Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Heading Home Chapter 42: Heading Home The road beyond Ylthara stretched endlessly before Kai.

The heat from the sun made beads of sweat appear across his body as he walked.

Conditioned to the shade of the forest, Kai sighed.

‘A long trip home.

I don’t want to draw attention by riding Ignis, but it would be faster…’ Kai walked with his thoughts buried in the vast well of experience he had accumulated over the past three years.

His power had grown, his mastery over death refined, but he was still far from reaching the peak he desired.

But he decided it was enough to return home with.

The odd merchant passed him occasionally for the first day, and Kai took shelter beneath a tree as night fell.

‘I wonder how everyone will react when they see me…’ The next morning, not a single other person passed him on the roads.

Then, in the distance, the sound of chaos shattered his quiet contemplation.

Screams, the desperate cries of the living, and the snarls of beasts.

His sharp eyes honed in on the commotion ahead.

A caravan under siege.

Armoured human corpses lined the road and the stretch of plains either side.

Arcane beasts circled the battered vehicles, their bodies infused with the wild energies of the land.

A group of massive, feline-like creatures with magically charged fur tore into the remains of a few unfortunate guards.

Their eyes shined like violet jewels in the sun.

Their claws crackled with raw energy.

The survivors, a girl barely past seventeen with hair the colour of a phoenix’s plumage, and a lone older guard still standing despite the odds, were hopelessly outmatched.

Kai’s footsteps were silent as he approached creatures, his mind already calculating the most efficient way to handle the situation.  Several noises filled the area around him.

Crackles of magical energies and ferocious snarls of the arcane beasts.

Desperate screams of those caught in the chaos.

Death gurgles from several guards.

The sight before him was nothing new.

In the forest, he watched arcane beasts tear through the living with lethal precision.

The guards had been outmatched with the survivors barely hanging on.

The old guard wildly swung a sword helplessly at the approaching beasts.

Kai lips curved into a faint smile of cold satisfaction.

‘Perfect.’ With a flick of his wrist, his shadow expanded, pooling around him like a dark sea.

From it emerged Shade, a form as black as the abyss itself, coiling around the battlefield with fluid, lethal grace.

Kai’s next motion was swift, drawing his power into a single word.

Kai stepped forward, weaving a spell with effortless grace.

‘Ice Prison!’ The temperature plummeted, and four walls of ice surrounded the two survivors, protecting them from harm.

Kai’s shadow expanded beneath him, and two shapes appeared from the darkness.

Joran’s reanimated form surged from the shadows, his towering, undead presence standing above everything else on the battlefield.

Kai frowned as he examined his friend.

‘You’re…

taller?

Interesting.’ Kai’s long-dead companion wasted no time.

With unnatural speed, Joran blurred forward, his powerful strike decimating the first beast, its skull crushed in an instant under his immense strength.

The remaining creatures seemed to hesitate for a fraction of a second, sensing the tide turning.

But it was far too late.

Shade already hid amongst the creatures in their shadows.

Shade raised its claw from within one of their shadows and severed another beast in half.

Its body crumpled as if the very air around it had been sliced apart by shadows.  ‘Leave some of the corpses intact so I can raise them.

I taught you better than that, Shade.’ There was no struggle, no fight, just the silent, efficient destruction of the enemy.

Kai’s undead forces moved like an unstoppable tide, his Shade tearing through the enemies with the precision of a blade, and Joran shattering bone with every strike.

The last beast, desperate to survive, leapt toward Kai.

His movement was barely a blur as he sidestepped, raising a hand wreathed in necrotic energy.

“Wither.” The creature’s leap faltered as the very life was siphoned from its body.

It fell to the ground withering, its body shriveling as Kai’s spell drained the last of its energy.

With a final, pitiful screech, it collapsed.

‘What a waste of a corpse.’ Kai stood amidst the carnage, his presence like a dark king surveying his battlefield.

There was no need to linger.

