continued the beating regardless.
When the beating ended, the floor was littered with parts of Boren’s body.
His huddled form was clean, but his mind was shredded and rotten.
Boren’s body hadn’t died, but his spirit had.
Watching the blood-soaked black fist, Boren trembled violently.
“Why were you here?”
With his spirit broken, Boren had no choice but to answer.
“To, to bring back creatures as ordered by our victorious lady, Ados.”
“Were Tiyalmisof and Ados the same person? Why was Tiyalmisof here?”
Even if the question seemed absurd, there was no mockery or rebellion in his response, only answers.
“Not, not at all! Tiyalmisof is an ally of Lady Ados. They merely… closely collaborate and pursue each other’s research…”
“Why does Tiyalmisof talk so much? Even when it’s disadvantageous, he never stops talking until the moment of death.”
Even if the information was unknown, he made efforts to answer any questions asked.
Even when shocked during questioning, he answered while trembling.
“I don’t know. He always lacked tension. Always talked too much and… acted as if he had multiple lives.”
Although his answer seemed ridiculous, he himself curled up after saying it.
“…So, that’s how it was.”
Aslan merely wore an uncomfortable expression as if he had expected this.
Thus, the questioning continued, and after asking for quite some time, Aslan finally fell silent.
Then, he subtly nodded to Tiamat standing directly behind him.
Even though blind and unable to see, Tiamat sensed the nod and spoke.
“The last question. Where did Harrod revive, and is that really Harrod?”
Likewise, Boren had no choice but to answer.
“I found him before the underworld collapsed, searching for anything that could serve as maximum power in the underworld. It took effort because his self-awareness was blurred, but when revived, he proved useful… His name was Harold Crow.”
At this answer, Tiamat sighed.
“So, that’s how it is. You’ve listened well.”
After a long sigh, the towering giant drew his bow and released the string without warning.
POW!
An unexpectedly agile shot for such a large figure.
It struck Boren’s forehead, shattering his head.
The last thing Boren saw was the giant’s expression.
Even though the giant had a face structure different from humans, the clear expression conveyed resignation and bitterness.
Freed from death, Boren fell with his head shattered.
Once his head regenerates sufficiently, his sanity and intellect will return, and he’ll rise again.
But for now, with his head shattered, Boren couldn’t even think.
Only nothingness, silence, and emptiness remained.
As this eternity stretched on, Boren remained unaware that his head had regenerated or that he’d been dragged to the campsite without being bound.
Thus, he didn’t notice Lewena extending her hand over his bald head and channeling mana.
Whether the chicken or the egg came first, something Boren could never know.
While orchestrating illusions of death and emptiness, Lewena smirked.
“To think he believes himself dead. What a fool.”
Even to this mockery, Boren couldn’t respond.
