[Notes from Mimosab] Thanks to all proofreaders for their work: Eternal, Armada, Seviper9, Auryum, Yarai Kouichi, evilsanta1423 & PuszekSE.
"Van Hawk, Neturus, come back!"
Weed used Lion's Roar to call back Van Hawk and the Doom Knight Hero Neturus.
"Our master calls for us."
"We shall move immediately."
Elite undead knights in the middle of combat repelled their enemies and rushed to the tower of skeletons.
Death Knights and Doom Knights.
These dangerous beings wore armour that had been worn down over time, exposing their bones, which had been discolored by darkness.
Their aura was foreboding, and they looked menacing.
And Weed was the one leading them.
"Kaargh!"
An aura of dark magic seeped through the air like a fog.
Crows cried with all of their vocal strength.
"We await your command, our lord of immortality."
Weed stood atop the tower of skeletons, and high-level undead Doom Knights bowed humbly before him.
Van Hawk had been standing upright, but soon kneeled alongside the other undead.
The commanding authority of a Necromancer was in full effect.
'This is what it feels like to wield real power.'
Weed's chest swelled with pride.
Is this how the chairman of a conglomerate feels?
Is this what it feels like to be a politician, like a mayor or the representative of a town?
This sensation of earning the loyalty of countless subordinates.
Weed was being worshipped by the Doom Knight Hero Neturus as well as hundreds of thousands of other undead soldiers, though 99% of them were either skeletons that lacked proper communication abilities or zombies that were dripping pieces of flesh.
He was also attracting attention from the Northern users and from the Hermes Guild members who had gathered nearby.
This was the moment to show off a trick he had hidden up his sleeve to fully make use of the situation.
Weed raised his skeleton staff, spreading dark energy.
"Behold. This is my Magic."
It was one of the magic spells written in Bar Khan's Necromancer Tome: Concentration of Sacrifice.
"Disappear! Be consumed! All of you who crossed the boundary between life and death, sacrifice everything for me!"
He used a secret method to increase his magical power by consuming a large amount of the undead's life force.
A crimson aura covered Weed's body as his magical power increased by a whopping 75 percent.
This had also cost a lot of the undead's lifeforce, including his own, but it couldn't possibly be a problem.
< 341 Health has been absorbed. >
< 278 Health has been absorbed. >
< 94 Health has been absorbed. >
< 67 Health has been absorbed. >
< 219 Health has been absorbed. >
While it helped that he previously used Life Vessel to preserve some of his life force, he was also absorbing life force from the undead fighting in the battle.
'It's good indeed. Feels like the owner of dozens of apartments and commercial buildings collecting rent.'
Soccer was not his favorite sport, as players fairly competed on the ground while following the rules.
'It's wild and cool yet not quite thrilling enough.'
Weed's approach to victory was simple.
'I will make use of everything that can be exploited. Only then will I get a crushing victory that makes me feel relieved through and through.'
Turning the tide was not as fun as leveraging overwhelming force to stamp down on the opponent.
The only reason he had always appeared to be on the weaker side, resisting, was because every time his opponent had been the Hermes Guild.
Since his time on the Continent of Magic, Weed's keenest pleasure had been to use overwhelming force to crush his enemies.
"Fear."
"Sacrifice of Mother Earth."
"Wrath of the Dead."
"Mana Amplification."
"Power of the Cursed."
He continuously amplified his magical power by constantly sacrificing his own life force.
He had first used Sculptural Shapeshifting to turn into a Lich, and from there had then exponentially increased his magical power, yet it still grew mercilessly.
With terrifying charisma, he discharged the mana of darkness that flowed down the tower of skeletons.
It looked just like the exploding lighting of a singer's concert.
The sticky mana of darkness sprayed all over, which the undead picked up and absorbed.
As the low-level skeletons absorbed the mana, their fingernails and toenails grew, and even their hair turned bushy.
"Kaaaaooooook!"
The undead were merged like assembly blocks into a grotesque, evil monster.
But even this scene was only part of the effects created by Weed's dark mana.
"Crush flesh, bones, skin, nails and eyeballs with absolute force. Twisted, Ruptured Space."
Weed performed black magic against the Fourth Legion.
He targeted about a thousand imperial soldiers who were fighting triumphantly in black armor. The beaming dark aura surrounded them and squeezed them to death.
His dark magic instantly killed about 650 warriors!
"Kaoook!"
"Magic attack!"
Some Hermes Guild users also got attacked by the magic.
Knights were killed, and the guild members were left either dead or seriously wounded.
The only survivors were those who noticed and evaded it earlier, or those who wore a lot of holy equipment.
"Pretty powerful."
Weed felt content on his tower of skeletons.
Twisted, Ruptured Space consumed a lot of mana but worked on a large area.
It informed the caster how powerful and high-tier a magic it was.
'Seems like it's 10 times as strong as the normal effect.'
