“Strengthening the undead you own is the most basic of basics.”
Kreutzvalt’s teaching began with those words.
“Furthermore, since the subject is a high-level undead like a Death Knight, strengthening is not an option but a necessity.
‘But my disciple, what on earth have you been doing?’
You have simply left him neglected without any strengthening, subordination contracts, or soul-binding.”
“There’s a reason for that…”
“I do not wish to hear crude excuses.
You had no intention of utilizing Necromancy in the first place.
Just as you said, you likely considered it a useless magic unless it was for a large-scale war.”
‘He’s sharp…’
As expected of a dark magician and Necromancer who was an old, gloomy monster having lived for 1,300 years, his insight was keen.
It was a magic with long casting times and many requirements for preparation, yet its instantaneous power was not superior to Elemental Magic.
In a large-scale war, it would boast an overwhelming presence, but at this point, humans were fighting Strange Entities from the Abyss, not other humans.
Therefore, it was a largely useless magic.
That was Hio’s thought regarding Necromancy.
“Your thinking is completely wrong, my disciple.”
However, Kreutzvalt completely rejected Hio’s thoughts.
“Necromancy can be said to be the most powerful magic among the many branches of magic.”
“Hmm… Is it really that much?”
“It is.
The undead are powerful beings that do not die even if their physical bodies are destroyed.
As long as the caster’s Magic Power and Death Aura are maintained, they are beings that will revive infinitely and fight for their master.
Unless their souls are severed—no, even if their souls are severed, it is enough to simply stitch them back together.”
“But the limits are also clear.”
The fact that they kept reviving without dying was certainly a huge advantage.
However, wasn’t it true that Necromancy had equally clear disadvantages?
“In the end, the fact that they cannot become stronger beyond their limits is such a big flaw that I can’t find a use for it.”
Theodore, who was standing blankly nearby, was a perfect example.
Theodore was a Death Knight.
A Death Knight was a famous high-ranking undead even among its kind.
‘But what would happen if he were told to fight against the Kreutzvalt standing before them?’
He would be knocked down immediately without being able to put up any decent resistance.
‘Does Theodore become stronger if Hio’s stage rises and his number of Circles increases?’
That was not the case.
Of course, he would become a bit stronger as the Magic Power increased, but that was it.
If the opponent was weak, it would be a terrible despair regardless of their numbers.
But if the opponent was strong, it was a being that could not exert any significant power.
That was the great weakness of Necromancy.
“Do you think I would not know that, you dull disciple?
That is why I said strengthening is the most basic of basics.
Continuous strengthening over a long period of time allows one to even transcend the limits inherent in that species.”
“Is such a thing even possible?”
“… Is such a thing even possible, Master?”
“Of course it is.”
He possessed the sheer gall to stay still as if time had stopped when Hio spoke casually under the guise of an exclamation, only answering nonchalantly once Hio corrected himself to formal speech.
Hio wanted to give him a round of applause, but if he did, he might end up being caught by a rope of simple, ignorant Magic Power and spend the whole day hanging upside down.
“Well, if you say so, I’ll believe it, but isn’t the real problem that Necromancy is impossible here?”
Since Kreutzvalt asserted that it was possible to strengthen an undead to exert power beyond its limits, it likely was possible.
But the real problem lay in this world itself.
Here, Death Aura—that is, Deathly Energy—did not exist.
Death Aura was a powerful energy generated at the moment a living creature died.
However, the only things here were the Strange Entities that were active at night.
The Deathly Energy coming from those who had no souls was practically nonexistent.
That meant there was no Death Aura needed for strengthening the undead, nor was there any means to repair a destroyed one.
Of course, Hio had a way to replenish Deathly Energy using Nkingki, but it didn’t seem like Kreutzvalt had spoken after realizing that.
Sure enough.
The old monster who had lived for 1,300 years burst into a fit of laughter and spoke as if imitating a kind master.
“Have you forgotten who I am? Am I not the great Necromancer who brought down a kingdom alone over nine nights? Things that are impossible become possible once they pass through my hands and mind.”
