Fragment of the Immortal King (1)
That was dangerous.
‘To think I bit him in the throat by surprise, and my teeth still didn’t sink in…’
Perhaps it was a permanent barrier he kept up just in case; its strength wasn’t all that high, and it quickly shattered under the bite force of an undead reinforced with dark magic. But because of it, I failed to inflict a fatal wound.
I was just as flustered when Jeraph released dark magic and blasted me away.
Since I knew nothing about this world’s magic, it was difficult to respond.
Fortunately, I managed to stop him by moving the zombie behind him, but I had nearly failed without even getting to attempt my plan.
I stared down at Jeraph, now a corpse.
The village youth’s zombie was still clinging to his body, tearing at the nape of his neck.
These bastards had been evil from the start.
Every undead here, including that zombie, was someone who had fallen victim to them.
Perhaps that was why, even though I had killed a person for the first time, the mental shock wasn’t that great.
No, in truth, it might have been dangerous without 「Mind Hub」, but fortunately, right now it only felt as if I had killed a character in a game.
More importantly, there was something I needed to think about.
‘Honestly, I was planning to wait for an opening later and bash the back of his head in with a rock.’
After watching Jeraph’s words and actions, I got angry and decided to act right then.
But the moment I harbored killing intent and the will to attack, ‘Hans’s’ body instinctively went for his throat with its teeth.
My responses afterward, too, were closer to simply moving as my body led me.
‘Still, it’s not like this was out of my control.’
I said it moved instinctively, but since it was an urgent situation, I had merely let it happen. I could have controlled it well enough.
And it had certainly been more effective than aiming for the back of his head with a rock.
If I had followed my original plan, I probably wouldn’t even have broken the barrier.
‘Still, if I had to define this feeling…’
Yes. To put it in metaphorical terms, it was like a habit engraved into the body.
If I was conscious of it, I could control it easily enough, but when I wasn’t, it moved on its own without me realizing.
I realized that I couldn’t ignore the influence of the instincts engraved into a body that had become undead.
Of course, it didn’t seem to have any particular negative effect on my main body back on Earth, and I might even be able to make use of it, but I would have to be cautious for now.
It was about time to proceed with the next plan.
***
Village Chief Malcolm.
No, ‘Marcos Giocali,’ one of the elders of the organization operating in the shadows of the continent, the ‘Heaven-Defying Oath,’ was watching the scene before him with satisfaction.
A black jewel pulsed as it absorbed the aura of death from the surrounding undead.
It had already been several decades since he began searching for the ‘Heart of the Immortal King.’
But what he had finally found after all that hardship was nothing more than an incomplete fragment.
And since there was a risk of being discovered by the continent’s religious order while moving it to their headquarters, he had chosen a remote mountain village where no one would come, sealed the fragment there, and began the maturation process.
A year passed like that.
‘It will be soon. Just a little longer and finally…’
The resources poured into the ‘Fragment of the Immortal King’ were not few.
His own position had already begun to waver because of it.
‘But once this is complete, everything will be overturned. Stronger than ever before…’
[Master?]
At that moment, a communication suddenly came from his disciple, who should have been guarding the entrance.
[What is it?]
[Master. Well, outside right now…]
***
“I’m telling you, my younger brother is inside here!”
“And I’m telling you, that young man left some time ago.”
I was causing a commotion in front of the village.
The person before me was the middle-aged man I had first met when I discovered the village.
“No, I’m telling you the signal is definitely continuing from this direction! Please just let me go inside and check.”
“How could we believe a stranger and let him into the village so carelessly?”
“Then at least let me meet the village chief and explain it to him!”
If I could draw out the village chief like this, that would be perfect, but even if he didn’t come out, it didn’t matter since I could still obtain information.
If he didn’t come out, it meant he was in the middle of something important, and in this village, there was only one thing that could be important.
“I am the village chief. What matter has you causing such a fuss?”
And I expected that they wouldn’t be able to ignore me or harm me so easily.
Someone had shown up looking for a person they had killed under the assumption he had no connections, and there was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again, so they would want to grasp the situation first.
I greeted the village chief, Malcolm, who wore a benevolent smile.
“Good day. My name is Heinz. I believe my twin younger brother Hans is here, so I ended up being rude.”
“Hmm, Hans… I remember him. But I believe that young man said he had lost his way while traveling alone?”
“Ah… it’s embarrassing, but we had a big fight not long ago and parted ways. Still, I thought we ought to reconcile, so I came looking for him like this.”
He had no choice but to believe it.
My face should look exactly the same as ‘Hans’s.’
And now, it didn’t matter how they reacted.
I had already achieved my objective.
***
After causing a commotion outside the village as ‘Heinz’ and confirming that Village Chief Malcolm had come out, ‘Hans’ immediately began to move.
I had thought there was a fairly high chance he would ignore me, but I was lucky.
Since he had said it was an important moment, he must have wanted to handle even trivial matters with certainty.
There was also the fact that even if a dangerous situation arose, he would have expected it to come from outside, not from the innermost area surrounded by a barrier.
Woooong—
Thanks to that, I was able to stand before the ‘Fragment of the Immortal King’ without any interference.
When I came into direct contact with the fragment instead of through the zombie rat Alfred, I understood what maturation meant.
And why they had arranged the undead all around it like that.
‘Is it absorbing dark magic from the undead? No, is it resonance?’
The fragment wasn’t simply absorbing dark magic.
Perhaps because it was incomplete in some way, it was absorbing dark magic while simultaneously receiving the missing information, synchronizing with it, and stabilizing.
Now that I looked, the undead standing around it were all intimidating individuals, including a ghost and a headless knight.
The weakest-looking one was a skeleton knight, and even that seemed far superior to the one I had seen in the warehouse.
‘Wait, then was the warehouse I was in a defective goods warehouse? That suddenly pisses me off.’
Low-grade undead would have been nothing but impurities in that ‘maturation’ process.
They must have killed me in the hopes that if a useful undead emerged, they could throw it to the fragment as food.
In the end, I didn’t meet their expectations and got thrown into the defective goods warehouse.
‘It’s actually a good thing, but weirdly, it pisses me off?’
The closer I approached, the more I could feel the dark magic in my body being sucked away, along with an overwhelming presence.
And at the same time, I realized how dangerous it was.
If a living creature touched it carelessly, they would become undead, and anyone weak of body would die after taking just a few breaths near it.
Apart from the power it contained, it was no different from a condensed mass of mighty curses in and of itself.
I reached out toward the ‘Fragment of the Immortal King.’
‘You shouldn’t be picky. Let’s see how you like the taste of junk food.’
Of course, I had no intention of being eaten quietly.
I did have something I was relying on.
***
“As I was saying, we’re twins. From birth, we’ve always been able to tell where each other is.”
“Hohoho, that is quite difficult to believe…”
The village chief’s face, which had been smiling gently, stiffened all at once.
Then it slowly distorted into the expression of a vicious fiend as he turned toward the village.
Something had gone wrong with the fragment.
This was no time to argue with such a worthless fellow.
“Kill that bastard over there!”
Malcolm immediately used dark magic and rushed toward the place where the fragment was, shouting as he went.
At that command, the middle-aged man at the village entrance, the dark knight Baukal of the ‘Heaven-Defying Oath,’ immediately turned his head to kill Heinz, but—
“…When?”
There was already no one there.
***
[Kill.]
…Fear, despair, grief, pain, oppression, madness, deficiency, hatred, murderous intent, desire, rage…
All manner of negative emotions surged in without pause.
[Hate all living beings. Cover this land in despair. The more the world is stained with death, the greater your power will become. Crave life. Take what you do not possess…]
‘Wow, this is seriously no joke.’
The amount of information being filtered through 「Mind Hub」 was enormous.
At any ordinary level, the inherent energy would not only turn one’s body into undead, but completely destroy one’s mind and allow the fragment to consume them.
No, was there even anyone who could endure this while sane?
‘Not that it has anything to do with me.’
I continued the work I had been doing.
Somehow, Malcolm had noticed and was heading this way, so there wasn’t much time left.
‘He must have put some sort of measure in place here too.’
At this point, it could be called an obsession.
He probably would have kept this fragment with him all day if he could have endured its influence.
‘I’ll try it for now. Will it work? It seems like it’s almost there.’
Using the dark magic being absorbed as a medium, I revived the sensation I had used to control the undead and attempted to synchronize with the ‘Fragment of the Immortal King.’
Normally, there would have been no chance.
But I was undead, and I could ignore the violent mental attack transmitted from the fragment and maintain my ego.
‘It would be nice if it works, but even if it doesn’t and this thing becomes unusable, I’ll consider it meaningful just for interfering with them.’
The fragment was incomplete, and in order to fill in its missing parts, it was in a defenseless state as it resonated with its surroundings.
I inserted ‘Hans’ into that deficiency.
And I was able to learn the result almost immediately.
《The individual has met the conditions and grows. You have acquired the special skill 「Wicked Wisdom」.》
Words appeared before my eyes.
But even before I saw them, I could recognize the change in myself.
My body was still nothing but bones, but the rank of my existence had changed.
And new knowledge was naturally engraved into my head.
[Oh! I can talk now?]
By resonating dark magic through my vocal cords, I had become able to speak, but that was nothing more than a minor change.
I lowered my head and looked down at my body.
A black jewel pulsed between my ribs.
I had gained a heart.
-Individual Name: Hans
-Race: Undead (Demi-Lich)
-Common Traits: 「Mind Hub」, 「Super Regeneration」
-Individual Traits: 「Corrupt Heart」, 「Wicked Wisdom」, 「Mana Affinity」
-Special Notes: His rank has risen through the power of the ‘Fragment of the Immortal King (1/3).’ The dark magic dormant within the fragment has assimilated with the individual. Due to the influence of 「Mind Hub」, mental contamination did not occur.
And I had evolved from an ‘Elite Skeleton’ into a mage of immortality, a ‘Demi-Lich.’
***
Huyan was sitting guard in front of the secret passage again today.
It was punishment for failing to deal with the zombie rat that had slipped out yesterday in time.
‘Damn it, I got dragged into this because of that bastard Jeraph.’
Come to think of it, Jeraph had been inside for quite some time, but he still hadn’t come out.
‘It’s obvious. With that personality of his, he’s probably taking his anger out on something.’
Huyan leaned back and sank into his chair.
A year had passed, but this backwater village was still unbearably peaceful today.
The only thing he had done today was relay the news from the village entrance to his master inside.
[Huyan! Huyan, you bastard! What are you doing right now?!]
Crash!
At the sudden communication spell from his master, Huyan tipped backward with his chair and tumbled to the ground.
[Yes! Master! There’s nothing wrong here!]
Huyan sprang up, righted his chair, sat down, and rubbed the back of his head as he answered energetically, but his master’s voice did not calm down.
[Nothing wrong?! What kind of bullsh— No, hurry and check the fragment first! Hurry! Contact Jeraph too!]
[Yes, yes sir! I’ll check right away!]
Because of the barrier surrounding the place where the fragment was, one had to use the special magic tool placed at the entrance in order to transmit communication into the warehouse.
[Hey! Jeraph! Stop that and hurry up and check the fragment… huh?]
Huyan, who had hurriedly sent a communication to Jeraph, froze and checked the magic tool again.
Then he sent another communication.
[Jeraph? Hey, Jeraph, can you hear me?]
No reply came back.
In truth, that was only natural.
It hadn’t connected in the first place.
“Uh… no, what the hell is going on?”
Just as the flustered Huyan sprang up from his seat—
Woooong—
The magic circle at the entrance leading to the warehouse reacted, and soon the door slid open.
“Hey! Jeraph! Why did you suddenly…”
Huyan, who had turned around in delight at the open door, immediately froze on the spot.
The one standing before the door was not Jeraph.
“Uh… uh… no, why…?”
With a skeleton exuding an ominous aura at their head, hundreds of undead were packed tightly together, filling the passage.
***
Controlling the undead was not difficult.
The amount of dark magic in my body now was on a completely different level from when I had been scraping together the tiny bit I had and using it with all my might.
Since I was controlling such a large number, I couldn’t share their senses as I had when I connected with Alfred, but even now, I was satisfied enough.
After all, my ranks now included not only zombies and skeletons, but even the higher-class units that had been near the fragment.
‘Maybe because they had their energy drained by the fragment for so long, they’re not in great condition, but…’
I should consider myself fortunate to have salvaged this much.
Perhaps because of how many had been sacrificed all this time, the floor around the ‘Fragment of the Immortal King’ had been covered entirely in the remains of undead.
I led the undead and strode majestically across the passage.
Soon, the entrance leading outside came into view.
‘There’s a barrier there, so I probably can’t just leave… Should I smash it apart?’
After thinking for a moment, I immediately realized something and placed my hand on the door, just as Jeraph had done.
And I was able to experience the effect of 「Wicked Wisdom」 directly.
Woooong—
The magic circle reacted, and the door opened.
To me, dark magic was no longer an unknown mystery.
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