The hall of fame had once featured a video in which the dark mage John Clark from the Hermes Guild used Twisted, Ruptured Space.
"Astounding, this is black magic!"
"There's a reason for the Hermes Guild's reputation. It's daunting force."
"Holy cow, truly the best."
"80 monsters got destroyed in an instant. I'm taking note of a mage's impact on a battle."
"They just got swept away. John Clark-nim will also make it to the top ranker list."
Back then, the replies were full of exclamations and compliments.
Mages had attracted the spotlight for a long time because their attack wielded a tremendous force and could kill many within seconds.
While John Clark had used his magic against weak and evil monsters, Weed was using his against the imperial troops, who were high-level, wore equipment and were even blessed with holy power.
The large amount of consumed mana was regained in no time, depending on the performance of the undead.
"Kaaaaaghk!"
"We were reborn with the power of immortality!"
The imperial soldiers killed by the magic were revived as Dullahans or Specters, and attacked the warriors alongside whom they were fighting just moments ago.
They were also revived with many curses and enhancements cast by the dark mana.
'Well, that's one thing out of the way.'
Weed decided to up his game with a full-scale attack.
Looking around from his skeleton tower, he spared no mana for his spells.
"Revenge of Blood!"
"Infection of Thirst and Pain!"
"Firewall!"
"Sweeping Blade!"
"Plunging Land!"
Each spell targeted hundreds of users within its damage radius, and all of the spells' effects worked in combination.
They weakened the enemies with curses, spread diseases, burned them with fire and cut them with blades and winds.
He was one of the most horrible singers, yet in this moment he cast magic spells with vocal performance that matched that of a rapper.
Like a rapper free-flowing between rhymes!
His speed was limitless as he didn't have to breathe and had no tongue.
He cast spells as if he were lecturing his sentient sculptures non-stop.
"This is insane!"
"Weed-nim is using magic."
"His firepower is awesome."
Weed poured his magic on the 4th Legion only.
Dark magic consumed both life force and mana simultaneously, and some of the spells also caused physical injury or status ailments to the caster.
Although his limbs had broken and he had collapsed on the ground as the penalty, he soon recovered to his senses and rose again.
Each attack killed at least dozens of people in the Haven Empire army, and put many others out of action.
The imperial army attempted to block the magic with an array of holy equipment, but the magic stormed them.
Sometimes multiple curse spells flew in succession as if they were racing each other.
An insane level of concentrated magic!
"Don't stop, keep moving! Kill him!"
The spells penetrated Calcus' 4th Legion, but avoided the remaining northern users as well as the undead.
'Save mana!
Even as he was casting magic, Weed constantly saved a portion of the mana which he absorbed.
The mages of the 4th Legion were also attacking from afar, but his way of dealing with the situation was dumb and simple: having faith in his magic resistance and regeneration ability, Weed just endured the attacks with his whole body. That being said, most of the time the attacks hit the huge skeleton tower instead.
However, the magic spells that fell from the sky like airstrikes made it rather inconvenient to recite spells.
"Van Hawk, send skeletons upward."
"Yes, my lord."
Death Knights threw skeletons into the sky.
"Barrier of Souls."
Weed extracted the souls from the skeletons and created a powerful magic protection barrier around him.
It might not be as strong as the Absolute Defense spell that Bar Khan had used in combination with his two other great magics, Dark Rule and Death Aura, but nevertheless it was quite effective.
It was an impressive skill, except that it was a temporary spell consuming a lot of skeletons and mana.
*Saeeeeek!*
*Koooooong!*
The attacks from the imperial mages collided with the barrier of souls in the air, which absorbed most of the damage, and exploded, causing a strong wind like a typhoon on the ground.
"That tickles."
Both sides were thrown into disarray by the magic attack.
Checking the amount of mana he had saved, Weed started reciting a long spell.
"Spear of thunder that pierces the sky, join hands with the raging land to punish all. Summon the grand power of mana that lulls even the last scream from weaklings…"
Dark purple rays of light engulfed him as he was chanting at the top of his tower of skeletons.
The sheer terror of the final boss!
He completed his spell without a single mistake, and he didn't forget to enhance its power by spending twice the amount of mana.
"Land-Burning Lightning!"
Once again he aimed at the 4th Legion.
Dozens of lightning bolts struck from the sky.
The lightning kept moving within a certain area.
The land collapsed, devouring people in the process, while the horses of the Knights Templar were stunned.
< You have acquired experience points. >
< You have acquired experience points. >
< You have acquired experience points. >
< Level Up. >
Huge amounts of experience points rolled in!
< Your Undead Power stat increases by 361 as the users were slaughtered to death mercilessly >
His Undead Power was increasing a lot, but he decided to set that fact aside for now.
< You killed Butcher Kerok, who had a bounty on his head.
Your reputation increased by 2,381.
Your notoriety decreased by 31. >
Ironically his notoriety fell as the Hermes Guild has a lot of bad guys.
"Kahahahahahahahaha!"
With a sinister laughter, Weed once again cast the attack magic. His mana pool hit rock bottom yet became refilled through the battle of the undead.
"He's a monster, a real lunatic."
Myul was leading his Legion of griffon knights in the sky, and looking down at the ground. Whenever Weed recited a spell, he witnessed a chilling scene of a large area getting destroyed by curses or offensive magic.
'Just how strong are you?'
He was pulling off something beyond the imagination of Bard Ray or the regular users.
Although some Legendary-class magic weapons might be able to cause a similar effect, this monster wasn't even taking a break and kept casting a string of spells.
– Calcus: Myul! Quickly start the assault!
He casually ignored Calcus's urgent whisper message.
"I did come here to kill Weed, but it's a bit difficult in the current situation."
While the 4th Legion would enjoy a short moment of relief if the 2nd Legion descended for an attack, it would also mean that his griffon knights would have to endure the damage.
Magic was the weakness of those who dominated the sky.
His army would be decimated if he led them down through Weed's magic attacks.
'Let's wait for an opportune moment when he loses power… But will he?'
Myul squinted his eyes.
Curses, dark magic and invincible life force; he was merciless against the imperial army, befitting the reputation of worst Necromancer Lich.
That didn't mean, of course, that he could simply remain indomitable for eternity.
The size of the undead army raised through Dark Rule, and especially the number of zombies and skeletons were rapidly decreasing because of the Imperial Soldiers.
Upon realizing that Weed was fueling his mysteriously strong magic power with mana obtained from the undead, the soldiers started smashing skeletons thoroughly.
Nevertheless, ghosts or Death Knights reigned on the battlefield, and the Doom Knights' massacre raged on.
The Doom Knights' combat strength was pumped up, but not as much as the Death Knights', who were shrouded in a whole array of buffs, with battle strength far surpassing the generally known statistics for their species.
'This is a real headache. How can it be so difficult to kill one guy after gathering forces on this scale…'
Myul decided to step back and watch the fight for a while. His force was never aided by the ground army, even during the conquest of the Central Continent. Most of the time, he was the one supporting other imperial troops, so he owed them no favor.
"Goddamn, bullshit. Fuck!"
Forgetting it was broadcast live, Calcus kept swearing.
"Can't you just die already!"
Even as he spat out no-brainer words, his brain calculated fast.
Soldiers, knights.
The Hermes Guild members in his army were dying and reviving as the undead.
'His attacks are only targeting our Legion. The damage is too big.'
The plan to wage a siege against Weed had started well.
Based on past experience, it was predictable that surrounded northern users would resist violently and that Weed would transform into a Lich.
'But this is too powerful. This…'
A sheer number of the undead reminiscent of Bar Khan's Immortal Legion, and fierce magic attacks!
Even if the enemy proved victorious, Calcus and the commanders of the other Legions hoped to retain their Legions' strength to fight.
But the northern users, the undead and Weed fought back too vehemently in this siege.
'Why am I the only target?'
"Weed! You're using a dirty undead summoning trick. I, Vulkan, shall punish you!"
Following the blaring proclamation, one warrior shrouded in light flew to Weed.
'Who's that?'
Calcus felt gratitude for that warrior.
For about 1.5 seconds.
*Kuurung!*
A bolt of lightning struck the user, frying him to death.
Under the eyes of all those watching, the user who called himself Vulkan died helplessly. Then he got resurrected as a Death Knight.
"Kaaaaaagh, I have come to liberate you from death!"
The freshly risen Death Knight was swiftly destroyed since he was in the middle of the imperial forces.
"Damn, what are the other Legions doing?"
"They're killing the undead."
"They want to get an advantage while we get decimated. We don't have other choice, so speed up!"
"Low-level troops will fall behind. Skeletons keep rising from the dead."
"The Hermes Guild members and the cavalry will lead the attack to break through enemy lines, even if that brings them further from the headquarters. We will end this battle."
"Yes, sir!"
Calcus ran to the group of skeletons with only his main knight force.
Their target was Weed, atop the skeleton tower!
'800 meters? We can rush that in a few strides.'
They ran through the skeletons on horseback while smashing Dullahans and Death Knights with their spears.
They chose to run through their enemies even though they would rise back in the next moment.
''That's…"
Upon seeing their movement, Heiller of the 3rd Legion started to feel hurried.
"We'll be losing our achievement if Calcus succeeds. Speed up. Go!"
He didn't want the 4th Legion to take all the credit.
The 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th Legions' knights forged forward at a rapid pace.
They penetrated like a sharp awl among northern users, and the undead scattered widely.
Weed laughed, his jaw bone clanking.
'Underestimating me, aren't you?'
(To be continued… )
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