“Oh…”
“As you said, there is no Deathly Energy.
The Abyss longed for the light, invaded the Continent, and created the current Strange Entities based on what it obtained there.
However, to those fashioned and born in the Abyss, death provides no special meaning, so there can be no Deathly Energy.”
“Ooh…”
“But I have found a way.”
“Oooh! How?”
“… How, Master?”
“Think simply. What is the most common and widespread energy here?”
Right here.
If there was one most common energy at the World’s End, there was only one.
A discomfort felt in the mouth every time one inhaled, as it was spread like oxygen.
A Mental Barrier that was active at all times without a single second’s rest.
The Abyssal Curse.
The surging black Abyss.
“Wait… are you saying you’ll use the Abyssal Curse?”
‘No matter how great Kreutzvalt was, how could he use the energy of the Abyss?’
The moment it entered the body, it greedily devoured the human mind.
If the concentration was shallow, it brought a death like a fever.
If the concentration was thick, it dyed even the soul and twisted the physical body.
‘How could a mere human handle such a terrible energy?’
Hio looked at Kreutzvalt with eyes full of such doubt.
“A thousand years must feel like eternity to a human.”
His gaze was fixed behind him, as if recollecting the distant past.
“I have been holed up at the World’s End for that amount of time. What do you think the reason was?”
“Weren’t you trapped here with Tetradia rather than being holed up?”
“It was to know the true enemy. The most fearsome enemy is not the Abyss, nor the Strange Entities. It was ignorance.”
“Eh, didn’t you say you even avoid that guy who rules the Abyss, Master? Then isn’t he the most fearsome one?”
“……Therefore, I researched the energy itself. It is the reason why I had no choice but to be at the World’s End for a long time.”
“Ooh, there’s nobody else listening, so let’s speak plainly. You basically lived here trapped because it was difficult to go out to the Continent…”
In the end, Hio was subjected to the Magic Power rope punishment again, and only after being shaken about thirty times back and forth while hanging upside down did he become quiet.
This was the World’s End, a place where even telling the truth was a sin.
Hio felt it was unfair.
Ignoring Hio’s feelings, Kreutzvalt continued his explanation.
“If you think about it, it is a simple thing. The energy of the Abyss spread all around. This is also a type of energy. It is just that it is so thick that the blackness is visible to the eye, and the side effects are severe enough to lead to death, mental breakdown, or soul transformation. What do you think?”
At Kreutzvalt’s question, Hio answered internally while hanging upside down.
‘What kind of crazy person calls that a side effect? They’d call it an extreme poison that must never be consumed…’
Of course, those thoughts did not come out as words.
It wasn’t because he was afraid of the punishment that would follow.
It was because he had clearly grasped Kreutzvalt’s personality after spending five months together.
Based on experience, Kreutzvalt was a madman who, perhaps due to senility from living over a thousand years, would ask a question and then continue talking to himself without listening to the answer.
“Forget it. There’s no way there are any thoughts inside that meager head of yours.”
As expected, it was the same this time.
“Even so, think about it. The energy of the Abyss is a very powerful one. It is so powerful that even as a mere energy, its color is thick enough to be revealed to the eye, and just by breathing it in, ordinary creatures cannot endure it and are eroded by the energy, their forms changing according to its will. If those side effects can be removed, it becomes an excellent energy source. Do you understand?”
Naturally, he understood.
But being able to remove those side effects—it was still hard to believe.
In the first place, if those could be removed, wouldn’t the Abyss no longer be a problem?
‘Had Kreutzvalt really… succeeded in such research, cutting away the bad parts of the Abyss?’
When Hio asked with such expectation, Kreutzvalt answered nonchalantly.
“No, the research failed.”
‘Seriously, what is up with this guy?’
Although he did not achieve his goal, it wasn’t as if the research had no results.
Total removal of side effects was a failure.
Controlling the energy itself was a success.
Therefore, it could be called a success that was more than halfway there.
Since one cannot handle it if there are side effects anyway, why was it a more than halfway success?
