The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns

Chapter 40

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 40

"Move!! I said, move!!"

"It's true that I'm a 5th-circle necromancer, but do you think my necromana is only at the level of a mere 5th-circle necromancer?"

The vast necromana I possess is that of a Death Lord who has already glimpsed the ultimate truth.

Even if my physical body weakens, the singularity reached by my mana is beyond the comprehension of a mere lich at the 6th or 7th circle.

If the Hall of Swords and the Halls of Martial Arts provide the merit of extreme physical enhancement due to immense aura,

Then the merit granted by the Halls of Necromancy is the absolute control of my necromana.

"I may not have enough output to seize it completely, but stopping its movement is a different story."

Saying so, I took one step after another toward him without hesitation.

"This might sting a little."

"O... O-Don't come near! I told you not to come near me! Stay away!!"

He screamed in fear, spreading his necromana as if setting himself on fire, but by then, I had already closed the distance between us.

Though there was still a Death Knight that I couldn't suppress, one Death Knight alone was not enough to stop me.

Squelch!!!

In an instant, I closed in and slashed the lich's chest, pulling out the hidden crimson orb within his body.

Even if it was an imitation, a sword aura still lived up to its name.

The crimson orb in my hand pulsed faintly.

It was the lich’s core—his Life Force Vessel.

Liches full of confidence often kept their Life Vessels inside their bodies, believing their own form to be the safest place in the world.

"Ugh... Impossible... How could such a monster exist among the fallen necromancers...?"

It seems the level of modern necromancers has truly fallen.

Fundamentally, they don’t understand the impact of security at all.

But I had something to say about that too.

"I thought about it carefully. For necromancers, security is as essential as their foundation. So why did they abandon it for the sake of progress?"

"……"

"Then, after watching your magic, I started to understand."

Magic evolves over time.

The problem is, the direction of its evolution is completely flawed.

"You cut out parts you thought were unnecessary to improve efficiency and firepower. And one of those parts was security. Fine, I'll admit it."

I shrugged as I delivered the brutal truth.

"Necromancy is essentially hacking, but it's not as easy as it sounds."

"You...!"

"Yeah. Forget security or anything else. You removed necessary spaces to cram in something else, and that must have increased efficiency. But then, you turned around and mocked the magic of your ancestors for being inefficient and pathetic."

Without even realizing the massive hole in the system they themselves had created.

"As time passes and things become fixed, past truths are forgotten. You don't even recognize security issues anymore. In the end, from my perspective, you and all the other necromancers are the same."

From my perspective, whether it’s modern necromancers or the lich standing before me who has lived for centuries, they're fundamentally the same.

"Who... who exactly are you...?"

By now, terror was etched onto the lich’s face.

"Leon Cascadia. In your eyes, I might just be a fledgling, or I could be an ancient monster who's existed longer than you."

"Lord Leon, p-please... spare me."

The lich made a swift decision.

"If you let me live, I will devote myself to you."

"Why should I?"

"You can even place a geass on me! I promise you won’t regret it! I am quite the talented individual!"

He pleaded desperately, and I pondered for a moment.

The undead, including Muyeong, who had been under the lich's magical influence, had already been moved outside.

Now, only the lich and I were within the range of his magic.

That meant I had some extra time.

"What can you offer?"

Surely, after living for so long, he must have something valuable.

Something even money can't buy.

Hearing my question, the lich frantically pulled out hidden items from his collection.

"This is the Skull of the Madman! It enhances necromantic magic efficiency—"

"Not interested. Next."

As I rejected it outright, he panicked and hurriedly grabbed the next item.

"This is the Reaper of Death! A magitech artifact crafted by an engineer centuries ago... It utilizes a human skull—"

"Do I look like some deranged psychopath into fratricide? Next."

I dismissed him coldly, and he grew more frantic.

His condition was worsening due to the magic.

Moreover, since he was a lich, not a human, this magic was acting as a deadly poison to him.

"Th-Then how about these?"

What he presented next was none other than the corpse golem made of Goldsun and the Death Knight.

I gazed at the Death Knight intently.

"That Death Knight doesn’t seem to be fully utilizing its strength."

"Well... I was in the process of making it an independent, named entity... But given enough time, it will naturally grow stronger! Stronger than a normal Death Knight! The original human before becoming this Death Knight wielded the power of a Swordmaster just before his death."

Hearing that, I stroked my chin.

A Swordmaster-level Death Knight.

To transform such an undead into a wraith and carry it around comfortably, I would need to reach the 6th circle—but breaking through the 6th circle wasn’t difficult.

"Fine, transfer ownership."

Upon my command, the lich hastily severed his link with the Death Knight.

Then, he handed over the core of the magic.

"H-Here! Take it!"

"Good."

I fully accepted ownership of the Death Knight.

I felt sorry for its original human self, but there was nothing I could do for him.

It wasn’t like Farell, whose body had been preserved and was regenerating with the help of an artifact.

Now under my control, the Death Knight—who had resisted just moments ago—knelt before me.

"T-Then… will you spare me...?"

"Is that all you have? No, seriously, what kind of centuries-old lich has so little?"

"W-Well, I haven’t been out of my seal for long… But if you let me live, I will create more! A legion of undead solely for you! An organization dedicated to your service—"

He was desperately trying to scheme, but honestly, it was meaningless.

"Fine. Then take care of that."

I pointed at the corpse golem made of Goldsun.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

The lich tilted his head in confusion.

"Ah. Are you trying to save that human? It may take some time, but..."

"No. I don’t care whether the heir of the Vider family lives or dies, but I want you to revive the humans who were used as the base material for creating that."

At my words, his mouth shut.

The answer had already been decided from the beginning.

There was no way for him to revive the countless humans who had been horrifically killed.

He could save their souls, but the broken bodies couldn’t be restored.

Even if I asked him whether he could recover Goldson Vider, the answer was the same: impossible.

Perhaps what he meant by revival was lacking in many ways.

Of course, I had no interest in his survival.

The reason I pointed to the corpse golem wasn’t just because I didn’t intend to keep the lich alive, but also because I could see the lingering souls of those who had wandered around the golem, shedding tears of blood.

Watching the souls suffering like that, unable to enter reincarnation and only leaving remnants behind, made me uneasy.

They must have been killed in an incredibly brutal manner.

There were elderly people, children.

A little girl, and a boy.

There were more than thirty of them, the living gravestones of the dead.

The lich’s pupils fluttered as he fully understood the meaning of my words.

“Damn... You never intended to keep me alive from the start...”

Screech!!!

Before his words could finish, the Death Knight, whose control had passed to me, severed his body.

“Did you want to live, you bastard?”

I coldly looked down at him as he was neutralized, gripping the Life Force Vessel in my hand tightly.

The Life Force Vessel couldn’t withstand my power, cracked, and soon shattered completely.

The black bones of the lich began to decay as if time that had been stagnant was now flowing.

“This can’t be... I am the King of Death, Glevik...”

The lich, who had lived for centuries, met a death that was emptier than one could imagine.

Afterward, I reached out to the body golem lying on the ground and freed all the souls bound within it.

The body golem, now without a master, was extremely unstable.

Naturally, it wasn’t protected against magical interference.

Unlike the Death Knight, it only took about 5 circles of interference magic to turn it into nothing.

With no reason left, the souls no longer asked to be killed and slowly dissipated.

Among them, Goldson Vider’s soul was also mixed in.

I gazed at the Death Knight, who was staring blankly at me.

While traveling with a Death Knight would bring attention and talk, if I couldn’t prevent it from becoming a specter, it would be difficult to keep it in my shadow.

I considered storing them in an artifact, but unfortunately, the spatial artifacts they carried were objects that recognized their masters.

And while I was knowledgeable about necromancy, I was practically ignorant of other types of magic.

Even the same magic was entirely different depending on its type.

It was like studying different subjects.

Ultimately, since I couldn’t use the items, I had no choice but to carry them around.

Even so, I had gained a subordinate whose potential was comparable to a Sword Master.

"Muyeong, he’s your junior."

I introduced the Death Knight, who was silently following me, to the shadow wolf, Muyeong.

Like the Death Knight, Muyeong was also an independent named entity, and surprisingly, his self-awareness was quite strong.

Undead with such strong self-awareness tended to be blind followers of their masters.

As the Death Knight stared at Muyeong, Muyeong slowly approached him.

And then, without hesitation, he bit off his head!

“Hey.”

Afterward, he performed a death roll, seemingly displeased.

As always, Muyeong was more like an alligator than a wolf.

* * *

There were no survivors among the necromancers who had committed the terror.

However, the fact that the operation was a success remained unchanged.

The aftermath was swiftly handled.

As soon as the royal family, which had been keeping this a secret, heard about the annihilation of the necromancers, they decided to publicly announce the news.

The public face of the achievement was none other than Duke Berli.

Although the real contributor was me, I made sure to suppress any information about that.

What I wanted was the reward, not the petty glory of attracting attention for something so trivial.

More than that, the reason I made such a choice was due to suspicions that someone else was behind the necromancers.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]