Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 96

Chapter 96: A Locked Door
With the winners displayed on the floating boards around the arena, the crowd roared to life.

‘It’s over…’

Kai stood among the dust and cracked platforms, the adrenaline still coursing through his veins.

He looked at his surroundings while his chest rose and fell with each heavy breath.

He made an effort to look at the winners on the board, and, of course, his team passed the first round.

“We made it!” Kai yelled, looking at Willam and Naia with joy.

Several other teams let out sighs of relief. Many of them falling to the ground.

The fight didn’t even last ten minutes, and the arena had emptied to a solid thirty people.

As the noise settled, the booming voice of the Headmaster echoed through the courtyard.

“To all first-year participants: well fought! And to the eight victorious teams: If you’ve been eliminated and your team made it through, your elimination has been rescinded and you’ll join them again soon. You have the remainder of the day and all of tomorrow to rest and recover. The Arcane Crucible begins in two days’ time. Use your time wisely, and return stronger than ever.”

There was a collective cheer, then a dispersion of bodies, some limping, some laughing, some already planning for what came next.

The stands around the arena emptied like wildlife from a storm.

But Kai had no intention of resting.

Later that afternoon, while the campus buzzed with celebration, Kai met with Aliza in the shaded courtyard beneath the dorms. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes sharp.

“You still want to pursue the disappearances?” he asked, though he already knew the answer.

“I never stopped,” she said. “But I’m hitting one wall after another. Everyone’s too afraid or too tired to care.”

“Then let’s break down the walls,” Kai said simply.

“Are you sure? I saw your fight today, you could use some more practice.”

“I’m sure. Everyone knows what they lacked today, and how to improve. And you’ll be giving me tips for the crucible, right?”

“Of course. A deal is a deal.”

Their first stop was the headmaster’s office. The headmaster, despite her usual poise, visibly tensed when Kai mentioned the disappearances. She offered them tea, gave a warm smile, and kindly, firmly, asked them to leave the matter alone.

“Focus on the Crucible, Kai. Students come and go. It’s dangerous to chase shadows right now,” the headmaster said with a glance that lingered too long. “Some matters are better left to the faculty.”

As soon as the doors closed behind them, Aliza’s jaw tightened. “That was a lie.”

“Definitely,” Kai replied. “And now I need to know what’s going on. The headmaster knows something they aren’t saying.”

They began questioning students across campus. Kai noticed quickly that this wasn’t Aliza’s first time doing this. Every other student they approached either ignored her or responded with an exhausted groan.

“Not again, Aliza…”

“I told you everything I know already.”

“Just drop it already! People leave. It happens!”

Frustration bled into Aliza’s voice as she pressed on. She started grabbing students while they tried to flee and her pleas grew more desperate.

But Kai, after watching two more conversations crash and burn, gently pulled her aside.

“You’re pushing too hard,” he said. “Desperation makes people uneasy. You have to ease them into trust, not hammer it into them.”

Aliza looked ready to snap back, but then she sighed and lowered her shoulders.

“Fine, but I just… can’t stop. I’ve been alone at this for too long. She wouldn’t forgive me if I gave up.”

“I’m here now,” he said, more seriously than he intended. “So let’s do this right.”

Eventually, a soft-spoken girl, first-year like Kai by the look of her, paused when Kai mentioned disappearances. Her gaze darted to the side, and her lip quivered slightly.

“My dorm mate… she never came back last night after the preliminaries. Said she was just heading back, but I waited all night…”

She gave them the path her roommate usually took. Kai thanked her gently and led Aliza towards their destination.

As they walked along the dim path the missing student would have taken, something twitched in Kai’s senses. He paused, kneeling.

“Here,” he muttered.

A trail. A scent. But not a normal one.

It hit him like a punch to the gut.

That mana.

Rotten and pervasive. Familiar in the worst of ways.

His stomach turned violently, and before he could stop himself, he leaned over and vomited into the grass. He hadn’t eaten in a few days, so it was mostly bile, but it still burned.

“Kai?!” Aliza rushed to him, but her voice was a distant echo, muffled beneath the pounding of his heart and the rising pressure in his skull.

His mind raced, trying to shut out the memory of that mana.

The Collector.

Memories of dead children rose to the surface, the stink of their bowls and corpses in that basement made his head spin.

‘If it hadn’t been for Shade… I might’ve become just another empty corpse among the others.’

But he killed The Collector. He was sure of it.

That same twisted pressure he’d felt when speaking to Graham in the spirit realm appeared. Softly, but it was there.

Something had been watching him.

Something that hadn’t completely left.

Kai steadied himself, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

“There’s something…” he rasped. “I think… someone’s being possessed. Like in my village. A creature that hides in a person. Takes people. It feeds on them. It’s not human.”

Aliza paled but nodded. “Can you track it?”

“I don’t know. I can try.”

Kai composed himself further, straightening his back and breathed deeply. He felt the air fill his lungs and cleared his mind.

They followed the disgusting residue of mana past the dorms, through the unused courtyards, and into the back of the academy. Close to the old shed that Kai started using for small Necromancy tests.

There, hidden behind some foliage and rusted wrought-iron gate, was a staircase that spiraled downward into the dark.

The sewers of Thesiones Academy.

Kai summoned a dim fire that lit the sewers and led the way. The further they went, the worse the stench became, not just of waste, rats, and rot, but of twisted magic.

Aliza seemed unaffected by the mana itself, just the waste from the students above.

They reached a massive steel door embedded into the stone wall. It looked ancient, reinforced with locks. Some locks were mundane, others arcane. Strange markings covered the steel door from top to bottom.

Kai studied the locks. He could undo them with sealing magic.

‘Maybe.’

But there was no telling what waited behind it, or if there would be a trap of sorts waiting for one person to break in.

He didn’t want to go in unprepared.

“I’ll need someone else,” Kai said finally. “Someone who can help and won’t ask questions.”

Aliza gave him a wary glance. “Anyone in mind?”

Kai didn’t answer immediately, his thoughts already flicking through a short list of names.

Someone clever. Trustworthy. And, most importantly, someone willing to walk into hell and stay quiet about it.

‘Kleo would work perfectly. A good job for a thief.’

He turned away from the door. “I know just the person. I’ll bring them tonight. Then we go in.”

‘And this time, whatever it is… I’ll kill it for good.’