Because those who were not ordinary—that is, those who had stepped into the realm of superhumans—could endure the side effects of the Abyss eroding the body.
In short, since the side effects couldn’t be removed, let’s just have those who can handle it with their bodies learn it.
That was the gist of it.
— “The overall framework is similar to the Mana Breathing Technique.”
Taking in energy and trapping it.
Of course, the body would be ruined if done the same way.
Although it was said that his body had evolved in the process of forcibly creating and breaking Circles, and although he had entered the introductory stage of a 6th Circle superhuman, it was madness to trap pure Abyss within the body and even continue to increase its amount.
— Therefore, you must wrap it in Magic Power.
Wrap it tightly with Magic Power and create a separate space.
Just as a Necromancer creates a separate space to store Death Aura.
That part was easy.
He succeeded in one go without any particular effort.
— The Abyss is an extremely radical energy.
It is an energy born solely for destruction, so creatures tainted by the Abyss change into forms good for destroying, and minds eroded by the Abyss even destroy themselves, ultimately leading to death.
‘Doesn’t something come to mind as you listen?’
Kreutzvalt asked, and Hio nodded.
Of course, nothing came to mind, and it was just a gesture to mean ‘tell me quickly since you’re going to keep talking anyway.’
— “Hoho… So you weren’t completely without thought.”
That’s right.
It is the same kind as the dark magic power I discovered and was able to use through research.
The dark magic power that was necessary for Kroetzwald-style Necromancy.
That power extracted from souls through the Lantern’s ability was the power of pure souls.
On the other hand, the energy of the Abyss was a power solely for destruction.
To put it another way, it meant it was an energy that was just as pure.
Especially the energy of the Abyss.
— “Pure energy is not easy to handle because it contains only one thing.”
Since the energy of the Abyss contains destruction, it is even more so.
However, if one can handle it…
If one could handle it at will.
If one could go beyond handling it and utilize it completely.
— “One will obtain omnipotent destructive power.”
At the time, those words felt truly absurd.
He was fighting against the Abyss, yet he had to handle the Abyss?
He was told to directly move and put power into that terrible thing that felt unpleasant just by letting it into his body.
Those words didn’t resonate at all and felt like something far away.
But what about now?
A very tiny space located in his body.
The space, which was wrapped in several layers of Magic Power like a hidden vault, looked more like a prison than a vault when looking inside.
A prison where a very ferocious monster was locked up.
Bypassing that, the first thing to perform was the 5th Circle magic, Flare.
As Magic Power spread and awakened the Circle Inscription, becoming a single flow and extending toward the staff, the moment it was about to exit—
He slightly opened the door of the prison.
As if it had been waiting for only that, the energy of the Abyss rushed forward as if it would crush his whole body.
Even though he had released only a small amount, it rushed in so destructively that if he had released just a bit more, it would have destroyed all the configured flows, leading the magic instead of being included in it.
However, after numerous practices and failures, he was able to learn the right amount and the right moment, and this was the result.
Boom—!
The 5th Circle fire-attribute magic, Flare, swept over two Strange Entities at once.
The pillar of fire that erupted from the ground was much larger and more powerful than the ones Hio used to cast, and its appearance was spectacular.
It was thanks to utilizing the magic modification he learned from Kreutzvalt.
Even so, this alone was not enough.
Strange Entities born from the Abyss were not beings that could be handled with just one 5th Circle magic.
But what if black flames were flickering together within that tall pillar of fire?
‘What would happen if 7that black and ominous thing were rampaging within the pillar of fire, destroying everything it touched?’
The destructive power of the Abyss was compressed and exploded atop the already strong power of the Flare.
That pure energy of destruction, even receiving the strength of Magic Power, blew apart the hard shells of the Strange Entities in a single blow, and the following flames rummaged through the inside.
Watching the pitch-black flames burning along with the red, Hio couldn’t help but feel complicated.
The Abyss was overwhelmingly strong and destructive, yet extremely difficult to handle.
A giant pillar of fire combined with it.
Thus, the black flame was completed.
“Abyss Fire.”
It was a magic that suited such a name quite well.