It was definitely inside the sanctuary.
Because it was midday, the space was bright, filled with holiness, and numerous devoted priests had gathered to offer sacred prayers.
Under the resounding voice of Cardinal Herald Guggenberger, about a hundred priests clasped their hands together in prayer.
Irina stood at the very front among those priests.
She was positioned even ahead of Cardinal Herald, and elevated higher still.
A girl favored by the love of the gods.
Because she was the holiest woman in the world, she stood closest to the divine.
“…Thank you for embracing us in your arms. Please grant joy to our pure souls…”
Listening to Herald’s steadfast recitation of faith, Irina bowed her head slightly and looked down at her clasped hands.
Below them was the pure white robe of a Holy Maiden. She had grown quite accustomed to wearing such reverent attire that exuded solemnity.
‘Hadn’t quite a long time passed?’
The countless priests praying behind her, the way she naturally existed ahead of them, and living as the most sacred woman—these had all become familiar to her.
Yet she still vividly remembered the day she met the mage.
The day she saw with her own eyes that another world existed.
Irina’s life had completely changed from that day onward.
‘I hope Master Hio is doing well.’
She had heard the news.
Hio Pavlenko, Guardian Knight of the Empire.
His exploits had been so legendary that few in the Holy Kingdom didn’t know his name.
Most recently, tales had spread that he had killed Atawolf—the continent’s strongest symbol of fear—and had brought down the Black Fang.
Worrying about him was meaningless.
‘Focus. Focus…!’
Scolding herself for drifting into other thoughts, Irina closed her eyes tightly again.
Though she had become an entirely different person since coming to the cathedral’s headquarters, whenever she let her guard down even slightly, the old Irina would resurface.
But now was not the time for that.
Today was the day when Liphyue priests of bishop rank and above gathered—a quarterly important event.
So Irina closed her eyes and tried once more to concentrate on prayer, but…
For some reason, her focus wouldn’t hold today.
Strange distractions kept coming to mind, and an inexplicable anxious feeling made her heart pound loudly.
Before five minutes had passed, she slowly opened her eyes.
And in that moment—
“…!”
The scene before her was not the sacred sanctuary.
Not the Liphyue cathedral filled with faithful priests singing to the gods, nor the gentle sound of bells ringing softly in the bright daylight.
What she saw was the ruins of a building shattered beyond recognition.
The statue of the goddess, once gracefully standing tall, lay broken, stained in blood.
The place where holiness had dwelled was now gone.
Instead of a pure white ceiling, there was a dark and ominous night.
She was standing at the center of calamity.
She had only closed her eyes inside the sanctuary and opened them again, yet this was what greeted her.
“…What is this…?”
The sky was blood-red, as if soaked in gore.
The ruined cathedral and rising flames.
Panicked, she tried to move forward, but something suddenly caught her foot.
It was the severed head of Cardinal Herald Guggenberger.
Only then did she fully see the surrounding scene.
Countless corpses drenched in blood, their white priestly robes soaked through.
The ground was a sea of death, filled with an unimaginable number of bodies.
Startled, Irina stumbled backward, but there was nowhere to step among the densely packed corpses.
At the same time, a sound shook heaven and earth.
***
—!
A roar.
A roar that every creature beneath the sky would fear.
A massive vibration that made the hairs on her skin stand on end and her body freeze.
Lifting her gaze with effort to the sky, she met a pair of fierce, glaring eyes.
The strongest creature ever said to have existed on the surface in ages long past.
A Dragon.
“…Gasp!”
Her eyes flew open, and only then did the breath she’d been holding escape.
She was once again in the heart of the Liphyue cathedral.
The ceiling was pure white, and the air was filled with holiness.
Yet the booming heartbeat remained vivid in her ears.
The roar that shook heaven and earth still echoed strongly.
This was no mere dream.
What she had seen and felt was clearly a future that could come to pass.
Cold sweat ran down her spine.
Unconsciously, her clenched hands gripped tighter.
“Irina-sama…?”
The prayer had stopped without her realizing it.
A hundred pairs of eyes stared at her in confusion.
And then—
“What’s the matter?”
Herald approached quietly and asked.
Irina closed her eyes slowly and calmed her breathing.
The gentle bell tolls still rang, and if she listened carefully, she could hear birds chirping outside.
Her heart was gradually settling, but how could she forget?
***
The roar of the dragon that shook heaven and earth.
The fierce gaze that looked down upon the land as if a god itself.
Kingdoms, humans—everything had been powerless before it.
Irina opened her eyes once more.
The determined look in the Holy Maiden’s eyes was unshakable.
“…A dragon will appear.”
Yet alongside that certainty, her unease only grew.
Necromancy.
The act of summoning a soul into a body.
This was quite familiar to a necromancer.
Handling dead flesh and using souls freed from the body was the necromancer’s trade.
Since it was magic using the energy of death, handling souls was a natural part of it.
But Kreutzvalt’s style of necromancy was different.
Whether the body was living or already dead, it involved breathing a soul into it.
That…
At the same time, it allowed the use of both the abilities inscribed on the body and those held by the soul.
That was Kreutzvalt’s necromancy.
“Necromancy that allows use of both the body’s and soul’s abilities… Any necromancer would risk their life to obtain such a spellbook,”
Furnel had said. It was a spellbook worth its price.
Normally, one had to sacrifice either the body’s strength to keep the soul’s memories and abilities or give up intelligence, memories, and special powers to gain a sturdy body.