The survivors, two scared, trembling figures, were inconsequential.

Kai’s gaze swept over them, noting their terror as they backed away.

His mouth twitched in a sardonic smile.

The girl, her hair like burning flames, stared at him as though he were the true monster of the scene.

Her hands trembled as she clutched the fabric of her shirt, knuckles white, her heart racing at the sight of his dark magic.

Her bodyguard, an older gentleman that felt as strong as Rael Drakethorne- ‘No.

This man is stronger than that.’ He held his sword pointed at Kai with his resolve steeled.

Kai’s curiosity peaked, but he shook the thoughts from his mind.

He was already off-course.

‘Shame.

If everyone died, his corpse would have been a worthy addition.’ Without a word, Kai turned his attention to the fallen.

He pressed his palm to the dead guards’ bodies, drawing out the essence of life from them.

Wisps of pale energy twisted into him, claiming what was left of their vitality.

Then he gestured casually toward the beasts.

“Mass Raise Dead.” One by one, the reanimated corpses of the beasts rose from the ground.

Their eyes, no longer filled with arcane light, glowed with the unmistakable green shimmer of Kai’s undead control.

They stood as his thralls now, mere puppets to control.

Kai melted the ice surrounding the two survivors before they froze to death.

The girl’s breath shook, and the guard tensed, ready for another attack.

Kai, however, had no interest in their petty resistance.

He had no intention of engaging them further.

He had no desire to explain himself, nor did he care to soothe the fears of those who would never understand.

The battle was over.

‘If I could even call it a battle.

That was a slaughter.’ Kai glanced once more at the girl, her expression one of horror.

‘I wonder if Zephyr might have scared her less than Joran or Shade.

But it’s fine, I have six new beasts for my collection.’ His task complete, he stepped back from the battlefield.

Kai turned away, his new undead companions, Joran, and Shade all disappearing into the shadows with a final, effortless flick of his hand.

The fight had been over before it even began.

The road ahead stretched before him once again, his mind already focused on the next stage of his journey.

— Kai stood on a cliff face, gazing down at the place he had once called home.

The village of Orrinsby sat nestled between the rolling hills, its familiar dirt paths and simple wooden homes as unassuming as ever.

‘This isn’t right.’ Even the air smelled different.

It no longer smelled like the comforting scent of fresh soil and burning firewood he remembered, but something sharper, tainted with the acrid bite of charred wood and incense.

He could see the remains of buildings burned to their foundations.

Skeletal husks stood in place of the homes he used to know.

The people moved differently.

Hushed, hurried, casting wary glances toward a newly erected stone structure near the village square.

A new building, several stories high, replaced the old church, having been constructed over the last three years.

Kai narrowed his eyes.

It was unmistakable.

The banners of the inquisition marked the front of the church.

Grander than anything that belonged in a village this small.

His fingers curled into his palm, nails pressing against his skin.

The last time he dealt with the church, they had been hunting him through the streets of Ylthara.

And now, they were here, in his home.

In droves.

Kai lost count of the priests walking around the village that increased in size by at least half since he left in that wagon over three years ago.

He let out a slow breath, shaking off the creeping unease.

‘I need to stay focused.

It’s only been three years.

I’ve changed a little, but what about my family?

Peter’s probably causing trouble, Mari’s probably helping at the house with Lila’s job, and Garrett is probably still just as tired as I left him.’ Drawing his hood over his head, Kai stepped forward and jumped from the cliff face.

He strengthened his legs before hitting the ground and softened it with a thick mass of shadows.

With his sights set on his old home, he walked towards his family.

Towards hope.

Towards a better life.

[Undead Army: 27 (Joran, Rhea, Finn, Merri, Child (9), Ignis, Voltis, Zephyr, Tecton, Arcane Wolf (4), Arcane Panther (6)] CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Jhaydun Will these two that Kai saved turn up again?

He’s gotten quite a bit stronger, hasn’t he?