Monarch of Death

CHAPTER 159

‘Following the guidance of the great God of Death, Tesranak…’

A gentle voice echoed in his mind.

‘I, now answer the call…’

“Aaaaah!”

Laven screamed continuously. The voice kept penetrating him.

‘Let go, my past self. Accept your true being.’

Even in the midst of excruciating pain, Laven found it absurd. He thought it was quite amusing how someone could spout such nonsense in such a grandiose way.

‘What kind of tone is that?’

But then, he realized something familiar about it.

It was exactly the tone he used when he was putting on airs in front of his father, Gallard.

‘Is that really me?’

Clutching his head, Laven fell into confusion.

‘How can this be happening?’

Though he knew nothing about necromancy, there was something he instinctively understood.

That soul was him.

A contradiction was occurring, where his own soul was trying to seize his own body.

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’

Whether the opponent was him or someone else didn’t matter at this point.

What mattered was one simple truth: If he lost his body now, the self that Laven identified with would cease to exist!

‘Do you think I’d give my body to some wandering soul that I don’t even know?’

‘I am not a wandering soul. I am you.’

‘Still, I don’t know where you came from!’

‘…Well, that’s true.’

The invasion weakened slightly.

This surprised Laven even more.

‘W-wait, is this really me?’

The way the soul shrank back and hesitated after being talked to, it was just like Laven’s own personality.

At least thanks to this, he felt he could hold on a little longer.

Laven gritted his teeth.

‘Grrrgh!’

***

The altar emitted fierce darkness, and the sigils glowed with a red light.

Inside that, Laven kept screaming over and over.

“Aaaaah!”

Anyone could tell this was no ordinary situation.

Serati urgently asked through a message.

[What is going on, Lord Karnak?]

Karnak responded briefly. So briefly that it was problematic.

[Laven’s soul is trying to enter Laven’s body!]

Despite that, she understood.

[Oh no!]

She had already witnessed a precedent with Lafiselle.

[Does this mean another future Martial King is going to appear?]

[Uh, yeah?]

[Stop it!]

Of course, it had to be stopped. Karnak wanted to stop it too.

[How?]

[Aren’t you supposed to be the Death King? Can’t you handle even this?]

Serati’s frustrated outcry jolted Karnak back to his senses.

Yes, he was the Death King.

[Then I’ll just have to kill Laven right now!]

A truly ‘Death King’-like solution.

Serati screamed in horror.

[What nonsense are you saying? Why kill Mr. Laven?]

[If his body is destroyed, his soul won’t have anywhere to return to!]

He said it with such conviction.

Serati, utterly exasperated, cursed at him.

[What an idiot! Is he insane?]

Even amidst the urgency, Baros had a brief idle thought.

‘Dame Serati no longer even bothers with euphemisms?’

Regardless, her curse worked.

She was so direct in her profanity that even Karnak was taken aback and hesitated.

[Serati, how dare you…]

[Is this the time to scold me? Do something! Anything but killing Mr. Laven!]

Annoyingly, she was entirely right.

Which only made him more annoyed.

‘You’ll pay for this, Serati…’

Karnak forced himself to stay calm as he looked at Laven.

‘Let me think. Has anything like this happened before?’

Yes. It happened when Karnak and Baros returned to this era through space-time regression.

When he remembered that, something strange came to mind.

‘Wait a minute, was this supposed to be something we could endure?’

When they had regressed through time, it had all happened in an instant. There hadn’t been any pushing and pulling like this.

Back then, they had just thought of it as natural.

After all, it was their own souls inhabiting their own bodies.

But now, Laven of this era was resisting the soul of Laven from the future.

Though clutching his head in pain, he was still the Laven of this era. He hadn’t yet transformed into the future Martial King.

How was this even possible?

‘It must be because this era’s Laven has a stronger soul.’

Then why had they so easily given up their bodies back then?

‘Well, we were pretty useless during that time, weren’t we?’

This meant that the souls of this era and the future were separate entities. That’s why rejection, not fusion, was happening.

‘So, did we basically kill our past selves to take over these bodies? Is this murder or suicide?’

In any case, the conclusion from this assumption was clear.

‘This is no different from possession. It’s just a particularly strong form of possession where the soul and body are 100% compatible.’

Though Karnak’s thoughts were long, only a moment had passed in real time.

A smile of realization crept across his face.

‘If it’s a possession ritual, it can be stopped!’

Karnak reached out his hand to Laven.

“Laven! Grab my hand!”

***

Even with a normal evil spirit possession, immense mental strength was required to resist.

Let alone the fact that it was Laven’s own soul trying to inhabit his body.

How much mental strength would it take to stop that?

It was like being a man who hadn’t had a sip of water while wandering in the desert for a week, suddenly taking a refreshing drink and then spitting it out.

In other words, it was impossible for a human’s mental strength to withstand it.

Even Laven was nearing his breaking point.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Just as he was about to lose consciousness, a voice shouted at him.

“Laven! Grab my hand!”

He didn’t know why, but he reached out his hand.

A dark energy flowed up his wrist, wrapping around his entire body.

