Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 121

Chapter 121: The Soul Forge – Part 3

The laughter from Joe continued.

It wasn’t maniacal.

It wasn’t hollow.

It was joyous.

Like a man who had waited lifetimes for a purpose and finally found it.

Kai stood frozen, one hand still outstretched from the moment he had embedded Ralts’ chaos sigil into Joe’s soul. The echo of Joe’s laugh lingered, rattling against the stone of the chamber like an old hymn sung in a forgotten church.

Joe lifted his skull. Tattered flesh clung to fragments of jawbone, and dried sinew cracked with the motion. Still, despite the corpse-like appearance, his voice carried a reverence Kai hadn’t expected.

“M-master.”

Kai blinked. “Joe… you were already partly sentient. How?”

Joe tilted his skull, the movement more human than most undead should be capable of. Kai had only seen it from Ralts.

“I think… because I am strong.”

Kai frowned. “Most of my undead are strong. What do you mean?”

Joe’s glowing blue eyes dimmed, as if looking inward.

“Not strength of body. Strength of will.”

Kai’s frown deepened. That answer wasn’t just unusual. It was unnerving. There had always been a line, a barrier between the creator and the created. Joe had been a battle-thrall, raised without identity, without purpose. Disposable. Replaceable.

And yet…

“But nobody else-”

“They wait,” Joe interrupted, voice hoarse but certain.

Kai narrowed his eyes. “Wait? What do you mean? Who? The other undead?”

“I do not know,” Joe admitted. “It is a feeling. A pressure. Like a gate that will open… once they receive the chaos sigil.”

Kai looked down at the rune etched on Joe’s chest. The sigil Ralts had on her forehead from a time when she was still human. It pulsed faintly from Joe, threads of reality seeming to fray around its edges. The air shimmered where his fingers brushed the symbol.

‘What exactly did Ralts create with this? Who taught her this kind of magic? Did she engrave it on herself… or was it gifted by something else?’

The questions clawed at the edge of his thoughts, but he set them aside. For now, there was clarity enough in Joe’s presence.

‘Chaos sigils, at the very least, connect undead with some sense of self.’

“You serve as Ralts’ protective guard,” Kai said, watching Joe’s undead form. “You and your three shadow death knights. Is this agreeable?”

Joe tilted his head further, as if weighing the command against something deeper.

“Will I be able to fight strong enemies?”

Kai’s grin returned despite himself.

‘This guy… he hasn’t changed. Not really.’

“The strong will come for my best spellcaster,” he said. “So yes. You’ll fight many strong opponents.”

Joe’s jaw opened slightly, his skeletal teeth clacking together in what could only be interpreted as a smile.

“Good. Thank you, master. I will protect the small one. Even if I fall again. She was the friend of the man I once was. It feels right… to protect her this time.”

Kai’s brows drew together, softened. “Thank you?”

Joe nodded. “The man I was… He worried in life… that he would grow old. Become weak. You’ve given him a new form. One that will never stop fighting.”

“You are welcome, Joe.”

And for once, Kai meant it.

He could feel it now.

Something he hadn’t wanted to admit before. From Joe, loyalty wasn’t merely an effect of necromantic command. It radiated from him. Fierce. Willful. Alive, in a way that Kai had never truly seen from the undead.

He had worried about Joe before, worried that the reckless fighter would turn disobedient, erratic, and dangerous. But whatever the chaos sigil had unlocked, it hadn’t twisted Joe. It had revealed him.

‘I don’t think the others are strong enough to handle this,’ Kai thought. ‘If they fail the sigil… they’ll disintegrate. Joe was a risk. One I could afford to lose. But he survived, and he changed.’

“Good,” Kai said finally, with quiet confidence. “Because the next time they come… we’ll be ready.”

He gestured, and both Joe and Ralts were drawn back into his shadow space, swallowed by the swirling darkness like forgotten memories. But this time, he didn’t close the shadow.

Instead, Kai paused.

An idea sparked in his mind. Dangerous. Exciting.

He expanded his shadow space, pouring his will into it until it stretched like a living void. Tendrils of darkness crept outward, coiling around the Soul Forge like snakes circling prey. The air around him hissed and vibrated with resistance.

The forge doesn’t want to leave.

He gritted his teeth.

The weight of the soul forge pressed against his will. It was more powerful than the Grave Maw. Stronger than Grond. Denser than a black hole of magic.

But it wasn’t immovable.

Kai forced his will into it.

“Move,” he whispered.

The air around him cracked. The shadows screamed. Veins of dark magic surged through the floor.

And slowly, agonisingly, the forge began to sink.

Kai counted.

Seven thousand and twelve seconds later, the Soul Forge vanished, swallowed entirely by the gloom. Kai collapsed to one knee, sweat dripping from his forehead, his breathing ragged.

Then he looked up.

“…That’s fucking brilliant.”

He pumped his fist, unable to contain the surge of adrenaline.

“I don’t even need to come back to the academy,” he whispered, a grin curling on his lips. “Not when I have this.”

His heart pounded in his chest. The possibilities roared in his ears.

With the forge now portable, his production of souls, undead, and fusions had become unshackled from location or time.

He could build armies on the move.

He could grow his power anywhere.

“Those wyverns…” Kai laughed to himself. “They won’t stand a chance.”

He glanced around the chamber one last time, noting the relics on the walls, soul-bound objects, dormant but pulsing with potential. He didn’t need them now. He swept his hand and pulled them into his shadow space like scattered leaves.

No need to rush.

The weight of exhaustion was beginning to creep in at last, no longer dulled by adrenaline or focus.

Even Kai had his limits.

Still, despite the drain, there was a pep in his step, an unshakable sense of momentum, as he turned away from the forge chamber.

He activated his Umbral Mantle, his form bleeding into shadow, and slipped away from the academy building without disturbing the Devourer that haunted its halls.

No alarms. No eyes. No threats.

He made his way across the city under the cover of darkness, through alleys and rooftops, until the crooked outline of Kleo’s home came into view.

Kai stepped inside and shut the door quietly behind him.

Tomorrow, the world would wake to find him stronger.

But tonight?

He would rest.