“And according to what’s written here, assuming good compatibility, placing a different soul into a different body causes no problem, doesn’t it?“
Yes.
According to the ‘Kreutzvalt Style Necromancy Manual,’ that was how it was.
The body’s power.
The soul’s power.
They could be combined and used as one.
Of course, such powerful effects came with many requirements.
First, a sturdy body with the soul removed was needed, and a whole soul to place inside that body.
These two were essential for excellent necromantic results, but naturally, the higher the rank, the harder they were to acquire.
Because the soul and body were different, compatibility was very important.
And lastly, it required attribute magic power.
Not just any magic power—
Dark attribute magic power.
“This concept of dark attribute magic power is something I’ve never heard before,”
Even Furnel, who was well-versed, found it unfamiliar.
That was, until they brought down the Black Fang and obtained this artifact from Gray Castle.
「Soul Harvester’s Lantern (Epic)」
「An otherworldly item.」
[Absorption: Absorbs souls to permanently increase stats. The growth depends on the rank of the soul.]
「Soul Storage: Can safely store souls without damage. Souls stored for long periods can be controlled by the user.」
「Soul Recovery: Consumes stored souls to restore magic power or vitality.」
「Extraction: Extracts the purest darkness from souls and converts it into dark attribute magic power. This energy is the source of all dark magic.」
Extracting the purest darkness from souls and converting it into dark attribute magic power—
A concept no one had tried before, a method no one could even guess how to accomplish.
“Anyway, the important thing is that it’s possible.”
“It’s amazing that it’s not so difficult if you can use that dark magic power.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
The key points were whether one could use dark attribute magic power, whether one had the necessary soul and body for necromancy, and whether their compatibility was good.
If those three were met, Kreutzvalt-style necromancy was easier to perform than it appeared.
“Extracting the purest darkness from souls… But we can’t do that right now, can we?“
“Right?”
“Then what should we do?”
“Hmm… Study?”
“If you know, hurry up and do it!”
There was still quite a way to go before reaching the 4th Circle.
“…….”
***
About a week after alternating between the Mage’s Tower and Arilleia, he finally reached the perfect level of 4th Circle.
“Non-attribute magic – ‘Purification’ casting successful.”
“Would you like to register ‘Purification’ as a skill?”
“‘Purification’ has been registered as a skill.”
Reaching 4th Circle didn’t mean he could immediately use all 4th Circle magic.
Learning and practice were separate from forming the Circle.
But since he had been engraving insignias and practicing simultaneously, he was able to master Purification just one day after reaching 4th Circle.
Purification—the 4th Circle’s cleansing magic.
“Still, I can’t just learn one magic after gaining a Circle.”
“Choose carefully. You can learn magic from various fields, but can’t master many types at once.”
“Understood.”
There weren’t many magics to learn at the 4th Circle anyway.
This stage mainly focused on destruction and expansion.
There was no need to learn many kinds of destructive magic.
After carefully selecting while wandering the tower’s many floors,
“Let’s finish with this.”
He chose three spellbooks.
Earth attribute magic, ‘Earth Break,’ which causes powerful explosions and upheaves the land.
Nature attribute magic, ‘Entangle,’ which binds targets with grass and vines.
Non-attribute magic, ‘Wizard Eye,’ which allows viewing distant locations.
One strong destructive magic like Earth Break was enough for combat.
Along with Entangle and Wizard Eye, which were expected to be very useful, the 4th Circle would be nearly complete.
Of course, necromancy was excluded.
He intended to evenly learn various magics but leave necromancy to Furnel’s specialty.
“As a necromancer, reaching 4th Circle means starting to build your own army.”
So, carrying the three spellbooks—Earth Break, Entangle, Wizard Eye—he headed with Furnel to the Necromancer Familiar Summoning Room.
In fact, necromancy was the most important magic for Hio.
His teacher had been a former necromancer, and somehow he had collected all three of Kreutzvalt’s Divine Artifacts, plus one of his top-level skills was Summon Death God.
The higher his necromancy rank rose, the more powerful the synergy would be.
“Let’s just master two highly efficient magics. There’s a lot to do.”
Even so, there was no need to learn all the miscellaneous necromancy.
Hio already possessed four kinds of ultimate skills.
‘Summon Lava Worm,’ which called forth a massive worm made of molten rock.
‘Bone Spear,’ which created a spear of bone.
Those two were the necromancies Furnel had set for the 4th Circle, making a total of five magics including the three Hio chose earlier.
“This will take quite some time to master…”
Even with Furnel and the genius trait for magic sensitivity, this was 4th Circle magic.
No matter how fast he learned, it would take at least a week.
And this wasn’t all he had to do.
He couldn’t just hide away in the Mage’s Tower and focus only on magic.
“You also have to prepare the summoning Magic Circle for the dragon.”
What Isidor had given wasn’t just Purification.
The sealed dragon had to be summoned first to be purified.
And that, according to Furnel, required at least a 5th Circle insignia.
That also needed study and preparation.
“Still, it would be good experience. Using the Darkness Magic Circle last time had greatly helped improve magic skills.“
“Well… that’s true.”
Indeed, preparing a Magic Circle one rank higher than his current level helped a lot with understanding and utilizing insignias.
“How long will it take to prepare the summoning Magic Circle while mastering all the 4th Circle magic?”
“At least more than this week. But that’s possible because it’s you.”
“A week huh…”
It would take more time than expected.
But this was something Hio absolutely had to do.
So—
“Let’s speed it up as much as possible.”
Two weeks was enough time for something to happen.