‘Ah…’

He felt a bit more comfortable.

But at the same time, fear crept in.

‘T-this energy!’

It was the power of darkness, the necromantic power.

The sinister aura from Karnak was protecting Laven’s spiritual body.

“Lord Karnak, you…”

Laven opened his eyes wide in shock.

“You’re a necromancer?”

“Yes, I’m a necromancer! I’ll explain later, but right now we need to save your life!”

Karnak replied hastily, manipulating the malevolent energy to fend off the future Laven’s intrusion.

But this was only a temporary solution. He couldn’t hold out for long.

“Laven, there’s only one way to save you right now.”

In the brief moment they had, Karnak quickly continued.

“Become my servant!”

“W-what?”

“If you do, I can adjust your soul! I can protect you from that evil spirit!”

There was no time to debate the nature of the future Martial King. So Karnak just referred to him as an evil spirit for simplicity’s sake.

It didn’t make much difference to Laven anyway.

Still, Laven was utterly horrified by the proposal.

“W-what nonsense is this? You want a King’s Order knight to make a pact with a necromancer?”

“I’m also a member of the King’s Order! You think I’m enjoying this? I’m only offering because this is the only way to save you!”

This was the truth.

Karnak had no desire to make Laven his servant.

‘I went through all that trouble to prepare a spot for Baros, and now this is happening, damn it!’

Laven realized that Karnak wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea either. Yet, he was insisting out of necessity.

“B-but still…”

Karnak’s expression grew more twisted by the moment.

“Decide quickly! I can’t hold on much longer!”

His urgent voice pushed Laven to make a decision.

“If you don’t, your soul will be destroyed! That body will be taken by that evil spirit! Then you’ll become our enemy!”

Laven gritted his teeth.

Indeed, he had no choice.

“Damn it!”

After cursing, he closed his eyes.

“I will become your servant!”

“Then open your mind and accept the contract!”

Suddenly, a vast darkness erupted around the two of them.

Laven wore a bewildered expression.

“Ah…”

Unlike with Serati, there were no signs of pain.

Her suffering had been due to the side effects of regenerating her arm, not the result of the servant ritual itself.

“What is this…?”

Two invisible presences were fighting inside his mind.

It was a battle between the future Laven and Karnak, who now controlled Laven’s servant soul.

‘You scoundrel! Do you think this meager spell will stop my descent?’

‘If this seems like a meager spell to you, it means you’re just as meager.’

‘Are you mocking me?’

‘I’m glad to hear that tone, but we’re not exactly in a friendly situation right now, are we?’

The influence of the future Laven gradually weakened. Karnak, having already gained the upper hand, was relaxed.

The future Martial King let out a furious roar.

‘Who are you? Who the hell are you?!’

Karnak shook his head.

‘So, you don’t know me either, huh?’

He wished he could capture the soul and interrogate it, but he lacked the means to do so at the moment.

‘I’ll have to be satisfied with simply driving it out of Laven’s body.’

Adjusting Laven’s soul as his servant, Karnak uttered the final incantation.

“Depart, soul who does not belong to this time.”

Aaaah…

With a gloomy wail, the Martial King’s soul vanished into the void once more.

***

Demphis and the other necromancers had been silently observing the entire situation.

They had no choice.

The vast power of darkness used in the descent ritual had turned into chains, binding Demphis to the altar.

Hugot and the other necromancers were facing off against Baros and Serati, and the moment they turned their backs, they risked being attacked.

So both sides could do nothing but watch as the Martial King’s soul retreated.

Demphis inwardly grumbled.

‘Things really do fall apart sometimes, don’t they?’

When Karnak performed the servant ritual, Demphis hadn’t been too concerned.

To think he could manipulate another person’s soul to stop the future Martial King?

It seemed impossible.

To do that, one would need incredibly precise necromantic adjustments.

It would be like throwing darts a hundred times and never missing the bullseye.

The amount of necromantic power required wasn’t much, but the difficulty of its execution was extreme.

There was only one being Demphis knew of capable of such precision.

The great God of Death, the Death King Tesranak.

And yet, this black-haired young man had done it.

Without much difficulty.

‘Where in the world did such a monster come from?’

As a result, the ritual ended in failure.

All the effort they had put in had been for nothing.

Sighing, the Arch Lich flicked his bony fingers.

The dark currents that had bound him began to dissolve into dust and scattered in all directions.

The failure of the ritual meant the ritual was over.

And that meant Demphis was now free.

“No choice, then.”

Demphis glared at Laven and began to walk slowly toward him.

Today’s plan had failed.

But that didn’t mean the descent ritual itself had failed.

All he had to do was kill Karnak here, free Laven from the servant contract, and summon the future soul again.

“I’ll have no choice but to arrange another day.”

Evil energy flowed from the Arch Lich’s entire body, filling the chapel with a malevolent aura.

Karnak’s group’s faces hardened.

“Damn…”

Cursing, Baros gripped his sword tighter.

“Out of the frying pan, into the fire… Damn it…”

They had saved Laven, but now a 9th-circle master was free from his constraints!

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