“The strengthening of undead under one’s possession is the most basic of basics.”
Thus began Kreutzwald’s teaching.
“Especially when the target is a high-ranking undead such as a Death Knight, strengthening is not optional but essential. And yet, disciple, what on earth have you been doing? You left him entirely neglected, without strengthening him, without a contract of servitude, without even binding his soul.”
“There were reasons for that…”
“I have no desire to hear shoddy excuses. You never intended to make use of necromancy in the first place. Just as you said yourself, you must have deemed it a useless magic unless it was for a large-scale war.”
“…Indeed.”
As expected of an old, gloomy monster of a black magician and necromancer who had lived for thirteen hundred years, his insight was sharp.
A magic that took a long time to cast and required much preparation, yet whose instantaneous power was not superior to elemental magic.
In a large-scale war, it would surely display an overwhelming presence, but at present, what humanity faced was not fellow humans, but monsters of the Abyss.
Thus, it was largely useless magic.
That was Hio’s view of necromancy.
“Your thinking is entirely wrong, disciple.”
However, Kreutzwald completely denied Hio’s thoughts.
“Necromancy may well be called the strongest among the many branches of magic.”
“Mm… Is it really to that extent?”
“It is. The undead are powerful beings that do not die even when their bodies are destroyed. So long as the caster’s mana and death energy are maintained, they revive endlessly and fight for their master. Unless their souls are severed—no, even if their souls are severed, one need only stitch them back together.”
“But the limits are clear too, aren’t they?”
The fact that they did not die and kept reviving was certainly an enormous advantage.
However, wasn’t necromancy also a magic whose drawbacks were just as clear?
“The fact that they ultimately can’t grow stronger beyond their limits is too big a drawback to actually use it.”
Teordo, who was standing blankly right beside him, could serve as an example.
Teordo was a Death Knight.
A Death Knight was a famous high-ranking undead among undead.
But what would happen if he were ordered to fight the Kreutzwald before his eyes?
He would be blown away immediately without being able to put up any meaningful resistance.
Then, if Hio’s realm rose and the number of his circles increased, would Teordo become stronger?
That was not the case.
Of course, he would become a little stronger as Hio’s mana increased, but that was the end of it.
If the opponent was weak, he would be a terrible despair no matter how many there were.
If the opponent was strong, he would be an existence unable to exert any significant power.
That was necromancy’s great weakness.
“Do you think I do not know that? Foolish disciple. That is why I said strengthening is the most basic of basics. Strengthening carried out continuously over a long period even allows one to surpass the inherent limits of that species.”
“You can even do something like that?”
“…”
“Is even something like that possible?”
“Of course it is possible.”
That shamelessness—when Hio casually spoke informally as though it were an exclamation, Kreutzwald stood still as if time had stopped, and only when Hio asked properly in polite speech did he answer as if nothing had happened.
Hio wanted to applaud him for it, but if he did, he might have to spend the entire day hanging upside down, caught by a simple and brutish rope of mana.
“Well, if you say so, I’ll believe you, but isn’t the real problem that necromancy is impossible here?”
Since Kreutzwald had so firmly declared that strengthening undead to draw out power beyond their limits was possible, it likely was.
But wasn’t the real problem this world itself?
Here, death energy—that is, the energy of death—did not exist.
Death energy was a powerful energy generated the moment a living creature died.
Yet all that existed here were the grotesques that moved at night.
The death energy emitted by beings without souls was practically nonexistent.
In other words, there was no death energy required for strengthening undead, and not even a means to restore undead that had been destroyed.
Of course, Hio did have a way to replenish the energy of death by using Kkingkking, but it did not seem likely that Kreutzwald had grasped that and spoken with it in mind.
Sure enough.
The thirteen-hundred-year-old monster let out a hearty laugh, then spoke as though imitating a kindly teacher.
“Have you forgotten who I am? Am I not the great necromancer who brought down a kingdom alone over the course of nine nights? Even the impossible becomes possible once it passes through my hands and my mind.”
“Oh…”
“As you said, there is no energy of death. The Abyss longed for light and invaded the continent, and based on what it obtained there, it created the grotesques of today. However, for those forged in the Abyss and born from the Abyss, death holds no special meaning, and so there can be no energy of death either.”
“Ooh…”
“But I found a method.”
“Ooooh! How?”
“…”
“How did you find one?”
“Think simply. What is the most common and abundant energy in this place?”
Here, in this place.
If one were to name the most common energy at the end of the world, there was only one.
An unpleasantness that spread like oxygen, filling the mouth each time one breathed in.
A mental barrier that remained active at all times without resting for even a single second.
Abyssal energy.
The surging black Abyss.
“…Don’t tell me, Abyssal energy?”
Even if it was Kreutzwald, how could he possibly make use of the energy of the Abyss?
The moment it entered the body, it greedily devoured the human mind; if the concentration of the energy was thin, it brought death like a mere fever.
If the concentration was thick, it stained even the soul and twisted the flesh.
How could a mere human handle such a dreadful energy?
When Hio looked at Kreutzwald with those suspicions filling his gaze,
“To humans, a thousand years must feel much like eternity.”
Kreutzwald’s eyes were turned toward the distance, as though recalling the far past.
“I spent that much time shut away at the end of the world. What do you think the reason was?”
“Weren’t you shut in because you were trapped there with Tetradia, not because you chose to?”
“It was to know the true enemy. The most frightening enemy was neither the Abyss nor the grotesques. It was ignorance.”
“Come on, Teacher, you said even you avoid that guy who rules the Abyss. Then isn’t that guy the scariest?”
“…That is why I researched the energy itself. That was the reason I had no choice but to remain at the end of the world for so many long years.”
“Boo, there’s no one listening, so let’s be honest. You were basically trapped there because it was difficult to get back to the continent anywa—”
In the end, Hio was once again sentenced to the punishment of the mana rope, and only after being hung upside down and swung left and right about thirty times did he finally quiet down.
This was the end of the world, where even speaking the truth became a crime.
…He felt wronged.
Paying no heed to Hio’s feelings, Kreutzwald continued his explanation.
“If you think about it, it is simple. The energy of the Abyss is spread everywhere. This, too, is a type of qi. It is merely that it is so black and dense it can be seen with the eye, and its side effects are serious enough to lead to death, mental collapse, or deformation of the soul. What do you think?”
At Kreutzwald’s question, Hio answered inwardly while hanging upside down.
‘What madman calls that a side effect? Anyone would call it a deadly poison that must never be inhaled…’
Of course, his thoughts did not become words.
It was not because he feared the punishment that would follow.
It was because, after five months together, he had thoroughly grasped Kreutzwald’s personality.
According to experience, Kreutzwald was a madman who, perhaps having gone senile after living over a thousand years, asked questions and then continued speaking by himself without listening to the answer.
“Enough. There is no way there could be any thoughts in that feeble head of yours.”
As expected, this time was no different.
“Even so, think about it. Abyssal energy is an extremely powerful energy. So powerful that despite being mere energy, its color is dense enough to be visible, and ordinary living beings cannot withstand it simply by breathing it in. They become encroached upon by the energy and ultimately transform into the shape it desires. If only those side effects can be removed, it becomes an excellent energy source. Do you understand?”
Of course he understood.
But to think those so-called side effects could be removed. He still could not believe it.
If they could be removed in the first place, would the Abyss even be a problem anymore?
Had Kreutzwald truly… succeeded in research that carved away the harmful parts of the Abyss?
When Hio asked with that expectation,
Kreutzwald answered as if it were nothing.
“No, the research failed.”
…Seriously, what the hell was wrong with this bastard?
* * *
Although he had not achieved his goal, it was not as though the research had produced no results.
He had failed to completely remove the side effects.
He had succeeded in handling the energy itself.
Thus, it could be called a success of a little more than half.
The reason it was more than half a success, despite the fact that having side effects meant it still could not be handled, was because there were those who were not ordinary.
In other words, those who had stepped into the realm of superhumans could endure such side effects as the Abyss corroding their bodies.
Put simply, since the side effects could not be removed, only those who could stupidly endure it with their bodies would learn it. That was the feeling of it.
—In broad strokes, it is similar to mana breathing. Accepting energy and confining it.
Of course, if one did it exactly the same way, the body would be ruined.
Even though his body had evolved through the process of forcibly creating circles and having them shatter.
Even though he had thereby entered the introductory realm of a 6th Circle superhuman, to confine pure Abyss within his body, much less continue increasing its amount, was madness.
—That is why you must wrap it in mana. Surround it with mana without a single gap and create a separate space. Just as a necromancer creates a separate space to store death energy.
That much had been easy.
He had succeeded in one try without any effort to speak of.
—The Abyss is an extremely radical energy. It is an energy born solely for destruction, and that is why creatures tainted by the Abyss transform into forms suited for destruction, while minds corrupted by the Abyss destroy even themselves and ultimately reach death. Now that you have heard this, does something not come to mind?
Kreutzwald asked that, and Hio nodded.
Of course, nothing came to mind. The nod simply meant that since Kreutzwald was going to keep talking on his own anyway, he should hurry up and say it.
—Kekeke… So it was not as though you were entirely without thought. Correct. The dark mana I discovered, researched, and eventually became able to use. It is of the same kind as that.
The dark mana required for Kreutzwald-style necromancy.
That power, extracted from the soul through the lantern’s ability, was pure soul power.
On the other hand, Abyssal energy was power solely for destruction.
Put another way, it meant that it was an energy just as pure.
—Pure energy contains only a single thing, and thus it is not easy to handle. Abyssal energy especially so, for it contains destruction. However, if one can handle it…
If one could handle it freely.
If one could go beyond handling it and make full use of it.
—One obtains almighty destructive power.
At the time, those words had felt utterly absurd.
They were fighting against the Abyss, and yet he was supposed to handle the Abyss.
He was supposed to personally move and load into his power that dreadful thing that felt unpleasant merely to bring into his body.
It was something that did not resonate with him at all, something that felt distant.
But what about now?
A very, very small space settled within his body.
A space wrapped in layers upon layers of mana like a safe hiding treasure; if one looked inside, it was less like a safe and more like a prison.
A prison that confined an extremely ferocious monster.
Brushing past it, the first thing he had to perform was the 5th Circle spell, Flare.
Mana spread out familiarly, awakening the pattern, and at the moment it became a single flow and stretched toward the staff,
He opened the prison door just a crack.
As if it had been waiting only for that, the energy of the Abyss rushed out with a roar, as though it would smash his entire body apart.
Even though he had released only an extremely small amount, it surged forth with such destructive force that if he had released even a little more, far from being included in the spell, it would have seized control of the magic and destroyed the entire structured flow.
But after countless practices and failures, he had learned the proper amount and the proper moment, and the result was this.
Kwaaaang!
The 5th Circle fire-attribute spell, Flare, engulfed two grotesques at once.
The pillar of fire that surged up from the ground was far larger and stronger than the ones Hio had cast before, and the sight that followed was magnificent.
It was thanks to his use of the spell modification he had learned from Kreutzwald.
Even so, this alone was not enough.
Grotesques born from the Abyss were not beings that could be dealt with using a single 5th Circle spell.
But what if black flames were flickering together within that towering pillar of fire?
What would happen if that black and ominous thing rampaged within the pillar of fire, destroying everything it touched?
The already powerful Flare erupted with the destructive force of the Abyss compressed within it.
That pure energy of destruction received the power of mana as well, bursting through the grotesques’ hard shells in a single blow, and the flames that followed tore through their insides.
As Hio watched the jet-black flames burning together with the crimson fire, he could not help but feel complicated.
The Abyss was overwhelmingly powerful and destructive, yet exceedingly difficult to handle.
A massive pillar of fire together with it.
Thus was completed a black flame.
“…Fire of the Abyss.”
It was a magic to which that name suited quite well.