Death King Karnak

Chapter 41: Chapter 40: Curse of the Dawn (1)

Corpses began to move.

They staggered forward, their split heads lolling, dragging long, trailing intestines as they shuffled along.

Leaving behind pools of blood filled with severed arms and legs, they defiled the silence of the night with ghastly wails.

Urrgh...

Urrgh...

Urrgh...

Every alley was filled with zombies. Every street was overflowing with corpses.

Serati, hiding on a rooftop, watched the scene unfold with despair.

"Oh, Goddess..."

There were too many corpses. Far too many.

Dozens? Hundreds?

Such numbers would be considered small.

No matter how conservatively she estimated, there had to be at least three thousand.

If not, it wouldn't be possible for everything in sight to be corpses.

'What have I done?'

She turned to look at the young man with black hair, the one who had now become her master, the one who had dragged hell into reality.

Karnak was smiling with satisfaction as he looked over the city of corpses.

"This should be enough, don't you think?"

"Now we can save Mr. Alius and Mr. Riltein."

"Come to think of it, Baros, this is the first time we're going to rescue someone other than you."

"For me too, young master. I've never cared for anyone other than you before."

Regret surged within her.

Perhaps she could have prevented this...

If only she hadn't spoken those useless words, perhaps not so much blood would have been spilled...

Serati muttered to herself once more.

"...What have I done?"

***

Beyond the advancing army of corpses, the darkened Lanfelt Mansion emerged under the dim moonlight.

Countless corpses began to reach up, scaling the walls.

"Urrgh..."

"Urrgh..."

Corpses clambered over each other, becoming a massive wave that engulfed the mansion on all sides.

Like ants swarming sugar, the zombies covered every part of the mansion in a black mass.

Shutraff watched the scene unfold from the mansion's underground.

"What on earth...?"

Judging by the situation, it was clearly the work of that Karnak fellow. But it didn't make sense.

'Was that guy really such a powerful necromancer? But his necromantic power was nothing special...'

The mana of darkness he possessed wasn't even strong enough to properly control a dozen zombies. At least, that's what Shutraff had assessed.

'Was he hiding his strength?'

It didn't seem likely. If he had such power, there would have been no need to flee earlier.

'Or perhaps the truly powerful necromancer is someone else?'

That made sense. If he had escaped and brought reinforcements, the sequence of events would add up.

Convinced of his theory, Shutraff grinned wickedly.

"If that's the case, this is actually a good thing."

If the necromancer was this powerful, they must possess incredible power.

'If I absorb that darkness, my power will grow tremendously!'

Shutraff spread his arms wide.

From the grotesque wall of flesh that covered the basement walls, dozens of tendrils shot out.

"Come, hell. Descend upon this land under the darkness of all evil..."

The mana of darkness flowed along the tendrils, pulsing ominously.

The power flowing through the tendrils spread throughout the entire mansion, transforming into a massive force.

"The true army of darkness shall rise and strike down my enemies..."

The eyes of the fallen cleric turned pitch black.

"This is the command of the King who rules over death..."

A bizarre sound began to echo across the skies above Lanfelt Mansion.

"Aaaargh—!"

***

The first trumpet of darkness sounded across the sky.

Wooooong!

Holes began to tear open in the night sky. Darkness bellowed a hollow cry, unleashing all manner of monsters.

They were grotesque monsters with limbs, heads, and wings haphazardly attached, resembling broken clay figures.

These were the lowest-level, formless monsters from the depths of hell. They emitted discordant noises as they charged toward the horde of zombies.

Kyakkyakkyak!

Kyaaa!

The second trumpet of darkness followed.

The ground trembled, and countless tendrils erupted from it.

These tendrils wrapped around, crushed, and tore apart the corpses. Blood and flesh splattered everywhere, painting the scene in gore.

The trumpet blasts continued endlessly.

Wooooooong!

The third, the fourth, the fifth...

The trumpets kept sounding. With each blast, the landscape melted away, revealing a hellish nightmare.

It was a nightmare that no longer resembled anything from the human world.

Moving corpses and distorted monsters roamed among trees made of flesh and petals of bone, vomiting blood and screams as they went.

