Chapter 47 - Sanctuary (1)

Necromancer. A type of mage who forcibly revived and subjugated souls that had already died and crumbled. Unlike corpse mages who handled physical forms like corpses, it was a mysterious miracle that unfolded using the abstract concept of souls.

It was a formula that couldn't even be attempted without understanding of souls and talent for handling them. Though not a unique magic, it was a heretical technique with a level of danger and difficulty comparable to one.

Like corpse mages who handled corpses and blood mages who handled blood, the source of life, necromancers also needed to abandon some of their humanity to achieve greatness.

From the 7th rank where they started to gain magic's uniqueness, they gradually began to abandon human ethics, and by the 8th rank of archmage, it was equivalent to a state where humanity was completely lost.

The mage before them was like that. An archmage like Jerbil and Ena. A monster who had long since lost human heart. A high-level mage who acted solely on their own judgment and reason.

"We need to escape," Warren muttered. 

The group didn't turn to look at him, but agreed with his words in silence.

From the start, it was an opponent they couldn't win against. Archmages were each treated as a country's main military strength. For those who were still just Academy students to discuss their chances against such a mage? It was nonsense. Before courage, it was arrogance and recklessness.

At this moment, even talent didn't mean much.

Acel gritted his teeth and racked his brain to break through the current situation.

Resistance would only be a momentary reprieve. To survive, they first had to get out of this place.

But how?

The moment such a question arose, countless souls that had risen behind her convulsed while shackled to her. They listed incomprehensible words, screamed, and drooled as if about to pounce at any moment.

It didn't matter much whether they were excellent warriors or intellectual mages in life. Their current forms were simply evil spirits living only to kill others.

However, their abilities were exactly the same as when they were alive. Even at a glance, there were high-level warriors and mages everywhere. Easily over dozens of talents hard to see anywhere else.

Moreover, even these were just means to assist the necromancer. The most dangerous thing in this place was the necromancer herself who directly grasped and wielded souls.

Acel swallowed hard and layered shields to protect his body. The necromancer smiled languidly watching this.

"I believe you're all done preparing. I seem to have given you plenty of time."

"..."

"Then let's begin," she said, extending her hand forward.

That was the signal. The shackles binding the souls were released. They all began to rush in, craving the blood and flesh of the living. Mages chanted magic, and warriors drew their weapons and accelerated their bodies.

"...!"

A speed too fast to be captured even by Acel's expanded senses. But he faintly noticed the paths of the swords they were swinging. Acel gritted his teeth and clapped his hands hard. From his hands that should have made a clapping sound, a roar like thunder burst out.

Small flashes of light scattered in the direction the sound spread.

Soon, the flashes became dozens of lightning bolts that swept everything the sound touched.

[Thunder Mist]

Boom!!

High-level magic used to face armies or change terrain. Its power needed no explanation.

But most of the dead filling the cave were those who had rolled through battlefields in life. They might not be able to fully withstand the speed and destructive power unique to lightning magic, but they could deflect it to minimize damage.

Thanks to this, the dead circling around Acel had limbs torn off but didn't return to souls.

To begin with, they were beings that constantly regenerated unless their connection to the necromancer was cut off. Partial bodily loss was nothing to them.

"Shit!"

Acel heard Quill's cursing in his ears. However, he had no leisure to turn to look at him. Acel reverse-calculated and decomposed the fireball flying towards him, using it as power for his own magic.

[Great Flame Rotating Pillar]

Roar!!

A huge pillar of flame rotated roughly centered on Acel. Those who sensed the residual magical power hastily retreated, and the upper bodies of those who couldn't were torn off as if melting.

It was meaningless damage. They soon regenerated arms and thrust swords through the flames towards Acel's neck.

Acel instinctively inserted a shield into the sword's path, but the shield shattered like glass without any resistance. The aura of a dead person close to master level sliced through the shield like tofu and approached to cut off Acel's neck.

Acel frowned deeply and hastily tilted his head back. Thanks to this, he barely avoided having his head fly off, but about half of his left ear was cut off.

"Ugh...!"

Blood splattered across one side of his vision. Piercing through that blood, this time a spear flew in. He pulled out magical threads to tie the spear shaft and reversed its path. At the same time, an assassin approached with concealment magic and stabbed a dagger into Acel's back.

The most intense pain he had felt since becoming a mage heated his head, and Acel vomited blood while grabbing and bursting the assassin's head with telekinesis magic. Then he smashed everything flying towards him—swords, spears, arrows, magic—pushing them away with mass.

