Chapitre 83: A necromancer’s rage
I sighed as I looked at the figures lying around me, most dying and some already dead.
"Find a new and better way to die than blowing yourself up. That's the 17th one in a row now I had to kill so he wouldn't blow shit up. It's getting old and annoying."
My voice was deeper than it was originally. I had been using a voice-modifying item ever since I entered the town. That and the armor helped me mask my voice pretty well.
"You're not even hiding your cultish origins with your weird chants anymore. Your white priest and holy knight attire don't hide your true self, scum of the cult."
My voice sounded calm on the outside, but I wanted to spit on the ground at the show of frustration. They'd been more persistent than I had thought. Though, they were mostly annoying and not a threat.
Too bad I was wearing a helmet.
"Y-You!… What the hell do you think you're doing?! Your treasonous acts SHALL NOT be left unpunished! Don't think you can escape from here, criminal!"
A man in his late 40s, with dirty blond hair and dull blue eyes, wearing a fancy nightgown, spoke through gritted teeth; completely ignoring my words as his body shook in visible fury. His attire and state made it seem like he had come directly from his bedroom where he had been sleeping.
The man was none other than the Baron of the territory and the owner of the prison I had just entered without permission and messed up. Intentionally.
He was hidden behind a group of guards, "protecting" him from little ol' me. Though, most of them seemed to have lost hope and were on the verge of running away.
Maybe they understood better than the fool, the difference between their and my strength. I was yet to suffer any damage from them. But running away wasn't quite the option here for them. They still needed to do their duty of protecting the man.
I scoffed internally at him and ignored his sorry existence.
'Annoying asshole.'
I muttered in my head while easily dodging the slash from the giant man I was now fighting.
He too was armored like me, but his armor had orange and silver tones, and it didn't cover his head, arms, and legs. He was still a Tier-6 though, with a rather decent experience in fighting. But I could tell he was getting rusty. Why? Because he looked slow and predictable to me.
"You made a mistake when you dared to enter the place under my lord's protection and authority. Surrender and accept the punishment!"
And he too snarled in his "righteous" indignation.
"How about… no?"
I casually replied as I finally stopped dodging his flurry of attacks and brought my right hand in front, easily catching his sharp approaching blade in my armored palms.
Then, with some effort and the effect of <Corrosion> from the ring I had newly acquired, I crushed and shattered his blade with ease.
"Wha—?!"
Before he could finish, I used this opening and punched his gut with enough force that he spat spit and blood and soon fell, losing consciousness.
'The knight captain is down too, along with his knights. So are the first wave of cultists.'
Though, half of them blew themselves up when they lost to me, saying they disappointed their 'God'. Bunch of weirdos.
I turned to finally look at the baron.
"So? You got anything more for me? I'm kinda short on time here, so hurry up."
'The cannon fodder is done. Still no signs of their boss, though.'
The man nearly shrieked in fury seeing my complete disregard for his small and insignificant position and power.
"You made a mistake coming here, you filthy criminal! You will suffer the consequence! Don't think this is over!"
He blabbered but the next moment, I noticed dozens of new arrivals with my senses. And I sighed.
'Looks like they're finally going all out. Now… I wonder if he'll take the bait too. I'm yet to see any high-ranking members of the cult here. I know there's at least one hiding here. There's no way they managed to turn so many into their pawns without a bishop-ranked member at work.'
I was hoping for the main villain to make his entry.
I was ready and waiting to serve everyone here, along with the main culprit, to 'her' on a silver platter. All so she could take her revenge. I knew for a fact she couldn't move on until she was done with this. This was inevitable. I was too late to get the "normal" Aurora.
Though, that being said, I had no regrets here. I was fine with the things here.
First of all, I had no pity for scum like them. Most of these people were criminals in some way, and the others were their accomplices. The dangerous ones I had to dispose of myself, the others I beat to unconsciousness. Only a few main characters were intentionally left alive and standing.
They were hers to deal with, not mine.
Soon, I was surrounded by new enemies.
There were dozens upon dozens of knights and other mercenaries, most of which were from Tier 3 to Tier 5. I did see 3 Tier 6s though.
I had to do my best to deal with them alone since I had already sent Nebula to instead finish a different job I had suddenly thought of. She didn't like leaving me alone, but I couldn't risk her getting hurt by the random suicide bombings and their multitude of attacks. And what she needed to do was fairly important. I could do it too, but I was, well, busy.
"Capture him!"
With that command from Baron, every one of the new arrivals came running towards me, anger and annoyance clear in their eyes for being bothered at such late at night. So, it was no surprise that many of them were oozing bloodlust.
And so began the next round.