Urrgh...

Aaaaargh...

It was a cauldron of terrifying chaos.

Moans, explosions, and the clashing of metal resounded from the entire mansion, shattering the night's tranquility.

Karnak, observing the situation, showed a hint of surprise.

"Isn't that the Seven Trumpets of the Lich Dragon? How does he know that spell? Where did he learn it?"

In his previous life, Karnak was the only one who knew that spell.

He had secretly stolen and recreated the ancient necromancy that had rotted away for hundreds of years in a secret vault of the Hatoba sect.

"That's right, that guy was originally a cleric of the Hatoba sect, wasn't he? I guess that makes sense."

This also meant that other knowledge and wisdom Karnak monopolized in his past life might have been claimed by others now.

Unlike before, in this era, all sorts of miscellaneous necromancers were running rampant.

'I might end up falling victim to my own methods. I'd better prepare in advance.'

In any case, this was something to worry about later.

"It's time to move."

Karnak gestured with his hand.

Until now, they had been hiding on the rooftop of a building near the mansion, concealed by a curtain of darkness to avoid detection.

But now that the battle had begun, they could use the chaos as cover to move toward the Lanfelt Mansion.

"We need to rescue our comrades during this opportunity."

Serati, who had been standing in a daze, snapped back to her senses.

That's right.

Now was not the time for regrets. They needed to save Alius and Riltein.

Calming herself, she assessed the battlefield and asked,

"Isn't it too early to move?"

The battle had just begun. Strategically, it would be better to wait until the fight had progressed and the chaos had deepened before making a move.

Karnak shook his head.

"If we wait too long, we'll get caught."

"Caught? By what?"

"It's an illusion. They'll realize it soon."

Serati, with wide eyes, looked at the thousands of zombies swarming over the Lanfelt Mansion.

"...All of that was an illusion?"

Karnak shrugged.

"Not all of them. About 200 are real."

Then he looked embarrassed again.

"Come on! How do you expect me to kill thousands of people with just necromancy right now?"

Serati still couldn't understand what he found so embarrassing, but it seemed he genuinely was.

As if making excuses, he continued speaking.

"Actually, if I had enough time, it's not impossible to kill that many..."

To increase the zombie horde to thousands, even all the members of the Lanfelt organization wouldn't be enough.

No matter how much the Lanfelt family controlled the entire city, it wasn't as if they could unleash thousands of bodies from just their search parties.

In other words, they would have to start targeting ordinary citizens of Trist City.

"Even I know that's true evil! Or... is it acceptable to go that far in situations like this?"

Serati, who had been incredulous, quickly nodded her head.

"You did the right thing! Of course, you shouldn't go that far!"

She felt a sense of relief wash over her.

'At least he's not that much of a villain!'

Of course, killing 200 people in one night was still a massive massacre.

But there's a difference between killing those who deserve it and killing innocent people.

"We should only kill villains. In my experience, killing good people leads to much bigger problems down the road."

Karnak nodded as if he had expected this.

"Villains don't seek revenge."

Serati, puzzled, asked again.

"Villains don't seek revenge?"

Isn't it common for villains to always say things like 'You'll pay for this!' or 'I'll definitely get my revenge!'?

"They may talk big, but if you crush them thoroughly, they usually give up cleanly. I've rarely seen anyone willing to risk their life for revenge."

On the other hand, the death of a good person is different.

When a good person dies, other good people rise up like wildfire.

And when this turns into something called 'justice,' it transforms into an overwhelming force that doesn't fear death.

Karnak, once the King of the Dead, had experienced that power firsthand.

Of course, he had crushed that power and conquered the world, but the cost was far too great.

'No, I shouldn't live like I did before.'

Renewing his resolve, Karnak called out to Baros and Serati.

"Let's go rescue our comrades."

***

Battles raged on all sides.

No matter where you looked, there were endless corpses and monsters. It was like a battlefield straight out of hell.

Amidst this hell on earth, three figures were moving.

Karnak, Baros, and Serati, all hidden under the curtain of darkness.

As they passed through the zombies and monsters, Serati couldn't help but be astonished.

'Is this really an illusion?'

A zombie right beside her was knocked down. With a roar, it got back up and charged at a monster.

The dangling intestines, the arms, the blue skin—it all looked so real.

'No matter how I look at it, it seems real.'

Illusions heavily rely on the caster's imagination.

That's why it was even harder for her to understand.

'Can human imagination alone really create such a detailed illusion? Enough to replicate the texture of blood, intestines, and skin like that?'

Watching Serati's reaction, Karnak felt a sense of satisfaction.

'It seems she hasn't figured out the true nature yet.'

This was his prized illusion spell, "Copy and Paste."

Creating illusions purely from imagination requires immense concentration and memory.

But if you're just copying something that already exists, the difficulty drops significantly.

In reality, only about 200 zombies were actually fighting. Karnak had multiplied this number more than 20 times using illusions, then mixed them together and unleashed them onto the battlefield.

In this case, despite the countless identical zombies, there's a reason why Serati didn't notice the illusion.

Karnak had deliberately added various distinctions, such as mirroring them left and right, adjusting their size, and varying their speed.

Unless someone focused intently, these differences were hard to spot.

Additionally, since all the corpses were in tatters, with everyone's clothes reduced to rags, this helped disguise the illusion further.

'See? I'm pretty good at creating these scenes.'

Of course, even with these tricks, the illusion would be exposed quickly if the monsters simply passed through the illusions.

However, Karnak's illusion had one more key strength.

His illusions included reactions, simulating the response of being struck.

'The most important thing when casting an illusion is the reaction.'

When you swing a sword, the target gets slashed, and when you kick, they get knocked back. After that, they rise again to attack.

With an ordinary human illusion, awkwardness can reveal the truth.

If you slash someone with a sword and they come back unscathed? That's when people realize it's an illusion.

But with zombies, this problem disappears.

They're already in tatters, and they naturally rise again even after being struck.

It's no coincidence that necromancers often use grotesque zombies or skeletons in their illusions.

While the intention is partly to instill fear in the enemy, it's more about using decaying corpses as the stars of the illusion to avoid exhausting too much mental strength on detailed recreations.

Even someone like Serati, an Aura user, couldn't grasp the true nature of this illusion. Even after being told it was an illusion.

What does this imply?

'That means that bastard Shutraff hasn't noticed it either. We've bought enough time.'

***

Karnak's assumption was correct.

"Hmm, he seems quite skilled, but..."

Shutraff never imagined that the massive zombie horde could be an illusion.

"No matter how many zombies there are, they're no match for me!"

He poured out his mana of darkness, continuing to cast necromancy. Although this greatly drained his necromantic power, he didn't care.

He was winning.

He could visibly see the number of zombies surrounding the mansion decreasing.

Meanwhile, the hellish monsters he summoned and the necromantic barrier remained virtually unscathed.

With victory seemingly assured, why would he worry?

In reality, as the real zombies were taken down, the illusions vanished as well, but Shutraff was unaware of this.

The lack of damage to the monsters and barrier was also due to most of the zombies being illusions, but this, too, escaped his notice.

He was merely excited at the thought of devouring a powerful necromancer and further increasing his strength.

'Where are you?'

He cast his distant-view spell across the battlefield, searching for his target.

Surely Karnak and his group were hiding somewhere nearby.

'Where are you?'

As Shutraff furrowed his brows, preparing to gather his monsters the moment he located them, a voice suddenly echoed through the underground chamber.

"Oh, so there was a space like this beneath the mansion?"

"Wow, it's really big. Why did they make the basement this huge?"

"It was probably meant to be a wine cellar. We have something like this under our house too."

"Yeah, but it's not this big."

The voices were not transmitted through necromancy. They were reaching his ears directly, through his physical senses.

'What?!'

Shutraff spun around in shock.

Standing at the entrance to the blood-soaked, gruesome basement were three figures.

A young man with black hair, dressed as a mage, spoke with a bright smile.

"Are you Shutraff? So this is what you look like."

The middle-aged man's face twisted in anger.

'How did they get here?'

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