The attacks that had been pouring in furiously stopped for a moment. Acel didn't miss this moment of respite and spat out a lump that had risen up his throat along with blood.

"Ugh!"

Red organ pieces fell to the floor with a splat. It was because part of his organs had been sliced off by the assassin's dagger. He gritted his teeth and pulled out the dagger stuck in his back, throwing it to the floor.

Woong.

He surrounded his eyes with magical power. His vision, now crossing into the realm of mystery, took in the situation of his companions.

Quill's ankle was twisted backwards. Fortunately, no part of his body had been cut off, but there was a deep stab wound on his side. Whether hit by magic or not, deep burn marks were engraved on his left forearm.

Warren was on the verge of death. His neck must have been deeply cut, as blood bubbled from his mouth with every breath. Thanks to his spirit sharing its life force, he hadn't died yet, but it was clear he would die in a few minutes.

Saya was fixed in place by a spear that had pierced her abdomen, unable to move. Blood kept pouring from her mouth, and although she was responding to the dead's attacks through fox-fire, it was visible that her life force was disappearing in real-time.

Thanks to the dead focusing on Acel, the number of enemies they had to face wasn't that many, but even so, the difference in capability was clear. There was no way they could hold out long against the dead with no experience and low levels.

In the end, Acel was the only one relatively intact. He glared at the necromancer and wiped the blood smeared on his mouth.

"...You bastard."

Curses naturally sprang out as the situation became dangerous. The necromancer heard his swearing and smiled comfortably.

"Beings close to death are divided into two types. Those who struggle to the end and those who accept death. You're the former."

"..."

"I like such beings. When made into dead, their egos are strong so they're hard to handle, but there's a taste in subjugating them. What you're facing now are those who couldn't do that. In simple terms, they're not even my elite soldiers. They're maggots I consume and discard carelessly."

"Shut up."

"But don't worry. I have no intention of consuming you like that."

She split the corners of her mouth wide and looked down at Acel with greedy eyes.

"The sight of you using all kinds of magic including lightning formulas. I watched very impressively. You even showed signs of awakening magic eyes. Very good. I'll specially make you my royal guard."

"..."

"And I should show your transformed dead appearance to your master, my younger sister. It would be a truly pleasant experience."

"Younger sister?"

Words that couldn't be easily dismissed popped out. Acel's head stopped for a moment, and the necromancer showed a warm expression.

"The chat ends here. And you're not in a leisurely situation to ask me anything, are you?"

She lightly flicked her finger as she finished speaking. Then one of the mages lined up behind her manifested and fired magic without any sign. Acel ground his teeth and reversed the direction of the magic.

A strange situation where he was hit by magic he himself had manifested. But the dead person didn't panic. Neither did the necromancer.

She still looked down at Acel with a smiling face and crushed the incoming magic.

Acel took his gaze off her and sent a spearman rushing towards him flying with repulsive force.

Her words were right.

Focusing on questions in a life-or-death situation was madness. The important thing was to safely escape this place.

Acel forcibly swallowed another surge of blood and took out a jewel he had kept in his chest.

A magic medium with formula engraving completed through crafting work that didn't suit him. Acel threw the jewel to the floor without hesitation. Then dozens of magic circles floated in the air, and he injected magical power only into the necessary ones to manifest them.

[Lightning Mist]

[Smoke Mist]

[Flame Banner Restraining Fire]

[Lightning Flower Resonance]

Magic of all kinds activated simultaneously.

Lightning filled the space like mist.

Smoke rose to fill the cave, and a huge flame banner was planted in the ground, spewing fire.

Flowers made of lightning bloomed everywhere, resonating with each other to form lightning zones.

A feast of magic occupying space. Acel left behind the dead who couldn't easily approach the surroundings and connected magical threads to the bodies of Warren and Quill, who were writhing in pain. He lifted them into the air and ran towards Saya.

The two people tied with threads collapsed as soon as their feet touched the ground. Quill, with one leg crushed and organs spilling from his side, couldn't even stand properly, and Warren couldn't do anything but gasp for breath.

Saya, groaning while pierced by a spear, was the same. She vomited blood while looking at Acel who had approached nearby with trembling eyes.

"W-what do we do? Are we, cough, are we going to die here? I don't want to... I still, I still have so much left to do... My family, my family is still...!"

"We're not dying," Acel said in a voice on the verge of death.

Saya couldn't hear his words anymore, or she just kept muttering monologues. Blood boiled every time she spoke, and her white clothes were dyed red. She wasn't in a very good state.

Everyone here was like that.

Acel forcibly opened his eyes that kept blurring due to blood loss and manifested magic. It was magic that somewhat stopped bleeding, but this alone wasn't enough to avoid death. Even if it perfectly stopped bleeding, it couldn't be a fundamental solution to survive.

Then deal with the necromancer?

Nonsense. How could they kill the necromancer, who was clearly stronger than them, when her elite soldiers hadn't even appeared yet?

The only way to survive was escape. Naturally, it was impossible to break through the necromancer and go out through the passage in the group's current state. That would just be a means of suicide. It wasn't even worth trying.

Then there was only one escape method left.

The teleportation formula Acel had directly seen. High-difficulty magic that moved to pre-set coordinates when certain conditions were met.

Just recalling it made the formula clearly visible like a picture.

There was no leisure to improve it. Instead of mentally calculating the recalled formula, Acel directly drew and activated a magic circle by pouring in a large amount of magical power. Then the magic circle glowed and began calculating the formula activation conditions.

It assessed the condition of those judged to be seriously injured. After confirming four people in critical condition, it sent an emergency alarm to the Academy medical department.

Simultaneously, the magic activated. Light emanated from the bodies of the group members who were on the verge of death, and teleportation to the designated coordinates beganㅡ

"Playing games, are we?"

Thwack!

Just before the magic activated, a magical arrow flew in from somewhere, aiming for Acel's head. Acel overlaid shields on the arrow's path and even overlapped both hands, but the arrow shattered all the shields and deeply pierced his hands.

"Ugh...!"

Fortunately, his head wasn't pierced, but due to the arrow's recoil, Acel rolled and was pushed out of the magic circle.

But the magic's activation didn't stop. He gritted his teeth and maintained the flow of magical power to manifest the teleportation formula. He moved his companions to the injured reception area from the Academy entrance exam.

Because it was magic used over a wide area rather than individually assigned to each person, the consumed magical power increased exponentially. Thanks to this, it was possible to use the unfamiliar teleportation magic accurately, but he who used the magic couldn't move and remained in the cave.

A futile result. However, Acel didn't panic. He pulled out the arrows pierced in both hands with telekinesis magic and spat out a gush of blood.

His already injured organs had been deeply damaged in the process of rolling.

A sensation of life being instantly shortened. Acel bit his lip hard and took out something from his chest with hands streaming with blood. Before the necromancer could identify what it was, she projected magical power and slammed his body to the floor.

"Cough!"

Acel's face collided with the stone floor. The impact was enough to make his head spin for a moment. Under the pressure crushing his body, he barely raised just his eyes to stare at the necromancer's face.

Her face, which had been leisurely throughout, was now sticky with unpleasant emotion.

"My oversight," she said as she stood up. "I didn't know you could even use teleportation magic. From the moment I realized, I tried to interfere with the magic, but it was strangely flawless. Thanks to that, I couldn't do anything but push you out externally, let alone interfere. Nevertheless, the magic activated, and the rest except you safely escaped somewhere."

"..."

"It's truly an unpleasant experience. If I had known this would happen, I should have sent elite soldiers from the start or come out myself. My hobby of watching the moment souls escape from beings on the verge of death held me back."

"You're still... ugh... talking a lot..."

It ws difficult to even speak due to the pressure crushing his chest. Nevertheless, Acel sneered at her.

The white hair grasped in his right hand faintly sparkled.

"You were always like that... Jerbil, that bastard too, haa, he talked so much too..."

"So you know Jerbil. Ah, right. Your previous reaction was like that."

Click, click.

The necromancer said as she walked towards Acel. The dead who wanted to kill Acel drooled and opened a path for her.

"Come to think of it, Jerbil said he was interested in Ena's disciple. It seems they've met somewhere. This is quite an interesting situation."

She grinned and lifted Acel's hair. Their gazes collided in mid-air.

"What reaction will he show if I return with your soul to the one who wants to make you a corpse? Will that drug addict seriously get angry, or will he just laugh it off as usual? I'm curious. So curious."

"...I have no intention of playing along." Acel muttered in a voice smelling of blood while bowing his head deeply. 

The necromancer mocked him. "That's for me to decide. Not you."

"No," Acel said, raising only his eyes while keeping his head bowed. "I make the decision."

At that moment, different magic burst out simultaneously from both his hands. A stealthy magical power operation that even the necromancer couldn't notice. It couldn't be a dagger to deal with her, but it was enough to take away her vision for a moment.

Bleeding caused by arrows piercing through. He manipulated that blood to draw a magic circle, and used two magics by scraping up the remaining magical power to the bottom.

[Ascending Lightning]