Most of the time I only dodged their attacks and let them have the "upper hand" on me. While only slowly culling their numbers. In truth, I was in the middle of casting an advanced magic circle.
"Yes, finish him now! He's getting tired from all the fighting! Try to capture him alive, but if you can't, kill him! I don't care! Just bring me his dead body. He'll know what happens when you mess with a noble of the Empire."
The baron babbled, failing to see through my plans. I was mildly tempted to blow his head. But I was partially responsible for his annoying behavior. I did use the second effect of the ring of the old king on him so he couldn't think straight and make the right decisions. Same for many other figures who looked like captains. He, though, was ladened with 4 different mental ailments, namely, rage, confusion, fear, and disruption of his mental thoughts.
The ring had its uses.
He was a mess internally, though he or anyone else didn't seem to realize it.
"… you… YOU DID THIS TO ME!"
Suddenly, a large wave of purple mana lashed out in the surroundings and the air became almost sickening. And I couldn't help but smile inside the helmet seeing the new figure, my future companion.
Soon, a dreadful purple fog started covering the surrounding land, making it hard to see the bodies lying around.
'Domain of the dead. One of her signature spells. She's using high-tier magic almost instinctually, powered by nothing but her rage.'
Given her insane talent and potential, it wasn't that surprising she was able to figure out her powers. She was going to be the best necromancer in a few years, after all.
I noted as the previously dead bodies absorbed the 'fog,' which was actually her magic taking the form of it, and started shaking, moaning, and groaning, as their skin turned into a sick greenish-grey complexion and their eyes a shade of steel silver that started caving inside their skulls. Their faces melted, and so did their armor and clothes, rotting and merging with their body and creating a strange layer of skin-clothing-armor amalgamation.
I was tempted to watch this rather grotesque scene, but I didn't have time.
I used this new distraction to slip away from the crowd, using one of the various convenient items I had: The bracelet of Shade.
[Item: The bracelet of Shade
Rarity: Rare
Description: Allows the user to travel a distance of up to 100 meters through shadows when the moon is visible.]
It had a limitation, but right now, when the moon was still visible in the sky, I could use it. I was going to get a better alternative for teleportation in the future, but for now, this was enough.
As soon as I was out of range of the crowd, I quickly finished the spell and erupted a large transparent barrier around the entire parameter, locking everyone present here inside.
'Great. Nebula placed all the ward stones correctly. Good girl. Hopefully, she went back to our safe spot for now.'
I could feel her vaguely from our familiar bond. She seemed to be running towards the direction of an old abandoned building where we were camping while I observed and planned my attack on this establishment after reaching this place. It was acting as our safe spot and I had erected barriers around the place.
I was so glad I learned it when I got the spellbook for it. It had been plenty useful with my ability to learn spells 'fast as fuck boi' thanks to my fairly high INT.
This was what I had to hide when I first tested for my magic. I had way more affinities than I let the magic instructor see. Thanks to my Perfect Body skill and platinum-grade foundation, I was practically a Sage-build who could learn and master almost any magic. At least that's what I predicted. I never got the chance to retake the test privately to properly see my level of affinities with the other elements.
The Baron and his goons, ignorant of what I had just done, were now looking around for me while also being mildly scared and wary of the rising creations of Aurora.
"You, girl!"
The baron, his mind mostly fucked, shouted with a red and purple face. His complexion clearly indicated he was feeling sick from the display.
"… You turned me into this…"
Aurora turned to look at him, her still tired eyes now staring at him with a distinct lack of emotions.
"Stop this act right this instant!"
"… You took everything away from me… you forced me to use this…"
She ignored his threats and continued muttering.
"Guh! Your vile and repulsive magic will not be tolerated here! Disgusting! Someone, stop this necromancer! But don't kill her! I need her alive!"
I was surprised he was still smart enough to remember his mission.
"… now you'll suffer. Aaaaaaa!!!!"
Aurora screamed, both in agony and rage, and I noticed a large amount of sick purple mana forcefully erupting from her, quickly mixing in the air and covering the entire dome that I had erupted just now in a purple fog.
And before long, all the living things in the area felt it.
The people screamed in horror and the little flora in the surrounding started rotting.
I quickly erupted a second, much smaller barrier around me and my surroundings, stopping her mana from reaching where I was.
'Damn. She's really going all out. Well, as long as she doesn't create any more of those soul monsters, I'm fine with what she does here. She deserves this revenge. After that though…'
I impassively looked at the horror that followed.
The dead had risen and they had started attacking the living that were lying unconscious and already being tormented by the sick mana in the surroundings that was now absorbing their lifeforce and even messing with their minds, showing them nightmares of their incoming gruesome death.
