Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Destruction of a Mentor Chapter 67: Destruction of a Mentor Kai’s pulse thundered in his ears as the ancient chamber trembled with dark, swirling mana emanating from his master.

Orlin’s unleashed curse crushed down on Kai like he wore a hundred kilo vest.

In that moment, Orlin’s magic surged forth.

“It seems…

as though…

I am being controlled…” A torrent of necromantic energy shot out from Orlin’s skeletal fingertips, snaking its way around Kai, draining life essence from Kai as if he were a living battery.

“You…

have your magic back?” Kai stammered.

Kai gasped, his vision blurring, as he felt his strength ebb away.

His chest hurt and his body threatened to lose consciousness as his very essence pulled toward his master.

“No!” Kai shouted, struggling to resist the pull.

In a desperate bid to break free, Kai unleashed a burst of raw power.

Orlin was knocked back by the shockwave, and Kai took the advantage.

He raised his hand and closed his eyes.

“Come!” Kai summoned a swarm of undead that had been lying dormant in his shadows.

Several zombies rose up, and surrounded Orlin.

They grappled with him, their rotten mouths chomping away.

The air around Orlin and the zombies shimmered and all of the zombies were pulled through a rift into another dimension.

The ancient necromancer’s eyes glowed with an eerie blue light as he took the stolen life essence into himself.

The process was excruciating.

Kai’s mind reeled with the loss, each moment of his own life force siphoned away left a burning emptiness inside him.

While the rift finally closed, Kai brought two more of his undead out of the shadows.

Joran, Kai’s anti-magic brawler, and Joe, Kai’s embodiment of pure strength.

Joran pivoted and threw a punch straight at Kai.

The punch knocked him back, but the connection between Kai and Orlin broke.

Kai coughed and blood came up, staining his lips red.

[Life essence: 3,712/25,500] ‘Oh, damn.

Will it be enough?’ Even with the connection broken, Orlin’s mana surged.

In the midst of the chaos, spectral chains of pure dark energy formed around Kai.

They tightened like a spiritual coffin, trapping him in an almost claustrophobic tomb of his own making.

As he struggled, the chamber around him seemed to warp; the very walls pulsed with the anguished cries of lost souls.

With a single thought, Joe dropped his sword and he and Joran grabbed Orlin.

Kai’s vision blurred, and amidst the distortion, he saw flashes of Orlin’s past lovers, their faces bathed in tenderness and sorrow, moments of passion and despair mixed with regret.

Their images, ethereal and haunting, reminded him of the depth of Orlin’s long-forgotten humanity.

“Do it, Kai,” came Orlin’s rasp, echoing through the storm of chaos.

His voice, usually so commanding, now held a hint of pleading desperation.

“Destroy my soul.

Please release me from this torment.” Kai’s heart clenched.

To capture the very essence of his master, to force the raw, burning life of Orlin into submission.

It felt like an impossible task.

He raised his trembling hand and reached out with his mana, a surge of dark, potent energy swirling around his outstretched fingers.

In that final, critical moment, the ritual began.

“Soul Destruction.” Kai’s magic lashed out like a living thing, seeking the core of Orlin’s soul.  His magic found it.

A swirling storm of memories, power, despair, and regret.

For long, agonizing moments, Kai’s mind was filled with the relentless barrage of Orlin’s history: battles fought under blood-red skies, the bitter taste of loss, and the soft, mournful whispers of lovers whose names had faded with time.

So many dead.

With a desperate pull, Kai’s power surged through him, and Orlin’s soul began to tear apart at its very seams.

For an eternity squeezed into a single heartbeat, the chamber filled with a deafening roar as Orlin’s essence was drawn forth.

A ghostly shriek escaped from Orlin’s maw.

The light within Orlin’s being shattered, and the ancient necromancer’s soul, once a raging inferno of power and regret, was reduced to nothing but flickering sparks of raw, unbridled energy.

That energy also faded before Kai’s very eyes.

The room fell silent except for the pounding of Kai’s own heart.

His body trembled with exhaustion, yet his mind was ablaze with the memories and knowledge of his master.

But the battle was not yet over.

Orlin’s curse, relentless and cruel, surged again.

His body twisted back to a standing position.

Even without his soul, his corpse took on the state of an undead creature and darkness filled the space.

Kai’s senses were eliminated, all except for his sensing of nearby mana.

Outside of the shadow, Joran and Joe fought with undead that rippled out of Orlin’s interdimensional pocket.

Kai felt an overwhelming pull as additional undead forces swarmed around him, their voices and moans a cacophony of anger and despair.

Kai gritted his teeth.

He had to contain them.

With painstaking precision, he channeled his remaining power into a binding spell.

A mixture of the shadow sigil and the chaos sigil appeared in his mind and a blend of the two etched themselves into the stone floor around him as he called forth the final restraint.

An impenetrable barrier of shadow and will, that locked down the rampant energies and the rebellious undead.

It looked like a coffin as the shadow surrounding Kai disappeared like a fading mist.

“It’s over?” After a long moment of stillness, Kai slowly rose, his body aching but his resolve unbroken.

Outside the chamber, the manor awaited.

A mostly unexplored treasure trove of secrets.

As he reached the threshold, Kai hesitated for a breath.

‘Orlin said to search the manor before I go.

With him dead, and me his disciple, would that make it my manor?

He mentioned that I would regret leaving without first looking around.

Is there something he wants me to find?’ Kai gave a final nod to the master who had both taught and tormented him, now a shambling corpse with magical spells hammering against the barrier.

A lich in its truest form.

Something Kai didn’t have the power to defeat.

“I will find a way to put your body to rest as well.

You deserve at least that much…” Kai pushed the door open and stepped out onto the landing before the stairs leading into the manor.