Their numbers rose quickly, the purple fog turning all the newly dead ones into grotesque undead too.
Then, they attacked the still-standing ones.
The fight between the slowly dwindling living and ever-increasing dead continued for a while and I watched it from the comfort of a treetop. The only tree in the surrounding currently not suffering from the torment of the life-sucking effects of Aurora's mana.
I knew once she was done here, she would likely either completely lose her mind or her will to live.
That's what happened in the game sometime in the near future when she completely snapped and turned this town into the land of the dead, once again repeating history. And that is when one of the bishops from the cult who was watching over her came to recruit her. And for whatever reasons, he succeeded.
But now, I was here. To stop that from happening and to give the cult some irreversible damage.
'They might not know how big of a loss this will be for them, at least for the next few years. By then… heh. It'll be too late. Oh yeah, I would love to see them try any kind of shit again with me when I'm done.'
My upcoming main quest was especially going to be a massive hit for them in the long run. But that was for later.
I looked at the other quest that had been updated a while back. The description seemed to have been modified due to Aurora's worse condition.
[Quest Tile: Revenge is a dish best served to the dead
Description: The cult tried to mess with you. And you clearly didn't like that. Now you have the opportunity to mess them up in return, by taking away their future precious pieces, and perhaps dealing further blows by taking out one of their ranked members.
Aurora Livingstone lost everything due to the greed and desires of those in power. She now desires revenge on them and she'll do anything to get it. Help her before she completely loses herself to it.
Objective 1: Stop the cult from recruiting Aurora Livingstone, the future Eternal Necromancer.
Objective 2: Gain the interest of Aurora Livingstone.
Objective 3: Kill the bishop of the cult who is watching over her and planning to "recruit" her once she snaps.
Objective 4: Make her choose you instead of the cult.
Rewards: Resistance to Necrotic mana, +20 Reputation from Aurora Livingstone, +10 Obedience from Aurora Livingstone, Increase the chances to get Aurora's companionship greatly, You get the chance to fuck her and the fucking Cult gets fucked in the ass instead.
Failure: You let the cult get its filthy hands on one of its important future members, further improving its strength. You will struggle harder in your next dungeon. You fail to exact your revenge. You feel like a sore bitch-ass loser.]
'Now, I need to gain her interest. Then as long as I have her with me, I can help her attain her true potential. I know just the thing she needs… I'm not sure how "normal" she can be after what she went through, but she's worth putting effort into. Or at least, she'll be worth it in the future. For now though… oh boy. I don't even know where to begin in "fixing" her depression and craziness.'
[And what about wooing her? Don't tell me you're not gonna woo her. O.o]
'… I don't know. There was a way in the game to have a happy ending with her. But it'll be tough getting her affection like that, especially when she's a real person now. It'll be a long and windy process. One step at a time… But I sure as hell am gonna try. I would love to see her in her prime.'
I smiled, thinking of the Aurora I could now create by helping her now.
It'll take years to heal her mental state, but she was completely worth the effort.
I watched as she laughed like a maniac, watching the people being eaten and turned into her "toys" with her teary yet laughing eyes.
To her, it probably felt like she was finally free. She was feeling great euphoria, even with the clear pain of exertion she was feeling from forcefully using her powers.
The advanced healing potion had only physically healed her, but with this act, she was back to being a complete and bloody mess.
It was a surprise she was able to still pour out that much mana from her core. It must be about to run, even for her mana pool, which was clearly quite extensive.
'I should stop her before she suffers any permanent damage to her core. Well, seems like she's almost done too.'
I jumped from the treetop, shield finally down, as I used an air elemental spell to help clear the gross fog from where I walked.
And in the process, I completely ignored I was saving one of the trees with my barrier. It soon cracked, crumbled, and died from the life-sucking effects of Aurora's mana.
***
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
The_POZ
The_POZ Please forgive me if you find mistakes, weak points, poor writing in this and future chapters. I don't have a lot of time to write and edit. :(
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A/R: I know I'm super late. I'm sorry for the lack of releases last week. Honestly, I had this chapter in the draft, ready, but forgot/didn't have time to login and upload.
Fuck, Masters is really starting to show its true colors. I can feel the stress already. It's been less than a month in.
I am tired and want to take a long break already. Covid has made me especially lazy and procrastinating.
Anyway, I don't have time to waste on babbling(more than this), so enjoy the 2.8k words long chapter. Expect next chapter in a day or two. I have it almost ready. It's around 3k+ words too. The chapters will likely be lenghty and the updates poor.
Thanks for your patience and understanding. :)
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone